Characters / She-Ra and the Princesses of Power ⁠— Adora

Main Character Index | The Rebellion (Adora) | The Horde (Catra, Hordak) | Other Groups

Adora/She-Ra, Princess of Power

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Voiced by: Aimee Carrero (English), LaLa Nestor (English, young)^{additional voice actors}Jocelyn Robles (Latin American Spanish), Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Fanny Bloc (French)

"For the honor of Grayskull!"

A fierce member of the Rebellion, Adora is an orphan who was raised by the evil Horde and believed they were doing good, but when she discovers a magic sword that transforms her into She-Ra, a mythical warrior princess, Adora learns the truth and becomes driven to fight the Horde. She finds a new surrogate family in the Rebellion and unites a group of magical princesses in the ultimate fight against evil.

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A - E

• Accent Adaptation: She had a British accent in the original, but American here, albeit with a Spanish inflection due to her actress.
• The Ace: One of the most promising cadets the Horde ever produced, a natural leader with good strategic skills and the ability to keep her cool in the heat of battle, extremely athletic, and a Nice Girl to boot.
• Action Girl: Adora is a highly trained military cadet who is a capable warrior even without the She-Ra transformation. As She-Ra though she not only gains a significant boost in strength but the Sword of Protection also allows her to use energy blasts and is insanely sharp, cutting metal robots like paper.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Adora is clearly more tomboyish than her original counterpart. There is also a much less significant change in the way she acts normally to when transformed.
• Adaptational Achilles Heel: This version of the Sword of Protection is Magitek, which means both it and Adora are vulnerable to any computer viruses derived from other First Ones technology.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the original series, she didn't have to deal with the realization that the organization she's been fighting for were the villains, an abusive mother figure, and fighting her childhood best friend and romantic interest.
• Adaptational Modesty: Previously, as She-Ra she sported a cleavage-baring Minidress of Power. She's now got a high-necked chestplate tunic, and Modesty Shorts under an open-front skirt. To a lesser extent, this applies to Adora herself, whose civilian wardrobe from the '80s showed off a lot of leg, but now she wears pants.
• Adaptational Sexuality: In the original 80s cartoon Adora had only expressed attraction to male characters such as Bow and Sea Hawk, but in the reboot she only ever shows romantic interest in big strong women. After teasing it for the whole show, Season 5 sees her and Catra finally admit their love for one another and become a couple.
• Adaptational Villainy: A minor example: in the original version she was brainwashed into being a member of the Horde, in this version she's technically willing, though she was lied to by the Horde's propaganda, and has a genuine Heel Realization.
• Age Lift: Both forms of her are younger than her original incarnation—originally in her 20s, she's now 17 or 18, although She-Ra appears to be somewhat older.
• All-Loving Heroine: There is absolutely nobody Adora doesn't care about, except for those who have proven themselves to be irredeemable like Horde Prime. She always tries to see the best in people and is willing to give them chances to reform. In fact, it's her willingness to forgive and help others that ultimately helps Catra redeem herself and become her girlfriend.
• Amazon Chaser:
  • Adora seems to be attracted to large, muscular women: Huntara renders her almost unable to speak coherently, and she gets some very interesting facial expressions when another beefy purple woman gives her a bear hug in "Flutterina".
  • Adora generally has a thing for women that can and will kick ass, even if they don't look the part. Her reaction to Catra carving a door in a metal wall with her claws alone speaks for itself.
• Amazonian Beauty: A very pretty young woman with athletic build and muscular arms, especially as She-Ra. Also, as She-Ra, she is much taller and because of her lack of sleeves, her beefy arms are always on display. She is also seen as attractive by Perfuma, Mermista and Catra.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: A mutual one with Catra in the series finale. Adora is dying from Horde Prime's virus but Catra's equally anguished Love Confession brings her back from the brink of death. Afterwards, Adora tells Catra she similarly loves her.
• Apocalypse Maiden: She is the lynchpin for a planet-wide superweapon called the Heart of Etheria, which harvests magic and then channels it through her as a focus.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • In the Season 5 finale, she experiences a vision where she meets and speaks with Mara.
    Adora: I'm going to save Etheria no matter what it takes. Your sacrifice won't be in vain, I promise.
    Mara: But at what cost? I never wanted to die. I sacrificed myself so you would never have to. Why are you doing this, Adora?
    Adora: It's better this way. My friends will be safe, they'll be happy.
    Mara: And you? What do you want when this is all over?
  • She is presented with an armor-piercing question when Catra confronts her about her choices in an earlier episode of Season 5.
    Catra: Why do you always have to sacrifice everything for everyone else? When do you get to choose? What do you want, Adora?
• The Atoner: More than in the original, where she was a brainwashed member of the Horde. Here she was a willing member and wants to make up for it. She also knows the others have no reason to trust her. According to ND Stevenson, Adora is so guilt ridden by everything that she feels she hasn't been able to do that she actively seeks punishment and puts herself on the line time and time again. It only becomes more pronounced in Season 5 after she loses her powers, as she is desperate to be of use in any possible way.
• Babies Ever After: According to a charity livestream by ND, she and Catra eventually have a non-binary child named Finn, who is Catra's species, but dyes their hair blond to connect to Adora's heritage.
• Badass Cape: And how! As She-Ra she sports a long, flowing, red cape!
• Bad "Bad Acting": A Running Gag throughout the series is Adora's less then stellar acting abilities. For example, when meeting Bow's dad's for the first time (who are unaware that Bow is a rebellion soldier), and having to pretend to be a student, Adora keeps forgetting what her supposed majors are suppose to be, keeps adding new ones, an pronouncing certain words weirdly. She's such a bad actress that Netossa lists it as one of her weaknesses.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: In Season 5, Adora fights Horde Prime's pursuing space ships while transformed, without any environmental protection. Considering she's glowing the entire time implies part of her magic as She-Ra includes protection from space.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Adora begins to rethink the Horde's teachings when she's captured by two members of the Rebellion, and they not only choose to take her back to Bright Moon nonviolently, but make conversation with her and, in Bow's case, are downright friendly. She's genuinely taken aback when she sees that the "savage" rebels she's been raised to hate and fear are actually good people.
• Berserk Button: Saying her time in the Rebellion away from the Horde made her "soft". Played for Laughs, since it triggers her competitive spirit and makes her and Huntara fight over who's the better survivalist in the Crimson Waste.
  • Targeting innocent people, especially her friends, is a massive no-no. Horde Prime makes the big mistake of brainwashing Catra and forcing her to fight Adora first, then shocks her to the point of making her lose consciousness and fall off a ledge to her almost certain death. Adora sums it up in a very effective, very chilling way:
    "You miscalculated"
• Beware the Nice Ones: Adora is a friendly person in general but isn't afraid to enter into combat. And, she gives a chilling Death Glare at Catra in the third season finale for the latter's actions.
• BFS: Her iconic sword's looking a little... broader. It visibly expands as part of her Transformation Sequence, to match her larger form. In her new She-Ra form the Sword looks more elegant, with a longer blade and a slimmer hilt.
