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

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Hordak, Leader of the Horde

^{Click here to see Hordak without his armor}

Voiced by: Keston John (English)^{additional voice actors}Humberto Solórzano (Latin American Spanish), Hayato Fujii (Japanese)

"I am not your "brother!" You made me in your image, but I am more than that. I gave myself a name; I made a life of my own, I made... a friend. I am Hordak, and I defy your will!"

Hordak is the commanding, imposing leader of the Horde. Bent on world domination, he is dangerously powerful and has a brilliant, technological mind with a pragmatic streak that makes him more threatening still.

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A-B

• Abusive Dad: Horde Prime takes this trope up to eleven. 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 Mind Rape that concludes with a mind-wipe. Luckily, the effect isn't permanent, and he turns on his progenitor in spectacular way.
• Achilles' Heel: Hordak has three.
  • After Entrapta equips him with a new cybernetic exoskeleton, the First Ones crystal powering the exoskeleton becomes a major weak point. Catra defeats Hordak by pouncing on him and ripping the crystal out of his exoskeleton in the first and last episodes of Season 4. Hordak falls on his hands and knees and can barely move or breathe as a result.
  • His connection to Horde Prime means that Prime can telepathically link with him and mind-wipe him.
  • Like his clone brethren, Hordak has a vulnerable port on the back of his neck. An opponent can render him unconscious by striking or digging fingers into this port.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: 1980s Hordak was Faux Affably Evil at best, a Generic Doomsday Villain at worst, his relationship with Horde Prime being somewhere between completely business-related and Nepotism. Here, Horde Prime was his genetic progenitor who sent him on an Uriah Gambit when he discovered that he was defective, seeing him as nothing more than a Red Shirt. The whole reason why Hordak created the Horde on Etheria was all just a desperate attempt to regain Horde Prime's approval, and his low tolerance for failure (especially his own) is built on his insecurities of being a defect.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Zig-zagged. He's taller, leaner, wears more tasteful armor, and has a much more pleasant voice than his 1980s iteration. Also, he's much easier on the eyes than the hideous Hordak of the 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe reboot. He also has human-like feet in the reboot, in contrast to the original Hordak's webbed feet and 2002 Hordak's bird-like feet. However, earlier iterations of Hordak looked healthy and athletic, while this Hordak is thin and sickly underneath his armor.
• Adaptational Intelligence: His 1980s incarnation was a boorish idiot. This Hordak is highly intelligent and proficient in various sciences, as well as being a competent leader capable of effectively evaluating and using the people under him.
• Adaptational Modesty: The 1980s version of Hordak had bare arms and legs. In the 2018 reboot, Hordak's armor covers much more of his body. Then again, this is justified by the fact that he has a sickly body, and the armor is to hide his emaciated appearance resulting from his illness.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Not by much (he is still a mass murderer and paranoiac after all), but he is noticeably pretty cordial and pragmatic. This is in contrast to his original portrayal, who was nothing short of an idiot, and several other adaptations where he is straight up a monster.
  • In particular, this version of him noticeably seems to respect and care about Entrapta.
  • In the 1980s version, Hordak and his minions engaged in slavery. In the 2018 reboot, Hordak does not keep slaves. Instead, the Horde seems primarily composed of willing volunteers (like Shadow Weaver and the Scorpia) and Child Soldiers who were raised into loyalty.
  • Also, while the 1980s Hordak was a simple Bad Boss, this version is more pragmatic, willing to recognize and reward competence on the part of his underlings even if he's still quick to punish failure.
• Adaptational Sympathy: He's still an Evil Overlord who created a warmongering empire that recycles the orphans it creates into Child Soldiers, and wants to link up with an even larger force to secure his victory, but he's also a victim of abuse and brainwashing who allows those same children individuality and liberties that he never enjoyed. Further, his care for Entrapta ultimately causes him to turn on Horde Prime in the finale and he's last seen (somewhat awkwardly) among the heroes, celebrating their victory. This version of Hordak is the first and so far only one to even entertain the idea of a Heel–Face Turn.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the original series, Hordak had shapeshifting abilities. This incarnation doesn't have any innate powers, and loses all the fights in which he finds himself.
• Adaptation Personality Change: The 1980s Hordak was loud, boorish, quick to punish underlings, and had an annoying snort-laugh. This Hordak is articulate, pragmatic, humorless, and coldly efficient. He also has hopes, insecurities, and a capacity for love that 1980s Hordak lacked.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In the 1980s cartoon, Entrapta was one of Hordak's minions, and a fairly minor one at that. In the reboot, she's his collaborator on technology-related projects, his friend, and eventually his love interest.
  • In the original cartoon, Hordak raised Adora as his daughter and thought highly of her before her defection. In the reboot, Shadow Weaver was Adora's primary caregiver, as Hordak dismissed her as unimportant the moment she showed up. The finale, however, does imply that Hordak still feels a degree of care and love for Adora however, especially given that he remembers rescuing her when she was pulled into Etheria and he found her alone in the fields.
• All for Nothing: All his goals and years of loyal service end up being for nothing when Horde Prime appears. Rather than receiving praise, Horde Prime mocks his attempts at forming an empire on Etheria, mind-wipes him, and sends him off to be "reconditioned".
• Androcles' Lion: Hordak rescued Adora when he found her in a field as a baby. At the end of "Heart, Part 2", She-Ra saves Hordak by exorcising Horde Prime's consciousness from his body.
• Arm Cannon: In Season 4, Hordak wages war with an energy cannon mounted on his arm. The new arm cannon is a call-back to his original 1980s design.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The First Ones crystal in his cybernetic exoskeleton controls its life support functions. When Catra tears it out of his exoskeleton, Hordak is at her mercy.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: His skin is mostly blue, aside from his white face and arms and dark blue scarification/vitiligo.
• Animal Motif: Bats. The Horde symbol is a stylized bat. Hordak himself has long, bat-like ears and a bat-like nose, and the black make-up around his eyes is shaped like bat wings. His sidekick Imp has bat wings, and is a failed clone of Hordak himself.
• Artificial Family Member: Revealed to actually be a clone of Horde Prime who he refers to as "brother".
• Artificial Human: He is one of Horde Prime's many cybernetic clones.
• Badass Boast: He utters an epic one before hurling Horde Prime off a platform in "Heart, Part 2.
  Hordak: I am not your "brother". You made me in your image, but I am more than that. I gave myself a name. I made a life of my own. I made... a friend. I am Hordak, and I defy your will!
• Bat People: This interpretation of the character banks on having bat-like physiology, including long ears and vampiric facial traits. The black makeup around his eyes is also shaped like bat wings. His clone Imp and the cloned fetuses in his lab also have bat wings.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: All the scheming he did in four seasons were to get back in Horde Prime's good graces. What he got in return is Prime reducing him into a mindless, obedient clone guardsman.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: He warms up to Entrapta when she treats him with the same cheery friendliness she gives everyone else, and says that she thinks being "defective" isn't just okay, but a good thing, since uniqueness is something to celebrate. Hordak, who has spent his whole life trying to prove he isn't a failure, is genuinely touched.
• Being Evil Sucks: As the leader of the Horde, Hordak must cultivate a ruthless, stoic, and unapproachable exterior and desperately hide his physical illness and emotional vulnerabilities. Living among ruthless minions who are constantly jockeying for power results in Hordak being lied to, manipulated, and separated from the woman he loves. It's implied that what he really longs for is not power, but self-worth and love.
• Beneath the Mask: In public, Hordak is a stoic, intimidating leader. Underneath the mask, he struggles with feelings of inadequacy as a flawed clone of Horde Prime, desperately wants to prove his worth to his "brother", and is deeply angry at setbacks in his efforts to fix his failing health and open a portal to the outside universe. Moreover, underneath his cold, callous exterior, he's capable of feeling warmth for others, specifically Entrapta.
• Benevolent Boss: Ultimately, zigzagged with Bad Boss. He rewards success and punishes disobedience and dishonesty in almost equal measure.
  • In Season 1, despite being the Big Bad and the leader of the Horde, upon his discovery of Catra and Entrapta's plan to hack to the planet, he isn't upset despite them not telling him and even grants them his blessing to use Shadow Weaver's Runestone. Later, he promotes Catra to be The Dragon despite her attack on Bright Moon failing, because of everything else she's accomplished for the Horde up to that point. Even Entrapta rather rudely talking back to him, which horrifies Catra, results in Hordak stoically taking her objection into consideration as it was a fair point. In general, he rewards genuine effort and competence with promotion, patches over shaky loyalty with favoritism, punishes complacent attitudes and Bad Boss behavior with demotion, and only berates his minions when they refuse to acknowledge their mistakes. He also doesn't try to micromanage his subordinates, giving them more latitude to act and even officially authorizing their actions if those actions benefit the Horde.
  • Throughout Season 2, he's needlessly rude to Catra and shows overt favoritism to Entrapta. He almost has Catra sentenced to death (before he changes his mind and sends her on a suicide mission instead) at the start of Season 3 despite all the victories she won for him, just for losing Shadow Weaver and lying about it. He also openly admits he sees the Horde as mere tools to discard the second they're no longer useful to him. The second season finale plays with it, however. Hordak discreetly gives Catra an opportunity to confess that Shadow Weaver escaped, implicitly allowing her to redeem herself in his eyes, and only punishes her when she lies to his face about it.
  • Essentially, he's benevolent unless the individual in question is disloyal, disobeys direct orders, or lies to him. And Bad Boss behavior aside, it's more opportunity than most Evil Overlords give their minions.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do not disturb him when he's in his lab, and do not waste his time with trivial matters.
