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Characters / She-Ra and the Princesses of Power — Glimmer

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Main Character Index | The Rebellion (Adora, Glimmer) | The Horde (Catra, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Horde Prime) | Other Groups (Entrapta, Double Trouble)

Commander Glimmer, Princess of Bright Moon/Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon

Voiced by: Karen Fukuhara (English) LaLa Nestor (English, young) Alondra Hidalgo (Latin American Spanish), Risa Taneda (Japanese)

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Click here to see Young Glimmer. 
Click here to see her second outfit. 
Click here to see Future Glimmer. 

"It's time for us to take back our home. Together we will push out the Horde, once and for all!"

Sweet, wildly enthusiastic, and driven by her desire to forge her own path, Glimmer possesses magical powers that she inherited from her mother. Motivated by love, loyalty, friendship, and fairness, Glimmer truly believes that with her friends by her side she can do anything.

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    A-I 
  • Acrofatic: Glimmer's on the big side but is nimble and agile, with her teleporting powers helping her out.
  • Adaptational Badass: She goes from a She-Ra supporter often in need of rescue to a frontline fighter who has saved She-Ra as much as She-Ra has saved her.
  • Ambiguously Bi: While she is certainly into guys considering she and Bow become an Official Couple in the Grand Finale, she is never stated to be interested in women. That said, there is so much subtext that calling it "ambiguous" is a stretch. She is very touchy-feely with Adora, such as in Mystacor where she (while they're both wearing only swimwear) falls asleep against Adora's shoulder, she seems to flirt with one of the pirates, and in an Imagine Spot she depicts Catra as a sexy Femme Fatale she flirts with.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Confesses her love to Bow during the final battle with Horde Prime.
  • Anti-Hero: In Season 4, she becomes an Unscrupulous Hero. Her goal is to save Etheria and end the Horde's depredations; she's just become willing to use the Horde's own methods to do so. Such as paying Double Trouble to disrupt plans and turn the enemy leadership against each other.
  • Badass Boast: Glimmer lays one on the chipped 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!.
  • Badass Cape: A sparkly one she wears into battle, her later one is just as cool.
  • Battle Couple: Was always this with Bow but it takes until Season 5 for them to confirm their love for each other, and kick ass.
  • Benevolent Mage Ruler: She tries to be this but season 4 sees her fall deeper into a ruthless pragmatism that sees her putting friends in danger for tactical advantage. delaying Entrapta's rescue makes sense given the Alliances greater priorities but it's still cold.
  • Big Beautiful Woman: While she's actually on the short side, Glimmer is a cute, chubby young lady and multiple characters find her attractive. Justified in that she uses her teleportation powers frequently in daily life, which means that she uses fewer calories than most people do.
  • Big Good: After Angella’s sacrifice, she and Adora become the new co-leaders of the Rebellion.
  • Blinded by the Light: Her sparkles can be used to this effect.
  • Brought Down to Badass: Glimmer temporarily loses her teleportation powers in Season 1 but still fights in the battle against the Horde in the final, and does impressively well.
  • Brought Down to Normal: After Horde Prime takes Glimmer aboard his flagship, she loses her access to magic again in Season 5. This time her combat skills don't cut it against the much stronger antagonists of Horde Prime's clone army- Catra has to save her multiple times. Only until she returns to Etheria's surface does she get her powers back, though she does manage to cast spells on Krytis.
  • Cast from Stamina: Her uses of teleportation are this
  • Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: Glimmer does this to Bow during the finale right before he runs into the data center. She confesses her feelings to him, He reciprocates and they hold each other for a few seconds before rushing back to war.
  • The Chains of Commanding: She's pretty much the senior battlefield commander by Season 2, and to her horror finds herself becoming increasingly dour and chastising others for almost exactly the same things her mother used to chastise her for. By Season 4, she's the Queen of Bright Moon—and the chains are even heavier.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: The series finale has her go through a Relationship Upgrade with Bow, her oldest friend.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: On the receiving end from Shadow Weaver, the elder sorceress has a seductive and seemingly logical pragmatisim that Glimmer adopts for herself to win the war, instead she almost manages to destroy Etheria.
  • Costume Evolution: In Season 4, she styles her hair differently and gets a completely new, more 'regal' outfit with a tiara and full cape, signifying her transition from princess to queen.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: A variant, as her skillset is actually fairly varied. She can teleport, empower her attacks and shoot blasts of sparkles, and she later studies sorcery under Shadow Weaver, the most powerful sorcerer alive. The issue is that her power stops working entirely when outside of Etheria's atmosphere. She does regain some sorcery when on planets rich in magic, but in space she is largely useless.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Purple hair to go with her purple eyes.
