Why Was Catra's Redemption Arc So Well Received

[Winter]

Often considered to be the best character of the She-Ra reboot Catra's redemption arc is a point of contention with some fans but on the whole most viewers excepted said redemption and felt that even after everything Catra did she was worthy of love and to be seen as a hero. By contrast, and I apologize for continuingly bring this dead horse into the race, the redemption of Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is considered one of the weakest redemption arcs ever made with many feeling that it undermined or straight up ruined Kylo's character in the first two films.

So, what did the Catgirl do right that the Grandson of Darth Vader didn't?

I think part of it was down to the fact that Catra's story from season 1 through 4 is tragedy. Red over on Overly Sarcastic Productions just posted a video that delved into what makes a tragedy a tragedy and to save myself time I'll just link said video here. Huzzah, Justified Laziness!


youtu.be/TL4ti1EGNiw

Catra's arc in season 1 through 4 is all a result of Catra's own fatal flaw and that flaw is her warped perceptive of what she wants. All Catra wants is feel safe, to belong in a place she matters and to be loved but because of Shadow Weavers Wonderful Parenting (<--- Sarcasm) Catra has fooled herself into thinking that what she really wants is power, respect and for those around her to fear her. And this lie that she tells herself drives her to commit horrible things and they are all down to her own actions. No one made her do these things, no one forced her to make any mistakes. She knew what she was doing and what the likely outcome would be and did it anyway.

This ties into why some feel that Catra was beyond redemption and should have remained a villain but this isn't the story of a villain who is defeated it's the story of one girl who fails to see that she is destroying herself because she can't except the idea that she is worthy of love for anyone. And the reason this helps to make her redemption all the more believable is because her friend turned enemy turned friend again and eventual lover, Adora, is basically the same in that regard.

Adora was trained to be one thing, useful, be it as She-Ra or as a Horde Soldier Adora was raised with the mindset that you are nothing unless you give everything you have other people and if you want something for yourself then you are a selfish and a horrible person. Another great example of Shadow Weaver's fantastic parenting (that self-centered B!tch )!

Adora throughout the series defines herself as how she is useful and what she can give to other people and fears letting others down to the point that she is willing to sacrifice her own life even if it's completely avoidable. And this mindset is, unknowingly, further hammered in by the Rebellion.

Everyone in the Rebellion first saw Adora as She-Ra and what she could do to help them. They still saw her as a person and valued her and I'm 100% certain that if they knew just how F#(K up Adora was they would never had tried to add to her self-destructive mindset.

But throughout all of this there is one person who only ever saw Adora as just Adora and never as She-Ra and was the only person who could ever let Adora be herself even when they were just enemies. Catra.

Adora's self-worth arc is intrinsically tied into Catra's redemption arc to the point that removing one would undermined if not out right ruin both arcs and the series would be lesser for it. In Corridors Catra comes to realize that she truly has nothing left to fight for. The Empire she fought for is gone, the empire she now works with is one she will never be able to take over and she believes that there isn't anyone left in the galaxy who cares for her. The only thing she has is her love for Adora and when removed from all of Shadow Weaver's and Light Hope's manipulation she comes to understand that if she can do just one good thing it would be to save the girl she loves.

And this one good act is all Adora needs to risk her own life to go and save Catra because now she sees that there is a way for her to be with the girl she loves and as she later reveals she never hated Catra, she just realized that she couldn't save her from herself.

The reason Kylo Ren's arc falls flat is because he has no central flaw. He wants to be like Darth Vader, he then wants to let the past die, then he wants Rey. He goes from motive to motive so at the end, in BOTH versions of Episode 9, when he chooses to give up his life to save Rey and find redemption it feels forced because it's done for the most shallow reason. Because his mom gave him a call and he no longer wants to the bad buy.

There's also the fact that Catra's redemption doesn't stop at her saving Glimmer because, as I said, now that Adora knows there is good in her (and after she spends a whole episode coming to terms with that) she decides to go after her and save Catra from Horde Prime. And Adora manages to save Catra but Catra doesn't understand why. Why would Adora risk coming for her, she doesn't matter but that gets thrown out the window when Adora A) Tells Catra that she matters to her and B) Makes it clear to Catra that she never hated her.

Catra doesn't truly join the heroes until episode 7, after she apologizes to Entrapta for what she did to her. Not because she had to but because she wanted Entrapta to know she was sorry for what she did.

Kylo, apologizes to Han for killing him... sorta... kinda... not really... Okay not at all. He sees a vision of Han, but it's not Han because Han was never a Jedi and Kylo is telling Han that he doesn't want to be bad anymore and Han says it's okay to be good so Kylo throws his lightsaber away and GAH, The Disney Sequel Trilogy was STUPID!!!

Catra's redemption works because the show takes the time it needs to let her see that she can be saved and join the heroes. And the reason the heroes are willing to let her join them despite all she did to them? Well, Catra isn't the only one who screwed up.

