Adora's planning meeting goes awry as the Princess Alliance starts to treat it like a D&D game, while Scorpia excitedly protects the pass the Rebellion is planning to take.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: The spybot's "death" gets played like this.
- An Aesop: Glimmer delivers the moral of the story to Adora stating that while life may be filled with bad events, it's important to try and work with them rather than letting your fears keep you from moving forward.
- And You Thought It Was Real: Scorpia, watching the feed from the spybot, misinterprets the Princesses' out of control planning meeting as a genuine description of their capabilities, and is terrified. Subverted when it turns out to actually be the case (at least so far as Perfuma goes).
- Art Shift: Glimmer's vision of her plans are in an anime style in shades of pink and black.
- As You Know: Apparently played straight at the start, when Adora, Bow and Glimmer are describing their plan as they're partway through it, but it soon turns out that's part of the wargaming session.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Scorpia's idiocy is really highlighted in this episode, but she proves strong enough to get the better of She-Ra in a straight fight, only losing when the other princesses gang up on her.
- Big "NO!": Played for Laughs. When Glimmer makes her figurine land on "Tiny Bow", Bow exclaims "No!" in horror.
- Big "WHAT?!": Adora's reaction to seeing Bow's interpretation of Catra, who resembles her 80s counterpart.
- Buffy Speak: Scorpia, giving out instructions to the troops.Scorpia: Move those big weapony things! Flap those banners! Uh, keep doing whatever you're doing, guy I'm pointing at! Now do a different thing! And look sharp!
- Butt-Monkey:
- Bow. Everyone's fantasy sequence seems to involve him getting hurt and/or killed at the end. Even his.
- Kyle, again, who tries and fails to follow Scorpia's vague and nonsensical commands.
Scorpia: Seriously, Kyle, how have you not been fired already?- In the end, Scorpia proposes to blame their loss on him and the other Horde soldiers agree.
- Comically Missing the Point: Apparently before leaving her to guard the fort, Catra told Scorpia "even you can't screw this up". Scorpia somehow manages to think this was praise. That girl ain't right.
- Continuity Nod: Turns out Frosta is holding a grudge over Catra ruining the Princess Prom. Her version of Catra also has her in the tuxedo she wore to the event, now with added Cool Shades.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: When Scorpia is facing the wrong way, Lonnie does this to correct her.
- Cute Machines: The spybot, according to Scorpia.
- Description Cut: Adora says the Horde will be guarding the fort with their best and brightest. Cut to Scorpia shouting out vague Buffy Speak orders.
- Dramatic Irony:
- We know that the session isn't accurate to what the princesses can actually do. Scorpia, on the other hand...
- Adora spends the episode freaking out over Catra being at the fortress. It turns out she's nowhere near.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Glimmer hits Scorpia while she's holding her over a ledge, which Scorpia notes is a stupid move given that she could drop her. Luckily she throws Glimmer at Adora instead.
- Eye Patch Of Power: In Glimmer's fantasy, Lonnie has one. And so does Catra's Right-Hand Cat.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- Invoked by Glimmer, who says Bow's first "death" comes because he didn't make an observation check.
- None of the Princesses notice the spybot in their midst.
- Femme Fatale: Glimmer's fantasy has Catra as one of these mixed with a Bond villain.
- Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Pretty much everyone's fantasies of how they'll take out Catra and the Horde. (Except Adora.)
- Mermista's character Sea-Ra. She has a cool trident as a weapon and a dolphin for an animal companion.
- Frosta's character, Winter's Bane, who has super-strong armor and a wicked Cool Sword. Also, Glimmer is her sidekick.
- Glimmer conveniently ignores that she has a limited amount of teleports until this is pointed out.
- Downplayed with Bow, in that his only Marty Stu elements are just muscles, a mustache, and an endless chain of punny one-liners.