  • Damsel in Distress: Twice but still a much better track record than her 1980s counterpart. Season 1 has her captured by the Horde, and Season 5 starts with Horde Prime keeping her prisoner.
  • Deadly Dodging: Displays this a few times as part of her Weaponized Teleportations. She can maneuver easily around the battlefield so later seasons show her taking advantage of this in Ties That Bind where she gets Scorpia to accidentally sting Catra, later still she regularly gets bots to destroy themselves in Friendly Fire.
  • Determinator: One of her most notable traits is stubborn courage, this is one of the major factors that gets the Princess Alliance back together when everyone else had given up on it. Even the Heart of Etheria powering up, which pretty much paralyzes every other princesses, only slows her down as she drags herself to the Black Garnet room and attempts to smash it in order to fix her mistake.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Another notable trait and one her teleportation abilities only exacerbate. Getting anywhere is so effortless for her that Glimmer doesn't usually consider the consequences. She's been known to do things like teleporting into a room full of dangerous robots against all advice. This also diminishes her threat potential as she tends to burn through her teleports without thinking.
    • At the end of Season 4, after learning of Horde Prime's impending arrival, she impulsively goes to Light Hope to learn how to access the magic at the Heart of Etheria in order to empower the princesses so they can crush the Horde regardless of Adora's warnings about Light Hopes true motives. The result is that she and the other princesses are almost killed by the Heart and the release of power allows Horde Prime to track Etheria down.
  • Dub Name Change: Her name is "Destello" in the European Spanish dub, "Scintilla" in the French dub, and "Cintilante" in the Portuguese dub.
  • Dynamic Entry: Uses her teleportation to great effect this way.
  • Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged in Season 5. Adora and Bow are both willing to head after Horde Prime's main ship to rescue her after they learn where she is, but their time together after the rescue varies a bit. Adora forgives her for their last interaction with each other, but the rift is more apparent with Bow, who takes several episodes for him to react normally around her again. She completely understands how much time he needs.
  • Elemental Hair Colors: All Moonstone wielders have lavender shaded hair that evokes the Moonstone they wield.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: À la the name, sparkles also factor into her hair, cape, and powers. It's even Catra's nickname for her. Ironically Glimmer thinks her powers are kind of lame. She embraces her powers more as the series goes on, coinciding with her taking several levels of badass.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: In Season 4, Glimmer grows her hair out into a bob between the third and fourth seasons, making it look more like her dead mother's hair, but unlike its in-universe inspiration, it's much more asymmetrical, as if to show that she hasn't fully stepped into Angella's shoes and is still working on fitting into her newfound role. And indeed, she proves very insecure about her authority as queen, and makes quite a few mistakes, at least one of them catastrophic.
  • Expy: Fans and Stevenson himself have drawn comparisons between Glimmer and Starfire, specifically the 2003 animated version. They share a similar boisterous personality, light-based powers and presentation, and their English voice actress even sound similar.
  • Family Theme Naming: "Glimmer" is an archaic term for the mineral mica, for which her father Micah is named.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Has a white sleeve-thing and a pauldron on her left arm. In Season 4, she has a fingerless purple half-glove on her right hand, and an arm length purple and white fingerless glove on her left.
  • Fatal Flaw:
    • Pride. Glimmer is absolutely certain that she's right about everything, and her determination to prove herself is what is most likely to lead her to reckless decisions. This especially comes into play in season 4, where she's still certain about being right but there are no longer anyone who has the authority to reign her in, resulting in her making the same impulsive and poorly thought-through decisions, and then steamrolling anyone who objects.
    • In Season 4, it shifts to jealousy: she becomes convinced that Adora is trying to undermine her, and it leads to a string of catastrophically bad decisions on Glimmer's part.
    • In ''Return to the Fright Zone", Netossa directly states Glimmer's biggest weaknesses are her "crippling self-doubt mixed with overwhelming hubris".
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: Double subverted; she isn’t shown cooking in the show and Bow has never seen her cook but given access to what are basically microwave food she doesn’t do bad.
  • Foil: Glimmer's development is paralleled most clearly with Catra. Both care deeply for their friendship with Adora and dread losing that bond. Both are often rude to the people around them (intentionally or not). Both are desperate to prove their worth. The key difference between them is that Glimmer grew up with loving parents and is kind enough to know when she's gone too far. Catra in comparison grew up under the thumb of Shadow Weaver, lived in Adora's shadow, and refuses to accept blame and digs herself deeper in an attempt to make all her crimes worth it. Upon losing Angella, Glimmer begins to make the exact same mistakes as Catra. This includes trusting Shadow Weaver, accusing Adora of jealousy when the latter voices her worries about Weaver, alienating her friends as she grabs more and more power, and nearly destroying the world because of her anger at Adora's supposed disrespect. Fittingly, both of their ambitions end in the same place: trapped together while Horde Prime holds his power over them, but with Catra a servant, and Glimmer a trophy.
