Catra

Catra was a Force-sensitive female Falorsian-Human hybrid that hailed from the planet Lothal and was bonded with the dragoness Stormfly, the pair of them holding the dual position of the "Defenders of the Northern Realms", protecting the planets that existed within these aforementioned celestial bodies. The direct descendant of two freedom fighters — the Bokken Jedi Ezra Bridger and Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren — after bonding with her dragon, Catra was trained from earliest childhood to follow in her ancestors' footsteps and protect the isolated populations of Lothal and their surrounding systems from threats, with led her to acquiring the title "Northern Champion". While defending Lothal from attack by the Dark Ones led by the Dark Lord, Isaac Nal'vala, however, Catra was infected by a dark creature that was subservient to the invader, the Goon, which took control of Catra and her dragon, twisting them both to darkness and bringing the two under the thrall of the Dark Ones. As a result, Catra was renamed the "Dark Striker", a ruthless warrior and vengeful warlord that proceeded to lead the very armies she had once fought to defeat in conquering the Northern Systems and became a favored enforcer of her liege, helping to maintain the Imperial rule, although Catra and Stormfly themselves had no choice in the matter, having been brought under the subjugation of the Goon while their true nature was suppressed to the point where it was left essentially comatose, suppressed by regular subjection to mental torture. More than twenty years after her corruption, the Dark Striker was dispatched to the Western Realms to lead an offensive there, but was brought into contact with a team led by Keith Sensian, who managed to free her and Stormfly from the Goon, leaving them initially believing that little time had passed since the Battle of Peachblossom Spring, since the possession of their bodies had meant that the teenage master and her dragon had not aged. Grateful to her saviors and left without a way to return home, Catra joined Sensian's team of friends and the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, assisting them with their own efforts against another faction of the Dark Ones, during which she would begin to develop feelings for Adora — her teammate and future wife — and helped train Keith Sensian as a Dragon Master like herself. Later, upon returning to the Northern Realms with her friends, Catra was essential to unseating the Imperial throne, resuming her duties as guardian.

Born on Lothal in 968 ABY — over eight hundred years after the Battle of Exegol — since the time of her ancestor, the members of the family that Catra hailed from had been given the responsibilities of being guardians for the Lothal and the surrounding star systems, with the tradition eventually being for such defenders to bond with a dragon that would become their lifelong partner in heart and mind. By the time of her birth, the catastrophic results of the Burn and subsequent decentralization of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances had caused her homeworld and the other star systems that formed the Northern Realms to withdraw themselves from wider galactic affairs, leaving them isolated for a period that spanned over two decades before its present champion was born. Since near birth, Catra was trained to become a guardian that stood against the dark forces that threatened her home, little knowing that fate would one day see her become one of these same forces. Under the supervision of their Dragon Masters Lian and Baatar, Catra and Stormfly not only developed a wide range of different abilities — including a perfect understanding of the otherwise indecipherable tongue of the Shadow Clan — but also had a psychic bond that enabled dragon and rider to communicate over wide distances. Experienced with the martial arts that her family had used for decades, which involved Force-sensitives utilizing their strong bond with various creatures, Catra inherited her position after coming of age and was later credited for being among the most powerful Force-sensitives to grow up within the wild galaxy that had emerged after the Burn. Furthermore, much like Isis Bridger, the young woman possessed qualities that caused some of her powers to manifest as multicolored magick.

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Biography[]

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Birthday celebration[]

Having returned to their hideout after the events at the citadel, Catra rested from the battle alongside the remainder of the team, removing her Mandalorian helmet before seating herself on the kitchen table with one leg raised on the table with her hand slung over it while the other dangled off the bench side, where she watched conversation unfold with a grin, silently scratching Stormfly under the chin while Korg and Adora made playful banter with Pronto about "that thing", rolling her green and blue eyes as the molenoid remained nonplussed. "That thing" that the five of them were referring to was in fact a cake that the team had been baking as part of their secret preparations to help their leader to celebrate his birthday, which Keith's teammates had discovered was that very day. Having iced and decorated the dessert with berries that she had collected earlier, Catra and her teammates followed Keith outside to find him watching a holographic recording from his mother that one of the Shadow Clan had delivered but moments ago, wherein which Krolia wished her son an enjoyable eighteenth birthday and apologized for not being there to celebrate with him. Watching without comment, after the message concluded and Keith told the empty air where his mother had stood that he missed her, Catra and the rest of the crew approached him, admitting to having heard and showing him their cake, which Stormfly lit the candles on with a single breath of flames. Grinning as Keith expressed his gratitude to them for this effort, the smile was briefly wiped off Catra's face as Pronto then promptly erupted into song, which he soon cut off at a disapproving head shake from the Lothalite, confirming to him that the four were not doing "the thing". After this impromptu one-man musical act, Keith and his team, including Catra, returned to their tree fort to celebrate the occasion with cake, laughing to the memories of one of their molenoid member's various screw-ups during their earlier adventures.

