Chief Benja

Benja is a supporting character in Disney's 2021 animated feature film Raya and the Last Dragon. He is the chief of Heart in Kumandra and Guardian of the Dragon Gem, a role shared with his daughter, Raya. Amidst the polarization of Kumandra's five lands, Benja believed that unity would be possible if someone were to "take the first step."
==Background==
===Official Description===
: Known as "the baddest blade in the five lands," Benja is Raya's beloved father and legendary Guardian of the Dragon Gem. As Chief of Heart, he's an idealistic and bold visionary who believes that Kumandra is broken because the people of the different lands don't trust each other. Benja seeks to reunite the fractured kingdom of Kumandra and restore harmony.
===Physical appearance===
Benja is a handsome middle-aged man of Southeast Asian descent. He has black hair tied into a ponytail, brown eyes, and a goatee. He sports a teal shirt and pants combo supported by a belt.
===Personality===
Chief Benja is a selfless, protective and wise chief. He is an extremely skilled fighter, but despite this, he prefers not resorting to violence and seeks to come up with diplomatic solutions so that the Heart tribe can put their differences with the others aside and come together to be one again, rather than keep finding reasons to hate each other. Therefore, he tries to teach his daughter how important it is to take the first step towards building trust with them, hence why he arranges a banquet and invites all the other tribes, hoping it will go a long way towards allowing them to rebuild the positive and unified relationship they once had. He even tries to reason with everyone again after they all started fighting for the Gem upon noticing Fang's attempt to steal it, demonstrating that even in tense and stressful situations, he is capable of maintaining a levelheaded and calm disposition. 
As to be expected, he also loves his daughter very much and prioritized her safety over his own, as demonstrated when he makes sure to get her safely away from the Druun and accepts his fate of being petrified due to believing he won't be much help in his injured state. Overall, he represents the kind of attitude that if everyone shared, they could have reunited back into Kumandra without the entire plot needing to happen. Thankfully, by the end, after making everything worse for a while thanks to their continued fighting and everything only being fixed after Raya, Namaari and several others learn to trust each other and unite the pieces of the Dragon Gem to make it whole again, everyone seems to now appreciate his perspective enough to willingly come together again.
==Role in the film==
As a young Raya enters a cave containing the sacred Dragon Gem, Benja prevents his daughter from touching. In order to prepare Raya for her adventure, Benja trains with his daughter to help her practice becoming protector of the Gem by engaging in a combat. After a tough training, he declares his daughter as the Guardian of the Dragon Gem. He then explains that for generations, his family has sworn to protect the Gem as he explains to Raya that she will join the legacy.
Back at home, Raya explains to her father that anyone who is in possession of the Dragon Gem should face their fears of the two baddest blades in the land. Benja continues explaining to his daughter that the tribes from Tail, Talon, Spine, and Fang are on their way to Heart to which Raya devises a feast for all the tribes so that the tribes can be reunited in harmony. Instead of using crossbows and catapults to end the war, Benja suggests an alternative way to stop the feud by making a soup for them, which he uses shrimp paste from Tail, lemongrass from Talon, bamboo shoots from Spine, chilis from Fang, and palm sugar from Heart as a peaceful alternative. He then gains faith in Raya believing the tribes can be reunited with each other just as he hopes that the tribes can be reunited.
At the Land of Heart, the four tribes from Tail, Talon, Fang, and Spine arrive and are gathered during a feast where Benja plans to reunite all five tribes in peace and harmony. During the event, the Chief of Heart starts to accept them to be welcomed, but later notices Namaari's betrayal of Raya (as marked by a flare launched by Namaari) and upon seeing a group of Fang soldiers in possession of the Gem, he engages in combat with multiple feuding soldiers and chiefs. However, he then tries to stop the fighting by explaining the two choice the quarreling tribes have: fight so that Kumandra would fall, or live together in harmony to make Kumandra a better place, clearly trying to implore them to choose the latter. However, an archer fires an arrow at Benja in revenge just as the tribes continue fighting over the Gem. However, this also immediately results in them dropping and breaking the Gem, breaking it into pieces, much to Benja's sadness, and just then, the Druun arrive at Kumandra and start turning everyone they make contact with into stone.
As the Druun begin plaguing the land of Kumandra, Benja tries to escape from the Druun, but is too weak to go on, due to the injury he had after getting hit by the arrow. Raya tries to help her father escape the Druun, but he is too weak to go with her. He then tells his daughter to go without her and throws her into the water to safety just as Benja ends up getting petrified by the Druun in an unfortunate result, leading Raya and Tuk Tuk on a quest to reunite all the Gem shards to wipe away the Druun before Kumandra falls.
Later when Raya and Sisu return to the land of Heart, Raya places a flower on the statue of her father just as she hopes that he would recognize his daughter after her return from a long journey in Kumandra as Raya and Sisu plan to get to Fang to encounter Namaari again.
As the Dragon Gem's pieces are put back in place with the Dragon Gem restored, everyone petrified by the Druun is restored back to normal form just as Benja happily reunites with Raya, who sees her after the Druun are wiped away from the power of the Gem. Benja then sees Sisu just as she tells him that his daughter saved Kumandra just as she tells him that she brought him friends. Everyone else (including the rest of the tribes Benja talked to) is welcomed to Kumandra in rejoice upon approaching Raya's father.
==Trivia==
*It is never mentioned in the film what became of Benja's wife.
*The name "Benja" is primarily a male name of Spanish origin that means "Son Of My Right Hand".
*Benja is the tenth father of a Disney Princess to be alive; preceded by King Stefan (Aurora's father), King Triton (Ariel's father), Maurice (Belle's father), The Sultan (Jasmine's father), Chief Powhatan (Pocahontas' father), Fa Zhou (Mulan's father), King Frederic (Rapunzel's father), King Fergus (Merida's father), and Chief Tui (Moana's father).
==Gallery==
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Young Raya and Chief Benja dolls.jpg
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==External links==
*Chief Benja on the Heroes Wiki
*Chief Benja on Raya and the Last Dragon Wiki
es:Jefe Benja
ja:ベンジャ
pt-br:Chefe Benja
Category:Raya and the Last Dragon characters
Category:Disney characters
Category:Animated characters
Category:Characters in the Disney animated features canon
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Category:Parents
Category:Males
Category:Asian characters
Category:Those brought back to life
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