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* CumbersomeClaws: Scorpia is a woman who has massive scorpion claws for hands. They're very strong and powerful, but too bulky for her to handle delicate tasks like pressing buttons on a keyboard.
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* CumbersomeClaws: Scorpia is a woman who She has massive scorpion claws for hands. They're very strong and powerful, but too bulky for her to handle delicate tasks like pressing buttons on a keyboard.
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* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her family's kingdom was taken over by the Horde and her family has never been seen from.
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* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her family's kingdom was taken over by the Horde and her family has never been seen or heard from.
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* FreudianExcuse: It's implied her family was seen as outcasts among princesses, which apparently was their primary motivation to willingly join the Horde and give up their Runestone. Of course, a flashback in Season 2 very strongly implies that her people were merely the first that the Horde conquered, which would mean that this was simply a lie that Scorpia was told to keep her in line.
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* FreudianExcuse: It's implied her family was seen as outcasts among the princesses, which apparently was their primary motivation to willingly join the Horde and give up their Runestone. Of course, a flashback in Season 2 very strongly implies that her people were merely the first that the Horde conquered, which would mean that this was simply a lie that Scorpia was told to keep her in line.
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[[center: [-[[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerTheRebellion The Rebellion]] ([[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerAdora Adora]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerGlimmer Glimmer]]) | '''The Horde''' ([[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra Catra]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordak Hordak]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerShadowWeaver Shadow Weaver]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime]]) | [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerOtherGroups Other Groups]] ([[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerEntrapta Entrapta]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerDoubleTrouble Double Trouble]]) ]]-]
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[[center: [-[[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerTheRebellion The Rebellion]] ([[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerAdora Adora]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerGlimmer Glimmer]]) Adora]]) | '''The Horde''' ([[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra Catra]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordak Hordak]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerShadowWeaver Shadow Weaver]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime]]) Hordak]]) | [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerOtherGroups Other Groups]] ([[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerEntrapta Entrapta]], [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerDoubleTrouble Double Trouble]]) ]]-]Groups]]]]-]
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''See [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordak character page]] for information regarding Hordak.''
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''See Hordak's page [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordak character page]] for information regarding Hordak.''here]].
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See her page [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerShadowWeaver here]]
[[/folder]]
!!Force Captains
[[folder:Catra]]
''See [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra character page]] for information regarding Catra.''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scorpia]]
!!'''Scorpia, Force Captain, Princess of the Fright Zone'''
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scorpiarender.png]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaurenAsh (English)[[labelnote:additional voice actors]]Saori Terai (Japanese)[[/labelnote]]
->''"I am brave, strong, loyal, and give great hugs. And I am going to be the best friend that I CAN BE!"''
Scorpia is a gregarious and enthusiastic Force Captain who grew up in the Horde. Even though she possesses super-strength, she is quite clumsy and somewhat oblivious to just how strong she really is. With her eager-to-please attitude, she naturally falls into the role of minion. Even though her allegiance is to the Horde, deep down she has a good heart.
[[/folder]]
!!Force Captains
[[folder:Catra]]
''See [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra character page]] for information regarding Catra.''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scorpia]]
!!'''Scorpia, Force Captain, Princess of the Fright Zone'''
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scorpiarender.png]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaurenAsh (English)[[labelnote:additional voice actors]]Saori Terai (Japanese)[[/labelnote]]
->''"I am brave, strong, loyal, and give great hugs. And I am going to be the best friend that I CAN BE!"''
Scorpia is a gregarious and enthusiastic Force Captain who grew up in the Horde. Even though she possesses super-strength, she is quite clumsy and somewhat oblivious to just how strong she really is. With her eager-to-please attitude, she naturally falls into the role of minion. Even though her allegiance is to the Horde, deep down she has a good heart.
to:
[[/folder]]
!!Force Captains
[[folder:Catra]]
''See [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra character page]] for information regarding Catra.''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scorpia]]
!!'''Scorpia, Force Captain, Princess of the Fright Zone'''
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/LorraineToussaint (English)[[labelnote:additional voice actors]]Creator/KikukoInoue ([[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage Japanese]])[[/labelnote]]
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaurenAsh (English)[[labelnote:additional voice actors]]Saori Terai (Japanese)[[/labelnote]]
->''"I am brave, strong, loyal, and give great hugs. And I am going
[[caption-width-right:310:[[labelnote: Click here to
Scorpia
[[caption-width-right:310:[[labelnote: Click here to see her face]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shadow_weaver_face_1.png[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"You're welcome..."''
Shadow Weaver is a
* AbusiveMom: While the Horde had no concept of parental relationships and its soldiers are not raised as siblings, she did follow Adora and Catra's growth much more closely than she did with any other cadet. Adora got mostly controlling, emotionally manipulative forms of abuse, while she outright threatened to kill Catra more than once and attacked her multiple times. [[spoiler:Even after switching over to the Rebellion and while she is fairly more reasonable than before, her abuses have only increased now that she has her sights on Glimmer as a new powerful protege. She continues to play mind games with Adora while during the climax of Season 3 almost killed Catra. Then in Season 4 she convinced Glimmer to use Adora as bait to launch a surprise attack on Catra, meaning she greatly endangered her "daughters" to test her new apprentice]].
* AchillesHeel: She has no innate power and must drain some magical power source in order to perform magic. She performs shadow magic by drawing power from the Black Garnet, using the gem in her mask as a conduit. When Catra destroys the gem, Shadow Weaver is rendered powerless.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The original series heavily implies that whatever she did to grab power did a ''huge'' number on her face, that it would be too disturbing to show. [[spoiler:When we do finally see her face, she has certainly been scarred, but not as horrific as the 80s show made it out to be]].
* AdaptationalBadass: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. In the original series, Light Spinner was a mediocre sorceress who sold out Mystacor to the Horde in exchange for greater magical power. Here, she was Castaspella's predecessor as leader of Mystacor, meaning that she was already quite powerful, but sold out her people anyway.
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: On several occasions, she tenderly tucks a strand of Adora's hair behind her ear. She does the same to Catra when she needs to get to her good side. She did this with Micah too. [[spoiler:This is a 'tell' that she's emotionally manipulating someone. In later seasons Adora and others angrily brush her hand away when they push back.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:She sacrifices herself to save Catra and Adora, despite the former's pleas to not fight the monster. Even after all the abuse they endured from her, they still mourned her death. In the end, Shadow Weaver still wasted her life with choices that that only harmed herself and those around her, and it only further motivates Catra to not repeat those same mistakes moving forward]].
* AllForNothing: Shadow Weaver betrayed everyone she was close to, emotionally (and physically in Catra's case) abused her wards, manipulated fraying friendships, and aided a violent dictatorship, all in the aim of gaining access to incredible magic power. [[spoiler:But she's so thoroughly destroyed her relationship with Adora that even though she convinces her to unleash all of Etheria's magic, Adora makes it clear that Weaver won't be allowed anywhere ''close'' to the magic she's trying to gain. If she had genuinely protected Mystacor or treated Adora and Catra with respect, she would've had access to Etheria's magic without any resistance. At the end of it all, she's utterly diminished and washed up. By the time she realizes this, it's just too late and accepts there is no future for her]].
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Insists that the people of Mystacor shunned and looked down on her, which is why she signed up with Hordak. It's revealed she was a respected sorceress, but that she was so power-hungry, people were afraid of her.
* AltoVillainess: Her voice is deep and silky, in contrast to the high-pitched, brittle voice of her 1980s counterpart.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Even when she was still Light Spinner, she had greenish-gray skin.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Even when she wasn't corrupted, her hunger for power continuously led people to distrust her. This eventually led her to participate in making a forbidden spell that gave her great power in exchange for severely messing up her mind.
* AmuletOfDependency: She uses the Black Garnet Runestone to increase her powers, but having that connection to it means she's dependent on it to recharge her strength. She appears to be in pain when she needs a recharge. When Catra destroys the jewel on her mask that was somehow connected to the Black Garnet, she apparently loses her powers completely. It's revealed the forbidden spell she used in Mystacor turns her into a PowerParasite that needs something else to feed on.
* ArcVillainess: For much of Season 1, Shadow Weaver was the Rebellion's most dangerous threat, with her fearsome shadow magic, scrying, and the like, bent on trying to recapture Adora.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Catra subdues her by destroying the jewel in her mask that binds her to the Black Garnet.
* BeingEvilSucks: Even she's not immune to this. Throughout her entire life, the DarkSide drives her to ruin what little good things she had in a never ending quest for power [[AllForNothing with no reward at the end]] and leaves her unable to form a meaningful connection to anyone or anything, to the point where all she does is abuse her foster daughters. She doesn't know how to do anything other than hate and bring pain to others and it eats away at her [[spoiler:until the only peace she ever attains is when she decides to sacrifice herself to save Adora and Catra, even telling Catra she's got a bright future ahead of her, while a person of her character has no place with them in the universe]].
* BigBadWannabe: Shadow Weaver is powerful, intimidating, and threatening. However, her single-minded obsession with getting Adora back under her thumb instead of fighting the war makes Shadow Weaver a much less efficient enemy than her subaltern Catra. Also, Shadow Weaver's power is wholly limited to what Hordak allows her to do, and while she's a powerful sorceress, she's an extremely weak fighter that can be taken out easily. Eventually, this destroys her when Catra proves to be the better soldier and strategist, gaining favor from Hordak and becoming his second in command over Shadow Weaver.
* BigNo: After Catra destroys the stone in her mask, she crumbles to the floor screaming.
* BlackSheep: Light Spinner became this to Mystacor after her desire for power led her to use the Spell of Obtainment and kill several sorcerers before leaving. Her story is used as a cautionary tale of what the lust for dark magic can do to sorcerers. As if to emphasize this, as opposed to the clean white statues surrounding it in the Hall of Sorcerers Light Spinner's statue is dark and in disrepair.
* BoisterousWeakling: She sees herself as a powerful sorceress and the only one who can tap into the true power of the Black Garnet. Hordak himself spells out plainly that once she managed to tap into the Garnet, she just used it for "parlor tricks", and that Entrapta has done more for the Horde with the Runestone in ''hours'' than Shadow Weaver had in ''years.'' When Catra shatters the crystal on her mask and depowers her, all she can do is whine for her power to come back.
* BondBreaker: She's this to the Beast Friend squad in season 4 given that her pragmatism and goals warp Glimmer's sense of morality which breaks the squad up.
* BoomerangBigot: Seems to have a special hatred for those who have to earn their power over those born to it. Given that she had to work and sacrifice for the power she has...
* BrokenPedestal: The Sorcerer's Guild became one to her as time went on; Light Spinner admired them and aspired to become a great sorceress herself, but she struggles with their teachings and is frustrated that the Guild didn't trust or respect her. She grows particularly alienated from them due to their failure to take action against the Horde causing her to leave the Order. She eventually turns her back on the Guild and becomes a dark sorceress in order to seize the power she thinks she deserves, even claiming to Norwyn during their battle that "they're fools".
** [[spoiler:Becomes this in turn to Micah. He attacks her ''on sight'' when he's brought back from Beast Island.]]
* BroughtDownToBadass: Loses her powers after Catra severs her connection to the Black Garnet, but she's still a highly effective schemer and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulator]], and also still capable of performing magic, provided she has an appropriate power source to draw on. She's able to leverage both talents to escape Horde captivity over the events of "Light Spinner". Season 4 also shows that [[spoiler:even without magical power, she can still bat aside Micah's spells when he attacks her with no more effort than swatting a fly]].
* CantCatchUp: The main cast slowly surpasses her in political power (in Catra's case) and magic power (in the case of Glimmer and She-Ra). The addition of [[spoiler:King Micah, possibly the most powerful magic user in the setting]] to the main cast in Season 4 solidifies this. Part of it is also due to age, and by that time she's just not in her prime anymore.
* CardCarryingVillain: Shadow Weaver won't even deny that she is evil. She does many petty things ForTheEvulz, while other times, she will excuse her actions as NecessarilyEvil as in her treatment of Adora and Catra. Indeed, while raising Adora, she outright encouraged Adora to be ruthless and cutthroat.
* CaringGardener: Played with. In Season 4, Shadow Weaver takes up flower gardening [[spoiler:during her captivity at Bright Moon, but she is still sinister and manipulative in her conversation with Glimmer. Indeed, as pointed out in [[https://larkfeather1153.tumblr.com/post/188932883680 this post]], her gardening style - in which she's almost constantly shown pruning - is a good metaphor for how she treats people: she raises them to serve her purposes, sculpts their growth, and cuts away the parts that aren't useful to her. Like Catra's self-esteem or Glimmer's relationship with Adora. At the very least this has shown Shadow Weaver isn't so uncultured and barbaric]].
* CassandraTruth: [[spoiler:In the Season 4 finale, she tries to tell Glimmer that activating all the Runestones at once is a ''horrible'' idea. However, she makes the mistake of bringing up Angella, and Glimmer brushes her off.]]
* CastingAShadow: Her magic takes the form of inky blackness from which she can do things like [[MundaneUtility conjure promotion badges]] and conjure spy shadows. It's mentioned in the show that Shadow Weaver is a sorceress and presumably could perform magic when she was Light Spinner but how much of her powers are her own and how much she derives from the Black Garnet is unclear. When Catra smashes the gemstone on Shadow Weaver's forehead she seemingly becomes powerless.
* TheComicallySerious: What little humor comes out of her is of this variety. As deadly and terrifying as she is, it's impossible not to chuckle at the scene in Season 4 where we find out she's taken up gardening to kill time. In fact, ND Stevenson even said on his Twitter that this was chosen specifically ''because'' it was the funniest possible thing the writers could have had her do as a hobby.
* TheDarkArts: In Season 2, flashbacks reveal that she used forbidden magic in an attempt to empower herself, becoming disfigured in the process. The spell summoned an eldritch abomination that endowed her with shadow magic, which she used to ''absorb'' three of Mystacor's leaders.
* DarkIsEvil: She's Hordak's [[TheDragon Dragon]], a WickedWitch, and named ''Shadow'' Weaver.
* TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: As Light Spinner, Shadow Weaver was the only magic user at Mystacore that recognized how much of a threat the Horde posed, the others, especially Norwyn, thinking that the princesses could handle it. At most, she started out as a WellIntentionedExtremist. When they refused to listen to her warnings, her frustration and ambition led her to attempt a forbidden spell that turned her into a PowerParasite, twisting her mind in the process. She then killed Norwyn before leaving, and the next we see of her, she's joined the Horde herself.
* DeadpanSnarker: When [[spoiler:Scorpia]] asks if Shadow Weaver's garden is a prison, she responds [[StealthInsult that it wasn't, until recently]].
* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler:Her death is a critique of the trope in a way. Shadow Weaver, after all the bad things she's done to Catra and Adora, realizes there is no way she'll be able to take the power of the Heart for herself whether Adora survives or not, since the other members of the Rebelion would stop her anyway, and decides to die for them. While she didn't have to sacrifice herself to stop the creature attacking the heroes, she chooses to do a MutualKill while telling Catra how proud she is of her. Even in her one moment closest to altruism, there's still an attempt at self-gain in that she suspects she'll be considered redeemed if she dies in the process of her one good act.]]
-->'''Creator/NDStevenson''': What I like about it is that it's still very fitting for her. [[spoiler:It's still kind of a selfish end. It was something that Catra was also confronted with, "maybe I've done so much wrong that the only way to make up for it is to sacrifice myself and die, and they'll have to forgive me cause I died saving someone." Catra is forced to stick around and actually confront the mistakes she has made and actually fix them, becoming a better and more positive person through that. Shadow Weaver makes that choice to just sort of peace out. Even that smug little smile at the end, that "now you have to forgive me good-bye," it's so her. I love it.]]
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver made the choice to sacrifice herself, and given how she believes there's no place for people like her unlike Catra, she was very resigned to the fact that she was going to die from it. It's rather evident in her body language she knew ''this'' was the moment for her to arrive at death's door and her expression indicates she's found peace with it]].
* DontYouDarePityMe: Almost name-drops this trope when Catra shows sympathy for her after she's chewed out by Hordak.
* TheDragon: Like in the original series, she's the second-in-command of the Horde. She is later demoted from this role in favor of Catra.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: She continues her plan to bring Adora back by any means despite being ordered by Hordak to forget about her.
* TheDreaded: ''Everyone'' in the Horde fears her... except Double Trouble, apparently.
* DrowningMySorrows: [[spoiler:After Adora's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, declaring she will never allow Shadow Weaver access to the power she's sought for years, Catra finds her slumped over some crates in the Rebellion's hideout with a goblet in-hand. Her speech and movements are noticeably slurred as Catra convinces her to teleport them to Adora.]]
* DubNameChange: Her name is changed/translated to "Tejesombras," in the European Spanish dub, "Ténébra" in the French dub, and "Sombria" in the Portuguese dub.
* DyingAsYourself: Played with. [[spoiler:She uses what magic she could absorb from the Heart of Etheria to fend off a monster controlled by Horde Prime, giving Adora and Catra the opportunity to shut it down for good. Before her former protégés leave, she removes her mask, letting both them and the audience get one good look at her face and telling Adora and Catra that she is proud of them before going out in a blaze of magic and fire. However, she mainly did this out of the belief that she had done too many awful things to earn forgiveness any other way than by sacrificing herself to save the heroes.]]
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale, Shadow Weaver goes out protecting Adora and Catra from a massive monster commanded by Horde Prime, drawing magical power from the ''Heart of Etheria itself'' to briefly regain her original spellcasting powers and destroy both the monster and herself in a massive explosion of magic energy.]]
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Calls for a truce with the Rebellion, no questions asked--if only to get revenge on Hordak and the Horde for demoting and imprisoning her.]]
* EvenEvilCanBeLoved:
** Despite Shadow Weaver's abuse towards Catra, and the young girl's own actions against the darkness wielder, Catra does show signs of affection towards the sorceress a few times. She even tried to convince Hordak to spare her, which allows Shadow Weaver to escape. [[spoiler:Catra's love for her reaches a climax in the finale, when the feline begs and cries for Shadow Weaver not to make a HeroicSacrifice for the sake of Catra and Adora.]]
** Despite being emotionally manipulated by her all her life and being forced to watch as her best friend[[spoiler:/ love interest]] was essentially tortured by her, Adora has a hope (albeit not as much as Catra) that there might be some good in Shadow Weaver. [[spoiler:Part of the reason that Adora wanted to speak to Shadow Weaver when she came to see her in Bright Moon was the hope that the woman who raised her might have some good in her. Though when pushed too far Adora stops pitying her and firmly declares she'll never forgive her for all the things she did, much like Catra, Adora cries in the series finale when Shadow Weaver sacrifices herself to save the two of them, if only to lament that the sorceress practically squandered her whole life becoming the abuser she knew growing up]].
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** Despite being an awful person towards everyone, even to her wards, she appears genuinely fond of Micah, even sparing him and touching his cheek before leaving. This is one of the reasons why Shadow Weaver would not have had anything to do with his death. In fact, it's implied she secretly mourns his death, [[spoiler:and she seems to project this relationship she had with him through his daughter, Glimmer, and was actually happy (enough to stop in the middle of a taunt) to see Micah when it turns out he's alive. We see her try to connect with him in Season 5, and she seems genuinely sad about him rebuffing her, so she decides to do him one more favor and save him from Horde Prime's control]].
** For most of the series this doesn't appear to be the case towards her wards (unless it's in an extremely twisted and abusive way) and she spends more time manipulating them then showing any real affection for them. [[spoiler:But, in the finale, she comes to realize belatedly, that she does care about Adora and Catra after all, at least enough to consider their futures worth sacrificing herself for, and tells Catra that [[SoProudOfYou she is proud of her]] for making better choices than she did and giving her the chance to be the person she wants]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Despite [[spoiler:trying to influence Glimmer into using whatever means necessary to wipe out the Horde and ensure the rebellion's victory, even she criticizes Glimmer's plan to use the [[FantasticNuke Heart]] immediately after finding out how how incredibly reckless and dangerous trying to do so would be.]]
* EvilCounterpart: To Angella of the Rebellion. Both are powerful magicians, the few visible adults in their respective armies, and controlling mother figures who have difficult relationships with their children. But while Angella's flaws are due to an overabundance of love and crippling fear of losing her daughter (which she eventually learns to overcome and builds a stronger bond with her child), Shadow Weaver's control and fear of losing her children is less about concern and more about how it will affect her own goals, and she eventually drives both her surrogate daughters away because she refuses to change. [[spoiler:Both Angella and Shadow Weaver sacrifice their own lives to save their children.]]
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Shadow Weaver does gain some sense of humor in later seasons, but her idea of a joke is horribly mean-spirited.
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: [[spoiler:In the series finale, viewers finally see her face under the mask -- she has an UndeathlyPallor, scars around her eyes and down her face, and uneven fangs poking over her lips.]]
* EvilOldFolks: Shadow Weaver was an adult while Micah was a teenager, which means in the present she's old enough to be Glimmer's (Micah's teenage daughter) grandmother.
* EvilParentsWantGoodKids: [[spoiler:For all the choices she made and pain she's wrought on Catra, Shadow Weaver ultimately resigns herself to the fact that she cannot take them back, but knows Catra has a bright future ahead of her and tells her before dying not to waste her life like she did]].
* EvilVirtues: [[spoiler:Maturity, though Shadow Weaver exhibits this more in later seasons. In contrast to her indignant behavior towards Hordak in the first season, later seasons show that even for all her selfish desire for power, she eventually learns how to suck it up, learn from her mistakes, and be satisfied with the gains she does get, no matter how small. This newfound perspective is what allows her to make the best out of an otherwise bad situation while in Bright Moon]].
* ExactWords: Claims she "found" Adora. Doesn't specify where or how. It later turns out the Horde found Adora, and Shadow Weaver was passing by when she saw something about her.
* ExpressiveMask: The eye slits on her mask can change depending on how she expresses herself, mostly the white parts.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:As horrible as she was, she has some honor when it comes to facing death. Shadow Weaver in the finale decided to take on the defensive creature hacked by Horde Prime. Just as she's about to make the final blow knowing it would kill her, Shadow Weaver takes off her mask, looking death straight in the face, calmly and bravely accepting it]].
* TheFaceless: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in that we have never seen her ''entire'' face, just parts of it; when she was Light Spinner she always wore a veil that covered her face from the nose down, and since her horrendous disfigurement after using the Spell of Obtainment (save for one glimpse just after the act) she constantly wears a face-concealing mask even after it has been visibly cracked down the center. [[spoiler:Finally [[AvertedTrope averted]] in "Heart, Part 2", when she takes her mask off to tell Adora and Catra that she is proud of them both before going out in a blaze of magic to destroy a monster controlled by Horde Prime.]]
* FacialHorror: Only a quick glimpse of it is seen, but her face is grayish, heavily veined, with bulging eyes that have deformed pupils all unnaturally detailed for the show's artwork. [[spoiler:The finale gives a full view of her scarred face, which shows that a part of her lip is damaged to the point of showing her teeth even when its closed.]]
* FallenHeroine: She used to be a good, if overly ambitious, member of Mystacor's guild. She tried to protect her land against the Horde with a forbidden spell that ended up with terrible side effects for her. Fed up with the other mages that wouldn't listen to her or trust her, she defected to Hordak's side.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Shadow Weaver defaults to a sort of cloyingly affectionate approach when she wants something, particularly when dealing with a talented pawn like Adora, [[spoiler:Micah, or Glimmer]], but it's invariably [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk shown to be a ruse]], and at no point are her goals anything other than self-serving.
-->'''Shadow Weaver:''' I've missed you, my child-\\
'''Adora:''' We're past that. Try again.
* FearIsTheAppropriateResponse: Shadow Weaver is by no means a coward in later seasons, and one of the things she does instill in her students while teaching magic is that fear can be the biggest obstacle. But, there are things that don't warrant her even so much as ''laughing'' at the face of danger. [[spoiler:Season 5 sees her bear witness to the incomprehensible evil that is Horde Prime. Taking control of Micah, her former apprentice and now the most powerful sorcerer she's ever known, is just a taste of it. That being said, Shadow Weaver doesn't in any way hide her own fear of Prime nor her fear for Micah's well-being, but she nonetheless remains rational about it]].
* TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne: Shadow Weaver could sense something special about Adora the moment she laid her eyes on the infant.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: She is feared or disrespected by both her superiors and underlings in the Horde, and even her wards hate her living guts. [[spoiler:After she defects to the Rebellion, the closest she gets to most of her new 'allies' are {{Death Glare}}s and an admirable lack of punches to her face. Though sometimes, she does have civil conversations with them.]]
* GeneralFailure: Hordak criticizes her for letting the war against the rebellion devolve into a stalemate during the fourth episode, and it only gets worse from there. She places all of her hopes for turning the war around on Adora, and once Adora defects devotes all her resources and effort to get her back. Everyone around her can see this is a pointless waste, and she compounds it with poor intel, a terrible VillainousDemotivator command style, and a spiteful and pointless vendetta with one of her own force captains.
* GreenAndMean: She's an evil sorceress with [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation greenish-gray skin]].
* GreenEyedMonster: When Micah shows he is more powerful than she, Light Spinner becomes incredibly angry and demands to know who else is teaching him. It's also shown that most of her desire to stop the Horde is colored by the thought that in doing so would allow her to gain more power.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:She takes her mask off give a warm smile to Catra and Adora before sacrificing herself to destroy the monster controlled by Horde Prime.]]
* HazyFeelTurn: [[spoiler:Over the course of Season 3, she lets herself get captured in order to warn Adora about Hordak's master plan and assists the princesses in invading the Fright Zone, but given that she's a ManipulativeBastard, it's unknown if she's genuinely undergoing a HeelFaceTurn, if she's just using the Rebellion as a means to get back at Hordak for demoting and imprisoning her, or if she's playing some kind of [[TheLongGame long game]] as part of her agenda. In the end, the only thing that's changed are her enemies]].
* HellishPupils: When viewers briefly see Shadow Weaver with her mask off, she has yellow-green irises and triangular pupils.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:The selfish, manipulative and cold Shadow Weaver makes a final stand against Horde Prime for Catra's life, knowing exactly what it will cost her.]]
* HerOwnWorstEnemy: Shadow Weaver's cruelty, abuse, and hunger for power mean nobody can stand her, and in some shape or form they all came back to bite her. Refusing to surrender the Black Garnet led to her being imprisoned and forced to flee the Horde. [[spoiler:Her attempts to manipulate Glimmer into being more ruthless lead to her trying to use The Heart of Etheria, [[EvenEvilHasStandards something even Shadow Weaver realizes is a mistake]]. Her attempts to talk Glimmer out of the plan almost work, until she makes the mistake of bringing up Angela. Even when helping against Horde Prime, Shadow Weaver's manipulative nature ensures the Rebellion despises her, with even [[AllLovingHeroine Adora]] delivering a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech at how Shadow Weaver ruins people. The only time she can do something that earns the approval (at the very least a kudos) from others is when she makes a HeroicSacrifice.]]
* HiddenDepths:
** Who would've thought this evil sorceress would have such a talent for gardening? It helps that most of her plants have magical properties.
--->'''Glimmer:''' You've been growing magic plants this whole time? What do these do?
--->'''Shadow Weaver:''' Those are daisies. [[SincerityMode I find them cheerful]].
** Micah seems to bring out a sincere reaction out of her, [[spoiler:and is rather surprised to see him alive and (kinda) well)]].
* InnocentlyInsensitive: [[spoiler:When trying to stop Glimmer from making a ''really'' bad decision she might regret, she tells Glimmer that her mother would not approve of reactivating the Heart of Etheria. This is a ''very'' sensitive subject for Glimmer, and ''for once'', Shadow Weaver wasn't trying to push Glimmer's buttons]].
* {{Irony}}: The traits she describes Adora as having, and part of the reason why she fixates on her, better fit Catra than her.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Is described in her bio as self-serving, joined Hordak for the sole purpose of becoming more powerful, is willing to go against Hordak's direct orders and fixate on recapturing Adora, and has no issue with StealingTheCredit. [[spoiler:And even the fixation on recapturing Adora doesn't seem to have been related to actually ''caring'' about her - in Season 4, since Glimmer is more useful to her at that point, the moment Shadow Weaver gets her hooks in, she drops Adora like a hot potato. Granted, she will help Adora only if she asks, but Shadow Weaver isn't actively engaged with Adora]].
