Alisha Hawthorne

Alisha Hawthorne is the overarching protagonist of the 2022 Disney•Pixar animated film, Lightyear. She is Buzz's commanding officer and best friend.
==Background==
Alisha, along with Buzz and the crew of the Turnip become marooned on an alien planet called T'Kani Prime after their ship crash-lands. Their only hope of getting off the planet is to rebuild their ship and begin experimenting with hyperspeed propulsion systems powered by crystalic fusion. Buzz is chosen to be the test pilot. But during these flight tests, Buzz experiences time dilation. While it's only minutes for Buzz, years pass for Alisha and everyone else. During those years, Alisha marries a woman named Kiko and lives her life regardless of the planet she is on, advancing her career, being in love, and building a family.
===Physical appearance===
Alisha is dark skinned with black curly braided hair and brown eyes (her hair turns grey over the years). In the following years, Alisha grows out her hair and styles it into a side-mohawk with water wave crochet braids. Above and across her right eyebrow, she has a faint scar. There is a mole on her left cheek.
==Role in the film==
Alisha approaches Buzz Lightyear who is contacting Star Command during his mission on an uncharted planet, T'Kani Prime, which Buzz tells her that narrating helps just as she follows alongside Buzz. He then asks Alisha to know how long he knew that he narrates, which she replies that she knew about it a lot since Buzz became cadets with her just before introducing Buzz to a rookie member, Featheringhamstan. Buzz continues talking to Alisha, unaware of Featheringhamstan being caught by a sentient vine being a danger to him and Alisha as well as alien insects attacking them just before the two retreat to the Turnip. Alisha gets the Turnip ready to depart from the planet just as Buzz attempts to rescue Featheringhamstan from the sentient vine as well as a galactic insect which Alisha saves them in time. As they retreat, Alisha returns to the engine room while Buzz returns to the helm where he asks Alisha about the status just as Alisha reports of the fuel engaged; Buzz attempts to launch his ship, but due to Buzz ignoring the warnings from I.V.A.N. and an offer from Featheringhamstan to help him, Buzz's ship ends up getting stuck on the planet. Still marooned on the planet, Alisha shows Buzz a destroyed hyper-speed crystal that was destroyed. Convincing Buzz to finish the mission, he replies to Alisha that there is no crystal to fuel the ship to which during a discussion in trying to find a replacement of the destroyed crystal, Alisha observes Buzz devising his strategy while noticing Buzz planning to continue the mission.
One year later, Buzz approaches Alisha who asks him if he is ready for his mission which Buzz agrees just before approaching Airman Díaz. Upon obtaining a fuel crystal from an ERIC, Alisha readies Buzz to blast off but then return back to the base at T'Kani Prime. After Buzz's first mission was a failure, he returns to Alisha who is shown to have aged, while an ERIC replies that time dilation is simple, explaining to Buzz that when he reached hyper speed, his time slowed relative to their own to which throughout Buzz's mission, he aged only minutes while the rest of the inhabitants of T'Kani Prime have aged years due to the fact that the faster he flies via hyper speed, the further into the future he travels just before Alisha advises him to hold off onto anymore test flights until they finish something else to avoid any further time dilation effects. As Buzz plans to finish the mission, Alisha warns him that he will lose another four years if he continues through hyper speed. Just as Buzz returns to his room, he sees a ring on Alisha's finger, as she remembers that she was engaged with Kiko whom she met three years ago just before Buzz returns to his room.
The next day when Buzz plans to start his next mission to correct his mistake from the previous mission, Alisha feels worried that she might age again as Buzz plans to start his mission right away just as Buzz starts his mission again. Throughout a montage of missions and returns back to T'Kani Prime, Alisha shows Buzz his new astronaut suit for future missions and as the time dilation goes on further, Buzz encounters Alisha and her wife Kiko, albeit aging as the dilation continues. After Buzz returns from his last mission, he later found out that Alisha died of old age. Upon activating a device that reveals a hologram of Alisha, she tells Buzz that she became old as the time dilation goes further, followed by a hologram of Izzy talking to her grandmother excited to be a Space Ranger like Buzz; however, it is revealed that Alisha passed away after Buzz's last mission. 
