Shadow Weaver and Catra attempt to reach Adora. Glimmer faces her father while Bow tries to evade Scorpia long enough to execute Entrapta's program.
Tropes
- And the Adventure Continues: After taking down Horde Prime for good, Adora wants to bring magic back to the universe and wants her friends to come along with her, and they all naturally agree.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: After She-Ra purged what's left of Horde Prime's essence, everyone celebrates following the emperor's death.
- Androcles' Lion: Hordak rescued Adora when he found her in a field as a baby. At the end of this episode, She-Ra saves Hordak by exorcising Horde Prime's consciousness from his body.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: As Adora is on the brink of death, succumbing to the defense system monster's venom and Horde Prime's virus, Catra restores her will to live by confessing her love.Catra: Don't you get it? I love you! I always have! So please, just this once... Stay! Stay.
Adora: You love me?
Catra: [smiles] You're such an idiot.
Adora: I love you, too.
[cue Big Damn Kiss] - Badass Boast:
- Glimmer lays one on Micah after thinking of Angella hardens her resolve.Glimmer: My mother raised me to be brave. My friends taught me to be kind. And I'm stubborn. I get that from you. I will never stop fighting! And I won't lose another parent!
- Hordak delivers a blistering one to Horde Prime just before killing his current vessel.Hordak: I am not your "brother". You made me in your image, but I am more than that. I gave myself a name. I made a life of my own. I made... a friend. I am Hordak, and I defy your will.
- Glimmer lays one on Micah after thinking of Angella hardens her resolve.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Trapped in her usual form, injured, and weakened, Adora is a sitting duck for the First Ones' defense system creature... and then Catra leaps in and tears one of its eyes off.
- Later, Catra is about to be eaten by the defense system creature... and then Shadow Weaver shows up and begins forcing it back with magic.
- When all seems lost, Hordak attacks Horde Prime, which buys Adora time and sets up conditions that allow She-Ra to destroy Prime's spirit.
- Big Damn Kiss: Adora and Catra share a kiss after declaring their love for each other. A kiss so powerful it ends up curing Adora's poisoning and saving the universe.
- Big "NO!": Horde Prime screams this as She-Ra exorcises him from Hordak's body, destroying him for good.
- Bittersweet Ending: Horde Prime is dead, the Empire has fallen, but trillions of people lost their lives at the hands of the Horde, and on a personal level, Queen Angella and Shadow Weaver laid their lives on the line for the heroes. Well, 'tragic' might not be the best adjective when describing the death of Shadow Weaver, but still brave. As for Angella, she's out who knows where, and will likely never know that her husband is alive.
- Black Bug Room: Because of the defense system monster's venom Adora collapses and hallucinates her wishes for the future only for Prime to follow her there, using her connection to the heart of Etheria, and condemns her to a dark prison where she will be trapped in endless pain and regret. Then Catra shows up...
- Book Ends:
- The first episode of the series had a scene wherein Catra reached her hand in a pit to get Adora out. In the series' final episode Catra does so again albeit in a mental realm as oppose to a physical one.
- Scorpia's first words to Catra were "just so you know I'm a hugger." Her last words to her, after glomping her and forgiving her, "you know I'm a hugger."
- Horde Prime's first and final appearances on Etheria both involve him making a speech starting with "Rejoice, Etheria." The first time, it's to tell the Etherians to hand She-Ra over to him. This time, it's to tell them all that he will use the Heart to destroy the universe and them along with it.
- Break Them by Talking: While chipped, Micah tries to do this to Glimmer.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Hordak kills Horde Prime, just for his master to hijack his body.
- Call-Back:
- Hordak's Badass Boast above mirrors the accusations Prime had leveled at him in the previous season, but give a different perspective on events: Prime speaks of Hordak "giving himself a name, building an empire of his own and at times wishing Prime wouldn't come", whereas Hordak boasts of giving himself a name, making a life of his own and even making a friend.
- In "Moment of Truth", Hordak sneers that he has no recollection of someone as insignificant as Adora. In this episode, after She-Ra purges Horde Prime's essence from him Hordak has a flashback to finding Adora as an infant, and remarks that he does remember her now.
- Darkest Hour: Adora is poisoned by the Crystal Castle's defense system monster, which infects her with Horde Prime's virus and prevents her from transforming into She-Ra — something she needs to do to withstand unleashing the Heart of Etheria. While Catra's Anguished Declaration of Love enables her to purge the venom and virus from her system, Horde Prime — who seized control of Hordak after seemingly being killed — is able to seize control of the Heart and activate it, beginning to destroy the planet.