  • Definitely do not lie to him as Catra found out the hard way, multiple times.
  • Do not call him a failure or imply that he will fail at his goals.
  • Do not harm Entrapta, or Hordak will put the "berserk" in "berserk button", as he did in "Destiny, Part 1" and "Destiny, Part 2". When ordered to kill Entrapta in "Heart, Part 2", he fires his arm cannon at Horde Prime, grabs Horde Prime by the face, and hurls him off a ledge.
• Big Bad: Leader of the Horde and She-Ra's arch-nemesis. Despite this, the narrative places a larger focus on Catra, and her tumultuous and embittered relationship with Adora. And the third season reveals he has a master of his own; Horde Prime. And then he's usurped from this position by Horde Prime himself.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Catra forces Hordak into a partnership in season four, though this falls apart once he learns she lied about Entrapta and Horde Prime arrives.
• Big Bad Wannabe: For the ruthless conqueror he believes himself to be, Hordak was nothing more than a desperate try-hard for his emperor, who shows him that he has no equal.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: As amazing as Etheria's genetic diversity can be, Hordak takes the cake by being an alien himself. He was unaffected by the atmosphere modification field that suffocated Catra, suggesting that his respiratory system is very different from those of Etheria's native population. Also, underneath his armor, his forearms have sizeable holes in them^noteSpecifically, the holes run between where a human's radius and ulna bones would be.
• Body Horror:
  • While a genius scientist and a capable warrior as a result of his Powered Armor, underneath his body is scarred and twisted, with his arms having gaping holes in-between the bones. His armor exists to hold his disintegrating flesh together. This is because he's a flawed clone of Horde Prime. His body is healed after reconditioning in Season 5.
  • In "Heart, Part 2", when She-Ra exorcises Horde Prime's spirit from Hordak's body, it looks like a black mass pouring out of Hordak's back.
• Born as an Adult: A flashback shows multiple adult Horde Prime clones gestating in vats, suggesting that Hordak underwent age acceleration during his gestation.
• Break the Haughty: After the first two seasons set him up as an arrogant tyrant who inspired fear in his minions, the events of Seasons 3 and 4 are breaking him. Catra's lie about Entrapta's supposed betrayal left him emotionally devastated, and her physical victory over him left him humiliated. At the end of Season 4, Horde Prime's ingratitude and cruelty pushes Hordak over the Despair Event Horizon, right before Horde Prime subjects him to a mind-wipe.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: With Entrapta. She constantly encourages him to see the imperfection he loathes as beautiful.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Downplayed. He barely remembers finding baby Adora near the portal and taking her back to the Fright Zone, mostly because he regarded her as a poor consolation prize to his real goal, which was to contact Horde Prime. He passed her off to be raised with the rest of the orphans in the Horde since he didn't consider her worth any further thought.
  • Subverted in the series finale, when Hordak remembers the moment he saved baby Adora. The scene is depicted tenderly, with Hordak gently cradling Adora with an expression of both surprise and tranquility on his face.
  Hordak: I remember you.

C-D

• The Chain of Harm: He's a ruthless conqueror who treats his underlings like tools to discard the moment they're no longer useful to him. He himself is a defective clone of a ruthless galactic conqueror who cast him out when he started showing health problems.
• Character Catchphrase: His catchphrase is "Get...OUT!!!", which is unique to him.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first two seasons, Hordak is extremely perceptive and displays a high level of social intelligence and competence, between backing the more competent Catra over Shadow Weaver, allowing Entrapta's projects to continue the moment he finds out about them, putting Catra through a Secret Test of Character and even managing a bit of manipulation in sending Catra on a suicide mission while appeasing Entrapta's merciful tendencies in the process. Come the latter half of Season 3, Hordak's Horrible Judge of Character tendencies truly develop, his insecurities are on full display, and he's depicted as socially awkward and struggles to communicate with others, in addition to a greater emphasis on his softer side and his rough tendencies. While there's a clear shift in his depiction, it's a smooth alteration, and this is how he is depicted for the remainder of the series. Justified since we are seeing him out of his Evil Overlord comfort zone and in a more social context while he is struggling with his feelings for Entrapta.
• Child Hater: He takes in orphans to be raised as his soldiers, but he finds babies annoying and prefers to not even be in the same room as them. Subverted in "Heart, Part 2", which briefly flashes back to the moment in which he rescued baby Adora. He's holding her tenderly with a surprised but gentle expression on his face.
• Clone Angst: The impetus for his attempted take-over of Etheria. He is a clone of Horde Prime, and was once Prime's top general until Hordak's physical degeneration started setting in. Horde Prime despising weakness, Hordak was cast down from his position and sent to the front lines to die; except some sort of portal accident occurred, sending him to Etheria. He began his crusade to conquer the planet to show his "Brother" that he is not a defect, and that he is worth something.
• Clones Are People, Too: He's a defective clone of Horde Prime, like the other soldiers in Horde Prime's military. However, Hordak is also a complex individual in his own right, with hopes and insecurities of his own. Even after being mind-wiped, his memories of Entrapta resurface, allowing him to regain his self-determination and assert his independence from Horde Prime.
• Clone Degeneration: His body is breaking down when he's outside of his armor. Entrapta beefs it up for him, but that only helps so much. In Season 5, reconditioning restores his body to a healthy state.
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • In Season 2, he tests an atmospheric modification device on Catra when she displeases him. The device slowly and painfully suffocates her.
  • In Season 3, it's heavily implied that he was about to subject Catra to this, until Entrapta interceded on her behalf.
  • In the first episode of Season 4, he's on the receiving end. Catra rips the First Ones crystal out of his cybernetic exoskeleton, which shorts out its life support functions. Hordak falls to his hands and knees, struggling to breathe and even move. Catra then coerces him into making her co-ruler of the Horde.
  • In what is possibly the most chilling scene in the series, Hordak undergoes an agonizing "baptism" in "Corridors", meant to erase his re-emerging memories. Hordak stands in a pool of clone life force crackling with electricity, screaming in agony as his fellow clones chant "CAST OUT THE SHADOWS!" and "ALL BEINGS MUST SUFFER TO BECOME PURE!").
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In his flashback/story to Entrapta when he reveals he is a clone of Horde Prime, Hordak is shown shadowed in red as opposed to Horde Prime's green, helping distinguish the two.
  • At the end of Season 4, Hordak's eyes turn from red to green while Horde Prime is touching him, indicating that Horde Prime is violating his mind.
• The Comically Serious:
  Hordak: I have never been 'in a tizzy'.
• Commonality Connection: Besides their intellectual affinities, Entrapta and Hordak bond over their rejection trauma. Hordak was sent to die in the front lines by Horde Prime because of his degeneration caused by a genetic flaw. Entrapta was convinced by Catra that the princesses left her to die in the Fright Zone which she finds believable given that she always had trouble interacting with others. Whether these feeling were well founded were inconsequential to the fact that Hordak reached out to assure Entrapta that she was worthwhile, which began their friendship.
• The Conqueror: He's determined to conquer all of Etheria. In Season 4, he takes an active role in doing so by arming himself with an Arm Cannon and leading troops on the battlefield.
  Hordak: With nothing but a broken ship, I built an empire.
• The Coup: Zig-zagged. At the start of Season 4, Catra dominates him by removing the First One's crystal from his cybernetic armor, but she does not depose him. Instead, she forces him to make her co-ruler of the Horde, and they lead together in Season 4.
• Create Your Own Villain: Hordak's cruelty and ingratitude toward Catra fueled her hatred of him, driving her to attack him and dominate him in Season 4.
• Creative Sterility: In addition to an inability to adapt to new situations well, which may be seen as indicative of him being a clone that was never meant to be independent. While definitely intelligent, Hordak lacks the ability to make use of his knowledge in any way that hasn't already been done. This is a serious hindrance for him, especially given his views of failure, and a prime reason he has been unable to achieve his goals on his own. While the his superior technology and personal power allowed the Horde to establish a foothold on Etheria, it was the work of Shadow Weaver and later Catra that made them a conquering threat. Similarly, it was only after the much more creative and adaptable Entrapta started working with him that his portal experiments began to bear fruit. Even the concept of making an empire was cribbed from Horde Prime. Interestingly, exposure to Entrapta seemed to have begun reversing this, as a flash of uncharacteristic insight allowed him to create the devastating arm cannon he wields in Season 4. Unfortunately the trait still bites him hard as Catra is able to defeat him by exploiting the exact same weakness in his powered armor as she did before because he apparently never thought to fix it.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Hordak's eyes are black-lidded and black-rimmed. Ray Geiger confirmed that it is eye makeup which makes sense, as the black coloration is absent from Horde Prime and the other clones. Hordak lacks the makeup altogether in Season 5.
• Crippling Overspecialization: In combat, Hordak relies on long-range attacks such as hurling objects and firing his arm cannon. He's a powerhouse when attacking opponents from a distance, or besieging large stationary targets such as the Sea Elf Village and the Salineas Sea Gate. However, his lack of agility puts him at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat, allowing the much more maneuverable Catra to subdue him twice in Season 4.
• Crush Filter: He sees Entrapta glowing when looking at her smile during Season 3.
• Cultural Posturing: He's an alien who's traveled to many different planets, and quite resolutely states that Etheria is his least favorite, a cultural and technological backwater that he holds in absolute contempt.
• Cyborg:
  • In Season 2, when Hordak is in a state of undress, viewers see that he has mechanical ports in his arms and torso so that his armor can interface with his body. Later, Entrapta creates a cybernetic exoskeleton for him that interfaces with his tissue.
