Some new Catradora Headcanon
Usually, at this turning point of a fandom, I’d spend the next 9 months writing a novel length fanfic about what came next for Catradora after the finale.
But as I’m still working 12 hours of over time per week, and editing this massive original novel (only a bit of a plug!) so I absolutely can’t do that. That said, here’s my headcanon/layout to the would-be fanfic, instead, accompanied by commentary. I present to you what my brain conjured this morning when I tried to go back to sleep for 1.5 hours:
*The gang isn’t actually leaving to space right away for one simple reason - Glimmer just got her father back, she needs some time. They leave about 6 months later. I did write another short headcanon for the first night and I stand by it.
*They do end up going to space and have wonderful adventures.
*After they’re back from space and after about two years together, Catra is ready to take Perfuma up on her offer. Self healing is nice and all, but y’all, girl needs professional help. She wants to head to Plumeria.
*Adora wants to come with her but Catra says no. It takes a lot of convincing for Adora to understand this isn’t a breakup and it has nothing to do with her. This will probably include dialogue such as:
“But I love you.”
“I know, and I love you too, so much. But I don’t love me enough just yet.”
She also tells Adora that while Adora is the love of her life, she’s still jealous of her, still doesn’t feel like she deserves her. And while Adora objects again and tells Catra that there are so many amazing things about her, Catra says again that while she loves Adora very much for feeling that way, she herself doesn’t.
Catra is actually very positive throughout this whole exchange. It’s an “I’m coming back to you” sort of situation. It’s about self healing and making amends. Adora doesn’t quite get it, but that’s because she never experienced so much self loathing. And the more Catra grows to care, the more guilt she feels about the things she did, which, let’s face it, resulted in death and destruction. People may have forgiven her, but she’s only now, in retrospect, really feeling the magnitude, and not just when it comes to Adora. She needs deeper forgiveness from other people, too, and for that she herself needs to dig deeper.
She also gets jealous of other people in Adora’s life (things were simpler when it was just them in space,) which is evident when she says -
“Just don’t find another girlfriend while I’m gone.”
And Adora replies, jokingly, “who am I ever gonna find that have as much history as we do.”
“History is part of the problem,” Catra replies with a sad smile.
It’s part of why she’s not feeling worthy of Adora. She also recognizes that all of her relationships exists as an adjacent to Adora’s. Her best friends squad is actually Adora’s best friends squad. The princesses she also met through Adora. She wants to build these relationships as an individual. It’s the only way to make sure she’s not always jealous.
*And it’s not just people. “I need to make amends with an entire planet,” she realizes. She wants to get to know her home, Etheria, better. She thinks it’s beautiful, but in the past the whole place was means to an end. She directly contributed to its destruction, she never appreciated it as a being, and after being taken by Prime, and after fighting to save it, she feels differently, and it’s a bond she wants to invest in.
“I saw the heart of Etheria,” she says to Perfuma, then she thinks about Adora. “In a way, I held the heart of Etheria in my hands.” What better person to teach her about the beauty of Etheria than Perfuma?
So even though Adora doesn’t quite understand, she respects Catra’s wishes and so Catra goes to spend some time in Plumeria.
*Obviously Glimmer wanted to give her a ride, but Catra preferred to walk. “I want to get to know our beautiful planet better. I want to see and feel it.” (if you recall in season 1 when Adora got promoted she wanted them to see the world. She did end up seeing it but it was the war stricken version of it.)
They did have a talk about why she was leaving. Glimmer actually understood quite well. She was familiar with the concept of how forgiveness from others is not enough. And she knew what it’s like when your actions have devastating consequences. Obviously, Glimmer and Catra are much closer now, but Catra also knows she’s the reason Angela is gone, hence - guilt.
Glimmer also understands envy while seeing your loved one hanging out with other people.
*While in Plumeria, Catra writes to Adora very often. She obviously opens each letter with “Hey Adora.”
*Being in Plumeria, where Scorpia obviously now also resides, gives Catra a real opportunity to make things right with her.
“You do give great hugs,” she admits one day and Scorpia tears up.
*Perfuma tells Catra that structure is important but it has to come from her. Even as a cadet she didn’t care much for it, but now the three of them wake up early every morning, meditate, hike, Scorpia and Perfuma take turns at making their world renowned tea which Catra always drinks happily and doesn’t forget to thank that day’s tea-maker.
*One night, Catra and Scorpia get into a heart-to-heart (Improved Catra does heart-to-hearts,) and Catra asks Scorpia about her family. Catra always assumed she herself was abandoned (whether or not that’s true she’ll never know, but as a person with abandonment issues who never felt good enough, that assumption came naturally, which is something she acknowledge now.) Scorpia says that she understands, that although she always tries to see the glass half-full, she was given away to the Horde as part of the agreement with her family.
Catra asks her if she’d ever consider going back to the Fright Zone to reclaim her family’s kingdom, remake it in her own image. As a matter of fact, Scorpia didn’t think about it, but now she does.
*A sidenote on Catra’s family which I was thinking about on my 1 hour walk earlier. As much as she could’ve been abandoned, her story could’ve been totally different. I don’t know that she’s a full cat. She’s a humanoid version. I always assumed that she’s a mix of species which potentially can be beautiful. What if her parents found one another, and she was the result of that love, and was very loved herself? (Hazel on Saga comes to mind.) What if she was taken by the Horde? It’s tragic to think that she could’ve had a completely different life with a loving set of parents. Then again, she’d have never met Adora. Or would she? (insert here an AU of Catra’s parents escaping the Horde and join the rebellion, and she grows up as part of the original best friend squad (Bow and Glimmer) and meets Adora with them the day Adora runs away. Maybe she’s the one who remains skeptical about Adora the longest, but that’s just because she got a bad case of the heart eyes the first time she laid eye on her. Can you imagine???)