  • Flashy Teleportation: Everytime she teleports herself or others she leaves behind a sparkly silhouette. Catra literally calls it a “sparkly effect”. Ties into the motifs of her runestone and the power it grants her.
  • Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: While Adora and Bow go out of their way to rescue her from Horde Prime and soon forgive her they are still mad at her for how she treated them in the previous Season with Bow especially bluntly telling her that her activating the Heart means that it is her fault that Horde Prime is invading Etheria. According to Word of God this is one of the reasons she is so easily able to forgive Catra for opening the portal and why they quickly become friends since they both made terrible mistakes that they have been forgiven for but will have to live with.
  • Fragile Speedster: Especially before she Took a Level in Badass. Glimmer lacks defense and endurance and her magic blasts initially are rather weak. However, she uses her Teleport Spam to great effect.
  • Freudian Excuse: Glimmer's Inferiority Superiority Complex can be chalked up to her mother's overprotectiveness. Despite being a capable commander and skilled warrior, she never had the chance to prove herself due to Angela being overly careful. Thus, she started defying her mother's orders, which only led to her pride and certainness in how right she is to grow.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Implied. Glimmer has an Inferiority Superiority Complex caused by her childhood and the loss of her mother, resulting in her becoming the new Queen of Bright Moon. However, her reckless actions resulted from this leaded to Horde Prime's invasion to Etheria. At one point, Glimmer tried to remind Bow of the good times they have in the past, but Bow told her that was long ago. A lot has changed and she is still accounted for her actions.
  • Friendless Background: Bow was the first friend she ever made and was her Only Friend before she met Adora and restarted the Princess Alliance.
  • Generation Xerox: We initially meet Glimmer's father Micah in flashbacks and see he had the same headstrong and mischievous yet goodhearted personality she does. What’s more they both get manipulated by Shadow Weaver.
  • Genki Girl: Very energetic and feisty.
  • Gilded Cage: Her childhood was definitely this. Apparently she only managed to make one friend in Bow and before then she was driving the palace staff up the wall.
    • Glimmer finds herself in another one after being taken captive by Horde Prime. The Season 5 trailer shows her in clean, beautiful quarters behind a force field. Another shot shows Glimmer in her cell, where a plate of pretty desserts sits uneaten. One brief shot shows Glimmer and Horde Prime in some kind of trophy room adorned with plants and mounted animal heads. Glimmer's new surroundings are luxurious, but she is very much a prisoner.
  • Girly Bruiser: Glimmer wears pink and purple, literally has pink sparkles as her powerset, and enjoys dressing up in pretty dresses as well as giving Adora a makeover for Princess Prom. However, she also really enjoys fighting and can pack a heavy punch. Her introduction even shows her clashing with her mother because she so desperately wants to fight for the Rebellion more than her mother is willing to allow.
  • Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Glimmer loves being a princess with all the decorum and social events that that entails, wears pink and purple, literally has pink sparkles as her powerset, and enjoys dressing up in pretty dresses as well as giving Adora a makeover for Princess Prom. However, she also loves fighting the free Etheria from the Horde and would do so single handedly if she could, and can also pack a heavy punch. Her introduction even shows her clashing with her mother because she so desperately wants to fight for the Rebellion more than her mother is willing to allow.
  • The Gloves Come Off: Throughout the series, Glimmer's often complained about how she's always held back from taking action against the Horde because of bureaucracy, her mother, etc. By Season 4, she's now queen, and it's ultimately up to her to decide if and when she wants to take the gloves off, and where to draw the line. As it became clear the Horde is winning more effectively that the way the Rebellion has been doing things before isn't working anymore, not to mention Adora trying to keep her from making reckless decisions, that's when she decides to take the gloves off; Glimmer goes as far as convincing Double Trouble to sabotage the Horde's leadership psychologically, and then deciding to activate the Heart of Etheria, only to discover doing so will destroy the entire universe. Turns out once you take the gloves off, you can't put them back on.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: Downplayed a lot; once Glimmer becomes queen, she becomes far more ruthless and The Unfettered in doing whatever it takes to win the war (to the point that she's willing to cut off her friendships with others). Thankfully, events in Season 5 force her to reconsider her stance and she mellows out considerably.
