Headscratchers / She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

She-Ra

Where does the sword go?

• Whenever Adora isn't using the sword she puts it behind her back. Where exactly does it go? It's too big for it to just not be noticeable hanging off her back. But in a lot of shots she suddenly just pulls it out from behind her but it looks like it's coming from thin air. Is this animation error? Or is she storing the sword in Hammer Space?
  • Yes, it's essentially got minor hammer space issues. It's a magic sword.
  • It is shown in Season 3 that the sword is simply smaller on her back, likely a minor aspect of its shapeshifting power.

She-Ra personality

• So I just started watching, and one thing I immediately noticed is that She-Ra seems to be almost a completely different entity to our main protagonist Adora. She doesn't say a word as she's fighting, and her mannerisms are stoic, cold and ruthless. Precisely how much control does Adora have over herself during the transformation?
  • This was only done the first couple of times Adora transformed, I guess to emphasise She-Ra's mythic and otherworldly qualities. Later on it's firmly established Adora is in full control of She-Ra, and her personality doesn't change with the transformation.

She-Ra appearance

• Since She-Ra is a legacy character in this reboot,does that mean the She-Ra "look" is based off of the first She-Ra? If you look at the all of the iconography, it looks just like how Adora does when transformed. And when we saw the brief look of Mara in She-Ra uniform — assuming lighting/artistic interpretation was being used to hide the actual dark coloring of the character before her final reveal — it seemed her dark hair was would become white/very light blonde upon transformation. And her outfit was very much the same as Adora's. Is that just how the power works, or did the original She-Ra have a certain style to her and the tech locked on to it?
  • It's been claimed by one of the character designers on the show that Mara in a flashback appearing to be white was a lighting error and in life she would've had the same brown skin as She-Ra as she did in normal form.
• Now we're into Season 5 and this question still stands. Mara keeps her dark skin but her dark hair becomes this glorious flowing platinum/white blonde hairdo when in She-Ra form. And her costume has the same look to Adora's — if different in fashion style. Even Adora's new She-Ra look is just somewhat redone, not completely changed. The She-Ra look remains...

Other She-Ra's besides Mara and Adora?

• Since it's revealed She-Ra is some kind of a protector spirit of Etheria, and her existence isn't dependent on someone wielding the Sword of Protection, why didn't Etheria make anyone else into She-Ra between Mara and Adora? The Horde had been doing major damage to the planet and its inhabitants for decades, so wouldn't Etheria have needed a new She-Ra long before Adora came around?
  • Madam Razz said that the First Ones created the Sword of Protection to control She-Ra, meaning they somehow bound She-Ra to the sword, so that whoever wields it can access She-Ra's powers. The First Ones made She-Ra dependent on the sword. Also, seeing as how only Mara and Adora could use it, it's likely the First Ones built the sword so only of their own, and not an inhabitant of Etheria could use the sword. It seems like the First Ones were knew to cover all their bases.

She-Ras before the First Ones

• The First Ones were the first to colonize Etheria, but they made the sword to contain She-Ra. Does this mean there were She-Ras before the First Ones? If so, who? Or was She-Ra just a potential entity who first manifested in response to the First Ones' presence?
  • The First Ones weren't really the first to colonize Etheria, any more than the Dutch were the first ones to colonize New York. They just don't consider the native Etherians, such as Madam Razz, the rightful heirs to their own planet.

Sword's Magic Words

• So in "Return to the Fright Zone" we finally learn that Grayskull was Mara's rebel group that helped overthrow the First Ones that were stealing Etheria's magic for the Heart of Etheria Project. But then, why is the sword, which was made by the First Ones to control She-Ra to use the Heart of Etheria, activated by saying "For the Honor of Grayskull"? Also, in the first episode, Light Hope even asks Adora if she's ready to fight for the honor of Grayskull, despite her main goal being to activate the Heart of Etheria, which Grayskull was directly against.
  • For the Honor of Grayskull was still the magic words that activated the sword and awakened She Ra. If Lighthope wanted to awaken She Ra, she had to tell Adora the right words at some point. As for why those were the words in the first place, they might have been chosen by Mara with Grayskull being the name of her unit even before they rebelled.

The Rebellion

The Rebellion's budget

• How is it that the Rebellion is able to afford all those luxuries that princesses would be accustomed too but in the Season 1 finale they apparently couldn't afford any soldiers or defences?. Since the Rebellion seems to be losing the war don't they have more important things to spend resources on?
  • Poor budgeting. The princesses may be benevolent(-ish), but that doesn't mean they're going to be good financially. Let them eat cake, and all.
  • Also a total lack of an industrial base. Basic guys with spears can't stand up to the Horde, and the Rebellion doesn't have the production capabilities for anything else. They do however have lots of farmland and simple craftsmen, so food and fine clothes aren't actually that difficult for them. Maintaining an army on the other hand is always an expensive proposition, and it would just be a huge, obvious collection of mooks for the Horde to curbstomp. The military strength of the rebellion is clearly in its Princesses and a few highly skilled irregulars, plus the magical terrain, and they're more geared towards guerrilla warfare than open combat. This is why Angella is so willing to give up territory; they're just not remotely capable of defending it.
  • Also, Glimmer did say that they needed Entrapta to join the Rebellion so they would finally have weapons that can stand up to the Horde, meaning it could be pointless to have an army one way or the other, given they don't have the brute power to face against the Horde without the princesses.
  • Well that went pear-shaped, didn't it? Honestly they'll likely need Frosta's resources, population, and trained army too, along with Mermista to help transport any army they create. And honestly given Angella's angst about the battle which got her husband killed and the Princess Alliance scattered (and likely killed most of the Princesses too, since all the current ones are teenagers clearly thrust into the role), the last time they engaged the Horde conventionally it didn't go well.
  • Most of the Kingdoms appear to rely heavily on the First One tech/Runestones to protect themselves, such as Frosta being able to command the entire glacier her kingdom is on, Mermista's kingdom relying on the Sea Gate, and Perfuma manipulating the entire forest to her will. This makes them effectively unstoppable forces of nature when in their own domains, but relatively weak outside of it. She-Ra is an exception since she literally carries her Runestone in her sword, along with her powers given her superhuman durability that the other princesses lack.

The accents of Glimmer and Angella

• Why do Glimmer and Angella have different accents, even though Angella raised Glimmer? Pretty much everyone else in Bright Moon has an "American" accent, while Angella has an "English" one. Theoretically, this could be explained by Angella having moved to Bright Moon from somewhere else, but she's the queen of the place (and physically connected to the Runestone that protects Bright Moon), so she must've lived there her whole life. So what's up with her accent then?
  • Glimmer describes her mother as 'immortal' early on, so Angella may simply be old enough to have experienced a time period where her accent was considered normal long before social evolution altered her kingdom's typical speech patterns to the current accent.
  • It's also clear that Glimmer's relationship with her mother is ..."strained” to put it politely, at least near the start of the series. Other interactions, such as the surprise dinner invite, give the impression they didn't speak much outside of ”Princess business”. In all likelihood, Glimmer’s speech patterns and accent were learned from palace staff, other Alliance members, Brightmoon citizenry, and friends like Bow, all of whom she was likely on better terms and spent more time with than her mother Queen Angella herself.

