Catra and Adora

**Catra and Adora**, well known within the fandom as "**Catradora**", is the canonical lesbian romantic relationship between the main protagonist, Adora, and former antagonist, Catra. Beginning as childhood friends but intensifying to an ugly rivalry, they both go through major character development, ending as romantic partners.

## The Horde

In the Horde, Catra and Adora had always been best friends from a very young age. They looked out for each other and always thought that them training for the Horde was a good and heroic thing. Unfortunately, their caretaker Shadow Weaver would take a bias to Adora, whilst Catra was resented and used. This led to Catra and Adora's friendship being occasionally toxic at times, as Catra was abused herself and sometimes hurt her friends. But as Adora said, when comforting Catra,

"It doesn't matter what they do to us, you know? You look out for me, and I look out for you."

Every time Catra would come late for training or slip up, Adora would make up excuses and fill in for her to protect her. They continued their Horde life for years, training, and Adora was always treated better. But when they were around the age seventeen, their relationship was soon to change drastically.

## Season One

### Leaving The Horde

After the final training course assessment of the Horde, Adora is promoted to Force Captain, despite that Catra finished the assessment at the same time. Catra is excited about leaving the Horde with Adora to go and fight the "Evil" princesses that they have been training to defeat their whole lives, but Adora tells her that it is her duty to travel alone. Catra's disappointment is immense. Catra and Adora argue about Catra's disrespectfulness to Shadow Weaver and other Horde Force Captains, causing Catra to run to the rooftops, where Adora soon finds her. They talk about how she just wants to get out of the horde before she, "dies of boredom." She says she wonders about what is beyond the perimeter of the Fright Zone, giving Adora the idea to go and find out. They steal a skiff and fly away from the Horde together. After playfully fighting over the controls, they find that they have arrived at the ominous Whispering Woods. Adora warns Catra about the dangers of the forest, but Catra ignores her. "Let's go in!"

She blasts full speed through the forest, narrowly avoiding trees and vines. Unfortunately, a vine catches Adora's neck and sends her barreling towards the ground. Catra shouts for help as the ship flies up away into the sky. When Adora hits the ground, she blacks out and has strange visions of a sword. Catra finds Adora and wakes her up, suggesting that she was just hallucinating and had nothing to worry about. She persuades Adora to get back on the skiff and they drive away.

### Betraying The Horde

When Adora goes back to the Whispering Woods to find out more about her visions, she meets a princess, Glimmer, and her friend, Bow, who help her discover that she possesses the ability to become a legendary princess, She-Ra. After spending time outside the fright zone, she grows attached to the way of Etherians and considers leaving the horde. Back at the horde, Shadow Weaver reveals to Catra that she has been tracking Adora all along and sends Catra on a mission to bring her back to the fright zone. Since Catra cares about Adora's happiness, she is hesitant about obeying Shadow Weaver, but Shadow Weaver uses magic and threatens Catra, forcing her to go after Adora. As Bow and Glimmer are showing Adora what a party is like, they hear a loud boom in the distance. After further investigation, they discover that the horde are attacking the village of Thaymor. Flames were demolishing the houses, bots were attacking and Horde soldiers patrolled the area. Civilians were fleeing, Glimmer and Bow aiding in the evacuation.

Meanwhile, Adora runs through the village, hoping that the army would stop if she just spoke to them. She heroically shouts at a tank to stop in its path, which is surprisingly does and out of it comes Catra. Catra explains how she came here looking for Adora and the horde needed her back. Catra notices the flower in her hair, which Glimmer gave to her. Embarrassed, Adora throws the flower on the ground and a petal breaks off. Adora pours out her feelings to Catra, explaining that the horde is wrong and shouldn't be attacking innocent civilian towns. She tells Catra about how they have been lied to and manipulated by Hordak and Shadow Weaver. Catra said she already knows this but doesn't care as all that matters is that they look out for each other. Adora refuses to go after seeing what she has seen, pleading for Catra to leave the horde with her but to her dismay, Catra brutally retaliates. She is disgusted by the fact that Adora is willing to throw everything away for Etheria. Adora apologizes and goes to leave before being paralyzed by Catra. She tells Adora to snap out of her *"weird identity crisis"* and come home, threatening to zap her again. Glimmer and Bow save her from Catra, shooting her with magic and catching her in a net arrow. Once receiving the sword back from Glimmer, Adora transforms into She-Ra and fights the bots. Meanwhile, Bow is ambushed whilst fighting Catra and surrounded. She slices the tanks and destroys bots. The horde soldiers retreat and when seeing that She-Ra is actually Adora, Catra is filled with rage and runs away. This is where the rivalry begun.