* IveComeTooFar: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver does ultimately realize she's hurt everyone, and it's what leads her to sacrifice herself in the end. By the time she's confronted with the horrible things she's done, she's already wasted her lifetime being selfish and abusive that the damage is just too grave for her to make amends. She even tells Catra it's simply too late for her to change her ways while Catra has her entire life ahead of her to make up for her own mistakes]].
* IWasQuiteALooker: Flashbacks show that she was an attractive woman before evil magic altered her appearance.
* JadedWashout: Shadow Weaver had so much promise back when she was Light Spinner, but she became so ambitious for more power, that not only has it disfigured and turned her even more power hungry, all her potential ended up going to waste. [[spoiler:After losing her power crystal in Season 1, she's become something of a has-been who has nothing left but to settle scores and the best she can do to is throw curveballs whenever possible]].
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: After what happens in Mystacor, she almost looks like she's about to say something ''nice'' to Catra... only to claim all her horrific crap was to make her "strong", and her apparent affection for Catra in "Light Spinner" is entirely manipulative.
* KickTheDog: Her abuse toward Adora and Catra, but especially Catra, considering they were both little kids when she took them in and Catra is particularly on the most threatening end of said abuse.
** Her hatred for Catra apparently gotten worse to the point where [[spoiler:she nearly strangled her to death in "Moment of Truth" because Catra wanted Hordak to open the portal just so Adora will lose.]]
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:In the series' final episode Shadow Weaver is given a poetic sendoff when she [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices herself]] to save Catra's life.]]
* LadyOfBlackMagic: A powerful, self-serving sorceress with mysterious motives and power over the [[AmuletOfDependency Black Garnet]], increasing the potency of her dark magic.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Her StealingTheCredit for Catra's plan from "Princess Prom" means that when it ultimately goes south, she's the one holding the bag, not Catra.
* LesserOfTwoEvils: Shadow Weaver is undeniably evil and one of the less sympathetic villains on the show. However, in Season 3, [[spoiler:her [[BroughtDownToBadass loss of power]] and fall from grace in the Horde causes the Rebellion to be willing to ally with her and later let her walk freely among them in an effort to use her vast knowledge of magic and the Horde to defeat the foes that are still active. In later seasons, as a ''far'' more intimidating GreaterScopeVillain arrives and the Rebellion takes on more and more defectors from the Horde it becomes increasingly apparent that Shadow Weaver is at least aware of the bigger picture, yet her solutions always remain the most devious, ruthless and destructive path even if they would theoretically fix the Rebellion's immediate problems.]]
* LipLosses: [[spoiler:While her deformity isn't quite as bad as it has been implied, it does include massive scarring and discoloration on part of her face, and a small region of her lips that have been ripped off, exposing the teeth below]].
* LovecraftianSuperpower: She gained her shadow powers by using forbidden magic to summon an eldritch abomination, but the ritual disfigured her body and tainted her mind. Worse, after performing the ritual, she augmented her powers by ''absorbing'' Norwyn and two more of Mystacor's leaders.
* LovingAShadow: Well, "love" is a strong word, but Adora calls her out on this, saying that the Adora she keeps trying to bring back into the fold of the Horde (who Shadow Weaver describes as an "ambitious, cutthroat, ruthless warrior", which is, ironically, closer to Catra than Adora) doesn't exist.
* MagicHair: When Shadow Weaver is strong with magical power, her hair is flowing high above her head. When weak and depowered, it hangs down lifelessly.
* ManipulativeBastard: Which is lampshaded by almost all characters under her. She is prone to use emotional manipulation on Adora and Catra, serving as both their foster mother and commanding officer. While Catra grew mostly immune to it, eventually coming to fear just her shadow powers, Adora took longer to realize it.
-->'''Adora''': This is what Shadow Weaver does, she manipulates people, she pushes them apart.
** In Season 2, she even manages to trick the supposedly immune Catra into helping her escape by manipulating her [[WellDoneDaughterGirl need for validation]].
** In flashbacks, she also manipulated a young Micah by praising his magical abilities and abusing their mentor-student relationship for the sake of practicing a forbidden ritual.
** Even [[spoiler:Glimmer, who's seen the effects of Weaver's manipulations on Adora, falls for Weaver's promises of power when Adora's life is on the line. She then works to split up the Best Friends Squad, compounding the damage done by Double Trouble, leaving Glimmer dependent on her for validation, and thereby giving her more power and influence over the new Queen.]]
** This behavior is so pervasive and successful, that later in the series [[spoiler:Castaspella]] is seen to assume that she's been liberally using mind control magic - much to Shadow Weaver's amusement. And even Shadow Weaver doesn't believe in such a concept.
** [[spoiler:Even her HeroicSacrifice has shades of this. Unlike Catra, who has to work at her redemption, Shadow Weaver instead gives her life to save Adora and Catra and, by extension, every single person in the entire universe. The proud smile she gives Catra could be read as "there, I died saving your life. Now you ''have'' to forgive me!", while nonetheless indicating she's found peace]].
* MaskingTheDeformity: After being maimed by whatever she did to gain her BlackMagic, Shadow Weaver always wears a full-face mask. She takes it off [[spoiler:before her HeroicSacrifice, revealing an UndeathlyPallor, heavy scars, and [[LipLosses partly missing lips]]]].
* MeaningfulLook: She has one with Imp in "Flowers for She-Ra" when she realizes how Hordak knows she's still looking for Adora instead of obeying orders. This is because she knows Imp hears things around the Horde as a secret spy for Hordak.
* MeaningfulRename: Used to go by Light Spinner before changing her name and joining the Horde.
* MellowFellow: [[spoiler:She might not have changed morally since joining the Rebellion, but Shadow Weaver has become fairly relaxed and laid back, rarely losing her temper even when her new allies vehemently disagree with what she does. Still, this is a stark contrast to her behavior in the first season, where she would always lash out and threaten Adora and Catra whenever they misbehave in her eyes]].
* MentorArchetype: To Adora and Micah. Flashbacks show her mentoring Micah in magical arts as Light Spinner. [[spoiler:Also becomes this to Glimmer in Season 4.]]
* MindWipe: Attempts this on Adora to forcefully bring her back to the Horde.
* MotherMakesYouKing: In a sense, this is her plan for Adora. Since she raised Adora from infancy and acted as a surrogate mother to her, in addition to being her Horde army overseer, Shadow Weaver wants to make Adora great so she could take credit by proxy. Needless to say, Adora is not interested.
* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Not even Shadow Weaver would ever dishonor the memories of deceased heroes, at least not those she knows personally. After Micah died [[spoiler:or so she thought,]] she could never think or say anything horrible about him. She and Angella had their differences (and that's putting it mildly), but she does respect her and she knows Angella was a strong leader. That being said, after [[spoiler:Angella gets herself stranded between dimensions, Shadow Weaver refuses to disrespect her memory by letting Glimmer do something reckless]].
* NoBodyLeftBehind: [[spoiler:She incinerates herself and the monster completely in a large explosion]].
* NoSell: In "Destiny, Part 1", [[spoiler:Micah hurls a magical attack at her, but she effortlessly deflects it. She ''was'' his teacher after all]].
* NotMeThisTime: Shadow Weaver may be responsible for many horrible things while serving the Horde (and she's proud of her good work) the one crime she had zero involvement in is Micah's death, [[spoiler:and she's just as shocked as everyone when he turns out to be alive]].
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Tells Catra in Season 2 that part of the reason that she was so hard on her was that she saw a lot of herself in Catra, and since she had a tough life, Catra didn't deserve any better. They are shown to be closely parallel - in "Light Spinner" they even give almost the same rant about how the Guild/Hordak don't trust them.
* NotSoStoic: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver is not ashamed to express her own fear of Horde Prime, and him taking control of Micah, her former pupil who became a very powerful sorcerer, is more than enough to justify her fears, and with that she tells Castaspella that she'd be a fool not to be afraid.]]
* NumberTwo: She handles most of the actual running of the Horde behind the scenes. When Catra takes the job she's dismayed to find out how much of it deals with managing logistics (which Shadow Weaver was micromanaging to the degree that things like basic armor production ground to a halt without her direct oversight).
* OlderAndWiser: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver may be a TokenEvilTeammate in the Rebellion by Season 3, but as a majority of them are teenage men and women, almost none of them have the depth of experience and wisdom that comes with her age. Additionally, she's far more level-headed and rational in later seasons]].
* ParentalFavoritism: She makes no bones about her preference of Adora over Catra. In fact, it's all but stated that Shadow Weaver saw Catra not as a daughter but more like Adora's pet.
-->'''Shadow Weaver:''' Catra has been nothing but a disappointment to me!
* ParentalSubstitute: A dark and twisted example. Shadow Weaver was the closest thing both Adora and Catra had to a mother growing up, even though the Horde has no concept of family whatsoever and the cadets are not raised as siblings. Same with Scorpia, who also remembers her stories about Beast Island.
* PowerFloats: Generally tends to hover just a little bit above the ground, unless her power's running out.
* PowerParasite: Turns out this is how she drew power from the Black Garnet. [[spoiler:In her backstory, she cast a forbidden spell turned her into this as a way to combat the Horde when the Princess Alliance couldn't. One of her first victims was her own teacher, Norwyn, whom she completely absorbed upon transforming. This is better demonstrated in Season 3, where Shadow Weaver demonstrates the ability to use Glimmer's magic as her own when they hold hands, amplifying her powers considerably in the process. But, her condition got so bad to the point where she needs magic to survive and lack of magic takes a toll on her health. Thankfully, she was healed to the point where she doesn't have to rely on magic for basic sustenance, though she does still have to drain Glimmer's magic to use it]].
* APupilOfMineUntilSheTurnedToEvil: To Norwyn. He was Light Spinner's mentor and witnessed her turn to evil before she ultimately killed him. Even before she became Shadow Weaver its implied he knew she was a DeceptiveDisciple and calls her out on her thirst for power being her sole motivator rather than actually helping the war effort as she claimed.
-->'''Norwyn:''' You've always hungered after power. Bringing you into our ranks was a grave mistake!
* RageHelm: Downplayed. Her mask doesn't necessarily give off so much a furious look as it does more a condescending, cross expression. Still though it's unpleasant enough for one to feel intimidated.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Long dark hair and a red cloak. Her magic is red and black too. Fitting for an evil sorceress.
* RetiredMonster: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver inflicted horrible abuse and cruelty towards Adora and Catra while they were growing up, but she has somewhat mellowed out since arriving at Bright Moon in Season 3. She is still selfish and does manipulate others for her own amusement, but she hardly engages in active villainy anymore. Surprisingly, Shadow Weaver is much slower to anger than she was in Season 1, and she's fairly relaxed towards those who've had a history with her expressing their disdain. Even when [[TheUnfavorite Catra]] does come back into her life, it's not enough to make Shadow Weaver cruelly torture and maim her, but she still acts condescending towards her.]]
* ShippingTorpedo: [[spoiler:In Season 5 after seeing how close Catra and Adora are again, she wastes no time in going back to her old ways of trying to turn them on one another. At one point she even says that Catra is the reason Adora can't transform. It's not until she's literally about to die that she admits she was wrong, knowing that the three of them can never have a future together.]]
* ShoutOut: To Creator/AlexandreCabanel's ''Art/TheFallenAngel''. When she pulls her FaceHeelTurn, she briefly adopts the same pose as Lucifer -- charging a spell with her hands clasped together to her right side and wearing a hurt, enraged expression that is only intensified by her [[EvilMakesYouUgly newly-acquired scars]]. She's also called power-hungry, which is the same reason why Lucifer started the [[DivineConflict divine war]] that he just lost and is simmering about in the painting.
* SoProudOfYou: [[spoiler:She dies telling Catra, for the first time, that she is truly proud of her. Specifically, she's proud of Catra for being a better person than she herself could ever be.]]
* SquishyWizard: Primarily a long-range fighter, preferably from a couple of thousand miles away if she can help it. The reasons are made obvious every time she's taken a hit, as it normally only requires one to take her out of the fight.
* StealingTheCredit: As "No Princess Left Behind" shows, she has no qualms with taking the credit for the successes of those under her, like Catra, using the justification that since Catra is her subordinate, Catra's successes are hers too.
* SupernaturalFloatingHair: When fully juiced up on magic, Shadow Weaver's hair floats and writhes around her head like black flames. When she runs out of power, it stops floating and dangles lankly around her.
* TheSvengali: A large part of her characterization, as opposed to being a straight EvilMentor all her students function to further her own ends.
** As a child, Micah was mentored in magical arts by Light Spinner, later known as Shadow Weaver. She enlisted his help in stealing and grinding down some of Mystacor's crystals, taught him about forbidden magic, and used him to perform the evil ritual that gave her shadow powers.
** [[spoiler:In Season 3, she shows she can teach Adora and Glimmer important lessons in magic that can help them in the long run, and there is no denying it. Shadow Weaver teaches Adora how to use the sword to heal others much faster than Light Hope said it could, and teaches Glimmer how to better focus her powers. Both of these instances benefited her however, She-Ra healed Shadow Weaver's chronic affliction while Glimmer's increased magical aptitude helped Shadow Weaver revenge herself on Catra, torturing the girl with lightning]].
** Flashbacks show personal gain was behind her adopting Adora due to the personal power she sensed in the infant, raising the child was in part to try and access this power. With Catra being another means of controlling Adora, not out of any true parental affection.
* TokenEvilTeammate: [[spoiler:Becomes this in Season 3, as she joins the Rebellion (initially as a prisoner) purely for self-interest, without really changing her personality or moral stance in any way. The heroes can only trust her as far as they can throw her, so they do not expect to get used to this. Nonetheless, it's clear Shadow Weaver likes it there better than the Horde, so she had no reason to turn against the Rebellion. Additionally, she isn't entirely as unreasonable as she was when serving the Horde. When it came to facing death, she would rather die with a warrior's end, something she and the Rebellion have in common]].
* TooMuchAlike: Claims this was the reason she was hard on Catra; that Catra reminded her of her younger self, and [[TheChainOfHarm since Shadow Weaver always had to struggle to get ahead in life then why should it be different for Catra]]? Though since Shadow Weaver was using Catra's desperation for affection to trick her into helping her escape, it's unclear if Shadow Weaver was sincere or not. [[spoiler:She brings it up again in Season 5 during her HeroicSacrifice but this time she adds that while it is too late for her to change, that Catra still has a chance to be a good person and become happy.]]
* TookALevelInKindness: [[spoiler:Downplayed, but even while she's manipulative, she does gain a touch of sincerity in Season 4, where Shadow Weaver does respect Glimmer and even believes in her potential to become a great queen. Clearly, it's more than what Catra ever received; that being said, it's not far off how she handled Adora. It's more genuine in the sense that part of it is because Glimmer reminds her of her apprentice Micah (whom she takes after), and thus Shadow Weaver does enjoy her company, though that borders on projecting that former relationship onto Glimmer herself. Still, she does find time to engage in relatively civil conversations with her would-be enemies, and she's fairly easy-going even when Adora brings up her transgressions]].
* ToughLove: She claims this was the case for Catra, to make her stronger, but Catra doesn't buy it. [[spoiler:When Adora calls her out on her treatment of Catra and herself, Shadow Weaver says she only did what she thought was necessary, Adora is less then convinced.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A far more evil one than most, granted, but pretty much everything bad that happens in S3 to every character can be traced back to her. Obviously most of Catra's issues stem from a very abusive childhood, but Catra would've never gotten the sword (again) if Shadow Weaver hadn't escaped, and Catra most likely would've stayed in the Crimson Wastes if Shadow Weaver hadn't linked up with the Rebellion (for different reasons than Catra thought, but still). Essentially, she [[spoiler:almost unwittingly led to the destruction of the universe]].
** [[spoiler:And then, in Season 4, her escape continues to ripple into new disasters. Between Angella's sacrifice in the portal disaster Shadow Weaver indirectly caused, Shadow Weaver's own attempts to gain influence over Glimmer at the expense of her bonds with Adora and Bow, and Catra hiring Double Trouble in the Crimson Wastes, the Best Friends Squad breaks up. This leaves Glimmer in a really bad place, leading to her reckless decision to tap the Heart of Etheria, thereby nearly allowing Light Hope to destroy a decent chunk of the universe, forcing Adora to shatter the Sword of Protection, and leaving Etheria in the path of Horde Prime's armada. In other words, virtually everything bad to happen across two seasons, plus whatever Horde Prime does in Season 5, is a direct or indirect consequence of Shadow Weaver's actions, even if Glimmer's last act was one she was trying to prevent]].
* VillainDecay: [[spoiler:While undoubtedly evil and manipulative, Shadow Weaver is hardly a threat in later seasons, to the point she wouldn't register on anyone's radar anymore. She's very much a shell of the powerful EvilSorceress she was under Hordak, and the most she's able to do is manipulate others. In fact, she recognized in later seasons that she isn't a match for the Horde, and could never hope to defeat Horde Prime on her own]].
* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver tells Glimmer that one thing she really needs to think about moving forward is what kind of queen she will be. But, Glimmer letting her emotion guide her judgment to the point of reckless decisions was not what Shadow Weaver meant]].
* VillainExitStageLeft: Manages to manipulate Catra and escape in Season 2, but it is given no clear indication of how she did it besides that she created an illusion of herself to trick people into thinking she didn't leave.
* VillainousBreakdown: Her frustrations at failing to get Adora back continue to build up in her, it reaches the point when she snaps and attacks Catra for making use of her Black Garnet. After being defeating she hopelessly tries to piece the stone that was in the mask back together begging it to work again.
* VillainsDyingGrace: [[spoiler:Per WordOfGod, Shadow Weaver doesn't "redeem" herself per se, but her final action is indisputably her most selfless one; after realizing [[AllForNothing all her scheming and abuse has been for nothing]], Shadow Weaver opts to go out saving her two abused daughters and taking Horde Prime's monster with her in a fiery self-detonation.]]
* WeakButSkilled: We see time and time again that she lacks natural magic talent and made up for it by being incredibly knowledgeable about rare spells and deep magic. It's heavily implied that this is what causes her to be an abusive mentor- she needs other, more innately powerful characters to act with her knowledge.
* WeCanRuleTogether: This appears to be her plan for Adora, even going so far as wanting to mindwipe her so she'd go back to being an obedient soldier.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Back in the day, she believed she had to do what needed to be done for the good of Etheria, feeling that using a forbidden spell was for the greater good in saving Etheria. In the end, it amounted to nothing.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In Season 5, Castaspella worries that Shadow Weaver intends to take all the magic stored at the Heart of Etheria for herself -- in keeping with her power-hungry personality, and is only mollified when Shadow Weaver tells Castaspella to kill her if she tries to do so. [[spoiler:In the Season 5 finale, Shadow Weaver reaches the Heart of Etheria first and is sorely tempted to absorb it, but only takes enough power to rescue Adora and Catra -- sacrificing herself in the process.]]
* WickedCultured: Shadow Weaver is quite sophisticated, reading in her spare time, or tending to a garden. She's also one of the most reprehensible people in the show.
* WickedWitch: A powerful, evil Horde witch that uses shadow powers to attack and harm others.
* YinYangBomb: [[spoiler:Her HeroicSacrifice has her using both the shadow powers she wielded as Shadow Weaver and the light-based magic she originally had as Light Spinner, fittingly for a DyingAsYourself moment.]]
* YouKilledMyFather: Castaspella blames her for sending Micah to his death. Subverted, as Shadow Weaver had nothing to do with it, nor would she have wanted to [[spoiler:and Micah isn't dead, although given how long he's been on Beast Island whoever sent him there probably led her to assume he is]].
[[/folder]]
!!Force Captains
[[folder:Catra]]
''See Catra's page [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra here]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scorpia]]
!!'''Scorpia, Force Captain, Princess of the Fright Zone'''
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scorpiarender.png]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaurenAsh (English)[[labelnote:additional voice actors]]Saori Terai (Japanese)[[/labelnote]]
->''"I am brave, strong, loyal, and give great hugs. And I am going to be the best friend that I CAN BE!"''
Scorpia is a gregarious and enthusiastic Force Captain who grew up in the Horde. Even though she possesses super-strength, she is quite clumsy and somewhat oblivious to just how strong she really is. With her eager-to-please attitude, she naturally falls into the role of minion. Even though her allegiance is to the Horde, deep down she has a good heart.
-----
* AchillesHeel: She has no innate power and must drain some magical power source in order to perform magic. She performs shadow magic by drawing power from the Black Garnet, using the gem in her mask as a conduit. When Catra destroys the gem, Shadow Weaver is rendered powerless.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The original series heavily implies that whatever she did to grab power did a ''huge'' number on her face, that it would be too disturbing to show. [[spoiler:When we do finally see her face, she has certainly been scarred, but not as horrific as the 80s show made it out to be]].
* AdaptationalBadass: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. In the original series, Light Spinner was a mediocre sorceress who sold out Mystacor to the Horde in exchange for greater magical power. Here, she was Castaspella's predecessor as leader of Mystacor, meaning that she was already quite powerful, but sold out her people anyway.
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: On several occasions, she tenderly tucks a strand of Adora's hair behind her ear. She does the same to Catra when she needs to get to her good side. She did this with Micah too. [[spoiler:This is a 'tell' that she's emotionally manipulating someone. In later seasons Adora and others angrily brush her hand away when they push back.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:She sacrifices herself to save Catra and Adora, despite the former's pleas to not fight the monster. Even after all the abuse they endured from her, they still mourned her death. In the end, Shadow Weaver still wasted her life with choices that that only harmed herself and those around her, and it only further motivates Catra to not repeat those same mistakes moving forward]].
* AllForNothing: Shadow Weaver betrayed everyone she was close to, emotionally (and physically in Catra's case) abused her wards, manipulated fraying friendships, and aided a violent dictatorship, all in the aim of gaining access to incredible magic power. [[spoiler:But she's so thoroughly destroyed her relationship with Adora that even though she convinces her to unleash all of Etheria's magic, Adora makes it clear that Weaver won't be allowed anywhere ''close'' to the magic she's trying to gain. If she had genuinely protected Mystacor or treated Adora and Catra with respect, she would've had access to Etheria's magic without any resistance. At the end of it all, she's utterly diminished and washed up. By the time she realizes this, it's just too late and accepts there is no future for her]].
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Insists that the people of Mystacor shunned and looked down on her, which is why she signed up with Hordak. It's revealed she was a respected sorceress, but that she was so power-hungry, people were afraid of her.
* AltoVillainess: Her voice is deep and silky, in contrast to the high-pitched, brittle voice of her 1980s counterpart.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Even when she was still Light Spinner, she had greenish-gray skin.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Even when she wasn't corrupted, her hunger for power continuously led people to distrust her. This eventually led her to participate in making a forbidden spell that gave her great power in exchange for severely messing up her mind.
* AmuletOfDependency: She uses the Black Garnet Runestone to increase her powers, but having that connection to it means she's dependent on it to recharge her strength. She appears to be in pain when she needs a recharge. When Catra destroys the jewel on her mask that was somehow connected to the Black Garnet, she apparently loses her powers completely. It's revealed the forbidden spell she used in Mystacor turns her into a PowerParasite that needs something else to feed on.
* ArcVillainess: For much of Season 1, Shadow Weaver was the Rebellion's most dangerous threat, with her fearsome shadow magic, scrying, and the like, bent on trying to recapture Adora.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Catra subdues her by destroying the jewel in her mask that binds her to the Black Garnet.
* BeingEvilSucks: Even she's not immune to this. Throughout her entire life, the DarkSide drives her to ruin what little good things she had in a never ending quest for power [[AllForNothing with no reward at the end]] and leaves her unable to form a meaningful connection to anyone or anything, to the point where all she does is abuse her foster daughters. She doesn't know how to do anything other than hate and bring pain to others and it eats away at her [[spoiler:until the only peace she ever attains is when she decides to sacrifice herself to save Adora and Catra, even telling Catra she's got a bright future ahead of her, while a person of her character has no place with them in the universe]].
* BigBadWannabe: Shadow Weaver is powerful, intimidating, and threatening. However, her single-minded obsession with getting Adora back under her thumb instead of fighting the war makes Shadow Weaver a much less efficient enemy than her subaltern Catra. Also, Shadow Weaver's power is wholly limited to what Hordak allows her to do, and while she's a powerful sorceress, she's an extremely weak fighter that can be taken out easily. Eventually, this destroys her when Catra proves to be the better soldier and strategist, gaining favor from Hordak and becoming his second in command over Shadow Weaver.
* BigNo: After Catra destroys the stone in her mask, she crumbles to the floor screaming.
* BlackSheep: Light Spinner became this to Mystacor after her desire for power led her to use the Spell of Obtainment and kill several sorcerers before leaving. Her story is used as a cautionary tale of what the lust for dark magic can do to sorcerers. As if to emphasize this, as opposed to the clean white statues surrounding it in the Hall of Sorcerers Light Spinner's statue is dark and in disrepair.
* BoisterousWeakling: She sees herself as a powerful sorceress and the only one who can tap into the true power of the Black Garnet. Hordak himself spells out plainly that once she managed to tap into the Garnet, she just used it for "parlor tricks", and that Entrapta has done more for the Horde with the Runestone in ''hours'' than Shadow Weaver had in ''years.'' When Catra shatters the crystal on her mask and depowers her, all she can do is whine for her power to come back.
* BondBreaker: She's this to the Beast Friend squad in season 4 given that her pragmatism and goals warp Glimmer's sense of morality which breaks the squad up.
* BoomerangBigot: Seems to have a special hatred for those who have to earn their power over those born to it. Given that she had to work and sacrifice for the power she has...
* BrokenPedestal: The Sorcerer's Guild became one to her as time went on; Light Spinner admired them and aspired to become a great sorceress herself, but she struggles with their teachings and is frustrated that the Guild didn't trust or respect her. She grows particularly alienated from them due to their failure to take action against the Horde causing her to leave the Order. She eventually turns her back on the Guild and becomes a dark sorceress in order to seize the power she thinks she deserves, even claiming to Norwyn during their battle that "they're fools".
** [[spoiler:Becomes this in turn to Micah. He attacks her ''on sight'' when he's brought back from Beast Island.]]
* BroughtDownToBadass: Loses her powers after Catra severs her connection to the Black Garnet, but she's still a highly effective schemer and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulator]], and also still capable of performing magic, provided she has an appropriate power source to draw on. She's able to leverage both talents to escape Horde captivity over the events of "Light Spinner". Season 4 also shows that [[spoiler:even without magical power, she can still bat aside Micah's spells when he attacks her with no more effort than swatting a fly]].
* CantCatchUp: The main cast slowly surpasses her in political power (in Catra's case) and magic power (in the case of Glimmer and She-Ra). The addition of [[spoiler:King Micah, possibly the most powerful magic user in the setting]] to the main cast in Season 4 solidifies this. Part of it is also due to age, and by that time she's just not in her prime anymore.
* CardCarryingVillain: Shadow Weaver won't even deny that she is evil. She does many petty things ForTheEvulz, while other times, she will excuse her actions as NecessarilyEvil as in her treatment of Adora and Catra. Indeed, while raising Adora, she outright encouraged Adora to be ruthless and cutthroat.
* CaringGardener: Played with. In Season 4, Shadow Weaver takes up flower gardening [[spoiler:during her captivity at Bright Moon, but she is still sinister and manipulative in her conversation with Glimmer. Indeed, as pointed out in [[https://larkfeather1153.tumblr.com/post/188932883680 this post]], her gardening style - in which she's almost constantly shown pruning - is a good metaphor for how she treats people: she raises them to serve her purposes, sculpts their growth, and cuts away the parts that aren't useful to her. Like Catra's self-esteem or Glimmer's relationship with Adora. At the very least this has shown Shadow Weaver isn't so uncultured and barbaric]].
* CassandraTruth: [[spoiler:In the Season 4 finale, she tries to tell Glimmer that activating all the Runestones at once is a ''horrible'' idea. However, she makes the mistake of bringing up Angella, and Glimmer brushes her off.]]