  • Good Is Not Soft: The beginning of the series has her being frustrated at how much she's being held back by rules of engagement/bureaucracy, and so on while her mother is queen. Once she does become queen, this is what she’s been waiting for: Glimmer is willing to do whatever it takes in order to stop the Horde from hurting others again. Later in the story, Glimmer is willing to sacrifice her own friendships through the decisions she makes, and it leads others to question what they signed up for. Once she finds out exactly what one of her decisions would entail, she wonders if taking the gloves off was the best choice.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Initially, she was very clingy at the thought of Bow having other friends, mainly because she thought if he had other friends, she'd be left all alone. And in Season 4, Glimmer interprets Adora's natural take-charge attitude as an attempt to usurp her authority.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Her mother is a winged immortal; her father is an ordinary, if magically gifted, human.
  • Hereditary Hairstyle: Her hair looks a lot like her father's, but with her mother's coloring.
  • Heroic RRoD: She breaks through the Black Garnet-powered restraints Shadow Weaver had her in to save Adora through sheer willpower, but it disrupts her connection to her Runestone, causing her powers to glitch for a while. Also suffers the effects of the Heart of Etheria with the other powered-up princesses.
  • Heroic Willpower: Breaks through Shadow Weaver's restraints to save Adora in ‘‘No Princess Left Behind’’. And when the Heart of Etheria powers up in Season 4, she's the only princess other than Adora who's able to keep fighting, dragging herself into the Black Garnet room and unloading on it in a futile attempt to destroy it and shut the weapon down.
  • Holding Back the Phlebotinum: She can only use her power a set number of times... and often loses count, so if she runs out? The group has to do without. In The Coronation, she stopped teleporting altogether—because she felt if she were to recharge at the Moonstone, she'd have lost what she felt was the last remainder of her mother. Averted later in Season 4; it's heavily implied that once she gains the full power of the Moonstone, she has unlimited teleports - at least as long as she's on Etheria - which admittedly poses her a bit of a problem when she's captured by Horde Prime.
  • Hypocrite: In Season 4, during her Unscrupulous Hero phase, she calls out Adora and Bow for wanting to drop everything to go on a "hare-brained rescue mission" to rescue Entrapta on Beast Island which is pretty galling considering the number of times she has dropped everything to save someone else often without a real plan.
  • Ideal Illness Immunity: Only perk her angelic heritage gives her; if we discount the small wings on her back and the fantastic hair.
  • Improbable Hairstyle: Leaving aside the color how could you possible get sparkles to stay in your hair? The fact that her hairstyle as queen stays styled the way it does after everything Glimmer goes through is nothing short of miraculous.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: Glimmer feels a strong need to prove herself, while also believing herself to be always right. This becomes an issue when she becomes queen, as she still feels the need to prove how right she is while also having the authority to ignore any objections. Even Netossa lampshades how this is her Fatal Flaw when she's listing everyone's weaknesses in Season 5.
    Netossa: Crippling self-doubt mixed with overwhelming hubris.
  • Interspecies Romance: Downplayed with Bow. While Glimmer is half human and half angel, Bow is a full human.
  • It's All My Fault: She blames herself for causing the Rebellion to fall apart for the second time in Season 1. And for setting off the Heart of Etheria in Season 4.
    J-S 
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Showcasing how much she's changed since she's become queen, Glimmer threatens a Horde soldier she captures in "Princess Scorpia" by summoning a truth spell and telling him that, if done incorrectly, it could be quite painful. While she tells Adora and Bow she never had any intention of actually hurting him it puts strain back on their relationship just as Double Trouble planned.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Glimmer can be abrasive to those she thinks are her enemies but she has a hard time covering up her kind nature. Even at her worst point in Season 4, she's still got good intentions (even if her plans for bringing them about are ruthless and manipulative), and she seems genuinely friendly towards Scorpia after she pulls a Heel–Face Turn and joins the Rebellion.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: She's likely the least skilled of the team in close combat, but she shouldn't be underestimated. She particularly favors an eminently practical teleport into a dropkick or tackle, and at one point teleports straight into what can only be described as a beautiful Superman Punch straight out of Roman Reigns' arsenal that knocks Shadow Weaver out cold.
    • She's considerably better by Season 2, where she manages to go head to head with both Catra and Scorpia in quick succession, mixing up her teleportation, glitter powers, and some pretty legit unarmed strikes.
    • In Season 4, thanks to the full force of the Moonstone after becoming Queen, she is an absolute beast in combat. She annihilates Catra in a one-on-one; even though there were other factors in play that helped, Glimmer still wiped the floor with Catra.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Although Light Hope's advice allows her and the Rebellion defeat the Horde on Etheria, she ignores Adora's advice about Light Hope being the real bad guy. And by following Light Hope's advice, she unintentionally activates the Heart of Etheria which nearly kills her and the Princess Alliance. Even though the First Ones' plan of using it to destroy other planets was ultimately stopped, the activation allows the Galatic Horde to discover Etheria, bringing bigger trouble to the planet.