Glimmer nearly destroyed all of Etheria by activating the Heart of Etheria which drew Horde Prime to Etheria and now he is endangering and that was a result of her refusing to listen to her friends when they had made it clear that trying to use the Heart of Etheria would end badly. And it should also be noted that Adora killed Light Hope, who was, in the end, an innocent in all this as she was reprogrammed against her will to ensure the Heart would activate and Adora was forced to basically kill her to save all of Etheria. And Entrapta created an army of robots knowing that it would be used against the rebellion and created the portal that Catra activated that nearly destroyed Etheria.

Everyone of the Best friend Squad committed a horrible act either to save everyone or to doom everyone... Except for Bow, he's the only one who never did anything wrong because he's the only one smart enough not to meddle in forces that threaten to rip the world apart.

Catra's arc works, for me at least, because her story is coming to recognize that for all her mistakes Adora never stopped loving her and she never stopped loving Adora and through that love both girls were able to save each other.

Kylo's redemption and arc as a whole is just the story of Darth Vader. Good person turned to evil finds redemption and dies for his sins. The only notable is that the person he loves is romantic while Vader's was familial that was born out of desire to protect all he loved that led him down the dark path because he couldn't bare to lose his wife and children and that same love managed to pull him back when he finally had a chance to truly save his son. Kylo developed a crush on a girl he just met and stalked and gaslighted her until he decided to just be good again because of his parents making his entire relationship with Rey completely pointless.

[phantom000]

I can't really comment of Ren as I have never seen the sequel trilogy aside from TFA, nothing about it made me want to watch the rest of the trilogy. But to be fair, Vader's redemption was not handled very well in the original trilogy. It's just so haphazard it seems to come out of no where. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, i'm just saying it could have been handled better and that is what Catra's story is.

As the audience, we actually want to see Catra redeemed we see her having what are very relatable moments with Scorpia and Entrapta. We see the parts of her we can sympathize with, in that she isn't very different from most people but we can also respect her as she is clearly a capable fighter and competent leader. When she takes over the Horde are afraid for Adora and the Princesses, but we are also cheering Catra on.

Unlike with Luke we can see why Adora wants to redeem Catra because this is someone she has been with for as long as she can remember, as opposed to a father who she knows so little about he might as well be a total stranger. We can see why she would be willing to risk the fate of the universe for the sake of one person (which was something i never understood about Luke to be honest).

But I think a big reason Catra's arc was more successful is because she is very much on her own Hero's Journey that parallels Adora's at every step. When Adora leaves the Horde it is the beginning of both their journeys as the life they have known has come to an end. Like Adora we see Catra facing her own trials, growing as she conquers each one. They both have their own mentors to guide them; Shadow Weaver for Catra, Light Hope for Adora. They each have a return, when they meet up again and realize what they actually mean to each other.

I think that is why the new She-ra cartoon really took off because you can see how both Catra and Adora are following similar paths. I think this is also what made the Original Trilogy work so well is that you can see how now just Luke but Han, Leia and Vader, are on their own journeys.

[TulipQulqu]

The short answer is a lot simpler: Catra basically just hurt everyone's feelings really bad. Well, except Glimmer's mom Angella. I feel like the show forgot that she was supposed to be theoretically savable from her dimensional exile but also there is a lot of "cannot kill people on a kids show" to her effective death so it is a bit of a mess.

But anyway, Catra at most has a body count of 1 and that was unintended.

Ben Solo murdered his dad. He kept being evil by continuing to try to kill every member of the resistance. He kept running the evil faction until they ran out of spare footage of Carrie Fisher and she died for his sins.

[PerrySimm]

Sure, the arcs of Ben and Catra are at least comparable. They both play second banana in the evil empire until they usurp their masters, and then pull a heel face turn after they find themselves up against a galactic mastermind completely out of their league.

If they had used time effectively, especially in TLJ, perhaps Ben's arc would be better received. Catra's arc was fine, but if it had come any later it would have felt rushed or tacked on. And while Ben managed to play it like all he had to do was let go of all the rage and resume the Jedi path, Catra loses a lot of personality after switching sides.

[Winter]

Catra loses a lot of personality after switching sides.

I really can't agree. Catra is just as short tempered and as arrogant as every the only difference is she is working on her anger and actively trying to be a better person. Hell, she still insults everyone she can even when she's on the same side but not as sadistic. Just take a look at her cute sneeze scene, that is in line with how she acts whenever Scorpia called her cute or when she notes just how stupid the Best friend Squads "Plans" usually are.

In short Catra is the same person she was when she was with the Horde she's just now trying to be calmer and more kind so it doesn't feel like we're watching a completely different character. Ben Solo on the other hand is NOT Kylo Ren. Besides being played by the same actor Kylo and Ben have NOTHING in common and it's not a case of character development it's a completely 180 flip.

Kylo almost never shuts up, Ben only has ONE Line throughout the Trilogy. Kylo always tries to make sure he has a chance of winning before going into a fight while Ben Literally jumps into danger without no weapons. Kylo is short tampered Ben is calm even when he's getting his @$$ kicked.

This plays very well into my theory that Kylo died on the Endor moon given how much he changes between events.

Catra is the same person except shes' undergoing character development so while she's a different person then she was at the start of the series she's still Catra. Kylo does not develop into Ben, Adam Driver is given a different character and gives a good performance as said character.