* CastingAShadow: Her magic takes the form of inky blackness from which she can do things like [[MundaneUtility conjure promotion badges]] and conjure spy shadows. It's mentioned in the show that Shadow Weaver is a sorceress and presumably could perform magic when she was Light Spinner but how much of her powers are her own and how much she derives from the Black Garnet is unclear. When Catra smashes the gemstone on Shadow Weaver's forehead she seemingly becomes powerless.
* TheComicallySerious: What little humor comes out of her is of this variety. As deadly and terrifying as she is, it's impossible not to chuckle at the scene in Season 4 where we find out she's taken up gardening to kill time. In fact, ND Stevenson even said on his Twitter that this was chosen specifically ''because'' it was the funniest possible thing the writers could have had her do as a hobby.
* TheDarkArts: In Season 2, flashbacks reveal that she used forbidden magic in an attempt to empower herself, becoming disfigured in the process. The spell summoned an eldritch abomination that endowed her with shadow magic, which she used to ''absorb'' three of Mystacor's leaders.
* DarkIsEvil: She's Hordak's [[TheDragon Dragon]], a WickedWitch, and named ''Shadow'' Weaver.
* TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: As Light Spinner, Shadow Weaver was the only magic user at Mystacore that recognized how much of a threat the Horde posed, the others, especially Norwyn, thinking that the princesses could handle it. At most, she started out as a WellIntentionedExtremist. When they refused to listen to her warnings, her frustration and ambition led her to attempt a forbidden spell that turned her into a PowerParasite, twisting her mind in the process. She then killed Norwyn before leaving, and the next we see of her, she's joined the Horde herself.
* DeadpanSnarker: When [[spoiler:Scorpia]] asks if Shadow Weaver's garden is a prison, she responds [[StealthInsult that it wasn't, until recently]].
* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler:Her death is a critique of the trope in a way. Shadow Weaver, after all the bad things she's done to Catra and Adora, realizes there is no way she'll be able to take the power of the Heart for herself whether Adora survives or not, since the other members of the Rebelion would stop her anyway, and decides to die for them. While she didn't have to sacrifice herself to stop the creature attacking the heroes, she chooses to do a MutualKill while telling Catra how proud she is of her. Even in her one moment closest to altruism, there's still an attempt at self-gain in that she suspects she'll be considered redeemed if she dies in the process of her one good act.]]
-->'''Creator/NDStevenson''': What I like about it is that it's still very fitting for her. [[spoiler:It's still kind of a selfish end. It was something that Catra was also confronted with, "maybe I've done so much wrong that the only way to make up for it is to sacrifice myself and die, and they'll have to forgive me cause I died saving someone." Catra is forced to stick around and actually confront the mistakes she has made and actually fix them, becoming a better and more positive person through that. Shadow Weaver makes that choice to just sort of peace out. Even that smug little smile at the end, that "now you have to forgive me good-bye," it's so her. I love it.]]
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver made the choice to sacrifice herself, and given how she believes there's no place for people like her unlike Catra, she was very resigned to the fact that she was going to die from it. It's rather evident in her body language she knew ''this'' was the moment for her to arrive at death's door and her expression indicates she's found peace with it]].
* DontYouDarePityMe: Almost name-drops this trope when Catra shows sympathy for her after she's chewed out by Hordak.
* TheDragon: Like in the original series, she's the second-in-command of the Horde. She is later demoted from this role in favor of Catra.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: She continues her plan to bring Adora back by any means despite being ordered by Hordak to forget about her.
* TheDreaded: ''Everyone'' in the Horde fears her... except Double Trouble, apparently.
* DrowningMySorrows: [[spoiler:After Adora's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, declaring she will never allow Shadow Weaver access to the power she's sought for years, Catra finds her slumped over some crates in the Rebellion's hideout with a goblet in-hand. Her speech and movements are noticeably slurred as Catra convinces her to teleport them to Adora.]]
* DubNameChange: Her name is changed/translated to "Tejesombras," in the European Spanish dub, "Ténébra" in the French dub, and "Sombria" in the Portuguese dub.
* DyingAsYourself: Played with. [[spoiler:She uses what magic she could absorb from the Heart of Etheria to fend off a monster controlled by Horde Prime, giving Adora and Catra the opportunity to shut it down for good. Before her former protégés leave, she removes her mask, letting both them and the audience get one good look at her face and telling Adora and Catra that she is proud of them before going out in a blaze of magic and fire. However, she mainly did this out of the belief that she had done too many awful things to earn forgiveness any other way than by sacrificing herself to save the heroes.]]
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale, Shadow Weaver goes out protecting Adora and Catra from a massive monster commanded by Horde Prime, drawing magical power from the ''Heart of Etheria itself'' to briefly regain her original spellcasting powers and destroy both the monster and herself in a massive explosion of magic energy.]]
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Calls for a truce with the Rebellion, no questions asked--if only to get revenge on Hordak and the Horde for demoting and imprisoning her.]]
* EvenEvilCanBeLoved:
** Despite Shadow Weaver's abuse towards Catra, and the young girl's own actions against the darkness wielder, Catra does show signs of affection towards the sorceress a few times. She even tried to convince Hordak to spare her, which allows Shadow Weaver to escape. [[spoiler:Catra's love for her reaches a climax in the finale, when the feline begs and cries for Shadow Weaver not to make a HeroicSacrifice for the sake of Catra and Adora.]]
** Despite being emotionally manipulated by her all her life and being forced to watch as her best friend[[spoiler:/ love interest]] was essentially tortured by her, Adora has a hope (albeit not as much as Catra) that there might be some good in Shadow Weaver. [[spoiler:Part of the reason that Adora wanted to speak to Shadow Weaver when she came to see her in Bright Moon was the hope that the woman who raised her might have some good in her. Though when pushed too far Adora stops pitying her and firmly declares she'll never forgive her for all the things she did, much like Catra, Adora cries in the series finale when Shadow Weaver sacrifices herself to save the two of them, if only to lament that the sorceress practically squandered her whole life becoming the abuser she knew growing up]].
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** Despite being an awful person towards everyone, even to her wards, she appears genuinely fond of Micah, even sparing him and touching his cheek before leaving. This is one of the reasons why Shadow Weaver would not have had anything to do with his death. In fact, it's implied she secretly mourns his death, [[spoiler:and she seems to project this relationship she had with him through his daughter, Glimmer, and was actually happy (enough to stop in the middle of a taunt) to see Micah when it turns out he's alive. We see her try to connect with him in Season 5, and she seems genuinely sad about him rebuffing her, so she decides to do him one more favor and save him from Horde Prime's control]].
** For most of the series this doesn't appear to be the case towards her wards (unless it's in an extremely twisted and abusive way) and she spends more time manipulating them then showing any real affection for them. [[spoiler:But, in the finale, she comes to realize belatedly, that she does care about Adora and Catra after all, at least enough to consider their futures worth sacrificing herself for, and tells Catra that [[SoProudOfYou she is proud of her]] for making better choices than she did and giving her the chance to be the person she wants]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Despite [[spoiler:trying to influence Glimmer into using whatever means necessary to wipe out the Horde and ensure the rebellion's victory, even she criticizes Glimmer's plan to use the [[FantasticNuke Heart]] immediately after finding out how how incredibly reckless and dangerous trying to do so would be.]]
* EvilCounterpart: To Angella of the Rebellion. Both are powerful magicians, the few visible adults in their respective armies, and controlling mother figures who have difficult relationships with their children. But while Angella's flaws are due to an overabundance of love and crippling fear of losing her daughter (which she eventually learns to overcome and builds a stronger bond with her child), Shadow Weaver's control and fear of losing her children is less about concern and more about how it will affect her own goals, and she eventually drives both her surrogate daughters away because she refuses to change. [[spoiler:Both Angella and Shadow Weaver sacrifice their own lives to save their children.]]
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Shadow Weaver does gain some sense of humor in later seasons, but her idea of a joke is horribly mean-spirited.
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: [[spoiler:In the series finale, viewers finally see her face under the mask -- she has an UndeathlyPallor, scars around her eyes and down her face, and uneven fangs poking over her lips.]]
* EvilOldFolks: Shadow Weaver was an adult while Micah was a teenager, which means in the present she's old enough to be Glimmer's (Micah's teenage daughter) grandmother.
* EvilParentsWantGoodKids: [[spoiler:For all the choices she made and pain she's wrought on Catra, Shadow Weaver ultimately resigns herself to the fact that she cannot take them back, but knows Catra has a bright future ahead of her and tells her before dying not to waste her life like she did]].
* EvilVirtues: [[spoiler:Maturity, though Shadow Weaver exhibits this more in later seasons. In contrast to her indignant behavior towards Hordak in the first season, later seasons show that even for all her selfish desire for power, she eventually learns how to suck it up, learn from her mistakes, and be satisfied with the gains she does get, no matter how small. This newfound perspective is what allows her to make the best out of an otherwise bad situation while in Bright Moon]].
* ExactWords: Claims she "found" Adora. Doesn't specify where or how. It later turns out the Horde found Adora, and Shadow Weaver was passing by when she saw something about her.
* ExpressiveMask: The eye slits on her mask can change depending on how she expresses herself, mostly the white parts.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:As horrible as she was, she has some honor when it comes to facing death. Shadow Weaver in the finale decided to take on the defensive creature hacked by Horde Prime. Just as she's about to make the final blow knowing it would kill her, Shadow Weaver takes off her mask, looking death straight in the face, calmly and bravely accepting it]].
* TheFaceless: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in that we have never seen her ''entire'' face, just parts of it; when she was Light Spinner she always wore a veil that covered her face from the nose down, and since her horrendous disfigurement after using the Spell of Obtainment (save for one glimpse just after the act) she constantly wears a face-concealing mask even after it has been visibly cracked down the center. [[spoiler:Finally [[AvertedTrope averted]] in "Heart, Part 2", when she takes her mask off to tell Adora and Catra that she is proud of them both before going out in a blaze of magic to destroy a monster controlled by Horde Prime.]]
* FacialHorror: Only a quick glimpse of it is seen, but her face is grayish, heavily veined, with bulging eyes that have deformed pupils all unnaturally detailed for the show's artwork. [[spoiler:The finale gives a full view of her scarred face, which shows that a part of her lip is damaged to the point of showing her teeth even when its closed.]]
* FallenHeroine: She used to be a good, if overly ambitious, member of Mystacor's guild. She tried to protect her land against the Horde with a forbidden spell that ended up with terrible side effects for her. Fed up with the other mages that wouldn't listen to her or trust her, she defected to Hordak's side.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Shadow Weaver defaults to a sort of cloyingly affectionate approach when she wants something, particularly when dealing with a talented pawn like Adora, [[spoiler:Micah, or Glimmer]], but it's invariably [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk shown to be a ruse]], and at no point are her goals anything other than self-serving.
-->'''Shadow Weaver:''' I've missed you, my child-\\
'''Adora:''' We're past that. Try again.
* FearIsTheAppropriateResponse: Shadow Weaver is by no means a coward in later seasons, and one of the things she does instill in her students while teaching magic is that fear can be the biggest obstacle. But, there are things that don't warrant her even so much as ''laughing'' at the face of danger. [[spoiler:Season 5 sees her bear witness to the incomprehensible evil that is Horde Prime. Taking control of Micah, her former apprentice and now the most powerful sorcerer she's ever known, is just a taste of it. That being said, Shadow Weaver doesn't in any way hide her own fear of Prime nor her fear for Micah's well-being, but she nonetheless remains rational about it]].
* TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne: Shadow Weaver could sense something special about Adora the moment she laid her eyes on the infant.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: She is feared or disrespected by both her superiors and underlings in the Horde, and even her wards hate her living guts. [[spoiler:After she defects to the Rebellion, the closest she gets to most of her new 'allies' are {{Death Glare}}s and an admirable lack of punches to her face. Though sometimes, she does have civil conversations with them.]]
* GeneralFailure: Hordak criticizes her for letting the war against the rebellion devolve into a stalemate during the fourth episode, and it only gets worse from there. She places all of her hopes for turning the war around on Adora, and once Adora defects devotes all her resources and effort to get her back. Everyone around her can see this is a pointless waste, and she compounds it with poor intel, a terrible VillainousDemotivator command style, and a spiteful and pointless vendetta with one of her own force captains.
* GreenAndMean: She's an evil sorceress with [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation greenish-gray skin]].
* GreenEyedMonster: When Micah shows he is more powerful than she, Light Spinner becomes incredibly angry and demands to know who else is teaching him. It's also shown that most of her desire to stop the Horde is colored by the thought that in doing so would allow her to gain more power.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:She takes her mask off give a warm smile to Catra and Adora before sacrificing herself to destroy the monster controlled by Horde Prime.]]
* HazyFeelTurn: [[spoiler:Over the course of Season 3, she lets herself get captured in order to warn Adora about Hordak's master plan and assists the princesses in invading the Fright Zone, but given that she's a ManipulativeBastard, it's unknown if she's genuinely undergoing a HeelFaceTurn, if she's just using the Rebellion as a means to get back at Hordak for demoting and imprisoning her, or if she's playing some kind of [[TheLongGame long game]] as part of her agenda. In the end, the only thing that's changed are her enemies]].
* HellishPupils: When viewers briefly see Shadow Weaver with her mask off, she has yellow-green irises and triangular pupils.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:The selfish, manipulative and cold Shadow Weaver makes a final stand against Horde Prime for Catra's life, knowing exactly what it will cost her.]]
* HerOwnWorstEnemy: Shadow Weaver's cruelty, abuse, and hunger for power mean nobody can stand her, and in some shape or form they all came back to bite her. Refusing to surrender the Black Garnet led to her being imprisoned and forced to flee the Horde. [[spoiler:Her attempts to manipulate Glimmer into being more ruthless lead to her trying to use The Heart of Etheria, [[EvenEvilHasStandards something even Shadow Weaver realizes is a mistake]]. Her attempts to talk Glimmer out of the plan almost work, until she makes the mistake of bringing up Angela. Even when helping against Horde Prime, Shadow Weaver's manipulative nature ensures the Rebellion despises her, with even [[AllLovingHeroine Adora]] delivering a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech at how Shadow Weaver ruins people. The only time she can do something that earns the approval (at the very least a kudos) from others is when she makes a HeroicSacrifice.]]
* HiddenDepths:
** Who would've thought this evil sorceress would have such a talent for gardening? It helps that most of her plants have magical properties.
--->'''Glimmer:''' You've been growing magic plants this whole time? What do these do?
--->'''Shadow Weaver:''' Those are daisies. [[SincerityMode I find them cheerful]].
** Micah seems to bring out a sincere reaction out of her, [[spoiler:and is rather surprised to see him alive and (kinda) well)]].
* InnocentlyInsensitive: [[spoiler:When trying to stop Glimmer from making a ''really'' bad decision she might regret, she tells Glimmer that her mother would not approve of reactivating the Heart of Etheria. This is a ''very'' sensitive subject for Glimmer, and ''for once'', Shadow Weaver wasn't trying to push Glimmer's buttons]].
* {{Irony}}: The traits she describes Adora as having, and part of the reason why she fixates on her, better fit Catra than her.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Is described in her bio as self-serving, joined Hordak for the sole purpose of becoming more powerful, is willing to go against Hordak's direct orders and fixate on recapturing Adora, and has no issue with StealingTheCredit. [[spoiler:And even the fixation on recapturing Adora doesn't seem to have been related to actually ''caring'' about her - in Season 4, since Glimmer is more useful to her at that point, the moment Shadow Weaver gets her hooks in, she drops Adora like a hot potato. Granted, she will help Adora only if she asks, but Shadow Weaver isn't actively engaged with Adora]].
* IveComeTooFar: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver does ultimately realize she's hurt everyone, and it's what leads her to sacrifice herself in the end. By the time she's confronted with the horrible things she's done, she's already wasted her lifetime being selfish and abusive that the damage is just too grave for her to make amends. She even tells Catra it's simply too late for her to change her ways while Catra has her entire life ahead of her to make up for her own mistakes]].
* IWasQuiteALooker: Flashbacks show that she was an attractive woman before evil magic altered her appearance.
* JadedWashout: Shadow Weaver had so much promise back when she was Light Spinner, but she became so ambitious for more power, that not only has it disfigured and turned her even more power hungry, all her potential ended up going to waste. [[spoiler:After losing her power crystal in Season 1, she's become something of a has-been who has nothing left but to settle scores and the best she can do to is throw curveballs whenever possible]].
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: After what happens in Mystacor, she almost looks like she's about to say something ''nice'' to Catra... only to claim all her horrific crap was to make her "strong", and her apparent affection for Catra in "Light Spinner" is entirely manipulative.
* KickTheDog: Her abuse toward Adora and Catra, but especially Catra, considering they were both little kids when she took them in and Catra is particularly on the most threatening end of said abuse.
** Her hatred for Catra apparently gotten worse to the point where [[spoiler:she nearly strangled her to death in "Moment of Truth" because Catra wanted Hordak to open the portal just so Adora will lose.]]
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:In the series' final episode Shadow Weaver is given a poetic sendoff when she [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices herself]] to save Catra's life.]]
* LadyOfBlackMagic: A powerful, self-serving sorceress with mysterious motives and power over the [[AmuletOfDependency Black Garnet]], increasing the potency of her dark magic.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Her StealingTheCredit for Catra's plan from "Princess Prom" means that when it ultimately goes south, she's the one holding the bag, not Catra.
* LesserOfTwoEvils: Shadow Weaver is undeniably evil and one of the less sympathetic villains on the show. However, in Season 3, [[spoiler:her [[BroughtDownToBadass loss of power]] and fall from grace in the Horde causes the Rebellion to be willing to ally with her and later let her walk freely among them in an effort to use her vast knowledge of magic and the Horde to defeat the foes that are still active. In later seasons, as a ''far'' more intimidating GreaterScopeVillain arrives and the Rebellion takes on more and more defectors from the Horde it becomes increasingly apparent that Shadow Weaver is at least aware of the bigger picture, yet her solutions always remain the most devious, ruthless and destructive path even if they would theoretically fix the Rebellion's immediate problems.]]
* LipLosses: [[spoiler:While her deformity isn't quite as bad as it has been implied, it does include massive scarring and discoloration on part of her face, and a small region of her lips that have been ripped off, exposing the teeth below]].
* LovecraftianSuperpower: She gained her shadow powers by using forbidden magic to summon an eldritch abomination, but the ritual disfigured her body and tainted her mind. Worse, after performing the ritual, she augmented her powers by ''absorbing'' Norwyn and two more of Mystacor's leaders.
* LovingAShadow: Well, "love" is a strong word, but Adora calls her out on this, saying that the Adora she keeps trying to bring back into the fold of the Horde (who Shadow Weaver describes as an "ambitious, cutthroat, ruthless warrior", which is, ironically, closer to Catra than Adora) doesn't exist.
* MagicHair: When Shadow Weaver is strong with magical power, her hair is flowing high above her head. When weak and depowered, it hangs down lifelessly.
* ManipulativeBastard: Which is lampshaded by almost all characters under her. She is prone to use emotional manipulation on Adora and Catra, serving as both their foster mother and commanding officer. While Catra grew mostly immune to it, eventually coming to fear just her shadow powers, Adora took longer to realize it.
-->'''Adora''': This is what Shadow Weaver does, she manipulates people, she pushes them apart.
** In Season 2, she even manages to trick the supposedly immune Catra into helping her escape by manipulating her [[WellDoneDaughterGirl need for validation]].
** In flashbacks, she also manipulated a young Micah by praising his magical abilities and abusing their mentor-student relationship for the sake of practicing a forbidden ritual.
** Even [[spoiler:Glimmer, who's seen the effects of Weaver's manipulations on Adora, falls for Weaver's promises of power when Adora's life is on the line. She then works to split up the Best Friends Squad, compounding the damage done by Double Trouble, leaving Glimmer dependent on her for validation, and thereby giving her more power and influence over the new Queen.]]
** This behavior is so pervasive and successful, that later in the series [[spoiler:Castaspella]] is seen to assume that she's been liberally using mind control magic - much to Shadow Weaver's amusement. And even Shadow Weaver doesn't believe in such a concept.
** [[spoiler:Even her HeroicSacrifice has shades of this. Unlike Catra, who has to work at her redemption, Shadow Weaver instead gives her life to save Adora and Catra and, by extension, every single person in the entire universe. The proud smile she gives Catra could be read as "there, I died saving your life. Now you ''have'' to forgive me!", while nonetheless indicating she's found peace]].
* MaskingTheDeformity: After being maimed by whatever she did to gain her BlackMagic, Shadow Weaver always wears a full-face mask. She takes it off [[spoiler:before her HeroicSacrifice, revealing an UndeathlyPallor, heavy scars, and [[LipLosses partly missing lips]]]].
* MeaningfulLook: She has one with Imp in "Flowers for She-Ra" when she realizes how Hordak knows she's still looking for Adora instead of obeying orders. This is because she knows Imp hears things around the Horde as a secret spy for Hordak.
* MeaningfulRename: Used to go by Light Spinner before changing her name and joining the Horde.
* MellowFellow: [[spoiler:She might not have changed morally since joining the Rebellion, but Shadow Weaver has become fairly relaxed and laid back, rarely losing her temper even when her new allies vehemently disagree with what she does. Still, this is a stark contrast to her behavior in the first season, where she would always lash out and threaten Adora and Catra whenever they misbehave in her eyes]].
* MentorArchetype: To Adora and Micah. Flashbacks show her mentoring Micah in magical arts as Light Spinner. [[spoiler:Also becomes this to Glimmer in Season 4.]]
* MindWipe: Attempts this on Adora to forcefully bring her back to the Horde.
* MotherMakesYouKing: In a sense, this is her plan for Adora. Since she raised Adora from infancy and acted as a surrogate mother to her, in addition to being her Horde army overseer, Shadow Weaver wants to make Adora great so she could take credit by proxy. Needless to say, Adora is not interested.
* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Not even Shadow Weaver would ever dishonor the memories of deceased heroes, at least not those she knows personally. After Micah died [[spoiler:or so she thought,]] she could never think or say anything horrible about him. She and Angella had their differences (and that's putting it mildly), but she does respect her and she knows Angella was a strong leader. That being said, after [[spoiler:Angella gets herself stranded between dimensions, Shadow Weaver refuses to disrespect her memory by letting Glimmer do something reckless]].
* NoBodyLeftBehind: [[spoiler:She incinerates herself and the monster completely in a large explosion]].
* NoSell: In "Destiny, Part 1", [[spoiler:Micah hurls a magical attack at her, but she effortlessly deflects it. She ''was'' his teacher after all]].
* NotMeThisTime: Shadow Weaver may be responsible for many horrible things while serving the Horde (and she's proud of her good work) the one crime she had zero involvement in is Micah's death, [[spoiler:and she's just as shocked as everyone when he turns out to be alive]].
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Tells Catra in Season 2 that part of the reason that she was so hard on her was that she saw a lot of herself in Catra, and since she had a tough life, Catra didn't deserve any better. They are shown to be closely parallel - in "Light Spinner" they even give almost the same rant about how the Guild/Hordak don't trust them.
* NotSoStoic: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver is not ashamed to express her own fear of Horde Prime, and him taking control of Micah, her former pupil who became a very powerful sorcerer, is more than enough to justify her fears, and with that she tells Castaspella that she'd be a fool not to be afraid.]]
* NumberTwo: She handles most of the actual running of the Horde behind the scenes. When Catra takes the job she's dismayed to find out how much of it deals with managing logistics (which Shadow Weaver was micromanaging to the degree that things like basic armor production ground to a halt without her direct oversight).
* OlderAndWiser: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver may be a TokenEvilTeammate in the Rebellion by Season 3, but as a majority of them are teenage men and women, almost none of them have the depth of experience and wisdom that comes with her age. Additionally, she's far more level-headed and rational in later seasons]].
* ParentalFavoritism: She makes no bones about her preference of Adora over Catra. In fact, it's all but stated that Shadow Weaver saw Catra not as a daughter but more like Adora's pet.
-->'''Shadow Weaver:''' Catra has been nothing but a disappointment to me!
* ParentalSubstitute: A dark and twisted example. Shadow Weaver was the closest thing both Adora and Catra had to a mother growing up, even though the Horde has no concept of family whatsoever and the cadets are not raised as siblings. Same with Scorpia, who also remembers her stories about Beast Island.
* PowerFloats: Generally tends to hover just a little bit above the ground, unless her power's running out.
* PowerParasite: Turns out this is how she drew power from the Black Garnet. [[spoiler:In her backstory, she cast a forbidden spell turned her into this as a way to combat the Horde when the Princess Alliance couldn't. One of her first victims was her own teacher, Norwyn, whom she completely absorbed upon transforming. This is better demonstrated in Season 3, where Shadow Weaver demonstrates the ability to use Glimmer's magic as her own when they hold hands, amplifying her powers considerably in the process. But, her condition got so bad to the point where she needs magic to survive and lack of magic takes a toll on her health. Thankfully, she was healed to the point where she doesn't have to rely on magic for basic sustenance, though she does still have to drain Glimmer's magic to use it]].
* APupilOfMineUntilSheTurnedToEvil: To Norwyn. He was Light Spinner's mentor and witnessed her turn to evil before she ultimately killed him. Even before she became Shadow Weaver its implied he knew she was a DeceptiveDisciple and calls her out on her thirst for power being her sole motivator rather than actually helping the war effort as she claimed.
-->'''Norwyn:''' You've always hungered after power. Bringing you into our ranks was a grave mistake!
* RageHelm: Downplayed. Her mask doesn't necessarily give off so much a furious look as it does more a condescending, cross expression. Still though it's unpleasant enough for one to feel intimidated.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Long dark hair and a red cloak. Her magic is red and black too. Fitting for an evil sorceress.
* RetiredMonster: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver inflicted horrible abuse and cruelty towards Adora and Catra while they were growing up, but she has somewhat mellowed out since arriving at Bright Moon in Season 3. She is still selfish and does manipulate others for her own amusement, but she hardly engages in active villainy anymore. Surprisingly, Shadow Weaver is much slower to anger than she was in Season 1, and she's fairly relaxed towards those who've had a history with her expressing their disdain. Even when [[TheUnfavorite Catra]] does come back into her life, it's not enough to make Shadow Weaver cruelly torture and maim her, but she still acts condescending towards her.]]
* ShippingTorpedo: [[spoiler:In Season 5 after seeing how close Catra and Adora are again, she wastes no time in going back to her old ways of trying to turn them on one another. At one point she even says that Catra is the reason Adora can't transform. It's not until she's literally about to die that she admits she was wrong, knowing that the three of them can never have a future together.]]
* ShoutOut: To Creator/AlexandreCabanel's ''Art/TheFallenAngel''. When she pulls her FaceHeelTurn, she briefly adopts the same pose as Lucifer -- charging a spell with her hands clasped together to her right side and wearing a hurt, enraged expression that is only intensified by her [[EvilMakesYouUgly newly-acquired scars]]. She's also called power-hungry, which is the same reason why Lucifer started the [[DivineConflict divine war]] that he just lost and is simmering about in the painting.
* SoProudOfYou: [[spoiler:She dies telling Catra, for the first time, that she is truly proud of her. Specifically, she's proud of Catra for being a better person than she herself could ever be.]]
* SquishyWizard: Primarily a long-range fighter, preferably from a couple of thousand miles away if she can help it. The reasons are made obvious every time she's taken a hit, as it normally only requires one to take her out of the fight.
* StealingTheCredit: As "No Princess Left Behind" shows, she has no qualms with taking the credit for the successes of those under her, like Catra, using the justification that since Catra is her subordinate, Catra's successes are hers too.
* SupernaturalFloatingHair: When fully juiced up on magic, Shadow Weaver's hair floats and writhes around her head like black flames. When she runs out of power, it stops floating and dangles lankly around her.
* TheSvengali: A large part of her characterization, as opposed to being a straight EvilMentor all her students function to further her own ends.
** As a child, Micah was mentored in magical arts by Light Spinner, later known as Shadow Weaver. She enlisted his help in stealing and grinding down some of Mystacor's crystals, taught him about forbidden magic, and used him to perform the evil ritual that gave her shadow powers.
** [[spoiler:In Season 3, she shows she can teach Adora and Glimmer important lessons in magic that can help them in the long run, and there is no denying it. Shadow Weaver teaches Adora how to use the sword to heal others much faster than Light Hope said it could, and teaches Glimmer how to better focus her powers. Both of these instances benefited her however, She-Ra healed Shadow Weaver's chronic affliction while Glimmer's increased magical aptitude helped Shadow Weaver revenge herself on Catra, torturing the girl with lightning]].