Where are Bright Moon's soldiers during the attack?

• The palace of Bright Moon is shown to have several armed soldiers/guards, so where are they, when it is being attacked by the Horde in "The Battle of Bright Moon"? Why are She-Ra, Glimmer, and Bow the only ones who go against the Horde? Earlier in the episode, Glimmer is shown to have hoarded numerous weapons in the case of attack, so who was she planning to give them to, if Bright Moon has no one to defend it besides her, her mother, and her two friends? Before She-Ra's arrival, what exactly was Bright Moon's defense plan against a potential Horde attack?
  • I figure they were aiding the evacuation. As noted in a previous answer, the Bright Moon forces are packing spears. You send them in against the Horde, they're going to get slaughtered. Really they're likely just meant as guards and police, the actual field units are Angella, Spinnerella and Netossa.
  • The plan was likely "hide behind the unbreakable defenses and send out the Princesses to deal with any attackers". Basically exactly what they did, before the shield broke and ruined that plan. The guards presumably had to, well, guard the city and its inhabitants.

Why doesn't Adora change clothes?

• After Adora joins the Rebellion, the fact that she wears Horde army clothes is shown to make people scared or angry at her, which is perfectly understandable, given what the Horde has done to them. Yet Adora never changes those clothes and keeps on wearing them for all of Season 1. Why is that? If Glimmer has over 100 different evening gowns, surely she must have a personal tailor who could make Adora clothes that are more fitting for a member of the Rebellion?
  • Adora probably feels more comfortable in the clothes she's been wearing her whole life, and after she becomes a familiar face nobody's going to be uncomfortable (or at least won't be willing to say it out loud).
  • Word of God is that there was a cut gag from Season 1 where Adora did get new clothes but they all look identical to her old ones.

Star Sisters

• Among the princesses are the Star Sisters. If all the stars in the sky vanished over a thousand years ago, since what Mara did, how would someone know sufficiently about stars to name anyone after them?
  • The Egyptian gods haven't been worshiped widely for millennia, yet we still know them. It's most likely a term that has survived the millennia, though the meaning may be lost.
  • The Sun is a star.
  • We see in S5 that this version of the Star Sisters are a sibling team of marauders from a different planet that wasn't cut off from the galaxy like Etheria was.

Bright Moon defenses

• How come Bright Moon hasn't reinforced itself more by now? The Whispering Woods isn't guaranteed to hold out forever, and you'd think they'd have a standing army just in case, or at least more than like six people to fight an entire Horde assault force.
  • What exactly can they do? Walls aren't worth the effort against the Horde, and Princesses don't exactly grow on trees.
    • Minefields, concrete bunkers, indirect fire artillery on the camouflaged positions... The usual low-cost, low-resource things. Of course, problem is that such high technology as early XX century weapon would completely outclass all the primitive toys of the Horde (seriously, cartoon armies never even have indirect fire capability... shouldn't there be trope page for that?)
    • There totally should. In the meantime, we just have to assume that infantry (including armour) is the only practical tool for the Horde's use. Perhaps Hordak's ship was only carrying Horde ground troops when it crashed so that's all he could duplicate.

Bow's name

• All of the characters names are carried over from the previous series and relate to their abilities, Bow's name obviously referring to his archery skills. In universe however, how was Bow named Bow? Bow's dads, Lance and George, are revealed to be against the idea of involving themselves in the war and fighting in general due to George's past. Bow was hiding his archery skills from his dads, so where did they get the idea from?
  • Hair bow?
  • It's also possible that Lance couldn't help naming his son after a weapon, like he himself is? Bow's siblings might also follow this ironic trend. A soldier remains a soldier, after all.
  • Beau and Bo are both valid names which sound the same as Bow, presumably they just opted for the alternate spelling. Who knows how Etherian names or spelling work?
  • Some have interpreted him as a transgender man (in particular the episode where his dads were introduced has been described as a Coming-Out Story of sorts). That could explain his name as being one he picked himself.
    • Wouldn't the fact that Bow is played by a cismale voice actor negate the idea that Bow is a transguy? I mean Netflix has been pretty good about casting actual transgender people to play transgender roles after all. This is even more enforced in this most recent season when they cast a non-binary voice actor to play the genderless shapeshifter Double Trouble.
  • They wanted him to bow over history books.
  • It's possible that he was named after the Bow of a violin, which he has been shown to play.
  • It's also possibly a nickname (Rainbow has been suggested as a full name on Tumblr). It might even have been his sneaky way of renaming himself, noticing the Meaningful Name trend among the princesses, while his dads would have no reason to suspect that he was referring to a weapon/skill they had no idea he had.

If Angella is immortal, how were there this many Queens of Bright Moon?

• Angella is matter-of-factly referred to as being immortal by Glimmer, meaning that she has either already lived long enough to demonstrate a seemingly endless lifespan, or is a member of a species known for its immortality. But Angella's message to Glimmer during her Queen Quest all but states that each of the many floating balls of light in the Hall of Queens represents one of the previous rulers of Bright Moon. Was Bright Moon ruled by a line of mortal Queens prior to Angella, or is the Kingdom meant to be so old that even a dynasty of immortals managed to have several dozen successive rulers?
  • Angella is clearly quite different from any other inhabitants of Bright Moon. There is a WMG that she is actually one the First Ones, which might explain physical differences as well as her immortality. Maybe she was the sole survivor of Mara's rebel cell, and after Mara's death she decided to stay in Bright Moon? Maybe the original dynasty of Bright Moon died for some reason (possibly during the events of Mara's rebellion), and she was elected to become the new ruler?
• They probably mean immortal as in, she'll live forever as long as she's not killed.

Is Glimmer Still Queen?

• After King Micah's return, does Glimmer continue to be Queen or does he now take over?
  • Micah was more properly Queen Angella's King-Consort, the line of royalty flowed through her rather than him. Glimmer is still queen, his title is purely honorary at this point.

Brightmoon Rules The World

• Are the princesses more akin to Duchesses? They rule their own kingdom, but all seem subservient to the Queen. Does Brightmoon rule that world beside for the area ruled by The Horde?
  • The Queen of Brightmoon is the leader of the Princess Alliance, but the Princesses and their kingdoms are not subservient to Brightmoon and its queen. The Princesses still rule all their own domains. Being in the alliance is a choice, not something Angella could force them into, that's why the Best Friends Squad had to go recruiting for it early in the series.
  • There are real-world countries ruled by a prince or princess, so this is nothing new. These countries are often called "principalities" and are generally smaller than kingdoms but are no less independent and sovereign.

