Catra (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Catra is the deuteragonist of the Netflix original series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which was the reboot of the 1985 Filmation series She-Ra: Princess of Power. 
She is the Force-Captain of Hordak's Evil Horde (a position previously held by Adora before she defected). Catra later becomes second-in-command of the Horde after Shadow Weaver's imprisonment.
Catra was Adora's childhood best friend and is obsessed with her, as she has feelings for Adora, but in the first season, Catra felt hurt and betrayed when Adora joined the Rebellion and became She-Ra. She is She-Ra's arch-rival-turned-lover during the war for the first four seasons, but reforms in the fifth and final season when Horde Prime arrives and joins the Rebellion against him. Catra reconciles with Adora, and they fall in love.
She is voiced by AJ Michalka, who also voiced Stevonnie in Steven Universe.
==Appearance==
Catra is a slender, tan-skinned girl of feline origins with athlete body physics. She has angular features, such as a pointed chin, straight nose, and slanted almond-shaped, heterochromatic eyes in the shades pale yellow (Left) and turquoise (Right). She features three freckles on her cheeks, soft curving dark eyebrows, and a thin fiendish smile with fanged teeth. Due to her feline display and ancestry, she is depicted as a young woman with sharp claws on her hands and toes, small fangs, large, black, catlike ears, and horizontal markings on her arms and three on her back that resemble a tabby cat's stripes. She also sports wild, slicked back, spiked, grayish-brown hair held back behind a cat-inspired reddish-brown headpiece. She wears a two-toned orange leotard tank top over torn reddish-violet leggings that wrap around the foot, exposing her toes and heels. Additionally, she's seen in two belts, the thicker of the pair sporting the Horde symbol, and, as the show progresses, we see her sport the Force Captain pin on her shirt over her heart.
==Personality==
Catra is a fairly teasing, irritable, cynical, disrespectful, stubborn, provocative, and violent person. Although she got along with her best friend Adora before she left the Horde, Catra because of her aggressive and violent nature never seemed to be able to be friends with anyone else even at an early age. As a result she was a lonely person In her childhood. Even if she enjoyed the company of Adora with whom she spent time having fun. Throughout the show she is also shown to be jealous, if someone is really close to Adora.
Because of her rebellious personality, and her tendency to cause others harm (such as scratching out Octavia's eye, just because Catra didn't like Octavia's face) she was frequently admonished and punished by Shadow Weaver. Because of her selfish personality Catra developed a feeling of inferiority because she believed she was living in Adora’s shadow and that would later make her a more selfish and power-hungry person that always needs to prove herself to be the best. She also frequently blames, shift-blaming and scapegoating others for her faults and actions, never taking responsibility for any of her shortcomings or misdeeds.
As Force Captain, Catra remains largely focused on the success of the Horde. It gets worse as her rank increases, Double Trouble even notes that Catra takes the war against rebellion too seriously. After she lost Scorpia's friendship, Catra suffered a psychological breakdown. In the end, her all-consuming ambition was finally shattered when Double Trouble betrayed her claiming that Catra isn't a villain. 
Following the total failure of her conquest of Eternia within the Horde and Double Trouble destroying her psychologically, Catra begins to question herself to the point of doubting her life choices. She also attempts bonds with Glimmer due to their similarity in making a lot of misjudgment and pushing their own friends away. Catra risks her life to save Glimmer's and apologizing to Adora for all she has done, claiming to have regretted her past actions and claiming that she realized that Adora has always been there for her,
After her release from Horde Prime's mind control, Catra struggled to fit in with the group, acting in her typically anti-social ways even when Adora wanted to help her, wanting to be left alone, stating that everyone hates her and calling Adora an idiot for saving her. Catra faces her mistakes when she apologizes to Entrapta and becoming touched when the Princess of Dryl forgave her without hard feelings, she would also be touched by the group the accepting among them.
From there, Catra reverted to her teasing personality of her time as a cadet but retained a certain vanity and a bit of her pessimism. She was not happy to see Shadow Weaver again due to her long bitterness towards her but cried when her mother figure sacrificed her life. At the end of the series, Catra seems to confess her romantic feelings for Adora and seemingly reconciles with Scorpia, while being up for new adventures with Bow, Glimmer, and Adora. In the end, Catra found happiness.
