Brynne Rao

She was the recarnation of the strongest Pandava, Bheema!

* Brynne
* With Mini

Brynne Tvarika Lakshmi Balamuralikrishna Rao, commonly known as "Brynne Rao" is a major character in Aru Shah and the Song of Death, and Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes. She's the modern-day reincarnation of the Pandava Bhima and lives in New York with her two uncles.

## History

### Early Life

Brynne grew up with her two uncles mainly raising her; her mother felt she’d had her too young and was unable to take care of her. But Brynne always hoped to gain her approval, and hoped that if her mother was impressed enough she might actually parent Brynne, so she combined that with her naturally competitive nature and won a lot of trophies, filling up a scrapbook with her posing with them, and melting the trophies into bracelets.

At some point, Anila, her mother, was with her when a boiling pot of water fell over, but instead of helping Brynne, she saved her purse, and Brynne got a nasty scar.

Brynne was also bullied due to her asura heritage; Aiden Acharya saw some kids bullying her and cursed them with his apsara powers. From then on the two became pretty good and close friends.

## The Pandava Quintet

### Aru Shah and the End of Time

Brynne was aware of her soul father for a while before she was claimed; before the events of Aru Shah and the End of Time, she awakened her Pandava powers to save her uncle, and though she expected to be brought along on the first quest, nothing happened. She assumed it was because of her asura lineage.

Brynne finds Kamadeva’s bow and arrow outside her doorstep,though Aru didn't believe that.

### Aru Shah and the Song of Death

Brynne Rao appeared as a wolf in the Night Bazaar. She ran towards the stadium while Aru and Mini gave chased. Once she got there, Brynne ran into the true thief of the bow and arrow who took the form of Aru Shah. She tried to fight the thief by turning into a blue jaguar but she was thrown against the wall. Aru and Mini stepped in and Fake Aru fled with the bow and arrow. They are allowed to prove their innocence by retrieving Kamadeva's bow and arrow in ten days. So, Aru and Mini, along with Brynne and Aiden Acharya (Who she coincidentally happens to know very well) must journey through the Naga Realm and retrieve the God of Love's bow or be banished from the Otherworld forever.

### Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

Fourteen-year-old Brynne Rao and her friends are sent on a mission to rescue two "targets," one of whom is about to utter a prophecy that could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Turns out the targets, a pair of twins, are the newest Pandava sisters, though the prophecy says that one sister is not true. When the Pandavas fail to prevent the prophecy from reaching the Sleeper's ears, the heavenly attendants ask them to step aside. But, instead of stepping aside, Aru, Mini, Brynne, Aiden, and Rudy go on an unofficial quest to find the real Kalpavriksha (a tree that can grant wishes) as according to Sheela's prophecy. At the end of the book, Brynne is seperated from her sister Aru.

## Physical Appearance

Brynne is an extremely tall half-Indian, half-Irish girl with chestnut skin and long brown hair that had golden highlights in it at the beginning of Aru Shah and the End of Time. She has long, thick, and sturdy limbs that are covered in metal bracelets made of melted down trophies. “Angry” is her usual expression.

Nikita gifts her a blue jacket than can double as a parachute in Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes.

## Personality

Brynne is a very determined and headstrong person, who will do anything to achieve her goals. She is also quite impulsive and rushes into battle without giving anything a second thought. She cares fiercely for her friends and does anything to keep them safe.

Despite her rash and kinda nasty attitude, Brynne is actually really insecure. She is insecure about her asura heritage and about being a hero, which is why she’s so headstrong; she desperately wants to prove herself to others and even herself.

## Abilities and Tools

* Demigod Abilities
* Magical Abilities
* Magical Items

* **Internal Compass:** As daughter of the god of wind, she always knows what direction she is facing. She also knows how to find her way to places.
* **Pandava Mind Link:** She can communicate telepathically with other pandavas. While she initially did not let the others in, she ended up forging a relationship with her siblings and allowed them to communicate with her.

- **Enhanced Strength:** As the reincarnation of Bhima, she is far stronger than a normal person. She can easily lift and carry people her size and stop a moving car in its tracks.

- **Super Eating:** Similar to Bhima, she has what has been referred to as an “iron gullet.” She is capable of eating an excessive amount of food, far more than the normal human can handle. She can even keep up with the god Agni for quite some time, whose hunger is said to be near insatiable. Even after being full enough to throw up, she quickly rebounds in a few minutes and asks for more food.

- **Shapeshifting:** With her Asura blood, she can transform into animals in the color blue.
	* Bird: She can turn into a small blue bird to fly away.
	* Elephant: She can turn into a blue elephant to charge large enemies.
	* Jaguar: She can transform into a blue jaguar to attack enemies.
	* Swan: She can turn into a blue swan to fly away.
	* Wolf: She can turn into a giant blue wolf capable of carrying a bow and arrows in her mouth.

* **Mace of Vayu:** Brynne wields the celestial mace of Vayu, god of wind and her spiritual father, in battle. With it, she is able to manipulate wind currents. It take the form of a blue choker when not in use.
* **Fire Generation:** From Agni, her mace was enchanted to be able to create flames.
* **Wind Manipulation:** The main ability of her mace, she is can generate wind currents capable of throwing people far enough into the air that people below look like ants. She can also manipulate air currently existing air currents. She uses her mace to blow enemies and objects away. While underwater, the mace creates bubbles instead.

