In the broadest sense, She-Ra’s fourth season is about coming to terms with the new status quo in the wake of the literal reality shattering events of season three.
For the heroes, this means facing the harsh reality of a world without Queen Angella. Up until this point, Adora, Glimmer, and Bow were basically a squad of irregulars. They acted outside of the chain of command for the larger war effort and basically went into hot zones, kicked ass, and went on to the next. This worked because they had Angella to manage everything on the home front.
Now, with her death, it is Glimmer who must step into that role–a role she neither wants nor feels ready for. On one hand, is the obvious: her mother is dead. This would be tough for any child. On the other is that, as her mother admitted about herself in her final moments, she was a coward. Angella stayed where it was safe and, despite her ridiculous amounts of magical power, rarely used it.
Glimmer is not that kind of person–and most certainly not that kind of queen. She wants to lead from the front. But to do that, she quickly learns she needs more power than just the ability to teleport. Thus, she accepts Shadow Weaver’s training. This is her first step in transitioning from idealist to pragmatist. Soon she realizes that you can’t save everyone and sometimes you have to put those you care about in danger in order to protect the greater whole. By the end, she is willing to use friends and enemies alike as long as it helps her goal of winning the war.
The problem is that, if anything, Glimmer becomes too pragmatic–too focused on winning the war at all costs. She becomes unable to see the forest for the trees. Even when her most trusted allies warn her of the dangers of using the Heart of Etheria–that it is a galactic scale doomsday weapon and that Light Hope cannot be trusted–she continues on, desperate to win at any cost.
The real tragedy is that she never actually needed to make her deal with the devil: she had already won. Hordak’s forces were lured into an ambush (as Glimmer planned) and all the princesses were holding their own just fine. At the same time, Double Trouble’s betrayal (again planned by Glimmer) had effectively put both Catra and Hordak out of the fight–and all but destroyed the Horde capital in the process.
And in the end, while Glimmer’s forces proved overwhelmingly victorious, it’s a pyrrhic victory at best. Now she lies captured and powerless while her world is surrounded by a massive space armada. Meanwhile, the best hope for saving the world, She-Ra, is no more. And the fault for all of this lies squarely on Glimmer’s shoulders.
Adora’s story is quite a bit simpler. She is forced to confront the idea that she may be hurting far more than helping. The enemy seems to be tracking her, causing those accompanying her to fall into ambushes again and again. Moreover, with Light Hope keeping so much from her, she isn’t even sure if she is a hero or a villain on the grand scale of things.
And then there is her relationship with Glimmer.
Adora, Bow, and Glimmer used to have pretty much free reign to go where they wanted when they wanted. They were able to oppose Angella’s authority because it almost always worked out in the end.
But now with Glimmer as the authority figure, all kinds of problems arise. Adora wants to do right by her friend and what is best for the world–but learns little by little that this is impossible. Glimmer wants to end the war. Adora wants to save the universe. While they look like similar goals, they end up putting Adora and Glimmer on opposite sides by the end–with Adora having to give up her powers to stop the looming galactic genocide her friend unwittingly unleashed.
On the other side of the war, the villains are dealing with their own shakeup of the status quo. Last season, Hordak found an unlikely companion in Entrapta–a genius on par with his own and someone that could empathize with him and his life. Her seeming betrayal shatters him emotionally, leaving Catra with the perfect opportunity to step in.
Hordak’s original goal was to conquer Etheria and in doing so prove to Horde Prime that, despite his physical condition, he wasn’t a failed clone–that he was just as good as the original. Catra shamelessly stokes these embers as only she can–because, in the end, she is the same. She wants to prove to everyone that she is worth more than anyone could have imagined (by beating the “golden child” Adora). Thus the two enter into a physically and mentally abusive relationship where they wallow in their respective mysteries and stoke each other’s hatred.
What’s interesting about this whole situation is that, as the season unfolds, Catra seems to be growing ever closer to a personal revelation. She is at war with herself. She wants a close companion–someone to love and trust who loves and trusts her in return. But whenever anyone gets close–i.e., Scorpia–she pushes them away, worried about the vulnerability she is on the edge of exposing.
Catra finds Double Trouble to be both exactly what she wants–and exactly what she doesn’t. Double Trouble has no ties of friendship. Double Trouble wants nothing beyond payment and to be on the winning side. Their relationship is a business one. Double Trouble has no issue providing all the emotional support Catra needs but only because it’s part of the job. And every time Catra forgets this, she is given a rude awakening when Double Trouble demands payment–making it both a safe relationship and an ultimately unfulfilling one.
As Catra grows closer to Double Trouble, she pushes Scorpia further away–becoming even more physically and emotionally abusive. Eventually, this forces Scorpia to realize that sometimes being a good friend isn’t enough–that you can’t help a person who doesn’t want help. And when she realizes this and that there is nothing she can do to change who Catra is, she leaves for good.
Without Scorpia, Catra lashes out at her old squad–until they too have enough and decide to get out. And finally, when Double Trouble betrays her, Catra is left at her lowest point, lamenting that everyone abandons her in the end. It is in this mental state where personal realization is possible. After all, if the same bad shit keeps happening with all your relationships, perhaps it’s time to look at the only common denominator: you.
We’ll just have to wait until next season to find out if Catra can accept this truth or if she’ll continue to blame everyone but herself until her inevitable, tragic end.
She-Ra Season 4 can be seen on Netflix.
I just wanted to give out a big thanks to Joshua Ott for sponsoring this review with his Patreon donation. (At the $60 a month tier, you are allowed to pick anything up to an including a 13ish episode series to be reviewed–which is released in addition to the one article a week I normally put out here on BiggestinJapan.com.) So thanks again!
Top image Copyright: © 2018 DreamWorks Animation LLC.
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