==History==
===Backtory===
While most of her past is unknown, what is known is that she has feline origins and is not a typical Etherian. At some point, Catra was abandoned by her parents for unknown reasons and (as said by Show-runner ND Stevenson on their livestream) was found in a box and raised by the dark sorceress Shadow Weaver alongside another orphaned girl named Adora, as part of an organization called The Horde to conquer all of Etheria.
Shadow Weaver was a cruel and unforgiving mother figure, who would often times chastise, taunt and mock her in front of Adora, but despite this, she and Adora eventually grew up into best friends, which eventually blossomed into love in their teenage years.
===Season 1===
After participating in a training session against the princesses in her devious way and a rather cold encounter with Shadow Weaver, Catra convinces a newly appointed captain Adora to sneak out of the Fright Zone on a pod for a ride in the forest. During the getaway, Adora falls but Catra finds her later, noting that she seems distracted by something. Still later, Catra notices that Adora is gone and and Shadow Weaver coldly ordered herm to bring Adora back. She tracked her down while swarming a village, only to find that her old friend had decided to alienate the Horde, a choice further heightened by the revelation that Catra already knew of their side's atrocities. Adora's betrayal of the Horde hurts Catra inside.
However, Catra slowly began to realize that Adora's absence opened the opportunity to step out from her friend’s shadow for the first time in her life - and she began to allow the anger she felt after Adora left to fuel her ambition with the Horde, along with getting the appreciation of the Horde's leader, Hordak.
Ultimately, she casts aside her friendship in favor of her newfound strength and achievements, basking in the glory she has attained without Adora's aid. However, Catra's rage, anger, and sadness began to weigh heavily on her despite achieving multiple military victories over the Princess Alliance and thanks to the psychoanalysis of the treacherous Double Trouble, she became dejected with herself and confronted her own inner struggles and question her motivations.
===Season 2===
Gaining more rank and rising in the graces of Hordak, Catra pursues her ambitions by continuing to fight the Rebellion. During an infiltration by Glimmer and Bow, she is captured and tied up by them. Throughout her captivity, Catra takes pleasure in fooling Glimmer and nearly hurts Bow by throwing him off a cliff but becomes angry when Glimmer accuses her of pushing Adora to leave her because of her cheeky personality. Following Shadow Weaver's escape, Catra attempts to hide it from Hordak, only for him to find out and knock Catra out before locking her up for her failure.
Eventually, Hordak orders her to send Shadow Weaver to Beast Island, Catra was bewildered by the situation; as Scorpia pointed out, Shadow Weaver never showed her kindness let alone love, but, for some reason, she still wanted to keep the woman who raised her from going to Beast Island. When Catra visited Shadow Weaver again she asked her mother figure why she was never good enough for her. After their conversation, she left with what she thought was a touching moment between the two only to return and find that Shadow Weaver used her by using the Sorcerer's Guild badge Catra had sneaked in for her to teleport out of her cell which devastated Catra, causing her to go into a state of hysteria. She attacks the fake Shadow Weaver with her claws, tearing it to pieces in her fit of rage, screaming in despair and pure anger. Catra, once again, had her trust betrayed, and on top of that had lost an extremely valuable prisoner. After Shadow Weaver's escape, she tried to cover up her mistake only to be punished by Hordak.
===Season 3===
About to be banished to Beast Island as punishment by Hordak, Catra is instead sent to the Crimson Waste to retrieve First Ones tech thanks to Entrapta's insistence on lightening her sentence. Fortunately for her, not only does Catra manages to survive, she becomes the leader of a local band of bandits, and is tempted to abandon the Horde for her new life in the desert, but once they capture Adora, she learns that not only Shadow Weaver was in Bright Moon, but that Hordak was in reality an alien clone of the emperor of the known universe named Horde Prime and is trying to use a portal machine to bring the Horde Armada to Etheria and completely take it over. This caused her to become unhinged and told Scorpia that they were returning to the Fright Zone, abandoning a potential life of happiness in the Crimson Waste for revenge against the two people who hurt her the most.
