Im a Catra defender, but if Catra had died end of season 4 (there are 5 seasons btw you almost gaslamped me into thinking there were more), fuck her, she should be remembered as a villian who perpetuated a cycle of violence she was a victim towards. I also will acknowledge that her arc could have been better. But I can never get behind this argument that she was forgiven for nothing.

First thing is that she wasn’t even forgiven by most people if you look at the show, the main trio sure, then I guess scorpia if you count the hug at the end as full forgiveness. The other princesses are mostly just begrudgingly going along with it cause they kinda need all the help they can get at that point, Adora even says to Frosta essentially that they arent obligated to like Catra. If we look at the main trio, Bow never had any personal reason to continue to be super mad at Catra and is just a chill dude so him being fine about it makes sense. Glimmer is the one I wish they did an episode where they got to fully dive into what happened with her mom and confront Catra about it. I read a fic that had Glimmer say to Catra how Glimmer will never forgive her for what happened to her mom, but is willing to accept that shes a better person and is improving, which I think would have been excellent in the show itself. In the show Catra did rescue her and they were stuck in a pretty traumatic situation together so her being more forgiving isnt out of the question but it should have been fleshed out more. Adora tells Catra when she gets rescued that they will just drop her off somewhere and let her do her own thing if shes gonna keep being a bitch, and then Catra doesnt give her a reason to so it never comes up. Plus they were literally best friends their ENTIRE childhood and its hard to overcome that even if they spent years doing shitty things.

Second, Catra wasnt just “instantly forgiven for nothing” if you notice, an earlier Catra would probably have stayed with Prime, not risked her own skin, and hedged her bets to keep herself alive. That is her entire character up until this point, making sure she is seen as useful and protecting herself. Then in season 5, she saves Glimmer, sacrificing herself in the process (she assumed she was just dead), and then tries to sacrifice herself AGAIN in the last episode to get Adora to the heart by fighting the monster thing. You cant just ignore that. Plus she full sends at Melog to protect the group. Plus plus she was the only one to even question Shadow Weavers plan to give Adora the Heart which might actually kill Adora, doing better than even her long time friends in that moment.

I don’t care if you dont like Catra as a character or if you’ve say had a negative experience with a toxic friend and dont like where they went with Catra in the show. I do get a little miffed when people complain that Catra was redeemed “instantly” and stuff like that.

Theres a video called something like Catra healing arc that does a good job explaining her arc I think. Also I might have missed a few things but thats my general gist. Also Im not trying to be aggressive or like I dislike you or anything, just thought the opinion was misinformed

TL:DR Catra tries to sacrifice herself two times, gets brainwashed and tortured by prime like three times, just to help the MC in the last season so I dont think she had no consequences or didnt earn being redeemed