- Hollywood Board Games: The episode is a Shout-Out to Tabletop RPGs, specifically Dungeons & Dragons. The Princess Alliance is a war meeting, with a board and miniatures, when they take the opportunity to roleplay as Mary Sue versions of themselves. Their fantasies match well their personalities. Mermista's character is Sea-Ra, which is basically herself (with her Making a Splash powers) if she got the Sword, er Trident, of Power — this is less out of envy but out of having a crush on She-Ra. It also foreshadows that she's a cloudcuckoolander behind all of her dry wit. Frosta's character is Winter's Bane and is "ramp up Frosta's ice's powers until she's unbeatable and has her Cool Big Sis figure (aka Glimmer) as her sidekick". In other words, an In-Universe Kid-Appeal Character. Glimmer herself shows her insecurities about not being good enough at magic by giving her character an unlimited amount of teleportations. Her character is also in anime, grey-and-pink style, adding to the overpowered protagonist thing. Despite being In Touch with His Feminine Side, Bow gives his character pretty standard teenage guy augments such as muscles, facial hair, and a punny sense of humor that actually makes people laugh. By contrast, Adora doesn't indulge in any fantasy and gets annoyed at everyone for doing so. Being She-Ra and believing she's only as valuable as she's useful put tons of pressure on her, even if she's otherwise goofy. It's also a way to convey how having grown up in an unforgiving, war-focused environment would cause Adora to fret more over war than the other characters, who've had much more carefree childhoods.
- Hurricane of Puns: Bow's fantasy has him and Catra doing this. Adora and Mermista are understandably horrified.Mermista: Mmm, now we're all hoping this mission kills us.
- Hypocritical Humor:Mermista: (picks up the She-Ra miniature) I'll be She-Ra.Adora: You can't be She-Ra, I'm She-Ra.Mermista: Not anymore. Ya snooze, ya lose.(Glimmer grabs Mermista, teleports her outside the tent, grabs the She-Ra miniature back and teleports again leaving Mermista sitting on the ground)Mermista: Uh, wow. Rude much?
- A more subtle example is how she makes fun of the group for "playing with dolls" when coming up with their attack plan, but when Mermista joins in, she uses a doll she's had made of her Sea-Ra fantasy alter ego.
- Imagine Spot: Most of the Princess Alliance gets these, of varying lengths and intricacies, as they try to plan the attack. Bow sees the cast in their '80s incarnations, Glimmer imagines the world as a cross between a dark shounen anime and a James Bond movie, Mermista wants to become her own version of She-Ra, and Perfuma just wants to hit things with flowers.
- Indy Ploy: After spending the entire episode trying to come up with a perfect plan, Adora is forced to admit that the princesses are really only at their best when they're improvising.
- Insistent Terminology: Bow is very adamant that they're not dolls, they're "war-table battle figures". Sure, Bow. Sure.
- Just Testing You: Scorpia, to Lonnie. Twice.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Frosta's initial contribution to the planning session? "Punch them!"
- Mood Whiplash: The Princess Alliance is having a great time imagining how to defeat the Horde. The mood turns dark and serious when Adora takes over to describe the worst-case scenario in which everybody dies.
- Mythology Gag:
- Mermista's transformation into "Sea-Ra" is a near word-for-word recreation of She-Ra's transformation sequence from the original cartoon.
- Bow's fantasy, aside from the stuff mentioned down in Production Throwback, also has Catra trill her "rs" and engage in terrible, terrible punnage. Exactly like the original She-Ra.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Glimmer does an "Ohohoho!" laugh, complete with holding her hand up to her face, while mockingly imitating Catra.
- Not So Above It All: Mermista has a doll of herself for some reason, and has an elaborate fantasy of becoming a marine-themed version of She-Ra.
- No Waterproofing in the Future: The spybot is taken out when Mermista spills soda on it.
- Oh, Crap!: When Scorpia realizes all the princesses are there, she's horrified.Scorpia: How many of you are there?! [Sees all of them] Oh, too many.
- Only Sane Man:
- Most of the episode's humor derives from nobody but Adora taking the strategy meeting seriously, and instead just using it to lay out their own personal Mary Sue fantasies.
- Lonnie towards Scorpia, and she's having just as much fun being the voice of reason as Adora is in the A-plot.
- Oral Fixation: Glimmer's Imagine Spot of herself always chews on a toothpick.