Arriving in Hordak's sanctum with Adora as her prisoner, Catra presented Hordak with her Sword revealing it to be the key to the entire planet, and can be used as the final piece to Hordak's portal. When Shadow Weaver, Bow, and the princesses invaded the Fright Zone, she was subdued and she lamented on how Shadow Weaver abandoned her then came to rescue Adora and vowed to open the portal. After she escaped her captors she pushed Scorpia out of the way and ordered Entrapta to go in Hordak's sanctum and activate the machine, but when Entrapta said Adora was right about opening a portal being too dangerous, Catra went mental and incapacitated Entrapta and sent her to a transport to Beast Island, then threaten to do the same to Scorpia if she stepped out of line. When Hordak asked where Entrapta was, she responded with, "Who do you think let the princesses in?" After Hordak bought the lie they continued with trying to open the portal. During the fight and despite Adora's warning Catra pulled the lever and activated the machine. This causes the leader of the rebellion, Queen Angella to sacrifice herself, and when the reality is restored, she flees with Hordak.
However, what the rebellion didn't know was that while they succeeded in shutting down the portal, it was able to stay open long enough for Hordak to send both a message and location to Horde Prime's flagship, giving him the knowledge where he is and Etheria's existence.
===Season 4===
Sometime later, Catra takes full control of the Horde army after she subdues Hordak and tells him that they should conquer Etheria before Horde Prime arrives because as she pointed out "He doesn't sound like the type to accept failure." She also hires the shapeshifting mercenary Double Trouble to sow dissent in the Rebellion. But the Horde's victories leave Catra unsatisfied, as her obsession with proving herself drives off her few remaining friends. When Hordak learns the truth of Entrapta's exile from Double Trouble after they were bought by the Rebellion to sabotage the Horde, Catra immobilizes Hordak when he attacks her. Double Trouble then reveals they switched sides while giving Catra an analysis of her character flaws, causing her to emotionally break down and accept her defeat.
However, while she and Hordak were fighting, Glimmer is tricked by Light Hope into activating the heart of etheria, which would destroy all life in the process, where the entire planet is transported into the wider universe; straight in front of Horde Prime's fleet flight path, where Catra is transported onto his flagship, where before Prime could destroy her, she convinced Horde Prime to spare her and Glimmer's life by telling him about Glimmer's connection to the super-weapon at the center of the planet.
===Season 5===
After the invasion, Catra—effectively held prisoner on Horde Prime's ship as a “guest”—begins to question and show regret for her past behavior. She tentatively bonds with Glimmer, her fellow “guest”, over their mutual connections with Adora. Catra's fear for Adora's safety leads her to sacrifice herself to help Glimmer escape, resulting in Horde Prime implanting her with a mind-hive chip. Her act of redemption encourages Glimmer, Adora, Bow, and Entrapta to in turn rescue Catra from Horde Prime's clutches. After her rescue, though retaining her cynical and abrasive personality, Catra joins Adora's group and helps them fight to liberate Etheria.
During the journey, she befriends a fellow feline she names Melog, and is aided by Perfuma overcome her abandonment issues and negativity after facing a now chipped Scorpia. Upon meeting Shadow Weaver again, Catra feels bitterness towards her former maternal figure. Joining the group to retrieve a safety device that can stop the Heart of Etheria, things do not improve between the old acquaintances since Shadow Weaver tries to separate Catra and Adora as she feels their relationship is hindering She-Ra. In the tunnels of Mystacor, having set out on a quest to find the ‘Crystal of Arxia”, Adora activates a fire trap, causing Catra to deliberately jump into the fire to save Adora, though the trap turns out to be an illusion. In the end, Adora becomes the carrier of the failsafe but at the cost of possibly having to sacrifice herself to stop Horde Prime, but she felt like Adora didn’t want her so Catra chooses to leave again, with Melog sooner rather then support Adora.