  • "Destiny, Part 2" reveals that the mechanical openings in Hordak's body aren't just so that he can interface with cybernetic armor. They also function as USB ports into which Horde Prime can plug his cable "dreadlocks" and interface with him.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was one of many identical clones in Horde Prime's army, created to be a cog in an intergalactic war machine. Since clones emerge in adult form, he was literally deprived of a childhood. As Horde Prime's chief general, he was an active participant in the conquest of entire galaxies. When he exhibited symptoms of a medical problem, his "brother" sent him to die on the front lines of battle instead of helping him.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: A scene showing him without his armor reveals his body to be falling apart underneath. This combined with his off-handed remark about Etheria's atmosphere being inadequate seems to indicate he's not doing well, mostly due to being a failed clone.
• Darkest Hour: At the end of Season 4, everything Hordak ever loved or worked for has been taken away. He's a physical mess. He never reunited with Entrapta, and doesn't even know if she is alive or dead. The Etherian Horde is in shambles. Horde Prime sneers at Hordak's efforts to conquer Etheria, refusing to give Hordak the affirmation he sought for decades. Finally, after subjecting Hordak to Mind Rape, Horde Prime mind-wipes him.
• Death by Irony: Figuratively. Hordak is "killed" not by his enemies, usurpers, or his illness, but by the very man in whose name he conquered Etheria. When Horde Prime mind-wipes him, his personality is seemingly destroyed. He regains his memories when the LUVD crystal helps him remember his love for Entrapta
• Death of Personality: Season 4 ends with Hordak having his memory erased by his brother, and he’s sent to be reconditioned. Subverted in Season 5, when he slowly regains memories of Entrapta, then of everything.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Evil Overlord archetype. The first two seasons set up Hordak as a typical tyrant and conqueror, but subsequent seasons explore his hidden depths and tragic motivations. See Being Evil Sucks above.
• Defecting for Love:
  • Horde Prime's dialogue in "Destiny, Part 2" suggests that Hordak came within a hair's breadth of abandoning the intergalactic Horde (if not all of his conquests) out of love Entrapta. While forcibly probing Hordak's mind, Horde Prime remarks that "There was even a time you wished I would not come for you, is that so?" while touching the opening in Hordak's armor for Entrapta's crystal.
  • In "Heart, Part 2", he attacks Horde Prime rather than carry out an order to kill Entrapta.
• Defrosting Ice King: For the first season of the show, Hordak is a Generic Doomsday Villain who's only concern is conquest of Etheria, perfectly willing to discard subordinates who defect, fail him or act on agendas that conflict with his own. After meeting Entrapta however, he eventually begins to soften, the series ending with him rebelling against Horde Prime and retiring his villainous ways for her sake.
• Degraded Boss: In the fifth season, he goes from being an Overlord to being a generic clone.
• Demonic Possession: In the finale, after he tosses Horde Prime off a ledge, Horde Prime's consciousness takes over his body. Adora exorcises Horde Prime's spirit, saving Hordak.
• Despair Event Horizon: He's in this state at the end of Season 4, after learning that Entrapta was sent to Beast Island, watching Catra drive the Horde into the ground, and being humiliated by Horde Prime after decades of work to win his respect.
• Determinator:
  • Hordak does not let adversity stand in his way. After being stranded on Etheria with no immediate way to contact the Horde Prime fleet, he built a technologically advanced military force and conquered large swaths of land while secretly suffering from an illness in a matter of years.
  • Hordak has searched tirelessly for ways to cure or delay his physical breakdown. He's tried everything from cultivating cloned bodies to creating armor that holds his ailing body together.
  • After learning that Catra exiled Entrapta to Beast Island, Hordak attacks Catra. She performs several combat actions that should have stopped Hordak dead in his tracks, but he just keeps coming.
• Didn't Think This Through: Even though he knows exactly what kind of man Horde Prime is and how he treats his clones, Hordak contacts Prime anyway, thinking he will receive affirmation. He is so very wrong.
• Disability Superpower: Hordak was banished from the Galactic Horde because his genetic code was flawed, causing his body to deteriorate and relying on a mechanical suit to remain functioning. In Season 5 however, it is revealed that this flaw in his biology makes him more resistant to the Hive Mind, Horde Prime's control over him gradually eroding even after Prime has him brainwashed twice.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Hordak in this continuity suffers from a debilitating illness that resulted from his cloning error, and it causes him to be reliant on tech.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Torturing Catra for lying to him about Shadow Weaver's escape was excessive.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Hordak's struggle with his cloning flaw can be seen as an allegory for chronic illness that can be managed but not cured.
  • Hordak getting cast out by his progenitor, being called an "abomination" by said progenitor, and taking a new name for himself codes well to a transgender youth being kicked out by a transphobic parent.
  • After Catra lies to Hordak about Entrapta betraying him, he broods amidst the wreckage of their portal machine and removes Entrapta's belongings from the Fright Zone. His behavior is less like that of a warlord whose minion betrayed him and more like that of a jilted boyfriend going through a bad break-up.
  • The end of Season 4 gives viewers the full, horrific picture of Hordak's old life under Horde Prime, including violence, mental violation, devaluation, and suppression of individuality. Hordak is akin to a child suffering horrific abuse from a parent, but still desperately seeking that parent's affirmation.
  • In keeping with the show's exploration of abuse, the Mind Rape scene in "Destiny, Part 2" can be interpreted as an allegory for sexual abuse. The way Horde Prime forcibly enters Hordak's mind involves both mental and physical violation. Horde Prime plugs his cables/"hair" into Hordak's cybernetic interface. As Hordak looks on with a terrified expression, Prime gropes Hordak's face, runs his hand over Hordak's armor, and violently overrides Hordak's mind.
  • Horde Prime's appearances in "Destiny, Part 2" and Season 5 contain ample religious horror, making Hordak's plight similar to that of a cult survivor.
  • The "baptism" scene in Season 5 is reminiscent of an LGBTQ person undergoing conversion therapy or the machinations of an "ex-gay" ministry. Much like conversion therapy, it doesn't work.
• The Dog Bites Back: All of Horde Prime's abuse, culminating in trying to make him kill the woman he loves, inspires Hordak to snap out of his control and fight back against his 'brother,' even killing his current body.
• The Dreaded: Most are scared of his nature. Even Catra is shaken up when she was in his presence and Shadow Weaver fears having to face off against him. Deconstructed in future seasons, when Catra and Horde Prime take advantage Hordak's physical and psychological vulnerabilities.
• The Dragon: He was once the Top General of his emperor Horde Prime, whom he was a clone of, but his defect proved to be a liability that the emperor cast him out.
• invokedDye Hard: His dark blue hair is dyed. Its natural color is white, as seen in comparison to Horde Prime's other clones.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He's clearly bothered by the fact that Horde Prime cast him out as a defective clone despite his successes and has been trying to win his "brother's" respect ever since. In Season 4, he ultimately fails to win Horde Prime's respect, in spite of all his efforts.

E-N

• Early-Installment Weirdness: When Hordak makes his first on-screen appearance in "Razz", viewers can hear faint whirring and clanking sounds when he walks, hinting at his cyborg status. In later episodes, his body does not make mechanical noises when he moves.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes a while, but in the end, he is reunited with the woman he loves, comes to terms with who is, and is allowed to live out the rest of his days in peace, albeit, according to ND Stevenson, doing community service to atone for the numerous crimes he committed in his war on Etheria.
• Easily Forgiven: Played with. We don't get to see if Etheria or the Princesses as a whole forgive him, but he's allowed to participate in the ending celebration. Mermista even points this out.
  Mermista: So are we all just like... okay with this?
• Emperor Scientist: He's fairly hands off in running the Horde, preferring to instead conduct major experiments in his sanctum.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Entrapta and Imp both hold some affection for him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • He grows genuinely fond of Entrapta. When Catra lies to him that Entrapta let the princesses into his base, he looks hurt and at the end of Season 3, when he's forced to flee the scene with Catra after the portal fails, he looks solemnly at the special First Ones crystal Entrapta added to his suit, very clearly still thinking about her and her "betrayal". When he learns she did not in fact betray him and was instead betrayed by Catra, he snaps, visibly crying and turning his arm cannon on Catra despite the significant damage this causes to his own sanctum.
  • He shows affection to Imp and allows the creature to enter his sanctum at its whim.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Upon realizing that opening his portal risks destroying Etheria, Catra immediately decides she must stop Entrapta from telling Hordak that it'll do so. Hordak is an evil conqueror, but he's not omnicidal and he would certainly stop the project if he knew its true effects.
  • Jacob Tobia (Double Trouble's VA) has jokingly said that "If Hordak, the most evil character in all of Etheria — a true scoundrel — can effortlessly use gender-neutral pronouns, then I think that you can do it too."
  • He took baby Adora with him back to the Horde instead of leaving her where he found her.
  • Hordak acknowledged Entrapta's contributions to the Horde, defended Entrapta's right to "tinker" with the Black Garnet when Shadow Weaver complained, and immediately sought to avenge her when he learned about Catra's lie in "Destiny, Part 1". He also treated Entrapta with more respect than the princesses did, as they were condescending to her in Season 1 AND initially after her return to the Rebellion in Season 5. To their credit, she didn't seem to have any commitment to their cause.
