greyisbetterthangray:

some thoughts on catra

I absolutely love Catra. She is an incredibly complex character and I’m going to really enjoy watching her character arc and story play out over the next few years. And while I would love for her to inevitably get a redemption arc, I think she’s going to become a lot worse before if she gets better.

Catra’s entire arc this season was about falling further into darkness as she forsakes Adora and rises in power. Catra goes through her entire life abused and belittled by Shadow Weaver, which leads to her being completely powerless and creating feelings of worthlessness—at least outside of her relationship with Adora. Catra wants two things in life: power and love. And by the end of the season, she finds power and self worth and she achieved that by forsaking love. And now that she finally has power, I think it’s going to be a while before she lets go of it.

In the beginning of the season, we see that Catra is a character who has accepted her role in life. She is still bitter and jealous, as seen by her reaction to Adora becoming Force Captain without her, but for the most part she has accepted her life in the Horde. When Adora discovers the evils of the Horde she instantly abandons it, but Catra was never blind to the Horde’s true nature and she accepted her part in it a long time ago. And why had she?

Well … “Because it doesn’t matter what they do. The two of us look out for each other and soon we’ll be the ones calling the shots.” Catra’s imagined future had the two of them staying together and she stayed with the Horde despite the constant abuse because of that future—because of Adora who she loved. Catra still wants power, as evident by the fact she imagines them in control, but with Adora by her side she was willing to be powerless, to be second best.

And then Adora leaves and we see Catra’s feelings begin to change.

Catra is defined by her bitterness—she’s angry, jealous, and vindictive. When Adora left her, Catra was utterly heartbroken at the betrayal, and while initially Catra wants to bring her back and protect her overtime that desire begins to wane as Catra finds more power in Adora’s absence. And Catra’s anger towards Adora leads to cruelty and manipulations that further push the pair away from one another.

All of those feelings culminate in one of the most emotionally painful episodes in cartoons that I have ever seen: “The Promise.” This is the episode where Catra proclaims that Adora “leaving was the best thing that ever happened to [Catra].” And it is clear why Catra feels this way because of what the flashbacks reveal about Catra and her life in the Horde.

Catra has always been jealous of Adora because of Shadow Weaver’s preferential treatment towards her. Catra was second best and in many ways her survival depended on Adora, as Shadow Weaver flat out told Catra when she was just a child, “I only kept you around this long because Adora was fond of you.” Catra’s entire life revolved around Adora, it had too, and when she left Catra was suddenly stripped from her pre-determined orbit. And in doing so, she was given more freedom and power than she ever had before.

For Catra, Adora leaving provided her with what she had always really wanted, which was power. Catra has been so powerless her entire life and any power she did have came from Adora who protected her. When Adora leaves the other cadets say much the same thing: “Easy, Catra. Adora’s not here to protect you anymore.” Catra, while a skilled fighter, is powerless in the Horde without Adora.

But, at the same time without Adora around her accomplishments are no longer “second best” and Hordak willingly promotes and acknowledges her where Shadow Weaver wouldn’t. Catra becomes a Force Captain and is able to lead several missions on her own. She gains more power with Adora gone and at the end of the season she is even able to overpower Shadow Weaver and become second-in-command to Hordak.

It’s because of this that Catra “realizes” that she doesn’t need Adora to have power and that in fact Adora had “always been holding [her] back.”

Catra gained power and all she had to do was to cut Adora out of her life. Catra wanted two things: power and love. But to Catra, that love didn’t really matter anymore as the Temple highlighted just how little that love seemed to matter.

Adora was the one who protected Catra in the Horde, but Catra was regularly targeted by Shadow Weaver and according to Catra Adora “never protected [her]. Not in any way that would put [Adora] on Shadow Weaver’s bad side.” And after years of friendship together, Adora left—in an instant, in a moment, with no thought to the friend she left behind. This moment, really solidified for Catra that Adora either never truly loved her or that love wasn’t worth it in the first place.

Before Catra even begins to redeem herself, she needs to open herself up to love and friendship again. Which I can see happening with Scorpia (and Entrapta) if Catra takes steps in the friendship, but right now she is in a lot of bitter pain from Adora’s betrayal and isn’t going to be willingly to open herself up like that.

Instead, I think she’s going to spend these next couple of seasons becoming more and more powerful, away and separate from Adora. She told Adora that in the future they’ll “be the ones calling the shots” but it’s no longer going to be a “we” but instead just her. I think Catra is going to overthrow Hordak at some point and become the new leader of the Horde. That, in her mind, will prove herself to be better than Adora and better than anyone who had ever put her down.

I don’t know if Catra will be redeemed, I hope so, but if she does it’s only going to be after she gets much worse. Maybe not “Leader of the Horde” worse exactly, but definitely worse because as long as she is consumed by bitterness and a desire for power—she isn’t going to be happy or willing to forgive and move on.