** Flashbacks show personal gain was behind her adopting Adora due to the personal power she sensed in the infant, raising the child was in part to try and access this power. With Catra being another means of controlling Adora, not out of any true parental affection.
* TokenEvilTeammate: [[spoiler:Becomes this in Season 3, as she joins the Rebellion (initially as a prisoner) purely for self-interest, without really changing her personality or moral stance in any way. The heroes can only trust her as far as they can throw her, so they do not expect to get used to this. Nonetheless, it's clear Shadow Weaver likes it there better than the Horde, so she had no reason to turn against the Rebellion. Additionally, she isn't entirely as unreasonable as she was when serving the Horde. When it came to facing death, she would rather die with a warrior's end, something she and the Rebellion have in common]].
* TooMuchAlike: Claims this was the reason she was hard on Catra; that Catra reminded her of her younger self, and [[TheChainOfHarm since Shadow Weaver always had to struggle to get ahead in life then why should it be different for Catra]]? Though since Shadow Weaver was using Catra's desperation for affection to trick her into helping her escape, it's unclear if Shadow Weaver was sincere or not. [[spoiler:She brings it up again in Season 5 during her HeroicSacrifice but this time she adds that while it is too late for her to change, that Catra still has a chance to be a good person and become happy.]]
* TookALevelInKindness: [[spoiler:Downplayed, but even while she's manipulative, she does gain a touch of sincerity in Season 4, where Shadow Weaver does respect Glimmer and even believes in her potential to become a great queen. Clearly, it's more than what Catra ever received; that being said, it's not far off how she handled Adora. It's more genuine in the sense that part of it is because Glimmer reminds her of her apprentice Micah (whom she takes after), and thus Shadow Weaver does enjoy her company, though that borders on projecting that former relationship onto Glimmer herself. Still, she does find time to engage in relatively civil conversations with her would-be enemies, and she's fairly easy-going even when Adora brings up her transgressions]].
* ToughLove: She claims this was the case for Catra, to make her stronger, but Catra doesn't buy it. [[spoiler:When Adora calls her out on her treatment of Catra and herself, Shadow Weaver says she only did what she thought was necessary, Adora is less then convinced.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A far more evil one than most, granted, but pretty much everything bad that happens in S3 to every character can be traced back to her. Obviously most of Catra's issues stem from a very abusive childhood, but Catra would've never gotten the sword (again) if Shadow Weaver hadn't escaped, and Catra most likely would've stayed in the Crimson Wastes if Shadow Weaver hadn't linked up with the Rebellion (for different reasons than Catra thought, but still). Essentially, she [[spoiler:almost unwittingly led to the destruction of the universe]].
** [[spoiler:And then, in Season 4, her escape continues to ripple into new disasters. Between Angella's sacrifice in the portal disaster Shadow Weaver indirectly caused, Shadow Weaver's own attempts to gain influence over Glimmer at the expense of her bonds with Adora and Bow, and Catra hiring Double Trouble in the Crimson Wastes, the Best Friends Squad breaks up. This leaves Glimmer in a really bad place, leading to her reckless decision to tap the Heart of Etheria, thereby nearly allowing Light Hope to destroy a decent chunk of the universe, forcing Adora to shatter the Sword of Protection, and leaving Etheria in the path of Horde Prime's armada. In other words, virtually everything bad to happen across two seasons, plus whatever Horde Prime does in Season 5, is a direct or indirect consequence of Shadow Weaver's actions, even if Glimmer's last act was one she was trying to prevent]].
* VillainDecay: [[spoiler:While undoubtedly evil and manipulative, Shadow Weaver is hardly a threat in later seasons, to the point she wouldn't register on anyone's radar anymore. She's very much a shell of the powerful EvilSorceress she was under Hordak, and the most she's able to do is manipulate others. In fact, she recognized in later seasons that she isn't a match for the Horde, and could never hope to defeat Horde Prime on her own]].
* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Shadow Weaver tells Glimmer that one thing she really needs to think about moving forward is what kind of queen she will be. But, Glimmer letting her emotion guide her judgment to the point of reckless decisions was not what Shadow Weaver meant]].
* VillainExitStageLeft: Manages to manipulate Catra and escape in Season 2, but it is given no clear indication of how she did it besides that she created an illusion of herself to trick people into thinking she didn't leave.
* VillainousBreakdown: Her frustrations at failing to get Adora back continue to build up in her, it reaches the point when she snaps and attacks Catra for making use of her Black Garnet. After being defeating she hopelessly tries to piece the stone that was in the mask back together begging it to work again.
* VillainsDyingGrace: [[spoiler:Per WordOfGod, Shadow Weaver doesn't "redeem" herself per se, but her final action is indisputably her most selfless one; after realizing [[AllForNothing all her scheming and abuse has been for nothing]], Shadow Weaver opts to go out saving her two abused daughters and taking Horde Prime's monster with her in a fiery self-detonation.]]
* WeakButSkilled: We see time and time again that she lacks natural magic talent and made up for it by being incredibly knowledgeable about rare spells and deep magic. It's heavily implied that this is what causes her to be an abusive mentor- she needs other, more innately powerful characters to act with her knowledge.
* WeCanRuleTogether: This appears to be her plan for Adora, even going so far as wanting to mindwipe her so she'd go back to being an obedient soldier.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Back in the day, she believed she had to do what needed to be done for the good of Etheria, feeling that using a forbidden spell was for the greater good in saving Etheria. In the end, it amounted to nothing.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In Season 5, Castaspella worries that Shadow Weaver intends to take all the magic stored at the Heart of Etheria for herself -- in keeping with her power-hungry personality, and is only mollified when Shadow Weaver tells Castaspella to kill her if she tries to do so. [[spoiler:In the Season 5 finale, Shadow Weaver reaches the Heart of Etheria first and is sorely tempted to absorb it, but only takes enough power to rescue Adora and Catra -- sacrificing herself in the process.]]
* WickedCultured: Shadow Weaver is quite sophisticated, reading in her spare time, or tending to a garden. She's also one of the most reprehensible people in the show.
* WickedWitch: A powerful, evil Horde witch that uses shadow powers to attack and harm others.
* YinYangBomb: [[spoiler:Her HeroicSacrifice has her using both the shadow powers she wielded as Shadow Weaver and the light-based magic she originally had as Light Spinner, fittingly for a DyingAsYourself moment.]]
* YouKilledMyFather: Castaspella blames her for sending Micah to his death. Subverted, as Shadow Weaver had nothing to do with it, nor would she have wanted to [[spoiler:and Micah isn't dead, although given how long he's been on Beast Island whoever sent him there probably led her to assume he is]].
[[/folder]]
!!Force Captains
[[folder:Catra]]
''See Catra's page [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra here]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scorpia]]
!!'''Scorpia, Force Captain, Princess of the Fright Zone'''
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scorpiarender.png]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaurenAsh (English)[[labelnote:additional voice actors]]Saori Terai (Japanese)[[/labelnote]]
->''"I am brave, strong, loyal, and give great hugs. And I am going to be the best friend that I CAN BE!"''
Scorpia is a gregarious and enthusiastic Force Captain who grew up in the Horde. Even though she possesses super-strength, she is quite clumsy and somewhat oblivious to just how strong she really is. With her eager-to-please attitude, she naturally falls into the role of minion. Even though her allegiance is to the Horde, deep down she has a good heart.
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->''See [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime]].''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Attendants]]
!!'''Horde Prime's Clones'''
[[quoteright:277:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horde_clone.jpg]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/KestonJohn (English)
-->''"Cast off the shadows. Bring the universe to Prime's light."''
Servants and clones of Horde Prime.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Attendants]]
!!'''Horde Prime's Clones'''
[[quoteright:277:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horde_clone.jpg]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/KestonJohn (English)
-->''"Cast off the shadows. Bring the universe to Prime's light."''
Servants and clones of Horde Prime.
to:
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Attendants]]
[[quoteright:277:https://static.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.
[[caption-width-right:350:''"All creatures, no matter how small, have a place in service of Horde Prime."'']]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote: Click here to see his true form]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horde_prime_spirit.png[[/labelnote]]]]
!!!'''Voiced
-->''"Cast off
->''"Rejoice Etheria, for Prime has come to you. Do not fear, for you have given the
Added DiffLines:
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Not one of the people under his command willingly obeys him. Catra only did so because of 1.) her [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] and 2.) she's now lost ''everyone'' who was ever close to her and feels [[IveComeTooFar that she can't turn back now]]. His presence on Etheria pushes everybody to fight back against him, and even Catra eventually realizes that throwing her lot in with him isn't worth it.
* AboveGoodAndEvil: 'Good' and 'evil' are concepts that only matter when more than one person in the universe has any value, and Prime is openly contemptuous of them as the preoccupation of lesser beings.
* AbusiveParents: Takes this trope up to eleven with Hordak. Prime is Hordak's genetic progenitor, and thus the closest thing he has to a father. However, Horde Prime treats his clones like disposable tools, robs them of individuality, and refuses to tolerate ''any'' displays of autonomy from them, Hordak included. In a flashback, Horde Prime neck-lifts Hordak when the clone first exhibits a defect, then casts him out. Everything Hordak does thereafter is a futile attempt to win back Horde Prime's approval. When the two men reunite in "Destiny, Part 2", Horde Prime humiliates Hordak for his displays of free will, neck-lifts him, and subjects him to a MindRape that concludes with a mind-wipe. Unfortunately for Prime, the effect isn't permanent.
* AchillesHeel: Magic, or rather his lack of understanding of it is revealed on Krytis to be his major weakness. Prime's inability to counter Melog's illusions led to his retreat from the planet and then attempting to OrwellianRetcon his invasion of the planet. Even in the finale when he attempts to hijack the Heart of Etheria, his method is to brute-force his way through its security systems, overriding the need for princesses to activate it. Finally, it's She-Ra using magic to expel Prime's consciousness from Hordak that is what destroys him for good.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the original series, he is a cloud-like EldritchAbomination whose face we never see, and whose mere visage was implied to be horrific to look at. In this series, he's a humanoid man from the same species as Hordak, albeit with some ''very'' disturbing features such as multiple eyes, green sclerae, and a green mouth. Come the final episode, however, it's revealed that Prime's current body is [[CustomBuiltHost one of several]] that he had possessed throughout the ages and, when exorcised by Adora, [[ThisWasHisTrueForm he resembles a giant black cloud that is implied to be his true form]], thus putting him back in line with his classic appearance.
* AdaptationalJerkass: Despite not being a CardCarryingVillain like the original series' counterpart he is '''far''' eviler. The original Horde Prime just berated his underlings for failing him; this version sent Hordak out to die for a perceived defect and {{mind rape}}d him for his independence. That is without him proudly stating that he has destroyed numerous worlds in the past and initially planning to destroy Etheria before he was convinced the planet had value. During his VillainousBreakdown he not only decides to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the planet, but the rest of the universe out of spite]].
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Horde Prime in the original series had a more dystopian taste for his empire, of which the Fright Zone was a model. Here, Horde Prime envisions a more utopian empire, but one [[CultOfPersonality centered on his likeness]].
* AdaptationalSeriousness: Hordak encountering Horde Prime in the original series was never a walk in the park and was typically unpleasant, but even though he was an EldritchAbomination tyrant, he had mundane interests like other low-level mortals did. Horde Prime in this incarnation ISN'T played for laughs in any way, and his sadistic treatment of Hordak only gives the heroes a reminder that he's a legitimate threat to theirs and the entire universe's existence.
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: He touches Hordak's face in order to establish a telepathic link with him, but this quickly turns into facial groping as he invades Hordak's mind. He also touches Glimmer's face in a manner that feels both affectionate and predatory.
* AliensAreBastards: A genocidal, tyrannical warmonger who has brought almost the entire universe under his heel.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Horde Prime, befitting his narcissism and cult-leader qualities, has NoSenseOfPersonalSpace with ''anyone''. When we meet him, he runs his hand across Hordak's armored chest in a very unnatural way, and then [[MindRape plugs into his mind to brainwash him.]] He cups the faces of Catra and Glimmer while they are on his ship, making them visibly uncomfortable, gets very up close and personal with them, and cups the face of a clone, who visibly blushes at Prime's touch. While nothing is explicit, apart from the fact that he loves no one but himself, it's very hard not to at least notice that Prime's creepier tendencies extend to everyone.
* AndIMustScream: He can "chip" others and completely [[BrainwashedAndCrazy control them]] but they're perfectly aware that they're controlled, of their surroundings and what they're doing. Horde Prime perfectly aware about this function but he either doesn't care or enjoys this.
* AndThenWhat: The show makes it clear that Prime's narcissistic hunger can't be sated even when he gets everything he wants - his ExtraEyes, for instance, are because in an empire of his clones, he still has to be ''better than himself''.
* AnimalMotifs: His throne and the computer screen behind it resemble a peacock's tail, which is entirely appropriate for a narcissist like Horde Prime.
* AntagonistAbilities: Despite being a non-combatant himself, he can see everything through his clones and the people he chipped. Heck, he can BodySurf through any of them should his current body dies, as an example is shown through Hordak. Also, he can control everything in his own ship with just a BadassFingersnap.
* ArchEnemy: Considers She-Ra, if not the individuals that assumed her form, to be his oldest enemy. He also took great pleasure in the thought of being rid of her for good.
-->'''Horde Prime:''' Goodbye, my oldest enemy.
* AsceticAesthetic: It's not until you really see Prime's throne room that you realize just how much more clean the greater Horde's visual language is than Hordak's offshoot. Glowing green, gleaming white and stainless steel dominate his and his ship's design--further entrenching just how unsettling he is.
* AssholeVictim: In the GrandFinale, She-Ra exorcises his spirit from Hordak's body and destroys it, killing Prime for good. This is in stark contrast to every other major antagonist who gets some form of redemption before the series end. Considering the fact the he has spent untold millennia subjugating the entire universe and committed more evil in one season than any other villain in the show's first four, no tears were shed after Adora killed him.
-->'''Adora:''' He's gone.\\
'''Catra:''' Good riddance.
* AssimilationPlot: Horde Prime can exert mind control on any being he wishes, either by [[SymbolicBaptism immersing them in a pool of clone life force]] or implanting a chip in the back of their neck to override their nervous system. Throughout Season 5, he exerts mind control over countless Etherians this way. Unusually for this trope, this is a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself - Prime just doesn't have enough interest in other people to keep them around as his worshippers for all eternity, and tends to discard them once they stop being fun and/or useful. There's a reason he has an entire trophy room of treasures from destroyed planets.
* AxCrazy: Underneath his elegant design and personality is a vicious, petty child willing to destroy the entire universe in an act of spite.
* BadassCape: Horde Prime usually wears a waist-cape to indicate his status as TheEmperor.
* BadassFingersnap: Seems to be how he activates most of his technology, made more effective by the silver claw ornament he wears over one finger on each hand which gives his finger-snaps a metallic echo.
* BadBoss: Narcissists are terrible employers, and Prime is the biggest narcissist in the galaxy. All sentient life exists to obey his whims and fuel his appetites and will be disposed of the instant that it bores or annoys him. Anyone with a history of treason receives extra scrutiny, and is at high risk of getting brainwashed as punishment. Catra tries to ingratiate herself with him as a potential lieutenant, but realizes within the span of a couple of conversations that he's impossible to work for, only doing what he says out of intimidation.
* BaitTheDog: During his first real scene. He's clearly not a good person, seeing how ruthlessly he dispatches Hordak but his seemingly sincere apology to Glimmer for all the trouble his brother caused her suggests that maybe he's at least an AffablyEvil ReasonableAuthorityFigure. When Glimmer takes this as a good sign, he laughs it off and proceeds to threaten both her and the entire planet to avoid the "embarrassment" of Hordak's failed conquest getting out. But, considering all the kinds of unimaginable torture he inflicts on his victims, you'd be lucky if he decides to kill you first.
* BerserkButton: He's an extreme narcissist who is personally insulted by the idea of anyone other than him having (or using) free will rather than mindlessly obeying his whims. This goes double if the person exhibiting independent thought is one of his own clones, like Hordak.
* BewareTheSuperman: He's an ancient being who is physically strong, can transfer his consciousness to other bodies if he is injured or grows old, and can connect telepathically with his hive mind. He uses his vast knowledge and technology to conquer the universe and dominate an army of slaves. He refers to the Etherians as "wretched creatures" and uses both the Etherians and his clones as expendable tools.
* BigBad: At the end of Season 4, he has brainwashed Hordak, captured Catra and Glimmer, and set about making Etheria the "jewel" of this empire. All of this means he's the main threat the heroes have to face.
* BigBrotherBully: He sees Hordak as his little brother, and was more than willing to send him to his death just for being a defective clone. When the two men meet face to face, he berates Hordak, mind-wipes him, and decides to have the clone "reconditioned".
* BigNo: He screams this as She-Ra exorcises him from Hordak's body.
* BrokenPedestal: Becomes one to Wrong Hordak when the latter learns of his failure to conquer a magical planet and subsequent attempt to cover his tracks.
* BodySurf: He's survived throughout the centuries by transferring his consciousness to new cloned bodies, or "vessels", whenever PossessionBurnout and other issues render them unsuitable for him anymore, and he implies that he can do it with those he's chipped as well. He still keeps the bodies around in storage when he needs to access their memories. When Hordak drops Prime's central body to its death, Prime just leaps into Hordak's body to survive. Ultimately he cannot die until Adora exorcises him for good.
* TheBully: Strip away his titles, and this is Horde Prime at heart. Horde Prime never personally engages in a fair fight. We only see him physically assault people who are smaller and weaker than him (Entrapta, when he lifts her by her hair), or who are too injured to defend themselves (Hordak, after being powered down and injured from his fight with Catra) to make himself feel big. Fittingly, when those he oppresses gain the will to fight back and win, he loses it.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Idly remarks upon seeing a hologram of Mara as She-Ra that he must have fought her at some point, but he has no memory of Mara's particular incarnation of She-Ra. Presumably the memories he does have of any conflict he had with Mara would be stored in the remains of his vessel from that period. He follows up by stating he's also fought many ''[[TheHero like]]'' her, and outlived them all.
-->'''Horde Prime:''' How strange. I must have fought her, must have known her face. But I have no memory of it. I've seen so many like her over the years. One by one, all their faces have been lost to oblivion. Just as yours will be.
* TheCaligula: He's a GalacticConqueror who's been completely swallowed by his own narcissistic hunger - irrational, irredeemable, insatiable, and an enemy to all that exists. The entire final season is devoted to plumbing how deep his madness goes.
* CharacterCatchphrase: "Prime sees all. Prime knows all."
* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: The HiveMind was created in such a way to allow Horde Prime to exist beyond death and rule forever, but She-Ra exorcises his essence, purging him for good.
* ColdHam: Prime loves the sound of his own voice, but keeps his tone even and almost faux-polite.
* ColorMotifs: White and green, the former representing cold, sterile technology and the latter a SicklyGreenGlow.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: In Hordak's flashback/story to Entrapta of his past, Horde Prime is primarily illustrated in green as opposed to Hordak's red. When viewers see him in Season 4, he has green sclera, green teeth, and a green mouth.
* ControlFreak: As a nightmarishly extreme narcissist, he's obsessed with maintaining peace and order - or, to put it another way, he needs to make sure that he's the only one who makes decisions about anything. There's a reason all his lieutenants are mind-controlled clones.
* CoolShip: He travels the universe in his spacecraft, the ''Velvet Glove''. Its MeaningfulName ([[ContinuityNod which was also the name of Horde Prime's HQ ship from the original show]]) can also refer to HP's superficial politeness which masks a ruthless desire to remake the universe in his own image.
* CreepySouvenir: Aboard his ship, he keeps a trophy room full of objects and weapons from worlds he has "brought peace to" (read: destroyed).
* {{Cult}}: His army is more of a cult indoctrinated to serve him than a military space fleet. Horde Prime speaks of bringing light and order to the universe, his clones are brainwashed into servitude through memory wiping, mental conditioning, and fear of dissention, and they wear hooded robes and chant in unison to sing his praises. In an interview with [[https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/20/21265608 Polygon]], showrunner ND Stevenson admitted that Horde Prime was modeled on real-life suicide cult leaders.
* CultOfPersonality: Taken to its ultimate, bizarre extreme. As a HiveKing, he exists as an empire of clones of himself united in worship of himself.
* CustomBuiltHost: His essence can exist in nearly any host. He even threatens to use Catra for this purpose, even though it's [[PossessionBurnout implied to be fatal]]. The body he's seen most often in, the muscular one with the cyber hair, is implied to be the form he can be most comfortable in regardless of the needed maintenance. If the time comes, he'll have to clone a new body for him to inhabit.
* {{Cyborg}}: His "dreadlocks" are cables that allow him to interface with his clones. [[https://www.raegeii.com/design.html His character sheet]] posted on Ray Geiger's website shows that he has seven cybernetic ports on his back, into which his cables plug when not in use.
* DarkIsEvil: His spirit, once deprived of a host, is revealed to be a swirling mass of pure darkness in contrast to the heavenly light he likes to present himself as.
* DarkMessiah: Horde Prime presents himself as an almighty crusading conqueror whose convictions are as absolute as he is powerful, setting forth to bring self-described "salvation", unity, and peace to the Universe through merciless bloodshed, brainwashing and cruelty.
* DeaderThanDead: When Adora exorcises him from Hordak's body, this also obliterates his soul completely so that he can't jump to any other vessel.
* DeathByIrony:
** Horde Prime constantly talks about spreading his "light" across the universe and purging anything that doesn't conform to his standards (which is to say [[ItsAllAboutMe anything that isn't just a version of him]]). In the end, he is defeated when She-Ra uses her own light to purge him out of Hordak's body, and to add to the irony, his true form is revealed to be a dark cloud as oppose to the pure light he claimed to be.
** His prime body is destroyed when Hordak, whom he previously called an abomination unfit to serve as his equal, threw off his brainwashing and killed him. [[{{Hypocrite}} Horde Prime then immediately takes said lesser body for his own]] before being destroyed by She-Ra.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the InvincibleVillain. Having conquered galaxy after galaxy, Horde Prime equates perfection with success; by achieving absolute victory, there's really nothing left to achieve, so he sees little incentive to improve himself in any way and he ends up underestimating those he's seemingly crushed under his heel. Also, because he has known nothing but victory for eons, he's incredibly arrogant and he cannot fathom the possibility that he can actually lose. When Bow inspired others to rise against him and Hordak stands up to him, making his first taste of true failure imminent, Prime completely loses his mind and ultimately attempts to destroy all of reality in a fit of rage, all because his fragile ego simply cannot handle the prospect of defeat.
* DemiurgeArchetype: While also being a SatanicArchetype (see below) Prime enforces peace and order upon the galaxy, destroying then rebuilding everything in his image while erasing all knowledge of his failures. He has a huge military of spacecraft, robots and clones connected to a hive mind who espouse his dogma, and even brainwashes people on invaded planets, supplanting their civilizations. Immortal and narcissistic, everything exists to where he is the god, the church, and the churchgoer with no room for individualism. He is LightIsNotGood incarnate, as he's always espousing how he'll bring light to the universe[[note]]Ironically, when Adora destroys him, he's a mass of shadows.[[/note]] Series creator Creator/NDStevenson admitted that when creating him he was thinking of his own experience of what it was like to grow up in a deeply fundamentalist environment while queer, transmasculine, and bigender.
* DemonicPossession: When Hordak [[DisneyVillainDeath throws him into the depths of the Spire]], he manages to take control of Hordak's body until Adora exorcises him.
* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: His main problem with the universe is that it doesn't exist to serve him, the most perfect being in existence. When he talks about the importance of 'peace' and 'order', he's only ever talking about a peaceful and orderly life for himself. Other living beings are servants at best and disposable toys at worst, and he'd really prefer to have clones of himself performing those tasks, too.
* {{Determinator}}: A disturbing example, born out of his endless, unquenchable hunger for power rather than anything more human and wholesome. Prime can't even conceptualise giving up after even the most severe setback, and fully believes that he'll rise again after being defeated soundly by She-Ra and the Princess Alliance - he can no more stop trying to conquer, dominate, and destroy then he can stop breathing, and as the perfect being, he can only assume that his eventual success is inevitable. His quote below doubles as a BadassBoast since it implies Prime has done it multiple times before, but he's only deluding himself. She-Ra doesn't give him the chance for an encore.
-->'''Prime:''' Though all is reduced to rubble, Prime shall rise again, so it has been, and so it always shall be.
* DiabolusExNihilo: Justified by his own age, power, and personality. Why he wants to conquer the universe with an army of clones of himself [[AGodAmI who he's brainwashed into worshiping him]], or what he was like before that, is long lost within the ever-devouring narcissistic void that is the Galactic Horde. Nothing can even begin to desribe him--Prime simply is. All else is irrelevant.
* DirtyCoward: For all his talk, the moments he realised that he can be defeated and/or killed, he's going nuts and will do anything to save himself.
* DisneyVillainDeath: In the series finale, Hordak breaks free of Prime's influence to save Entrapta, then kills him by throwing him down into the depths of his ship. Unfortunately, it was just a HopeSpot as Prime survives by possessing Hordak himself. Fortunately, Prime is killed for real by She-Ra exorcising him from Hordak.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He subjects Hordak to MindRape culminating in a mind-wipe simply because Hordak took actions unbidden.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A handsy and predatory cult leader who violates minds and bodies with tentacle-like cables that squirt fluid. The scene where he cups a blushing clone's face while talking about using his body as a vessel is reminiscent of the way many cult leaders sexually abuse their followers. Catra's trauma about him "using" her is evocative of a sexual assault survivor. The unflattering [[PedophilePriest stereotype]] of the real-life clergy doesn't help either.
* TheDreaded: Horde Prime is the most evil and feared being in the entire universe and challenging him would be suicide. You're better off taking destruction from him than serving him. Catra visibly chafes around him, and is reminded that if she thinks about double-crossing him, she's [[DeadlyEuphemism fired]]. Even Shadow Weaver fears him over death itself.
* DreadlockWarrior: The cables attached to his head resemble dreadlocks.
* TheEmperor: Horde Prime is the absolute ruler of the Galactic Horde Empire, self-styled "Emperor of the Known Universe".
* EntitledBastard: He's a narcissistic GalacticConqueror trying to turn the universe into a HiveMind empire of clones united in self-worship. This one really goes without saying.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When he's finally shown fully on-screen in the Season 4 finale, he belittles Hordak for thinking he had free will, and dismisses all of Hordak's attempts to impress him. To showcase how much of a genuine threat he is compared to Hordak, Horde Prime then {{Mind Rape}}s Hordak into submission, and is prepared to destroy Etheria and kill Glimmer and then the rest of her homeworld [[LeaveNoWitnesses simply to cover up that one of his clones disobeyed him]]. Catra tells him that Etheria itself is a weapon and very valuable, making him change his mind, feeling self-assured he can secure inevitable victory over the entire universe. This establishes Horde Prime as a brutal dictator who cares only about himself and his empire. At the same time, it also showcases his SoreLoser personality and tendency to RageQuit when things don't go his way, foreshadowing his SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum during the FinalBattle.
* EvilBrit: While not ''technically'' British, he speaks with a cultured, mellifluous accent, and he is [[TheSociopath the absolute worst]].
* EvilCannotComprehendGood:
** He sees no value in things like friendship or love, viewing them as weaknesses. Besides him repeatedly ignoring how ThePowerOfLove can allow someone to resist his control chips, the most obvious example of this is how, even after viewing Hordak's memories, he ''still'' underestimates the love he has for Entrapta, and is shocked when Hordak turns on him rather than kill her. Entrapta even lampshades it InUniverse after Bow's rousing speech, saying that the fact that he doesn't understand what makes them strong is why he'll never win.
** Despite being so hyper-successful, Horde Prime doesn't understand what it means to win. The heroes achieved success through loss and struggle, and it's only made them stronger. Horde Prime never struggled for his victories like they did.