  • Lethal Harmless Powers: Her teleportation has no offensive use on its own, but Glimmer can use it in creative ways such as grabbing her opponent, teleporting to a great height, and then letting go to give them a nasty fall before teleporting to safety herself. Another tactic is waiting for two enemies to come at her from different directions and then teleporting away so they smash into each other.
  • Leitmotif: Besides the electronic effect of her teleportation, she gets violin during major emotional moments.
  • Light 'em Up: Described as "glimmer powers", this is just part of her powers that Glimmer derives her power from the Moonstone. The other abilities are even more impressive.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: She finds this dynamic with Catra as the sparkly new friend to Adora who contrasts to her former brooding childhood friend. This dynamic flexes during the season 4 but doesn't fully break. When Catra joins the Best Friends Squad in Season 5, being relieved of her commanding duties and among friends Glimmer is a much happier person. Catra, meanwhile, is cynical and trying to find an equilibrium with her former enemies.
  • Light Is Good: Pretty straight example given she has light-based powers and is one of the main heroes, that doesn’t mean she can’t be worryingly pragmatic at times.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Her VA has gone on record describing her relationship with Bow as like this. Subverted, as the two become an Official Couple in the series finale.
  • Like Parent, Like Child: She is growing to be similar to her father, according to Castapella and Angella; both are warriors and strong-willed people, with a love for fighting and a deep desire to protect their land.
  • Lunacy: She derives her powers from the Moonstone, and furthermore when she combines her powers with Shadow Weaver's to teleport directly into the Fright Zone a pentacle depicting the phases of the moon is shown on the ground.
  • Magikarp Power: Glimmer starts out feeling insecure about her power due to being the least powerful princess. Over the course of seasons 1 to 3, she becomes more experienced in combining the powers she does have with normal combat skill, becoming a much stronger fighter. Her power increases further in season 4, when she gains full access to the Moonstone, gaining much more powerful sparkles and unlimited teleports, as well as learning sorcery from Shadow Weaver. By the end of season 5, she is able to defeat the entire princess alliance and her father, one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, single-handedly, cementing her as one of the most powerful characters in the setting.
  • Manipulative Bitch: She slips into this in season 4, having taken more lessons from Shadow Weaver than even Shadow Weaver intended. She identifies Double Trouble as the spy for the Horde, then hires them to become a triple agent to sow discord within the Horde, not to mention destroy Catra's mental state so Glimmer can deliver the final blow. She also pressures Scorpia into reconnecting with the Black Garnet, something Scorpia has no interest in, by playing on her need for affection and approval. Notably, this is all done with a kind smile and gentle imposition.
  • Military Maverick: A deconstruction. Throughout seasons one through three, she regularly ignores her mother's orders in order to act on her own plans, feeling that her offensive strategy is better than Angela's defensive. This generally works out for the best, since Angela is overly cautious. But then Angela dies, leaving Glimmer as the queen of Bright Moon. Glimmer never grew out of feeling that she knew better than whoever was in charge... but now she's in charge, and she can steamroll any objections. This goes seriously wrong when her two best friends object to her plans, and she simply pulls rank on them.
  • Mundane Utility: She uses her teleportation constantly, just to get around as seen from the intro which shows her and Bow running up to Adora, only for Glimmer to teleport the last 3 meters. Glimmer frequently uses it as a way to get out of embarrassing or awkward situations (such as a conversation with her mother), and it allows her to move about Bright Moon essentially at will. She's been known to Teleport Spam as an alternative to walking. She even needs them to get into her own bed, which is suspended from a high ceiling. This comes back to bite her when she gets hit with Power Incontinence and requires Bow's help and wacky antics simply to get into it.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • After Glimmer tells Adora that she blames her for her mother's disappearance due to Angella sacrificing herself to close the portal, Glimmer instantly regrets it.
    • At the end of Season 4, the moment where she realizes that Adora was right and her actions are just about to destroy Etheria is heartbreaking. It's also the moment where all of Glimmer's bad decisions through Season 4 come back to haunt her, further adding to her guilt.
    • She had a minor breakdown in "Stranded" when she sees a broken Spire on the destroyed planet that the Best Friend Squad is forced to land on, and realizes that Horde Prime is probably going to lay waste to Etheria the same way.
  • Next Tier Power-Up: Her father's staff massively increases her combat potential, coupling the mobility her teleportation gives her with enough kick to take out a Horde battle tank in one hit. She gets another one when she becomes the sole wielder of the Moonstone.