The Etherian Horde

Kyle's skill level

• What is it that makes him so bad? Was he not trained like the others? The cadet team where Adora was seems to be some kind of unusually talented team, with Rogelio and Lonnie being shown to be much better than the average soldier and Catra and Adora were basically prodigies. How did Kyle even got in that team? Are the soldiers just even worse than him?
  • It's likely they were all put together at a very young age before their skill differential was noticable. They just didn't split the team when they realized most of them were obviously Elite Mook or better material and Kyle...wasn't.
  • Kyle is likely kept around as the team runner and dogsbody. No other unit is going to be particularly happy to hear "Hey, this dude sucks, you have him instead", and it's still a waste simply kicking him out. They just keep him as useful as he can be, and don't give him anything that requires too much responsibility.
  • Considering Hordak's response to being told Catra was unfit to be force captain was to tell Shadow Weaver that was simply a failure on her part for not training her properly, it's possible being stuck with an incompetent soldier is the team's punishment for not helping toughen him up.
  • He gets kept around so the others can make fun of him.
  • We can infer that, physically, he's as strong as the rest of his team, especially since he continues to survive when otherwise we'd expect a soldier of his caliber to die or be retired quickly. It seems the failure of his training to stick is what holds him back, which is probably why the rest of his team gives him a hard time, since they know he should be able to do better.
  • Despite not having the same battle instinct the others of his squad do, Protocol shows him to be useful as a field mechanic; he was able to quickly diagnose and repair a critical hardware failure caused by acid spores while suffering the effects of the same spores himself.

Kyle's lack of friends

• Why did Kyle say he has no friends and nobody is nice to him when Rogelio is always seen protecting/taking care of him?
  • One of the storyboarders came forth about it. Apparently, Rogelio and Kyle's relationship was something the storyboarders came up with and did not tell the writing team that the animation had Rogelio and Kyle as close friends/boyfriends (apparently they are supposed to be a couple, but I'm not sure yet), but the writers had no idea about it, so they wrote the scene of Kyle having no friends, with no idea he had one. She did offer some in-universe explanations, saying that maybe they have an on-again, offzagain relationship, that Rogelio isn't very communicative, etc., and said that the writers have been informed and are now on board with the ship, so I don't know how that scene will play out in Kyle's characterization in the future.
  • Rogelio might still be generally unfriendly even if he's protective.
  • Depressed and unhappy people have been known to overlook people in their lives who are in fact treating them kindly, and Kyle seems pretty self-pitying to boot.
  • Based on their interactions in the Season 4 episode Protocol, Rogelio genuinely cares about Kyle but gets exasperated with him very easily. He's also rather gruff by nature and not always very good at expressing his feelings. Kyle is pretty starved for positive attention, so it seems plausible that Rogelio was in a mood or had snapped at him for something and Kyle took it the wrong way.

Who takes out the trash in the Fright Zone?

• A large-scale military organization such as the Horde would need a sophisticated system of manufacturing, service provision, and administration in order to function. However, we never see any noncombatant staff among the Horde, and all of the children adopted/abducted by the Horde are trained to be soldiers. Who manufactures the Horde's equipment, prepares and serves the ration bars, cleans Horde facilities, and files away all the paperwork?
  • Probably Kyle. That seems like a Kyle sort of job. Or maybe some faceless mooks who are even less interesting and plot-vital than Kyle is.
  • Fright Zone has actual mechafauna, like the free-roaming beetle robot the crew saw during the infiltration mission. The robot's job is to collect and recycle scrap metal. It is likely that many such tasks are performed by Zone's artificial ecosystem.

No "facilities" in Fright Zone prison cells?

• Both Shadow Weaver and Catra have been imprisoned in Fright Zone prison cells, which are small rooms with manacles on the walls, but no toilets. How do prisoners answer the call of nature while imprisoned?
  • Out of universe it is a case of Nobody Poops. In universe, well the Horde wouldn't be the first regime to make prisoners live in their own filth. It is a depressingly common thing that regimes have done and continue to do to prisoners. On closer examination you can see, in wider shots, that the cell does have a grating on the side; towards the back behind the drainpipe. Presumably prisoners are expected to use the grate for their needs.
  • She probably has to use her food tray and has to get somebody, probably Kyle, to take it away.

Hordak's insularity

• Hordak visited multiple planets during the years he spent conquering entire galaxies on behalf of Horde Prime. Furthermore, he spent at least thirty years building an empire on Etheria and interacting with members of its native population. One would expect Hordak to be worldly, having been exposed to many different cultures and ideas, as well as experienced in the areas of friendship and love. However, Hordak's belief system seems to be rigid and stunted, as he never questioned the practice of conquest and tyranny for their own sake or Horde Prime's cruel attitude toward imperfection. He's also flabbergasted by Entrapta's friendship and the romantic tension growing between them, as if he's never encountered these things before. Why hasn't a well-traveled man such as Hordak been around the block, so to speak?
  • He's probably saw every other culture as inferior to the one that his own clones were a part of. Part of an empire is incorporating, and destroying other cultures to administer your own.
  • "Destiny, Part 2" offers some insights. As a soldier in Horde Prime's army, Hordak wasn't supposed to have free will or a personality. If his free will hadn't surfaced yet, Drone!Hordak wouldn't have cared about other belief systems, cultures, friendship, or love.
  • Season 5 confirms Hordak is from a literal brainwashing cult hivemind with a purification ritual to prevent him from questioning or becoming worldly in any way. Wrong Hordak shows that the clones can be deprogrammed with a positive support system, but Hordak did not have a "scrambled" brain to make him less aggressive, so he probably spent his first days on Etheria as a violent raving evangelist in the midst of an existential crisis and turned everyone off from helping him.

Imp's appearance

• Imp is strongly implied to be a clone of Hordak, and the physical features he shares with Hordak (blue skin, fangs, mohawk) support this theory. However, Imp also has physical features that Hordak lacks, such as wings, a tail, a human-like blue face, and the ability to flawlessly reproduce any sound he hears. (However, Hordak's cloned fetuses do have bat wings.) Hordak also has features that Imp lacks, such as holes in his forearms and black-lidded eyes. Why is Imp so different from his supposed progenitor? Did Hordak blend his own DNA with that of another species when he engineered Imp? Did Imp develop spontaneous mutations while gestating in his vitrine? Do members of their species go through drastic physical changes at puberty?
  • All of those are possibilities. It could also be that Imp was an experiment by Hordak to create a body he could harvest for organs, to prevent his own decay. Imp just developed differently and Hordak kept him around as a pet/spy. Or maybe Imp is a member of a species that Hordak's people are genetically related to, like a human being keeping a chimpanzee or a baboon as a pet.
  • Character designer Rae Geiger addressed Imp in a November 2019 Patreon discussion with fans. According to Geiger, Imp is an imperfect clone of Hordak who contains both Hordak's DNA and the DNA of another winged Etherian species, explaining his wings and tail. Hordak's black-lidded eyes are from makeup and are not a species trait.