*Anyway back to the original arc. So after months in Plumeria, Scorpia, Perfuma and Catra all leave and head to rebuild the Fright Zone. Scorpia was surprised Catra wanted to join, but Catra explained that she wants to take part in the re-imagining of a place that caused her so much pain. She thinks it’ll be good for her and she wants to take part in the healing of Etheria.
*Scorpia offers her one of the rooms still standing in Horror Hall. But she wants to sleep in the cadets’ dorms. It’s all part of her trying to create good memories in places that once hurt her. Plus, it wasn’t all bad in these dorms. 🤷 (Her mind wanders to her girlfriend in Brighmoon.)
*Catra walks into the dorms, and sleeps in Adora’s bed, of course. But before she does, she curves little hearts around Adora’s face on the wall by her own old bed.
(Remember, there are scratch marks on Adora’s face, but now there are hearts as well)
*More and more people arrive to help rebuilding every day. That of course includes most of the princesses. Adora chooses to stay away though. She’s not sure Catra would want her there.
*They wonder who’ll be the new inhabitants once they’re done rebuilding this place. Catra tells Scorpia she was thinking about the inhabitants of the Crimson Waste. “Who better to lead a group of misfits who don’t fit it anywhere else?” she winks while elbowing Scorpia. Obviously, Scorpia loves that idea.
*And then Catra’s birthday is around the corner. She and Adora didn’t really grow up knowing what birthdays were, but Glimmer and Bow told them, and once they managed to figure out an estimate of when they were born, they made sure to have a party every year. They loved parties now! (do you guys remember how each one of them reacted the first time they had a party?)
*Adora really wants to go see Catra for her birthday, but she isn’t sure it’s a good idea. Luckily Glimmer told her she was being dumb.
*She arrives at the Fright Zone via Glimmer-porting early morning on Catra’s birthday and is astounded by how much the place changed. Still, she’s surprised to hear from Scorpia that Catra’s at the cadets dorms. But once she enters and finds Catra sleeping in the bed that used to be hers, she feels very moved.
Then she notices their drawing on the wall. It goes like this.
She first notices the scratches on her face and goes-
“Oh.”
But then she notices the hearts around it and goes -
“Awww.”
*She stares at Catra for a while, it’s creepy, but it’s also a little twist because watching people in their sleep is a total cat thing, which is also why when Catra wakes up and notices Adora watching her she initially freaks out.
But she settles really quickly and is so so happy that Adora is there.They haven’t seen each other in six months, maybe closer to a year even (but she never stopped writing!)
“What are you doing here?” She reaches her hand for Adora and then pulls her into the bed. She kisses her for a very long time.
“It’s your birthday, I really wanted to see you. Is that okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be okay?” Catra laughs. She does look a lot more care-free to Adora now.
*But looking at Adora, Catra realizes that her girlfriend , after all this time, still didn’t quite get why she left to begin with, and still didn’t quite believe it had nothing to do with her.
“Oh, Adora. Don’t you get it? I want to spend my entire life with you.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do. I just wanted to be a better me for all of that.”
See, this is obviously very emotional because Catra said “don’t you get it?” which is what she said at the heart of Etheria, so at this point we’d all melt and also it’d really drive the point home for Adora, who’s such an idiot. 🤷
*They stay there like that for a while. Just like Catra hoped, there’s new depth to it all. There’s elevated, purer joy. She worked to better herself for months, she participated in the rebuilding of something beautiful. She knows she’ll always be on this journey, because that’s how regret works, but she likes herself way better these days.
*Then she notices a carton box behind Adora.
“Um, what is is that?” she points.
Adora blushes, she’s a little embarrassed. But she sits up and grabs the box.
“I, um, made you a cake,” she opens the box. “It’s nothing fancy but...” (it really isn’t. And the frosting is pink.)
“You made this?”
“I did,” Adora admits sheepishly.
“How?”
She says Entrapta’s baker servants helped (they have no names! I tried!)
“Then I’m surprised it’s not a mini cake,” Catra laughs. Adora blushes again. “Hey, it’s perfect, thank you.” She kisses Adora who looks overjoyed (she never baked before! It was a very err... sweet, gesture.)
*Yes, evolved Catra doesn’t mind pink frosting.
*And then to end it all, Adora eventually drags Catra out of the bed because there’s a surprise party waiting for her. Adora wanted to do one of those ever since Bow explained what it was. But that doesn’t mean she fully understands the concept yet. 🤷
*I can’t tell you guys what happens next. Maybe Adora chose to stay as Horror Hall for a bit. Catra didn’t mind. She was in a much better headspace now to allow for Adora to be near again without it interrupting her journey for growth. Maybe Adora went back to Brightmoon, but Catra promised to see her soon (and she did.)
Ether way, it would’ve been a good ending, and, as posts yesterday established, a few years later (this is my note about Adora’s wish actually showing them together after a decade) they were married.
And then it’ll all ends with Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years” which again, it’s totally a fanvid I’d have made if I had the time.
-Things that this would-be fanfic may or may not address: Does Catra not hate water anymore after numerous showers with Adora?
(This alone took 2 hours to write which is further proof why I’m absolutely forbidden from committing to a full blown fic again.)
EDIT: 3 weeks after I wrote this I finally gave in and wrote a one-shot to accommodate a portion of this headcanon. You can read it here. X
Edit: 3 months later I finally made that a Thousand Years fanvid :D
Edit: Thanks for reading! If you like this, maybe jus maybe you’d also like my original novel posted for free right here on tumblr!