• Everyone Can See It: It's obvious to multiple characters that Hordak and Entrapta have a close connection. In Season 3, Catra lies to Hordak about Entrapta's supposed "betrayal" partially because she knows how much he cares for Entrapta. In Season 4, Imp repeats Entrapta's name over and over in order to irritate Hordak. When Scorpia is trying to "think like Entrapta", she mentions Hordak as one of things she'd be constantly thinking about. Double Trouble deduces that Hordak cares about Entrapta and realizes that the revelation about Catra's betrayal of Entrapta would send him over the edge.
• Evil Counterpart: To Queen Angella of Bright Moon. Both are reasonable authority figures but on opposite ends of the spectrum. Both Angella and Hordak are measured in their military strategy, in contrast to the more impulsive and bold Glimmer and Catra in Season 4. Both direct troops from their bases of operations rather than lead troops on the battlefield (at least until Season 4, when Hordak takes to the battlefield). While Angella is greatly concerned for her daughter and second in command, Hordak doesn't particularly care that Adora, The Paragon of the Horde, has deserted, and merely promotes Catra to take her place, and he's likewise willing to replace his second in command if they prove disloyal. Also, while Angella is tied directly to the lifecycle of Etheria and immortal, Hordak does not take well to the atmosphere and it's implied that it might be poisoning him.
• Evil Cripple: Hordak's body is deteriorating and his cybernetic combat suit is the only thing keeping it from getting worse. Without it, he can hardly stand up straight for a minute. His condition doesn't stop him from being an evil warlord on Etheria and a destructive presence when equipped with his exoskeleton and arm cannon.
• Evil Overlord: Allegedly. The supreme leader of the Horde, usually focusing much more on his scientific works and letting his generals take over the world.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: The black coloration around his eyes is makeup.
• Expendable Clone: He's one to Horde Prime; one of many clones, and only useful as long as he didn't have a defect, as Horde Prime views anything imperfect as disposable.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: His hair gains a more relaxed, tousled appearance after he softens up around Entrapta. Once Horde Prime mindwipes him and reduces him to a mere drone, his hair returns to the swept back style that he started the show with; but in the Season 5 finale when he fully turns against Prime his hair becomes tousled again.
• Expressive Ears: Hordak has long, bat-like ears. His ears point downward during moments of physical pain (such as when Entrapa places the new exoskeleton armor on his body), sorrow (such as when Hordak incorrectly believes that Entrapta betrayed him), embarrassment (such as when Imp teases him by repeating Entrapta's name), and abject terror (such as when Hordak realizes something has gone horribly wrong with his portal, when Horde Prime invades his mind, and when he undergoes "baptism" in Season 5). Notice a pattern?
• Eye Color Change: In "Destiny, Part 2", his eyes change from red to green when Horde Prime mind-wiped him. When he undergoes a second mind-wipe in the form of "baptism" in clone life force, his eyes turn white, but revert to green later.
• Facial Markings: He has dark lines on his cheeks and chin.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Hordak's goal of earning Horde Prime's respect and being treated as an equal was doomed from the start. Even if he suceeded in conquering Etheria, his actions demonstrated the capacity for independence, something Horde Prime doesn't tolerate in his clones. Likewise he wanted his creator to see him as an equal, and Horde Prime sees nobody was an equal, least of all his own creations.
• Fake Muscles: Hordak's armor creates the impression that he's muscular, but underneath the armor, he's lanky. His condition has atrophied the muscles in his shoulders and arms.
• Fangs Are Evil: Maintains his original incarnation's red teeth.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Tunnel vision. Hordak is so fixated on projects of immediate importance to him that he overlooks dangerous developments right under his nose. Notably, he failed to grasp the full implications of She-Ra's re-emergence, the power contained in her sword, or her ability to unite the Princess Alliance. He pays dearly for his tunnel vision at the end of Season 3, when the Princess Alliance storms the Fright Zone and nearly sabotages his portal. His fixation on personal projects (and decision to delegate conquest to his subordinates) may also explain why he hasn't conquered all of Etheria after decades of war. If a seasoned tactician such as Hordak were leading from the front, the planet might have been conquered quickly. In Seasons 3 and 4, he's so focused on the portal project and later, Entrapta's "betrayal" that he doesn't recognize the danger of Catra's increasingly insubordinate behavior, and is blindsided when she attacks him.
  • Arrogance. Hordak's arrogant attitude toward, and outright abuse of subordinates such as Catra and Shadow Weaver contributes to their disaffection, which has disastrous consequences for him. His arrogance toward the "inconsequential" Adora/She-Ra blinds him to the real threat she poses to the Horde.
  • Lack of Self-Worth. Hordak desperately wants to believe that he is "not a defect", that he is "worth something". Unfortunately, he believes that the only way to have self-worth is to earn Horde Prime's approval. He spends decades conquering Etheria and sends a message to Prime through an interdimensional portal so that he can earn his progenitor's respect. Unfortunately, Prime has no respect for him, and the consequences of Prime's arrival are dire for Hordak, Etheria, and the universe. This also ties into one of the reasons why he was so quick to believe Catra when she said that Entrapta betrayed him, he doesn't believe that he deserves friendship.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: Seemingly. At the end of Season 4, Horde Prime performs a mind-wipe on him and sends him off to be "reconditioned". In Season 5, he's subjected to a second mind-wipe in the form of "baptism" in a pool of clone life force. He gets better.
• Foil: To Horde Prime.
  • 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.
  • Horde Prime insists on uniformity in his clones, but everything about Hordak deviates from their uniformity. Hordak is also much more accepting of individual differences among Etherian Horde soldiers.
  • As a leader, Hordak is introverted and aloof, but also permissive toward his soldiers so long as they achieve their objectives, while Horde Prime is superficially charming but pathologically domineering with his subordinates.
  • Like his soldiers, Hordak has an austere lifestyle, in contrast to Horde Prime's life of luxury. For example, Horde Prime serves a sumptuous feast to Glimmer and Catra in one scene, and is shown in another scene in a trophy room with beautiful plants and mounted animal heads on the wall.
  • 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. 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.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In Season 4, Hordak tells Catra that he wants to show Horde Prime what he's capable of. In context, he wants to prove himself worthy to Horde Prime by conquering Etheria, but "showing someone what you're capable of" can also mean intimidating them through violence. At the end of Season 5, Hordak attacks Horde Prime and shows him exactly what he's capable of.
  • At the end of "Destiny, Part 2", Horde Prime promises Hordak that he will be "reborn", right before mind-wiping the clone. In Season 5, Hordak regains his lost memories and is reborn as a more confident man.
  • The Season 1 title card (posted on the main page) shows Hordak with white pupils, which he does not normally have. In Season 5, when Horde Prime speaks through a clone or Etherian, white pupils appear in their eyes. After Hordak kills Horde Prime's physical body, Horde Prime possesses him.
• Freudian Excuse: He's a failed clone of Emperor Horde Prime, sent to die in battle for being "worthless". Everything he does is to prove his brother made a mistake.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: After being discarded by Horde Prime, Hordak was nothing more than a lone soldier with a wrecked ship on a planet beyond the Horde's reach, his body slowly degenerating due to flaws in his genes and a mind unused to independence from the Horde's Hive Mind. By the time the series starts, he had conquered the Kingdom of the Scorpion People, he had raised an army (almost literally) and founded an empire that could only be fought back when the Princess Alliance reformed with She-Ra at the helm.
• Frontline General: He directs troops on the battlefield in Season 4, personally leading the siege of Salineas and nearby villages.
• Genius Bruiser: He wears Powered Armor that gives him Super-Strength and is described as having a "brilliant, technological mind". Season 2 shows he is a scientist dedicated to creating portals. Season 4 shows him developing new war technology and actively waging war on the battlefield, causing devastation with a powerful arm cannon and new robots.
• Grew a Spine: After a lifetime of fealty to Horde Prime, Hordak delivers a badass boast before killing Horde Prime's physical body in order to protect Entrapta.
• Guyliner: The black coloration around his eyes is makeup.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He's easily frustrated by technological failures. Entrapta calls him a drama queen for his tendency to tantrum at the first sign of struggle.
• Handicapped Badass: Hordak suffers from a medical condition that has weakened his body, necessitating his use of cybernetic armor until Season 5, when his body is healed during reconditioning. Season 4, in which Hordak wages war while armed with an arm cannon, reminds us that he is still far from harmless.
• Heel–Face Turn: His love for Entrapta ultimately redeems him, along with the realization that Horde Prime doesn't see him as worth being proud of. Hordak stands up for himself and kills Prime's host body the same way Prime attempted to kill Catra
• Held Gaze:
  • With Entrapta in "Huntara". They hold each other's gaze again when they meet near a Galactic Horde spire in "Failsafe".
  • With She-Ra at the end of "Heart, Part 2", after she exorcises Horde Prime's spirit from his body, and he remembers the moment he rescued her as a baby.
• Heroic Willpower: In "Heart, Part 2", his love for Entrapta and his own strong will allow him to shake off his clone programming and two mind wipes. He reclaims his name and identity before killing Horde Prime's physical body.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: He is only using the Horde for his own goals, but never bothers to tell anyone what those goals are. Catra is initially promoted because her actions coincided with his plans, but after that, her attempts to conquer Etheria do little to help him, so he constantly talks down to her.
• Hidden Depths: In early episodes he seems similar to the 1980's Card-Carrying Villain version. Later episodes touch more on his backstory and show that while he's by no means a good or nice person, he has both a sympathetic side and reasons for doing what he does. His persistent feelings for Entrapta, as well as his decision to rescue a baby Adora, show that he is capable of love and compassion.
• Hiding the Handicap: Hordak wears cybernetic armor that grants him strength, mobility, and the illusion of broad shoulders and muscular arms.
• High Collar of Doom: His first outfit includes one.