* EvilCounterpart: To Entrapta. Both are technologically proficient. Both have prehensile "hair". Both surround themselves with servants of their own creation (robots for Entrapta, clones for Horde Prime), some of whom develop free will (the robots in the Valley of the Lost for Entrapta, Hordak for Horde Prime). Both know about Hordak's secrets, but while Entrapta finds them out from a willing Hordak in the context of friendship, Horde Prime finds them out from an unwilling Hordak through a frightening mind probe. Both change Hordak in profound ways -- Entrapta by embracing Hordak's imperfections and stirring feelings of love in him, and Horde Prime by mind-wiping him.
* EvilerThanThou: His Galactic Horde ended up being this to the First Ones' Empire as he reveals he crushed them early on in his conquest of the universe.
** His EstablishingCharacterMoment also proves that he's worse than Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Catra and all other antagonists puts together.
* EvilIsHammy: Horde Prime is typically a ColdHam--as understated as he is, he ''loves'' the sound of his own voice--but by the time his plans are waylaid and he's forced to possess Hordak, Horde Prime starts ''gobbling'' the scenery with full aplomb:
-->"''CRY, ETHERIA!'' '''''CRY''''' ''FOR PRIME'S MERCY! THERE WILL BE NO COMFORT FOR YOU! SO ALL THE UNIVERSE WILL BE CONSUMED IN'' '''''UNDYING FLAME!'''''"
* EvilIsNotPacifist: Frankly he could have gotten all that he wanted through diplomacy and his massive material advantage. But instead, tries to conquer Etheria ostensibly to wipe out the stain on his name that Hordak made.
* EvilOldFolks: One of the oldest - and vilest - beings in the galaxy.
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: Once Horde Prime gets control of the Heart of Etheria, it's game over, and he can wipe out all his enemies in just one move.
* EvilIsPetty: PlayedForHorror. He decided to [[BrainwashedAndCrazy "chip"]] every member of Etheria just to spite heroes for rescuing Catra and decided to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the entire universe]] because it doesn't fit ''his'' desired vision.
* EvilPlan: After Catra revealed Etheria's true nature, his goal is to obtain the Heart of Etheria, become unstoppable, and wipe out anyone who might object to him turning the universe into his narcissistic playground.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: He isn't a solipsist, and recognises that people other than him have goals, motives, and ambitions. He just really, really wishes they didn't. He designed his clones to be obedient drones, and is enraged by Hordak's displays of free will. He initially intends to destroy Etheria so that the rest of the universe won't find out about Hordak's autonomous actions there.
* EvilVersusEvil: Season 5 reveals that he and the First Ones fought in the past, both sides ravaging planets to fuel their war machines. [[EvilerThanThou He won.]]
* ExtraEyes: He has multiple eyes on the [[EyesDoNotBelongThere right side of his face]]. While it's never confirmed on-screen, character designer [[WordOfSaintPaul Ray Geiger]] stated that Prime used the eyes of other clones to ornament himself during a [[https://www.patreon.com/posts/31340162 Patreon discussion]] with fans.
-->'''Ray Geiger:''' One of the concepts behind Prime is that he upgrades himself with his clones. They're stock to him. He wants them all to be uniform by his standard, but he wants a little "extra" for himself to establish his superiority, his interesting-ness above them. So if he wants some extra eyes purely for the aesthetic, some clone(s) are going to give up a piece.
* FacialMarkings: He has dark lines on his chin and left cheek.
* FalseProphet: He certainly has shades of this, beginning with slandering the name of She-Ra and telling conquered peoples to renounce her and deities, claiming ''he'' is the bringer of truth. At the end, he is nothing but a deceiver, committing genocide in the name of his own narcissistic delusions.
* FantasticRacism: Horde Prime believes all other races are below him, and only exist to be expendable slaves to his empire.
* FatalFlaw: Fitting for a SatanicArchetype, arrogance and pride. Horde Prime lives to flaunt his power in front of others and assert his dominance over them, and his ego causes him to make poor decisions on a personal level numerous times.
-->'''Keston John:''' [[https://meaww.com/she-ra-and-the-princesses-of-power-season-5-keston-john-horde-prime-great-villain-netflix I would say]] that is his weakness. He's not afraid. To use boxing, it would be like going into the ring just with the assumption that you have always won, so you will continue to win, and that can be good or bad.
** Most problematic is that even though he is aware of She-Ra and her power levels, he refuses or is unable to recognize her as a legitimate threat.
** This is also implied to tie into his [[AchillesHeel weakness to magic]]: he can't control or deal with magic, so he erased the records of a magical world that he failed to conquer and tried to pretend that magic didn't exist or that it was beneath him before he found Etheria.
** Ultimately, it's his arrogance that leads to his final defeat: he underestimates Hordak's love for Entrapta, which results in Hordak breaking free from his indoctrination and killing his physical body. After that, he chooses to take over Hordak's body and descend to the surface to continue his speechifying, putting himself in danger and allowing She-Ra to confront him and destroy his soul for good.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Prime puts on a veneer of politeness and charm, but it's ''blatantly'' superficial and most of the time he barely even tries to conceal how cruel, petty, and ruthless he really is.
** When he comes to Etheria, he initially intends to obliterate it, because Prime considers Hordak building an empire of his own there to be an embarrassment, and he can't let others know about it.
** When having dinner to Glimmer and Catra, he lets them know the gelatin dish being served is from a planet lightyears away that was very much like Etheria, and then smugly tells them the dish is very rare because that planet no longer exists. He also offers to let Glimmer see Etheria again, and wires in a live feed from his robots as they attack a village and battle the Princesses.
** His broadcast to Etheria has him put up a peaceful façade before almost immediately threatening the populace if they do not turn She-Ra over to him.
--->'''Horde Prime:''' Rejoice Etheria, for Prime has come to you. Do not fear, for you have been given the opportunity to share in a world soon to be made in my image. But first you must prove yourselves worthy. Your leader, your She-Ra, she would see you suffer in darkness for her sake. Cast aside this false hero and deliver her to me. Prime sees all, Prime knows all. They will not escape my judgment.
* FinalBoss: The biggest and baddest threat that She-Ra has to face, who takes center stage as the final villain in the last season after being mentioned/ appearing sporadically throughout the previous seasons.
* FinalSolution:
** In "Destiny, Part 2", Horde Prime decides to destroy Etheria so that word of Hordak's attempted conquest does not reach the outside world. He changes his mind after learning that Etheria houses a magical superweapon.
** During the dinner scene, he tells Glimmer that the gelatinous dish she's eating is from a world that no longer exists, implying that he [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide wiped out]] the civilization that created it.
* FlatCharacter: PlayedForHorror. His narcissistic hunger long ago stripped away all that made him human and all that made him capable of meaningfully interacting with any other living entity, leaving him as more a walking, talking void than a person. What use does the perfect being have for CharacterDevelopment?
* TheFogOfAges: He's apparently lived so long that he has trouble remembering it all. He needs to access the memories of the body he used when fighting the First Ones in order to refresh on them.
* {{Foil}}:
** Horde Prime is a foil to the Etherian Princesses.
*** The Princess Alliance is led by female rulers and defended by mostly female warriors. The Galactic Horde is led by a man and defended by an all-male army of clones.
*** The Princess Alliance and the people it protects are diverse and respect individuality, while Horde Prime demands absolute conformity and uniformity among his clones.
*** The Princesses and their allies rely on magic. Even Entrapta, who is not bound to a Runestone, skillfully uses {{magitek}} left by the First Ones. The Galactic Horde relies on technology, and Horde Prime himself is vulnerable to magic.
*** The Princesses are isolated from the larger universe in Despondos until late in season 4, while Horde Prime is a worldly man who has traveled the cosmos.
** Despite Hordak being his clone, they contrast each other in nearly every way:
*** Hordak begins the series with a black and red color scheme, in contrast to Horde Prime's white and green palette.
*** Underneath his armor, Hordak's garment covers his chest but leaves his back, arms, and legs exposed, while Horde Prime's garment leaves his chest exposed but covers everything else.
*** The Fright Zone has a sinister, gritty, industrial appearance, while Horde Prime's ship has a clean, sleek, futuristic appearance.
*** Horde Prime is at the peak of his power and glory, while at the end of Season 4, Hordak has lost everything. Of course, the way their win/loss streaks shape them contrast each other as well; Horde Prime has spent his whole existence winning, yet he remains stagnant and is indignant about the prospect of defeat. Hordak has experienced defeat a number of times, but he learns from them it's what allows him to appreciate the wins he ''does'' actually get, and it spurrs positive CharacterDevelopment in him.
*** Horde Prime insists on uniformity in his clones, but everything about Hordak deviates from their uniformity.
*** Hordak is an antisocial recluse, but [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure relatively fair and permissive]]. Horde Prime is ''very'' superficially charming, but such a ControlFreak he'll wipe out a whole ''planet'' just to keep his image the way he likes it. Hordak is pleased when his soldiers show initiative, while Horde Prime sees any displays of independence as an affront.
*** Horde Prime is a megalomaniac with a god complex, while Hordak struggles with self-doubt and self-hatred.
*** Horde Prime disrespects the personal space of everyone around him, frequently putting his hands on his captives and clones to show condescension. Hordak rarely touches anyone, and prefers to inflict punishment and engage in combat in ways that do not require physical contact. The only times we see Hordak initiate physical contact are to show Imp affection, protect Entrapta from an explosion, and hold Entrapta's hand.
*** Horde Prime is a vicious sociopath who is incapable of love. Hordak's love for Entrapta is a major element of his character arc from Season 3 onward. His love for her survives two mind wipes and ultimately drives him to rebel against Horde Prime.
* FreudianExcuse: Unusually for this show, this is deliberately averted. He's been ravaging the galaxy for so long and has hollowed himself out into such a narcissistic void that who he used to be and what originally drove him to it is no longer relevant - if a FreudianExcuse for his behaviour once existed, it's now nothing more than a long-forgotten relic of when he was someone that things happened to rather than something that happened to other people.
* GalacticConqueror: His empire is said to span across the universe.
* GenocideBackfire: Horde Prime claims to have wiped out the First Ones and their empire, but a small pocket of them obviously remained, given that Adora came from them. Adora, who was turned into TheChosenOne by Light Hope, and became the one to defeat him for good.
* AGodAmI: Deliberately tries to display an image of divinity, and honestly believes that he is the most perfect being ever. His grand plan is to turn the universe into a church where he is both the god and the congregation of worshippers.
* GodEmperor: Taken to a horrifyingly narcissistic extreme. He wants to be both the god and the empire, ruling over billions of copies of himself united in worship of himself.
* GreaterScopeVillain: He's Hordak's boss and the ultimate ruler of the Horde, but he otherwise has nothing to do with the plot and he didn't even know the Horde existed on Etheria until the end of the third season. From Prime's perspective, Hordak is an old soldier who went MIA, then suddenly contacted him years later after carving out a new corner for his empire. After Season 4, he's the new BigBad of the series.
* GreenAndMean: Alongside white, his main characterizing color is green, and he's the [[GreaterScopeVillain worst.]]
* HadToBeSharp: As much as this is true for his {{Foil}}s, he demonstrates [[InvertedTrope that the opposite]], a person whose life is so comfortable and easy that their personal prowess lowers, can happen. Unlike [[NoNonsenseNemesis Hordak]] or [[TeenGenius Catra]], Horde Prime has countless absolutely obedient minions to do his bidding, and holds far more technological and material power than anyone else in the universe, but he makes numerous miscalculations due to his arrogance, is easily defeated in physical combat by Hordak, a crippled and supposedly inferior version of him, in the finale, and is particularly weak against anything outside of his personal abilities, namely magic.
* HateSink: He's cruel, petty, depraved, self-absorbed, vicious to the man who spent ''decades'' trying to win his respect, and has no respect for sentient life. The other villains can't hold a candle to his level of evil.
* TheHedonist: It's hidden by his AsceticAesthetic, but this is another natural consequence of his extreme narcissism. His own appetites matter more than anything else in the galaxy, whether they be for adulation, rare foods, or [[{{Sadist}} other people's suffering.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: Notably {{defied|Trope}}. Despite every other significant villain in the setting being redeemed in some capacity, Horde Prime expresses zero desire to change his evil ways and as such is remorselessly wiped from existence by She-Ra.
-->'''Creator/NDStevenson:''' [[https://www.cbr.com/noelle-stevenson-she-ra-finale-hordak-kiss/ I think because]] we as a show have so much interest in humanizing our villains, I really wanted Horde Prime to be different. There is evil in this world. It's dishonest to say that everyone is capable or worthy of redemption. There are people who have stewed in their own hatred for so long that the only thing you can do is just... She-Ra banishes him. "There's no place for you in this world." [...] I don't think he's made of pure evil. But I think because of the choices he made and the way he sees the world and the years and years of continuing to double-down on that and be so committed to that. At the end of the day, there's no way to redeem someone who doesn't want to be redeemed. There's no way to force them to care about other people if they don't.
* HighHeelPower: While coded as male he wears respectable heels in his primary body and he ''is'' a successful GalacticConqueror.
* HiveMind: His empire is this - or, as he'd likely put it, ''he'' is this. He runs it with a massive network of mind-controlling chips that overwrite people's personalities and replace them with copies of his own, and instill a slavish, religious devotion to him. While chipped people are largely independent and capable of acting on their own (in accord with their new personalities, anyway), he can access their memories and senses at will and/or BodySurf between them if he so chooses, abandoning his body and taking over theirs. He prefers his HiveMind bodies to be his own clones (because, again, gigantic narcissist), but he's quite willing to induct other people in order to gather intelligence, steal unique abilities, or just be a sadistic dick.
* HiveKing: See above. The universe-spanning HiveMind of the Horde proper exists entirely to serve him, and he is its guiding personality and intelligence.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** His chipping Catra to use against Adora leads to her unlocking She-Ra again, and the BrainwashResidue leads them to Melog, allows them to discover his weakness, and leads to ThePowerOfLove healing Adora so she can use the failsafe and save the universe.
** He orders Hordak to kill Entrapta, which allows Hordak to resist his control and kill his main body.
* {{Hologram}}: He likes to use gigantic holograms to address his subjects and enemies, looming over a world like an alien god.
* HopeCrusher: Horde Prime has spend millennia going from world to world, crushing rebellions left and right, and reducing entire planets to dust, all to keep the universe under his heel. When she meets them the Star Siblings tell Adora that she shouldn't even bother standing up to Prime and to flee to some other part of the galaxy while she still can.
* HumanResources: It's never confirmed on-screen, but according to character designer [[https://www.patreon.com/posts/31340162 Ray Geiger]], he harvests organs from his clones, whom he sees as little more than stock. His multiple eyes were harvested from clones for ornamentation purposes, according to Geiger.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** In the very specific way that only an extreme narcissist can be. His minions need to be exactly like him, but also inferior to him, but any inferiority is an insult to his obvious perfection and must be stamped out. He likes to resolve this paradox in deeply alarming ways, from murder to organ theft.
** When speaking to Adora, the last of the First Ones, he refers to her people as tyrants implying that [[EvenEvilHasStandards their actions disgusted even him]]. Considering that Prime has been subjugating the entire universe for centuries he really doesn't have a leg to stand on.
** Despite calling Hordak inferior and an abomination, he chooses to jump into his body when his own is killed (ironically, by Hordak himself).
* IgnorantOfHisOwnIgnorance: He was InvincibleVillain for many eons. Because of that he doesn't understand he can be wrong and NotSoInvincibleAfterAll.
* ImmortalRuler: Horde Prime was able to reign for millennia by transferring his essence into clone bodies to extend his lifespan.
* ImmortalityImmorality: How immoral, you ask? How about enslaving and then brutally experimenting on his clones in order to advance genetic engineering, medicine and cybernetics to extend his own life? Then of course, there's taking over the body of an abused girl without so much as batting an eye(s), and committing genocide on entire races in the universe.
* InstantExpert: He can access the memories of everyone within his HiveMind, meaning that when he takes direct control of someone he's chipped, he's just as skilled as they are at whatever their particular talents or abilities are. This makes him extremely dangerous in combat, as he uses all of his host's latent power in the most ruthlessly efficient ways possible.
* IControlMyMinionsThrough:
** MindControl. Horde Prime can telepathically link with any of his clones and perform a mind-wipe on them. Horrifically, this is what he does to Hordak at the end of Season 4.
** [[ExpendableClone Genetic Engineering]]. Horde Prime's soldiers are genetic derivatives of him, designed to be obedient drones. The fact that Hordak has exercised free will angers him.
* IndividualityIsIllegal: To Horde Prime, everything has to revolve around himself, to the point to forcibly chipping people and bringing them into his HiveMind. A quote from ND Stevenson states that:
-->"Horde Prime has no space in his empire for individuality; everything needs to be a reflection of his own ego. Characters like Glimmer and Catra, who have been striving for self-individuation this whole time, to be told that 'you're both cogs in this machine and will be used to flatten the universe and make everything uniform,' I think that's the most horrifying thing they've been confronted with."
* IndustrializedEvil: Horde Prime's empire is characterized by both technological superiority and ruthless, impersonal efficiency. Hordak's flashback shows clones gestating in vats en masse. The final shot of of Season 3 shows his space stations and fleets of spaceships, giving viewers a sense of how technologically advanced, efficient, and massive his empire is.
* InTheirOwnImage: When you're a narcissistic GalacticConqueror, there's really no other end-goal. All indications are that Prime's mad hunger still won't be sated when everything in existence is a temple to him populated exclusively by copies of him, but it'll at least be a good start.
* {{Irony}}:
** Horde Prime brags that he knows all and sees all. In the finale, he's blindsided when Entrapta hacks the hivemind and doesn't see Hordak's rebellion coming, ''despite'' his telepathic connection to Hordak.
** For all the talks of being the light, his true form is revealed to be a disembodied spirit of darkness.
** You'd think someone as successful as him would know a thing or two about winning, since he's conquered much the universe unopposed and considers Hordak a failure, but he only has a superficial understanding of it, that being "winning feels good". As a result, Horde Prime has become rather unsatisfied with his gains, which is due to him equating happiness with success, which is an incredibly shallow and poor way to go about life. Because he never struggled like Hordak did, he's unprepared for the possibility of defeat.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He's a narcissist on a galactic level. This trope comes with the territory. As an example, he sees Hordak's attempts to conquer Etheria as an insult rather than an honour, because his 'little brother' asserting his own identity to act as Horde Prime's servant is an unacceptable deviation from his role as an extension of Horde Prime's own body. And no, he doesn't get to be that either, because he's defective and deserves to be discarded.
* {{Jerkass}}: He is, in his own mind, the centre of the galaxy. Politeness to lesser beings is strictly optional.
* JustTheFirstCitizen: A bizarre and terrifying variant. He doesn't need a fancy title as leader of the Horde because the Horde is him. His body is just the prime unit the whole system revolves around. It's not modesty, it's narcissism so extreme that it's gone collective. Like all the overlords of history, his titles are a reflection of the reputation he gains through conquest rather than titles he establishes for himself.
* JustToyingWithThem: Because of his {{pride}}, Horde Prime likes to rub in his "superiority" to his enemies, leading him to do things like give taunt his enemies instead of just capturing or eliminating them. In "Horde Prime" it's implied that he left the rebel camp alone despite knowing where it was until they tried to interrogate a clone, and he apparently knew that Bow, Glimmer, and Entrapta were on his ship the whole time, but pretended otherwise until negotiations with Adora completely broke down.
* KilledOffForReal: His body is destroyed by Hordak pushing him off of his command post to [[DisneyVillainDeath let him fall to his death]]. But Horde Prime's spirit just takes over Hordak and begins again. After his plans are thoroughly ruined, Adora manages to cleanse Horde Prime from Hordak, destroying Horde Prime for good.
* KnightOfCerebus: He manages to be this for an already dark series, dwarfing the evil perpetrated by Hordak, Shadow Weaver, and Catra. On top of this, [[EvilerThanThou unlike the other villains]], he has zero comedic moments, with all levity stopping whenever he appears on screen.
* LargeAndInCharge: Hordak is among the tallest characters in the show, but flashbacks show that Horde Prime is [[https://66.media.tumblr.com/8bf0728db074b3d21283a5d9c535cdf9/tumblr_pw54zaNeSe1rk0k4co1_1280.jpg even taller than he is]]. However, when he appears in Season 4, he's about the same height as Hordak.[[note]]According to Ray Geiger, Horde Prime was originally drawn as a head taller than Hordak, but it caused problems with staging scenes with him talking to significantly shorter characters.[[/note]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: Horde Prime tossed Hordak aside when his younger "brother" dared to be anything less than perfect after suffering from CloneDegeneration and, when reunited at the end of Season 4, casually erased all of Hordak's memories to turn him back into a mindless drone. In the finale Horde Prime's betrayal is one of the reasons [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal Hordak destroys his main body]] and in order to survive Prime has to upload himself into his "defective" younger brother's body. [[VillainousBreakdown Horde Prime does not appreciate this at all.]]
* LifeDrinker: The green liquid that he absorbs via his tubes? That's the life essence of his clones, which he uses to keep his "vessels" healthy for longer.
* LightIsNotGood: His ships, his robots, his clones, and his clothes, are all white and pale grey, he speaks about letting the universe bask in "his light", and he is a terrible bastard who wants to rule the universe.
* MachiavelliWasWrong: Horde Prime ruled the universe with wonton cruelty, oppressing all inhabitants into submission. Conquering Etheria is one thing, but holding it is an entirely different story. The people of Etheria are ''not'' so easily broken, and they'd rather die fighting than to bow before a tyrant.
* MakeWayForTheNewVillains: His first scene in person in the show is marked by him overpowering Hordak, the BigBad of the whole series up to now, and mindwiping him into an expendable puppet.
* MilesGloriosus: Horde Prime claims he is in [[HiveMind complete control over his minions and knows their every thought]]. Horde Prime claims he is the ImmortalRuler of the universe. Horde Prime claims he is [[AGodAmI divine in his perfection]]. In reality, he is none of those things.
** He is only one mind and can only control and read the thoughts of individual minions, and is incapable of doing it to all of his minions at once. Fear and loyalty are greater motivators for his minions than Horde Prime's absolute control.
** He is not immortal, only capable of {{Body Surf}}ing, such that while his immediate consciousness survives, the memories do not, and he must keep worn out bodies in stasis to even have any idea of what happened in the past
** He is not perfect, instead [[WrittenByTheWinners writing his defeats and embarrassments out of history]]. He has numerous actual accomplishments to his name, not least of which is defeating the First Ones, but those aren't the things he boasts about.
* MindControlEyes: Whenever he possesses someone under his thrall, their normally completely green eyes gain white pupils.
* MindRape: Inflicts this on Hordak, wiping all of Hordak's memories and "resetting" him to what he was. He also uses chips to take over the minds of Catra and other Etherian victims, and judging by Catra's post-traumatic stress after her chip is removed, it's not a pleasant experience to remember.
* MoodSwinger: After showing his fury to Hordak, Horde Prime suddenly becomes calm and smarmy with Glimmer as if he had special plans for her.
* MotiveDecay: PlayedForHorror. To show him as horrifying and unsympathetic as possible, it was revealed that he forgot ''what'' he once was beyond his ambitions and all his evil deeds are done just because he's a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorbed]] {{Narcissist}} and nothing more.
* MrFanservice: His muscular chest is completely exposed.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: Despite being the tallest person in the series and having a muscular physique to match, Horde Prime never exerts himself in any meaningful way against an opponent who can fight back. The closest he ever gets to fighting the main cast is via possessing one of his clones or their chipped friends. Otherwise the few times he bothers to directly manhandle anyone is when they have already been physically exhausted (such as Hordak after his fight with Catra) or who don't have any physical combat potential (such as Entrapta). Best demonstrated at the end of the series once Hordak regains his free will and turns against Prime wherein his "little brother" performs a NeckLift in the same way that Prime did to him in Season 4 before being thrown into the bowels of his ship. For all the difference it makes though, Horde Prime has cheated death many, ''many'' times before, so he's survived far worse than that.
* MySensorsIndicateYouWantToTapThat: He figures out that Adora is important to Catra by subtle changes in her pupils and heart rate.
* {{Narcissist}}: One of the most extreme examples in fiction. He's an EvilOverlord who decided to make the entire universe an extension of himself using an army of disposable, mindlessly obedient clones who are allowed no more identity than he gives them, and treats CloneDegeneration as a personal insult. He even routinely harvests organs from said clones as an aesthetic statement to show that he is different and superior, because he needs to be on top and in charge even when his entire empire is a monument to himself
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: He's the genocidal dictator of a cult-like empire that regularly discriminates against other races and praises him to godlike extremes. Not to mention that his empire is staffed by his clones and comprises of robotic foot soldiers.
* NeckLift: A flashback shows him lifting up Hordak by the throat when Hordak begins to exhibit flaws. He does it again to Hordak at the end of Season 4. In the series finale [[LaserGuidedKarma Hordak gets to return the favour]] before [[DisneyVillainDeath throwing him into the bowels of his ship]] and destroying his current host body.
* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: He draws inspiration from infamous cult leader UsefulNotes/JimJones.
* NoMereWindmill: Prior to revealing himself, Horde Prime is treated as the equivalent of the Bogeyman for Etheria, a threat whose existence is often questioned. The only person on Etheria who knows about him is Hordak, a clone of Horde Prime himself. Others like Shadow Weaver have suspected the existence of a greater threat beyond Etheria, but even then, they only have rumors and tales to go off of. Once Horde Prime appears before Etheria, he's just about as threatening as they imagined, if not worse.
* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: After taking Glimmer and Catra captive, he dines with them, serving them an array of alien foods.
* NonActionBigBad: PlayedWith. He never intentionally uses his main body in direct combat, and puts up a very unimpressive fight when cornered in it. On the other hand, he's perfectly happy to personally enter the bodies of other members of his HiveMind (who he sees as extensions of himself rather than separate beings), and tends to make them much more deadly whenever he does so, making him simultaneously a NonActionBigBad and his empire's most dangerous warrior.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: {{Inverted|Trope}}: It's implied that beneath the pageantry and robot armies, Horde Prime isn't that much different than Hordak. It's apparent that he's fighting at his peak competency and condition in the final battle, but loses despite this same skill and prowess being what allowed him to take over the entire universe. According to Hordak, galaxy after galaxy fell before the emperor; it's just so happens Horde Prime just had a much "easier" universe to take over. By the time the heroes meet him, much of the universe is under his control and any known opposition prior has been fighting an uphill battle against him. He's just never met foes like the Rebellion on Etheria, or even Adora herself and he is surprised by how much of a fight the native heroes are able to put up and [[VillainousBreakdown loses his cool in the process]].
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Constantly - he gets in Hordak's, Glimmer's, and Catra's personal space repeatedly, with an emphasis on rubbing peoples' shoulders and stroking their faces, all of which comes across as vaguely predatory and ''extremely'' creepy.
* NothingIsScarier: ''Nothing'' is known about Prime beyond what is immediately important to the show. His backstory is left so vague that not even he seems to recall it. His motivations are similarly forgotten aside from immense [[{{Narcissist}} narcissism]] and [[AGodAmI a god complex]]. The result is a horrifying villain with no sympathetic traits but immense power that comes across as an undefeatable tide.
* NothingPersonal: Horde Prime's general attitude towards conquest was that it was just business to be done, and not out of hatred. But, once it becomes clear the Rebellion is just so stubborn that they'd keep daring to stop his master plan, he decides to let the Heart go out of control to destroy the whole universe...and savor the whole moment as it's happening.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Horde Prime speaks of bringing a universe full of peace and free of suffering with through worship of him. However, what he's really bringing is narcissistic fascism.
* NumerologicalMotif:
** Horde Prime has four eyes, four dreadlocks sitting in clips on his chest, and his throne room has four paths leading out. It's worth noting in some cultures, FourIsDeath.
** Horde Prime has seven cybernetic ports in his back. The screen in front of his throne has seven panels. When She-Ra exorcises his spirit from Hordak's body, it resembles an oily black shadow with seven green spots. Since seven is considered a holy number in western cultures, and Horde Prime sees himself as godlike, this may be significant.
