She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 4.6, "Princess Scorpia"

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Fallings-out beset both sides of the series conflict, and both due to Catra.

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4.6, "Princess Scorpia"

Written by Noelle Stevenson, Laura Sreebny, Josie Campbell, Katherine Nolfi, and M. Willis
Directed by Kiki Manrique

Synopsis

That, there, is a happy camper.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Scorpia wakes happily in the Fright Zone. She is almost disturbingly chipper as she goes through what seems a morning routine. She reaffirms her devotion to Catra as she does, and she emerges into a chaotic scene.

Glimmer, Adora, and Bow fight Horde forces to free up a supply line. Flutterina assists, and Glimmer proves to be somewhat bloodthirsty in her work and desire to test her increasing magical knowledge. There is some concern about the dearth of Horde resistance, and Flutterina remarks on Glimmer's suboptimal combat performance.

That doesn't seem...friendly.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Hordak stalks through the Fright Zone, ranting at Catra for her seeming surrender of territory. She laughs off his concerns, explaining her strategy. Hordak notes having stalled in his research, needing Entrapta's notes to effect his return to his brother's good graces. Catra tasks Scorpia with retrieving the notes.

Scorpia goes off to find the notes and encounters a sour Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle. Lonnie voices her disagreements and dissatisfaction with Catra's leadership; Scorpia defends her, earning rebuke from Lonnie.

That also doesn't seem friendly.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Glimmer, Adora, Bow, and Flutterina approach another Horde outpost. Glimmer reconnoiters, earning rebuke from Adora for her recklessness. An argument ensues amid the melee, in which the covert Double Trouble takes delight and which Bow attempts to interrupt. Concerns are voiced, and some progress is made, which Double Trouble feels compelled to interfere with.

So close...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Scorpia searches through Entrapta's belongings for her notes. There are some distractions, which she reluctantly puts aside, and Scorpia finds herself drawn to her own runestone. It calls to her, strangely, and she rehearses the displacement of her own family from power. The recordings reveal themselves in the robot Scorpia has effectively inherited, and Scorpia is reminded of friendship, sadly. And she realizes that Catra is a threat to continued friendship, taking the robot off.

Double Trouble's machinations have some effect, and Glimmer is able to extract information from one of the Horde soldiers noting Catra's withdrawal of forces. And interpersonal tensions rise further.

Scorpia takes the robot to her family's ancestral hall, pointing out images of her forebears and expounding on her circumstances. And she accepts Catra's perfidy, reporting to Catra and finding rebuke. She departs, leaving Catra to make her own report. Hordak does not take it well, and Catra presses Hordak to proceed anyway. And he is able to do so, though it will be without Scorpia, who departs with the robot.

Discussion

The present episode appears to mark the end of a tendency on which I have commented once or twice before: Scorpia's infatuation with Catra that verges towards courtly love. There are foreshadowings of that end in earlier episodes, of course, small motions Scorpia makes away from Catra when the latter is more openly abusive, but it is not until the present episode that the illusion Scorpia has built up in her mind of her devotion to Catra and its coming reward is swept aside--and the loss of that vision of love is enough to send Scorpia out from the only home she has known into an uncertain world.

Admittedly, this does appear to be an inversion of the usual trope. In the main, it is love that drives errantry, the desire to be desired that spurs a young warrior to go out and do deeds of renown. Here, it is the recognition of the love's falsity that drives the out-going; it is Catra's dropping of even the pretense of concern for someone who is besotted with her that impels the latter to depart. And that perhaps seems more like the early modern sonnet sequence enacted than a chivalric romance, being less overtly medievalist in being so--but still, in being what seems a culmination of a medieval/ist trope in the series, it would still seem to "count."