• Big Eater: Whenever Adora is shown eating, she's devouring tons of food like it will disappear into thin air at any second. Justified since she grew up in the Horde, where rations were probably both scarce and terrible-tasting.
• Big Good: After Angella’s sacrifice, She and Glimmer share this role as the new co-leaders of the Rebellion.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: She and Catra both suffered under Shadow Weaver's abuse, and she was the one who raised them since they were toddlers. According to a post-finale charity stream, when they have their own child, Finn, they do their best to make sure that they know that they're loved and have the childhood that the two of them were deprived of.
• Broken Ace: As it turns out, being the Horde's golden child and having to be practically perfect in every way, only to find out that all she ever believed in was a lie and she'd been fighting for the bad guys the whole time, then struggling to make up for her mistakes by living up to the expectations of the people that welcomed her even though she's struggling to understand her new powers, discovering she'd been stolen from her home planet as a baby to become little more than the trigger to a planet-size bomb with no apparent choice on the matter have done a number on Adora's perception of herself.
• Broken Hero: Adora does her very best to be the beacon of hope everyone expects her to be. She still grew up in a very abusive environment, became enemies with her best friend(whom she's been in love with since forever), and struggles with identifying her own self worth and purpose while at the same time believing she only exist to be of use to others.
• Broken Pedestal: Inverted. Adora used to be The Ace among the Horde. After she defected to the Rebellion, many of them treats her with disdain.
• Brought Down to Badass: Even when she can't transform due to not having the sword, being unable to break through her self-doubt, etc., she was still one of the Horde's best trainees, and has only gained in skill since leaving. Best shown in Season 5 when she alone, and without She-Ra, fights the three Star Siblings to a stand still.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Her transformation into She-Ra is activated by holding up the Sword of Protection and shouting "For the honor of Greyskull!"
• Calling the Old Woman Out: In the episode "Failsafe", Adora finally calls out Shadow Weaver when she tries to drive a wedge between Adora and Catra again, pointing out how Shadow Weaver's toxic attitude ruined the lives of everyone around her. Adora also says that, when all is said and done, Adora won't let Shadow Weaver anywhere near the released magic of the Heart of Etheria. From Shadow Weaver's shocked expression, it's clear she never realized how her abusive and controlling attitude negatively affected her wards until that moment. Shadow Weaver finally sees just how much her obsession with power cost her now that it's been All for Nothing.
• Character Development:
  • Adora has a notable Guilt Complex, blaming herself for things beyond her control and that were the fault of others. Her time in an emotionally healthy environment with non-toxic people helped erode this trait. As such, when a corrupted Catra tries to blame her for reality falling apart in the Season 3 finale, Adora promptly calls her out, saying it was Catra's fault.
  • After becoming She-Ra; Adora gains a notable martyr complex, due both because of her desire to atone for her actions in the Horde and because of Shadow Weaver's emotionally abusive parenting that made her feel that she had to be the best all the time, which only gets worse and more self sacrificial over time. In Season 5, after getting called out on this trait by numerous people, being asked by Catra and Mara what she really wants, and seeing her ideal future where she can be with the people she loves, Adora realises that she doesn't want to sacrifice herself and decides to live her own life and be happy rather than senselessly sacrifice herself as She-Ra.
  • Adora starts off as a Love Martyr to Catra. When they were still in the Horde together, Adora often went along with whatever Catra wanted so the latter wouldn't get upset or refuse to talk to her. After defecting from the Horde, Adora spends the first few seasons trying to reason with Catra. After Catra's Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum in the Season 3 Finale, Adora finally realizes just how petty and destructive Catra can be, realizes it's not her fault Catra is the way she is, and reacts accordingly. From then on, Adora starts applying Tough Love; often calling Catra out on her bull but being willing to give her a chance should Catra accept it, though knowing she won't. This eventually cements Catra's Heel–Face Turn.
• Childhood Friend Romance: After repairing their friendship in the fifth season, she and Catra finally acknowledge their love for each other isn't just platonic, and get together.
• Character Tics: Making finger guns when she wants to appear cool,so much so that she does it while panicking in front of Queen Angella. She also has the tendency to hold her hands together when she feels she's losing control over herself.
• Childish Tooth Gap: As a young child, Adora had a missing tooth gap and was way more impulsive than she is now.
• The Chosen One: Adora has been chosen by the sword, to stop the evil that plagues Etheria and restore balance. Darkly subverted as of Season 4, with implications that Season 5 will move it to being a Double Subversion. "Restoring balance" means bringing a superweapon online, which will kill everyone; essentially, she's been "chosen" to be a firing pin, and she has to destroy the Sword of Protection to save everyone. However, Season 4 also establishes that the sword exists to control the power of She-Ra and allow the First Ones to use it for their weapon, with the power itself being drawn from Etheria itself rather than the sword, so Adora may still be the Chosen One - just chosen by Etheria itself, not by the sword or Light Hope. As Razz tells Mara: "She-Ra is not a sword; She-Ra is you." It proves true later on—Adora was always She-Ra.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Oh yes. It's how she rose in the ranks of the Horde, since she genuinely believed their propoganda and worked hard to support her fellow soldiers and mission to "bring order" to Etheria. After learning the Horde is evil, Adora is unable to go back since she can't in good conscience support their warmongering or abandon the innocent people they're hurting. After she joins the Rebellion, Adora constantly runs herself ragged trying to be the best She-Ra she can be; often willing to throw herself into unnecessary danger and sacrifice herself at the drop of a hat to save as many people as possible.
• Clark Kent Outfit: As Adora, she's a female example. The big orange jacket she wears makes her build look of slender and average build. When we see her without it, she is shown to be more muscular than She-Ra, herself.
• Clothing Switch: Catra loses her mask after Horde Prime brainwashes her, and given her feelings for Catra and Etherian couples tending to do this, her new crown resembling Catra's old mask seems prophetic.
• Combat Medic: Subverted. She-Ra has healing powers, but Adora doesn't know how to use them yet. To get them would take years of training in isolation, and she denies this as it would mean abandoning her friends. Turns out that's only what Light Hope told her. The Sword of Protection was really a Power Limiter.
• Coming of Age Story: In an interview with Verge, ND has stated he sees Adora as being 17 or 18—that is, the average age for a student just starting college—and the series focuses on her examining and solidifying her duties, relationships and sense of self.
• Condescending Compassion: As a All-Loving Heroine she can take things too far. For example, some of her care for Catra is because she believes Catra can't take care of herself, as shown by Adora's Kill Steal in "Corridors".
• Control Freak: She means well when she wants to protect someone, but she tends to deprive the ones she protects of a way to better help them.
• Cool Crown: Her tiara's a little more minimalist, but no less striking, especially with the art deco wings on the side. It's closer to its classic look in the Battle of Bright Moon. In her new She-Ra form, it resembles Catra's mask.