Another hologram of Alisha appears during the part where Buzz is discussing with the Junior Patrol about the mistake he made, which Sox restored due to the hologram file being corrupted. The hologram shows Alisha talking to Sox to look after her best friend Buzz hoping for him to bring her home just before the hologram disappears. During a discussion with Izzy, Buzz explained that Alisha believed he could fix the mistake he made caused by the time dilation effects. Izzy replies that her grandmother Alisha had Kiko, her father, and all her friends during her life on T'Kani Prime just before Alisha died.
After Buzz lands on T'Kani Prime after escaping from Zurg and bringing the Junior Patrol and Sox to safety, Buzz approaches Izzy, telling her that her grandmother would have been proud if she saw her as a Space Ranger. Later, a statue of Alisha was placed in Star Command in honor of her legacy, just as Izzy approaches a statue of her grandmother, telling her that she is a Space Ranger while Buzz gives a salute in honor of Alisha.
==Trivia==
*Because Alisha is a lesbian, a same-sex kiss scene was initially cut at the request of Disney. Following Pixar's complaint and the threatening of a walk-out, Disney allowed the scene to be reinstated and unedited.
**She is also the fifth LGBT Pixar character, following Specter in Onward, Greg and Manuel in Out, and Priya Mangal in Turning Red.
**Because of this, Lightyear was banned in Bahrain, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
*Alisha's first name was originally thought to be "Alicia", but leaked concept from twitter revealed that her first name to be Alisha.
*Alisha's wife Kiko bears a striking resemblance to Namaari from Raya and the Last Dragon. 
*When Alisha catches Buzz doing a mission log, she tells him nobody ever listens to them. In Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, Warp Darkmatter made the same remark about mission logs.
*Alisha did not exist in the earliest draft of Lightyear. She was added when the filmmakers wanted to give Buzz someone to connect to who had a family when he did not.
==Gallery==
===Screenshots===
Lightyear (45).jpg|"You were narrating again."
Lightyear (130).jpg
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Lightyear (144).jpg|Mockingly plays background music while Buzz gives a melodramatic speech
Lightyear (146).jpg
Lightyear (36).png
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Lightyear (46).jpg
Lightyear - Buzz and Alisha.jpg|"To infinity..."
Lightyear (48).jpg
Lightyear - teaser (11).jpg
Lightyear (178).jpg
Lightyear (183).jpg
Lightyear (184).jpg
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Lightyear (182).jpg
Lightyear (169).png
Lightyear (185).jpg|Alisha pregnant
Lightyear (189).jpg|Alisha's wife and son
Lightyear (84).jpg
Lightyear - Alisha (1).jpg
Lightyear (174).jpg|Alisha older
Lightyear (175).jpg
Lightyear - Alisha (2).jpg
Lightyear - Alisha (3).jpg
Lightyear - Alisha (4).jpg
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Lightyear (75).jpg|Alisha's statue
===Miscellaneous===
Lightyear - teaser (42).jpg|"To infinity..."
Buzz's Friends and Foes.jpeg
Lightyear character concept 2.jpg
Lightyear - Print images (1).jpg|Cutting the vines with a light blade
Lightyear concept art (33).jpg
Lightyear Characters - Alisha Hawthorne.jpg
Lightyear - Alisha concept (1).jpg
Lightyear - Alisha concept (2).jpg
Buzz-alisha.png
==References==
==External Links==
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Category:Lightyear characters
Category:Pixar characters
Category:Animated characters
Category:Adults
Category:Females
Category:Heroines
Category:LGBTQ+ characters
Category:Mentors
Category:Elderly characters
Category:Grandparents
Category:African American characters
Category:Military characters
Category:Commanders
Category:Astronauts
Category:Spouses
Category:Parents
Category:Deceased characters
Category:Elderly characters