• His Own Worst Enemy: While not to the extent of his subordinate, Hordak is this. Hordak's main, secret desire is love, validation and approval. So, of course, Hordak creates a threatening image that drives everyone away from himself, becomes a ruthless, feared, brutal conqueror, and tends to be a Horrible Judge of Character whose singleminded devotion to a goal that won't bring him what he wants serves only to push him further from his true desire, and many of his failures are brought about because he doesn't believe he deserves love.
• Holding Hands: He and Entrapta hold hands when they secretly meet in "Failsafe". He shows her the LUVD crystal in his hand, and she places her hand in his.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • He believed Catra when she told him that Entrapta betrayed him, despite knowing that Catra cannot be trusted. He also treated her as a trustworthy second-in-command after she ripped the First Ones crystal out of his armor and sat on his throne in "Coronation". This is partially because of his Internalized Categorism, deep down he believes that he doesn't deserve friendship, so the idea of Entrapta "abandoning" him plays right into his insecurities.
  • He honestly believes that Horde Prime will affirm him after he conquers Etheria. "Destiny, Part 2" reveals that Horde Prime has nothing but contempt for Hordak, whom he calls an "abomination".
• Hostile Terraforming: Whatever he is, he has a problem with Etheria's atmosphere, and has created a machine that modifies it within a field. He uses it to torture Catra by making her suffocate while he stands next to her perfectly fine.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He collaborates with the much shorter Entrapta, the top of whose head only reaches the middle of his chest, though he’s actually much shorter. His armor adds to his height.
• Humiliation Conga: Season 4 takes a wrecking ball to everything Hordak has ever loved, worked for, and hoped for. He begins the season believing that Entrapta betrayed him. As the season progresses, he is violently usurped by Catra as the true leader of the Horde, the army he has spent decades constructing and leading. Catra and Double Trouble proceed to drive the Horde into the ground. He discovers that Catra sent Entrapta to Beast Island, where she may or may not even be alive. Enraged, he attacks Catra, but despite putting up a fierce fight, she defeats him. When he meets Horde Prime, he discovers that his decades of effort on Etheria meant to win his master's respect were all for nothing.
• Idiot Ball: In Season 4, he foolishly trusts Catra after she lied to him in the past and after she ripped the First Ones' crystal from his armor and sat on his throne. For a character shown to be highly intelligent, this was breathtakingly stupid on his part. See Horrible Judge of Character above.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: His first interaction with Entrapta has her not backing down to him yelling Get Out! at her and going about her observations nonchalantly.
• Immune to Mind Control: While not impervious to Horde Prime's influence, the flaws in his genetic code make his reintroduction into the Horde Hive Mind a temporary one. Even after he is put through a second brainwashing as an example to Catra, he eventually comes back to his senses and defies Horde Prime when he is ordered to kill Entrapta. This does not make him immune to Prime's Demonic Possession though.
• Internalized Categorism: Often states that underlings are tools, and those that aren't immediately useful are worthless and need to be thrown away. Turns out, Hordak was a 'defective clone' to a ruthless galactic conqueror who cast him out. Hordak is obsessed with conquering Etheria for his "brother" to prove he's not worthless.
  • This also ties into why he was so quick to believe that Entrapta betrayed him, he believes that he doesn't deserve friendship.
• Interspecies Romance: He begins a romance with Entrapta, and both are from different species.
• Irony:
  • Hordak hates being lied to, as demonstrated by his fury when Catra lies to him about Shadow Weaver in Season 2. This is the same man whose empire on Etheria is built on lies, from his propaganda about the Princesses, to his armor creating the illusion of musculature but hiding a sickly body. Most ironically of all, "Destiny, Part 2" reveals that he has been lying to himself this entire time.
  • Hordak designated Beast Island as an exile destination, and was prepared to send Shadow Weaver and Catra there as punishment for their mistakes. Catra exiles Entrapta to Beast Island, which wouldn't have been possible if Hordak hadn't designated the island as an exile site in the first place. The system he created to punish his enemies ended up consuming his friend.
  • Hordak has spent decades conquering Etheria in order to earn Horde Prime's affirmation. When the two men reunite, Hordak's attempt at conquest ends up angering Horde Prime instead of impressing him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In the first episode of Season 4, he berates Catra for activating the portal before it was ready and bringing down disaster. His tone was vicious, but he wasn't wrong.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A rare villainous version. Despite his coldness and capability for cruelty, he has a few moral principles and is surprisingly protective of those he cares about. He is also a Reasonable Authority Figure who commends those who take initiative and follow orders.
• The Kingslayer: Hordak throws his Big Brother Bully Horde Prime down the shaft into the Heart of Etheria to his doom after having had it with being mistreated by him. Subverted in that Horde Prime survives by transferring his essence into HIM. Instead, it’s She-Ra who finishes off Horde Prime, albeit peacefully.
• Large and in Charge: When standing up, Hordak is easily the tallest character in the show. He towers over Catra, whose head only reaches the middle of his chest.
• Lean and Mean: Season 3 reveals that he's emaciated underneath his armor, his body degenerating from his flawed cloning.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Throughout the series, Hordak is the Rebellion's chief nemesis, and he is repeatedly shown ordering or engaging in evil acts such as conquest, torture, and use of child soldiers. At the end of Season 4, viewers see that Horde Prime is far worse. Unlike Prime, Hordak allowed his soldiers to retain individual identities and free will, and he never engaged in the kind of mental violation practiced by Horde Prime. Hordak is pleased when his soldiers take initiative, while Horde Prime sees any displays of autonomy from his clones as an affront.
• Liminal Being: Hordak straddles different boundaries. As a cyborg, he is both flesh and machine. He was cast out of the galactic Horde but remains loyal to Horde Prime, so he both is and isn't part of the clone army. As a clone soldier who spent decades away from the hive mind, he has aspects of both his drone-like brethren and an autonomous individual.
• Little Bit Beastly: Hordak has bat-like ears, a bat-like nose, claws, and fangs.
• Long-Range Fighter: His Powered Armor makes him strong and tough, but it doesn't make him that much more mobile, and when he gets into a fight, he prefers to simply obliterate anything in his way with his Arm Cannon rather than relying on his sluggish reflexes in close quarters. An enemy who can get inside his gun's range has a much easier time against him, as Catra demonstrates.
• Looks Like Orlok: Mostly bald, pale white face, long pointed ears, a bat-like nose, glowing red eyes, fangs, and a cape with a high collar all combine to make him resemble nothing so much as an alien vampire.
• Love Redeems: It's ultimately his love for Entrapta that breaks him out of Horde Prime's mind wipe.
• Luminescent Blush: In Season 4, Hordak blushes and his ears point downward when Imp repeats Entrapta's name over and over.
• Manly Tears: Tears well up in his eyes when he learns that Catra sent Entrapta to Beast Island, meaning the latter hadn't really abandoned him as the former had claimed.
• Mind-Control Eyes: His eyes change from red to green and his expression goes blank when Horde Prime mind-wipes him in "Destiny, Part 2". When he is mind-wiped again during the "baptism" in a pool of clone life force, his eyes temporarily turn white.
• Mind Rape:
  • Courtesy of Horde Prime at the end of Season 4. By touching Hordak, Horde Prime reads his thoughts, much to Hordak's horror. When Prime mind-wipes him, Hordak's facial expression becomes blank and his eyes turn from red to green.
  • In Season 5, he is mind-wiped a second time during the "baptism" scene. He screams while standing in a pool of clone life force and engulfed in green gas.
• Mighty Glacier: He's a formidable presence on the battlefield, but relies entirely on his thick armour and massive, long-ranged cannon to fight, and is never shown to be particularly mobile. This turns out to be something of a problem when he faces off against extremely agile enemies like Catra.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Once Hordak gets all his memories back by the time he’s ordered to kill Entrapta, he decides to forsake his loyalty towards Horde Prime and turns on him after all the horrible treatment he subjected him to.
• Monochromatic Eyes: His eyes are crimson with no visible irises or pupils. Unlike Horde Prime, who has four visible pupils.
• Morality Pet:
  • Ironically, while Hordak's friendship with Entrapta humanizes him, her desire to help him when he's in trouble usually makes her act more sane.
  • Imp serves as this to a certain extent as well, doing things like reminding him to thank Entrapta for helping him.
• Morally Superior Copy: Hordak is one of many clones of Horde Prime who does everything he can to please the original. Horde Prime deems him to be a defect due to being split from the hive mind, and he has Hordak mind wiped. Hordak's friendship through Entrapta ultimately redeems him and motivate him to turn against Horde Prime.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Despite all the abuse he suffered at the hands of Horde Prime, Hordak still longs for his respect and seeks to conquer Etheria in his name. Subverted in "Heart, Part 2", when he refuses to kill Entrapta and turns on Horde Prime.
• Never Given a Name: Clones of Horde Prime don't usually have names. "Hordak" is the name he gave himself, and Horde Prime finds it extremely insulting that he would do so.
• Nice to the Waiter: A subtle, yet defining difference between him and Horde Prime is his treatment of Imp. Horde Prime would have discarded Imp, a failed clone, as soon as possible, like he did with Hordak himself. However, Hordak treats Imp very well, trusting him the most among his minions, and letting him easily get away with a level of familiarity that no one else other than Entrapta earns in the series.
• Nightmare Face: Hordak's face is sinister to begin with, but his expression can be even more unnerving when he's furious.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A bat-like cyborg alien clone.
• No Badass to His Valet:
  • Imp feels comfortable enough around Hordak to perch on his shoulder and enter Hordak's inner sanctum at whim. In Season 3, he even kicks Hordak's foot to prompt Hordak into thanking Entrapta for her efforts.
