I'm convinced Catra is a demi-god (Do NOT read unless you've finished the series)
At the very start Adora and Catra seem to be roughly equal strength wise. After obtaining the sword and finding out she's She-Ra, Adora seems capable enough to solo about a dozen Horde tanks and probably up to 100 Horde grunts with one hand tied behind her back, but we still see Catra being only just shy of or about equal to She-Ra in a fight.
This trend continues throughout the series with the only real mopping-the-floor-with-Catra moment happening during the battle of Brightmoon when all the Rebellion Princesses combine their power to launch a rainbow death-wave.
In season two Bow and Glimmer are really only able to capture her because she is 100% toying with them. In season 3 she takes over the Crimson Waste in a matter of hours, solo. Yeah, Scorpia's there cheering her on, but all the actual one-sided sadistic humiliation bouts are solely Catra's doing.
Portal-Catra gets punched tf out by a non-transformed Adora, yes, but keep in mind at that moment Adora's running on a full tank of desperate fear-adrenaline-rage, Catra has already been half-melted by Portal Problems, and she was also kinda caught off guard due to her own arrogance.
In season 4 she does kinda get slightly flattened by Glimmer dropping an exploding building on her, but she also soundly kicks the crap out of Hordak with little effort once she's kited him around the Fright Zone to gauge what he's really capable of.
During the first few episodes of season 5 she's about the same as she is at the end of season 4. It's post-resurrection and series finale Catra who really exemplifies what she's truly got to offer to anyone unlucky enough to threaten to take away her sweet sword lady.
When Adora regains control of her magic in Control we now find she no longer needs to breathe, can basically ignore gravity or the lack thereof, and can near-effortlessly swat down 5+ Prime-Horde fast-assault ships like mosquitos while she's at it. She has very nearly (or already) achieved apotheosis.
We also know the First Ones left a nasty Cthulu-Worm thing behind (that Horde Prime states is "capable of taking down one even as strong as She-Ra") as a security system for their planet-sized universe destroying secret weapon to KEEP SHE-RA FROM ABSORBING THE POWER OF THE THING AND POSSIBLY USING IT TO GENOCIDE HER OWN PEOPLE FOR MAKING IT.
Catra was holding her own against this Cthulu-Worm, and I think had somewhat of an advantage on it and would've finished it had she been more focused on it rather than Adora, had a bit more time, and hadn't allowed herself to get distracted by Holo Horde Prime.
Shadow Weaver recognizes the time crunch and Adora's unwillingness to leave Catra behind (and maybe even realises that lesbian sword magic is needed to save the day and keep Adora from being consumed by the Heart), and goes toe-to-toe with the worm as well, but to do so needs to put every ounce of power she's got into just holding it off, and to kill it she has to turn herself into a living nuclear weapon.
Catra has no magic. No sorcery or Runestone. No Sword of Power. Nothing but love, determination, basic combat training, and enough raw physical power to dance with a technological eldritch horror specifically designed to kill a magical demi-god.
Yes, She-Ra and the magic of the Heart are required to finally get rid of the Immortal God-King Of The Universe, but because of his virus this may have become impossible without a certain CAT-alyst to bring out the true potential of the Lesbian Sword Magic.
In conclusion, I believe that if series finale Catra time-travelled back to S1E1 she could've likely solo'd the entire Horde army and deprived us of such an amazing and heart-wrenching story of queerness, love, acceptance (of oneself and others, flaws and all), and the power of a united community to overcome those who think themselves too powerful to be opposed.
If you've made it all the way here, I hope you enjoyed it and thanks so much for reading even though I am terrible at writing, explaining, summarizing, and have a tendency to ramble even in text (^_^)'
ᐠ(❤⩊❤)ᐟ ᐠ(-⩊❤)ᐟ ♪♡♬