• Cool Sword: The Sword of Protection allow Adora to transform into She-Ra. It can also turn into other weapons, shoot Frickin' Laser Beams, heal wounds, and give animals an intelligence boost. She destroys that one, but when she finds out she was always She-Ra, she gets a new one that is part of her transformation, and can still do everything her old sword can do, like transform to other weapons.
• Costume Evolution: In Season 5, She-Ra's new form is somewhat closer to Mara's but has noticeable differences in her outfit that lampshade Adora's development. She gains what looks like a sleeveless coat, new arm and leg bracers, chest plate, a new tiara, and full pants. The changes are references to parts of the outfits of the people she cares about the most: her shoes look like Glimmer's winged ones, the heart shaped space on her chest is like Bow's, and her tiara is shaped just like Catra's head piece. Ultimately, her hair is in Adora's trademark ponytail, just much longer. She even has the pompadour now.
• Crazy-Prepared: Sleeps with a knife under her pillow. 'Nuff said.
• Creature of Habit: Adora is used to a strict regimen and The Spartan Way, so the freedom and opulence of the rebellion often leave her uncomfortable. When she gets too stressed or upset, she tends to fall back on her Horde training, such as approaching Princess Prom with a battle plan, or seeking out training when she can't use her healing power.
• Cuteness Proximity: When she sees Horsey/Swift Wind for the first time, she says he's "majestic" while getting teary-eyed.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Is hit hard with this at the beginning of Season 5 She still instinctively tries to transform into She-Ra to fight off Horde Prime's bots. Goes about as well as you'd expect.
  Adora: FOR THE HONOR OF - oooooohhhhhh...
• Dark and Troubled Past: Raised as a baby in the Horde and subjected to psychological abuse from Shadow Weaver.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not incredibly obvious, but it comes out when she has to deal with Light Hope, Madam Razz, and even Bow and Glimmer at times.
• Death Glare:
  • In the climax of Season 3, Adora gives a truly epic one to Catra after reality is saved, with nothing but rage and fury after Catra's little temper tantrum nearly destroyed reality and led Angella's sacrifice. Even Catra looks taken aback by it.
  • She delivers countless of these to Horde Prime, fittingly as he's the Big Bad of the show, with the most notable one being after she unlocks She-Ra's new form and rescues Catra from his clones. "You miscalculated" indeed.
• Declaration of Protection:
  • In their youth, Adora made a promise to Catra that they would always be together and protect each other from threats. It doesn't work out. For a long time, at least. They start fulfilling this promise to each other in Season 5.
  • She later makes one to Glimmer, saying that Angella told her to take care of the princess, and that's what she's going to do. Actually, Angella told them to "take care of each other"; this is Adora's habit of taking everything on herself rearing its head again, and since Glimmer finds this kind of treatment stifling, this doesn't work out either.
• Determinator: No matter what happens, Adora does not know how to give up. She snaps out of Beast Island's mind-numbing spell (which destroys your mind with your own doubts and fears, then slowly consumes your body with vines) by sheer force of will. Even at the end of the fourth season, after she destroys the Sword Of Protection and loses the ability to tap into She-Ra's powers, the first thing she puts her mind into is going to save Etheria and defeat Horde Prime. However, this has a downside: Adora feels like she personally has to take on the burden of doing everything, and views her own wants and needs as secondary to helping others.
  Adora: I won't give up! Not on Etheria. Not on my friends. Not on myself.
• Deus Exit Machina: The She-Ra form has a noticeable tendency to be rendered impotent or unavailable. Episode 5 has her trying to repair the magic gate and unable to move, Episode 6 corrupts her sword, Episode 7 has the confidence she needs to transform broken by Shadow Weaver, and in Episode 8 she's at first forced to leave the sword at the door, then has it stolen by the villains.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When a particular piece of First Ones technology that Entraptra has infects the Sword of Protection, Adora reacts to it similarly to alcohol — in her She-Ra form she becomes mindlessly aggressive and violent with no memory of what she did under its effects, and when she reverts back to Adora she has trouble balancing, talks in a sluggish manner, is easily distracted, and generally acts extremely silly.
• Dumb Blonde: Inverted. Adora has dark blonde hair (which gets lighter as She Ra), but, aside from the occasional unworldliness, she's shown to be disciplined, intelligent, and a competent leader. She also grows out of this the more time she spends with the Rebellion.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: She goes through a lot throughout the series, but in the end she manages to defeat Horde Prime, save Etheria and release the stolen magic in the Heart, and get together with Catra.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Prior to gaining the power of She-Ra, Adora was an exceptionally skilled fighter, capable of matching Bow and Glimmer working together. Even after obtaining the sword, Adora does quite a bit of fighting without tapping into her She-Ra form.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Make no mistake, Adora is an All-Loving Heroine who cares deeply about everyone, to the point where she’ll give someone like Catra a chance to reform if he or she wanted to. However, she has no love or patience for Horde Prime, not just for what he did to Catra, but to Etheria and the universe at large. She especially had no regrets about exorcising his consciousness for good, albeit in a peaceful manner.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Her hair being held back in a tight ponytail has been linked closely to the pressure of having to be the "perfect soldier", first for the Horde and then as She-Ra. When she effectively refuses to be the trigger of the "Heart of Etheria Project" and breaks the Sword of Protection, the ensuing burst of energy leaves her with her hair down for the first time in the series, implying she finally made a decision for herself. Her hair comes down in her fight against a brainwashed Catra, since going to save her wasn't something Adora did out of duty, but because she couldn't stand to leave her there. Notably, she sees herself with her hair is let down in her ideal future, meaning that Adora wishes she didn't have to be so in control all the time.
  • On the flip side, She-Ra has loose, impossibly long hair, and Adora embodies the role but has not a full grip over it. The New She-Ra form has a long ponytail and her signature hair poof, as if to say that Adora is finally embracing her role of protector of the universe not only for others, but for herself as well. Notably, this form is leagues above the former in terms of power and efficiency due to being free of the limitations the First Ones put on her original form (as long as Adora's mind is clear, that is).
• Et Tu, Brute?: To drive home how a betrayer is worse than an enemy, Adora can tolerate Shadow Weaver because at least Adora recognized her as a real enemy from the get go, but Catra is a different story. Growing up, Adora has had to put up with Catra’s jerkassery, but never believed Catra could mean any serious harm to her. Catra was all Adora had when Shadow Weaver did horrible things to them and they were best friends. But, after seeing that Catra is so selfish and petty that she’s willing to hurt everyone, including her just so they can lose, Adora is devastated, and sees it as a foul betrayal of her love and kindness towards Catra. At that moment, Adora felt like she didn't know Catra anymore.
  • Ironically, Adora is one to Catra as well, she took her defection to the Rebellion a betrayal. The fact that they endured childhood abuse from Shadow Weaver and both are in love also add fuel to this. Catra took her Heel–Face Turn as personal betrayal while Adora's being hurt by the fact that Catra's willing to stay in the Horde to gain approval. Ultimately, their choices lead them to feel betrayed by the other.