Horde Human Resources

• In "Razz", Hordak expects Shadow Weaver to install a new force captain, but Shadow Weaver insists that the now-absent Adora was the only qualified candidate. Couldn't they have promoted any of the Horde soldiers already in the field? Such soldiers would be far more experienced that Adora or Catra, who were unseasoned cadets.
  • Hordak quickly points out that A, Catra is also Shadow Weaver's ward, so presumably Shadow Weaver was supposed to be training them both (and possibly others) to fulfill the Force Captain position, and B, Shadow Weaver is the only one trying to get Adora back into the Horde after her defection. Shadow Weaver is the one pouring all her energy into Adora, ignoring other responsibilities in favor of this one person. Hordak's hands-off approach to running things just compounded the problem. He doesn't know the intricacies of his organization. He knows they have a large number of recruits (and, considering his history as part of a Hive Mind Clone Army, probably assumes they're likewise interchangeable) and believes they have no staffing problem. If Shadow Weaver didn't have target-blindness for Adora, or if Hordak had literally any other person helping run his army near Shadow Weaver's level, there wouldn't have been a problem filling the Force Captain slot Adora rejected.

Hordak’s strength

• How exactly DID Hordak remain in power for so long given his infirmities? Throughout Season 1, Shadow Weaver, despite having access to the power of the Black Garnet, is greatly intimidated by Hordak and doesn’t even try to take her chances against in him a straight confrontation, implying that Hordak is far stronger than she is. But even with his technological expertise, he wasn’t really strong until Entrapta made him his new armour. I’m sure he had plenty of knowledge on how to build armies and conquer planets under Horde Prime, but how did he get so far ahead without anyone figuring out how weak he really is?
  • I think the implication was that his condition was getting worse, and that he was physically stronger in the past. Plus Entrapta's suit actually gave him a glaring Achilles' heel with the powersuit's control chip right out on front to be snatched off. Prior to that he'd rest up and only have audiences in when he was feeling up to it, but with it he was being active all the time and using the suit's capabilities when he wasn't physically able. He had advanced tech when he arrived, looked scary, had a great deal of evident charisma, and by all accounts co-opted the Fright Zone's original royals and added them to his forces. He was always somewhat of a paper tiger, but he was better at hiding his growing weaknesses.
  • Well, you know what they say: dress for the job you want, not the one that you have. It’s not important if Hordak is strong or not. It’s important that Shadow Weaver and Catra believe that he is stronger than they are. I mean, it’s certainly not to Hordak’s benefit to let others know how weak he really is. Basically, he is just very good at keeping up the appearance of being an all-powerful warlord. Remember the scene where he cuts off Catra’s air simply for disturbing him? That definitely put the fear into Catra, didn’t it? That’s the whole point. Intimidation goes a long way.
  • In Season 2, when Hordak was still wearing his original armor, he mangles a wrench just by squeezing it with his hand in a moment of frustration. His original armor gave him enhanced strength (although not as much as Entrapta's exoskeleton), and thus his minions may have assumed that he was innately that strong.

Even villains need to shower

• Members of the Horde are never shown showering, or are in situations in which showering would be impossible. During her confinement in Season 2, Shadow Weaver is confined to a cell with no shower or sink. When Scorpia begins her day in "Princess Scorpia", she rises from her bed and goes straight to work without showering. From Season 3 onward, Hordak wears a cybernetic exoskeleton that he never takes off for maintenance (unlike his previous cybernetic armor), so viewers can assume that he cannot or does not disrobe and shower. Doesn't anyone in the Horde shower? How do these characters look so clean if they don't shower?
  • Law of Conservation of Detail. They do it offscreen.

Catra choosing the Horde over Adora

• If Catra has always loved Adora so much and wants to be together with her, then why did she constantly refuse Adora every time she offered to let Catra join the Rebellion? Adora clearly did not want to give up on their relationship, so why does Catra act so betrayed? Also, in the episode, The Promise, Catra claims she gave Adora the sword so that she would not come back to the Fright Zone. I am missing something here? If Catra wanted Adora to 'stay', then why didn't Catra just follow her instead? Is that not the same thing?
  • For the same reason many abused people stay with their abusers: fear of retaliation. From Catra's perspective, no matter how scrappy the Princess Alliance proves to be, they're always just one major loss away from total defeat. The Horde is demonstrably larger, better equipped, plus Shadow Weaver and Hordak are scary as hell. At the beginning of the series, at least, Catra is more scared of them than she believes in Adora.
  • Catra is an incredibly stubborn and messed up person and her relationship with Adora was unhealthy and codependet at the start of the series. She loved Adora but at the same time envied and resented her for being Shadow Weaver's favourite. When she finally had the upper hand, she didn't want to just give it up; she wanted Adora to come with her, not vice versa, and took her refusal to do so as a personal betrayal. After that moment every encounter that the two had only expanded the gulf between them and fuelled up Catra's stubborn streak, twisting her love into cruel obsession. Catra had to lose everything she had before she was emotionally ready to open up to Adora again, and figure out her true feelings. And even then she almost left Adora again, unable to accept her martyr complex, until right at the end.
    • When re-watching the Promise, it becomes less confusing. If someone keeps saying 'it's not because I like you' with every other sentence, it's a good sign that they are in denial. Catra is definitely not honest with her own feelings so it makes sense she won't admit she is in love with Adora. Also worth mentioning is that if the situation was reversed, Adora herself would not LEAVE the Rebellion and go back to Catra if Catra asked. Adora puts the fate of the world before her own relationships and Catra's first instinct is to perceive this as a sign of rejection. Even if Adora thought the Horde were the good guys, if Catra wanted to leave, Adora would not leave with her, because Adora, due to Shadow Weaver's manipulations, believes she supposed think of others and never herself.

