Hordak is the main antagonist of the Netflix original series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which is a reboot of the 1985 Filmation series She-Ra: Princess of Power. He is the supreme leader of the Horde and Adora/She-Ra's arche-nemesis.
History
Background
According to Scorpia (a Force Captain of the Horde, also revealed to be a princess), Hordak and the Horde "crash landed" on Etheria in her family's kingdom. Scorpia's family welcomed them with open arms and joined forces with them, also giving Hordak their runstone named the Black Garnet. Bent on world domination, Hordak then started his conquest of Etheria, successfully managing to take over of occuppy most of the planet. In order to put a end to the Horde's threat, a Resistance movement named the Rebellion was then created by the kingdom of Bright Moon's rulers, Queen Angella and King Micah, who also created the Princess Alliance (which was made of the various princesses from the differents kingdoms of Etheria). Unfortunately, The Rebellion suffered a crushing defeat by the Horde, which resulted in King Micah's death and the fall of the original Princess Alliance as almost all the princesses (save for Netossa and Spinerella) decided following that to protect only their kingdoms and lands. Hordak, however, was unable to completly ends the Rebellion because Bright Moon was protected by the dangerous Whispering Woods so he became bent on destroying them. At some point, Hordak met the sorceress Shadow Weaver (a exiled sorceress from Mystacor, who was also formerly named Light Spinner), who he appointed as his second-in-command and also gave the Black Garnet as the source of her magical powers.
Season 1
Hordak is mentionned in the series's very first episode "The Sword Part 1", Shawdow Weaver informs her ward Adora (a Cadet soldier in his Horde and the main protagonist of the series) that he has been watching her, and has decided to promote her to the rank of Force Captain due her great skills and potential.
Hordak then appears in person in the episode "Razz" where Shadow Weaver arrives with her other ward Catra (Adora's former comrade and best friend) to inform him of the lost of Force Captain Adora (who has now defected to the Rebellion and has becomes the legendary female warrior She-Ra after finding the Sword of Protection in the Whispering Woods) and offers to have her brought back at any costs. Hordak, however, refuses and orders her to elect a new Force Captain and resume normal operations instead. Shadow Weaver responds that Adora was the only valuable candidate for the Force Captain rank, but Hordak simply questions why she would not elect Catra as the new Force Captain since she is her ward too, to which Shadow Weaver irritably says that Catra has been nothing but a disappointment to her. Hordak, however simply replies that she can only blame herself of she has failed to condition her properly and decides to appoint Catra as the new Force Captain nonethless. Shadow Weaver attempts to protest but Hordak quickly silences her, stating that "he has made his decision". Hordak then walks to Catra, then hands her over the Force Captain badge himself, which she gladly accepts.
After learning that Shadow Weaver has defied his orders by still attempting to get Adora back in the episode "Flowers for She-Ra", Hordak contacts her on the monitor screen from her room to tell her he's aware that she has disobeyed his orders. When Shadow Weaver denies this, stating that "her will are his", Hordak then demands to know why she requested more troops to find "one missing soldier" despite him ordering her to give up on said soldier. Shadow Weaver then attempts to protest that finding Adora is crucial to the Horde, to which Hordak angrily reminds her their mission is to destroy the Whispering Woods so they can march on and attack the kingdom of Brigh Moon and ends the Princesses and their "ridiculous" Rebellion. He tells Shadow Weaver that she's " distracted" before stating that the siege on the kingdom of Plumeria has been carried on for too long and orders her to give the order to increase power until the victory is achieved. Before ending the call, he threateningly reminds Shadow Weaver that he is the one who granted her powers by giving her the Black Garnet, and thus can take it away if he wants so.
Hordak only appears as an illusion to Adora due to Shadow Weaver in the episode "In the Shadows of Mystacor", taunting her that she is a disappointment to the Horde that had hopes in her and saying that she will only leads her friends, the Princesses Alliance and the Rebellion to their dooms, which causes Adora to destroy every crystals nearby her.
In the episode "No Princess Left Behind", following the capture of Glimmer (the princess of Bright Moon) by Catra, Hordak contacts the latter and Shadow Weaver and informs them that he has sent an ultimatum to Queen Angella (the queen of the Bright Moon kingdom and Glimmer's mother), revealing that she will have until the monday moon rise to surrender herself to his forces. Much to Catra's anger, Shadow Weaver steals the credits for Glimmer's capture, which causes Hordak to proclaims that she has proven her worth to him today, then ends the call.
After Glimmer escaped thanks to a rescue mission led by Adora and the new Princess Alliance, Hordak has a meeting with Shadow Weaver, Catra, Scorpia and many other officers of the Horde in the episode "The Beacon", where he furiously informs the sorceress that he has not only learned of their valuable hostage's escape but has also been informed that she had knew that Adora was She-Ra all-along, something she had kept to herself instead of telling him. Shadow Weaver then tries to explain that this was the reason of why she wanted so much to bring Adora back, but Hordak refuses to listen, angrily stating that he would have never agree to her "foolish plan" if he had knew. After Princess Entrapa, who had been left behind and believed to be dead by the other Princesses, is found and captured by Catra and Scorpia, Hordak tasks them with interrogating her, which leads her to join the Horde by being tricked by Catra about believing that her friends have abandonned her.
Hordak sends his loyal pet and spy, the Imp, to spy on Catra, Scorpia and Entrapa in the episode "Light Hope". He is seen sitting on his throne when the Imp returns to him and informs him of Catra, Entrapa and Scorpia's plans involving the Black Garnet by using his ability to record any sounds or conversations he hears. Hordak later appears on the screens of Shadow Weaver's room, informing her that he learned that Catra, Entrapa and Scorpia have been working on a way to melt the Black Garnet with the Horde's machines to weaponize it and, intrigued by this scheme, he has given Catra and her team his blessing to go ahead, before telling Shadow Weaver that he is displeased by her "interruption". When Shadow Weaver angrily asks him if he is really gonna to let a princess like Entrapa "tinkers" with her roonstone, Hordak responds that her "tinkerings" have boosted the firepower of every machines she has touched so he confirms that she indeed gets to tinker with whatever she wants, including the Black Garnet, which he states that it is to give or take as he sees fit. When Shadow Weaver continues to protest by stating that she has unlocked his potentiel, Hordak simply replies that she has wasted it on parlor tricks before telling Catra to proceed and that the Black Garnet is hers, much to Shadow Weaver's fury.
In the episode "The Battle of Bright Moon", Hordak is sitting on his throne when Catra returns to report to him her defeat at Bright Moon. Hordak then voices his displeasure at her failure, reamarking that her experiment seems to have failed". Entrapa, however, reveals that the experiment was a huge success as she now knows more about First Ones tech than ever and states this was just the beginning. Catra then remarks about how she got the Horde closer to conquering the kingdom of Bright Moon than anyone ever has and that the Whispering Woods is still in ruins, concluding by stating that Etheria is their for the taking. Pleased, intrigued and impressed, Hordak appoints Catra as his new second-in-command.
Powers and Abilities
As its leader, Hordak leads the Horde unchallenged and with fear and respect. He is extremely intelligent, stated to have a "brillant, technological mind". Hordak also wears First Ones tech-powered armor which gives him super-strength.