F - L

• Fatal Flaw: Guilt. Adora only feels like she has worth when she's being useful, and she feels most useful when being a warrior. And since She-Ra is a Messianic Archetype to the people of Etheria, Adora being The Chosen One intensifies these flaws progressively as the series continues. Whenever there's a problem she can't fix herself, or she's unable to help as much as she thinks she should be able to, Adora feels like a failure and has disappointed people. When she feels responsible for someone, she becomes a Control Freak who will rob them of their personal agency, because Adora is insistent on protecting them and keeping them out of danger. And her guilt complex also means she's self-sacrificing to an unreasonable degree, both because she thinks her personal wants and needs are less important than her duties as She-Ra, and because Adora thinks she should be able to do things on her own without burdening her friends by asking for help. This is so bad that in Season 5, Adora was willing to make a Heroic Sacrifice to save Etheria from Horde Prime, because Adora was convinced she had to die in order to save the world. It took Catra literally pulling Adora out of a hopeless situation to convince Adora not to go through with it.
• Family of Choice: Though Adora never understood the concept of family growing up in the Horde, Catra was the closest she had to one. Then Glimmer and Bow came into her life, and she very much considers them family.
• Fish out of Water: When she goes to join the Rebellion, she's obviously confused about customs ^note When she first meets the rebellion leader in a less formal situation, she goes through several honorifics and salutes, before settling on a very awkward bow, and how princesses actually act since she was taught by the Horde that the princesses were evil. At first, this is utilized for plenty of humor, but she does grow to understand and appreciate the Rebellion's side. At one point Bow even has to explain what an "Aunt" is to her.
• Forgiveness: A huge part of her arc in Season 5 is learning to forgive those who have hurt her badly, namely Catra. Catra sacrificed herself to save Adora from being captured by Horde Prime, leading Adora to be open to forgiving her. This act allows Adora to unlock the full power of She-Ra, and give her accelerated healing that can undo Catra's death in the process. Adora fully forgives her only when Catra begins to show her willingness to atone for her crimes and change for the better. In the Grand Finale, Catra again saves Adora from being consumed by the First Ones' virus, which leads Adora to finally understands Catra is in love with her.
  • In a lesser content, she forgives Glimmer for her awful behaviors that push her and Bow off and endanger Etheria.
  • Inverted with Shadow Weaver, who spends her time actively trying to drive Catra and Adora apart for the entire second half of Season 5. After Catra is ultimately driven away, Adora plainly tells her former mentor that she'll never forgive her. Adora does, nonetheless accept the choices Shadow Weaver made in life and decides to let go of that chapter of her life to focus on her own future.
• For Your Own Good: Says this almost verbatim to Catra in Season 5, after Adora rescues Catra from Horde Prime but Catra still refuses to cooperate, leave her room, or remove the chip on her neck. When Adora decides to play hard ball and have Entrapta remove the chip whether Catra wants it or not, the latter tries to guilt her by claiming it's an invasion of bodily autonomy. Adora counters that Horde Prime is tracking Catra's location via the chip, and Adora will not endanger everyone at camp, nor abandon Catra to get captured again, just to indulge Catra's childish desire avoid dealing with her problems.
• Forced Dance Partner: During the Princess Prom episode, Adora is forced to slow dance with Catra to maintain the peace enforced during said prom (meaning that Rebellion and Horde members can't fight one another until the ball is over).
• Forehead of Doom: Perhaps thanks to her yanked-back 'do, Adora's forehead appears quite spacious. Scorpia points it out in Season 3's "Remember".
• Freudian Excuse: Shadow Weaver's abuse caused Adora to have a serious Guilt Complex and a need to justify her existence. Since she grew up being constantly told that Catra's actions were her responsibility, she grows overly protective of her friends, frequently stifling them out of a desire to help and protect them. Being constantly put on a pedestal in an enviroment that does not tolerate failure also means that she feels she needs to live up to everyone's expectations, or else she has failed. This guilt complex is so extreme that when someone finally asks what she wants, the only thing she can say is "what's best for Etheria".
• Freudian Excuse Denial: Implied in "The Price Of Power", when Bow and Glimmer appeal to her that she isn't like Shadow Weaver or the rest of the Horde, she suggests it's only considered such due to her nature as She-Ra. She was just like the Horde until she realized it was wrong and left.
• Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: Regarding Catra, Adora was very much the Gentle Touch to Shadow Weaver's Firm Hand. While Shadow Weaver often berated and abused Catra for every perceived shortcoming (even things that were partly Adora's fault), Adora often tried to make up for it by offering Catra comfort, kind words, and unconditional support and encouragement. However, over the course of the series Adora slowly realizes this also did Catra a disfavor, as Catra ended up resenting Adora for supposedly looking down on her, blaming Adora for all her problems, and developing a Never My Fault attitude since Catra's Only Friend never seriously called her out on things that were very much her fault. Adora eventually employs Tough Love when dealing with Catra, which eventually helps cement the latter's Heel–Face Turn.
• Girliness Upgrade: The perfect future dream Adora has in Season 5 has her looking the most feminine she's ever been, with her hair long and undone, while wearing a flowing Sexy Backless Outfit that drapes to the floor. According to ND however, it's less about being girly and more about being comfortable in her own skin.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: She-Ra has electric sky-blue eyes that glow when she uses the full scope of her power. Adora's irises glow for the first time when she breaks the numbing signal of the vines on Beast Island out of pure determination. After she loes her powers, her first transformation in the new form of She-Ra is marked by her eyes glowing blue before an aura of the same colour envelops her.
• Going Native: It took her a little less than a day to start sympathizing with her "enemies" and fighting to protect them, because their goodness was pretty obvious even under pressure.
  • Another example is how she considers herself Etherian, although technically she was stranded on the planet as a baby.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Just like the original, she's decked out with gold accents. In Episode 13, she gets an even *shinier* fully golden breastplate that goes over her tunic as opposed to under it.
• Good Costume Switch: Downplayed; when Adora defects from the Horde and joins the Rebellion, she still wears the same clothing she wore during her days as a Horde soldier, but all of the Horde insignias are removed from them.
• Good Is Not Soft: Adora is caring, compassionate, and righteous. If you take her for a pushover it's likely she will sweep the floor with you.
• Good Wears White: She's the titular heroine and she wears white.
• Grew a Spine: Downplayed. While Adora was never dumb or soft, she let her idealism and fondness for Catra cloud her judgement regarding just how malicious and ruthless the other could be. However, following Catra's Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum in the Season 3 Finale, Adora finally has enough and gives Catra a swift Shut Up, Hannibal!, Curb-Stomp Battle and "Reason You Suck" Speech. After the battle is over, Adora makes it clear that she is done trying to reason with Catra, as well as done letting Catra try to guilt-trip and blame Adora for everything wrong with her life.
• Guilt Complex: She has a habit of blaming herself for things largely out of her control, largely thanks to Shadow Weaver telling her that whatever punishment Catra was enduring was Adora's fault for not keeping Catra under better control. This is especially true when Glimmer gets captured and hurt by Catra and Shadow Weaver. After Entrapta's apparent death and once again failing to convince Catra to leave the Horde, Adora thinks it might be a good idea to just stay with Light Hope for the years it would take to fully train her powers.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has long blonde hair and is the titular heroine.
• Hairstyle Inertia: Adora has kept the same ponytail and "poofy" tuft of hair since childhood.
• Hammerspace: It's not quite clear how Adora keeps the sword on her at times, seemingly just pulling out from behind her back when it's time to turn into She-Ra. Season 3 clarifies that it Sticks to the Back. In Season 4, she transforms it into a bracelet when not using it.
• Hand Blast: As She-Ra, Adora can fire deadly rainbows from her hands.
• Has a Type:
  • She usually has a thing for women that can and will kick ass at a moment's notice.
  • Zig-Zagged when it comes to purple women with big muscles. While she's smitten when she first sees Huntara, it's implied it's because she feels a sense of kinship with her since they're both ex-Horde soldiers and Huntara represents Adora's goals in terms of physical prowess and self confidence. In Elberon, it's being squished against a woman's huge biceps that makes her flush, possibly for the same reason as above. Notably, her ideal She-Ra form of Season 5 is much more muscular than the previous one.
  • And while her main love interest Catra isn't outright huge, she's still incredibly athletic and butch.
• Hates Being Alone: Downplayed, but Adora has always barracked (and as shown in the first episode, Catra had a tendency to sleep at the bottom of her bed). As a result, she struggles to sleep alone initially and actually sneaks into Glimmer's bed at one point.
• Healing Factor: In her She-Ra form. In both "The Sea Gate" and "The Battle of Bright Moon", Catra slashes her several times with her claws, and in the latter episode, Catra gruesomely stabs She-Ra in the back. Her wounds disappear after a few minutes with no scars or other lasting effects. Her new She-Ra form accelerates her healing a hundredfold, to the point where she can recover from a large fall that would otherwise kill her.
• Healing Hands: Her bio says that she has limited healing abilities. Not that she knows how to use them. She finally figures it out with Shadow Weaver's help.
• Heel–Face Turn: Adora starts the first episode as a steadfast Horde soldier, certain that she is fighting to end tyrannical princess rule. But after meet Bow and Glimmer, then seeing the Horde is evil first hand when they attack an innocent civilian town, she joins up with the Rebellion.
  • Deconstructed Trope: Just because she realizes the error of her ways, doesn't mean her friends in the Horde do, and her leaving the Horde in favor of the Rebellion leaves her Horde friends (most notably Catra, Lonnie to a lesser degree) bitter about the betrayal. It takes a whole four and a half seasons before Catra even considers joining Adora, even though they both want to, due to said bitterness. The fact that Adora doesn't seem to realize this in the show doesn't help the case.
