MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SHERA and THE PRINCESSES OF POWER below the fold.
Beyond the battle for good vs. evil, Adora and Catra have a fundamental misunderstanding that drives their conflict.
Adora wants to save her world to protect her friends.
Catra wants to protect her friend to save her world.
This is evident from the beginning: Adora, believing the horde propaganda, is thrilled with her promotion. She intends to follow orders and march into battle, a model soldier. Catra is excited for her until she learns that she will be left behind, and then becomes despondent.
Adora, feeling safe in her world, takes timeout to cheer up Catra, which leads to her discovering the sword. After returning back to the Fright Zone, Adora senses change. She strikes off on her own, leaving Catra behind so that she doesn’t get into trouble.
When they meet again in Thaymor, Adora has turned against the horde as she realizes their philosophy does not fit her world view. She offers Catra the opportunity to join her, but makes it clear she choosing to Save the World over their friendship.
Catra’s main concern for Adora at this point is their personal safety. Yes, she knows the horde is evil, but why is Adora putting her life on the line for two people she just met? In Catra’s mind, their friendship is all that matters, so they might as well stay on the winning side together.
With their friendship put on hold, Catra has to rebuild her world, and decides she has to do it independently. With no best friend to protect, she cares less and less for the world. Her single focus mindset allows her to charge up the ranks of the horde, disregarding Scorpia’s earnest efforts to forge a relationship.
Adora’s generous nature and drive helps her make fast friends and allies, but is often advised to put aside personal relationships to focus on saving the world as a whole, first by Light Hope, and then by Shadow Weaver.
At the start of s5, when they’ve both reached the realm of the wild woman, Adora refuses her friend’s requests to stand down, putting their lives ahead of hers. Catra, believing that there’s nothing left on Etheria for her, continues to view reality as a deadly race up a narrow ladder, and chooses conniving schemes and betrayal to save her own skin.
It only takes one conversation with Glimmer to bring Catra’s to reevaluate her friendship with Adora. Glimmer’s arc in s4 is a play on Adora and Catra’s philosophies: She’s pushing aside her friends to save her world. She uses Adora as bait, disregards Bow and Adora’s advice, refuses their request to save one of their own, and finally manipulates another person to follow her plan, resulting in the foreshadowed disaster. When she speaks to Catra, she easily expresses her remorse, but also her optimism that she could resolve the issues. Catra is reminded of her friendship with Adora when Glimmer asks her about her weird sleeping habits. After she’s forced to sell out Adora to Horde Prime, Catra’s desire to protect her friend is reignited by the memory of a childhood promise to take care of each other. She reshapes her philosophy: Catra must protect her friend, her personal safety and power is no longer important.
Adora’s realm of the wild woman is the loss of her sword, and easy access to She-ra, but she is still determined to save the world to protect her friends. She takes on a mantle of heroism, flying to space to save Queen Glimmer, the forging member of the Princess Alliance, with or without her super powers. While Adora could say “She had me at my at my name,” it takes a more than one conversation to help her find She-ra again, as it’s her love for Catra gives her the clearest path to her superpowers, a direct opposition to her guidance and motivation to focus on saving the world over her personal relationships.
Immediately after Glimmer’s rescue, on a side quest to get more fuel, Adora tells us she is thinking of Catra and her apology, though she doesn’t admit to it until the end of the episode (‘Stranded’). When introducing herself to the Star Siblings, she states that she used to be with the horde, which only adds confusion to a dangerous situation. At this point in the story, she’s been on the opposite side for years; she’s bringing this up because her interaction with Catra is bringing up memories of her time in the Horde. Later, in a situation that definitely called for She-ra, Adora finds that she’s at least able to access the super strength for a moment when she says that she’s ‘not leaving anyone behind’. This could be part of her effort to keep the cave open long enough for everyone to escape, or reference to Catra, who was left behind on Horde Prime’s ship. At the end of the episode, Adora asks Glimmer and Bow to help her rescue Catra; despite everything she’s done, Adora doesn’t want to give up on her. If Adora was focused on her usual task of saving her world to protect her friends, she would would have elected to get back to Etheria to re-unite with the rebellion. Adora breaks her usual protocol to rescue someone whose track record suggests she won’t help the rebellion in the long run.
From this point onward, Adora can only call and keep She-ra when she’s protecting Catra or inspired by her. The first time she fully transforms herself into She-ra is in ‘Save the Cat’, to protect Catra after she agrees to come home to with her. This is also the first time we see She-ra’s new and final look, inspired by the outfits of her friends, including Catra’s helmet. This scene is followed by visuals of She-ra carrying Catra to safety in her arms, reminiscent of the Aztec legend of Popo and Izta as well as other mythic depictions of a strong man carrying a woman in distress.
I just want to pause here to say: may all your redemption arcs involve getting rescued by an 8 foot tall sword heroine.
Adora is able to maintain She-ra long enough to heal Catra from injuries sustained in the fall. In the following episode (‘Taking Control’), the ship is under attack, but Adora is completely focused on Catra. When Catra sees that other people are getting chipped, she expresses a desire to save Etheria for the first time, and then asks Adora to take her home.The funny thing is, Catra has never directly asks to be taken home before; she even stated earlier on Horde Prime’s ship that there was nothing for her on Etheria. Adora understands that Catra doesn’t want to just go back to Etheria, she wants to be on her side again – suddenly, She-ra’s back, and pulls off the most epic fight scene of the entire series.
Back on Etheria, the old patterns re-emerge, with help from Shadow Weaver. Shadow Weaver wants to keep Adora away from Catra, as she wrongly believes that Catra distracts her from her mission to save the world, making her unable to call She-ra. The reality is that Adora’s focus on saving the world is actually what’s keeping her from calling She-ra.
Catra has reverted to protecting her friend to save her world, calling out Shadow Weaver when she encourages Adora to pick up the failsafe without explaining the dangers. As Adora doubles down on her need to save the world, Catra attempts to leave, rather than watch Adora die. When confronted, she asks Adora what she wants, hoping she’ll realize that she doesn’t have to sacrifice herself. Adora insists on continuing with the deadly plan, and Catra leaves. In one of the cutest, sweetest scenes of the series, Catra tells her magical emotional support cat that ‘Adora doesn’t want me, not the way I want her.’ Unable to protect her friend, Catra is seeing her world crumble again.
From this point on, Catra acts with complete selflessness to protect Adora. Catra turns back around when she sees Horde Prime drilling into the heart, and surmises that Adora is in danger. She asks Shadow Weaver to take her Adora, but Shadow Weaver only agrees when Catra shows she wants to go for selfless reasons. Catra is the first to jump into action against the final big monster, and stays by Adora’s side when she tries to go into the heart on her own. Catra is no longer fighting Adora’s need to be a hero – she accepts that Adora will always want to save the world, no matter what the cost.
Adora’s vision of the future is a stark combination of her two goals – the world is not only alive and safe, but she can see herself married to Catra, and she can finally see that her survival and future of true love is what she wants.
Catra’s final act of selflessness is to express her love and complete vulnerability. The long dark night of self-inflicted isolation has ended; Catra has moved past her fear of abandonment that had driven so much of her terrible behavior. She is no longer just protecting herself, she’s ready to open herself up to the world.
With the two stars ready to love each other, Adora can finally push past her need to save the world and allow herself to be She-ra for the people she cares about, and for herself.
Chicago Home Chef Journal 