If you didn’t already know, fanfiction is extremely important to us. We’ve done several in-depth interviews with the authors of some amazing fanfiction, and we love promoting new works to the She-Ra community. Since today is Fandom Friday, we thought we’d do our part by providing a list of 25 She-Ra fanfics that we highly recommend. These fics are an excellent way to entertain yourselves while waiting for Season 5, or a wonderful way to stay connected to She-Ra after it ends.
(Yes, most of these are Catradora. We tried to find pieces that weren’t Catradora but it was very hard.)
In no particular order, here are our recommendations:
- Rhythm and Blues by Malachi Walker
- Teen +
- Catradora
- Read this for monumental levels of yearning, exceptional world building, and Catradora as rock stars.
- Catra’s Emotional Support Lizard by CabbageCommander
- Mature (dark themes)
- General (Catra and Double Trouble friendship)
- Double Trouble plays therapist for Catra as she uses their shape shifting ability to unhealthily deal with her trauma. They try their best to help her through things. Very emotional with some good character introspection.
- Looks like we’re both alone now by alettepegasus
- General Audiences
- General (Glimmer and Catra friendship)
- A fic speculating on season 5 with Catra and Glimmer trapped on Horde Prime’s ship. Shows good character chemistry and tugs on your heartstrings. Hopeful ending.
- Demons by Johanna’s_Motivational_Insults
- Mature (violence)
- Catradora
- It’s like if She-Ra was an HBO show, wherein Catra and Adora struggle with their childhood trauma and improve their communication skills. Dark and delicious, with great emotional payoff.
- The Blood in Your Mouth by artemisswords
- Teen +
- Catradora
- Catra and Glimmer on Horde Prime’s ship! Catra protecting Adora! Redemption, pining and Catradora learning to be in each other’s lives again! Ariel’s personal favorite, just trust us, it’s amazing.
- Some Killer Queen You Are by dear_universe
- General audiences
- Catradora
- This one is cute and fun and sometimes you just need Catradora going on an amusement park date. There’s flirting and shy hand-holding. This fic is awesome and we will not accept criticism at this time.
- Dissonant Coda by emollience
- Mature (violence)
- Catradora
- What if Adora stayed with Light Hope to train as She-Ra, instead of fighting in the war? What if she returned years later, after her friends have since moved on? The slowburn is strong with this one.
- A Picture’s Worth A Thousand Words, But All My Pictures of You Are Torn to Shreds by AkariHope
- Teen +
- Catradora
- It’s like the movie Memento, but our protagonist is Catra, haunted by memories of a childhood she didn’t have. There’s some sweet, sweet slow burn and the mystery will have you hooked from the start.
- there is love that doesn’t have to do with taking something from somebody by poalof
- General Audiences
- Light Hope/Mara and Catradora
- Really interesting piece where Adora gets to talk to Mara. Catradora at the end. What more could you want?
- Beast Island by archiveofourscone
- General audiences/Teen +
- General/Catradora
- A Catra-centric fic where she is banished to Beast Island post-s2 and finds the Magicats have been exiled there. She reconnects with her family, her culture, and eventually Adora in this series. An excellent character study and trauma recovery story.
- Seconds That I Cannot Replace by Mogotrat
- Mature (violence)
- Catradora
- Adora keeps falling in love with Catra, and Shadow Weaver keeps erasing her memories in hopes of breaking the cycle and their bond. Catra can’t help loving Adora despite the heartbreak every time Adora forgets. Until Adora leaves.
- You Got Cool by explosionshark
- Teen +
- Catradora
- Adora gets a scholarship to Bright Moon Academy, leaving Catra to deal with her depression and Weaver’s abuse on her own. Drama ensues. A modern boarding school AU with great insights and character work.
- please could you be tender by erce3
- General audiences
- Catradora
- Adora and Catra were childhood sweethearts, but grew apart in high school. After a chance meeting when Adora comes home from college, they reconnect and revisit an old contract, and make a new one.
