Maybe we’re all just in our own, personal Despondos. Truly alone in the universe. And we’re waiting for someone to get us out.
Opening Quote
ADORA: Vagabond of the Etherian Cosmos
is an Alternate Universe Continuation fic written by EtherianFrigatebird that diverges from canon after "Corridors". The main ship here is Adora/Glimmer, with a slight dash of Catra/Glimmer and various other background ships.
Horde Prime is gone. In the wake of his defeat, Adora and Glimmer are set to rebuild their relationship, which had taken a beating in the events of Season 4, but it all changes when Adora is sucked into a mysterious portal and into the multiverse.
Ten years later, Adora returns from her travels but nothing is the same. Most of Adora's loved ones have managed to move on from her absence, Catra is nowhere to be found, and there's something very wrong with Glimmer.
This is the first entry in a planned trilogy with CAT-RA: Phantom of the Mystic Mountains acting as the second entry. It can be found here. It is recommended to read this fic before going onto that one, as it does contain several massive Late Arrival Spoilers that need to be left unmarked for ease of reading.
Be advised: This page contains unmarked spoilers for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Content warning for mentions of rape, forced marriage, violence, mental illness, genocide, and death.
This work provides examples of:
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Horde Prime tries to force this on Glimmer, both to solidify his rule of Etheria and ensure the continuation of his empire through natural-born heirs. Luckily, Adora shows up before Glimmer and Prime even get to the altar, and they manage to kill him in a two-on-one battle.
- Arc Symbol: Bright Moon Violets. They explicitly bloom whenever the Queen of Bright Moon is in love with a woman.
- An Arm and a Leg: Siren Universe Catra gets her arm blasted off in a battle with Queen Glimmer. She has it replaced with a prosthetic, which surprisingly stays when Catra becomes She-Ra.
- Babies Ever After: Implied with the vision in Chapter 19 and confirmed in the epilogue. According to the author's notes, she will be the focus in a third work, "NOVA: Last of the Cosmos".
- Campfire Character Exploration: There are two instances of this in the story:
- First, with Glimmer and Adora in the main universe. After Adora gets slapped by a salmon and dunked into the cold river, both her and Glimmer cuddle by a campfire. Glimmer laments, as she's experiencing a depressive episode of sorts for no particular reason.
- After Adora arrives in the Siren Universe, Catra opens up and tells her everything that happened.
- Cock Fight: During Adora's decade long absence, the main universe's Catra and Glimmer date for four years. Glimmer keeps putting off telling Adora about the relationship, and this ultimately backfires. Upon reuniting, Catra uses the fact she dated Glimmer to rile Adora up. This leads to them “fighting like a bunch of men”, according to Glimmer.
- Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: In the most literal sense, this happens in the first alternate universe. The Glimmer of said universe grows frustrated with Vagabond Adora's inability to read her flirtations. However, Adora's Evil Doppelgänger will take any bone thrown at her.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After a decade and MANY other complications, Adora and Glimmer finally tie the knot at the end of the story.
- Foreshadowing:
- It's briefly mentioned in the first chapter that Catra has been displaying an "odd affection" towards Glimmer, setting up their future relationship.
- Glimmer kills Horde Prime and the narration states she feels absolutely no remorse for doing so, and that she never would. While it's completely understandable that she wouldn't feel guilt over the act, it also illustrates her darker side which is far more exemplified in Queen Glimmer.
- Much like in canon, a black mass escapes Prime's body after Glimmer kills his main form. The epilogue reveals that this is Prime's soul.
- Siren Universe Catra hears a voice calling out to her from the Whispering Woods, implied to be Light Hope's, foreshadowing that she is the She-Ra of her dimension.
- Two pieces pointing to the fact that the Glimmer of the Siren dimension isn't actually dead.
- Adora ends up spending months in the Siren's dimension after Glimmer seemingly dies when it's been established that any dimension without Glimmer kicks Adora out within two weeks.
- This quote:Both [Adora and Catra] desperately wanted their Glimmer back. However, how realistic was that for either of them?
- Hidden Villain: During the finale of the fic, it's revealed the Heart of Etheria is sentient, and was the one to create a rift in space and time to eject Adora into the Multiverse. The Heart was upset Etheria chose Adora as She-Ra, because she's a First One. It's important to note the First Ones committed mass genocide of Etherians by forcing the Heart to use their powers against their own people.