- Death Equals Redemption: Shadow Weaver sacrifices herself believing that everyone would be forced to see her as a hero and overlook her decades of cruelty and manipulativeness for doing so to save Etheria.
- Death Seeker: It’s heavily implied Shadow Weaver came with Adora and Catra to the heart with the express purpose of dying in combat.
- Defecting for Love: Hordak attacks Horde Prime and kills his physical body rather than harm Entrapta.
- Defiant to the End: Horde Prime, after She-Ra has destroyed his ship and removed the clones from his control, tells her he will rebuild his empire. But She-Ra exorcises his soul from Hordak's body and destroys it.
- Demonic Possession: After Hordak hurls Horde Prime off a ledge, Horde Prime's consciousness possesses Hordak. She-Ra exorcises Horde Prime from Hordak's body, freeing Hordak and destroying Horde Prime forever.
- Disney Villain Death:
- Double Trouble — impersonating a Horde clone — ambushes a pair of clone soldiers and pushes them off a cliff to their deaths.
- Subverted. Hordak triumphantly throws Horde Prime to his certain death... but Prime simply possesses Hordak and continues his plans unhindered.
- The Dog Bites Back: After everything Horde Prime has put him through, Hordak manages to break through his brainwashing and send his master plummeting into the depths of the Spire.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Once he's transmitted the deactivation code for the control chips, Bow is able to hijack Horde Prime's transmission towers to broadcast a message of hope to everyone on Etheria.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title of this episode can easily refer to either the Heart of Etheria itself or Catra's Love Confession to Adora and their Relationship Upgrade.
- Dramatic Unmask: Shadow Weaver takes off her mask right before her death, marking the first time the audience has seen her face in full.
- Dream Sequence: Adora has a brief one after Horde Prime's assimilation of Etheria starts affecting her. She dreams of herself, Catra, Glimmer, and Bow getting to grow up and be happy (the way each pair are hanging on each other, plus their matching outfits, implies serious romance, if not marriage by this point), before Horde Prime dismisses it as "a beautiful wish", but not one she will get to see fulfilled.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: As she succumbs to the defense network monster's venom and Horde Prime's virus, Adora has a vision of a possible future answering the question she's been asked throughout the season — what she herself truly wants: a world where she and the people she loves can be happy and at peace. In the dream, an older Adora, Catra, Glimmer, and Bow are in the midst of preparing to go to a Princess Prom hosted by Scorpia; and it's implied that Adora and Catra are a couple, as are Glimmer and Bow.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes a lot of work, but in the end Horde Prime is defeated, Etheria is saved, Hordak regains his memories and reunites with Entrapta, and Adora and Catra admit that they love each other; with the Best Friends Squad deciding to go on one last adventure together to return magic to the universe.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted and played straight.
- Averted with Catra. Even Adora was clearly still suspicious of her at first, and her continuing prickly demeanor made it difficult for the others to trust her. But she put in the effort to show that she was trying to change, and little by little she was accepted.
- Zigzagged with Hordak. He was the Big Bad of the first four seasons, responsible for all manner of suffering and destruction, but Entrapta vouches for him. Mermista seeing her hug him lampshades that his fate is very much up in the air.Mermista: So, are we all just, like, okay with this?
- Scorpia seems to have forgiven Catra for the way she treated her, since she immediately gives Catra a big bear hug before she could even apologize.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Invoked by Entrapta when Horde Prime can't believe Etheria is fighting back.Entrapta: You don't understand what makes us strong! And that's why you'll never win!
- Face Death with Dignity: Shadow Weaver doesn't seem so bothered that she's about to die. If anything, she looks relieved.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: A group of clones is defeated by a group of civilians.
- The Glomp: Four:
- After being freed from her chip, Scorpia glomps Bow while apologizing. Then when being reunited with the other Princesses, she glomps Catra when the latter tries to apologize herself.
- After She-Ra saves Hordak, Entrapta throws her arms around him and spins him around.
- After being freed from the chip Glimmer gives Micah a big hug happy to be reunited with her father.
- Grand Finale: Of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
- Headbutt of Love: Adora and Catra give each other one after Etheria, and the universe, have been saved from Horde Prime and the two are now free to be together without a war separating them.
- Held Gaze: She-Ra and Hordak share one after she exorcises Horde Prime's spirit from his body, and he remembers the moment he rescued her as a baby.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Played straight and averted.
- Played straight: Shadow Weaver burns herself out — literally — to protect Adora and Catra. However, the old Shadow Weaver still shines through at the end, as her parting words are "You're welcome."
- Averted: Adora intends to do this to activate the failsafe, since she can't transform into She-Ra and the release of energy will destroy anyone less durable than that.