- Where the Lonely Ones Roam by Glimmerglanger
- Teen +
- Catradora
- After the Horde disbands, Catra unintentionally becomes the leader of a quickly expanding refugee community. Read this one for an excellent Catra character study, slow burn, and a critique of monarchies.
- After It All by HallowedHaven
- General audiences
- Catradora
- I dare you to read this without smiling. It’s impossible. This fic has Catra and Adora being soft, oblivious and gay, and Glimmer roasts them for it. You’ll enjoy this one, promise.
- Buried the Hatchet (It’s Coming Up Lavender) by erce3
- General audiences
- Catradora
- After the portal incident, Catra and Adora are stranded together on an alternate Etheria. Very romantic. Highly recommended.
- Pack Behavior by piecesof_reeses
- Teen +
- Catradora
- An origin story where a young Catra is captured in the wild and Adora helps her integrate into Horde society and survive its antagonism and abuse. Featuring feral Catra and a lot of general cuteness, as well as considerable angst.
- A New Weird by corantus
- General audiences
- Catradora
- A classic pre-canon fic where Catra and Adora cuddle for the first time. Focuses on touch starvation and the lack of intimacy in the Horde. Very cute and tugs hard on the heartstrings.
- As Long As We Stay Together (If We Just Stay Together) by HeroTheHardWay
- Mature
- Catradora
- She-Ra meets Mean Girls meets Pride and Prejudice, but they’re astrophysicists in Antarctica, Swift Wind is a dog, and also Catradora are former hockey teammates. It’s gay and it’s good.
- baby, i’m a house on fire (and i wanna keep burning) by wittchers
- Teen +
- Catradora
- Medieval AU. That’s literally all we need to say. It’s amazing and we love it.
- my girl’s a switchblade by catrasadoras
- Mature (violence)
- Catradora
- Vigilante AU. Catra’s left the Horde Syndicate of crime with her team and Adora, an ER doctor, helps her when she’s injured. Truly a blessed read.
- Center Stage by waitingforaflame (aka, our editor, Ariel)
- General audiences/Teen +
- Catradora
- Catradora Ballet AU based off the film Center Stage. Do we need to say much more? It’s extremely well written and takes an in-depth look at the world of ballet through Catra and Adora’s eyes. Out of the norm, but we like that.
And that’s our list! Happy reading, everyone.
Not gonna lie, might have screamed seeing CESL on a top 25 list, especially along side some way better fics. That means a lot to me.
Wow, the last thing I expected to see on this list was one of my fics! And in the company of some truly amazing ones, too. Thank you so much!!
I feel like, there really aren’t so many LITTLE fics that are non-Catradora??? Ya’ll should… take a lil’ MORE time looking and making the effort for great writers in the fandom that have awesome fics? Like, from Glimmadora alone there’s 405 finished fics on AO3 sejhfgbhskejrbk
We completely accept and thank you for your constructive criticism. We didn’t mean to imply that there aren’t any good non-Catradora fics. However, we will refute and state that we actually did spend many hours researching and looking on AO3 for fics to recommend, and thus, we have a list that we’re really proud of. We wish that we had more time to comb and nitpick through every single category, but unfortunately, we don’t. Of course this isn’t the be-all end-all list of the best She-Ra fanfiction to ever exist, but rather a list of fics that we personally enjoy and wanted to recommend. If you’d like to make recommendations for some good non-Catradora fics, we’d love to hear them ♥️
Heyo, I know you guys aren’t doing fic recs for a bit, but I think it would be super great and inclusive especially now that She-Ra has ended to do weekly (or whatever your schedule is!) spotlights for certain ships! So instead of a big amalgimation, there is a Scorptra Fic Rec Week, or a Catfuma Fic Rec Week, Glimmadora, SeaBow, Glitra, Pertrapta, etc.etc.etc. I think this would be an especially great place to platform amazing fics in those smaller ship fandoms. 🙂
I myself, have plenty of bookmarks for amazing content and fics that deserve a spotlight and would be happy to send them to your team.
Your site is large and has a wide audience that I think could really help boost smaller and talented Spop content creators. Thanks!
Gotta add “Don’t go” to this list 🙂