- Pinball Projectile: Bow's Imagine Spot has him using a net-arrow like this, but it still ends up backfiring.
- Planning with Props: Glimmer, Bow, and Adora plan an attack against the Horde with figurines. The other princesses join, sidetracking it from a serious strategy session to more of a Tabletop Game-esque free-for-all. Hijinx include Bow giving Catra shapeshifting abilities (in a nod to her She-Ra: Princess of Power incarnation) because he was left with a panther figurine instead of a humanoid onenote and Mermista providing a posable action figure of herself (maybe she learned from the last time).
- Poke the Poodle: Perfuma's idea of Catra is her declaring "I have a lot of negative things to say and I hate flowers!" (Probably because Perfuma has had the least contact with Catra of the princesses.) And Frosta's idea of Catra "likes to ruin parties", a throwback to the Princess Prom.
- Production Throwback: Bow imagines the cast in their outfits from the original '80s series, as well as giving Catra her original incarnation's transformation power. The original She-Ra theme plays during the scene, and the original closing theme plays over the end credits for the episode.
- RPG Episode: The episode is framed as such, with characters using a dungeon master's screen while planning an attack on the fort. Glimmer even references spot checks by stating that Bow didn't make an observation check. Frosta takes it a bit further by bringing an actual character sheet for her self-insert OC. Said OC, Winter's Bane, has ice armor and a Cool Sword of Strength +3, and Glimmer is apparently her sidekick.
- Running Gag: Bow dies in every scenario where he's present.
- The Scapegoat: Played for Laughs as the Horde squad retreats— they all agree to blame the loss on Kyle.
- Ship Tease: When describing her transformation into "Sea-Ra", Mermista makes a comment about how She-Ra's hair looks "messy, but sort of beautiful".
- Shout-Out:
- In Glimmer's Imagine Spot, Catra starts to deliver the line "No princess, I expect you to..." but is cut off by Perfuma.
- Also in her imagine spot, she has large pointy hair and is chewing on a toothpick not unlike Spike.
- Perfuma's plant golem has its hand on the wall is similar to the introduction scene of the Colossal Titan.
- Skewed Priorities: Scorpia's determined to do the best job she can so she can prove she and Catra are best friends, even demanding Kyle go and find out what her favorite color is.
- Stepford Smiler: Bow insists that his Bow "war-table battle figure" is smiling through his pain.
- Stock Sound Effects: In Bow's Imagine Spot, the teleportation sound is an old Filmation sound effect, and Catra gives the That Poor Cat yowl.
- Storyboarding the Apocalypse: When Bow asks "What's the worst that can happen?", Adora tells them: Catra traps She-Ra, overwhelms Frosta and Mermista with bots, then fires on Perfuma, using her to draw Bow into the open and pin him down between the bots and Horde soldiers. Glimmer tries to teleport in, but won't have enough magic to teleport out and Catra forces Adora to watch while all of her friends are taken out.
- Super-Deformed: Bow's minifigs of himself and his friends reappear.
- Teleport Spam: Glimmer's plan involves large amounts of teleporting. Bow and Adora note that she'd never be able to do as many as she describes before running out of juice.
- Tempting Fate: Catra leaves Scorpia in charge of protecting a fortress under the belief even the latter can't ruin it.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Simulated. Bow dies or gets hurt in all of their mission simulations, traumatizing the real Bow.
- Title Drop: Glimmer does it when giving Adora a pep talk after Adora's worst-case scenario.Glimmer: Bad things are going to happen. That's life. You can let it paralyze you or you can roll with it.
- Transformation Sequence: Mermista describes "Sea-Ra"'s transformation. It sounds suspiciously similar to She-Ra's.Mermista: I am Mermista! Fabulous secrets were revealed to me the day I held aloft my trident and said "For the honor of grey whales!" Then it's like, sparkle, sparkle, dolphin, sparkle. I get shoes that are slightly better than my normal shoes. There's probably another dolphin, then like I twirl and my hair does this thing where it looks all messy but it's actually like really super beautiful.