- Humble Goal: After the entire season of people asking Adora what she wants, Adora's vision reveals that she's always wanted to live a happy, peaceful life with her three best friends. Even Horde Prime calls her deepest wish beautiful.
- I've Come Too Far: Shadow Weaver even tells Catra it’s just too late for her one way or another to turn her own life around for even the possibility of a future with them.
- Killed Off for Real: Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime, the former in a Heroic Sacrifice and the latter being exorcised from Hordak.
- Left Hanging: With the final episode concluded, a number of major and minor questions remain unanswered, including whether Angella will ever escape from her entrapment between dimensions, what became of the Galactic Horde clones after the death of Horde Prime, Catra's species (aside from a brief shot in a previous episode on another planet not a single other cat person appears), what Razz is and why she exists in two time streams at once, whether Imp reunites with Hordak or stays with Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio, what's left of the First Ones' civilization, or where Adora's parents are. It also leaves a lot of Horde Prime's backstory vague, though judging from some of his dialogue over the last seen it must have been awful.
- Living Shadow: Horde Prime's soul is a mass of darkness with seven glowing green eye-like spots — three where his customary Extra Eyes should be. He tries to flee Hordak's body as She-Ra pours her power into him, but is vaporized before he can escape.
- Love Confession: Catra and Adora finally confess their love for one another. After Sea Hawk's confession in the previous episode, he and the freed Mermista are shown together, proving it's mutual.
- Love Redeems:
- Hordak's love for Entrapta leads to his redemption. He attacks Horde Prime rather than carry out an order to kill her.
- Shadow Weaver's love for Adora and Catra is strong enough that she turns away from the possibility of tapping into the power of the Heart of Etheria - denying herself what she's spent her entire adult life seeking - to protect them in the way she never could before.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Adora summons her shield to protect Catra from the Heart of Etheria's magic after Catra's Love Confession brings her back.
- The Magic Comes Back: For Etheria, albeit more like "the magic is freed", and the plan for the Best Friends Squad is to spread magic to the rest of the universe.
- Meaningful Echo: Catra saying "Don't you get it?" in Season 1 in comparison to the finale. In the first one, she's telling Adora she won't go with her. This time? She's confessing her love for Adora and begging her to stay.
- Mutual Kill: Shadow Weaver takes out the Crystal Castle's "defense system" creature this way; the magic attack she uses kills both the creature and herself.
- No Body Left Behind: After Shadow Weaver unleashes a Yin-Yang Bomb to kill the defense network monster, it is completely vaporized and nothing is left of her except her shattered mask.
- Official Couple: Catra & Adora, Bow & Glimmer, Sea Hawk & Mermista, and Entrapta & Hordak.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Prime decides to destroy the entire universe, himself included, during his Villainous Breakdown after Hordak kills his main body.
- Pet the Dog: While her motive for sacrificing herself is Secretly Selfish (as stated by
Word of God) Shadow Weaver telling Catra that she can be a better person than Shadow Weaver and that she's proud of her are easily the nicest things she's ever said. One thing she especially cannot stress enough to Catra is how valuable the life she has ahead of her. - Please, Don't Leave Me:
- Inverted: Adora tells Catra to leave the Heart chamber to save herself. Catra refuses.Catra: I'm not leaving! Whatever happens, I am staying with you!
- Played straight: Mirroring Adora begging her not to die in Episode 5, Catra begs Adora to stay as Horde Prime's virus is killing her.
- Inverted: Adora tells Catra to leave the Heart chamber to save herself. Catra refuses.
- Power Glows:
- When Glimmer finally cuts loose during her fight with Micah, she's visibly glowing, surrounded by a nimbus of light, and her skin briefly turns the same shade of purple as Angella's.
- When Adora uses She-Ra to destroy Horde Prime, she glows so brightly that there's barely any definition to her body apart from her armor.
- Power Nullifier: The creature the First Ones developed to kill She-Ra if she ever tried to turn against them, infecting Adora with a virus that voids her ability to transform and quickly poisons her.
- The Power of Love:
- Adora is able to overcome Horde Prime's virus after Catra's Love Confession.
- Hordak is able to overcome his clone indoctrination and two mind wipes because of his love for Entrapta.
- Shadow Weaver turns her back on the Heart of Etheria and sacrifices herself when she realizes the danger her 'daughters' (Adora & Catra) are in.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Catra lets loose one of these when Adora starts to succumb to Prime's virus.
- Redemption Equals Death: Shadow Weaver, after all the bad things she's done to Adora and Catra, sacrifices herself for her foster daughters so that Adora can go to the Heart of Etheria and release its magic. However, she does so in order to be remembered as a hero.
