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Tumblr crosspost (6 March 2021)
May. 23rd, 2024 08:18 amMy idea was that for some reason, they run away and escape into the Whispering Woods. Catra thinks it’s awful, they’ll never rule the world now. Then at some point, Adora finds the sword and turns into She-Ra, and Catra’s like “…actually, I have some ideas.”
I wasn’t sure exactly when in relation to the canon timeline this happens, though definitely earlier, and there’s some period where they’re mostly just trying to survive the woods together (I am 100% sure they encounter Razz, partly because I think it makes sense, and partly because Razz and Catra dealing with each other is hilarious to me). Maybe Adora manages to get the Crystal Castle to accept Catra and they hole up there while they’re figuring out what to do. However it works out, they ultimately get drawn into the Rebellion as a duo.
The end result is that the Rebellion has someone as ferocious and resourceful as Catra on their side (for a certain value of “side”; she’s really just on her and Adora’s side and sees the Rebellion as the only available vehicle for them) alongside Adora/She-Ra. But that means dealing with early Catra as one of their own (also hilarious!).
It could go all sorts of places from there, but the main problem is figuring out what kind of inciting incident could drive Catra from the Horde and convince her that their only chance for power lies with the Rebellion. That’s a big swerve from canon. I was thinking vaguely that things are worse for her in some way that drives her to turn away for fairly self-interested reasons (hard to see her doing anything else), but things are canonically bad enough for her that it was still difficult to see, until I suddenly remembered—
Shadow Weaver was going to wipe Adora’s mind.
Suppose that in the AU, Shadow Weaver decides that Catra is such a liability that she’ll just wipe her mind and start all over again. Before she actually does it, though, Catra and Adora somehow find out and can’t think of any way around it except just not being there. They manage a narrow escape from the Fright Zone and keep going until they’re faced with Horde pursuers on one hand and the woods on the other. They choose the woods, and the AU spins out from there.
Tagged: #i'm thinking that catra is actually the first to think of joining the rebellion #because if she can't climb to power via the horde ... the rebellion it is #especially given that adora just morphed into a princess #she'll just have to reshape it to their purposes! #(this can only end well) #meanwhile adora is resistant because princesses are EVIL #but she gets a reality check and is onboard soon enough #leaving us with horde defector rebel duo catra and adora #<3
