<poem> When we first saw Glimmer, she was so fierce and feisty. But upon meeting Adora, she took a reluctant step forth. Why? Adora was part of the Horde, something that did horrible things to Glimmer personally.
Glimmer always charged forth recklessly towards the Horde, powered by her anger. When she became queen, we saw rhis at a much more serious angle.
I mean, I personally find Glimmer very relatable because I see a lot of myself in her—but, too much of anything can be bad, and that’s why her greatest strength was put to use as her worst weakness. I can’t imagine how awful it must have been to watch her mother die by choice. Left in her hands is an entire Rebellion. Her mother died because of something done by the Horde. All of Bright Moon has fought this battle for so long, and it’s been on-and-off with who’s winning. But, they need something that will change everything once and for all. Something that will stop the Horde from hurting more citizens. She was under so much trauma that she didn’t give herself time to think. As a Queen, a leader, Glimmer’s top priority was to protect her citizens. It was the how that got messed up. Glimmer didn’t want them to suffer a death, like her mother had suffered—or, at least, gone away, and her father too, or so she thought. She didn’t want them to experience this horrible pain. She wanted the fastest, strongest/most promising, and easiest way to do it all. This was natural, even if wrong. She was desperate enough to try going for risks she knew nothing of, pretending that they’d solve everything, desperate enough to believe in false hope. To Glimmer, lack of an action in itself IS an action, too much of an action to withstand rushing into a bad decision. The paradox of tolerance? To create a tolerant society, you must be intolerant of intolerance. Hence, she must be intolerant of the Horde’s intolerable fighting if she wanted to make this world a better place. She had to show her lack of tolerance, even if it meant making a bad decision. Which, of course, is why she made it. If they wait any longer, it might have been too late. Glimmer didn’t want to take the chance that the Horde came up with something that would make them win, once and for all, first. By taking things the slow way around, she saw that as wasting time and giving the Horde an opportunity to plan ahead and harm more citizens. An opportunity they did NOT deserve. And her friends didn’t support her ideas. She was so upset that, after blinded by so much hurt, pointed her finger at the first person she saw when she opened her eyes again. That person was Adora, who was the first person she saw BECAUSE they always fought along side. Keep in mind that Glimmer is basically near-emotionally unstable at this point (as I said, not her fault, but that doesn’t change that she still is that way—). Out of all the things she’d lost, her friends were still there. She was afraid she’d lose them if she couldn’t prove she was capable of managing things, that they’d blame her for her mother’s death. In my opinion, at least, she was way more of a victim that was emotionally strong and striving even after all that, rather than someone who rushed into a mistake. Putting her own idea on top of both her friends, that was arrogant of her to do. The worst thing? She closed her eyes because she couldn't bear the trauma, and when she opened them again, they were so blurry from depth that she could only point her blame at the first people she saw-her friends, the ones who had always fought beside her. She spun the blame to Adora and said, "Well, maybe your best isn't good enough, if it was, my mother would still be here." It made me think of Adora's past abuse in the Horde. She's always being pressured to be the best, and she basically feels like worthless if she does something wrong, especially responsible for something as big as a death. So when she said she was trying her best, finally asking someone to give her a break, and Glimmer responded with that, it seemed like Glimmer was bringing back some of her old trauma. I mean, losing her powers made her lose her belief and self-esteem, and by saying that, Glimmer was not helping. Of course, this also gave Glimmer the guilt of hurting her friend, but at this point none of it mattered to her. She needed to do what she thought was necessary to save her kingdom Glimmer went back with genuine modesty and guilt, genuinely wanting to help, and her redemption arc was smooth and made sense, and was FAIR. Bow, one of her closest friends of all time, completely ignored her. Which, to be honest, she did deserve. The way she reacted to it, she was very understanding and didn’t try to pressure him with fake guilt, but at the same time she showed that she cared about him by paying attention to what he was thinking. But, Glimmer has changed now. She's so much stronger, even when things are different. They thought that what she’d planned was rushed and wrong. They never said anything about her being a bad queen, or that it was her fault. But she amplified their words by a thousand and thought that it was what they’d implied. A single drop of doubt made her overreact, because in the last battle, a single bit of losing turned into Angella eventually going away.