Catra did Entrapta dirty, now if she reunites with Hordak he’s going to be horrible and cold and it’ll be a huge misunderstanding that doesn’t get cleared up for like 2 whole seasons and 3 whole years because of course we can’t have nice things
Just look at how Hordak is smiling at Entrapta in this scene. Remember: they’ve finally got their hands on the sword, the key to him finally achieving his goal of proving his worth to Horde Prime and returning to his home planet. But Entrapta has no idea how it works and she jovially tells him as much. You’d think he would be annoyed at how lightly she treats it, how she swings the sword carelessly around and scratches her head with it. He would never have gotten this far this fast without her, yes, but he should be at least a little antsy and impatient. He’s so close yet so far. But he’s not looking at Entrapta with mild frustration, not looking at the sword desperately trying to piece the puzzle together.
Instead, he lets himself savour the moment. He smiles with such warmth, no ulterior motives or manipulation. He just admires Entrapta in all her quirkiness, the way she moves and laughs. The way excitement and curiosity lights up her face.
In that moment, his goal isn’t to open the portal.
Two times that Glimmer stroked Bow’s hand to make him agree with something that was wrong and two times he rejected it.
At the princess ball, Glimmer takes Bow’s hand and tells him she’ll forgive him for taking Perfuma as his date instead of choosing her, hoping he’ll agree into apologizing to her about it.
But it doesn’t work, because as Bow says “I did nothing wrong.” He’s pretty upset that Glimmer would try to guilt trip him like this for wanting to spend time with other people than her, pulls his hand away and leaves.
It happens again when Glimmer tries to convince him to not go to save Entrapta and stick with her and trust her plan. And we get an emphasis of Glimmer stroking his hand with her thumb.
To which he reacts, not without struggle, by pulling his hand away and again standing up for himself.
Like how Adora chose to fight for the Rebellion even if Catra refused to come with her, he chooses to go save Entrapta even if Glimmer refuses to come. Like Adora, he feels guilt after his choice in both situations and thinks he may have made things worse, because he loves Glimmer and hates having to do this.
Bow may be the heart of the group and the Friendship Guy, but he’s got backbone and his own principles, even if that won’t make him seem like the most loyal friend. (contrast to Scorpia who used to believe that loyalty
I really, really love this side of Glimmer.
This is great as characterization for Bow, but it also underlines how the point of the show isn’t friendship/love no matter what, but instead that healthy relationships are ones that give us the freedom and support to be our best selves - to do the right thing, to care for other people, to do good in the larger world. This is one of the things that makes the shows kid friendly theme of friendship being magic more complicated and nature than it appears.
Reading some of the articles Noelle has shared after the drop of Season 5 really opened my eyes to how difficult it must’ve been to make the show as gay as it was. I thought Dreamworks was just being super cool with everything, but she talked about how she really had to take her time with it; doing her best to be super convincing, being careful in picking the right times/vibe to meet with the execs, and not reveal all of what she wanted to be portrayed on screen all at once. How the catradora endgame she wanted was revealed to the exces later on, and how she broke down and cried when it was approved. It just goes to show what happens when actual LGBT folk run a show – they’ll actually fight for that representation! AND make sure it is goodrepresentation!
(I mean, would a cis-hetero have fought/pushed as hard for that rep? Or would they have just shrugged and been like “welp, it is what it is” and moved on? Previous shows have paved the way for She-Ra, but Noelle really pushed and pushed what they could show on screen)
Noelle also did a great job of making the representation feel normal. I’m tired of gay/queer characters having their gayness/queerness be their only defining characteristic/personality or dying off in the end, and She-Ra just set the bar extremely high for every future show.
