Reaction Shot: She-Ra S02E02 (or, Doing the Right Thing Vs Catra Being A Cat)

[spindizzy]

• ... Entrapta's castle is called Dryl. Like, Drill. I
  quit.


• WAIT, you aren't the castle staff!


• The city's forces have fled. Oh no. I am intensely worried about
  Entrapta's staff and any resistance that used to exist out here, because
  they're so far from Bright Moon! They might have been on their own!


• "The banners really make it feel official!" I love Scorpia, she is my
  favourite.


• Must be useful to have a hologram map of ENTRAPTA'S LABYRINTH. Oh, and
  the Force Captain badge is a tracker! That's useful! Bet it's not gonna be
  a plot point later, not even a little bit.


• Speaking of the resistance: hi you too! Are you resistance? Are you
  going to be named characters later? Or are you just going to be how the
  cast know that the Horde have taken Dryl?


• Did they build new bots already – no, wait, hologram training. And
  look! She finally got the sword to turn into something useful, good work
  Adora!


• Steed? What steed?!


• ... She has a sacred bond with Swift Wing. Wow. No.


• "We didn't know!" "It doesn't matter!"


• They're assuming she's a prisoner. Look how guilty they feel! ;_; Also
  her castle is called The Cryptocastle, I love it.


• Glimmer refusing to wait for help is such a bad coping strategy.


• Light Hope glitching is... Concerning...


• I'm not sure that Light Hope's additional power comes up again, does
  it?


• Glimmer's FACE when she talks about navigating the Cryptocastle is
  fantastic.


• "Bot 437 seems to be having some sort of existential crisis!"


• ... Ohhhhhh no, this is going to go badly.


• Wow, they all levelled up! LOOK AT GLIMMER DOING THE BEAUTIFUL
  TELEPORTING BEAT-DOWN, I LOVE IT! She is gonna be knackered later.


• ... I think if you wanted to stat Catra in a D20 system, she'd have to
  have levels in Monk, because she canonically has deflect arrows.


• "I see the Rebels sent their finest." Goddammit Catra, how do you keep
  doing that.


• LOOK AT THEM WORKING TOGETHER! LOOK AT CATRA FREAKING OUT!


• "What did you just do to me!" ... Oh yeah, Catra hasn't been on the
  receiving end of Horde powers! Ohhhh no. (Also, look at her TAIL when she
  lands, I love her!)


• I just had a literal fridge moment of "... I bet that the Horde don't
  know that romantic relationships are a thing, and Adora is going to be
  really freaked out the first time she sees people kissing."
• 
  
• Bow and Glimmer just looking at each other like "... I don't even know
  what we do now," over Catra.


• Like, it's not that I DISLIKE Swift Wind or Sea Hawk, and them singing
  is very cute and characterful! They're just kinda the living embodiment of
  my embarrassment squick, only worse because I am embarrassed FOR them and
  they don't have any shame so they're not embarassed at all!


• STILL THINK MERA PROBABLY HAD A GOOD REASON FOR THE STABBING, OKAY, WE
  DON'T REALLY HAVE ANY PROOF OTHERWISE.


• Are you SURE that the floating rocks aren't the tower.


• "Perhaps if we were to combine our efforts, my intuitive powers would
  increase!"
  "... No, that's okay."
  I AM ADORA IN THIS SITUATION.


• Also she literally nicked this horse from a village that was on fire
  and then non-consensually gave it wings and sentience, how much of a sacred
  bond can they have?! And if she has a sacred bond with EVERYTHING that she
  gave rainbow wings too, why has the rainbow-winged lizard not come back as
  a talking pet!


• I am still weirded out by Swift Wind's mouth, but that might just be
  making me realise I don't know which parts of a horse's face open up.


• Stabbing her through the hair roll is RUDE Swift Wind!


• ... LOOK AT THE PONY VERSIONS OF EVERYONE!! That has probably saved
  some fan artists time of pony character designs.


• ... Man, listing all of the things she could be worried about is
  MEAN.


• I am shocked – SHOCKED! – to discover that the Watchtower is floating
  in the sky.


• Bow. She's not really a hostage until you start making demands. Until
  then, she's just a regular old prisoner!


• Moral conundrums! Oh no! And Bow and Glimmer are both very strongly on
  opposite sides of this conumdrum.


• And Catra is just leaning in to what they expect her to be, because
  of course she is. Of course Catra is good at mind games with who
  raised her!


• I'm pretty sure Catra is just having a BLAST stalling them.


• ... Welp, that didn't do much.


• Bow bonding with prisoners and Catra trying to target him through that
  is so perfectly them. Especially because Bow is genuinely curious about
  Catra and Adora and their lives in the Horde!


• That SNARL when he asks what Adora was like as a kid!


• "How are you SUCH a nightmare?!"
  "Years of practice!"
  "Can you PLEASE discuss this when we're not hurtling to our deaths?!"
  I LOVE THEM.


