Quote Originally Posted by The Fury View Post

Well, it's kind of a nice problem for discussion around a show to have-- I mean, when there's actually so many positive points that it actually becomes sort of difficult to talk about them all in detail.

As for Double Trouble themselves, I kind of agree that they play better off others and tug at their insecurities. Meanwhile they don't really have their own set of issues to grapple with. That or they manage their issues waaaay better than Hordak or Catra.

Though weirdly enough I think there's another character that doesn't really get discussed all that often except in the role she plays in other characters' arcs-- Adora. I mean, I get that there's a lot of fans that think that she's just not as interesting as Glimmer, Catra, Hordak or Shadow Weaver. I think she's a well-written protagonist though.
Well, if I had to say anything particular about Double Trouble....
Spoiler: Prepare for Double Trouble! Jessie, James...
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Its that their character is all about not just shapeshifter, but acting so well that they try to become the character and figure out what makes them tick and why they are that way. like, at the end of the seasons DT understands Catra so well they figure out everything about her and what her real problem is despite knowing her in far less time than Adora, to the point where they can give a villainous lecture about it and Catra is just utterly destroyed by it at that point. DT doesn't want to just imitate people, they want to refine becoming another person to an art form and understanding the people they become while doing so.

Then there is the choice of disguise while in the rebel forces: why did DT pick Flutterina rather than anyone else? Well because an Adora fan girl is one of the more plausible people that could approach her out of nowhere, but not have a background or prior knowledge that people would check or question to get their true identity. and once that fan girl proves her competence, why wouldn't they let her in, given they need all the help they can get and could plausibly be someone who is inspired by She-ra to become a hero herself and help defeat the Horde, after all Bow isn't much older and he helps out without being a princess. if he can do it, why can't Flutterina? DT picked the right amount of distance to approach Adora with so he can get into her personal circle.

and DT does it without any of that "becoming the mask" trope. they are able to get into persona and out without being affected by it in the least. furthermore, DT basically accomplishes more for the Horde in this season than any of the super-weapons, their spying efforts and sabotage drove the Rebellion to use a super-weapon instead when they were losing due to a pure tactics and conventional warfare campaign. turns out having a spy in one's upper chain of command can be pretty devastating.

there is a good moment where Catra and DT seem like they are friends and are discussing how they like causing chaos for the joy of it....then DT holds out their hand and both Catra and the audience are reminded that they are a mercenary and Catra's relationship with DT depends on her being able to keep paying them to work for her, not any actual loyalty, and you can see Catra
getting a little colder because of it.
and of course, DT suddenly switches sides because Glimmer or Shadow-Weaver probably paid them off to work for the Alliance or DT simply decided to opportunistically betray the Horde when the Princesses suddenly start glowing much brighter than usual. showing that DT has really no allegiance but to themselves. DT is therefore the opposite of Scorpia in a way- they have no loyalty whereas Scorpia was pretty much loyalty incarnate. Catra rejected the most loyal friend in the world and got DT who treacherously betrayed her anyways, leaving her alone which she kind of deserves.

The question now is, whats DT going to do in Season 5? because given DT's high competence in S4,
DT being on Horde Prime's side would basically make this near if not completely impossible to win. Horde Prime is already implied to be more advanced and more powerful than local Horde, DT helping him would pretty much destroy what little hope they have left. so what I see putting DT not on Horde Prime's side, is DT's delight for chaos not jelling with Prime's desire for order. either Prime's is going to think DT is unnecessary for what he wants and get rid of them, or DT is going to fight against Prime so they can cause chaos in his empire, or DT is just going to peace out.

like the rebellion's probably easily taken out by Horde Prime's forces at this point, and the entire planet is under his control, what use would Prime have for DT, when the only real obstacle in Prime's way is the lack of the She-Ra sword? either he makes a new one or he finds the old shattered one and begins repairing and modifying it to his purposes and either way it ends with Adora having the power within her all along, but how would any of that include DT, since Prime has such superior forces why would he even need to risk a mercenary he doesn't know who might betray him anyways, it wouldn't make any sense.


As for Adora....
Spoiler: A Most Adora-ble Hero
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the thing about Adora as a hero, is that its not that she isn't good, its just that she is overshadowed by her own rival in Catra, then overshadowed more by all the great character writing around her after that. mostly because she honestly isn't that exciting of a character even if she is a good one.

because lets see: Adora was the best candidate and named Force Captain first or was going to be force captain, she had no idea the Horde was evil and had to see with her own eyes what the Horde was doing, so the impression I got was that this was Adora's first mission and if she succeeded she'd basically be a commissioned officer, a young officer who got trained for command all her life, she was the best candidate of them all her recommendation is to be believed, and that she somehow kept up with Catra even before her She-ra transformation that she was good enough to be considered for this combat leadership position without any known supernatural powers or strange abilities like Scorpia or Catra. and considering what we've seen her do in the rebellion, I think it makes sense why she was considered.

