catra

PERSONALITY In the opening episodes, Catra has shown to be a bit of a slacker without proper motivation, evident from when she showed up late to a training exercise, her tardiness apparently not a rare occurrence, but this is likely due to never getting validation from authority figures when she does actually put in the work. She is also someone who is the life of the party. She also seems to be a thrill-seeker, complaining about how boring the Fright Zone was, needing to blow something up, and extreme excitement at taking a Horde skiff for a thrill ride. While on said ride, Adora advises saving fuel for the return trip. Catra brushes this off, saying it's a future problem. Which ends up being a mistake. However, it's also shown that Catra is a bit callous, showing no issue to the Horde's destructive behavior when it attacks an innocent town, and not thinking twice about striking her own best friend, Adora, with a Stun Gun multiple times to bring her back.

After becoming Force Captain, a darker side of Catra is unveiled. Though she doesn't outgrow her slacker tendencies (she doesn't attend orientation or do her paperwork, both which cost her), she proves a skilled strategist and manipulator, using their former friendship to distract Adora so she can kidnap Glimmer and Bow. She then uses the former to threaten Bright Moon into surrendering. She lies to persuade Entrapta into assisting her, a move that wreaks havoc on the ecosystem and almost allows her to take Bright Moon and replace Shadow Weaver as Hordak's second-in-command. In season three, she convinced Hordak that Entrapta, who he had begun to show feelings for, had betrayed him. This also has the effect of reassuring her position within the Horde after her failures in Season Two.

In many ways, it is her relationship with her makeshift family, Adora, and Shadow Weaver, that defines her. Despite her abusiveness, Catra still sees Shadow Weaver as a mother figure and craves her approval. This is something she has yet to outgrow. Towards the end of season one, Catra fights and defeats Shadow Weaver, replacing her as second-in-command in the Horde. This seems to imply Catra has moved beyond her need for Shadow Weaver's approval. However, in season two, Catra has her locked up and is still visiting her. Later, when Hordak asks why Shadow Weaver has not been executed, Catra offers a flimsy excuse. Shadow Weaver later uses this to trick Catra into giving her her Sorcerer's Guild badge, which she uses to escape, showing that Catra still has a love for Shadow Weaver. At the end of Season Three, when Shadow Weaver is leading the Princesses in an assault on the Fright Zone, Catra at one point pleads with Shadow Weaver, asking if she ever cared. Shadow Weaver, of course, had her in a magic bind, so this may have been Catra lying out of a situation.

Catra's situation on Adora has gone from friendly to ambiguous to negative to all the way around through the course of the show, to slowly rebuild their friendship and eventually end up romantically. In the beginning, Catra and Adora are seen jesting in the locker room, and later, taking a joy ride on a ship they borrowed without asking. Further, Catra is seen sleeping curled up at the foot of Adora's bed (which has a drawing of Adora and Catra's faces) at night, showing how close they are. However, when Adora defects, Catra gets Adora's promotion. Catra benefited from Adora's absence. Thus begins her descent into darkness. Their first meeting after this is the fight for the Salineas Sea Gate, where Catra leads an assault on the kingdom of Salineas.

Catra spends her time mostly mocking Adora, before being driven off by Mermista. Things truly begin to get ambiguous during Princess Prom. Catra exploits Adora's former friendship to capture Glimmer and Bow while stealing the Sword of Protection. Catra then gives Adora back the sword and lets her escape unmolested. In the episode "Promise", Catra and Adora meet again, and start out civil and friendly with each other, even helping each other against the defenses of the First Ones' Temple. However, the Temple also shows Catra and Adora's past as children, as well as causing them to relive some painful memories. This seems to cement a rage in Catra, saying that Adora was a hero and that "every hero needs a sidekick". This implies that Catra has come to believe that Adora only saw her as a second, and was being a hero for the sake of glory. In the episode "White Out", Adora gets the upper hand on Catra, although Catra doesn't seem particularly bothered, expressing the belief that Adora won't strike her.

