We as a fandom focus a lot on Catra’s feelings for Adora and not nearly enough on Adora’s feelings for Catra so I’m starting a list of little underappreciated moments on Adora’s side that spoke to me as a person:
- Adora doing the Locker Lean while flirting with Catra and laughing in the dorkiest way then jumping when Shadow Weaver comes in like she’s been caught red-handed
- That flirty ass “Why don’t we go find out?~”
- Adora clinging to Catra’s arm when the skiff picks up speed and the camera focusing on it
- Adora’s soft smile when she wakes up after a nightmare and sees Catra at the foot of her bed
- The fact that Adora couldn’t sleep “without anyone around” for the first time, and so sneaked into Glimmer’s room and slept curled up at the foot of her bed like Catra used to do with her
- “Is this what love feels like?”
- Adora grabbing Catra by the waist when her HAND was RIGHT THERE
- WHAT IS THIS. WHAT IS TH
- The Look
- “I want to be the best She-Ra, I want to protect the planet, but Catra… she’s just… in my head.”
- Adora obsessing over Catra for the entirety of s2 and blaming her when literally anything goes wrong
- Adora spending a whole episode worrying about what Catra is planning and creating contingency plan after contingency plan because Catra knows how to get to her - and when it’s go-time and she’s told Catra isn’t even there she looks……. disappointed?
- And jealous?
- IN THE VERY NEXT EPISODE after the one spent worrying about Catra picking her off and distracting her from the fight, Catra manages to do just that. How? Turns out she just has to run and Adora will follow.
- Bonus Scorpia and Entrapta just standing there like “what the FUCK are we supposed to do”
- The fact that loopy!Adora could barely remember who Glimmer was, but she remembered Catra’s favorite 5-digit number
- More of The Look
- That flirty ass “Oh yeah?~”
- She’s so happy
- Adora watching Spinnerella and Netossa, who are literally married, bickering and being competitive but still loving and caring about each other so much just like she and Catra used to do, and looking like this
- When Scorpia realizes that Shadow Weaver being in Bright Moon is the reason Catra’s been acting so weird and that she’s going to get even worse now that she’s left too and Adora looks at Shadow Weaver in guilt+anger
Feel free to add
The fact that she still pulled this little move even when she had made it clear she was done trying to redeem Catra. The fact that she didn’t use her own residual hurt/anger as an excuse to treat Catra or anyone else like crap (seriously, how many times have you seen that narrative play out in “heroes betrayed by villains” stories?)
One of my favorites has always been Adora’s introduction.
We learn a lot about how Adora’s had obedience, structure, and deference to authority drilled into her for her entire life. Perfect soldier, subordinate yourself and your loved ones in service of the First Ones Horde and all. So the fact that the very first thing we see her do is straight up lie to an authority figure to cover for Catra is a nice nod to what she’s actually about
So no one’s going to talk about this
You’re all absolutely right and I can’t believe I forgot Adora’s flirty “Hey Catra~” knowing Catra was watching before punching a bot
Also:
- Adora is just. internally screaming
- The fact that Adora stole a skiff and planned a romantic getaway because Catra was upset
- Looking at her lips
- Looking at her lips again
- Adora being told by Light Hope to let go of Catra, specifically. And we know now that this had nothing to do with her being from the Horde because Light Hope didn’t care about the Horde and had her own agenda. What she cared about was severing Adora’s strongest connection so she would have no qualms about activating the Heart of Etheria (caps from here because I’m lazy and screencapping Netflix is hell)
- “I told you it’s not because I like you” “I mean, I didn’t- say anything~“
- The absolute tenderness when Adora says “Hey. I miss you too.” like I still haven’t recovered from that I’ll hear that and have a stroke
- How they both just. revert to playing around with each other afterwards. Does Adora laugh this hard with anyone else. Does she. I’m in pain
- The Look. Again
- “You don’t belong with the Horde” she says as she grabs Catra’s arm with both hands God the yearning the PINING
- Catra’s betrayal at the end of the episode bringing Adora to tears
- This random guard bothers Catra, Adora goes all protective girlfriend on him, and Catra is very smug about it. You didn’t know they were what, random guard
- Intricate rituals
- Adora saving Catra repeatedly in the Portal because she’s not going to leave her behind again then sobbing when she “dies” despite the fact that Catra was literally trying to kill her
+ bonus stuff that isn’t strictly in the show but I’m going to treat as canon:
- “Because I miss you, Catra, and I will always miss you. I miss your smile. I miss the gleam in your eyes when you beat me in a race during training. I miss laughing with you when we would play pranks on the other cadets in the barracks. I even miss you snoring in the bunk above me.”
- “While She-Ra was busy talking to her friend-” “It was more complicated than that!! But yeah we were talking for a while”
- Adora understanding why the Fire Princess destroyed her entire kingdom when she sees Catra with Scorpia