• Glimmer dropping them all in a river to spite Catra is peak them.


• ... I love Glimmer's jellyfish hair.


• WOW, Catra.


• SCORPIA LOVES CATRA SO MUCH.


• Also I am just picturing Scorpia putting up lost cat posters for Catra
  now.


• "Catra you beautiful genius, I'm coming." SHE JUST TUCKS THE SQUAD
  UNDER HER ARMS AND RUNS, I LOVE HER.


• "Try concentrating!" No, I take it back, I hate Swift Wind.


• No seriously, I'm sure Mera had a good reason for blowing this stuff
  up.


• ... Are the floating stones orbitting something? Or just chilling in
  the sky for reasons?


• Catra tormenting Glimmer while Bow is in the background going like
  "THIS IS THE LEAST ETHICAL OR MORAL GOOD THING WE'VE EVER DONE, CAN WE
  STOP?!"


• SHE DOES THE CAT THING WHERE SHE MAKES HERSELF WEIGHT TEN THOUSAND
  TONS IF SHE DOESN'T WANT TO MOVE.


• Of COURSE she bites.


• Glimmer, honey, you're the one who wanted to literally drag Catra all
  this way, stop yelling at Bow to solve your problem.


• "She didn't run away from the Horde, she ran away from YOU!" ... Oh, oh
  that was Glimmer finally finding the right lever.


• How many arrows does Bow have? Or is it "An infinite amount until the
  plot requires him to run out"?


• No, seriously, I hate Swift Wind.


• ... This is the moment where Bow and Glimmer realise that they don't
  have the power in this situation and they never did.


• Bless Scorpia and Lonnie and the other guy just rolling with what
  Catra says evn though they know Entrapta's there of her own free will.


• Emily herding Bot 437 while Entrapta makes soothing noises!


• "Easy there, big gal!" ... Listen, I know that they're Horde. but
  Scorpia's adoration of Catra and Catra's absolute confidence in herself
  make me happy.


• Glimmer not wanting to do the right thing – Glimmer knowing that the
  right thing isn't fair – but doing it anyway is so powerful. I
  know it's a classic of kid's shows, but I like it!


• Like, I am just impressed that Catra can talk about people being
  earnest and naive, while she's stood next to SCORPIA. And Scorpia doesn't
  even twitch!


• "This was just the prototype, the next one will be much much
  bigger.


• "Rescue me from what?"
  "From the Horde! Oh! Well that's nice of you. But all of my stuff
  is here now, so probably I'll just stay. Thanks anyway
  though!"


• WOW. Entrapta's just... Laying it all out... And I think she's
  probably a really good example of a True Neutral character. She doesn't
  care whose side she's on as long as she can do her research, and the fact
  that it's the Horde and they're going to kill her friends doesn't actually
  matter to her a single bit. Which we knew from the whole Hack The Planet
  thing, but she's aware enough of it that she can explain it like it's a
  perfectly reasonable thing.


• Glimmer and Bow realising what's going on is so good, especially
  because seriously, they did ALL THIS just try and rescue Entrapta, and
  LOOK.


• GLIMMER THEY OUTNUMBER YOU LIKE FOUR TO ONE, DON'T YOU DARE.


• "Then why are you doing this?" Okay, apparently Swift Wind gets to ask
  ONE good and important question per episode. FINE.


• Also, somehow I am completely unsurprised that the child soldier
  raised with ridiculously high expectations of what she should be able to do
  is taking the Mara story as an indictment for her.


• Ugh, I'm glad they get to have a moment together and talk about how he
  doesn't take her seriously and she non-consensually gave him magic powers,
  but ugggggggggh. I don't want this.


• "Turns out I saved a little magic just for you!" *leaves*


• Scorpia is going to be SO UPSET about punting Catra in the face.


• Adora takes so much responsibility for things that aren't her fault,
  bless her.


• HOW DID YOU MISS THAT. BOTH OF YOU. SWIFT WIND YOU WERE FLYING AROUND
  THIS THING, COME ON.


• Of course they're glowing.


• Oh they WERE smart enough to get out of the way before the tower
  crushed that!


• HOW DID THAT WORK!


• "My sensors indicate they fixed it."


• I don't know if I think Light Hope is evil, or just has the problem of
  being an ancient AI whose priorities are not going to line up well with
  anyone else's.


• "At least we know Entrapta's alive. And working for the Horde. Making
  weapons to wipe us out."


• Adora is so genuinely happy, because of COURSE she was having a nice
  day while all of that happened. ... She is going to have so many feelings
  about this mess, bless her, she already felt bad enough about Entrapta
  being left behind without the whole "And now she's working for the enemy.
  Y'know. Like you used to."


• ... Okay, who wrote the meta about She-Ra and Entrapta having opposite
  trajectories, it has to exist somewhere.