Personality and traits[]

Overview[]

Descended from a mixture of human and Falorsian heritage, Catra was a female hybrid of the two species that stood at 1.7 meters and weighed 54 kilograms during her teenage years and young adulthood, featuring traits inherited from both sides of her family, but was capable of altering her form to appear as a young human woman or pure-blood Falorsian. Although predominantly humanoid in both stature and appearance, her Falorsian lineage granted her various feline physical characteristics, including a long prehensile dark brown cat-like tail, retractable black claws on her fingers and toes, large black catlike ears and small fangs, as well as short fur across her arms and back. With facial features that were angular, including a pointed chin, straight nose and slanted, almond-shaped eyes, her pupils had a heterochromatic sclera condition (deep blue on the left and green on right). She had a slender and athletic physique, freckled cheeks, soft-curved black eyebrows, and cedar-brown hair that tends toward wild and spiky. Like others bonded with a spirit animal, Catra also featured the gedwëy ignasia - a silver diffused spiral oval - that appeared on her left palm after she touched the newly hatched Stormfly for the first time. While under the corrupted influence of the Goon, Catra retained their previous features, but came to appear as someone who had been drained of her warmth, happiness and love, as well as the coloration of her skin, which began to acquire a sickly pale texture while she also developed black facial markings. Her pupils also changed, losing their multicolored hue and instead becoming a blood red that was lined black sclera. Over the course of her time as the Dark Striker, her body would develop scars from numerous injuries inflicted during the torture sessions it went through to suppress Catra's true nature from resurfacing, although these marks disappeared after she regained her freedom. Regardless of whether her nature was true or warped, Catra demonstrated a preference towards functioning clothing, prioritizing practicality over style regarding her wardrobe. Like her ancestor Ezra Bridger, Catra was a compassionate, loyal and cautious individual that had been trained from childhood to defend the Northern Realms from danger alongside her dragon Stormfly, who shared an unshakable bond with her companion. Likewise, she also followed the same practice of lining her black hair with various different highlights that the Mandalorian artist Sabine Wren was known for, which she continued as the Dark Striker, featuring striking red streaks through her black hair, then later replacing with various changes to her coloration that she applied after being released. Because of her upbringing, Catra was highly mature for one her age and possessed an inflexible moral compass that drove her to put the needs of those around her before her own, but the training and responsibilities meant that, during her childhood, she allowed herself little time for activities that served no functioning purpose, cultivating a serious personality that had initial troubles interacting with individuals during social events.

Despite this serious attitude, however, Catra was not by any means hostile to interacting with others and, although there were some initial hurdles to overcome after she first met Team Sensian, developed friendships with her new allies. Because of the treacherous encounter with Twist, the other members of Kieth Sensian's team had some reservations towards Catra after she first joined them, while her inexperience with teamwork compelled her to take action without notifying the others. Despite this, even when they expressed their uncertainties about her, Adora noted that Catra was still friendly and nice. This uncertainty soon melted, however, and Catra ultimately became a close and trusted teammate to her new friends. Despite her inexpediences and the horrors that she endured beneath the Goon's control, the Lothalite possessed a heart full of generosity and willingness to help other people in need. She had an ingrained sense of honor that compelled the Dragon Rider to repay a debt if she believed she had wronged someone but recognized when someone attempted to take advantage of them, which she often answered by riddling them into confusion. The hybrid could also be cynical, as well as sarcastic and quick-witted, trading barbs with friends and enemies alike. Indeed, one of her most unique tactics in one-on-one battle was to talk constantly, keeping up a steady flow of jibs that made it difficult for the enemy to concentrate, which often proved very effective. Although she was often calm and controlled, Catra was nonetheless described as being a person that could "cuss with the best of them", occasionally swearing in extreme moments. She also had a stubborn, private, and self-reliant side that made it difficult to change her mind once she'd made a decision, however, though the ramifications of this dwindled after some time with her fellow defenders. What is more, she was also highly intellectual, her photographic memory enabling her to remember everything, her training enabling her to pull up an individual memory in seconds.