- Rousing Speech: Bow takes advantage of the Spire's hologram systems to deliver one across Etheria.Bow: Hey, everyone. I'm Bow. Prime is probably trying to get his channel back right now, so I have to make this quick. Prime's controlled the universe for a long time. Right now, we're the only thing standing in the way of him controlling it forever. You might be feeling hopeless, you might be thinking "We don't stand a chance!" And maybe we don't. Prime's too strong, his army's too powerful. But that's not gonna stop us! We need to show Prime we're not afraid of him. Because we have each other! We have love. We can't give up. And if we go down, we go down together. We need you, all of you. It's time to take back our world. It's time to fight. For She-Ra. For our homes! And for each other!
- Rule of Symbolism: Shadow Weaver removing her mask before dying symbolizes how she's reached the end of her journey and she's ready to bravely look death straight in the face and not hide behind a mask like a coward.
- Shout-Out:
- The scene where Catra reaches out for a dying Adora visually resembles the scene where Utena reaches out to Anthy in the finale of Revolutionary Girl Utena. Even the music is similar.
- Hordak throwing Horde Prime down the shaft after the latter threatens Entrapta is reminiscent of Darth Vader throwing Emperor Palpatine down a shaft after seeing him torture Luke in Return of the Jedi, followed by Prime resurrecting himself into a clone body like how Palpatine did prior to The Rise of Skywalker.
- Horde Prime's ship resembles the kingdom of Laputa after She-Ra affects it with her light.
- Comparisons have repeatedly been made between She-Ra exorcising Horde Prime and Aang removing Ozai's Bending.
- So Proud of You: Shadow Weaver finally gives some motherly love to Catra and tells her that she is proud of her for choosing a better path than she did.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: After Hordak breaks free and drops his body into the heart of the Spire, Horde Prime loses it. After uploading himself into Hordak's body, Horde Prime decides that he's going to use the Heart to destroy the universe, himself included.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Despite all of the terrible things she did to them growing up Adora and Catra both burst into tears when Shadow Weaver sacrifices herself to save them since, for all of her flaws, she was the closest thing either of them had to a mother. At the same time, she’s a sobering reminder of how short life is, and how easily it can wasted by making the decisions she made.
- Tainted Veins: Adora develops green veins as Horde Prime's virus spreads from her side wound.
- Take My Hand!: Adora sees Catra doing this in her mind as Catra is begging her to stay in the real world.
- Teleport Spam: Glimmer does this twice in her fight with Micah; first to try and avoid his attacks, then to attack him.
- This Cannot Be!: Horde Prime utters "impossible!" at the sight of Etheria fighting back and likewise cannot accept Hordak turning on him or how defeated he is.
- Title-Only Opening: Fittingly for the Grand Finale the episode begins by showing the series title and gets straight to the action.
- True Love's Kiss: Catra and Adora confess their feelings and kiss as the Heart of Etheria activates overhead. This cures Adora of Horde Prime's virus, allowing her to transform and save both Catra and herself, followed by her defeating Horde Prime.
- Villainous Breakdown: With his control of the chips broken and his main body killed by Hordak, Horde Prime loses all sense of composure and decides to go out madly ranting and taking the universe with him.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Shadow Weaver's Heroic Sacrifice was still somewhat selfish on her part. Sure, she gets the message that she can never undo or fix any of the pain she caused others. That being said, she did this act believing that everyone would have to overlook all the cruel and manipulative things she'd done and accept her as a hero.
- Wham Line: The moment that seals the deal between our two main girls:Catra: Don't you get it?! I love you!
- What You Are in the Dark: Shadow Weaver is given the opportunity to seize the power stored in the Heart of Etheria for herself, something that has been her lifelong ambition. While she's sorely tempted to do so and does absorb a bit of its power, she uses this power to fight off the Crystal Castle's defense system monster — sacrificing herself to completely destroy it.
- World-Healing Wave: She-Ra triggers one after freeing the Heart of Etheria, covering the world with plant life, animal life, and magic, as well as turning the Velvet Glove into a giant floating tree.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Right before she sacrifices herself Shadow Weaver tells Catra that, while it may be to late for her, Catra's journey is just beginning and she doesn't have to become like Shadow Weaver.
- You Keep Telling Yourself That: Horde Prime has been in power for so long that he's unable to recognize when he's beaten for good, and tries to bluster that he'll regain his rule eventually. Adora isn't having it, and ends him permanently.Horde Prime: Though all is reduced to rubble, Prime shall rise again. So it has been, and so it always shall be.She-Ra: No. You're wrong. It's time for you to go. *destroys Horde Prime's spirit with light*
