Catradora vs. Reylo

[Winter]

Oh Man, Where Do I Even Start?! Catra and Adora is the central relationship of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, while Rey and Kylo Ren is the supposed central relationship of the Star Wars Disney Sequel Trilogy. Over the last few months I've taken to the opinion that She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is TDST done right as TDST more original ideas bare a striking similarity to She-Ra's own ideas with the most notable example being the respective core relationships of both series. So, I wanted to briefly touch on both relationships and compare the two of them and why I prefer one over the other.

At the end of the day this is ultimately the same relationship as both are the classic Enemies-To-Lovers Trope aka Foe Yay. Both relationships are... complicated... but for Very different reasons ones complicated because of the couple's long shared history, conflicting goals/ideologies, the nature of how they were raised by their mutual surrogate mother figure Shadow Weaver and the overall abusive nature of Catra and Adora's desire to see the best in people.

The other is complicated because it was written by no less then 7 people who all had different ideas of how the relationship should play out. In one movie, Rey doesn't know anything about Kylo until she suddenly meets him, then he tries to torture her, kills one of her childhood heroes/surrogate father, beats her best friend into a coma and then tries to beat her into submission and implies that he'll kill her if she doesn't agree.

Then, next time they meet, which is a couple of days in universe, after one or two conversations with him Rey decides, for no given reason to try and redeem Kylo and even attacks another of her childhood heroes, Luke Skywalker, because he Might have hurt Kylo. Then, she learns the whole truth about what happened the night Kylo turned to the Dark Side which included him KILLING EVERY STUDENT IN LUKE'S SCHOOL WHO WOULDN'T JOIN HIM Rey is STILL committed to the idea of redeeming him and the only explanation we get for this is she's a fan of the Original Trilogy and wants to redeem Kylo Because Luke Redeemed Vader!!! To quote Adora from the episode Roll With It, "WHAT?!"

And here's the first real issue with Reylo. WHY DOES REY WANT TO REDEEM KYLO REN?!?! She even starts calling him Ben despite her having NO positive history with that name (the first and last time she heard that name it was Han calling him that and Kylo stabbed him through the heart almost right after that). Adora wanted to redeem Catra because A) they've known each other since before they knew how to spell. B) Adora always wants to believe the best in people and couldn't bring herself to give up Shadow Weaver Let Alone Catra. And C) They're OBVIOUSLY In Love!!!

Rey has Zero positive history with Kylo and yet she still finds Luke to be the worse of the two despite the worst thing he ever did to her was tell her to stop seeing the Jedi as heroes (for the record deleted scenes Don't Count!). Rey attacking Luke because he Might Have hurt Kylo (remember this is BEFORE Luke tells her what actually happened so all she has to go on is Kylo's word) is like Aveline trying to arrest a couple of Elves because they killed a guard who Violated Their Sister!

Kylo Ren has already killed or hurt people close to Rey and after learning the truth she finds out that killed everyone who wouldn't join him (also for the record Tie-In comics/novels also Don't Count) and yet she decides that the mass murdered is worthy of redemption based him being nice to her.

While Adora never gave up that Catra could be redeemed and she could never truly bring herself to hate her she stopped trying to redeem her after Catra had indirectly gotten Glimmer's mom imprisoned in another dimension. Adora's made it clear that she was done with Catra's BS and decided to start treating her as her enemy.

And then we have the moment when both are redeemed... (sigh) Okay, let's start with Catra. Catra's redemption is the result of a number of factors. Her coming to realize how pointless her quest for power was, her being confronted by how she is the one who drives everyone she cares about away and her also coming to realize that if it's a choice between her life and saving Adora she'll choose Adora every time. And after making her LONG Awaited Heel-Face Turn she STILL has a LONG road ahead of her and she does work to better herself but a lot of her old habits such as her self-loathing and her personally insecurities keep causing her problems.

Kylo's reasons for switching sides is because Rey healed him... And then he starts acting like a completely different person. Seriously aside from being played by the same actor Kylo Ren and Ben Solo have Nothing in-common.