The descendant of Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren, Catra felt great pride about her lineage as an heir to a bloodline that traced its ancestry back to a pair of the most essential figures in the early rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Despite this pride, she showed no hints of arrogance or entitlement and was indeed a humble individual, the source of her gratification being the accomplishments of her ancestors. She also paid tribute to these accomplishments, placing great value on the Mandalorian armor that she owned, which had been passed down to her from the time of Sabine and reforged to accommodate her own build. Furthermore, she designed her dual lightsabers with the blaster hybrid design that her ancestor for created, fashioning them to accommodate her talent with using two sidearms, namely a pair of blaster pistols. Much like Wren, Catra had an innate love of art and was an artist herself, though her specialty lay with drawing and sketching, creating pictures that looked so lifelike, an observer could imagine them existing the boundaries of their frame. She was also an avid aficionado of literature, believing that there was a grain of truth to every myth and folklore tale, and enjoyed reading ancient poetic texts, becoming an admirer of several of the great minds of interstellar history, who she described as artists of the written word.

Throughout her earliest years, Catra strove to fulfill the duties given to her bloodline and, despite encouragement from her mentors, had initial difficulties trying to enjoy herself. Although she struggled at social interactions in later years, in her childhood, her best friend and sister-figure Sanela helped the other girl have fun, teaching her to dance and the pair did many things together, with Catra finding happiness with these childish antics. However, she also feared being unworthy of inheriting the mantle of "Defender of the Northern Realms" and one night, when she went stargazing with Sanela, Catra confessed her worries that she might be a danger to others. Sanela told her that she wasn't dangerous, and that could be whoever she wanted to be, despite her powers. When Sanela perished fighting in the Battle of Peachblossom Grove, Catra was horrorstruck, and this grief was essential to helping the Dark Lord to defeat and infect her with the Goon. The image of Catra crouched over her best friend's lifeless form continued to haunt her even as the Dark Striker and her controller used the memory to help suppress the true personality of the Dragon Rider by immersing her in the grief of her darkest recollections. This grief consumed Catra for two decades, feeding the dark exterior that manifested around her and burying her, but it was also what enabled Keith to reach out to her during his mental struggle with the Dark Striker, empathizing with the anguish she felt for her surrogate sister after having felt the same after the disappearance of his mother. When she was shown what she had done while under the control of the Goon, Catra was horrorstruck and, after she and her friends first defeated the Emperor, the young woman occasionally suffered from trauma-induced nightmares where she once again became the Dark Striker. However, she ultimately came to terms with the demise of Sanela, choosing to hold onto memories of the love that the two had for one another with the knowledge that even if her surrogate sister was gone, their love would always remain. Although she admitted she would always feel the hole left by this loss, Catra refused to allow it to define her as it had with her dark self. Indeed, later, when speaking with Ida after the girl had lost her father, Catra explained that she had first feared that by letting go of the pain, she was letting go of the people she loved but lost. She then explained, however, that though the grief that people like them felt was real and theirs' to carry, it did not have to define them.

Catra was both passionate, determined and was willing to defy authority to stand up for what she believed in and considered right. A firm believer in the moral high ground, though she acknowledged that war focused people to make the hard call and did just that herself on occasion, Catra believed that if a person abandoned their reasons for fighting, then such an individual had already lost, regardless of whether they were triumphant or defeated. She also felt that, in the end, the willingness to stand with or discard the luxury of principles showed someone for what they truly were. During her time within the 99 Realms, Catra's friends introduced her to leisure activities meant for personal entertainment, such as tobogganing and baseball, which the Rider found enjoyable, despite her repeated failure to grasp the purpose of this game. Serving as umpire, she thought the position was fascinating and took her duties very seriously, to the point that she threw Kord out of the game for breaking a rule, specifically, touching the umpire. Later, Catra also ejected the opposing captain Sokol from the game, for the very same reason. On another occasion, while in a holosuite roleplay game with Glimmer, she was unfamiliar of the stories of Lancelot and thus reacted with deep offense when the aforementioned knight tried to kiss her while she was playing the role of a married woman. As a result of this womanizer attitude, she knocked the holographic Lancelot out, to the irritation of Glimmer, who ended the program and argued briefly with her, explaining that the storyline meant Lancelot was supposed to kiss Catra.