* OmnicidalManiac: Prime sees no value in any life other than his own, and is engaging in a slow-mo genocide of the galaxy as he uses up planet after planet to expand his empire-church of clones and sate his hedonistic whims, though he apparently keeps at least some worlds relatively intact. After Hordak kills his main body and makes it impossible for him to channel the Heart of Etheria's power, he takes it up a notch, deliberately letting the Heart go haywire so he can burn down the universe with him in a narcissistic temper tantrum.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: PlayedWith. Horde Prime's main body never personally enters the front-lines or confronts She-Ra in combat, but that's mainly because he's a narcissistic HiveQueen who sees his entire empire, including its clone-soldiers and any local warriors he's chipped, as a part of himself. There's no sense in hitting the enemy with your brain when you can just use your fists instead, and he's perfectly happy to get directly involved when wearing another, more combat-ready body.
* OrderIsNotGood: Horde Prime desires to create an empire where all will obey his will unquestioningly and where individual thought is prohibited.
* OrganicTechnology: He can interface with his cybernetic clones using his cables/"hair".
* ParasiticImmortality: Horde Prime is a {{Narcissist}} whose army consists of his own clones. He also uses them to BodySurf to prolong his life. But this procedure is flawed: he must retain his old bodies to take access to memories from the time he occupied them because [[TheFogOfAges he forgot most of his past life]].
* PlanetLooters: Has ravaged many planets to fuel his conquests.
* PossessionBurnout: He can transfer himself to the bodies of his clones, which he uses to survive any time his body's killed, but it apparently takes a toll on the body that requires medical attention on a semi-regular basis in the form of absorbing the life force of his cloned "brothers" until it gives out, after which he puts it in storage in case he needs to access its memories. At one point he suggests taking on Catra's body to get Adora's goat, implying in the process that her body wouldn't last very long.
* PragmaticVillainy: For all his flaws, once Catra tells Horde Prime that Etheria is a superweapon, Horde Prime changes his mind about destroying it and settles for it being a "jewel" in his empire.
* PrecursorKillers: His fleet ended the First Ones' empire, though, despite his beliefs, scattered remnants remain.
* PrehensileHair: His "dreadlocks" are cables that he can use to interface with his clones. Only the white hair on the very top of his head is real.
* PsychicLink: He can see into the minds of his clones, with one exception.
* PsychopathicManchild: In a far less amusing way than Hordak. He carries himself with a more composed, sophisticated air befitting an Emperor, but is really just a SpoiledBrat who thinks he deserves to rule all of reality simply because he thinks he should, and that's not even getting into how much of a SoreLoser he is when things stop going his way for once.
* RageQuit: As the FinalBattle starts falling out of his favor and he's confronted with the reality that he'll actually lose ''big'' for once, and to a comparatively small Rebellion, no less, he decides to overclock the Heart of Etheria to ''destroy the entire universe''. He's ''that'' much of a SoreLoser.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Is old enough to have fought the First Ones in the prime of their empire, and he outlived their empire.
* ReligionOfEvil: As a supremely narcissistic GalacticConqueror HiveQueen with a god complex, he leads one, he's the object of worship for one, and he ''is'' one.
* ReligiousHorror: Horde Prime's cult/regime has several Christianity-coded elements. He berates Hordak using language borrowed from the Bible ("I made you in my image, but you have become an abomination."). In season 5, he performs a second mind wipe on Hordak in the form of an agonizing "baptism" in a pool of clone life force. Horde Prime projects a colossal holographic image of himself to the Etherians, as if he wants to appear godlike to them. Horde Prime's voice actor, Keston John, likened him to a proselytizer in a [[https://meaww.com/she-ra-and-the-princesses-of-power-season-5-keston-john-horde-prime-great-villain-netflix May 13, 2020]] interview with Meaww.
-->'''Keston John:''' He thinks that he's bringing his version of the gospel to every planet and they're better for it even if they have to die to receive it.
* {{Sadist}}: He tells Glimmer that he doesn't enjoy violence, only seeing it as a means to an end, but his obvious pleasure whenever he gets to hurt someone physically or emotionally shows how empty that claim is. Other people only exist for his amusement, and unfortunately, he finds it amusing to break them.
* SatanicArchetype: To begin with, Horde Prime talks of bringing light to the universe, which is evocative of Lucifer (whose name means "light bringer"), and he's charismatic, manipulative, and narcissistic. That being said, he can make deals with lesser beings and will grant them certain privileges as long as they are useful to him, but will dispose of them once they're no longer useful. At the end of the day, Horde Prime is ultimately an incredibly selfish and evil being who massacred billions, if not ''trillions'' of lives to bring what he calls peace and order. And how does he commit mass genocide? By setting worlds on ''fire'', another motif associated with the devil.
* ShadowArchetype: He becomes one of Catra. Horde Prime equates happiness with success, which is what Catra believed partly due to her abusive upbringing, plus they're both {{control freak}}s. Catra spent her whole life losing, and was sick and tired of it and was desperate for a win, but her losses allowed her to appreciate the small, good things she has in life. Horde Prime, on the other hand, almost ''never'' loses, but it's only made him more arrogant. In other words, Catra would've turned into a sociopathic egoist like Horde Prime if she always won.
* ShipperOnDeck: Downplayed. He's not really rooting for Catra and Adora but is very aware of how much the two care for one another, which he believes [[LoveHurts is the root cause of their suffering]].
* SicklyGreenGlow: This may have been seen throughout the Fright Zone, but Prime's appearance, ship, and armada take it up to eleven--which amps up the unease.
* SignificantDoubleCasting: Hordak is a clone of him and they both share a voice actor.
* SinisterSurveillance: Likes to spread the idea that he "sees all" and "knows all", and his drones and robots, plus the HiveMind link his clones have to him, allow him to spy on others easily.
* SkullForAHead: He shares the skull-like outline of the white face and the inverted-V nose that give Hordak this appearance, although it's downplayed compared to him because unlike Hordak, he doesn't use more {{Guyliner}} than the entirety of Music/MyChemicalRomance put together did at their peak, and so lacks the deep black pits around the eyes.
* {{Slimeball}}: He puts on a veneer of politeness over a cruel and petty personality. His attempts at being cordial to Glimmer come across as condescending and creepy. He touches Glimmer's hand and face and addresses her as "child" twice.
* SmugSnake: Because he's so used to victory, he's very self-assured that no matter what direction things swing, he'll always come out on top. He was right, until the Rebellion set foot in his universe, where he experienced his first true defeat and he doesn't like it ''one bit.''
* TheSociopath: Horde Prime shows no concern for sentient life or the personhood of his clones. He values only himself and his image.
* SoreLoser: Having known only victory his whole life, he ''really'' doesn't take it well when he's about to be defeated.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: When Hordak turns against him and kills his body, Horde Prime completely loses what little sanity he ''had'' and plans to overclock the Heart of Etheria to destroy the ''universe''.
* SuperStrength: Whether it's a normal trait of his species, a CharlesAtlasSuperpower, or the result of technological augmentation is unclear, but Horde Prime is very strong. In Season 4, he effortlessly lifts up Hordak by his throat, armor and all, with one hand.
* TermsOfEndangerment: He sees family as an extension of his own body. If he calls someone 'brother' or 'sister', it means he's either taken them into his HiveMind or is planning to do so.
* TimeAbyss: Heavily implied. While we aren't sure exactly how old he is, he is at minimum far older than Mara (over a thousand years old) and struggles to remember the First Ones at all in his many conquests over the centuries. He is forced to preserve his past bodies in order to access their memories, and he is shown to have several hundred in storage, suggesting he has been around and conquering the known universe for a ''very'' long time.
* TouchTelepathy: He's puzzled when he can't read Hordak's mind from a distance. He has to touch Hordak to access the clone's thoughts.
* TrulySingleParent: He cloned Hordak and the rest of his army from his own DNA, making him their "father" in a sense.
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: According to one of his clones, his official list of titles is as follows: [[AC:Emperor of the Galactic Horde, Ruler of the Known Universe, Regent of the Seven Skies, He Who Brings the Day and the Night, Revered One of the Shining Galaxies, Promised One of a Thousand Suns]]
* UnderestimatingBadassery:
** Horde Prime biggest flaw turns out to be the opposite of every other villain in the series. He just cannot see Adora or She-Ra as an actual threat. His only interest in her is as an easy way to access the Heart of Etheria. While Catra, Shadow Weaver and even Hordak would focus on She-Ra to the point they would ignore everything else. Horde Prime ignores She-Ra as anything but an mildly annoying bug until it's too late.
** Horde Prime also fails to take note of Hordak's [[{{Determinator}} insurmountable willpower]], which Hordak demonstrated by building an empire on Etheria after separation from the hive mind and ''while struggling with a chronic illness''. Hordak's willpower, combined with his love for Entrapta, allows him to overcome clone conditioning and ''two'' mind wipes and attack Horde Prime.
* UngratefulBastard: Hordak served Horde Prime faithfully for years, conquering entire galaxies for his empire. When Hordak suddenly showed signs of illness, Horde Prime cast him out despite his hard work. When he and Hordak reunite, Horde Prime berates Hordak despite all of Hordak's hard work, mind-wipes him, and sends him off to be [[AFateWorseThanDeath "reconditioned"]].
-->'''Horde Prime:''' You have given yourself a name. You tried to create an empire of your own. There was even a time you wished I would not come for you, is that so? ... You have forgotten who you are. You truly think you are worthy to stand beside me, could be equal to me? I made you in my image, but you have become an abomination! And so, you must be reborn!
* UriahGambit: Horde Prime sent Hordak to the front lines of battle in the hopes of killing the defective clone. Circumstances that have yet to be explained led to Hordak's ship slipping through a portal to Etheria instead.
* VilerNewVillain: He's referred to in Season 3 but doesn't appear until Season 4. With only a few minutes of screen time, he establishes himself as the most evil character in the series, as unlike [[TheConqueror Hordak]], [[AbusiveParent Shadow Weaver]], or [[RivalTurnedEvil Catra]] he has zero sympathetic traits.
* VileVillainSaccharineShow: In a pastel-colored show about magical princesses and friendship, Horde Prime is a villain who epitomizes sociopathic cruelty and shocking depravity that would make even [[Franchise/StarWars Emperor Palpatine]] green with envy. Of all the villains in this series, he has the highest body count, easily numbering in the ''trillions'', especially since he's been ravaging worlds for ''centuries''.
* VillainBall: Repeatedly holds onto it due to his FatalFlaw -- Prime is just so arrogant and powerful enough to enforce it, that he is willing to indulge in pointlessly evil acts and taunt his opponents over their losses, and he doesn't realize or care it may backfire.
** Prime generally suffers from a very bad case of BondVillainStupidity, preferring to give grandiose speeches and taunts to his enemies instead of just killing or capturing them when he has the chance.
** After looking through Hordak's memories and how Catra manipulated him while feigning loyalty to him, he tells her that he will ''not'' fall for the same tricks and warns he that if she tries to give him the runaround, he will dispose of her. This dashes Catra's hopes of being able to succeed under Prime's command and alienates her from helping him at all, helping to motivate her HeelFaceTurn.
** He directly tells Adora that he no longer needs the princesses to access the Heart of Etheria because he's figured out how to bypass that security system. This motivates the Rebellion to discover the failsafe to destroy the Heart and they decide to do so since nothing is stopping Prime now.
** With his broadcast shut down, he chooses to go to the planet directly to continue his speechifying to Etheria in person, putting a huge target on himself.
** When Scorpia manages to resist his control long enough to purposefully miss rather than kill Perfuma and Adora, he dismisses the incident entirely once he sees that her chip is intact. This bites him the rear when she manages to resist ''again'' long enough for Bow to activate Entrapta's device and free ''everyone'' on Etheria from his chips. For that matter, he also ''left'' the device where it was after capturing her.
** Prime's total underestimation of ThePowerOfLove is once again demonstrated when he senses that something is still amiss with Hordak's "programming" even after ''two'' mind wipes but chooses to ignore it -- unsurprisingly, this proves to be absolutely detrimental to Prime when Hordak eventually manages to wrest back his free will after being issued an unthinkable command (kill Entrapta).
* VillainousBreakdown: He was already losing his cool due to the "impossibility" of the Rebellion managing to give his forces some actual trouble, and free everyone who was chipped from his control, but when Hordak kills his body, forcing him to possess Hordak's to survive, he full on tries to use the Heart to destroy the ''universe''.
* VillainInAWhiteSuit: His usual garb is a ghostly off-white with green and black accents. In contrast to Hordak's scrappy tunic and armor get-up, Horde Prime's design is more luxurious and regal, and he color-coordinates his forces in the same hues.
* VillainOverride: He can possess any of his clones, or even people who have been chipped, when the situation calls for his personal presence (such as for gloating). It's signified by his host developing glowing white pupils on top of their MindControlEyes. This lets him menace the heroes from anywhere his forces are.
* VillainWorld: Hordak refers to him as the "Emperor of the known universe". The screen in his command room shows that large swaths of the universe outside of Despondos are under his dominion. Season 3 ends with a shot of his space station and a massive squadron of his ships.
* VisionaryVillain: Zig-zagged. He's a particularly disturbing example because he's a narcissist of cosmic ambition who literally wants to remake the universe in his image. However, he does so by wantonly destroying worlds instead of molding them into new civilizations, making his vision a petty one.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: His outfit's chest is completely cut out. His cape-like robes also make it fit NoShirtLongJacket.
* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: Tying into his FatalFlaw, Horde Prime has been around for a ''long time'', and is so used to defeating his enemies that he's started holding onto the VillainBall because he assumes that he ''can't'' lose.
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: He has white "hair" and is a profoundly evil man. Once he loses his body, his soul is revealed to be composed of pure darkness.
* WickedCultured: The closest Horde Prime has to a redeeming (or at least non-evil) feature is his [[AlienArtsAreAppreciated appreciation of arts]], and he maintains a collection of precious arts and exotic weaponry. Even when he has destroyed a certain world, he will take any cultural mementos worth preserving, and add them to his collection. But then again, he demonstrates knowledge of an alien culture just to show off.
* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: He tells Glimmer and Catra that the dish they're eating is a rare delicacy, as the world it came from no longer exists.
* YouDontLookLikeYou: In past media, Horde Prime was depicted as an {{eldritch abomination}} in the form of a green cloud from which a colossal metal hand would emerge. Here, he has the appearance of a humanoid man from the same species as Hordak, though when She-Ra banishes him from Hordak's body, his form is shown to be a black cloud.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Not only has Hordak insulted his brother by conquering an entire planet of his own free will, but Horde Prime knows Hordak failed miserably as his forces have been wiped out by the Rebellion. However, Catra convinces Horde Prime that he should use Etheria because the planet is a superweapon, and to let her serve him if he wants to be able to activate the weapon.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Attendants]]
!!'''Horde Prime's Clones'''
[[quoteright:277:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horde_clone.jpg]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/KestonJohn (English)
-->''"Cast off the shadows. Bring the universe to Prime's light."''
Servants and clones of Horde Prime.
----
* AboveGoodAndEvil: 'Good' and 'evil' are concepts that only matter when more than one person in the universe has any value, and Prime is openly contemptuous of them as the preoccupation of lesser beings.
* AbusiveParents: Takes this trope up to eleven with Hordak. Prime is Hordak's genetic progenitor, and thus the closest thing he has to a father. However, Horde Prime treats his clones like disposable tools, robs them of individuality, and refuses to tolerate ''any'' displays of autonomy from them, Hordak included. In a flashback, Horde Prime neck-lifts Hordak when the clone first exhibits a defect, then casts him out. Everything Hordak does thereafter is a futile attempt to win back Horde Prime's approval. When the two men reunite in "Destiny, Part 2", Horde Prime humiliates Hordak for his displays of free will, neck-lifts him, and subjects him to a MindRape that concludes with a mind-wipe. Unfortunately for Prime, the effect isn't permanent.
* AchillesHeel: Magic, or rather his lack of understanding of it is revealed on Krytis to be his major weakness. Prime's inability to counter Melog's illusions led to his retreat from the planet and then attempting to OrwellianRetcon his invasion of the planet. Even in the finale when he attempts to hijack the Heart of Etheria, his method is to brute-force his way through its security systems, overriding the need for princesses to activate it. Finally, it's She-Ra using magic to expel Prime's consciousness from Hordak that is what destroys him for good.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the original series, he is a cloud-like EldritchAbomination whose face we never see, and whose mere visage was implied to be horrific to look at. In this series, he's a humanoid man from the same species as Hordak, albeit with some ''very'' disturbing features such as multiple eyes, green sclerae, and a green mouth. Come the final episode, however, it's revealed that Prime's current body is [[CustomBuiltHost one of several]] that he had possessed throughout the ages and, when exorcised by Adora, [[ThisWasHisTrueForm he resembles a giant black cloud that is implied to be his true form]], thus putting him back in line with his classic appearance.
* AdaptationalJerkass: Despite not being a CardCarryingVillain like the original series' counterpart he is '''far''' eviler. The original Horde Prime just berated his underlings for failing him; this version sent Hordak out to die for a perceived defect and {{mind rape}}d him for his independence. That is without him proudly stating that he has destroyed numerous worlds in the past and initially planning to destroy Etheria before he was convinced the planet had value. During his VillainousBreakdown he not only decides to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the planet, but the rest of the universe out of spite]].
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Horde Prime in the original series had a more dystopian taste for his empire, of which the Fright Zone was a model. Here, Horde Prime envisions a more utopian empire, but one [[CultOfPersonality centered on his likeness]].
* AdaptationalSeriousness: Hordak encountering Horde Prime in the original series was never a walk in the park and was typically unpleasant, but even though he was an EldritchAbomination tyrant, he had mundane interests like other low-level mortals did. Horde Prime in this incarnation ISN'T played for laughs in any way, and his sadistic treatment of Hordak only gives the heroes a reminder that he's a legitimate threat to theirs and the entire universe's existence.
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: He touches Hordak's face in order to establish a telepathic link with him, but this quickly turns into facial groping as he invades Hordak's mind. He also touches Glimmer's face in a manner that feels both affectionate and predatory.
* AliensAreBastards: A genocidal, tyrannical warmonger who has brought almost the entire universe under his heel.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Horde Prime, befitting his narcissism and cult-leader qualities, has NoSenseOfPersonalSpace with ''anyone''. When we meet him, he runs his hand across Hordak's armored chest in a very unnatural way, and then [[MindRape plugs into his mind to brainwash him.]] He cups the faces of Catra and Glimmer while they are on his ship, making them visibly uncomfortable, gets very up close and personal with them, and cups the face of a clone, who visibly blushes at Prime's touch. While nothing is explicit, apart from the fact that he loves no one but himself, it's very hard not to at least notice that Prime's creepier tendencies extend to everyone.
* AndIMustScream: He can "chip" others and completely [[BrainwashedAndCrazy control them]] but they're perfectly aware that they're controlled, of their surroundings and what they're doing. Horde Prime perfectly aware about this function but he either doesn't care or enjoys this.
* AndThenWhat: The show makes it clear that Prime's narcissistic hunger can't be sated even when he gets everything he wants - his ExtraEyes, for instance, are because in an empire of his clones, he still has to be ''better than himself''.
* AnimalMotifs: His throne and the computer screen behind it resemble a peacock's tail, which is entirely appropriate for a narcissist like Horde Prime.
* AntagonistAbilities: Despite being a non-combatant himself, he can see everything through his clones and the people he chipped. Heck, he can BodySurf through any of them should his current body dies, as an example is shown through Hordak. Also, he can control everything in his own ship with just a BadassFingersnap.
* ArchEnemy: Considers She-Ra, if not the individuals that assumed her form, to be his oldest enemy. He also took great pleasure in the thought of being rid of her for good.
-->'''Horde Prime:''' Goodbye, my oldest enemy.
* AsceticAesthetic: It's not until you really see Prime's throne room that you realize just how much more clean the greater Horde's visual language is than Hordak's offshoot. Glowing green, gleaming white and stainless steel dominate his and his ship's design--further entrenching just how unsettling he is.
* AssholeVictim: In the GrandFinale, She-Ra exorcises his spirit from Hordak's body and destroys it, killing Prime for good. This is in stark contrast to every other major antagonist who gets some form of redemption before the series end. Considering the fact the he has spent untold millennia subjugating the entire universe and committed more evil in one season than any other villain in the show's first four, no tears were shed after Adora killed him.
-->'''Adora:''' He's gone.\\
'''Catra:''' Good riddance.
* AssimilationPlot: Horde Prime can exert mind control on any being he wishes, either by [[SymbolicBaptism immersing them in a pool of clone life force]] or implanting a chip in the back of their neck to override their nervous system. Throughout Season 5, he exerts mind control over countless Etherians this way. Unusually for this trope, this is a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself - Prime just doesn't have enough interest in other people to keep them around as his worshippers for all eternity, and tends to discard them once they stop being fun and/or useful. There's a reason he has an entire trophy room of treasures from destroyed planets.
* AxCrazy: Underneath his elegant design and personality is a vicious, petty child willing to destroy the entire universe in an act of spite.
* BadassCape: Horde Prime usually wears a waist-cape to indicate his status as TheEmperor.
* BadassFingersnap: Seems to be how he activates most of his technology, made more effective by the silver claw ornament he wears over one finger on each hand which gives his finger-snaps a metallic echo.
* BadBoss: Narcissists are terrible employers, and Prime is the biggest narcissist in the galaxy. All sentient life exists to obey his whims and fuel his appetites and will be disposed of the instant that it bores or annoys him. Anyone with a history of treason receives extra scrutiny, and is at high risk of getting brainwashed as punishment. Catra tries to ingratiate herself with him as a potential lieutenant, but realizes within the span of a couple of conversations that he's impossible to work for, only doing what he says out of intimidation.
* BaitTheDog: During his first real scene. He's clearly not a good person, seeing how ruthlessly he dispatches Hordak but his seemingly sincere apology to Glimmer for all the trouble his brother caused her suggests that maybe he's at least an AffablyEvil ReasonableAuthorityFigure. When Glimmer takes this as a good sign, he laughs it off and proceeds to threaten both her and the entire planet to avoid the "embarrassment" of Hordak's failed conquest getting out. But, considering all the kinds of unimaginable torture he inflicts on his victims, you'd be lucky if he decides to kill you first.
* BerserkButton: He's an extreme narcissist who is personally insulted by the idea of anyone other than him having (or using) free will rather than mindlessly obeying his whims. This goes double if the person exhibiting independent thought is one of his own clones, like Hordak.
* BewareTheSuperman: He's an ancient being who is physically strong, can transfer his consciousness to other bodies if he is injured or grows old, and can connect telepathically with his hive mind. He uses his vast knowledge and technology to conquer the universe and dominate an army of slaves. He refers to the Etherians as "wretched creatures" and uses both the Etherians and his clones as expendable tools.
* BigBad: At the end of Season 4, he has brainwashed Hordak, captured Catra and Glimmer, and set about making Etheria the "jewel" of this empire. All of this means he's the main threat the heroes have to face.
* BigBrotherBully: He sees Hordak as his little brother, and was more than willing to send him to his death just for being a defective clone. When the two men meet face to face, he berates Hordak, mind-wipes him, and decides to have the clone "reconditioned".
* BigNo: He screams this as She-Ra exorcises him from Hordak's body.
* BrokenPedestal: Becomes one to Wrong Hordak when the latter learns of his failure to conquer a magical planet and subsequent attempt to cover his tracks.
* BodySurf: He's survived throughout the centuries by transferring his consciousness to new cloned bodies, or "vessels", whenever PossessionBurnout and other issues render them unsuitable for him anymore, and he implies that he can do it with those he's chipped as well. He still keeps the bodies around in storage when he needs to access their memories. When Hordak drops Prime's central body to its death, Prime just leaps into Hordak's body to survive. Ultimately he cannot die until Adora exorcises him for good.
* TheBully: Strip away his titles, and this is Horde Prime at heart. Horde Prime never personally engages in a fair fight. We only see him physically assault people who are smaller and weaker than him (Entrapta, when he lifts her by her hair), or who are too injured to defend themselves (Hordak, after being powered down and injured from his fight with Catra) to make himself feel big. Fittingly, when those he oppresses gain the will to fight back and win, he loses it.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Idly remarks upon seeing a hologram of Mara as She-Ra that he must have fought her at some point, but he has no memory of Mara's particular incarnation of She-Ra. Presumably the memories he does have of any conflict he had with Mara would be stored in the remains of his vessel from that period. He follows up by stating he's also fought many ''[[TheHero like]]'' her, and outlived them all.
-->'''Horde Prime:''' How strange. I must have fought her, must have known her face. But I have no memory of it. I've seen so many like her over the years. One by one, all their faces have been lost to oblivion. Just as yours will be.
* TheCaligula: He's a GalacticConqueror who's been completely swallowed by his own narcissistic hunger - irrational, irredeemable, insatiable, and an enemy to all that exists. The entire final season is devoted to plumbing how deep his madness goes.
* CharacterCatchphrase: "Prime sees all. Prime knows all."
* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: The HiveMind was created in such a way to allow Horde Prime to exist beyond death and rule forever, but She-Ra exorcises his essence, purging him for good.
* ColdHam: Prime loves the sound of his own voice, but keeps his tone even and almost faux-polite.
* ColorMotifs: White and green, the former representing cold, sterile technology and the latter a SicklyGreenGlow.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: In Hordak's flashback/story to Entrapta of his past, Horde Prime is primarily illustrated in green as opposed to Hordak's red. When viewers see him in Season 4, he has green sclera, green teeth, and a green mouth.
* ControlFreak: As a nightmarishly extreme narcissist, he's obsessed with maintaining peace and order - or, to put it another way, he needs to make sure that he's the only one who makes decisions about anything. There's a reason all his lieutenants are mind-controlled clones.
* CoolShip: He travels the universe in his spacecraft, the ''Velvet Glove''. Its MeaningfulName ([[ContinuityNod which was also the name of Horde Prime's HQ ship from the original show]]) can also refer to HP's superficial politeness which masks a ruthless desire to remake the universe in his own image.
* CreepySouvenir: Aboard his ship, he keeps a trophy room full of objects and weapons from worlds he has "brought peace to" (read: destroyed).
* {{Cult}}: His army is more of a cult indoctrinated to serve him than a military space fleet. Horde Prime speaks of bringing light and order to the universe, his clones are brainwashed into servitude through memory wiping, mental conditioning, and fear of dissention, and they wear hooded robes and chant in unison to sing his praises. In an interview with [[https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/20/21265608 Polygon]], showrunner ND Stevenson admitted that Horde Prime was modeled on real-life suicide cult leaders.
* CultOfPersonality: Taken to its ultimate, bizarre extreme. As a HiveKing, he exists as an empire of clones of himself united in worship of himself.
* CustomBuiltHost: His essence can exist in nearly any host. He even threatens to use Catra for this purpose, even though it's [[PossessionBurnout implied to be fatal]]. The body he's seen most often in, the muscular one with the cyber hair, is implied to be the form he can be most comfortable in regardless of the needed maintenance. If the time comes, he'll have to clone a new body for him to inhabit.
* {{Cyborg}}: His "dreadlocks" are cables that allow him to interface with his clones. [[https://www.raegeii.com/design.html His character sheet]] posted on Ray Geiger's website shows that he has seven cybernetic ports on his back, into which his cables plug when not in use.
* DarkIsEvil: His spirit, once deprived of a host, is revealed to be a swirling mass of pure darkness in contrast to the heavenly light he likes to present himself as.
* DarkMessiah: Horde Prime presents himself as an almighty crusading conqueror whose convictions are as absolute as he is powerful, setting forth to bring self-described "salvation", unity, and peace to the Universe through merciless bloodshed, brainwashing and cruelty.
* DeaderThanDead: When Adora exorcises him from Hordak's body, this also obliterates his soul completely so that he can't jump to any other vessel.
* DeathByIrony:
** Horde Prime constantly talks about spreading his "light" across the universe and purging anything that doesn't conform to his standards (which is to say [[ItsAllAboutMe anything that isn't just a version of him]]). In the end, he is defeated when She-Ra uses her own light to purge him out of Hordak's body, and to add to the irony, his true form is revealed to be a dark cloud as oppose to the pure light he claimed to be.
** His prime body is destroyed when Hordak, whom he previously called an abomination unfit to serve as his equal, threw off his brainwashing and killed him. [[{{Hypocrite}} Horde Prime then immediately takes said lesser body for his own]] before being destroyed by She-Ra.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the InvincibleVillain. Having conquered galaxy after galaxy, Horde Prime equates perfection with success; by achieving absolute victory, there's really nothing left to achieve, so he sees little incentive to improve himself in any way and he ends up underestimating those he's seemingly crushed under his heel. Also, because he has known nothing but victory for eons, he's incredibly arrogant and he cannot fathom the possibility that he can actually lose. When Bow inspired others to rise against him and Hordak stands up to him, making his first taste of true failure imminent, Prime completely loses his mind and ultimately attempts to destroy all of reality in a fit of rage, all because his fragile ego simply cannot handle the prospect of defeat.