Catra's Heel Face Turn

• How exactly did Catra go from turning on Horde Prime and wanting to make amends with Adora to an outright (albeit flawed) hero? Her primary motivations from the start were personal power and a desire to hurt and show-up Adora for abandoning her. She never gave a shit about right or wrong, and the only other person she saw as anything more than a tool was Scorpia, who she moved on from. It's clear she realized that she couldn't outsmart and usurp Horde Prime, that she heard she was a bad friend enough for it to finally stick, and talking with Glimmer and her flashbacks on Horde Prime's ship reminded her of her good times with Adora. But even if she feels guilty about/wants to mend her relationship with Adora, why does she suddenly care about Etheria enough to fight a villain that terrifies her when she previously tried to destroy the planet? Shouldn't, after escaping, she be trying to flee from Horde Prime (and maybe convince Adora to come with her) Or trying to backstab her way into power in the rebels ranks, rather than caring what Glimmer, Bow or Entrapta - who she's always viewed with contempt - think of her? I never got the sense she was deliberately trying to be better to impress Adora.
  • The entire series up to that point is what happened. Yes, Catra believed she wanted power and revenge and pursued those goals, but all it did was destroy her life. Catra's real motivation has always been that she wants love and approval, specifically from Shadow Weaver and later Hordak when she realized Shadow Weaver would never love her. Catra thought success would bring her approval and make her worthy of love and she'd finally be happy. Instead it drove away everyone she actually cared out and made her miserable because power and authority don't actually matter to her. Catra was just too stubborn and lack the self-awareness to understand that until Double Trouble spelled out her real problems and Glimmer followed that up with a reality check. Catra was never an inherently cruel or evil person, just twisted and very angry due to a lifetime of abuse, once she did some self-reflection and got a positive support group, she had no reason not to become "Good". There were even signs during her villain days: trying to show concern for Shadow Weaver, becoming buddies with Scorpia and Entrapta, etc.. It's just that Shadow Weaver's abuse, both directly and indirectly, ruined those actions.
  • So she understands that power won't make her happy, but the reasons not to become good would be an apparent lack of interest and that being good at that moment meant fighting Horde Prime on a planet he likely intends to destroy. A relationship with Adora and friends would make her happy, but she can't have that if she or they die, and we've seen she cares more about her relationship with Adora than Etheria's continued existence. Then again, Catra isn't The Sociopath, so when not blinded by a vendetta she might still have enough of a conscience to not want the planet destroyed, and she isn't a coward, so even that much compassion might be enough to motivate her. And maybe being controlled by Horde Prime was intended to be a turning point for her i.e. finally learning what it feels like to be oppressed.

The Intergalactic Horde

Gene editing for defective clones

• Hordak tells Entrapta that Horde Prime ostracized him because of a defect in his cloning, suggesting that Hordak's illness stems from a genetic defect. If Horde Prime's empire has enough genetic engineering knowledge to create an army of clones, couldn't it have corrected Hordak's genetic flaw with ease? Why waste a seasoned general when the genetic engineering knowledge was probably available to heal him?
  • Perhaps not. Genetic engineering is much harder when one is doing it on a multicellular being.
  • He might simply not care enough to consider it worth the resources. Why bother fixing the defect when it's easier to just replace him?
  • If the defects are massive, it would require basically to rewrite DNA of billions of body cells. This may simply be beyond the Horde's capabilities. It is MUCH simpler to put desired changes into a single cell used to initiate cloning, than to change the DNA of already-grown multicellular organism. Also, such therapy would not be simultaneous: it is possible that Hordak's body would not survive being in the chimera state (i.e. with different DNA in different cells)

Inconsistencies in Hordak's flashback

• Hordak's flashback in "Huntara" is inconsistent with what we learn about Horde Prime in "Destiny, Part 2". In Hordak's flashback, Horde Prime looks like a larger version of Hordak, but in reality, Horde Prime is about the same height as Hordak and looks different from his clone. Hordak claims that he was Horde Prime's top general, a position that would require independent thinking and some degree of autonomy. However, the other clones appear to be drones, and Horde Prime is outraged at Hordak's displays of autonomy, suggesting that Hordak isn't supposed to have free will. Horde Prime's lines even imply that the "defect" that got Hordak ostracized may not have been his illness, but his free will. Hordak honestly believed that conquering Etheria would earn him Horde Prime's affirmation, but "Destiny, Part 2" makes it abundantly clear that Horde Prime isn't the kind of man who would ever do so. Why is Hordak's flashback so out of step with reality? Was he so hungry for Horde Prime's respect that he deluded himself with a false story about his progenitor? Did a previous mind-wipe damage Hordak's memory? Did someone plant false memories in Hordak's mind for reasons not yet revealed?
  • The design inconsistencies can be chalked up to merely art style changes, or perhaps that's the way Horde Prime looked back then. As for the assumed affirmation, this is intentional. Like Catra for Shadow Weaver, or Catra for Hordak, or Scorpia for Catra, Hordak is placing too much emotional need on Horde Prime to tell him how valued he is, failing to recognize that his superior is an abusive jerk who's never cared about him and will never treat him as anything more than a tool. On a related note, the end of this interview suggests Hordak wasn't completely truthful with his claims about Horde Prime.
  • The height difference could be an artistic representation of how Hordak views Prime, as a godlike version of himself. (It was actually because a character that tall would be hard to fit in the frame with anyone else.) Prime's real hair is similar to his clones; the "dreadlocks" are actually cables which could be detachable. As for the characterization stuff, Hordak had indeed deluded himself to believing if he worked hard enough he could prove himself worthy of independence to Prime. It's possible that Prime was at first lenient with Hordak's free will since it made him a better general, but wanted him exterminated when he started to see himself as a possible equal. Or maybe Hordak has been reconditioned multiple times, and keeps stepping out of line because he's the only one to do it and doesn't know how much Prime hates it.
  • In Season 5, Horde Prime does not use generals, and Hordak's previous status is unclear. It's possible that Horde Prime may have used clone generals in the past but has since discontinued the practice, that Hordak was an exception as a particularly useful or intelligent clone, or that Hordak misinterpreted his value to Horde Prime.

Magic and Technology

Fragile weapon

• How did Catra destroy Hordak's arm cannon with a single punch in "Destiny, Part 2"? Catra is athletic, but not inhumanly strong. Also, Hordak would have logically designed the arm cannon to endure a lot of abuse, such as high temperatures and jostling during combat.
  • Catra's stronger than a baseline human; we just don't see it that often because she's usually going up against She-Ra, who completely outclasses her in terms of sheer power. She also had a lot of momentum built up from her falling kick.
  • He made that cannon with really old materials. He's lucky it still works at all.

Princess powers working outside Etheria

• The powers of She-Ra and the princesses are explicitly tied to planetary magic of Etheria, so when Glimmer is abducted to space, she can't use her teleport powers. But Adora is still able to turn into She-Ra and use her magical powers, both on other planets and in space. Why can she do it but Glimmer can't?
  • She-Ra was made by the First Ones, who were an intergalactic empire. Obviously their abilities would be intended to work in space. Being more specific, Glimmer's problem is she's too far from her Runestone, where as She-Ra is her own Runestone.
  • This is incorrect. She-Ra was not created by the First Ones, the First Ones created the sword to enslave She-Ra, control her and her power for their own uses. She-Ra is the guardian of Etheria, she is bonded to Adora and also to Etheria itself, that connection is likely what allows Adora to continue using magic even when away from Etheria.
  • But the Runestones only serve to channel the magic of Etheria, which is the true source of both She-Ra's and Glimmer's powers. So they're both equally far away from their power source.
  • Glimmer isn't just connected to the Moonstone, she's also a sorceress, like her father and aunt. That means she has powers anywhere there's magic.
  • That wasn't the question. The question was, how come Adora still has her She-Ra power outside Etheria but Glimmer loses her teleportation power, as shown in the episodes when they were outside Etheria?
    • Because Glimmer's, and the other princesses, power comes from an external source so when in an environment that doesn't have ambient magic she becomes powerless as there's nothing for her to draw on. Adora is bonded to She-Ra, She-Ra is the guardian spirit of Etheria. Where Adora goes, She-Ra goes, she's her own source of magical power.