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Dark, light and heroics[]

Although her training reflected certain elements of the Jedi Order and she dedicated herself to fighting the dark forces that would threaten her home, Catra believed that the universe required an inherent balance of both darkness and light, striving to find the same balance within herself. As a result, she better identified to the mantra of a Gray Jedi than to their mainstream counterpart. She recognized that both light and dark held their individual place within the universal balance, making her a pragmatic and empathetic individual that could discern shades of gray where others saw only black and white. To this end, Catra regarded the two sides of Force as essential components to its existence. In her eyes, both represented parts of the soul that were needed to create balance. She is a perfect example of this ideal, having walked both paths over the course of her life. Her lineage was indeed one tied to a line of unconventional Jedi, tracing back to both Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren and, through them, the teachings passed down through several historical figures, including Kanan Jarrus, Depa Billaba, Ahsoka Tano and even the likes of Master Mace Windu, Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin Skywalker. Inheriting these teachings of the fallen order as a descendant of a Bokken Jedi that had been trained in the wilds after Order 66 had been implemented and the apprentice of one that had walked away from the Order, Catra integrated them into her own path in life, but refused to allow others to define her character. Catra was, in addition, fascinated by the stories of those that had left the order and became collectively known as the Lost Twenty, which she, as a student of history, followed with interest, noting the divergent paths that these departing figures took. After her own time as the Dark Striker, she also expressed an understanding for those among them that had made choices that turned them to the dark side, since her time under its thrall had granted her with a perspective few could match. This outlook was one of the reasons behind her refusal to abandon hope for her teacher, Lian, after discovering the elf had also been corrupted, and Catra pleaded with the 'Dai-Fu' - as Lian was known while under the control of the Dark Lord - to accept her help in coming back to the light during multiple confrontations. However, she nonetheless understood it when other people, like Darkness Magicar, were proven to have been too far gone and knew that people had to change with their own free will. Her ideas that people could change, however, made her an understanding audience that tried to acknowledge the perspective on others, even if she could not agree with them, believing that others deserved second chances, but still had limits to her generosity if the person in question showed no signs of wanting to change.

Although her compassionate nature was compatible with the Jedi code for protecting the defenseless, Catra showed a willingness to disregard the concepts that the defunct Order had adhered to during the Old Republic, namely those that implied inner peace was impossible to achieve when confronted by human emotions (which ultimately had a hand in bringing about the Jedi's downfall). Instead, Catra claimed her identity as a Dragon Rider and successor to the Jedi legacy but chose to accept her emotions and found her place in helping those in need, first in the Northern Realms, then later throughout the galaxy. Diverting from the aforementioned ways and detaching themselves from the previous failings of their predecessors, Catra and Stormfly served the people of the realms through the pair's empathy and bonds with others, inspiring those suffering under the grip of tyranny to rise up and fight for freedom. She saw emotions as powerful forces that were capable of fostering understanding and connection. Like her ancestors, Catra was a confident and moralistic person, and a firm defender of the innocent. However, despite her pure intentions, even without time she spend controlled by the Goon, Catra still freely admitted to not being perfect and it was impossible for her to ensure that pain would not befall the people she cared about. Thus, she faced brushes with the dark side of the Force, especially during her time living in the 99 Realms, where she still continued suffered from grief over the loss of her friends and guilt over the fact that she wasn't there to help them, but the presence of her new teammates allowed her to come to terms with these losses and move on. Nonetheless, Catra's guilt remained and when Kieth was immobilized with indecision between pursuing his mother when she disappeared into the underground caverns or saving the realms from destruction, Catra helped pull him to his feet, pleading with her friend to not fail his worlds the way that she had failed hers. She felt as though she had been a hero in her past and was once again, although she knew she needed to try to avoid tapping excessively into the side of her nature that was accustomed to working with no one besides Stormfly. She decided to find a middle path to her life when she became a member of the Sensian team but refused to allow her heart to harden when faced with the death of friends.

Catra was fiercely protective of the defenseless, but she learned from experience that she could not stop death, no matter how much she wished it could always be prevented. After her time beneath the subjugation by the dark side, Catra's confidence in her abilities and purity took a massive blow, though she hid it well. Secretly, the young Defender of the Northern Realms feared that she was not strong enough but regained her previous mettle in due time. Catra was aware of the fact that she sometimes tended to negatively compare herself to more experienced figures like Lian and her elders, whom she considered to be living legends. Despite conflicts within herself, she vowed to never let down people like her friends and Baatar, who truly believed in her. As an individual who prioritized the welfare of others both because of her training and as a matter of principle, Catra extended this same compassion to both friends and strangers alike. Although the Dragon Rider understood that she could not save everyone and was prepared to commit sacrifices for the good of the many, she confessed to wishing that she could take the blows for every soldier that perished throughout the countless battles that she fought, though she was forewarned from taking a path that could lead her to suffering from survivor’s guilt. When she and her allies aboard the Direct found themselves on Giti VI, a planet that, because of its temporal displacement, was inhabited by a population descended from an alternate version of the crew that had been transported back in time and stranded there, Catra was one of the firmest proponents for ensuring that this timeline remained intact, even if it meant marooning themselves in the past. Despite knowing that her alternate counterpart had died because of the crash, she was content with sharing this fate and letting history take its course, agreeing that one death was a small sacrifice if that meant that this timeline would remain intact and knowing that eight thousand people would otherwise cease to exist. She was aghast when it seemed that Captain Gregor was prepared to depart, even knowing what the consequences would be, and showed visible relief when the crew resolved to make the sacrifice. When the interference of one of these people caused the Direct to return to its own timeline, wiping out the colony in the process, Catra was distraught and became horrified when she and Adora discovered that it had been a descendant of the latter’s alternate counterpart that had averted their attempt to preserve the timeline, although she was nonetheless motivated to move on and honor this loss, not dwell upon it.