  • Double Trouble is sassy to Hordak, shapeshifting into a hammy, defeated She-Ra to tease him, and later revealing the truth about Entrapta in an irreverent manner.
  • Entrapta herself treats Hordak the way she does everyone else, though in her case it's mostly because she's a Cloudcuckoolander.
  • Catra working directly under Hordak makes her increasingly see him as a shut-in who doesn't know how to actually lead his forces. Considering Hordak doesn't like her nearly as much as Imp or Entrapta, it borders on Bullying the Dragon.
• Noble Demon: What differentiates him from Shadow Weaver early on. He's a ruthless warlord bent on conquering Etheria, but he doesn't mistreat his minions (unless they've deliberately shown disloyalty), doesn't hold grudges, and seems to limit the destruction wrought over the people of Etheria to the strict minimum.
• No Brows: He has no eyebrows. His mood is expressed through his ears instead.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: The blue, spiky ridge of his '80s incarnation is here a slicked-back blue mohawk. Since Horde Prime, the clones, and Imp all have white hair, and Hordak's hair is white after he is reintegrated into the Galactic Horde, it stands to reason that his hair is naturally white, which Character designer Ray Geiger confirms. That he dyed it at all could be the first part of his rebellion to distinguish himself that Prime notices when he said that Hordak hoped at times that his Big Brother would never come for him. showcases he indeed wanted independence from Prime, at least for a while.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • He demonstrates surprising similarities to Catra. Hordak's relationship with Horde Prime is very similar to the relationship between Catra and Shadow Weaver: desperately trying to gain the approval of their parental figure who is abusive and cruel to them, and in general both Hordak and Catra are seeking self-validation and try to find it through the conquest of Etheria. And similar to how Catra seemingly got her validation through her friendship with Adora, who liked and accepted her, Hordak got the same from Entraptra, and having that person "abandon" them causes them to slide deeper into evil. When Hordak goes on a Motive Rant in Season 4 about how Horde Prime will respect him and acknowledge his worth, Catra is noticeably affected by his words, realizing the two of them are surprisingly similar.
    • In Season 5, both Hordak and Catra are subjected to Horde Prime's terrifying "purification" ritual and enslaved. Both find salvation in their devotion to the women they love. Both of their lives are saved by She-Ra/Adora.
  • He also has surprising commonalities with Adora. Both are ultimately tools of ruthless, genocidal empires. Both have developed strong individual identities in spite of this, but still struggle with self-doubt. Both are powered-down at the end of Season 4, Adora when she breaks her sword, and Hordak when he is mind-wiped and sent off for "reconditioning" by Horde Prime. Both regain what makes them powerful — Adora summons her She-Ra powers again, and Hordak regains his memories and free will — in Season 5.
  • He also shares similarities with the many children raised to be Horde soldiers. Both Hordak and his troops were expected to serve as cogs in a large-scale war machine. Whereas the young soldiers were figuratively robbed of childhoods, Hordak was literally robbed of a childhood, being a clone who was Born as an Adult. Horde soldiers are indoctrinated to revere the Horde, and Hordak's was indoctrinated to revere Horde Prime.
  • He's also similar to Shadow Weaver. Both Shadow Weaver and Hordak inflict emotional abuse on Catra to compensate for their own feelings of insecurity. Both summon a powerful force in the hopes of bringing about a desirable end, and both are destroyed by it (Light Spinner losing herself and becoming Shadow Weaver after summoning an Eldritch Abomination; Hordak being mind-wiped by Horde Prime). Both redeem themselves through an act of love at the end of Season 5.
• Not So Stoic: He's a cold, cruel Evil Overlord who is almost always in control, but prolonged Entrapta exposure is enough to take even him aback. When she makes it clear that she's both more technically-gifted than him and completely willing to help with his plans (and improve on them if necessary), all he can do is stare at her blankly.

O-Y

• Odd Friendship: With Entrapta. The cold, intimidating Hordak and eccentric, high-energy Entrapta work well together, and develop warmth for each other in Season 3.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • For the majority of Season 2, Catra attempts to keep Hordak in the loop about what's happening with the Horde, but he is uninterested and simply rebukes her. Suddenly, in the finale episode, Hordak summons Catra to his sanctum, wanting to "touch base with her." It turns out he's giving her a Secret Test of Character, one which she promptly fails.
  • In "Huntara", Hordak's intimidating air is gone when he interacts with Entrapta, suggesting that he is starting to trust her.
  • Hordak is ruthless but disciplined and intelligent in his approach to battle. When he learns that Catra exiled Entrapta to Beast Island, he goes berserk, haphazardly firing his arm cannon and taking out swaths of the Fright Zone in at attempt to defeat Catra.
• Official Couple: With Entrapta by the end of the series.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: He had enough technical knowledge to establish a sophisticated industrial base in the Fright Zone, enough engineering and medical knowledge to create armor that helps him compensate for his medical condition, and enough knowledge of advanced physics to build a device that could open an interdimensional portal.
• Orcus on His Throne: For the supposed Big Bad of the series, he's oddly disinterested in the Horde's goal of world conquest, and spends most of his time cooped up in his sanctum working on the interdimensional portal. Eventually, it turns out that it's because he's incredibly tired after decades of struggling with his illness while stranded on Etheria, and just wants to go home. In Season 4, Catra drives him to take an active role in conquest again, and he becomes an outright Frontline General.
• Offstage Villainy: In Season 4, Hordak takes to the battlefield and leads his troops personally. Viewers see a few shots of Hordak firing on the Salineas Sea Gate and the Sea Elf Village, but most of his siege takes place offscreen. Hordak also remarks that Entrapta is the only princess who has not yet faced him in combat, suggesting that he has done battle with several princesses offscreen.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Played with regarding Horde Prime. While Horde Prime has won more often than his brother, it's implied that his universe was much easier to conquer and hold than Etheria. That being said, Hordak coming close to winning in the past regardless would imply that the two are actually closer in power and competence than the story depicts. When the Final Battle happens and the Rebellion is fighting at their fullest, Horde Prime has just about as hard a time as Hordak did trying to defeat them.
• Personal Horror: Hordak's worsening medical condition resulted in his fall from grace as Horde Prime's chief general and prevents him from taking a more active role in the conquest of Etheria. Since Hordak comes from a militaristic culture that venerates conquest and strength and despises weakness, he's filled with self-loathing at his inability to stop the progression of his illness.
• Pet the Dog:
  • An inadvertent one when Shadow Weaver attempts to offer up Catra for punishment over Adora's defection. Rather than hurt the girl, Hordak all but forces Shadow Weaver to make Catra the new Force Captain, even saying if she's not up to the job he'll ultimately hold Shadow Weaver responsible. For a character suffering near nonstop abuse, this counts as being very kind to Catra.
  • Imp is eventually revealed to be a disastrously failed clone body Hordak created for himself. Unlike his father-brother Horde Prime, who has zero tolerance for defective copies, Hordak treats the little guy with nothing but kindness and respect and raises him as his most trusted lieutenant.
  • He grows to truly care for Entrapta, though he's bad at showing it. When their first portal test ends with an explosion, Hordak shields Entrapta from the blast. When he finally manages to state that "any who discount you are utter fools!" her response is to touch his shoulder and say she enjoys being his friend, too, to which he is visibly at a loss for words. He starts to fall in love with her after she tells him that his imperfections are what make him beautiful. In Season 5, he turns on Horde Prime rather than carry out an order to kill her.
  • Throughout Season 4, his interactions with Catra have a growing sense of kindness and respect despite all the two have done to one another. On the precipice of their conquest, he even rather pointedly amends his statement that he will show "what I am capable of" to "what we are capable of." Their entire working relationship falls apart, however, when he discovers that Catra banished Entrapta to Beast Island, and his Roaring Rampage of Revenge begins.
  • One of the final scenes in the series is Hordak holding a baby Adora. Unlike his 80's version Hordak had not kidnapped Adora on purpose, he was investigating a portal and just so happened to stumble upon Adora, instead of leaving what he thinks is just a normal baby to the elements he actually takes her back to the Fright Zone, its thanks to him doing this one act of good that Adora could grow up to be the hero of the universe.
• Powered Armor: Wears a set that gives him Super-Strength. The armor is actually a necessity for him since his body is in bad shape. Entrapta builds him a new suit integrating First Ones technology that does a better job of keeping him together, but bits of it keep shorting out, meaning Entrapta has to make spot repairs frequently until she can perfect it.
• The Power of Love: Hordak overcomes clone indoctrination and two mind wipes because of his love for Entrapta. When Horde Prime orders him to kill Entrapta, Hordak attacks Horde Prime instead and asserts his independence with a badass boast.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Rather than waste time looking for Adora (and fully aware that if he antagonizes her, she knows the Fright Zone inside-out and backward), he simply promotes Catra to her position.
  • Also he doesn't pull a You Have Failed Me on Catra after her attack on Bright Moon failed and instead makes her his lieutenant as she came far closer than anyone else.
  • He also allows Entrapta to experiment with the Black Garnet once he hears it's a node in a network, and that it can steal the power of all the others. It leads to a Near-Villain Victory. Furthermore, he accepts Entrapta's defection quite readily once he learns she's able to increase the efficiency of the Horde's infrastructure and weapons.
  • Hordak does not punish Entrapta for entering his laboratory uninvited, as he did with Catra, because Entrapta provided valuable assistance with one of his projects.