What is the source of Spinnerella's powers?

• The elemental powers of Glimmer, Mermista, Perfuma, Frosta and Scorpia come from the magical Runestones that allow them to channel the natural magic of Etheria. Earlier in the series it was implied all of the princesses get their powers like that, but later it is revealed that there are only five stones, tied to the aforementioned five princesses. But Spinnerella is also shown to possess the elemental power of wind, which (as seen in Season 5) makes her just as strong as the other princesses... So what is the source of her powers? It doesn't look like she's using sorcery as characters like Castaspella and Micah are doing, because their magic looks visually different and requires specific hand movements and sigils, whereas Spinnerella's powers seem to come as natural to her as they come to the other princesses.
  • The Princesses bonded to the runestones receive specific, very strong powers but that doesn't mean they're the only ones with powers. Netossa can create nets strong enough to contain Spinnerella's powers, Double Trouble can shift into whatever they want as often as they want for as long as they want, ect.. The people of Etheria just have powers sometimes. Sometimes those powers rival those connected to the runestones.
  • There are many Runestones, but only five are needed to enable the weapon to fire. Spinerella and Nettossa are presumably both linked to Brightmoon's stone just as Glimmer was, while Double Trouble simply has innate magical powers.
    • They are not linked with the Moonstone. Sharing the Moonstone is the reason Glimmer is so weak for the first three seasons, because the majority of it's power went to Angella, there's no way it could have sustained three princesses at full power. Magic is the natural state of Etheria, it's actually weaker than ever due to the runestones siphoning power for over a millenium, so Spinerella and Netossa are just naturally occurring magical beings. There are likely plenty more naturally gifted Etherians out there the story just never got around to showing them.

Weapon power level

• At first, Entrapta runs a simulation showing Etheria blowing up if the weapon is fired, and it's stated to be targeting several others - fair enough. But in Season 5, it's suddenly capable of wiping out the entire universe all at once? Like, that's thousands, millions of planets in the galaxy alone. If Etheria was holding that much energy, it should have dissolved by now.
  • Etheria is just that good of a battery. Also, the residents of Etheria will not have reason to care how many other planets were taken out if Etheria blows up, so the simulation focuses on what is important to them.

Miscellaneous

Unsupervised Terrorists

• Even if Frosta needed to stick to the rules that badly, why didn't she order her guards to keep an eye on Catra and Scorpia?
  • She saw Glimmer and Adora assign themselves to the task, and figured she didn't need to. No reason to antagonize the Horde if they're going to do the job for her. Unfortunately for all of them, Glimmer got distracted.
  • He may have ordered a couple of guards to watch them - subtly - but they turned out to be ineffective and were probably captured by Kylie and Lonnie, from somewhere they had to remove the uniforms with which they disguised themselves.
  • These things notwithstanding, Frosta is young and has a chip on her shoulder—she claims that she's "worked too hard to earn respect" to deal with being insulted by Adora's behavior. One can assume that she's 1: Probably too busy being angry at Adora to take her accusations seriously, and 2: Has a personal stake in stubbornly standing firm on her decisions because changing her mind might be perceived as childish and fickle. If she goes back on her prior word then, well, politics ensue.
  • To her they weren't threats because they didn't attack her country yet.

Corrupted Catra knows Adora's past?

• How does Catra know Adora came through a portal in their final fight of Season 3 Episode 6? There is no way for her to have learned that information.
  • There are a lot of questions in regard to what exactly happened in the last episode. Corrupted!Catra could have just been Adora's nightmare with Catra's face, in which case it would know. Or the corruption gave Catra weird visions and she pieced it together. It's hard to say; we don't even know if anyone besides Adora remembers the altered reality.
  • Hordak could've also told Catra about Adora's origin offscreen.
  • Catra's pretty nosy, and has a habit of keeping information to herself until it comes in handy. She figured out that Hordak was completely disinterested/incapable of managing the logistics of the Horde without being explicitly told, along with their 'we're the good guys, honest' propaganda being a bunch of rubbish. There's any number of ways she could have found out Adora's background, they weren't exactly keeping the fact that she was special a secret.
  • I got the impression that falling into the portal made Catra a little more than herself, at least for a bit, and just the act of falling through gave her mind a little more information that she didn't have before that was related to the locus of the disaster.

Refugees

• Season 4 regularly shows civilians fleeing from towns that the Horde has captured. Where do these civilians go? Bright Moon doesn't have the space to accommodate hundreds or thousands of refugees, and viewers never see refugee camps on Etheria.
  • At least some of them join the Horde to stay fed and protected.
  • They become homeless.
  • Season 5 shows a refugee camp in Mystacor, where some Etherian are living after Horde Prime's invasion.

Prisoners of war

• Members of the Rebellion are shows subduing Horde soldiers, but viewers never see what they do with enemy soldiers after battles end. Where does the Rebellion house its prisoners of war?
  • The spare room.
  • I think they just leave them there until they wake up.

Flutterina

• Why do the main characters let this random girl they just met, who is a brand-new member of the Rebellion, sit in on what is supposed to be all their top meetings with the leaders? Doesn't that strike anyone as a little odd that she's allowed despite having JUST joined? Why is she there? Presumably there are plenty of others just like Flutterina who are regular Rebellion members, but for some reason they let her hang around during important strategy meetings? It just sounds like a case of plot-induced Idiot Ball to me, but Double Trouble is a shape-shifter. Surely there are more clever ways to have her listen in without her being right there.
  • Flutterina's participating on missions a lot with the central trio, and was reporting "intelligence" on Horde outposts, so they feel it worthwhile to let her in the meetings if she's so regularly leading the push on the front lines.
  • They don't just let her in. Double Trouble spends a lot of time hanging around on the fringes, lurking around and doing the espionage thing of trying to get themself into the right place at the right time to slowly ingratiate themself into the inner circle. They even tell Catra in one episode that spying is a long-term game when Catra asks why they are not in the inner circle already.
• For that matter, did none of the villagers ask "Hey, who's the new girl?"
  • It's never made clear whether Flutterina was a completely original identity by Double Trouble or if they were impersonating someone. (DT's actor has joked that it's the latter.) Also it's a big loud party, most of the villagers probably didn't notice her or assumed she was someone's cousin. It helps that nobody in the Alliance seems to be aware of the possibility of shapeshifters.

Escaping Beast Island

• Why couldn't Micah find a way to escape Beast Island himself? Couldn't he have built a raft from all the raw materials around him? Viewers see Micah creating a magical dome to shield the party from attack, so couldn't he have created a magical construct such as a raft or hang-glider to leave the island?
  • He probably couldn't build a raft because the vines are evil and connected to the signal. Are you sure his magical domes are water impervious, or that they could last the potentially endless days until he finds land?