She-Ra even has a line of dialogue that even directly calls this out. After Catra is basically on the heroes side Adora gets frustrated at how Catra is still acting like a stubborn brat and Glimmer asks if Adora thought that Catra was just going to instantly become a different person? And Adora admits that no but she was hoping she would at least try to start getting better.

And then we have Ben Solo who acts like a completely different person from Kylo Ren. If I didn't know better I would swear that the writers of She-Ra were deliberately calling TDST out on how badly Kylo's "Redemption Arc" was handled.

Catra became a better person because she wanted to be a better person. Yes, she wanted to be with Adora but she also wanted to get better and to break away from her her toxic behavior. Kylo joined the heroes basically boils down to Rey being nice to him and healed him.

Catradora is a romance that will be seen as one of the best Enemies-To-Lovers stories because of how well written it was. Reylo will likely only be seen as a cheap Teen Romance.

[CharlesPhipps]

I feel Catra's redemption was terrible and she would have been much better off taking over the Horde and ruling as God Empress.

I also feel like Kylo Ren should have been forced to live as his father's murderer.

[Winter]

I feel Catra's redemption was terrible and she would have been much better off taking over the Horde and ruling as God Empress.

I also feel like Kylo Ren should have been forced to live as his father's murderer.

As you can tell I rather love Catra's redemption though to go into all of the reasons why would take a series of articles to explain. Which you can read on my Deviant Art page at WinterThe-Masquerade.

But yeah, I think Catra's arc was brilliantly handled, as good as Zuko's IMO and, if I may be controversial I actually liked it a little bit more then Zuko's. But only by a little bit.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Look, whatever we say about Catra and Adora, the Reylo ship has lead to a 13% increase in global rainfall by making the gods weep.

[Winter]

Look, whatever we say about Catra and Adora, the Reylo ship has lead to a 13% increase in global rainfall by making the gods weep.

Given that several gods are LGBT a solid argument could be made that at least half that rain are the tears of joys from the Catradora shippers from upstairs.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Reylo is the ultimate Straight People (TM) ship, as in we turn to straight people and ask "Are you guys okay?"

[CharlesPhipps]

As you can tell I rather love Catra's redemption though to go into all of the reasons why would take a series of articles to explain. Which you can read on my Deviant Art page at WinterThe-Masquerade.

But yeah, I think Catra's arc was brilliantly handled, as good as Zuko's IMO and, if I may be controversial I actually liked it a little bit more then Zuko's. But only by a little bit.

Eh, I'm happy for the people who liked Catra and Adora together. It certainly was where the writer planned it to go from the beginning and nothing makes me happier than to have a LGBT ship in children's programming front and center. It's a shame we didn't get Korra and Asami to have a full season together and endgame (I'm loving the comics). There's also not really a good replacement as an Adora love interest among the cast too.

My reasons for disliking it mostly amounts to two factors:

1. I don't get "loving your adopted sister in a sexual way" and it's why I still get creeped the hell out of by the Flash/Iris Allen ship even seasons later. I love Iris, I love Flash, but the relationship just kills any romantic attitude for me and weirds me out. They have the same adoptive mom after all.

2. I felt really invested in Catra rising through the ranks and showing her true capacity for villainy. I felt her competency and ambition were things you don't often see celebrated for characters.

But that's just my thoughts and I'm glad it's popular with others. I'm obviously a minority on the matter.

[CharlesPhipps]

Reylo is the ultimate Straight People (TM) ship, as in we turn to straight people and ask "Are you guys okay?"

It makes perfect sense if we assume that Sith like Kylo are the space equivalent of vampires.

[Rocketboy1313]

The relationship that I cared about in "She-Ra" was Hordak and Entrapta. So much so that I kind of shrugged off all other problematic or narratively 'meh' developments elsewhere.

I have still not seen "The Rise of Skywalker". I heard it was bad and so I haven't bothered. I will eventually get around to it.

I feel Catra's redemption was terrible and she would have been much better off taking over the Horde and ruling as God Empress.

I also feel like Kylo Ren should have been forced to live as his father's murderer.

I'm not going to lie, I would not mind listening to an audiobook of your alternate take on "Star Wars".
You would probably turn in a pretty solid sci-fi fantasy adventure that pays off a lot of the set ups.

[CharlesPhipps]

Thanks. That's high praise.