  • In "The Price of Power", Hordak is reluctant to "squander" troops on a high-risk mission, suggesting that he deploys his soldiers carefully. Horde soldiers also appear healthy and well-rested, suggesting that Hordak does not push them to their breaking point, in contrast to Catra in Season 4.
  • When Catra screws up and lets Shadow Weaver escape, he gives her a chance to confess rather than immediately pulling a You Have Failed Me, out of respect for her previous achievements and accomplishments; he only punishes her when she continues to lie about it to his face.
• Progressively Prettier: Inverted. When viewers first see him in Season 1, he has a full face◊, but by Season 3, his face looks much more gaunt◊.
• Properly Paranoid: Using Imp to spy over his own minions might seem paranoid. However, several his minions are self-serving, dishonest, or reticent with information, so Imp's spying keeps Hordak in the loop.
• Psychological Projection: He hurls blistering criticism at Catra for being a "failure", but privately sees himself as a failure due to his fall from grace in Horde Prime's army and his inability to remedy his deteriorating health.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Hordak goes ballistic after learning that Catra exiled Entrapta to Beast Island. He promptly goes after Catra with his arm cannon.
  • In 'Heart, Part 2", he fires his arm cannon at Horde Prime rather than carry out an order to kill Entrapta. He then hurls Horde Prime off a platform while angrily asserting his independence.
• Real Men Wear Pink:
  • A more subdued example. The black garment under his armor is a split skirt/dress-like outfit. According to ND Stevenson "Hordak would never wear pants."
  • The black coloration around his eyes? That's eye makeup.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In Season 3, Hordak summons a unit of his soldiers to bear witness to his humiliation of Catra, and it's strongly implied that he was about to have her publicly tortured or worse. Catra responds by publicly calling him a failure, mocking him for his inability to defeat the Princess Alliance and tendency to "hide" in his lab instead of taking an active role in conquest. Hordak resorts to a Uriah Gambit in order to reassert his dominance.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Surprisingly, possibly as much as Queen Angella. He notably avoids killing his minions at the first sign of failure, and even congratulates his subordinates for an on-paper loss because it provided crucial opportunities and information for future attempts. See also Benevolent Boss.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: After being reconditioned, not only was Hordak demoted to being a clone guardsman to Horde Prime, but he's also denied any part in Prime's conquest of Etheria.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Hordak is a man dressed in black and red robes, though his skin is blue, it's much less saturated than in the original show. His eyes are also bright red and in the dark are the only thing that can be seen by others. Even his teeth are crimson.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Hordak has large, glowing red eyes that make him seem even more threatening. They seem to glow more when he is angry at someone, which is rare. Season 5 implies that they were glowing red because he was a malfunctioning clone, as his eyes remain green even after he regains his memories and assert his free will.
• The Reveal:
  • In Season 3, Hordak explains to Entrapta that he's a defective clone of Horde Prime, and his experiments up to this point have focused on trying to open a portal so that he can contact Horde Prime and summon his fleet to Etheria.
  • In Season 4, it's implied that the "defect" that got him cast out wasn't just his physical deterioration... it was having free will.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He goes absolutely ballistic when Double Trouble reveals to him that Catra had Entrapta sent to Beast Island, and actively destroys a wide swath of the Fright Zone firing at Catra for betraying him so painfully.
• Rogue Drone: Hordak is strongly implied to be this in "Destiny, Part 2". Horde Prime expresses outrage at his displays of autonomy.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • In Season 5, Hordak has been stripped of his empire, his memories, his selfhood, and his beloved. In the Season 5 intro, Hordak has no armor and is only wearing his skimpy black garment, having been stripped of any pretensions of power that he had in the past. He has been literally and figuratively laid bare.
  • Throughout the series, Hordak is barely aware of Adora's existence even though he pulled her through the portal to Etheria (albeit on accident), and often dismisses her as a tool that he has no use for and thus should be discarded. However, we later learn that Hordak got this toxic mindset from Horde Prime. In one of the final scenes of the series, She-Ra expels Horde Prime's essence from Hordak's body and destroys it for good. Hordak and Adora then share a Held Gaze, Hordak has a Flashback of holding her as a baby when he found her alone in a field, and he whispers, "I remember you." This symbolizes that the last remnants of Horde Prime's toxic mindset has left Hordak, and he's now free to be the kind person he was always capable of being.
• Sacrificial Lion: Horde Prime mind-wipes him in "Destiny, Part 2". The story figuratively killed off a complex major character to show how sociopathic Horde Prime is and to horrify Glimmer, who observed the mind-wipe. He regains his memories and sense of self in Season 5.
• Sanity Slippage: In "Coronation", Catra's lie about Entrapta's supposed betrayal has broken Hordak's spirit. He broods in the wreckage of the portal machine, exhibits unsound tactical judgment, and reacts violently to the mere mention of Entrapta. He regains his mental stability for most of Season 4, only to carry out an unhinged rampage after learning that Catra exiled Entrapta to Beast Island.
• Satanic Archetype: Hordak has parallels to Lucifer. Hordak was once a high-ranking servant to Horde Prime (a man who sees himself as the embodiment of godlike perfection), but was cast out. Hordak's stylized flashback shows him literally falling to Etheria, much like Lucifer is shown falling from Heaven in art. Horde Prime rages at him with quasi-Biblical language, saying, "I made you in my image, but you have become an abomination." Although this is played with in that if Horde Prime is God in this analogy, he's definitely not a benevolent one, and Hordak does ultimately go through a Heel–Face Turn by turning against him. Hordak's devilish features — pointed ears, red eyes, red fangs — drive the comparison home.
• Save the Villain: After he seemingly kills Horde Prime, Horde Prime's consciousness possesses him. She-Ra exorcises Prime and frees Hordak.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The serious Savvy Guy to Entrapta's quirky Energetic Girl.
• Scary Impractical Armor: His first outfit consists of cybernetic armor creating the illusion of broad shoulders and muscular arms, a sweeping red cape, and a robe emblazoned with the Horde symbol. However, his head, ribs, abdomen, back, and thighs are all unprotected. Also, in real life, such armor would make the wearer top-heavy (throwing them off-balance), and the cape would produce air drag as the wearer moved and could be grabbed by an opponent. His second outfit, a cybernetic exoskeleton created by Entrapta, ditches the cape but still has many of the above problems, upon inspection.
• Sealed Evil in Another World: He found himself stranded on Etheria in Despondos and spends most of the series trying to get back to Horde Prime in the baseline universe.
• Secretly Dying: He's in such bad shape that he can't walk without support, and his condition is getting worse. He's tried and failed to clone a new body hundreds of times with no success. Entrapta is the only person who knows he's sick.
• Shadow Archetype: In many ways, Hordak is a dark mirror image of Adora. Like Adora, he was intended to be an obedient tool in his predecessor's war machine. Neither he nor Adora were supposed to bond with others, as this would distract them from their intended purpose (Light Hope frowns upon Adora's friendships, and Horde Prime is angered by Hordak's love for Entrapta). Both He and Adora have acted on free will and developed strong personalities in spite of their predecessors' intentions, even as they struggle with self-doubt. However, Hordak uses his autonomy to conquer Etheria in a futile attempt to win Horde Prime's respect, while Adora uses her autonomy to stop the Etherian superweapon and reclaim her own destiny. Hordak is intentionally or unintentionally mimicking Horde Prime in his tyranny, while Adora is transcending the evil ways of the First Ones.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift:
  • In Season 3, Entrapta gives him new armor to function as an exoskeleton for him, which makes him healthier and more powerful.
  • In Season 5, he wears the standard Galactic Horde clone uniform after being reassimilated back into the hive mind.
• Skull for a Head: Well, not a literal skull, but as well as a bat, his head is clearly designed to evoke this look. The white part narrows to leave his cheeks a dull grey, giving it a skull-like outline, which is absolutely not made to look less like a skull by the deep black surrounding his eyes, the Facial Markings on his chin, or the inverted V for a nose.
• Soap Opera Disease: The show does not describe the specifics of his genetic defect or his medical condition. All viewers know is that Hordak's condition causes him pain, exhaustion, vitiligo on his arms and back, and loss of muscle mass.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Between Relationship Sabotage and the events of Season 4 it's clear Hordak is still in love with Entrapta, but they're prevented from reuniting at the last second. After he is beamed aboard Horde Prime's ship, they're literally star crossed. Fortunately, they reunite at the end of the series.
• The Strategist: He performed this role for Horde Prime as his top general, overseeing the conquest of entire galaxies.
• The Stoic: In Season 1, he is always extremely composed. Even when Shadow Weaver actually gets him mad, he resorts to Tranquil Fury. This is subverted in Season 2 when viewers see Hordak lose his temper in private. He slams his fist on a table and storms out of his laboratory out of frustration with his technology and later lashes out at the equipment that was placing suit components on his body when it caused him pain. Later episodes show that he isn't stoic at all, revealing that he is capable of anger, shame, delight, attraction, and sorrow.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks just like Horde Prime's other identical clones, except for his red eyes, black eye makeup, and blue-dyed hair.
• Suddenly Shouting: He responds this way when Entrapta enters his sanctum while he is not wearing his armor.
  Hordak: Get. Out. GET OUT RIGHT NOW!
• Super-Reflexes: In Season 3, Hordak effortlessly catches one of Bow's arrows mid-air and crushes it, indicating that Entrapta's exoskeleton armor enhanced his reflexes.
• Super-Strength: The new exoskeleton that Entrapta designs for him gives him enhanced strength. In one scene, Hordak lifts a heavy piece of equipment to test the new exoskeleton. In another scene, Hordak tears a pillar off of its foundation and hurls it at Bow and Glimmer when they storm the Fright Zone. In Season 4, he picks up a fragment of the broken portal machine twice his size and throws it with ease.