• Held Gaze:
  • With Hordak in the series finale. After She-Ra exorcises Horde Prime's spirit from Hordak's body, he remembers the moment he rescued her as a baby, and the two gaze into each other's eyes.
  • With Catra several times over the course of the series, most notably after she defects and Catra remains in the Horde in Season 1, and right before their Big Damn Kiss in the finale.
• Henshin Hero: As the revamp of one of 1980s [1]s her Transformation Sequence follows all the old standbys, placed into a starfield, then turned into light while her form shifts into a larger adult version, al while in continuous movement with her sword twirling around. This form has Super-Strength, Super-Toughness and numerous other goodies so she checks all the boxes.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Her Runestone is the large broadsword she wields as She-Ra. While Adora later learns how to turn it into just about anything she wants, she still prefers using it in its normal form as a sword.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Adora is terribly prone to believing herself to be utterly useless.
  Adora: I thought I was better as She-Ra, but I'm useless no matter what form I take.
• Heroic Spirit: Adora doesn't know the meaning of the word "surrender". She shows this time and time again throughout the series, whether she can count on She-Ra's powers or not. Take "Stranded" for example: she keeps the roof of an entire underground cave complex from falling by herself^note Bonus points for doing the Spidey pose as well!.
• Honorary Princess: No one knows where Adora came from so it is unclear if she actually has royal blood, but she is considered a princess by the others because of her holding the power of She-Ra.
• Hartman Hips: Averted. Her jacket gives her a curvy figure and makes her waist look smaller than her hips, but without it on, she has realistic proportions.
• How Do I Shot Web?:
  • Learning how to transform took a bit of effort and during the attempt, she accidentally transformed Swift Wind into an alicorn. Learning her other powers, like healing, is trial and error and she's told it would take years for her to learn how to access them all.
  • Becomes a major plot point again in Season 5. Despite no longer having the sword Adora finds out she can still transform when she does so to save Catra, but she has no idea how and why that happened. The new transformation is also much less stable and prone to failing when Adora is in emotional distress.
• Human Aliens: In the first episode of Season 3, Shadow Weaver reveals that Adora was brought from another world through a portal, years ago; this is originally thought to be Hordak's, before Light Hope admits it was her all along. Light Hope later reveals that she's a First One.
• Humble Goal: She spends the entire series sacrificing everything for her friends and for Etheria, making several characters question her on whether she truly wants anything for herself. It's finally revealed in a dream sequence that she wants a happy, peaceful life with her three best friends.
• I Am Not a Gun: Going by Shadow Weaver's obsession with Adora, she had big plans for Adora's future, and it wouldn't be good for Etheria. Unfortunately for Shadow Weaver, Adora's good heart prevailed, and she defused herself upon finding out that the Horde was evil. Repeated with Light Hope, whose Heart of Etheria programming views Adora as part of a literal weapon; she even says the trope name almost verbatim while fighting back.
  Adora: I won't be controlled. I am not a piece of their machine. I am not a weapon. And I am going to end. This. NOW!
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Most of Adora's fights with Catra in the first few seasons end with Catra either winning or fighting Adora to a stale-mate, before Catra ends up cheesing it. In the Season 3 Finale, during Catra's Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, Adora finally has enough and quickly flattens Catra in a Curb-Stomp Battle, even without becoming She-Ra. Catra is visibly shocked to realize that Adora could have wiped the floor with her any time after leaving the Horde, but Adora had gone easy on her due to her obvious fondness for Catra... and Catra had finally worn out her good will.
• Icon of Rebellion: New She-Ra is the new symbol of rebellion. She marks Erelandia with the iconography of her sword to indicate the town has been liberated from the Horde.
• Iconic Outfit: She-Ra's appearance changed the least of all the characters from their 1985 incarnations, since it's just that iconic. Also, her red jacket, which is her only civilian wear, has been upgraded into something you can actually wear.
• I Just Knew: She's able to read First Ones writing at a glance, despite never having seen or heard of it before.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Blue-grey eyes and the titular heroine. As She-Ra, her eyes are a brighter blue, sometimes glowing.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • She and Catra were both raised under Shadow Weaver's abuse but they were abused differently. Catra was blatantly mistreated and threatened while Adora was mostly given psychological abuse paired with praise. Catra knew the Horde wasn't good because of their mistreatment of her but Adora bought the propaganda. Thus, it hurts Catra deeply that Adora would defect for the sake of innocent strangers but never suggested that she was innocent.
  • Adora also has trouble telling when her desire to protect others crosses over from "kind-hearted" into "pushy and controlling", which causes her no end of problems when dealing with people like Catra and Glimmer, who refuse to allow themselves to be controlled.
• Insult of Endearment: Catra typically calls Adora “idiot” or some variant, but she means it in the best way possible. Usually.
• Interspecies Romance: Becomes an Official Couple with Catra, a Cat Girl.
• Ironic Name: Her name "Adora" means "beloved", and sounds out of place for a Horde soldier, to which Bow lampshades.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: After being chosen by the sword, being She-Ra has brought her a lot more hardship, such as guilt for almost getting her friends killed, and constantly targeted, and worst of all, fear of falling to the Dark Side like Mara did. And then it turns out that she was "chosen" to be the trigger mechanism of an apocalyptic superweapon.
• Last of Her Kind: The First Ones disappeared a long time ago, so Adora is the only living member left, at least on Etheria. But, the fact that Horde Prime has just recently found out about her existence means there are others of her race he didn’t get yet.
• The Leader: Adora is a natural at this, and is the de-facto leader of any groups she finds herself into. She was the team leader of her squad in the Horde and quickly takes the helm when it comes to guiding the Alliance. Even after Micah, Glimmer's father and King of Brightmoon, joins the Rebellion, she's still the one others refer to when they don't know what to do, and they have complete trust in her abilities.
• Leeroy Jenkins: While not quite that reckless (usually), her primary strategy tends to be charging at something head-on. Then again, with She-Ra's power, it usually works.
  Catra: So your plan is to what, ram through an armada of ships?
  Adora: No!...Maybe!
• Legacy Character: Adora is not the first to take up the mantle of She-Ra. However, she is the first to take up the mantle in 1000 years since Mara.
• Leg Focus: In her second She-Ra outfit, Adora's new tights show off her powerful yet curvy legs.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Adora usually keeps her hair tied up in a ponytail that represents her being a person with a planned destiny and following. In the rare moments it is let loose, it symbolizes how Adora is free to make her own destiny.
• Light 'em Up: She-Ra can fire powerful blasts of light out of either her sword or her hands.
• Light Is Good: Transforms in a burst of light, can shoot light from her hand and sword, and is the heroine.
• Like a Daughter to Me: Angella comes to see Adora as a daughter figure, going Mama Bear for her.
• Lipstick Lesbian: At Princess Prom and in her dream future the Femme to Catra's Butch. Downplayed because she isn't 100% feminine and is still very tomboyish, but more on a Tomboy with a Girly Streak level.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Adora was Catra's rock during their time in the Horde together, especially since Catra had feelings for her. It's likely not a coincidence that Catra started her Sanity Slippage after Adora left.
• Logical Weakness:
  • The She-Ra form is totally useless for anything requiring stealth. Transforming requires Adora yelling her transformation phrase at the top of her lungs, to start. As She-Ra, she's eight feet tall and glows.
  • While having a portable Runestone has some advantages, it also means that Adora cannot use her powers without the sword. As such, separating Adora from her sword is a good way to neutralize the She-Ra transformation, at least if done before she can transform, as she doesn't seem to need direct contact with the sword after transforming.
• Love Epiphany: When she's going to the Heart of Etheria, she's distracted by a vision of Catra during various stages of their life: barely a teen, chipped, at her most evil during the seige of Salineas, in her Season 1 outfit, and then finally Catra as a young adult, who comes close and gently bumps their foreheads together. Through the good and the bad, even when she'd thought Catra had no hope for redemption, Adora loved her. The vision is not only Adora's subconscious trying to stop her from sacrificing herself; it's telling her what she really wants.
• Love Hurts: The one person that has hurt her the most? Catra. Her almost destroying reality was very hurtful and selfish, threatening countless lives and demonstrates how petty Catra was, making it a very grave mistake that couldn't be undone. And the fact that Adora never hated Catra and was secretly in love with her only twisted the knife in the wound.
• Love Is a Weakness: Played With, while Adora is strongly motivated by her love for her friends, her desire to save the word often sees her push her own personal feelings to the side For the Greater Good. In Season 5, Adora has trouble maintaining her She-Ra form because her feelings for Catra and love for her friends conflict with her desire to save Etheria at any cost, though in the end The Power of Love is what allows her to overcome Horde Prime's virus and save the universe. Altogether, the whole point of Adora’s arc in this season is about finding peace of mind a balance in these strong emotions.
• Love Martyr: For the first two seasons Adora tries desperately to get Catra to leave the Horde, and blames herself for Catra's attitude. It's not until the end of Season 3 when Catra nearly destroys the planet that Adora finally admits that the way Catra acts is not her fault. Season 5 would explore more of Adora's willingness to give everything to protect the ones she loves, but not really give much thought or care toward herself. Funnily enough it would be Catra that would see to it that Adora didn't needlessly sacrifice herself.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Downplayed. Adora doesn't use her shield as often as her sword but can when she feels she needs its' protection.