* DemiurgeArchetype: While also being a SatanicArchetype (see below) Prime enforces peace and order upon the galaxy, destroying then rebuilding everything in his image while erasing all knowledge of his failures. He has a huge military of spacecraft, robots and clones connected to a hive mind who espouse his dogma, and even brainwashes people on invaded planets, supplanting their civilizations. Immortal and narcissistic, everything exists to where he is the god, the church, and the churchgoer with no room for individualism. He is LightIsNotGood incarnate, as he's always espousing how he'll bring light to the universe[[note]]Ironically, when Adora destroys him, he's a mass of shadows.[[/note]] Series creator Creator/NDStevenson admitted that when creating him he was thinking of his own experience of what it was like to grow up in a deeply fundamentalist environment while queer, transmasculine, and bigender.
* DemonicPossession: When Hordak [[DisneyVillainDeath throws him into the depths of the Spire]], he manages to take control of Hordak's body until Adora exorcises him.
* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: His main problem with the universe is that it doesn't exist to serve him, the most perfect being in existence. When he talks about the importance of 'peace' and 'order', he's only ever talking about a peaceful and orderly life for himself. Other living beings are servants at best and disposable toys at worst, and he'd really prefer to have clones of himself performing those tasks, too.
* {{Determinator}}: A disturbing example, born out of his endless, unquenchable hunger for power rather than anything more human and wholesome. Prime can't even conceptualise giving up after even the most severe setback, and fully believes that he'll rise again after being defeated soundly by She-Ra and the Princess Alliance - he can no more stop trying to conquer, dominate, and destroy then he can stop breathing, and as the perfect being, he can only assume that his eventual success is inevitable. His quote below doubles as a BadassBoast since it implies Prime has done it multiple times before, but he's only deluding himself. She-Ra doesn't give him the chance for an encore.
-->'''Prime:''' Though all is reduced to rubble, Prime shall rise again, so it has been, and so it always shall be.
* DiabolusExNihilo: Justified by his own age, power, and personality. Why he wants to conquer the universe with an army of clones of himself [[AGodAmI who he's brainwashed into worshiping him]], or what he was like before that, is long lost within the ever-devouring narcissistic void that is the Galactic Horde. Nothing can even begin to desribe him--Prime simply is. All else is irrelevant.
* DirtyCoward: For all his talk, the moments he realised that he can be defeated and/or killed, he's going nuts and will do anything to save himself.
* DisneyVillainDeath: In the series finale, Hordak breaks free of Prime's influence to save Entrapta, then kills him by throwing him down into the depths of his ship. Unfortunately, it was just a HopeSpot as Prime survives by possessing Hordak himself. Fortunately, Prime is killed for real by She-Ra exorcising him from Hordak.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He subjects Hordak to MindRape culminating in a mind-wipe simply because Hordak took actions unbidden.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A handsy and predatory cult leader who violates minds and bodies with tentacle-like cables that squirt fluid. The scene where he cups a blushing clone's face while talking about using his body as a vessel is reminiscent of the way many cult leaders sexually abuse their followers. Catra's trauma about him "using" her is evocative of a sexual assault survivor. The unflattering [[PedophilePriest stereotype]] of the real-life clergy doesn't help either.
* TheDreaded: Horde Prime is the most evil and feared being in the entire universe and challenging him would be suicide. You're better off taking destruction from him than serving him. Catra visibly chafes around him, and is reminded that if she thinks about double-crossing him, she's [[DeadlyEuphemism fired]]. Even Shadow Weaver fears him over death itself.
* DreadlockWarrior: The cables attached to his head resemble dreadlocks.
* TheEmperor: Horde Prime is the absolute ruler of the Galactic Horde Empire, self-styled "Emperor of the Known Universe".
* EntitledBastard: He's a narcissistic GalacticConqueror trying to turn the universe into a HiveMind empire of clones united in self-worship. This one really goes without saying.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When he's finally shown fully on-screen in the Season 4 finale, he belittles Hordak for thinking he had free will, and dismisses all of Hordak's attempts to impress him. To showcase how much of a genuine threat he is compared to Hordak, Horde Prime then {{Mind Rape}}s Hordak into submission, and is prepared to destroy Etheria and kill Glimmer and then the rest of her homeworld [[LeaveNoWitnesses simply to cover up that one of his clones disobeyed him]]. Catra tells him that Etheria itself is a weapon and very valuable, making him change his mind, feeling self-assured he can secure inevitable victory over the entire universe. This establishes Horde Prime as a brutal dictator who cares only about himself and his empire. At the same time, it also showcases his SoreLoser personality and tendency to RageQuit when things don't go his way, foreshadowing his SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum during the FinalBattle.
* EvilBrit: While not ''technically'' British, he speaks with a cultured, mellifluous accent, and he is [[TheSociopath the absolute worst]].
* EvilCannotComprehendGood:
** He sees no value in things like friendship or love, viewing them as weaknesses. Besides him repeatedly ignoring how ThePowerOfLove can allow someone to resist his control chips, the most obvious example of this is how, even after viewing Hordak's memories, he ''still'' underestimates the love he has for Entrapta, and is shocked when Hordak turns on him rather than kill her. Entrapta even lampshades it InUniverse after Bow's rousing speech, saying that the fact that he doesn't understand what makes them strong is why he'll never win.
** Despite being so hyper-successful, Horde Prime doesn't understand what it means to win. The heroes achieved success through loss and struggle, and it's only made them stronger. Horde Prime never struggled for his victories like they did.
* EvilCounterpart: To Entrapta. Both are technologically proficient. Both have prehensile "hair". Both surround themselves with servants of their own creation (robots for Entrapta, clones for Horde Prime), some of whom develop free will (the robots in the Valley of the Lost for Entrapta, Hordak for Horde Prime). Both know about Hordak's secrets, but while Entrapta finds them out from a willing Hordak in the context of friendship, Horde Prime finds them out from an unwilling Hordak through a frightening mind probe. Both change Hordak in profound ways -- Entrapta by embracing Hordak's imperfections and stirring feelings of love in him, and Horde Prime by mind-wiping him.
* EvilerThanThou: His Galactic Horde ended up being this to the First Ones' Empire as he reveals he crushed them early on in his conquest of the universe.
** His EstablishingCharacterMoment also proves that he's worse than Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Catra and all other antagonists puts together.
* EvilIsHammy: Horde Prime is typically a ColdHam--as understated as he is, he ''loves'' the sound of his own voice--but by the time his plans are waylaid and he's forced to possess Hordak, Horde Prime starts ''gobbling'' the scenery with full aplomb:
-->"''CRY, ETHERIA!'' '''''CRY''''' ''FOR PRIME'S MERCY! THERE WILL BE NO COMFORT FOR YOU! SO ALL THE UNIVERSE WILL BE CONSUMED IN'' '''''UNDYING FLAME!'''''"
* EvilIsNotPacifist: Frankly he could have gotten all that he wanted through diplomacy and his massive material advantage. But instead, tries to conquer Etheria ostensibly to wipe out the stain on his name that Hordak made.
* EvilOldFolks: One of the oldest - and vilest - beings in the galaxy.
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: Once Horde Prime gets control of the Heart of Etheria, it's game over, and he can wipe out all his enemies in just one move.
* EvilIsPetty: PlayedForHorror. He decided to [[BrainwashedAndCrazy "chip"]] every member of Etheria just to spite heroes for rescuing Catra and decided to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the entire universe]] because it doesn't fit ''his'' desired vision.
* EvilPlan: After Catra revealed Etheria's true nature, his goal is to obtain the Heart of Etheria, become unstoppable, and wipe out anyone who might object to him turning the universe into his narcissistic playground.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: He isn't a solipsist, and recognises that people other than him have goals, motives, and ambitions. He just really, really wishes they didn't. He designed his clones to be obedient drones, and is enraged by Hordak's displays of free will. He initially intends to destroy Etheria so that the rest of the universe won't find out about Hordak's autonomous actions there.
* EvilVersusEvil: Season 5 reveals that he and the First Ones fought in the past, both sides ravaging planets to fuel their war machines. [[EvilerThanThou He won.]]
* ExtraEyes: He has multiple eyes on the [[EyesDoNotBelongThere right side of his face]]. While it's never confirmed on-screen, character designer [[WordOfSaintPaul Ray Geiger]] stated that Prime used the eyes of other clones to ornament himself during a [[https://www.patreon.com/posts/31340162 Patreon discussion]] with fans.
-->'''Ray Geiger:''' One of the concepts behind Prime is that he upgrades himself with his clones. They're stock to him. He wants them all to be uniform by his standard, but he wants a little "extra" for himself to establish his superiority, his interesting-ness above them. So if he wants some extra eyes purely for the aesthetic, some clone(s) are going to give up a piece.
* FacialMarkings: He has dark lines on his chin and left cheek.
* FalseProphet: He certainly has shades of this, beginning with slandering the name of She-Ra and telling conquered peoples to renounce her and deities, claiming ''he'' is the bringer of truth. At the end, he is nothing but a deceiver, committing genocide in the name of his own narcissistic delusions.
* FantasticRacism: Horde Prime believes all other races are below him, and only exist to be expendable slaves to his empire.
* FatalFlaw: Fitting for a SatanicArchetype, arrogance and pride. Horde Prime lives to flaunt his power in front of others and assert his dominance over them, and his ego causes him to make poor decisions on a personal level numerous times.
-->'''Keston John:''' [[https://meaww.com/she-ra-and-the-princesses-of-power-season-5-keston-john-horde-prime-great-villain-netflix I would say]] that is his weakness. He's not afraid. To use boxing, it would be like going into the ring just with the assumption that you have always won, so you will continue to win, and that can be good or bad.
** Most problematic is that even though he is aware of She-Ra and her power levels, he refuses or is unable to recognize her as a legitimate threat.
** This is also implied to tie into his [[AchillesHeel weakness to magic]]: he can't control or deal with magic, so he erased the records of a magical world that he failed to conquer and tried to pretend that magic didn't exist or that it was beneath him before he found Etheria.
** Ultimately, it's his arrogance that leads to his final defeat: he underestimates Hordak's love for Entrapta, which results in Hordak breaking free from his indoctrination and killing his physical body. After that, he chooses to take over Hordak's body and descend to the surface to continue his speechifying, putting himself in danger and allowing She-Ra to confront him and destroy his soul for good.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Prime puts on a veneer of politeness and charm, but it's ''blatantly'' superficial and most of the time he barely even tries to conceal how cruel, petty, and ruthless he really is.
** When he comes to Etheria, he initially intends to obliterate it, because Prime considers Hordak building an empire of his own there to be an embarrassment, and he can't let others know about it.
** When having dinner to Glimmer and Catra, he lets them know the gelatin dish being served is from a planet lightyears away that was very much like Etheria, and then smugly tells them the dish is very rare because that planet no longer exists. He also offers to let Glimmer see Etheria again, and wires in a live feed from his robots as they attack a village and battle the Princesses.
** His broadcast to Etheria has him put up a peaceful façade before almost immediately threatening the populace if they do not turn She-Ra over to him.
--->'''Horde Prime:''' Rejoice Etheria, for Prime has come to you. Do not fear, for you have been given the opportunity to share in a world soon to be made in my image. But first you must prove yourselves worthy. Your leader, your She-Ra, she would see you suffer in darkness for her sake. Cast aside this false hero and deliver her to me. Prime sees all, Prime knows all. They will not escape my judgment.
* FinalBoss: The biggest and baddest threat that She-Ra has to face, who takes center stage as the final villain in the last season after being mentioned/ appearing sporadically throughout the previous seasons.
* FinalSolution:
** In "Destiny, Part 2", Horde Prime decides to destroy Etheria so that word of Hordak's attempted conquest does not reach the outside world. He changes his mind after learning that Etheria houses a magical superweapon.
** During the dinner scene, he tells Glimmer that the gelatinous dish she's eating is from a world that no longer exists, implying that he [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide wiped out]] the civilization that created it.
* FlatCharacter: PlayedForHorror. His narcissistic hunger long ago stripped away all that made him human and all that made him capable of meaningfully interacting with any other living entity, leaving him as more a walking, talking void than a person. What use does the perfect being have for CharacterDevelopment?
* TheFogOfAges: He's apparently lived so long that he has trouble remembering it all. He needs to access the memories of the body he used when fighting the First Ones in order to refresh on them.
* {{Foil}}:
** Horde Prime is a foil to the Etherian Princesses.
*** The Princess Alliance is led by female rulers and defended by mostly female warriors. The Galactic Horde is led by a man and defended by an all-male army of clones.
*** The Princess Alliance and the people it protects are diverse and respect individuality, while Horde Prime demands absolute conformity and uniformity among his clones.
*** The Princesses and their allies rely on magic. Even Entrapta, who is not bound to a Runestone, skillfully uses {{magitek}} left by the First Ones. The Galactic Horde relies on technology, and Horde Prime himself is vulnerable to magic.
*** The Princesses are isolated from the larger universe in Despondos until late in season 4, while Horde Prime is a worldly man who has traveled the cosmos.
** Despite Hordak being his clone, they contrast each other in nearly every way:
*** Hordak begins the series with a black and red color scheme, in contrast to Horde Prime's white and green palette.
*** Underneath his armor, Hordak's garment covers his chest but leaves his back, arms, and legs exposed, while Horde Prime's garment leaves his chest exposed but covers everything else.
*** The Fright Zone has a sinister, gritty, industrial appearance, while Horde Prime's ship has a clean, sleek, futuristic appearance.
*** Horde Prime is at the peak of his power and glory, while at the end of Season 4, Hordak has lost everything. Of course, the way their win/loss streaks shape them contrast each other as well; Horde Prime has spent his whole existence winning, yet he remains stagnant and is indignant about the prospect of defeat. Hordak has experienced defeat a number of times, but he learns from them it's what allows him to appreciate the wins he ''does'' actually get, and it spurrs positive CharacterDevelopment in him.
*** Horde Prime insists on uniformity in his clones, but everything about Hordak deviates from their uniformity.
*** Hordak is an antisocial recluse, but [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure relatively fair and permissive]]. Horde Prime is ''very'' superficially charming, but such a ControlFreak he'll wipe out a whole ''planet'' just to keep his image the way he likes it. Hordak is pleased when his soldiers show initiative, while Horde Prime sees any displays of independence as an affront.
*** Horde Prime is a megalomaniac with a god complex, while Hordak struggles with self-doubt and self-hatred.
*** Horde Prime disrespects the personal space of everyone around him, frequently putting his hands on his captives and clones to show condescension. Hordak rarely touches anyone, and prefers to inflict punishment and engage in combat in ways that do not require physical contact. The only times we see Hordak initiate physical contact are to show Imp affection, protect Entrapta from an explosion, and hold Entrapta's hand.
*** Horde Prime is a vicious sociopath who is incapable of love. Hordak's love for Entrapta is a major element of his character arc from Season 3 onward. His love for her survives two mind wipes and ultimately drives him to rebel against Horde Prime.
* FreudianExcuse: Unusually for this show, this is deliberately averted. He's been ravaging the galaxy for so long and has hollowed himself out into such a narcissistic void that who he used to be and what originally drove him to it is no longer relevant - if a FreudianExcuse for his behaviour once existed, it's now nothing more than a long-forgotten relic of when he was someone that things happened to rather than something that happened to other people.
* GalacticConqueror: His empire is said to span across the universe.
* GenocideBackfire: Horde Prime claims to have wiped out the First Ones and their empire, but a small pocket of them obviously remained, given that Adora came from them. Adora, who was turned into TheChosenOne by Light Hope, and became the one to defeat him for good.
* AGodAmI: Deliberately tries to display an image of divinity, and honestly believes that he is the most perfect being ever. His grand plan is to turn the universe into a church where he is both the god and the congregation of worshippers.
* GodEmperor: Taken to a horrifyingly narcissistic extreme. He wants to be both the god and the empire, ruling over billions of copies of himself united in worship of himself.
* GreaterScopeVillain: He's Hordak's boss and the ultimate ruler of the Horde, but he otherwise has nothing to do with the plot and he didn't even know the Horde existed on Etheria until the end of the third season. From Prime's perspective, Hordak is an old soldier who went MIA, then suddenly contacted him years later after carving out a new corner for his empire. After Season 4, he's the new BigBad of the series.
* GreenAndMean: Alongside white, his main characterizing color is green, and he's the [[GreaterScopeVillain worst.]]
* HadToBeSharp: As much as this is true for his {{Foil}}s, he demonstrates [[InvertedTrope that the opposite]], a person whose life is so comfortable and easy that their personal prowess lowers, can happen. Unlike [[NoNonsenseNemesis Hordak]] or [[TeenGenius Catra]], Horde Prime has countless absolutely obedient minions to do his bidding, and holds far more technological and material power than anyone else in the universe, but he makes numerous miscalculations due to his arrogance, is easily defeated in physical combat by Hordak, a crippled and supposedly inferior version of him, in the finale, and is particularly weak against anything outside of his personal abilities, namely magic.
* HateSink: He's cruel, petty, depraved, self-absorbed, vicious to the man who spent ''decades'' trying to win his respect, and has no respect for sentient life. The other villains can't hold a candle to his level of evil.
* TheHedonist: It's hidden by his AsceticAesthetic, but this is another natural consequence of his extreme narcissism. His own appetites matter more than anything else in the galaxy, whether they be for adulation, rare foods, or [[{{Sadist}} other people's suffering.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: Notably {{defied|Trope}}. Despite every other significant villain in the setting being redeemed in some capacity, Horde Prime expresses zero desire to change his evil ways and as such is remorselessly wiped from existence by She-Ra.
-->'''Creator/NDStevenson:''' [[https://www.cbr.com/noelle-stevenson-she-ra-finale-hordak-kiss/ I think because]] we as a show have so much interest in humanizing our villains, I really wanted Horde Prime to be different. There is evil in this world. It's dishonest to say that everyone is capable or worthy of redemption. There are people who have stewed in their own hatred for so long that the only thing you can do is just... She-Ra banishes him. "There's no place for you in this world." [...] I don't think he's made of pure evil. But I think because of the choices he made and the way he sees the world and the years and years of continuing to double-down on that and be so committed to that. At the end of the day, there's no way to redeem someone who doesn't want to be redeemed. There's no way to force them to care about other people if they don't.
* HighHeelPower: While coded as male he wears respectable heels in his primary body and he ''is'' a successful GalacticConqueror.
* HiveMind: His empire is this - or, as he'd likely put it, ''he'' is this. He runs it with a massive network of mind-controlling chips that overwrite people's personalities and replace them with copies of his own, and instill a slavish, religious devotion to him. While chipped people are largely independent and capable of acting on their own (in accord with their new personalities, anyway), he can access their memories and senses at will and/or BodySurf between them if he so chooses, abandoning his body and taking over theirs. He prefers his HiveMind bodies to be his own clones (because, again, gigantic narcissist), but he's quite willing to induct other people in order to gather intelligence, steal unique abilities, or just be a sadistic dick.
* HiveKing: See above. The universe-spanning HiveMind of the Horde proper exists entirely to serve him, and he is its guiding personality and intelligence.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** His chipping Catra to use against Adora leads to her unlocking She-Ra again, and the BrainwashResidue leads them to Melog, allows them to discover his weakness, and leads to ThePowerOfLove healing Adora so she can use the failsafe and save the universe.
** He orders Hordak to kill Entrapta, which allows Hordak to resist his control and kill his main body.
* {{Hologram}}: He likes to use gigantic holograms to address his subjects and enemies, looming over a world like an alien god.
* HopeCrusher: Horde Prime has spend millennia going from world to world, crushing rebellions left and right, and reducing entire planets to dust, all to keep the universe under his heel. When she meets them the Star Siblings tell Adora that she shouldn't even bother standing up to Prime and to flee to some other part of the galaxy while she still can.
* HumanResources: It's never confirmed on-screen, but according to character designer [[https://www.patreon.com/posts/31340162 Ray Geiger]], he harvests organs from his clones, whom he sees as little more than stock. His multiple eyes were harvested from clones for ornamentation purposes, according to Geiger.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** In the very specific way that only an extreme narcissist can be. His minions need to be exactly like him, but also inferior to him, but any inferiority is an insult to his obvious perfection and must be stamped out. He likes to resolve this paradox in deeply alarming ways, from murder to organ theft.
** When speaking to Adora, the last of the First Ones, he refers to her people as tyrants implying that [[EvenEvilHasStandards their actions disgusted even him]]. Considering that Prime has been subjugating the entire universe for centuries he really doesn't have a leg to stand on.
** Despite calling Hordak inferior and an abomination, he chooses to jump into his body when his own is killed (ironically, by Hordak himself).
* IgnorantOfHisOwnIgnorance: He was InvincibleVillain for many eons. Because of that he doesn't understand he can be wrong and NotSoInvincibleAfterAll.
* ImmortalRuler: Horde Prime was able to reign for millennia by transferring his essence into clone bodies to extend his lifespan.
* ImmortalityImmorality: How immoral, you ask? How about enslaving and then brutally experimenting on his clones in order to advance genetic engineering, medicine and cybernetics to extend his own life? Then of course, there's taking over the body of an abused girl without so much as batting an eye(s), and committing genocide on entire races in the universe.
* InstantExpert: He can access the memories of everyone within his HiveMind, meaning that when he takes direct control of someone he's chipped, he's just as skilled as they are at whatever their particular talents or abilities are. This makes him extremely dangerous in combat, as he uses all of his host's latent power in the most ruthlessly efficient ways possible.
* IControlMyMinionsThrough:
** MindControl. Horde Prime can telepathically link with any of his clones and perform a mind-wipe on them. Horrifically, this is what he does to Hordak at the end of Season 4.
** [[ExpendableClone Genetic Engineering]]. Horde Prime's soldiers are genetic derivatives of him, designed to be obedient drones. The fact that Hordak has exercised free will angers him.
* IndividualityIsIllegal: To Horde Prime, everything has to revolve around himself, to the point to forcibly chipping people and bringing them into his HiveMind. A quote from ND Stevenson states that:
-->"Horde Prime has no space in his empire for individuality; everything needs to be a reflection of his own ego. Characters like Glimmer and Catra, who have been striving for self-individuation this whole time, to be told that 'you're both cogs in this machine and will be used to flatten the universe and make everything uniform,' I think that's the most horrifying thing they've been confronted with."
* IndustrializedEvil: Horde Prime's empire is characterized by both technological superiority and ruthless, impersonal efficiency. Hordak's flashback shows clones gestating in vats en masse. The final shot of of Season 3 shows his space stations and fleets of spaceships, giving viewers a sense of how technologically advanced, efficient, and massive his empire is.
* InTheirOwnImage: When you're a narcissistic GalacticConqueror, there's really no other end-goal. All indications are that Prime's mad hunger still won't be sated when everything in existence is a temple to him populated exclusively by copies of him, but it'll at least be a good start.
* {{Irony}}:
** Horde Prime brags that he knows all and sees all. In the finale, he's blindsided when Entrapta hacks the hivemind and doesn't see Hordak's rebellion coming, ''despite'' his telepathic connection to Hordak.
** For all the talks of being the light, his true form is revealed to be a disembodied spirit of darkness.
** You'd think someone as successful as him would know a thing or two about winning, since he's conquered much the universe unopposed and considers Hordak a failure, but he only has a superficial understanding of it, that being "winning feels good". As a result, Horde Prime has become rather unsatisfied with his gains, which is due to him equating happiness with success, which is an incredibly shallow and poor way to go about life. Because he never struggled like Hordak did, he's unprepared for the possibility of defeat.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He's a narcissist on a galactic level. This trope comes with the territory. As an example, he sees Hordak's attempts to conquer Etheria as an insult rather than an honour, because his 'little brother' asserting his own identity to act as Horde Prime's servant is an unacceptable deviation from his role as an extension of Horde Prime's own body. And no, he doesn't get to be that either, because he's defective and deserves to be discarded.
* {{Jerkass}}: He is, in his own mind, the centre of the galaxy. Politeness to lesser beings is strictly optional.
* JustTheFirstCitizen: A bizarre and terrifying variant. He doesn't need a fancy title as leader of the Horde because the Horde is him. His body is just the prime unit the whole system revolves around. It's not modesty, it's narcissism so extreme that it's gone collective. Like all the overlords of history, his titles are a reflection of the reputation he gains through conquest rather than titles he establishes for himself.
* JustToyingWithThem: Because of his {{pride}}, Horde Prime likes to rub in his "superiority" to his enemies, leading him to do things like give taunt his enemies instead of just capturing or eliminating them. In "Horde Prime" it's implied that he left the rebel camp alone despite knowing where it was until they tried to interrogate a clone, and he apparently knew that Bow, Glimmer, and Entrapta were on his ship the whole time, but pretended otherwise until negotiations with Adora completely broke down.
* KilledOffForReal: His body is destroyed by Hordak pushing him off of his command post to [[DisneyVillainDeath let him fall to his death]]. But Horde Prime's spirit just takes over Hordak and begins again. After his plans are thoroughly ruined, Adora manages to cleanse Horde Prime from Hordak, destroying Horde Prime for good.
* KnightOfCerebus: He manages to be this for an already dark series, dwarfing the evil perpetrated by Hordak, Shadow Weaver, and Catra. On top of this, [[EvilerThanThou unlike the other villains]], he has zero comedic moments, with all levity stopping whenever he appears on screen.
* LargeAndInCharge: Hordak is among the tallest characters in the show, but flashbacks show that Horde Prime is [[https://66.media.tumblr.com/8bf0728db074b3d21283a5d9c535cdf9/tumblr_pw54zaNeSe1rk0k4co1_1280.jpg even taller than he is]]. However, when he appears in Season 4, he's about the same height as Hordak.[[note]]According to Ray Geiger, Horde Prime was originally drawn as a head taller than Hordak, but it caused problems with staging scenes with him talking to significantly shorter characters.[[/note]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: Horde Prime tossed Hordak aside when his younger "brother" dared to be anything less than perfect after suffering from CloneDegeneration and, when reunited at the end of Season 4, casually erased all of Hordak's memories to turn him back into a mindless drone. In the finale Horde Prime's betrayal is one of the reasons [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal Hordak destroys his main body]] and in order to survive Prime has to upload himself into his "defective" younger brother's body. [[VillainousBreakdown Horde Prime does not appreciate this at all.]]
* LifeDrinker: The green liquid that he absorbs via his tubes? That's the life essence of his clones, which he uses to keep his "vessels" healthy for longer.
* LightIsNotGood: His ships, his robots, his clones, and his clothes, are all white and pale grey, he speaks about letting the universe bask in "his light", and he is a terrible bastard who wants to rule the universe.
* MachiavelliWasWrong: Horde Prime ruled the universe with wonton cruelty, oppressing all inhabitants into submission. Conquering Etheria is one thing, but holding it is an entirely different story. The people of Etheria are ''not'' so easily broken, and they'd rather die fighting than to bow before a tyrant.
* MakeWayForTheNewVillains: His first scene in person in the show is marked by him overpowering Hordak, the BigBad of the whole series up to now, and mindwiping him into an expendable puppet.
* MilesGloriosus: Horde Prime claims he is in [[HiveMind complete control over his minions and knows their every thought]]. Horde Prime claims he is the ImmortalRuler of the universe. Horde Prime claims he is [[AGodAmI divine in his perfection]]. In reality, he is none of those things.
** He is only one mind and can only control and read the thoughts of individual minions, and is incapable of doing it to all of his minions at once. Fear and loyalty are greater motivators for his minions than Horde Prime's absolute control.
** He is not immortal, only capable of {{Body Surf}}ing, such that while his immediate consciousness survives, the memories do not, and he must keep worn out bodies in stasis to even have any idea of what happened in the past
** He is not perfect, instead [[WrittenByTheWinners writing his defeats and embarrassments out of history]]. He has numerous actual accomplishments to his name, not least of which is defeating the First Ones, but those aren't the things he boasts about.