her first arc was getting used to having her being awakened to the true suffering she caused, but then shifted into this idea of destiny thrust upon her by Light Hope that is the usual vague "your the one will bring balance to the force" nonsense that you know she understandably doesn't like and ends up in this season, outright defying in the end, because it turns out that destiny is bull and stupid, like all other forms of destiny in media which I approve of because screw that nonsense. Light Hope being overriden by First Ones to do this was good use of evil fate to emphasize that its not Light Hope thats evil, its the destiny that is.

whats more interesting to me is that Adora's leadership capabilities was so great that Queen Glimmer felt threatened by it. like, Adora and Glimmer had this "emperor and famed general" situation where while Glimmer is technically is the leader now, Adora's heroism and ability to take charge of the situation calmly and quickly, puts them in a relationship where Adora is the one people naturally turn to while Glimmer must work to fulfill her new role and find she doesn't actually like it. Their relationship is strained and Glimmer goes real cold at the end when she forbids Adora from going out and deciding to use the Heart of Etheria, but at no point does Adora think she is crazy or evil.

She understands Glimmer's reasoning and disagrees with it and criticizes some of her methods, and knows to try and stop her when informed of what will really happen, but she never thinks Glimmer is going evil I think. and thats great, because there was a big possibility of a lesser show just labeling Glimmer straight out evil for her actions instead of taking a more nuanced route where her decisions have a reason behind them and I think Adora recognized that even if she personally wants to save her friends, and knows that the weapon isn't a good idea and that Glimmer is taking advice from the wrong person, she doesn't see Glimmer as having crossed a line, because the rebellion is in a precarious position and they can't really afford to not try and win the war in case this all turns out to be a false alarm and the weapon can be controlled enough to just take out the Horde.

also, I just realized she and Hordak are mirrors of one another: they're both soldiers of a genocidal space empire who crashed on Etheria. and now both have been depowered by defying that empire and forging their own identities. of course, its free will that is considered the punished flaw of both, Adora defying the first ones and Hordak making his own empire. yet they barely interact: Adora only ever fights his minions while he never cares for Adora, leaving her to be manipulated by others. Hordak's relationship with everyone that isn't Entrapta is so impersonal and cold that we never really see Adora get into the position where she would be working with him. one wonders if this is because if Adora became force captain, she would've lead the Horde to victory without problem. The rebellion didn't seem to be winning after all. one wonders if Adora will ever team up with him to defeat Prime.

Adora is probably going to have some Talks with people in Season 5, with Glimmer at the very least. they'll agree that mistakes were made and that they need to team up to defeat Prime, no question. The real question where Adora and Catra's relationship goes now that Horde Prime has won and Catra had her flaws laid out for her. because this season is Catra's last chance. she has already gotten to her lowest point like at least twice, once during season 3 and now season 4, and Adora will need all the help she can get to defeat Horde Prime. and the question with Horde Prime and Catra is: will Horde Prime be the main villain, or will Catra successfully defeat him and be the main villain that Adora has to get through to? because its consistently been Catra thats been more of a problem than Shadow-weaver in a direct sense.

as for Adora and Shadow-Weaver, its weird. she clearly has gone dormant in S4, but with Horde Prime there is a strong possibility of Shadow-Weaver just throwing her lot in with him and be totally on board with conquering the universe. now if DT does throw his lot in with Prime as well Shadow-Weaver but Catra and Hordak joins Adora's side, that could finally make the conflict clear: final season all the abusers on one side, all the victims on the other, Adora and Catra team up to beat Shadow-Weaver then Horde Prime.

because both DT and Shadow-Weaver have been the least loyal people in the show they have no qualms about betraying people easily, while Catra has technically proven more loyal to the Horde than either even if she isn't exactly a good friend, because even if she pushed people away, she still felt betrayed by people turning against her. Catra has emotions about this that DT and SW don't, and her real feelings separate her from being just another one of those two, which might be what puts on her on Adora's side in the end, because she might find out that Prime doesn't care about her in the least, because why would he? because if he has problem with Hordak being free-willed, oh boy, Catra is even more free-willed than that, and Catra saw what happened to that free-willed boss right in front of her.
Adora on the other hand will no longer be She-Ra for a while and will need Catra's help to succeed. not that Catra even if she does become friends with Adora again would be an easy or anything, its probably going to include at least one big argument-fight about this is one or the other's fault, and how they feel about each other in what will look so much like a couples spat or something that will take at least an entire episode to resolve, but it'd probably go through.

if Catra ends up being main villain who gets killed and Horde Prime is just suddenly redeemed without any repercussions though I'm calling bull.

man this ended up not being about Adora barely at all.....I rambled away from it.