====Battle for the fate of Etheria & the Universe====
In the series finale, after only a day, Catra's running away comes to a halt when Melog no longer supports Catra's decision, literally sitting on top of her to pressure her into admitting how she feels about Adora. Catra ends up saying that she thinks Adora doesn't want Catra as much as Catra wants Adora, letting her heart speak. And after witnessing Horde Prime beginning to infect the planet, Catra returns to the Rebellion camp, only to find only Shadow Weaver who informs her of the departure of the "Best Friends Squad" for the heart of Etheria. Reluctantly, Catra asks Shadow Weaver to teleport her to where the others are, remembering Shadow Weaver's escape three years earlier. There, Catra finds Bow and Glimmer turning back after Adora decides to sort things out on her own. Remembering that she once promised Adora to always watch over her, Catra decides to stay in the Heart while Bow and Glimmer go to battle against the princesses still controlled by Horde Prime. Glimmer then hugs Catra, telling her to take care of Adora. Bow officially integrates Catra into the Best Friends Squad, and Catra parts ways with Melog, asking it to watch over her friends.
Catra saves an injured Adora from a security monster once belonging to the First Ones, then covers her back while Shadow Weaver takes Adora to the heart. Following the fierce struggle, Catra seemingly manages to defeat the creature but a holographic projection of Horde Prime taunting the former force captain allows the monster to grab Catra by the ankle and nearly devour her until Shadow Weaver intervenes. Sheltered behind a magical barrier, a wounded Catra in her right leg is joined by Adora and the two girls helplessly witness Shadow Weaver dying to destroy the monster, leaving them in tears.
The two girls hugged each other and then journeyed closer to the until they reached their destination: the Heart of Etheria . Adora prepares to become She-Ra to destroy it, but is unable to do so due to the infection setting into her wounds from Horde Prime's virus. Adora decides to use the fail safe anyway even with her life at stake. she asked Catra to leave, but Catra refuses and stays with her. However, Adora passes out just as Prime finally reached the Heart and started activating it. Catra pleaded with Adora to not give up as she never even gave up on her. It was then that Catra confessed that she was always in love with Adora, this causes Adora to wake up and summon a shield to protect them both from a surge of power from the Heart of Etheria, Adora then looks at Catra and admits she loves her too. Adora and Catra engaged in a kiss of true love, allowing Adora to finally transform into She-Ra and use the fail safe. After the magic was set free and the Horde was defeated, Catra walked up to a freed Scorpia to apologize for her cruel actions, but before she could finish her sentence Scorpia hugged her, signifying she had already forgiven Catra, then Perfuma and Frosta joined in the hug. Catra reunites with Adora, they touch foreheads as Adora confirms Horde Prime was gone for good which Catra was very happy about. Glimmer and Bow then tackle Catra and Adora and they all roll down a hill together and start laughing. Adora then decides to go and return magic to the rest of the universe and invites Catra, Glimmer, and Bow to come with her and they all happily agree as they engage in a group hug; as peace has finally been restored.
==Abilities==
*Master Strategist: Catra has, time and again, shown to have a brilliant strategic mind; outwitting, outmaneuvering and physiologically exploiting Adora, the Princess Alliance, and even Hordak. In fact, most of the victories won by the Rebellion have been due to the overwhelming power of the Princesses, as opposed to any sort of strategy. When facing off against a stronger opponent, Catra does not meet force with force but rather attacks their weak point. The only other character portrayed as approaching her general level of competence is Entrapta.
*Cat Physiology: Due to her physiology, Catra possesses many cat-like traits such as sharp claws, flexible tail, enhanced strength, and agility.
**Enhanced Strength: Catra appears to be stronger than the average Etherian, although not stronger than Adora in She-Ra form.
**Enhanced Agility: Catra is able to jump, run and climb much better than a typical Etherian. Her speed is her main advantage. She can also block arrows in flight.
**Enhanced Senses: Catra can see, hear and smell much better than the typical Etherian, as shown when she was able to pick up Entrapta's scent through the ventilation.
**Claws: Catra's fingernails are retractable claws sharp enough to cut into metal.
**Balance: Catra has a great sense of balance, as shown in her battles with Adora.
**Survival Skills: Catra has been shown to survive several near-fatal events over the course of the series.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*Catra is said by the creators to be 17-18 years old at the beginning of the series and 20-21 years old by the end of it as, according to Noelle, three years has passed since Season One.
*Her appearance in the show is very different from her original design.
*This is the first version of Catra to be LGBTQ.
*Like most real life cats, she does not like water
*
*Unlike her original counterpart, Catra has a better relationship with Scorpia, although this relationship has deteriorated since the season 3 but it is seemingly restored in the last season.
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