Double Trouble/Catra
1. My take on their canon relationship:
They like each other. Really, genuinely, like each other. Double Trouble puts on a miniature play just to get Catra to laugh, and for no other reason. Well, okay, their vanity might be part of it, but they like Catra, they like being the one who gets her to unwind, they like being the one who makes this fun for her again. Catra’s pretty and cutthroat and clawed her way through the ranks, and DT respects that about her. And they’re conniving and slippery and have a taste for violence, and she likes that about them. DT is not Adora, who is naive and stubborn and has morals that make other people more of a priority than Catra. DT is not Scorpia, who is sweet and earnest and has no clue what’s going on inside Catra’s head, how she’s actually feeling. DT is not Entrapta, who has other priorities and who took Hordak’s attention and approval away from Catra. DT is just, well, trouble. They’re chaotic and sassy and flippant and actually, genuinely fun. And Catra, well, sure she’s technically their boss, but she’s also just. Nice to hang out with. She praises them a lot at the start of their relationship, making them do that one :> face which I imm fell in love with, and then they just like. They really did hit the same frequency. The two of them are on very similar vibes of “let’s burn the world down and laugh at it” but Catra doesn’t stay on that vibe, traumatized as she is, while DT is legitimately just in it for the laughs. So they fall out, and I’ll go over that bit a little more in the headcanon section of this ask bc I have... thoughts....
2. Do I ship them:
Yeah boiiiiii. The only Catra ship I have outside of Catradora and a very specific variety of Mercat.
3. Reasons why I do/don’t ship them;
Like I mentioned, they’re on the same frequency a lot of the time. They’re violent and enjoy the violence, they’re petty and enjoy the pettiness, and they also just genuinely seem to enjoy each other’s company. Catra gets BUMMED when she remembers this is technically a work relationship. Double Trouble went into the flames and explosions to save her, and I don’t think their paycheck means THAT much to them. The smoke could’ve easily ruined their hair, lmao.
And there’s also just... there’s this tension that I can’t quite name, a “maybe could have” that exists between them. Maybe, in a different world, one that was kinder to both of them, this could have really, really worked. Maybe they could have been petty gossipchums who fling themselves dramatically into each other’s laps with a “tell me” from the other, maybe they could have been rank-climbing scourges who took out anything and everything in their way, a real bonnie and clyde but better, maybe they could have been the mean popular kids in high school, maybe they could have, maybe, maybe, if the Horde had never landed there, if DT didn’t convince themself that they could only ever look out for number 1, if Catra had loved Adora less, if DT and Catra had loved each other more, there’s always this maybe that hovers around the two like mist, and I want to explore that foggy territory.
4. Headcanon, if any:
So I think the reason DT gave Catra the scalping of a lifetime actually comes in two parts, both of them involving gay pettiness. I think Double Trouble was actually more romantically inclined towards Catra than she was towards them. I think they had an actual, honest to god romantic crush on her, just not the butterflies and blushes kind of crush, more of a “I want to be with you, we should be together” kind of crush. So tearing Catra a new one was actually the act of a jilted lover.
First, I think Double Trouble is pissed that while they went into hostile territory for Catra, she left them. Like Adora “left” Catra, Catra is now the one who has abandoned someone who loves her in the hands of people who will hurt that person. Double Trouble TOLD Catra that the princesses were hunting for “the elusive Horde spy” on the night they got caught. Catra KNEW that there was a very real possibility that DT was gonna get caught (even reacted strongly and negatively to the idea!) so DT hammed it up. Played them against each other, made havoc, all those nasty shapeshifting bastardly actions. And they got caught, but no big. Double Trouble only needed word-of-mouth that the queen of bright moon had run off on her own before they were off to find Catra and save her from a tricky situation, they’re perfectly confident that Catra will just wrap up Salenias and then pop on over to bust them out, easy peasy. And then she doesn’t come. And she doesn’t come. And still... she doesn’t come. And Double Trouble is left staring down a single fact:
They were the one who got invested, this time. They were the one who got used.
Secondly, Double might be in the name, but DT is second to NONE. They like Catra, that’s a fact, but Catra... she’s obsessed with Adora. Absolutely consumed with her. Which, whatever, we all have bad breakups we don’t quite get over, and Catra’s less stable than some. But then DT actually meets Adora and they’re like “Really. This is who you’re prioritizing? Over me? Why, is it because her hair poof is bigger than mine? What chemistry could the two of you possibly have the you and I don’t?” See Double Trouble isn’t a warmup, oh no, and they’re nobody’s alternative. They’re the main event, they’re the showstopper. And if Catra wants Adora over them? Fine. They can use that, and they can make it hurt.
5. How much do I ship (%):
95% I’d say? Maybe only 90%?