When Adora attacks and defeats her under the influence of the Corrupted First Ones' Disk, she shows shock and fear at Adora's rage, proving that she truly didn't believe Adora would strike her. After Adora is subdued by Scorpia, she spends time mocking Adora's unconscious form. In season three, after being effectively banished by Hordak, Catra wastes no time in establishing her control over the residents of the Crimson Waste. This could show a fondness for power and control, but when Scorpia suggests staying and noting how Catra hated the Fright Zone, Catra (having captured Adora) chooses to go back anyway, upon Catra learning that Shadow Weaver (their mother figure) visited Adora after leaving her. Returning to the Fright Zone, only to be attacked by Shadow Weaver, and hearing that Adora was right about the dangers of Hordak's plan to open a portal, and it makes her snap, causing her to attack Entrapta and lie to Hordak to get the portal open, despite it meaning suicide for her and the destruction of everyone and everything on the planet. In the resulting time/space collapse, Catra and Adora fight, Catra telling Adora all the while how it was her presence that caused all this. This could be one of two things, either an inability to take responsibility for her actions or resentment towards Adora. However, Catra could not hold her grudge forever and eventually the two fixed their broken bond which would also lead them to form a romantic relationship.

However, the true nature of Catra's descent is covered in the episodes "Razz" and "Promise". In these episodes, it shows that Catra may have never truly made friends with the rest of her squad. Since Shadow Weaver never loved her, Adora was the only one who showed her any affection. When Adora left her, she felt betrayed by the only one who ever loved her, and this was juxtaposed by her own rise to power. This has caused Catra to increasingly see Adora, who was always loved by everyone, as the obstacle between her and success. This is what caused her actions at the end of season three. Catra's failures were something she linked with Adora's increasing return to her life.

In Season Four, Catra's emotional walls begin to crumble from genuine guilt over what she had done to Entrapta and with Scorpia leaving the Horde as Adora did before her and she goes into a depression. She starts to lose all of her old friends and the one she made betrays her. Even when the Horde started winning the war, she was still not happy, which causes her to lash out and then break down in tears. Ultimately, it was Double Trouble who betrayed her and revealed to Catra that she had been deceiving herself all this time about what she wanted and that she alone was the reason everyone abandoned her which made her completely despondent. Indeed, Catra is very much her own worst enemy, proven by how Double Trouble picked her character apart piece by painful piece, basically leaving her flaws and troubled spirit naked and visible for all to see, that even Glimmer noticed Catra's despair upon finding her afterward and perhaps even pity her when Catra offered no resistance and even invited Glimmer to basically put her out of her own misery.

After she and Glimmer become "guests" aboard Horde Prime's flagship, Catra tries to play any and every card she can to worm her way into Prime's favor, only to be more and more disturbed by him and his mask of manners and civility failing to conceal his narcissistic despotism. Due to her precarious situation and feeling more alone than ever, Catra risks Prime's displeasure by speaking to Glimmer, as she is the only connection she presently has to Etheria. The two actually bond despite past transgressions and Catra begins to experience a fundamental change in herself, that she ultimately helps Glimmer escape and sacrifices herself, knowing she would face Prime's wrath. She saves Glimmer because "it's the one right thing" she's done in her life. After being subjected to Prime's mind purification, Adora heals Catra and cradles her in her arms. On Darla, she remains distant to others due to her past and abandonment issues and refused Adora's help at first, however she joins the group for a dinner of dumplings and gave Entrapta a heartfelt apology to for everything that she did. Entrapta affectionately pats her on the head with her hair, signifying a new friendship. She shows genuine guilt for her terrible deeds and strives to redeem herself. When an apologetic Catra approached Scorpia, she was content with and even enjoyed letting Scorpia hug her, when before she was annoyed by it; showing how much she changed for the better.

When the Best Friends Squad head to Krytis, It is revealed that Catra does not like being called cute, as Bow commented Catra about the ear indents in her helmet and when a piece of magic pollen made her sneeze and Bow again commented on how cute she is. However, she responded angrily that she wasn't cute, causing Bow to say she was cute when she was angry as well.

After being rescued she began to trust other people and started valuing friendship. While she is still blunt, snarky, and temperamental, she has become much kinder, more loyal, and has truly found happiness, by the side of her beloved. She still continues to be a troublemaker, but she is a much better person nonetheless and has a much healthier outlook on life.