M - S

• Magical Accessory: In Season 4, she utilizes the sword's shapeshifting to make it a nice bracelet.
• Magic Feather: What the Sword of Protection amounts to, in fact it acts as a Power Limiter all things considered.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Downplayed with Catra. They both are fairly even when it comes to femininity but Catra wore a suit and Adora a dress to the Princess Prom. In terms of personality, Adora is more emotionally vulnerable and sensitive than Catra. Adora's possible future visions shows her wearing a feminine white dress while Catra wears another suit. However, Adora is the one that fits the more stereotypical "jock" image both in mentality and body while Catra is much more seductive and her shape is more conventionally feminine and... well, cat-like. Per Word of God, Adora doesn't care about what she wears, it's a matter of whether or not she feels comfortable in her own skin.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Adora's nature as The Atoner has shades of this at points, which only gets worse in Season 5 with the chaos of Horde Prime's invasion. When Catra pulls an Armor-Piercing Question on her and asks Adora what she wants, she can only stumble over the question before saying that she wants what's best for Etheria.
• Meaningful Name: Adora is Latin for beloved, which she lives up to moreso as part of the Rebellion.
• Mentor's New Hope: To Light Hope, who mourns Mara's mistakes and hopes Adora can do better.
• Messianic Archetype: Adora is the Chosen One She-Ra, prophesized to return at the Universe’s hour of need. Much of her story is about foregoing hatred and learning forgiveness, all the while facing Satanic Archetype Horde Prime, and is willing to sacrifice everything to defeat evil. Like most Christ-like figures, she humbles herself by realizing her desire is towards humbler things in life instead of being a heroine or a ruler. To top it all off, she arrives close to death as she’s about to finish the deed to release the Heart of Etheria’s magic, but rises again. In a parallel to the miracle of Jesus’ exorcism at synagogue of Capernaum Adora exorcises the demon that is Horde Prime from Hordak in a manner that is forgiving.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Very downplayed, but she and Bow share this dynamic. As Adora herself says, Bow is the best one when it comes to talking feelings, while she's the "punch-your-feelings-out" guy.
• Mirror Character:
  • From Hordak, her enemy. Both are ultimately tools of ruthless, genocidal empires. Both have developed strong individual identities in spite of this. Both are powered-down at the end of Season 4, Adora when she breaks her sword, and Hordak when he is subjected to "reconditioning" by Horde Prime.
  • While she's not much like Shadow Weaver, they do have one thing in common: a need to control others. That being said, Shadow Weaver's expression of this is entirely self-serving and founded in manipulation, while Adora's is founded in a desire to protect others that's being twisted by Shadow Weaver's A+ parenting style.
  • She and Catra have a similar sense of self-worth, they just act on it in very different ways: Adora thinks her every choice is wrong so she runs herself ragged to fix even things out of her control. Catra knows she's making bad decisions, but she doesn't know what else to do so she remains stuck in the only place she knows and feels safe in. Also, they're both completely unaware of their mutual feelings for each other and think the other could never reciprocate.
• Morph Weapon: As in the previous series, she can change the Sword of Protection into different objects. It only becomes a shield at first, but after training with Light Hope, she demonstrates numerous different forms, including some that aren't even weapons, though it doesn't always become what she wants it to.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: Light Hope pulled baby Adora through a portal to Etheria. Hordak investigated the portal, found Adora, and brought her back with him to the Horde.
• Most Common Superpower: Inverted. If anything, Adora is less busty (impossible as that may seem) as She-Ra.
• Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed; Adora still manages to be good-looking as both a civilian and as She-Ra despite undergoing Adaptational Modesty. This is played straighter with her new She-Ra form in Season 5, which hugs her figure more.
• Mundane Utility: In "The Coronation" and "Boys' Night Out", she uses the Sword of Protection as a mop.
• Nice Girl: Even when Adora was a Horde soldier, she was kind and caring.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Glimmer and Bow being kidnapped came from Adora easily falling for Catra's Paranoia Gambit. Similarly, while Frosta would always be a hard one to join the Rebellion, Adora made it infinitely harder by being accidentally rude to her.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Kyle, Rogelio and Lonnie all use a red and white uniform, Adora is shown to be the only senior cadet that uses a long-sleeved, almost totally white uniform with the Horde insignia on the back, and the only one to wear a jacket over it.
• No Hero to His Valet: Adora being the larger-than-life heroine She-Ra may impress her new friends in the Rebellion and the people of Etheria, but to Catra? Adora will always be the idiot who thrashes around at night and sleep-fights.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She and Catra, at least when on friendly terms, don't really have any personal boundaries. Adora herself is quite found of affectionately bumping into and play fighting with Catra.
• Obliviously Evil: Adora grew up in a training complex in the Fright Zone with only Horde propaganda to educate her about the world. She's horrified upon seeing firsthand that the Horde are the oppressors and not the defenders when they attack an innocent village she was told was an enemy fort.
  Bow: Your army is called the Evil Horde.
  Adora: Who calls us that?!
  Bow: [beat] Everybody!
• Oblivious to Love: Catra says she was always in love with Adora in Season 5, given the shock she expresses it seems it never occurred to Adora that this was a possibility. Though to be fair to Adora, Catra really hates outwardly expressing her emotions. Per Word of God, Adora has been in love with Catra for just as long, but she buried those feelings deep inside of her because of the way she was groomed and the events of the series proper.
• Odd Name Out: Every character in the Rebellion has an obvious name related to a trait of theirs. Adora is the only character in the Rebellion to have a fairly standard name. Unless of course it refers to how everyone seems to "adore her". In other words, Adora has the distinction of having a name that is both one you'd find in real life and meaningful.
• Official Couple: She and Catra cross over to this in the series finale when they confess their love to each other.
• One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: Like all princesses, Adora has to recharge her powers from a Runestone. The regular Runestones are massive and non-portable, but her Runestone is her sword, making the whole issue more or less moot. That said, unlike the other princesses, Adora must be in contact with her Runestone/the sword in order to transform into She-Ra and use her powers. Once Adora has transformed into She-Ra, she's more or less independent of it and can let go of it without a De-power.
• Only Friend: She was Catra's only friend when they grew up in the Horde.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Another motivator for Adora joining the Rebellion is that she always wondered where she came from and with the Sword she might be on her way to finding out.
• Prone to Tears: She has cried or nearly cried many times in the series. If you tell her she isn't doing good enough, she will get tears in her eyes.
• The Paragon Always Rebels:
  • Adora was one of the Horde's most dedicated and skilled recruits before her Heel–Face Turn, even being considered for Force Captain.
  • She is the second She-Ra to balk at her purpose to fire off the Heart of Etheria into the universe and refuses to go along with the plan despite Light Hope's attempt to encourage her by stating she would be remembered as a heroine for it.
• Parental Favoritism: Adora knows she's Shadow Weaver's favorite, and feels very guilty and awkward over it. She tried countless times growing up to convince Shadow Weaver that Catra was as deserving of praise or punishment as she was, to no avail. It's strongly implied to be part of why Adora was always so kind and indulgent to Catra, as she felt responsible for Catra's life in the Horde being so awful compared to her own. It takes Catra's Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum in the Season 3 Finale, with Catra violently blaming Adora for everything wrong with her life, for Adora to finally grow out of this. Adora ends up telling Catra off for blaming her for her own bad decisions and actions. From that point on, Adora employs much more Tough Love in her interactions with Catra.
• The Perfectionist: Adora firmly believes that she has to be perfect in every and any aspect, otherwise everything will go wrong. As a kid, Shadow Weaver taught her it was the only way she could prevent Catra from falling out of line and being punished.
• Pietà Plagiarism: In Season 5, she holds a dying Catra this way, before transforming into She-Ra and healing Catra's injuries. Similarly, she's held by Catra like this in the series finale when she's succumbing to Horde Prime's virus.