Despite her disputed views about the Jedi Order, their notion about forgoing personal attachments nonetheless affected Catra and made it difficult for her to process her growing feelings for Adora and added to her self-doubt. This, in turn, made it difficult for Adora to confess her own attraction, even though she had accepted and was prepared to walk away if her friend would prefer to accept the Jedi Code rather than be with her. After being freed from the Goon, Catra was hesitant to approach reminders about her tortured life, since they stirred traumatic memories for her. While speaking to Kieth, she explained that her fear was not necessarily about the Goon itself or even reminders about who she had been under the darkness but was more that the reminders of what she had done, if awakened, would leave her unable to face herself, let alone others, especially Adora, admitting her own attractions for the girl. Kieth, however, told her that by facing her fears with the knowledge that she had friends who loved her, Catra could defeat it. This advice helped her overcome the darkness within her and she later burned the mask and robes that she had worn as the Striker in an effort to let go, as Jedi did. On the other hand, rather than destroy her lightsaber, Catra preferred to refashion it, purifying the kyber crystals and reconstructing the weapon as a symbol that she had accepted her past and was ready to build a new future. Similarly, she came to understand that she could continue to uphold her beliefs, but still love Adora, with the two ultimately admitting their feelings for one another.

As the Dark Striker[]

Under the thrall of the Goon, Catra was twisted from a pure-hearted woman and defender of freedom and transformed into a warped, ruthless and sadistic monster that lived to fulfill the bidding of her master, the Dark Lord. Although the Goon could utilize her as its mouthpiece and was influencing her actions, the dark shell that had been left developed its own persona that the creature manipulated through its control, which retained her intelligence and skills, but suppressed the positive traits that had defined her, leaving only the darkest remaining. This personality largely mirrored that of the Goon and its own master, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, to the point where it was had to determine how their natures diverged. As the Dark Striker, Catra became an unflinching minion of the Dark Lord that served him without question as one of his favored enforcers, losing all connection to the Northern Realms and its inhabitants, who the Striker helped suppressed. Among the Dark Ones, the brainwashed dark side adept wielded significant power and respect, with High Lieutenant Darkness Magicar addressing her with the respect of an equal, while lower-ranking Underlords feared her on principle and scurried to clear a path whenever she appearance before them, scrambling to the allow her unblocked passage and avoid her wrath. When the Goon possessed her, the Dark Warrior that had once been the Northern Champion maintained her sharp tongue, but one that was twisted to a malicious alternative, sarcastically commenting on the astonishment that Keith when he first sighted Stormfly and realized that the dragon was another ancient creature, which she noted, rhetorically observing that Sensian did not "get out very much". Although she also expressed sadistic tendencies, the blame for this, like the majority of the Dark Striker's entire nature, lay with those controlling her, not Catra herself, and she was, for all intents and purposes, another person entirely. Despite this brainwashing, however, the strong bond that Catra shared with her dragon remained, allowing the Goon to warp both their natures, and she often caressed Stormfly affectionately.

Independently, the Dark Striker was most definable by her grief for the losses of her friends at the Battle of Peachblossom Spring, especially Sanela. Feeding off the heartbreak that the actual Catra had felt and continued to feel with the repeated memories of her friend's death, before her eyes, the corrupt Force-sensitive was left to sink into a sadness that ultimately became deep pain. After living of this grief for twenty years, the mixture of the darkness that had taken over Catra and the unrestricted grief that she alone felt left her conflicted and heartbroken, stuck in a repetitive nightmare that had her constantly reliving the moment that Sanela died over and over again, which only fed her darkness, making it more vengeful. Wary and brutal, the Dark Striker had no qualms about attacking those who stood in her way, displaying great violence and ruthlessness. Even as this warrior, Catra's strategic mind and intellectual prowess remained sharp. She excelled in her covert operations and missions for the Dark Ones, using her deep understanding of the rebels - many of them her former friends - to anticipate and counter their moves. Her ability to adapt and think several steps ahead made her a formidable opponent, respected and feared by both allies and enemies.