• Symbolic Baptism: A sinister example. In Season 5, Horde Prime performs a second mind wipe on him in the form of a "baptism". Hordak walks into a pool of clone life force as Horde Prime looks on and the other clones chant. Hordak is engulfed in green gas, after which his eyes are white and Horde Prime proclaims him "pure".
  Horde Prime: Behold the purest among you.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: After being reconditioned, Hordak becomes very indistinguishable from other clones, to the point where one wouldn’t be able to tell which one he is. Even Entrapta, who knew him better than anyone else, mistook a random clone for Hordak in "Save the Cat".
• Thinking Up Portals: Season 2 has developing portal technology that allows global and galactic traversal possible as an ongoing project of his. Season 3 reveals that he wants to open a portal to bring the rest of the Horde military through.
• Throwing Off the Disability: In Season 5, he's muscular and broad-shouldered like the other Galactic Horde clones after being reconditioned. Maybe his cloning error got corrected?.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Even after regaining his pre-reconditioning memories and after having Horde Prime purged from his system. Hordak doesn’t go back to being an Evil Overlord after seeing She-Ra in person. He remembers her as the baby he found years ago rather than as the princess who threatened his rule on Etheria.
• Tough Leader Façade: Hordak rules the Horde with a ruthless, coldly efficient hand, but he doesn't seem to derive any joy from his warlord role, preferring to work on science projects in his sanctum. He's trying to conquer Etheria so that Horde Prime will affirm him, not because he finds conquest and tyranny satisfying. Imp and Entrapta are the few people around whom he can be himself instead of playing the role of Lord Hordak the tyrant.
• Tragic Villain: Hordak is a ruthless conqueror, but he's also a clone of Horde Prime who was lost on Etheria due to either his degenerative disorders or his free will, raised in a toxic cult-like environment, and believes himself to be a failure. After finally finding a friend, he is convinced she has betrayed him. By the time he achieves his goal of getting Horde Prime to Etheria so as to gain his approval, Hordak instead finds all his work gone to waste, losing everything. Being Evil Sucks indeed.
• Truly Single Parent: It's never confirmed on-screen, but during a Patreon discussion, character designed Ray Geiger told fans that Hordak cloned Imp using a combination of his own DNA and that of another Etherian species with wings and tails.
• Uptight Loves Wild: The uptight to Entrapta's wild.
• Uriah Gambit:
  • In Season 3, he sends Catra to the Crimson Wastes on a missing to find First Ones technology, expecting her to die in the process. It doesn't work. She returns to the Horde with Adora and She-Ra's sword.
  • 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.
• Vague Age: Hordak's age is never given, and his appearance gives no indication of his age. Even his character designer Ray Geiger isn't sure how old he is, though some extrapolations can be made on his minimum age based on when he crashed onto Etheria.
  Ray Geiger: Being he's an alien, probably a cyborg even before his armor, AND a clone, his age is basically meaningless. I've always thought of him as a fairly "young" clone, but that could be 7 or it could be 100, since it's unclear what a clone lifespan is and he was "born" adult.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: The man himself darkens the mood of any scene he appears in, but apart from Shadow Weaver and (usually) Catra, most of his named minions are Affably Evil. This is especially the case when he lets Entrapta in on his experiments.
• Villain Has a Point: Hordak is a central antagonist, but he can still make valid points. For example:
  • His anger over Shadow Weaver and Catra lying to him makes sense. Trust is an important trait in relationships and lies means the person can't be trusted.
  • Hordak’s military strategy is measured and restrained. In “The Price of Power”, he initially refuses to “squander” troops on a “wasteland” like the Crimson Waste, and only changed his mind when he recognizes an opportunity to exile Catra. In Season 4, he criticizes Catra for spreading troops too thin. It turns out that his military restraint was a smart course of action. Catra’s bold, unrelenting blitz won the Horde multiple victories in the short term, but by spreading troops too thin, her strategy meant that the Horde was left in shambles after one large-scale ambush. By pushing the troops too hard, she also drove several soldiers to defect.
• Villainous Breakdown: In "The Coronation", Catra's lie about Entrapta's supposed betrayal left him emotionally devastated. His tone of voice and lines to Catra about reinforcing the Fright Zone perimeter to prevent any princesses from ever entering again suggest that he's in a very dark and fragile mental state.
• Villainous Cheekbones: Hordak has an angular face and pronounced cheekbones.
• Villainous Crush: From Season 3 on he seems to be falling for Entrapta, seeing her in a Crush Filter when she smiles while trying to cheer him up and managing to be nice to her after much awkwardness on his part. He only ever smiles around her and when Catra lies about her having betrayed him, Hordak is clearly badly hurt, shown with drooping ears and a pained expression.
• Villainous Friendship:
  • With his failed clone, Imp. They care a great deal for each other, to the point where Hordak is willing to accept teasing or chastisement from him with only a mild grumble, and he trusts the little guy more than anyone else in the Horde.
  • To an extent, with Catra in Season 4. Once she becomes his co-leader by force and repeatedly leads him to victory, he develops a light sense of fondness for her and even a sort of pride, with Double Trouble implying at one point that Catra may genuinely desire Hordak's friendship and appreciation. This goes right out the window the second he learns Catra exiled Entrapta.
• Villainous Valor: One of Hordak's defining traits. Exiled due to a degenerative disease and dropped on Etheria, (Although later implied to be actually due to his free will) Hordak wastes no time in attempting to conquer it and return to Horde Prime, building a massive empire over the years. Hordak almost constantly refuses to go down. Even when he's soundly outmatched by Catra, who takes advantage of his weaknesses, Hordak refuses to go down. Up until Horde Prime arrives, Hordak is still fighting, barely fazed and unwilling to cease his last attempt at victory.
• Villainous Virtues: He's intelligent, cunning, persistent in his goals, hard-working (often shown working in his lab), handsomely rewards success (see Benevolent Boss), displays some Equal-Opportunity Evil (since he's not blinded by Parental Favoritism regarding Catra as Shadow Weaver is), and he knows to appreciate loyalty and honesty. Both his seconds-in-commands are punished and even demoted for disobeying orders and hiding the truth from him. After connecting with Entrapta, he also demonstrates honest gratitude and respect. He's clearly hurt and disbelieving when Catra lies that Entrapta betrayed him.
• Visionary Villain: Scoffs at the Horde's single-minded desire to take over Etheria, and he alludes to a much grander master plan. He intends to open a portal to the universe, and deliver Etheria to the galactic conqueror, Emperor Horde Prime.
• Vocal Dissonance: One would not expect a seven-foot tall man with a bat-like face and glowing red eyes to sound smooth and refined. It's a sharp contrast to Hordak's guttural, raspy voice in the original 1980s cartoon.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hordak truly craves the attention and approval of Horde Prime, his 'elder brother' who he was cloned from. His ardent desire is to be seen by Prime as not a failure after all. Sadly, he never gets the affirmation he wants.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Hordak speaks with something between an American and English accent.
• What Is This Feeling?:
  • When Entrapta creates an exoskeleton for him and explains how she finds imperfection "beautiful" and explains that failure can be a good thing since it helps you learn and grow, this trope is written all over Hordak's face.
  • In Season 5, even after two mind-wipes, Hordak cannot forget the feelings he has for Entrapta, and his memories of her slowly return. When the two secretly meet near a Galactic Horde spire, he is bewildered by these persistent emotions and asks her, "What have you done to me?"
• What You Are in the Dark: One of the final scenes in the series reveals that Hordak found baby Adora alone in a field when he investigated the portal, and rather than leave her to die he took her back to the Fright Zone. Even when he was still known to Etheria as an Evil Overlord and was desperate to prove himself worthy of Horde Prime, he had enough kindness in him to rescue a baby.
• Will They or Won't They?: He develops a rapport with Entrapta with significant romantic tensions. Both are separated from each other before it can go anywhere. The two happily reunite at the end of the series.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The destruction Hordak has done to Etheria is inexcusable, but upon learning that he was ostrasized and left to die by the man who created and abused him over a flaw in his cloning, it's hard not to feel a little sympathy for him.
• You Are What You Hate: Hordak is contemptuous of minions who fail him. Season 3 reveals that he sees himself as a failure, being a genetically flawed clone of Horde Prime.
• You Have Failed Me: Generally averted; while he isn't happy about failures or incompetence, and can be harsh about punishing his followers, his true wrath is generally reserved for disloyalty or for lying to him directly in order to cover up failures, rather than for the failures themselves. Even then, his punishments tend to be nonlethal.
  • In Episode 2, when Shadow Weaver argues against Catra's appointment as Force Captain, he responds by explaining that since he was promised a new Force Captain and she was in charge of both Adora and Catra, her not being up to the task only means Shadow Weaver would have failed him. Later, he punishes Shadow Weaver more severely, but only after finding out Shadow Weaver not only had ignored his orders but hid the fact that Adora was She-Ra and continued trying to get her back. When he learns Catra had found out a way to empower the Horde's weapons without the help of Shadow Weaver, he strips Shadow Weaver of her influence and now favors Catra.
  • When Catra's attack on Bright Moon is thwarted by Adora and the princesses, Hordak is not pleased at her failure. However, he promotes her to The Dragon given her impressive track record leading up to it.
  • At the end of Season 2, he punishes Catra not for allowing Shadow Weaver to trick her and escape, but for lying to him about it; he even specifically sets up a situation where she could confess, only punishing her when she continues to lie to him instead.

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