* MindControlEyes: Whenever he possesses someone under his thrall, their normally completely green eyes gain white pupils.
* MindRape: Inflicts this on Hordak, wiping all of Hordak's memories and "resetting" him to what he was. He also uses chips to take over the minds of Catra and other Etherian victims, and judging by Catra's post-traumatic stress after her chip is removed, it's not a pleasant experience to remember.
* MoodSwinger: After showing his fury to Hordak, Horde Prime suddenly becomes calm and smarmy with Glimmer as if he had special plans for her.
* MotiveDecay: PlayedForHorror. To show him as horrifying and unsympathetic as possible, it was revealed that he forgot ''what'' he once was beyond his ambitions and all his evil deeds are done just because he's a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorbed]] {{Narcissist}} and nothing more.
* MrFanservice: His muscular chest is completely exposed.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: Despite being the tallest person in the series and having a muscular physique to match, Horde Prime never exerts himself in any meaningful way against an opponent who can fight back. The closest he ever gets to fighting the main cast is via possessing one of his clones or their chipped friends. Otherwise the few times he bothers to directly manhandle anyone is when they have already been physically exhausted (such as Hordak after his fight with Catra) or who don't have any physical combat potential (such as Entrapta). Best demonstrated at the end of the series once Hordak regains his free will and turns against Prime wherein his "little brother" performs a NeckLift in the same way that Prime did to him in Season 4 before being thrown into the bowels of his ship. For all the difference it makes though, Horde Prime has cheated death many, ''many'' times before, so he's survived far worse than that.
* MySensorsIndicateYouWantToTapThat: He figures out that Adora is important to Catra by subtle changes in her pupils and heart rate.
* {{Narcissist}}: One of the most extreme examples in fiction. He's an EvilOverlord who decided to make the entire universe an extension of himself using an army of disposable, mindlessly obedient clones who are allowed no more identity than he gives them, and treats CloneDegeneration as a personal insult. He even routinely harvests organs from said clones as an aesthetic statement to show that he is different and superior, because he needs to be on top and in charge even when his entire empire is a monument to himself
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: He's the genocidal dictator of a cult-like empire that regularly discriminates against other races and praises him to godlike extremes. Not to mention that his empire is staffed by his clones and comprises of robotic foot soldiers.
* NeckLift: A flashback shows him lifting up Hordak by the throat when Hordak begins to exhibit flaws. He does it again to Hordak at the end of Season 4. In the series finale [[LaserGuidedKarma Hordak gets to return the favour]] before [[DisneyVillainDeath throwing him into the bowels of his ship]] and destroying his current host body.
* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: He draws inspiration from infamous cult leader UsefulNotes/JimJones.
* NoMereWindmill: Prior to revealing himself, Horde Prime is treated as the equivalent of the Bogeyman for Etheria, a threat whose existence is often questioned. The only person on Etheria who knows about him is Hordak, a clone of Horde Prime himself. Others like Shadow Weaver have suspected the existence of a greater threat beyond Etheria, but even then, they only have rumors and tales to go off of. Once Horde Prime appears before Etheria, he's just about as threatening as they imagined, if not worse.
* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: After taking Glimmer and Catra captive, he dines with them, serving them an array of alien foods.
* NonActionBigBad: PlayedWith. He never intentionally uses his main body in direct combat, and puts up a very unimpressive fight when cornered in it. On the other hand, he's perfectly happy to personally enter the bodies of other members of his HiveMind (who he sees as extensions of himself rather than separate beings), and tends to make them much more deadly whenever he does so, making him simultaneously a NonActionBigBad and his empire's most dangerous warrior.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: {{Inverted|Trope}}: It's implied that beneath the pageantry and robot armies, Horde Prime isn't that much different than Hordak. It's apparent that he's fighting at his peak competency and condition in the final battle, but loses despite this same skill and prowess being what allowed him to take over the entire universe. According to Hordak, galaxy after galaxy fell before the emperor; it's just so happens Horde Prime just had a much "easier" universe to take over. By the time the heroes meet him, much of the universe is under his control and any known opposition prior has been fighting an uphill battle against him. He's just never met foes like the Rebellion on Etheria, or even Adora herself and he is surprised by how much of a fight the native heroes are able to put up and [[VillainousBreakdown loses his cool in the process]].
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Constantly - he gets in Hordak's, Glimmer's, and Catra's personal space repeatedly, with an emphasis on rubbing peoples' shoulders and stroking their faces, all of which comes across as vaguely predatory and ''extremely'' creepy.
* NothingIsScarier: ''Nothing'' is known about Prime beyond what is immediately important to the show. His backstory is left so vague that not even he seems to recall it. His motivations are similarly forgotten aside from immense [[{{Narcissist}} narcissism]] and [[AGodAmI a god complex]]. The result is a horrifying villain with no sympathetic traits but immense power that comes across as an undefeatable tide.
* NothingPersonal: Horde Prime's general attitude towards conquest was that it was just business to be done, and not out of hatred. But, once it becomes clear the Rebellion is just so stubborn that they'd keep daring to stop his master plan, he decides to let the Heart go out of control to destroy the whole universe...and savor the whole moment as it's happening.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Horde Prime speaks of bringing a universe full of peace and free of suffering with through worship of him. However, what he's really bringing is narcissistic fascism.
* NumerologicalMotif:
** Horde Prime has four eyes, four dreadlocks sitting in clips on his chest, and his throne room has four paths leading out. It's worth noting in some cultures, FourIsDeath.
** Horde Prime has seven cybernetic ports in his back. The screen in front of his throne has seven panels. When She-Ra exorcises his spirit from Hordak's body, it resembles an oily black shadow with seven green spots. Since seven is considered a holy number in western cultures, and Horde Prime sees himself as godlike, this may be significant.
* OmnicidalManiac: Prime sees no value in any life other than his own, and is engaging in a slow-mo genocide of the galaxy as he uses up planet after planet to expand his empire-church of clones and sate his hedonistic whims, though he apparently keeps at least some worlds relatively intact. After Hordak kills his main body and makes it impossible for him to channel the Heart of Etheria's power, he takes it up a notch, deliberately letting the Heart go haywire so he can burn down the universe with him in a narcissistic temper tantrum.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: PlayedWith. Horde Prime's main body never personally enters the front-lines or confronts She-Ra in combat, but that's mainly because he's a narcissistic HiveQueen who sees his entire empire, including its clone-soldiers and any local warriors he's chipped, as a part of himself. There's no sense in hitting the enemy with your brain when you can just use your fists instead, and he's perfectly happy to get directly involved when wearing another, more combat-ready body.
* OrderIsNotGood: Horde Prime desires to create an empire where all will obey his will unquestioningly and where individual thought is prohibited.
* OrganicTechnology: He can interface with his cybernetic clones using his cables/"hair".
* ParasiticImmortality: Horde Prime is a {{Narcissist}} whose army consists of his own clones. He also uses them to BodySurf to prolong his life. But this procedure is flawed: he must retain his old bodies to take access to memories from the time he occupied them because [[TheFogOfAges he forgot most of his past life]].
* PlanetLooters: Has ravaged many planets to fuel his conquests.
* PossessionBurnout: He can transfer himself to the bodies of his clones, which he uses to survive any time his body's killed, but it apparently takes a toll on the body that requires medical attention on a semi-regular basis in the form of absorbing the life force of his cloned "brothers" until it gives out, after which he puts it in storage in case he needs to access its memories. At one point he suggests taking on Catra's body to get Adora's goat, implying in the process that her body wouldn't last very long.
* PragmaticVillainy: For all his flaws, once Catra tells Horde Prime that Etheria is a superweapon, Horde Prime changes his mind about destroying it and settles for it being a "jewel" in his empire.
* PrecursorKillers: His fleet ended the First Ones' empire, though, despite his beliefs, scattered remnants remain.
* PrehensileHair: His "dreadlocks" are cables that he can use to interface with his clones. Only the white hair on the very top of his head is real.
* PsychicLink: He can see into the minds of his clones, with one exception.
* PsychopathicManchild: In a far less amusing way than Hordak. He carries himself with a more composed, sophisticated air befitting an Emperor, but is really just a SpoiledBrat who thinks he deserves to rule all of reality simply because he thinks he should, and that's not even getting into how much of a SoreLoser he is when things stop going his way for once.
* RageQuit: As the FinalBattle starts falling out of his favor and he's confronted with the reality that he'll actually lose ''big'' for once, and to a comparatively small Rebellion, no less, he decides to overclock the Heart of Etheria to ''destroy the entire universe''. He's ''that'' much of a SoreLoser.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Is old enough to have fought the First Ones in the prime of their empire, and he outlived their empire.
* ReligionOfEvil: As a supremely narcissistic GalacticConqueror HiveQueen with a god complex, he leads one, he's the object of worship for one, and he ''is'' one.
* ReligiousHorror: Horde Prime's cult/regime has several Christianity-coded elements. He berates Hordak using language borrowed from the Bible ("I made you in my image, but you have become an abomination."). In season 5, he performs a second mind wipe on Hordak in the form of an agonizing "baptism" in a pool of clone life force. Horde Prime projects a colossal holographic image of himself to the Etherians, as if he wants to appear godlike to them. Horde Prime's voice actor, Keston John, likened him to a proselytizer in a [[https://meaww.com/she-ra-and-the-princesses-of-power-season-5-keston-john-horde-prime-great-villain-netflix May 13, 2020]] interview with Meaww.
-->'''Keston John:''' He thinks that he's bringing his version of the gospel to every planet and they're better for it even if they have to die to receive it.
* {{Sadist}}: He tells Glimmer that he doesn't enjoy violence, only seeing it as a means to an end, but his obvious pleasure whenever he gets to hurt someone physically or emotionally shows how empty that claim is. Other people only exist for his amusement, and unfortunately, he finds it amusing to break them.
* SatanicArchetype: To begin with, Horde Prime talks of bringing light to the universe, which is evocative of Lucifer (whose name means "light bringer"), and he's charismatic, manipulative, and narcissistic. That being said, he can make deals with lesser beings and will grant them certain privileges as long as they are useful to him, but will dispose of them once they're no longer useful. At the end of the day, Horde Prime is ultimately an incredibly selfish and evil being who massacred billions, if not ''trillions'' of lives to bring what he calls peace and order. And how does he commit mass genocide? By setting worlds on ''fire'', another motif associated with the devil.
* ShadowArchetype: He becomes one of Catra. Horde Prime equates happiness with success, which is what Catra believed partly due to her abusive upbringing, plus they're both {{control freak}}s. Catra spent her whole life losing, and was sick and tired of it and was desperate for a win, but her losses allowed her to appreciate the small, good things she has in life. Horde Prime, on the other hand, almost ''never'' loses, but it's only made him more arrogant. In other words, Catra would've turned into a sociopathic egoist like Horde Prime if she always won.
* ShipperOnDeck: Downplayed. He's not really rooting for Catra and Adora but is very aware of how much the two care for one another, which he believes [[LoveHurts is the root cause of their suffering]].
* SicklyGreenGlow: This may have been seen throughout the Fright Zone, but Prime's appearance, ship, and armada take it up to eleven--which amps up the unease.
* SignificantDoubleCasting: Hordak is a clone of him and they both share a voice actor.
* SinisterSurveillance: Likes to spread the idea that he "sees all" and "knows all", and his drones and robots, plus the HiveMind link his clones have to him, allow him to spy on others easily.
* SkullForAHead: He shares the skull-like outline of the white face and the inverted-V nose that give Hordak this appearance, although it's downplayed compared to him because unlike Hordak, he doesn't use more {{Guyliner}} than the entirety of Music/MyChemicalRomance put together did at their peak, and so lacks the deep black pits around the eyes.
* {{Slimeball}}: He puts on a veneer of politeness over a cruel and petty personality. His attempts at being cordial to Glimmer come across as condescending and creepy. He touches Glimmer's hand and face and addresses her as "child" twice.
* SmugSnake: Because he's so used to victory, he's very self-assured that no matter what direction things swing, he'll always come out on top. He was right, until the Rebellion set foot in his universe, where he experienced his first true defeat and he doesn't like it ''one bit.''
* TheSociopath: Horde Prime shows no concern for sentient life or the personhood of his clones. He values only himself and his image.
* SoreLoser: Having known only victory his whole life, he ''really'' doesn't take it well when he's about to be defeated.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: When Hordak turns against him and kills his body, Horde Prime completely loses what little sanity he ''had'' and plans to overclock the Heart of Etheria to destroy the ''universe''.
* SuperStrength: Whether it's a normal trait of his species, a CharlesAtlasSuperpower, or the result of technological augmentation is unclear, but Horde Prime is very strong. In Season 4, he effortlessly lifts up Hordak by his throat, armor and all, with one hand.
* TermsOfEndangerment: He sees family as an extension of his own body. If he calls someone 'brother' or 'sister', it means he's either taken them into his HiveMind or is planning to do so.
* TimeAbyss: Heavily implied. While we aren't sure exactly how old he is, he is at minimum far older than Mara (over a thousand years old) and struggles to remember the First Ones at all in his many conquests over the centuries. He is forced to preserve his past bodies in order to access their memories, and he is shown to have several hundred in storage, suggesting he has been around and conquering the known universe for a ''very'' long time.
* TouchTelepathy: He's puzzled when he can't read Hordak's mind from a distance. He has to touch Hordak to access the clone's thoughts.
* TrulySingleParent: He cloned Hordak and the rest of his army from his own DNA, making him their "father" in a sense.
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: According to one of his clones, his official list of titles is as follows: [[AC:Emperor of the Galactic Horde, Ruler of the Known Universe, Regent of the Seven Skies, He Who Brings the Day and the Night, Revered One of the Shining Galaxies, Promised One of a Thousand Suns]]
* UnderestimatingBadassery:
** Horde Prime biggest flaw turns out to be the opposite of every other villain in the series. He just cannot see Adora or She-Ra as an actual threat. His only interest in her is as an easy way to access the Heart of Etheria. While Catra, Shadow Weaver and even Hordak would focus on She-Ra to the point they would ignore everything else. Horde Prime ignores She-Ra as anything but an mildly annoying bug until it's too late.
** Horde Prime also fails to take note of Hordak's [[{{Determinator}} insurmountable willpower]], which Hordak demonstrated by building an empire on Etheria after separation from the hive mind and ''while struggling with a chronic illness''. Hordak's willpower, combined with his love for Entrapta, allows him to overcome clone conditioning and ''two'' mind wipes and attack Horde Prime.
* UngratefulBastard: Hordak served Horde Prime faithfully for years, conquering entire galaxies for his empire. When Hordak suddenly showed signs of illness, Horde Prime cast him out despite his hard work. When he and Hordak reunite, Horde Prime berates Hordak despite all of Hordak's hard work, mind-wipes him, and sends him off to be [[AFateWorseThanDeath "reconditioned"]].
-->'''Horde Prime:''' You have given yourself a name. You tried to create an empire of your own. There was even a time you wished I would not come for you, is that so? ... You have forgotten who you are. You truly think you are worthy to stand beside me, could be equal to me? I made you in my image, but you have become an abomination! And so, you must be reborn!
* UriahGambit: Horde Prime sent Hordak to the front lines of battle in the hopes of killing the defective clone. Circumstances that have yet to be explained led to Hordak's ship slipping through a portal to Etheria instead.
* VilerNewVillain: He's referred to in Season 3 but doesn't appear until Season 4. With only a few minutes of screen time, he establishes himself as the most evil character in the series, as unlike [[TheConqueror Hordak]], [[AbusiveParent Shadow Weaver]], or [[RivalTurnedEvil Catra]] he has zero sympathetic traits.
* VileVillainSaccharineShow: In a pastel-colored show about magical princesses and friendship, Horde Prime is a villain who epitomizes sociopathic cruelty and shocking depravity that would make even [[Franchise/StarWars Emperor Palpatine]] green with envy. Of all the villains in this series, he has the highest body count, easily numbering in the ''trillions'', especially since he's been ravaging worlds for ''centuries''.
* VillainBall: Repeatedly holds onto it due to his FatalFlaw -- Prime is just so arrogant and powerful enough to enforce it, that he is willing to indulge in pointlessly evil acts and taunt his opponents over their losses, and he doesn't realize or care it may backfire.
** Prime generally suffers from a very bad case of BondVillainStupidity, preferring to give grandiose speeches and taunts to his enemies instead of just killing or capturing them when he has the chance.
** After looking through Hordak's memories and how Catra manipulated him while feigning loyalty to him, he tells her that he will ''not'' fall for the same tricks and warns he that if she tries to give him the runaround, he will dispose of her. This dashes Catra's hopes of being able to succeed under Prime's command and alienates her from helping him at all, helping to motivate her HeelFaceTurn.
** He directly tells Adora that he no longer needs the princesses to access the Heart of Etheria because he's figured out how to bypass that security system. This motivates the Rebellion to discover the failsafe to destroy the Heart and they decide to do so since nothing is stopping Prime now.
** With his broadcast shut down, he chooses to go to the planet directly to continue his speechifying to Etheria in person, putting a huge target on himself.
** When Scorpia manages to resist his control long enough to purposefully miss rather than kill Perfuma and Adora, he dismisses the incident entirely once he sees that her chip is intact. This bites him the rear when she manages to resist ''again'' long enough for Bow to activate Entrapta's device and free ''everyone'' on Etheria from his chips. For that matter, he also ''left'' the device where it was after capturing her.
** Prime's total underestimation of ThePowerOfLove is once again demonstrated when he senses that something is still amiss with Hordak's "programming" even after ''two'' mind wipes but chooses to ignore it -- unsurprisingly, this proves to be absolutely detrimental to Prime when Hordak eventually manages to wrest back his free will after being issued an unthinkable command (kill Entrapta).
* VillainousBreakdown: He was already losing his cool due to the "impossibility" of the Rebellion managing to give his forces some actual trouble, and free everyone who was chipped from his control, but when Hordak kills his body, forcing him to possess Hordak's to survive, he full on tries to use the Heart to destroy the ''universe''.
* VillainInAWhiteSuit: His usual garb is a ghostly off-white with green and black accents. In contrast to Hordak's scrappy tunic and armor get-up, Horde Prime's design is more luxurious and regal, and he color-coordinates his forces in the same hues.
* VillainOverride: He can possess any of his clones, or even people who have been chipped, when the situation calls for his personal presence (such as for gloating). It's signified by his host developing glowing white pupils on top of their MindControlEyes. This lets him menace the heroes from anywhere his forces are.
* VillainWorld: Hordak refers to him as the "Emperor of the known universe". The screen in his command room shows that large swaths of the universe outside of Despondos are under his dominion. Season 3 ends with a shot of his space station and a massive squadron of his ships.
* VisionaryVillain: Zig-zagged. He's a particularly disturbing example because he's a narcissist of cosmic ambition who literally wants to remake the universe in his image. However, he does so by wantonly destroying worlds instead of molding them into new civilizations, making his vision a petty one.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: His outfit's chest is completely cut out. His cape-like robes also make it fit NoShirtLongJacket.
* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: Tying into his FatalFlaw, Horde Prime has been around for a ''long time'', and is so used to defeating his enemies that he's started holding onto the VillainBall because he assumes that he ''can't'' lose.
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: He has white "hair" and is a profoundly evil man. Once he loses his body, his soul is revealed to be composed of pure darkness.
* WickedCultured: The closest Horde Prime has to a redeeming (or at least non-evil) feature is his [[AlienArtsAreAppreciated appreciation of arts]], and he maintains a collection of precious arts and exotic weaponry. Even when he has destroyed a certain world, he will take any cultural mementos worth preserving, and add them to his collection. But then again, he demonstrates knowledge of an alien culture just to show off.
* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: He tells Glimmer and Catra that the dish they're eating is a rare delicacy, as the world it came from no longer exists.
* YouDontLookLikeYou: In past media, Horde Prime was depicted as an {{eldritch abomination}} in the form of a green cloud from which a colossal metal hand would emerge. Here, he has the appearance of a humanoid man from the same species as Hordak, though when She-Ra banishes him from Hordak's body, his form is shown to be a black cloud.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Not only has Hordak insulted his brother by conquering an entire planet of his own free will, but Horde Prime knows Hordak failed miserably as his forces have been wiped out by the Rebellion. However, Catra convinces Horde Prime that he should use Etheria because the planet is a superweapon, and to let her serve him if he wants to be able to activate the weapon.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Attendants]]
!!'''Horde Prime's Clones'''
[[quoteright:277:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horde_clone.jpg]]
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/KestonJohn (English)
-->''"Cast off the shadows. Bring the universe to Prime's light."''
Servants and clones of Horde Prime.
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* EtTuBrute: Not as strong as Catra, but she feels betrayed by Adora when she defected to the Rebellion.
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** She says that Adora left them after her defection, not even caring about the loyalty the Horde taught them.
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** She says She's right about the fact that Adora left them after her defection, not even caring about the loyalty the Horde taught them.
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Trope was cut/disambiguated due to cleanup
Deleted line(s) 356 (click to see context) :
* GutturalGrowler: Literally. His voice is deep, guttural, and bestial, and he speaks only in roars and growls.
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* TallIsIntimidating: She has this effect on people, [[GentleGiant at least untill she starts hugging them]].
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dewicking Cloning Blues
Deleted line(s) 447 (click to see context) :
* CloningBlues: Horde Prime was their genetic progenitor, but like Hordak, they are not identical copies of him.
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trope was renamed to Clone Angst, but that requires the clone to dislike their true nature
Deleted line(s) 390,393 (click to see context) :
* CloningBlues: It's never stated on-screen, but it is heavily implied that he is a failed Hordak clone, judging by the embryos in Hordak's vats.
** ''She-Ra'' writer [[WordOfGod Shane Lynch]] [[https://twitter.com/MsShaneLynch/status/1261050863159611392 tweeted]] that the "Huntara" episode, in which Hordak reveals that he has been trying to clone a new body for himself, was "the reveal of Imp's origin."
** During a [[https://www.patreon.com/posts/31340162 Patreon discussion]] with fans, character designer [[WordOfSaintPaul Ray Geiger]] states that Imp is indeed Hordak's clone, with some DNA from a bat-like animal thrown in.
-->'''Ray Geiger:''' Never touched on in canon and maybe other team members have have alternate ideas on some points, but my understanding is that he's a failed clone of Hordak that Hordak tried to make to transfer his own failing body into. But I think Hordak either doesn't have the tools or there's something wrong with his DNA etc. that he can't clone himself, and in order to make Imp, he mixed in a bit of some other Etherian life.
** ''She-Ra'' writer [[WordOfGod Shane Lynch]] [[https://twitter.com/MsShaneLynch/status/1261050863159611392 tweeted]] that the "Huntara" episode, in which Hordak reveals that he has been trying to clone a new body for himself, was "the reveal of Imp's origin."
** During a [[https://www.patreon.com/posts/31340162 Patreon discussion]] with fans, character designer [[WordOfSaintPaul Ray Geiger]] states that Imp is indeed Hordak's clone, with some DNA from a bat-like animal thrown in.
-->'''Ray Geiger:''' Never touched on in canon and maybe other team members have have alternate ideas on some points, but my understanding is that he's a failed clone of Hordak that Hordak tried to make to transfer his own failing body into. But I think Hordak either doesn't have the tools or there's something wrong with his DNA etc. that he can't clone himself, and in order to make Imp, he mixed in a bit of some other Etherian life.
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Changed line(s) 220,221 (click to see context) from:
!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/AmyLandecker, Christine Woods (past)
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!!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/AmyLandecker, Christine Woods Creator/ChristineWoods (past)
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Changed line(s) 272,273 (click to see context) from:
** Adora. Both are excellent trained soldiers that are raised in the Horde propaganda. Both realizes the reality of the war and protective their childhood friends. While Adora shows her caring side all the time, Lonnie hides her under a tough facade. Their perspective of war also differs. Adora chooses to join the Rebellion and saves Etheria from the Horde invasion while Lonnie doesn't care about others as much besides Kyle and Rogelio as long as the three of them are safe. They are also at bad terms with Catra throughout the show. Until the end of the show, Lonnie remains her rivalry with her, while Adora manages to reconcile with her and [[spoiler:forms a relationship with her]].
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before [[spoiler:having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5]], while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm to others. Catra also mends her relationship with Adora by the end of the show while Lonnie remains bitter terms with her.
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before [[spoiler:having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5]], while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm to others. Catra also mends her relationship with Adora by the end of the show while Lonnie remains bitter terms with her.
to:
** Adora. Both are excellent trained soldiers that are raised in the Horde propaganda. Both realizes realize the reality of the war and are protective towards their childhood friends. While Adora shows her caring side all the time, Lonnie hides her hers under a tough facade. Their perspective of war also differs. Adora chooses to join the Rebellion and saves Etheria from the Horde invasion while Lonnie doesn't care about others as much besides Kyle and Rogelio (and extension, Scorpia) as long as the three of them are safe. They are also at bad terms with Catra throughout the show. Until the end of the show, Lonnie remains her rivalry with her, while Adora manages to reconcile with her and [[spoiler:forms [[spoiler:they form a relationship with her]].romantic relationship]].
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before [[spoiler:having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5]], while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm toothers.others as part of the Horde. Catra also mends her relationship with Adora by the end of the show while Lonnie remains bitter terms with her.
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before [[spoiler:having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5]], while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm to
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Changed line(s) 273 (click to see context) from:
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5, while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm to others. Catra also mends her relationship with Adora by the end of the show while Lonnie remains bitter terms with her.
to:
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before having [[spoiler:having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5, 5]], while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm to others. Catra also mends her relationship with Adora by the end of the show while Lonnie remains bitter terms with her.
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* Foil:
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* Foil:{{Foil}}:
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* Foil:
** Adora. Both are excellent trained soldiers that are raised in the Horde propaganda. Both realizes the reality of the war and protective their childhood friends. While Adora shows her caring side all the time, Lonnie hides her under a tough facade. Their perspective of war also differs. Adora chooses to join the Rebellion and saves Etheria from the Horde invasion while Lonnie doesn't care about others as much besides Kyle and Rogelio as long as the three of them are safe. They are also at bad terms with Catra throughout the show. Until the end of the show, Lonnie remains her rivalry with her, while Adora manages to reconcile with her and [[spoiler:forms a relationship with her]].
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5, while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm to others. Catra also mends her relationship with Adora by the end of the show while Lonnie remains bitter terms with her.
** Adora. Both are excellent trained soldiers that are raised in the Horde propaganda. Both realizes the reality of the war and protective their childhood friends. While Adora shows her caring side all the time, Lonnie hides her under a tough facade. Their perspective of war also differs. Adora chooses to join the Rebellion and saves Etheria from the Horde invasion while Lonnie doesn't care about others as much besides Kyle and Rogelio as long as the three of them are safe. They are also at bad terms with Catra throughout the show. Until the end of the show, Lonnie remains her rivalry with her, while Adora manages to reconcile with her and [[spoiler:forms a relationship with her]].
** Catra. Both are skilled Horde soldiers who are mean to other comrades. They both consider Adora as their friend in the past and are upset when she defects, becoming enemies with her in the process. Catra becomes more villainous before having a HeelFaceTurn in season 5, while Lonnie remains as the same tough solider and never show any HeelRealization about her causing harm to others. Catra also mends her relationship with Adora by the end of the show while Lonnie remains bitter terms with her.
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* RaceLift: Her counterpart in the original show, Lonhi, is a white woman. Here, she's African.
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** She says that Adora left them after her defection, not even caring about the loyalty the Horde taught them.
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!!!'''Voiced by''': Keston John (English)
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!!!'''Voiced by''': Keston John Creator/KestonJohn (English)
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Changed line(s) 220,221 (click to see context) from:
!!!'''Voiced by''': Amy Landecker, Christine Woods (past)
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!!!'''Voiced by''': Amy Landecker, Creator/AmyLandecker, Christine Woods (past)
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!!!'''Voiced by''': Keston John
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!!!'''Voiced by''': Keston John
Creator/KestonJohn
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[[/folder]]
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----
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* HasTwoMommies: Or ''had'', past tense, as Scorpia indicated they aren't around anymore. A photo on Scorpia's nightstand shows a baby Scorpia with her two mothers.
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* HereditaryHomosexuality: She's gay and her nightstand shows she HasTwoMommies.
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* HereditaryHomosexuality: She's gay and her nightstand shows she HasTwoMommies.has two mothers.
