Asha

Asha is the protagonist of Disney's 2023 animated feature film Wish. She is a witty and optimistic 17-year-old girl from the kingdom of Rosas, who sees a darkness in her kingdom that no one else can see and whose impassioned plea brings down an actual Star.
==Background==
Asha was born in Rosas to a philosopher named Tomás and a seamstress named Sakina. Growing up, Asha would hear her father lecture her on stars and how they were connected to all living things. When Asha was eleven years old, Asha met Dahlia, a ten-year-old girl who would become the royal baker, six years before the start of the film while chasing a mischievous goat that stole cookies Dahlia had personally baked for the queen. Upon rescuing the cookies, Asha and Dahlia shared a broken extra one and Dahlia realized she had made a friend. Later, when Asha was twelve years old, her father passed away from an unknown illness, leaving her to be raised by her mother and paternal grandfather, Sabino.
By the time she turned seventeen years old, Asha began working as a tour guide, welcoming travelers and immigrants to the kingdom of Rosas.
===Personality===
Asha is an energetic, passionate girl who is very proud of her kingdom's history and traditions. As a tour guide, Asha is very welcoming towards people of different backgrounds and does everything to make them feel accepted into the kingdom of Rosas. In the beginning, Asha held a high opinion of King Magnifico and his powers of granting wishes like everyone else in Rosas. However, upon hearing Magnifico's refusal to grant her grandfather's wish and discovering the king to grant wishes that benefits only to himself, Asha's opinions of him changed as she realized Magnifico had become corrupted over the years of maintaining power and magic over Rosas. This caused Asha to begin opposing the king where she sought to change her kingdom's lifestyle for everyone's well-being and happiness.
Due to growing up in a kingdom where fantasies and wishes come true, Asha is very idealistic and free-spirited. She believes that all kinds of wishes should be given a chance to become a reality.
At her core, Asha is a very compassionate and selfless girl, who cares very deeply about her family, friends, and to her entire community. Her caring nature, as stated by Dahlia, can be a weakness, as it did let Asha get into trouble when she started opposing Magnifico, endangering not only her life, but her loved ones. However, Asha's love, selflessness, and kind nature is also her greatest strength as her desires to help her people and loved ones, not only managed to summon Star to help improve the lifestyle of Rosas, but change the kingdom's society for the best by allowing people to be able to make their wishes come true with no limits or expectations.
===Physical appearance===
Asha is a tall, slender, beautiful, and tan-skinned Afro-Hispanic 17-year-old girl with freckles across her cheeks, nose, and neck, followed by narrow eyebrows and hazel eyes. She also sports long fluttery eyelashes and large coral lips, with her most distinctive feature is her hip-length, black, braided hair that has been swooped to her right side, with the left part of her scalp possessing cornrows.
Asha's clothing dawned a color scheme that is mostly shades of purple with tints of magenta; she wears a set of magenta-beaded dangle earrings with rose-like designs on the diamond-shaped pendants, followed by two magenta necklaces around her neck. She wears a dull-lavender dress with a two-tone purple triangle-inspired design, magenta threaded-seams, and small dull-golden decorations located on the both V-cut neckline and the short sleeves, worn over her long-sleeved violet dress with dull-golden sparkles printed all over it, resembling stars. Her dress also includes a diamond and triangle-inspired pattern around the hem, which are colored into three shades of purple, along with a shade of magenta. Around her waist is a magenta belt with both dull-golden diamond-shaped studs and a dull-golden diamond-shaped rose-like buckle, which are tied together by tassels hanging from the front. Asha also sports two magenta anklets around her left ankle, matching her accessorized necklaces, along with deep-purple pointed flats. At times, Asha brings a small beige bag with a dull-purple diamond printed on it, which she attaches to her belt.
While hiding from Magnifico, Asha wears a lavender hooded cape with a magenta bow.
After being given a magic wand by Star, Asha's hair and dress are sprinkled with white sparkles, making her look sparkly.