### Rebuilding The Rebellion

Throughout the rest of Season 1, Glimmer, Bow and She-Ra travel around Etheria, recruiting princesses and protecting their kingdoms. The biggest obstacle was always Catra, Scorpia and the Horde armies. Once Adora was gone, Hordak decided to promote Catra to Force Captain, replacing her. Although they were rivals, it seemed they had no intent of actually killing each other. Catra wanted Adora back for Shadow Weaver, and Adora wanted to stop the Horde.

### The Sea Gate

Not long after saving Plumeria and recruiting Perfuma, the team travel to Salineas with the help of Sea Hawk. To recruit Mermista, She-Ra agrees to fix the great Sea Gate, as it is the only force protecting them from the horde. In progress of rebuilding the gate, Scorpia, Catra, Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle sail in on a Horde ship. The crew fight Scorpia, Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle, whilst She-Ra focuses on the gate. As the gate is being blasted with canons, She-Ra grows weak. Catra comes up to the sword and mocks Adora. She attempts to persuade Adora back into the horde. Catra leaps and swipes at She-Ra, brutally scratching her face. Whilst Catra taunts Adora, showing off her force captain badge, She-Ra still manages to focus on the sword. Repeatedly, she tells Catra she isn't going back, leading to Catra to shout, "This is what you left me for? Dress-up games and a light show? And your *new friends* are nowhere to be seen. *When did you get so weak?"*

Mermista uses her Hydrokinesis to blast Catra off a rock, saving She-Ra, but Catra's words cut deep.

### Shadow Spy Manipulation

Shadow Weaver still wants Adora back in the horde and still sending Catra to find She-Ra. This leads her to sending a shadow spy to mess with Adora's head and send her back to the fright zone. When Adora, Glimmer and Bow head to Mystacor to find relaxation, they are constantly followed by this spy, whispering in her ear. In the hall of sorcerers, the spy mimics Catra's voice in an attempt to bring Adora back-

**Shadow Spy**: "*Hey, Adora.*"

**She-Ra**: "*Catra? Where are you?*"

**Shadow Spy**: "*\*laughs\* Getting colder...*"

**She-Ra**: "*Whatever you're doing, I won't let you get away with it... did Shadow Weaver send you?*"
**Shadow Spy**: "*What do you think? Shadow Weaver controls us both. She always has.*"
**Catra, wait!**: "*Catra, wait!*"
**Shadow Spy**: "*\*Laughs before taking a new form\**"

*chapter*, minute {{{minute}}}

Shadow Weaver sees the bond between Catra and Adora, and takes advantage of their relationship as Adora's weakness.

### Princess prom

In Bright Moon, Glimmer and Adora get an invited to the famed "Princess Prom," an event being held in The Kingdom of Snows at Princess Frosta's palace. They excitedly prepare for the occasion, while in The Fright Zone, Princess Scorpia gets an identical invitation. When she tells Catra about it, she realizes that it would be a useful opportunity to get ground on the Rebellion. She tells Scorpia that she will come to the dance as her plus-one.

After Adora, Glimmer, Bow and Perfuma arrive at the Prom and meet Princess Frosta, they see Scorpia and Catra enter the palace. Adora immediately suspects trouble and tries to convince Frosta not to allow them in, because they are from the Horde. But Frosta insists that the Princess Prom is a neutral zone. Adora then makes it her mission to keep track of Scorpia and Catra, but the two split up to make them harder to keep track of each. Adora decides that she will follow Catra and Glimmer and Bow will watch Scorpia. She follows Catra around while Catra seems to have immense fun teasing and doing things to upset Adora.

Soon, when the dance starts, Catra and Adora are partners. While Adora is pulled into dances with others, she ends up with Catra again.