- However, their own plan backfires. Since some of Adora's magic lied dormant in Glimmer, there was still a part of her left in the dimension - meaning She-Ra wouldn't reincarnate. This really backfires, as the Heart doesn't have another being to share their powers with, resulting in an unstable surge that nearly makes the planet implode. Amazingly, Adora and Glimmer both show compassion and understanding to the Heart for their choice.
- The narrative throughout the fic often foreshadows some unknown force being responsible for what happened to Adora. However, the main evidence for the Heart's part in her disappearance don't really become evident until the last few chapters of the story.
- Hope Spot: Immediately after defeating Prime, Adora promises to discuss things with Glimmer further back in Etheria (and it's implied she's going to confess her feelings for Glimmer as well) before she's sucked into a multiversal portal. And this is in the first chapter, mind you.
- I Am a Monster: It's stated Adora has killed a few people during her travels. She often has moments where she feels undeserving of love because of this.
- In Love with the Mark: Queen Glimmer initially gets close to Adora to manipulate the hero into activating the Heart of Etheria, but she catches feelings along the way.
- In Spite of a Nail: Zigzagged. As in canon, Adora and co. need to reset the Heart of Etheria via Failsafe. However, Glimmer is the one who ends up taking it.
- Internal Reveal: Adora doesn't realize she was gone for a decade.
- Intimate Healing: Both Adora and Glimmer have the ability to heal, so there are a few examples of this.
- It's All My Fault: Many, many characters experience this thought process.
- Adora is quick to take the blame in many situations. After she kills Evil Glimmer, she blames herself entirely — never seeming to acknowledge the fact she tried to kill Adora. Later in the story, this trope arises again, when Glimmer has to take the Failsafe.
- For the main universe's Glimmer, she blames herself entirely for Adora's disappearance, as well as their fallout that occurs in Season 4. Her guilt gets to the point where she feels she's unworthy of Adora's love.
- The Lost Lenore: Adora functions as this for Glimmer, which ends up fracturing Glimmer's friendship with Bow and her burgeoning relationship with Catra.
- The Multiverse: Where this story is set, and what Adora is flung into. The fic explores four universes Adora visited, as well as what her life is like after she arrives back in her home dimension.
- Sequel Hook: The very last scene of the epilogue reveals that Prime is still alive and amassing his power so he can seek revenge on both Glimmer and Adora.
- Shout-Out:
- Many to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
- Adora's travel between universes closely resembles the dimensional glitching that occurs to the Spider Gang.
- In the Force Captain Adora universe, mainline Adora asks that version of Glimmer how she can fix things with the mainline version of Glimmer. Glimmer responds that she has faith in Adora, mirroring how Miles convinced Peter B. to return to his dimension by repeating his "leap of faith" pep talk.
- The fight between Siren Glimmer and Angella is inspired by the fight between Tai Lung and Master Shifu, with some dialogue lifted from it wholesale.
- Evil Glimmer's line "Where were you when I needed you?!" was taken verbatim from Shrek Forever After, of all things.
- In chapter 14, Adora and Glimmer confess to one another, all while Catra watches from the skylights. She drops a bouquet of violets she gathered for Glimmer, and she becomes angry. This is a shout-out to the "All I Ask Of You (Reprise)" scene from The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
- Many to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: One version of Glimmer, who's married to Bow, ends up sleeping with Adora due to deep depression. The morning afterward, Adora runs from Bright Moon due to the incredible amount of guilt she feels over the act.
- In an interesting variation on this trope, Mainline Glimmer and Adora partake in this within the Dreamscape that Angella set up, but neither are 100% sure they're really contacting each other until much later.
- Unreliable Narrator: The story is scrambled up and told non-linearly, for the most part. Often, chapters of Adora's experiences appear before or after something relatable happens in the narrative of her time in the main universe.
- Before the Evil Glimmer chapters, Adora has a PTSD attack upon seeing an injury on Glimmer. This attack seamlessly fades into her first few minutes in the Evil Glimmer dimension, where she's being hunted down by Bright Moon's Guards.
- Virtual Soundtrack: In chapter 14, at the end of Princess Prom, Adora and Glimmer slow dance by themselves to "Cellophane" by FKA twigs. This song very directly inspired Glimmer's arc, and she even sings the last few verses.