Why send a valuable prisoner to Beast Island?

• Why did the Horde send Micah into exile on Beast Island? As the king of Bright Moon, Micah could have been interrogated for valuable information or held as a hostage to demand concessions or surrender from Angella. Why send a high-value prisoner to his death when he would have been more valuable to the Horde alive?
  • Also who exiled Micah to Beast Island? Hordak would have been intelligent enough to recognize Micah's value as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Bright Moon, so it is unlikely that he authorized Micah's exile. Shadow Weaver has a soft spot for her former protege, so it is unlikely that she authorized his exile. Did someone else in the Horde send him away behind Hordak and Shadow Weaver's backs?
  • It’s important to remember that Micah was sent to Beast Island back when the first Princess Alliance was still formed, in the earlier stages of the war. It’s possible that the Horde was not as strong back then or didn’t same strategic advantage. We don’t know the full circumstances. Also remember that Micah’s “death” plays a huge role in what happens later, since Angella blamed herself for what happened and, in her depression, allowed the Alliance to fall apart. Not to mention Micah is clearly a powerful sorcerer. Beast Island wasn’t enough to finish him off, so keeping him as hostage likely may not work. It’s possible we’ll get more info on this in the next season.
  • What gave you the impression that Hordak had ever negotiated? He's there to conquer. Hordak likely had Micah immediately sent to Beast Island in order to get rid of one of his strongest enemies and to demoralize the Rebellion.
  • The easiest answer is the something mentioned above. Hordak isn't actually that strong. The cage was holding Micah the same way it was Shadow Weaver. Either one might break out at any time and they probably captured Micah by throwing wave after wave at him until he exceeded his maximum kill count. As Shadow Weaver proved in her final stand she is immensely powerful and could fairly easily have dispatched Hordak especially if she didn't care if she lived or not. You don't keep threats of that caliber around.

Who's running Dryl?

• Entrapta is the ruler of Dryl, but when she joins the Horde, she takes up residence in the Fright Zone. Who is running the kingdom of Dryl in her absence?
  • Nobody. Either the people went to the Fright Zone when the Horde invaded to pick up Entrapta's stuff, or they decamped en masse to Brightmoon. Technically, if there is a Horde Garrison there, then it would be an unknown Force Captain.
  • Other than Entrapta (moved to the Fright Zone), her kitchen staff (eventually shown to have decamped to Brightmoon), and the robots (who may simply have shut down), does anyone live in Dryl? Or is it essentially an outpost that Entrapta built, which the Rebellion and the Horde only deem of value because of Entrapta and the things she built there?

Bow's family

• Bow has 12 older brothers, right? But both of his parents are men, meaning there's no way either of them could've given birth to that many kids. How does a couple who has to put more work into planning out each child they have end up with so many kids? Did they hire surrogates to bear their children, and some of them happened to give birth to twins or even triplets? Are the collective amount of children all from previous marriages before Both fathers got together? Are Bow's dads just crazy enough to willingly adopt 13 kids?
  • There is no reason why two guys who enjoy being dads might not choose to have a large family via adoption. Other explanations available are one of them might be a transman who has been able to birth them, but otherwise identifies as male. Or, given this is an explicitly magical setting, men can get pregnant in Etheria.
    • It's def the latter, since Catra and Adora have a bio-kid together.
    • I think the fact that the voice actors for both of Bow's dad's are cismen rules out the idea of either of them being transmen.
  • Men don't give birth to children at all, It's not a matter of number. The easiest answer with the fewest unfortunate implications is the children are all adopted. Though the two of them being partners doesn't outright state they can't be sufficiently interested in women that there between one and twelve women who have given birth to their children. Given the variety of couples on display in She-Ra, not having implied bisexual characters would be far odder than having them. Add in that Bow does share dark skin with his fathers and that is sufficiently rare that he's probably genetically related to one of them. Of course magic is always a possibility.
  • Considering the timeline: Bow is around the same age as Glimmer. Glimmer's father was lost early in the war against the Horde, which means Glimmer (and therefore, Bow) had to be born shortly before or just after the war started. Bow's father George was a soldier in that initial conflict who became disillusioned around that same time. You know what happens a lot in war? Orphans. Orphans happen. It's not crazy to think that George would be particularly compassionate toward war the war orphans, and since he and Lance seem to genuinely enjoy fatherhood, and apparently have the resources, there isn't a reason given why they wouldn't have adopted children. Also, since they're quick to consider Adora and Glimmer as part of their family, it's possible some of their children aren't even "adopted" in the legal sense, just young refugees under their care for a period of time who are likewise considered family. There's also the possibility that Bow is a biological child of one of the two from a previous relationship (with his mother also being a war causality), explaining his appearance. George and Lance could have both come into the relationship with children of their own, and they could have adopted more after getting together. Considering we know nothing of their romantic history, there's a huge number of potential origins for their 13 children.

Why the Rebellion?

• Why are they called the Rebellion aside from it being an artifact of the original show? In in the original they are the Rebellion because they've essentially lost. We see Horde soldiers wandering around in public places and they may be rough around the edges and obviously intimidating they don't seem to be on high alert. They are perfectly safe. Here the Horde for the most part seems to be limited to the Fright Zone. This isn't a rebellion, this is a resistance and seems to be working as well as can be expected.
  • I feel like you answered your own question. At the end of the day, it is an artifact of the original show. I mean Bow is an archer, but that's also his given name. So you think his parents might have 'wanted' him to be an archer. As for an actual in-show reason, we never actually see how big the Fright Zone is or isn't, but it was more or less said in Season 1 that if Bright Moon was conquered, then the Horde have basically won. I'm guessing by the start of the series, the Horde had taken over most of the unseen planet and were on the verge of taking the last few kingdoms if not for She-Ra's reemergence. Plus, the term Rebellion and Princess Alliance are used interchangeable. Also, I think the Horde are the ones who use the term rebellion, likely as part of their propaganda.