===Powers and abilities===
Magic: Star gave Asha a stick that possessed magic to fight against Magnifico, who was later revealed to be a brainwashed Simon in disguise to stall her. In the film, she uses the stick like a magic wand to change the size of objects/animals, conjure clothing, and transform/animate objects. Asha starts off uneasily using the stick, but eventually gets better at it until the stick breaks. She receives a real magic wand from Star, who transformed the broken stick into a wand, regardless of using magic with minor difficulty again by the end of the film.
==Appearances==
===Wish===
Asha, who is now 17 years old, is excited not only because it's her grandfather's 100th birthday, but also because she's going to be interviewed by King Magnifico for the 2nd most-prized position in the kingdom: being his apprentice. Upon entering Magnifico's study, Asha discovers a spell book containing dark magic that Magnifico apparently keeps. But while the interview goes completely well, things come to a head when Magnifico shows Asha something very secret.
Taking her to his chamber, Magnifico shows her a collection of all the wishes of Rosas' citizens, but when Asha finds her grandfather's wish and asks Magnifico to grant it, which is to simply just hoping his music will inspire others, Magnifico declines it because he deems it to be "too vague". He also reveals a dark secret to her; he erases the memories of the citizens' wishes, rendering the populace devoid of ambition and dependent on him, causing tensions to rise between him and Asha, which only intensifies when he passes on granting Sabino's wish and dejects Asha as his apprentice.
Later that night, Asha tells her family about Magnifico's dark nature, but her family remains unconvinced and she accidentally hurts Sabino's feelings when she questioned if his wish is meant to be kept safe by Magnifico even if it may never be granted, running out of her house in despair. Reaching to the tree where her father used to take her, Asha makes a desperate wish upon a star in hopes that everyone in Rosas will truly get a chance at having their wishes come true. But to her surprise, her wish is so great and pure that she is granted the star itself, which takes the form of an anthropomorphic ball of light whose name is later revealed to be Star. She also discovers that his magic dust give life to anything it touches and the ability to talk to any living thing sprinkled with its dust, which also happens to her pet goat Valentino, who gains the ability to talk like he wished. When morning came, Asha discovers that Star has come to help her recover all the wishes Magnifico has.
Unfortunately, Star's presence was recognized by everyone in Rosas, including Magnifico, but he sees this as another more powerful threat to his power, and despite everyone else seeing this as a lightshow done by him, he reveals that it wasn't his work and promises to grant the wish of anyone who identifies the traitor. While all this is happening, Asha introduces Star to her friends, and with the help of her best friend Dahlia, she, Valentino, and Star sneak back up to Magnifico's study, manage to retrieve Sabino's wish, and escape before Magnifico could find them, though Star causes a ruckus in his study and accidentally sets some items on fire.
Returning home, Asha introduces her family to Star and a very talkative Valentino before giving her grandfather his long-awaited wish, but they get an unexpected visit by Magnifico who, in an evil fury, smashes Sakina's wish, which leaves her heartbroken, prompting her family to escape to a close island. However, determined to stop Magnifico from hurting everyone else, Asha, Star, and Valentino head back to Rosas to stop him.
Upon returning to Rosas, Asha witnesses another wish ceremony by a greatly-changed Magnifico; he had gotten paranoid by the threat, so in a desperate measure, he used a recipe found in his spell book to make a staff with dark magic to absorb Star's powers, becoming corrupted in the process. To her shock, she discovers that one of her friends, Simon, ratted her out to Magnifico just to get Magnifico to grant his wish of being a knight, but he ends up being brainwashed by him in the process. Hiding in a secret hideout, Asha and her friends, along with a frightened Queen Amaya, formulate a plan to stop Magnifico and get everyone's wishes back.
Determined to keep Magnifico busy while the others try to free the wishes, Asha gets another unexpected surprise from Star when he gives her a stick and enchants it with his magic, making it act like a magic wand which allows her to go head-to-head with Magnifico on equal footing. After a long-chase throughout Rosas' countryside and struggling to learn how to use her magic, Asha's stick breaks and she is cornered by Magnifico, but quickly learns that Magnifico is well aware of her plan when the Magnifico that chased her reveals himself as a disguised Simon, who blocks her when she tries to leave for Rosas. Fortunately, John the Bear tackles him out of the way, allowing her to rush back to Rosas while leaving Simon at the mercy of talking rabbits.