• Power Crutch: Although it may make it easier, Mara shows the Sword of Protection isn't actually necessary for Adora to become She-Ra. In fact, She-Ra is much older than the sword, which was created to control her power for unsavory ends.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Goes from a dirty brownish blonde as Adora to a bright golden yellow as She-Ra.
• Power Glows: She gets a whole lot more incandescent when she powers up.
• Power Incontinence: There is one limitation to Adora’s new She-Ra form—she cannot summon her sword and transform if she’s unfocused.
• Power Limiter: The Sword of Protection is actually designed to limit the power of She-Ra, it was never the source of her power.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: She has a Tomboyish Ponytail as Adora and gets long hair as She-Ra. Her new She-Ra form from Season 5 is a combination of both hairstyles.
• Powers via Weapon: The Sword of Protection will turn Adora into the super-empowered She-Ra. She adapts to using the Super-Strength and the sword's ability to cut through anything quickly, but it takes her most of the series to learn to master its more esoteric powers like healing.
  • Ultimately subverted: the Sword was actually a Power Limiter created by the First Ones' to better control She-Ra's power and use her as the trigger for the Heart of Etheria.
• Prefers Rocks to Pillows: Adora's used to sleeping in bunks in a barracks, and finds it hard to sleep in her new room by herself in a soft bed in Bright Moon. Glimmer and Bow get her a cot within one episode. Later episodes show her sleeping under a fancy canopy, but still on a hard cot.
• Primary-Color Champion: Her She-Ra outfit is a mixture of white, red, and golden yellow.
• The Promise:
  • Queen Angella’s final request to Adora in the Season 3 finale was to watch over Glimmer and keep her safe.
  • When she was little more than a toddler, she promised Catra that they'd always look out for each other. It doesn't work until she renews this in Season 5, swearing she'll save Catra from Horde Prime's mind control and will take her home, no matter what.
• Raised by Orcs: By the Horde and Shadow Weaver specifically. While Adora is a stand-out fighter because of it, her knowledge of anything outside the Fright Zone is limited. At first, Adora didn't understand concepts like festivals and familial relations. Glimmer even had to explain to Adora what an aunt is. The people of Bright Moon got the impression that Adora was Raised by Wolves instead, except a wild animal would probably have been preferable to Shadow Weaver.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When her sword is corrupted, as She-Ra, she becomes The Berserker and mindlessly attacks anything close to her.
• Red Is Heroic: A red jacket as Adora and a red cape as She-Ra. She also wears a red dress for Princess Prom.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: She's a highly-skilled warrior, a decent strategist, and extremely powerful as She-Ra. However, she has very little knowledge of anything outside of warfare. When she first arrived in Bright Moon, Adora didn't understand the concept of a festival, had never seen a horse before, and viewed every social situation through the lens of a soldier being briefed by a superior.
• Save the Villain: In "Heart, Part 2", She-Ra exorcises Horde Prime's consciousness from Hordak's body, saving Hordak.
• The Scapegoat: An emotional one to Catra. Despite Adora and Catra's obvious affection for each other, the latter becoming increasingly bitter and spiteful over the series slowly helps Adora realize that Catra has come to secretly resented Adora and started blaming her for all her life's problems. Given the traumatic childhood they shared under Shadow Weaver this is pretty standard victim-blaming between abused siblings. It comes to a head in the Season 3 Finale, where Catra has a Villainous Breakdown and throws a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, blaming Adora for everything wrong with her life and all her bad choices. This finally pushes Adora to stand up to Catra and call her out on her Never My Fault attitude.
• Secret Identity: Inverted. Unlike the original series, Adora doesn't even try to hide the fact that she and She-Ra are the same person. She also inverts Secret-Identity Identity — when transformed, She-Ra's personality is "Adora, but if she were more physically powerful".
• Selective Obliviousness: Complicated emotions and subterfuge just seem to fly right over her head. Adora just cannot comprehend that what a person says they are feeling might not actually be the truth, she tends to take them at face value, when a person tells her something like "I'm fine" she will completely believe them, which is part of the problems she has with Catra, Glimmer, and on a smaller scale Shadow Weaver.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Since Adora was raised to be a soldier, she tends to dress very pragmatically. For "Princess Prom" though, Glimmer decks her out in a sharp red evening gown. In her ideal future vision in "Heart Part 2" she is shown wearing a beautiful white and gold dress with her hair down.
• She Is All Grown Up: In the three years between Season 1 and Season 5, Adora bulks up considerably, no doubt due to the fact that in Bright Moon, she has access to actual food instead of just ration bars, as these shots of her shoulders in the first episode vs. in "Failsafe" show.
• Shield Bash: Downplayed. She can summon a shield and use it as a weapon but doesn't usually use it.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Adora appears to ship both Princess Mermista and Sea Hawk.
  • If her vision in "Heart Part 2" is of any indication, she roots for Glimmer and Bow as well, somewhere deep in her mind.
• Shockwave Stomp: She-Ra is strong enough to create craters and cause waves of rock to fly out by striking the ground.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: The first time we truly see Adora snapping out of her habit of shouldering everyone else's faults and paying the consequences is at the end of Season 3, when a corrupted Catra tries to blame Adora for not stopping her from opening the portal that's shattering reality. Adora refuses to go along with it and takes Catra down with one single punch.
• Significant Birth Date: Perhaps it's a coincidence, but Adora's birthday, January 19th, commemorates Epiphany in Eastern Christianity. Quite fitting for a Messianic Archetype like She-Ra.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Attraction to big, buff women aside, in Heart pt.1, the various versions of Catra walking up to her, from teen to young adult, even at the peak of her villainy when they couldn't be any further apart, makes it startlingly clear that Adora always loved Catra and never stopped, not even when she'd lost hope for her after the portal.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: She-Ra's outfit is sleeveless, showing off some impressive muscles.
• Spark of the Rebellion: Adora has become this after reunlocking She-Ra, inspiring the Star Siblings, who eventually inspired rebellions in other Horde-occupied worlds.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Perfuma and the people of Plumeria refer to her as "The She-Ra".
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Her new sword is now part of her transformation, she summons it from thin air and then recites her catchphrase to become She-Ra.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Despite her defection from the Horde, Adora still wears her old outfit from her time there when not transformed into She-Ra albeit without the Horde's symbol on it.
• The Strategist: Aside from her "dumb jock" reputation, Adora naturally covers this role in the Rebellion because she was raised to be a perfect soldier. Her plans are usually well thought out, and even in the middle of action she can quickly coordinate her team. It becomes a plot point in Season 5 when Bow forces her on bed-rest. The Princesses struggle to come up with clear strategies without her, and the Rebellion is taken out from the inside while Adora, Entrapta and Bow are in space to rescue Glimmer. She doesn't hold a candle to Catra though, something she acknowledges.
• Straight Gay: She randomly grew up in a society where Homophobia and being a Closet Gay aren't a thing…
• Strong and Skilled: Even before finding the Sword of Protection, Adora was an incredibly skilled combatant as a result of her cadet training with the Horde, and as She-Ra her strength level is increased ten-fold. As She-Ra Adora is actually such a dangerous opponent that the Horde tends to focus their efforts on defeating the rebellion in battles where they know she is not participating in, and when they do encounter her they always aim for her first in battle as she is the backbone of any battle team she's in.
• Super-Strength: She-Ra's main power, as expected from the Distaff Counterpart of He-Man himself. She can lift and throw Horde spider drones with one hand and smash through solid stone with ease. Adora herself is still ridiculously strong for Etherian standards, and she can easily break rocks with a kick as seen in "Huntara".
• Super-Toughness: As a bonus to her strength, She-Ra is tough enough that the only things that reliably hurt her are the main cannons on the Horde's tanks. Even then, she takes multiple hits before going down. Adora also proves to have quite the stamina when she's not transformed, as she usually manages to get back up even after taking multiple hits. It's best seen in Season 5 when, unable to transform, she just keeps going after Prime's bots it takes a full case of Heroic RRoD to get her to rest.
• Sword Beam: Her sword can fire energy beams, both for destructive purposes and to empower/heal, as is the case with Swift Wind. Adora hasn't quite got the healing aspect down, yet. After regaining her ability to transform in Season 5, this ability becomes a lot more versatile.