    • There's also getting the complete power of the Moonstone, which takes her sparkles into death laser territory and gives her unlimited teleportation in Season 4.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: At the end of Season 4, Glimmer makes a call that ultimately causes more problems than it solves. Desiring a decisive victory against the Horde, Glimmer uses magic from the Heart of Etheria to give the princesses a Next Tier Power-Up. While this does enable the Princess Alliance to Curb Stomp the Horde’s armies, it also activates the Heart of Etheria's bomb in the process. In order to prevent the Heart of Etheria from destroying numerous worlds, Adora is forced to destroy the Sword of Protection, robbing herself of She-Ra’s powers. Things get worse when the Heart transports Etheria out of Despondos and into the wider universe. The energy created from this event is detected by Horde Prime’s armada and allows them to find Etheria. The kicker to all this is that while Horde Prime received Hordak’s message, he was unable to trace the message’s source. Had Glimmer not activated the Heart of Etheria, Horde Prime would have likely never found the Rebellion.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Briefly does one during the planning/roleplaying session.
  • Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Glimmer's mother is an immortal angelic being, and her father was a Human Alien sorcerer. A benefit from her mother's side, besides giving her tiny wings, is that she never gets sick.
  • The Not-Love Interest: At the end of "Princess Prom," she and Bow are abducted by Catra, who uses them to lure Adora to the Fright Zone. Arguably to some degree with Bow in the same episode, when he takes Perfuma to Princess Prom instead of her. She gets angry with him, but her anger is caused primarily by fear that Bow will abandon her for new friends instead of explicitly romantic jealousy.
Catra: (looking at an image of Adora, Bow, and Glimmer resting together at the end of "Mystacor") If you want to take down Adora, you've got to go for the heart.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Her actions in Season 4 mirrored Catra such as becoming a leader that is hostile to everyone, causing them to abandon her and activating a superweapon that almost destroyed Etheria. According to ND this is the reason that Glimmer is able to let go of her grudge against Catra in Season 5 since they both made mistakes that almost destroyed the world and will have to live with what they've done even if everyone has forgiven them.
  • Odd Friendship: In Season 5 Glimmer actually becomes pretty close with Catra. While it starts mostly as a way to fight off loneliness on Horde Prime's ship at the start of the season, by the end Catra and Glimmer are almost as close as Glimmer is with Adora.
  • Odd Name Out: The only princess thus far whose name doesn't end with an "A", although her name does have a similar sound, especially the way her mother pronounces it.
  • Official Couple: Her and Bow become one at the end of the series, with the two declaring their love to each other during the final battle. A vision Adora sees in the Heart of Etheria shows they get married at an unknown point in the series future.
  • Power Loss Makes You Strong: When she loses her powers in the first season finale, she laments that she's now useless in the war. Her mother Angella encourages her not to give up and gives her her deceased father's old war staff. With the staff, Glimmer takes down several mooks until She-Ra is able to restore her powers. This the first of several levels of badass she takes during the show.
  • Prophetic Name: Naturally, it was during the reign of Queen Glimmer that Etheria regained its starry sky.
  • Pimped-Out Cape: Usually those Glimmer wears are simple easily animated fare. The one exception is her coronation cape, or possibly robe, a huge white thing that puts all other capes to shame.
  • Race Lift: With Micah and Castaspella's Race Lift, Glimmer is now the Etherian equivalent of half East Asian.
  • Rebellious Princess: In addition to the obvious, she rebels against her mother, who's kept her safe on the sidelines despite Glimmer's desire to fight.
  • The Red Mage: By Season 4, she's started to use the magical spells of Mystacor in combination with her innate powers as a Princess, thanks to tutelage from Shadow Weaver. In the final season, her mastery of both abilities proves the deciding factor in her Wizard Duel against the chipped Micah.
  • Related in the Adaptation: Glimmer and Castaspella weren't related in the 80s cartoon, but are aunt and niece here.
  • Relative Button: She didn’t really know her dad but insulting him will still tick her off. After she ascends as queen DO NOT bring her lost mother into any conversation about her decisions.
  • Required Secondary Powers: Has a few one can suss out by implication. Her teleportation can remove inertia in ideal conditions which makes it easy to get from falling to standing still. Further her 'porting is precise and avoids a potential Teleporter Accident that could end with her or others phased through a wall.
    • Interestingly she admits that this last part is optional in a dire situation as seen in System Failure, where she tells Entrapta that they’ll be leaving their legs behind.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: Downplayed. She has purple-and-pink hair and is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in her worst moments.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: As a princess, she's a bit of a Blood Knight who really wishes her mother could be more aggressive in the war, since she loves fighting on the frontlines. This continues when she becomes queen, as she still wants to fight on the frontlines, though her friends try to hold her back since she's more important as a leader now. This is also deconstructed slightly, as it reflects Glimmer's reckless impulsiveness; going on the attack and personally leading her forces works out most of the times, but when it doesn't, it really goes wrong.
  • Saying Too Much: During their worst argument in Season 4, she reveals she blames Adora for Angella's sacrifice.