When Asha returned to the city, it was too late as Magnifico had thwarted her friends' heist before grabbing her and reeling her up to force her to watch as he ruthlessly absorbs Star into his staff and covers the whole kingdom in darkness to ensure no one would wish on the stars ever again to add more karma to Asha. Though it would have seemed that Magnifico had won, Asha, while restrained by Magnifico, calls on the people of Rosas for help in stopping him, and pretty soon, despite Magnifico trying to stop them from wishing, she manages to channel all the magic from everyone, free Star, and trap Magnifico inside his own staff.
With Magnifico defeated, his magic powers down as a new day dawns over the kingdom, with the citizens, Asha's mother included, being able to get their wishes back. Afterwards, Asha is soon confronted by a regretful Simon, who apologizes for telling Magnifico about Star and understands if she cannot forgive, but she does forgive him as she understands why he did it. As for Magnifico, he is trapped inside the mirror that was made into his staff. Amaya has it locked away in the dungeon where it will be hanged on a wall as she becomes the sole ruler of Rosas.
After Rosas has been saved, its citizens develop a newfound appreciation in pursuing their wishes, but upon learning that Star will be returning to the heavens, Asha is gifted a brand new magic wand Star transformed after repairing it for her, and with urging from her loved ones, she promises Star to continue helping others earn their wishes as a fairy godmother, aiding everyone in making their dreams come true.
===Once Upon a Studio===
In the short, Asha joins in on singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" with Snow White and Fa Mulan, then sings the last line with all the Disney characters as the group photo is successfully taken for Disney's 100th anniversary.
==Disney Parks==
Asha's theme park character appearance made her reveal at Destination D23 at Disney's Contemporary Resort on September 10, 2023. Following the release of Wish, she began appearing prominently in the Disney Parks.
===Walt Disney World===
In Epcot, Asha can be seen as a meet-and-greet character at the World Showcase plaza.
In Happily Ever After, Asha appears during the "Peace Restored" scene near the end of the show, in which "Go the Distance" plays.
===Disneyland===
In Wondrous Journeys, Asha can be seen during the reprise of "When You Wish Upon a Star".
===Disneyland Paris===
Asha appears as a parade character in A Million Splashes of Colour, which also features the song "This Wish" from the film.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*The name "Asha" is of Arabic origin. Meaning "Alive and Well". But has several meanings depending on the language. There are also two meanings in the following languages:
**One is in Hindi, from the Sanskrit "आशा" (āśā) meaning "desire", "wish", or "hope", which seems to be closely linked to the feature film.
**The other is in Swahili meaning "life".
**In addition, the name also comes from a very popular old Spanish song from Andalusia that dates back to the year 800 AD in the 9th century called "Tres morillas". The song mentions three names, one of them being Asha. The other two were Fátima and Marién.
*During her design, Asha was rumored to be a princess.
**In an interview with Animation Scoop, director Chris Buck confirmed that Asha is not part of royalty, which is why she is not a princess and is not part of the royal family. 
***However, she was interviewed to become the King’s apprentice, which meant that if she were hired instead of denied, she would be training to become a future leader or successor.
*She is the first and only character in Once Upon a Studio to debut before the movie.
*Asha is Disney's first Afro-Iberian heroine to headline a feature film.
*Asha's cloak during the time she was wanted and her magic wand at the film's ending resemble that of Cinderella's Fairy Godmother.
*When Star offers Asha the magic wand he created at the film's ending, she says "Thank you, but no thank you." This could be a reference to the 2021 Disney/Pixar film, Luca, where the titular character says the same thing to Alberto Scorfano.
*When Star flies around Asha to add white sparkles on her hair and dress at the film's ending, her transformation pose is a reference to Cinderella's ballgown transformation, which Walt Disney considered his favorite piece of animation.
*By being granted a magic wand, Asha may be the first "fairy godmother".
==References==
==External links==
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Category:Wish characters
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