T - W

• This Is Unforgivable!:
  • Adora loses all sympathy for Catra after she tried to erase reality just because she wanted Adora to finally lose, leading Queen Angella's sacrifice in the process. Adora's Death Glare at Catra when the battle is over makes it clear that all bridges have been burned. Despite this, Catra's Heel–Face Turn in Season 5 convinces Adora to let her back into her life. During an argument it's also revealed that despite everything Catra had done, Adora never hated her.
  • In Season 5 after Catra leaves the group when Adora takes Shadow Weaver's advise to absorb the Heart of Etheria's failsafe because she refuses to watch Adora kill herself she tells Shadow Weaver that she will never forgive her for all the pain she has caused to her friends throughout the years and that all she knows how to do is ruin people and take away their chance for happiness. Shadow Weaver gets the message.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Adora is prone to throwing her sword at enemies and always manages to take out a tank or two doing so.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Adora hits a crisis of conscience with regards to Glimmer’s decisions in Season 4 and the methods Glimmer is willing to go to get results. When she reflects on this, the problem is that Glimmer doesn’t think about where to draw the line.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: She's tomboyish and, as Adora, she keeps her hair in a small ponytail.
• Tomboy Princess: She's shown to be interested in weaponry, warfare, and tactics. Hardly anything at all about girly things.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a former soldier, and it shows, bordering on being a PG-rated case of The Lad-ette in behavior Depending on the Writer. A few times she has shown a few feminine leaning interests. She has a huge fascination with horses so its no surprise her Animal Companion is one. A Running Gag throughout the seasons is her fixation/jealousy of She-Ra's hair and wishing her normal hair was as good looking. She also leans towards dresses and more feminine attire when wanting to look nice, buts that's just what we're shown in the series. Adora doesn't really care about clothes, if she's comfortable with it she'll wear it.
• Tough Love: Adora spends the first few seasons begging Catra to defect with her, and trying to appeal to Catra's goodness. However, following Catra's Season Three Finale Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum finally convinces Adora that Catra is too petty, selfish, and destructive to be reasoned with, and stops trying.
  • Around the middle of Season 5, after rescuing Catra from Horde Prime, only for the latter to once again lash out and push Adora away, Adora calls Catra out on being a difficult, selfish Ungrateful Bastard, and expresses disappointment that the latter still refuses to change even after all the misery her toxic and self-destructive behavior caused throughout the series. When Catra retorts that she knows Adora always hated her, Adora gently replies that she never hated Catra. This throws the latter for a loop, though Adora then makes it clear that despite still caring for Catra, she's also not going to put up with her toxic and self-destructive behavior.
  • What finally ends up getting through to Catra's Self-Serving Memory and Never My Fault attitude is Adora making it clear she's had enough of Catra's self-pitying temper tantrums. When Catra refuses to have Horde Prime's chip removed from her neck, nor leave her room to face the many people she hurt, Adora eventually has enough and announces that she and Entrapta will remove the chip whether Catra likes it or not. When Catra tries to use her old trick of guilting Adora into backing off by arguing that it violates her personal autonomy, Adora replies that Horde Prime is using the chip to track Catra and the Rebellion's location, and Adora is not going to risk everyone's life just to indulge Catra's sulking. Adora then makes it clear that she's also not going to just drop Catra off on some random planet with the chip still on her neck so Horde Prime can just track her down and capture her again, nor allow Catra to hide out in her room to avoid facing the people she's hurt. Adora's kind but firm approach is part of what causes Catra to finally open up and commit to her Heel–Face Turn.
• Tranquil Fury: When Adora is really, truly pissed, she'll go about it in the most chillingly calm way possible.
• Tyke-Bomb: Was raised in the Horde and originally started out on their side, genuinely believing in their propaganda until she saw the truth.
• Unskilled, but Strong: She's the Princess of Power, not the Princess of Stealthy Solutions To Things. The vast gap in time between her and previous incarnations- as well as the complexity of She-Ra's powers- doesn't help.
• Unknowingly in Love: For most of the series, Adora is oblivious to her romantic feelings for her former childhood friend-turned-nemesis Catra until the series finale when the latter admits her own feelings for the former.
• Unknown Rival: She defected and became determined to stop Hordak after learning the Horde were the true villains and she had been lied to her entire life. Hordak doesn't care about her at all in spite of her stopping his armies as She-Ra, dismissing her as unremarkable and insignificant.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Adora was brought up to be the perfect soldier, is a sticker for the rules and doesn't know how to relax. She found a best friend in Catra, scrappy and rebellious to a fault, who has never listened to anyone in her life. Since Adora has been in love with her since their childhood, it's implied that these were the qualities that impressed her the most about Catra.
• Villainous Rescue: Season 4 reveals that Hordak did not kidnap her, but discovered her when he investigated an open portal. By taking baby Adora back to the Horde, he may have saved her life.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Even before she made it official with Catra, Adora was very protective over her. Season 5 demonstrates this trait the most, as she was able to become She-Ra as a result of her extreme hatred over Horde Prime for brainwashing and almost killing Catra. She later denounces Shadow Weaver when the latter causes Catra to leave the group temporarily.
• Virtuous Character Copy: To Carrero's other voice role Princess Elena. Both are protective princesses who use their magical powers to save the world from evil. They also feel betrayed by the ones they loved (Catra and Esteban). However, Adora is a honorary princess who is raised in the evil Horde while Elena is born-royality in her kingdom. Elena has loving parents before their death at her teens while Adora is a orphaned child solider from birth. And while Elena isn't willing to let those who wronged her go that easily, Adora never let her bitterness get the better of her, even to those she views Beyond Redemption. Adora's also willing to give others a second chance and compassion once they learned their mistakes while Elena takes a harder time to learn forgiveness to those that hurt her.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Anytime Adora and Catra are on the same side or in a situation they are not expressly enemies, like in Season One episode 11, they tend to act like this, teasing each other, calling each other names and play wrestling. In season 5 this is even more evident as their usual competitiveness and horse play is tinges with less then subtle Ship Tease.
• In Vino Veritas: Downplayed, but a Season 2 episode where Adora gets "drunk" off corrupted First Ones tech results in her acting much more loopy and silly. When Catra is brought up, Adora remarks that "Catra is mean!" Keep in mind that up to this point, Adora has spent most of the series trying to reason with Catra. This little exchange reveals that Adora is not quite blind to the latter's faults, while other characters like Scorpia are in denial about it.
• We Used to Be Friends: The foundation of her complex relationship with Catra — they were the closest of friends in the Horde, but when Adora joined the Rebellion, she and Catra became enemies, and their rivalry just got more and more bitter as the fighting kept going.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: According to Word of God Adora has been in love with Catra just as long as Catra has been in love with her. Unlike Catra however, who was aware of her feelings but thought that Adora would never want her, Adora was taught that wanting anything for herself was selfish and so suppressed her feelings. It doesn't help that, for most of the series, Adora and Catra have been at each others throats and so she couldn't exactly act on her feelings. It's not until Catra's Heel–Face Turn that Adora realizes that she is in love with Catra and after a mutual Love Confession the two finally become a couple.

• Wrecked Weapon: She destroys the Sword of Protection in the Season 4 finale so she can't be used to channel the power of the Heart of Etheria. This leaves her with no way to transform, but Madam Razz hinted earlier in the season that the She-Ra didn't necessarily need the sword. The Runestone itself however, remains intact.

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