  • Shadow Archetype: It is subtle; but Glimmer's insecurities, temper, and capacity for outright viciousness indicate that had she been raised by someone like Shadow Weaver rather than Angella... she would be far more like Catra than Adora.
  • Shared Family Quirks: Far more with Micah then Angella. For example Glimmer freaks out when she first meets Swift Wind fixating on his wings and ability to talk, Micah has much the same reaction when seeing the alicorn on Beast Island.
  • She Who Fights Monsters: Downplayed. She has became aggressive with her enemies and is willing to hire Double Trouble to tear the Horde leadership apart. Nevertheless, she's doing this in the wishes of defeating the evil Horde.
  • Shipper on Deck: Subtle, but she (with Bow) notices a lot of Catra and Adora's more intimate moments.
  • Shout-Out: Her initial hairstyle in this incarnation is based on the titular Cutie Honey directly while her Imagine Spot in "Roll With It" recalls the animal's style.
  • Significant Wardrobe Shift: Gets a new outfit in Season 4: a two-toned leotard over purple leggings, a simple Cool Crown, knee-length boots, pauldrons on both shoulders instead of one, a darker cape, and a single pearl earring. All are subtle shout-outs to her lost mother.
  • Single-Target Sexuality: Implied. She gets together with Bow at the series finale and doesn't have any prior love interests before him with there also being no mention of her having a past romance. She seems to crush on a few people in the show, such as Adora, but nothing comes of it.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She becomes an Official Couple with Bow, the resident emotional center of the group and a Nice Guy.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Glimmer’s decision to use the Horde paid spy Double Trouble to infiltrate the Horde allows them to give Catra "The Reason You Suck" Speech after she was defeated. This starts off Catra's redemption for real and allows her to make amends with Adora, which in turn saves Etheria when they confess their love to each other just as Adora was about to be sacrificed.
  • So Long, Suckers!: Fitting with her mischievous personality, Glimmer isn't above taunting opponents as she teleports away.
  • Speech Impediment: She develops a noticeable lisp whenever she is angry or upset.
  • Stealth Pun: In Season 4, after becoming queen of Bright Moon, Glimmer makes a big mistake when she activates the Heart of Etheria hoping to in the war against the Horde. In other words, she screwed up royally.
  • Stealthy Teleportation: Given the accompanying light show that comes with it it's hard to imagine Glimmer being able the be covert. But it seems as long there’s an obstruction where she ports in or out she can get around easily.
  • Stout Strength: A big-boned teenage Action Girl who can absolutely throw down, given the opportunity. She manages to lay out Shadow Weaver with one teleport-assisted punch.
  • The Strategist: In Season 4, Glimmer develops into a pretty good, if a bit ruthless, strategist. By the season's end, she comes up with a plan without any help from Shadow Weaver and pulls it off. She learns how to tap into the power of the Heart of Etheria and flips Double Trouble to the rebel side. Glimmer gets them to send false information to Catra, and has them tell Hordak the truth about Catra sending Entrapta to Beast Island. This results in the bulk of the Horde forces charging into ambushes and being flattened by the powered-up princesses while the Horde's leaders are trying to kill each other. By the time the fight between Hordak and Catra is over, the Horde forces have been wiped out, Hordak is out cold, Catra is too weak to fight anymore, and Glimmer has enough power to wipe out the Fright Zone if she wanted. In a stroke, Glimmer outplays both Catra and Hordak, and turns the tide of the entire war. It's undermined when she realizes Light Hope outplayed her and plans to use the Heart of Etheria, destroying the planet in the process. Even after that threat passes, Horde Prime shows up and flips the whole board over. Still, Glimmer's ability to bring down Catra, Hordak, and the Horde all at once was impressive and shows her growth as strategist, even if it had numerous side effects.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: She is noted to look like her father, Micah, they share coloring and face shape. What’s more she acts like him too.
  • Summon to Hand: She can teleport her father's staff into her hand no matter where it is. She clarifies that she only figured out how to do it with the staff and not with other objects.
  • Super-Cute Superpowers: Regardless that she evolves into a highly effective combatant in the series the idea that she takes down opponents with ‘‘sparkles’’, motes of light, is unbelievably cute.
    T-W 
  • Take Up My Sword: When the Horde attacks Bright Moon in the first season finale, Angella gives Glimmer her late father's staff to help her in battle.
  • Teleportation Rescue: Does this quite a few times in the series, such as snatching Sea Hawk from the boat he’s about to wreck, interestingly she also does this to keep a horde trooper from being knocked into the horizon and likely killed.
  • Teleportation Spam: Zipping around here and there is how she usually moves. She'll also strategically teleport allies around battlefields and enemies off of them.