Entrapta's mentality while working for the Horde

• Why is Entrapta okay with creating weapons for the Horde, to kill people with as long as she gets to study First Ones technology!? How wrapped up in her own little world, is she to be aiding terrorists to the point, of nearly draining life out of the planet!? But she draws the line at destroying reality!? And then there's gleefully informing Adora about how a weapon of mass destruction in the planet won't stop once activated! Is she neurodiverse or just crazy!?
  • In her own words, Entrapta is on the side of science and science is not by nature good or evil. Entrapta helped Hordak build his portal, but the act of simply building it was not evil anymore than the act of building the Heart of Etheria was good. It was what the inventors were planning to do with these creations once they had them. Hordak's portal and other technology could very easily be used for good and to help others if in the right hands. But Entrapta is not interested in who she can help or hurt with her inventions. She is just interested in the act of inventing. She only opts out of the destroying reality part because that was a zero sum game. The portal would not work and it would destroy all of them, so that's far more than a mild failure. Even then she can only reluctantly admit to not using it and she would undoubtedly have kept working to fix the portal stability anyway. Also, she is very obviously not good with people so she doesn't really register how blunt she can be at times. You're free to interpret that anyway you like.
  • Well, that's just peachy! I'm sure all the men, women, and children who lost their friends, families, and homes to her devices and experiments will understand! So what you're saying is she lacks guidance, correct? Also you're skipping the part where she "nearly drained the life out of the planet" in the Season 1 finale.
    • I feel like it should be obvious at this stage that Entrapta simply does not think like that. This was very clear in her first episode, when she continues to work on deciphering the First Ones virus, despite the fact it nearly destroyed her lab and drove her robots crazy. Scientific discovery gets her excited and leaves her blind to the rest of the world. Not to mention she clearly has no sense of fear either. When she gets sent to Beast Island, which is a literal death sentence, she acts like a kid in a candy store at the technology trying to kill her. And it's not like the main cast themselves aren't exasperated with Entrapta's lack of self-awareness. But after a while they just roll with it. Adora can make Entrapta 'join them' by offering to show her a spaceship as opposed to getting her to understand the difference between right and wrong. At the end of the day, you can't put a square peg in a round hole
    • Thankfully in Season 5 she comes to realize the flaw in her mode of thinking, and puts her best foot forward for the benefit of The Rebellion and Etheria as a whole. She even sabotages Horde Prime's mind-control network in the end.

Double Trouble wanting to "help" Catra

• Why do they care? What matter is it to a spy for hire like Double Trouble, if Catra is a self-destructive basket case who pushes away potential friends and allies while antagonizing them? Their only interest should be in the money they make, not the mental welfare of employers and/or co-workers.
  • It was both a distraction and entertainment. After all there probably were few other things that would hurt her more then the cold hard truth behind why she's all alone.
  • I agree. Double Trouble wanted entertainment, they directly say that they were trying to get a rise out of Catra, and earlier mentioned enjoying seeing people's reactions, especially to things Double Trouble themself has done. There weren't a lot of a ways to better provoke her, and they weren't likely to settle for momentary surprise or anger. They hit her where it would hurt the most to garner the biggest reaction and at the same time display their skill as an actor.

Entrapta leaving her friend behind

• Entrapta cares about Hordak, and is clearly touched when she learns that he still has the LUVD crystal and still remembers her after being brainwashed. However, she allows Swift Wind to drag her away from Hordak in "Failsafe" and makes no effort to save him. From a narrative standpoint, I understand why the writers did this. Narratively, Hordak to stay with the Galactic Horde so that he could turn on Horde Prime in "Heart, Part 2". However, it seems inconsistent with Entrapta's character. Why didn't she take Hordak back with her for rehabilitation when she learned that some of his memories were still intact, and that he still loved her? Was it because doing so would be too dangerous? Was it because she had to focus on a high-stakes mission, even if that meant leaving her beloved behind?
  • Part of her character arc this season was learning to focus more, so odds are, yes, she was trying to focus on the mission at hand.
  • Hordak needed to make his own choice and Entrapta had faith that he would. On Prime's ship she is able to break out her restraints easily, but doesn't until after Hordak rebels. Kidnapping Wrong Hordak was a bit different because he was a baby clone with a fried brain, whereas actual Hordak already had the foundation to deprogram himself.
  • You've also got to remember that Entrapta doesn't quite follow the same logic as most people. It's possible that her entire goal was "Identify Hordak," not "Identify and Save Hordak." Once she managed that, she considered the task done and switched to a different objective. It might have only occurred to her later that she could be genuinely reunited with her dear friend, or she might have been unable to make the connection between "finding" and "reuniting with" Hordak, thus she didn't realize that there was anything she could do at the time to help her with the latter goal. It's in-character for Entrapta to not take people into consideration with her plans (even when she's using tech to help the Princess Alliance, she only comes up with the tech aspect; she needs to be told outright whether the tech will be beneficial or harmful to the team). She's taking baby steps.

Are the First Ones still around?

• Horde Prime claims he wiped out the First Ones hundreds of years ago, but Adora came to Etheria when she was a baby, roughly 17 years before the start of the series. So doesn't that mean some of the First Ones are still alive somewhere in the universe?
  • We have no idea about the speed of time in the Etheria dimension relative to the outside universe. Are you sure it isn't the case of Year Outside, Hour Inside?
  • Horde Prime specifically notes that Adora's existence must mean there is some enclave of survivors somewhere. He considers it nothing more than a curiosity, but it's also a bit of Fanfic Fuel for Adora meeting her family.
  • Given the repeated mentions as well as the origins of the series one would assume that Eternia is also a planet populated by modern First Ones. After all, there's no indication that Adora's origins have changed, she's likely still the daughter of Randor and Marlena and the twin sister of Adam.

Imp Is Accounted For, But...

• Throughout Season 5, Hordak has recurring memories of Entrapta, but doesn't seem at all concerned about Imp, his young "son" who he left behind in the Fright Zone. (Fortunately, Imp was later shown in the care of Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio in the Crimson Wastes, safe and sound.) Granted, Hordak was reeling from two mind-wipes, but why was he unconcerned about Imp right up to the end? It seems odd that a "father" would forget his "child" so easily.
  • The narrative wanted to focus on his relationship with Entrapta and get Imp out of the way, so it didn't show whether he thought of Imp or not. Hordak only remembered Entrapta because he found the LUVD crystal, so it's possible he needed something to induce memory recall, like a little Imp shoe or seeing his face (as with Catra).
  • Imps is more like a pet than a son, and Hordak definitely seems like the sort of person to not care about a missing pet. He barely cared about his own soldiers.

Glimmer's teleporting powers

• S2E2 The Ties that Bind makes it explicit if you are touching Glimmer or someone she's touching you teleport with her. If that hadn't been the case either of the times they were falling to their doom Glimmer would have grabbed Bow's leg or arm and left Catra, she was certainly a kill Catra and let the First Ones sort it out sort of mood that day. And Bow would have yelled at her but 'I didn't have enough power for all three of us and I had to save you!' would have played right into Bow's own narrative of Glimmer was running on fumes. But at the end she shows she was feigning being out of magic and just teleports herself and Bow despite Catra holding on to Bow.
  • Maybe she didn't think of it. Maybe she thought a high value prisoner like Catra was worth the risk. Maybe she just teleported all three on instinct.

Babies Ever After... HOW!?

• According to a charity livestream, the couples of Adora/Catra and Scorpia/Perfuma end having kids together. Not adopting, but actually reproducing children. Because the obvious answer is magic, any idea of what kind of magic that can do this?
  • The magic of the massive amount of cloning technology obtained recently with the death of Horde Prime.

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