  • Teleportation Sickness: Glimmer is the cause of this in others, presumably everyone takes some getting used to it. Both Adora and Catra have bad reactions in their first few experiences with teleporting but it goes away as they get used to the effect.
  • Teleportation with Drawbacks: One of her main magical powers. Glimmer can teleport herself and anyone she's in contact with using teleportation magic. However, she had a limit as to how many times she can do it before needing to recover up to Season 4. First timers also find the experience highly unpleasent.
  • Teleporter Accident: Averted thankfully but Glimmer makes clear on several occasions that if she’s not careful people can end up with limbs in walls or worse.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the literal princess trained in decorum girly girl to Adora's savant child soldier tomboy.
  • Took a Level in Badass: She takes about one per season, as she keeps getting better at using her powers effectively in combat. As she gets more combat experiences over the months and years the series take place her powers scale as well. One example is her light bursts had been little more than irritating to her enemies before, now she's blowing through walls with them. Then she receives her father’s staff which is a huge help. She gets a Next Tier Power-Up in Season 4 by getting complete access to the Moonstone's power, further strengthening her sparkles and letting her teleport as many times as she wants.
    • Compare Moment Of Truth which has Glimmer barely able to fight Catra with Shadow Weaver's help to when she possesses the full power of the moonstone and quickly proves to be more than Catra can handle in Pulse.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In Season 4, through a combination of factors, such as her mother's sacrifice, being put in charge of Bright Moon, her increasing resentment of Adora, and Shadow Weaver's influence, she becomes increasingly bad-tempered and hostile to everyone.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Her first interaction with Adora is highly adversarial, but by the end of the two-parter she’s become very accepting of her new friend. Subverted in later seasons where her rise in leadership status has led to her being more pragmatic than empathetic to her friends. Glimmer's My God, What Have I Done? moment at the end of Season 4 helps her transition back into her nicer, more cooperative side in the first three seasons.
  • Tragic Keepsake: The staff she uses in combat belonged to her deceased father. And her pearl teardrop earring in Season 4 is Angella's.
  • Unknown Rival: Seems to legitimately consider Catra her archenemy, even though Catra is way more focused on Adora. Makes good on this in Season 4 with a borderline No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Catra.
  • Unscrupulous Hero: She turns into this in Season 4 as the weight of the war begins to bear down on her in the wake of her mother's sacrifice, and especially after the fall of Salineas in the middle of the season. In previous seasons, when she seemed about to do something overly ruthless, Bow would talk her down; unfortunately, in Season 4, the growing ruptures in the Best Friends Squad mean that Glimmer stops listening. She starts threatening the Horde's Faceless Goons with torture (though whether she would have fallen through with it or not is ambiguous), using her best friend as a decoy, hiring Double Trouble to manipulate her enemies, using her kingdom as bait for the Horde's armies, and taking jaw-dropping risks with a First One superweapon that nearly lead to the destruction of a not inconsiderable chunk of the universe. Even at her worst, though, she remains a hero - she refuses to kill a defenseless Catra, is friendly and kind towards Scorpia, and her top priority remains saving Etheria. When her actions nearly end the world, it's because her jealousy compounded with her desperation to win the war and led to her becoming overconfident, and she immediately has a My God, What Have I Done? moment and desperately tries to fix it - in stark contrast to Catra, whose own doomsday event was driven entirely by envy, and which she did nothing to fix.
  • Warrior Princess: Every member of the princess alliance is this but Glimmer gets the most focus and absolutely relishes combat. This doesn’t change when she’s Queen as she ends up on the battle field more then once.
  • Weaponized Teleportation: It's really her main tactical option, at least when it comes to magic, though she combines this with Good Old Fisticuffs. Common moves include luring an opponent into striking her and teleporting out so their inertia knocks them down, and grabbing an opponent, teleporting them high in the air, letting go, and returning herself safely to the ground to let them fall.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: She is desperate to prove herself to her mother, whether she ever had to is up in the air.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Her sparkles were initially pretty much useless aside from creating light sources and no-bang flashbangs, which was something she was sadly aware of. Her teleportation was still greatly useful, but she lamented that half of her powers were no good in a fight. But as the show's progressed, she's gained more confidence in her powers--and an upscale in concussive force as they've developed.
Glimmer: (to Huntara's goons) Hi, I'm Glimmer. And I sparkle.
  • Willfully Weak: Glimmer doesn't fully recharge her powers for months after Angella disappears. This is part of her grieving process thinking that if she does, it would be an admission that her mother is truly gone for good.
  • Winged Humanoid: She has pink feathered wings. Yet unlike her mother's wings, they're so tiny that it would be easy to mistake them for tattoos. Her wings appear fully grown upon fully accepting the Moonstone's power, though they then disappear and are never seen being used.

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