## Relationships

### Friends

* Aiden Acharya
* Aru Shah
* Mini Kapoor
* Nikita Jagan
* Hira

Brynne and Aiden are pretty good friends and both seem to consider their friendship as one between a brother and sister, which makes things awkward when they found out they used to be married. They seemed to have grown up in the same place (probably in the Otherworld) and one day, Aiden found Brynne being bullied for her asura heritage, so he stepped in and cursed the bullies, starting their friendship. They even have nicknames for each other; 'Ammamma' for Aiden and 'Bee' for Brynne.

Aru and Brynne had an antagonistic start to their relationship, to say the least, due to a combination of circumstances, conflicting personalities, and jealousy. They truly become friends after Mini is captured, and they all share dreams with her where she tells them, among other things, to not blame each other, and after Aiden gives Aru a 100 Grand and a space to clear the air with Brynne. They commiserate about family and become closer; Brynne even shares the candy bar with Aru. So after that, they become pretty close friends, joking around together and teasing each other. Later in the third book, Aru asks Brynne and Mini how she looked after she shocked Rudy and Vajra came to her hand, making her hair wave around. Mini doesn't know how to answer, and Brynne immediately responds with, 'I love you but it looks like you got in a fight with Pikachu, and lost'. Brynne loves Aru as she says.

At the beginning of the book, Brynne mainly ignores Mini or thinks she’s weak, while Mini tries to smooth things over between the quartet. She also has a lot of empathy for Brynne, giving her good advice. Brynne seems to like her too, since she’s as angry as Aru that Mini’s captured and wants to rescue her. Brynne and Mini also seem to be pretty good friends by the end of the book.

Nikita is initially aggressive towards Brynne in response to her doubting the twins being Pandavas -- they get into a fight quickly. Later, Nikita acts somewhat passive-aggressively to Brynne, until the end, when they grow closer.
In Aru Shah and the Song of Death, Brynne is upset at Hira’s treatment and calls her brother and co. pigs and blows them into the mud. Later, Hira and Brynne seem to be friends; Hira protects Aru from seeing Brynne’s creation’s face melting. Brynne also sympathizes with Hira’s predicament with the terrible Otherworld Foster Care Program, and offers to have her uncles set something up for her, which ends up happening.

### Family

* Anila
* Vayu
* Gunky and Funky

Anila feels like she had Brynne too young, and seems to feel guilty and avoids Brynne, but Brynne wants to impress her enough so that she’ll stay and they can be a family, so she has an entire scrapbook of her posing with trophies and melts her trophies down into bracelets and wears them in an obvious way, just to show to her mother that she’s worth something.

Anila also seems to be very neglectful when she was around. Brynne has stated that Chandra, the god of the moon, seems like the type of person who only reacts when something he values is in danger. Brynne then moves her trophy bracelets to reveal a scar. Aru explains that the scar was from a hot water accident. A pot of hot water had spilled from the stove, and instead of pushing her daughter out of the way, Anila chose to save her purse instead, proving that she values her purse more than her own daughter. Brynne's scar is apparently one of many that her mother has given her, although most are emotional ones.
Brynne has known Vayu was her father for a while. He cools her cooking for her, so she never has to wait, and before her official claiming he sent messages occasionally through her half-brother Hanuman. And when Brynne won her first Otherworld trophy, he sent a tiny whirlwind of daisies to her room.

Brynne is close to her two uncles and cares for them. Gunky and Funky, in return care for Brynne as they adopted her.

## Etymology

* 'Brynne' means 'Hill' and is of Welsh origins.

* Rao is a Hindi surname, originating from Sanskrit, meaning 'Raja' or 'King'.

## Trivia

* Her dad was a musician and Irish, according to her mother.

* She’s Telugu on her mom’s side.

* She was going to be named "Brian" because her mom thought she was having a boy. But, when she turned out to be a girl, her mom named her the next closest thing, which was "Brynne".

* Brynne has stated she is attracted to both boys and girls, making her the first LGBTQ+ character in the series.

As confirmed by one of Roshani Chokshi's Instagram AMAs for the Pandava sisters:-

* As a follow-up to that last trivia bit, when asked if she liked guys or girls more or if she was a 50/50 bi on the AMA, Brynne responded with 50/50.

* Brynne's favorite animal to transform into is the wolf.

* Brynne cannot turn into extinct amimals.

* Her favorite recipe is for bread.

* Aiden tries to get her to meditate, but Brynne always falls asleep.

* Brynne's favorite foods for releasing aggression while cooking: bread (she likes throwing it on the counter) and risotto (because it's time-consuming and satisfying).

* If she could turn into any fantasy animal, she would turn into a manticore.

* Brynne's zodiac sign is Taurus, an earth sign known for being down-to-earth and strong-willed; her birthday is May 7.

* Her favorite movie is "The Hundred-Foot Journey".

* Her favorite video game is "Halo 4".

* Her favorite Tollywood movie is "Baahubali".

* To annoy Aru, Brynne will: make oatmeal raisin cookies and tell her they're chocolate chip cookies, turn into an octopus and hide under her bed and grab her ankle, and say "hmm" as an answer to every question.

* The group favorite food she likes to make is loaded-up nachos.

* Her favorite song is "Savage" by Megan Thee Stallion.

* If she couldn't shapeshift, Brynne would want the power to teleport wherever she wants, since she hates when she forgets an ingredient at the grocery store.

* Brynne loves dosa and makes it, as well as making the best sambar and coconut chutney, too.

* She thinks Aru is a weirdo and Mini is a germaphobe and she knows she wouldn't want anyone else as family.

* Being the daughter of the wind, for her, is like holding a cyclone in her hands or grabbing hold of an invisible rope capable of snapping trees and shaking buildings.

* Her pet peeve is loud chewers.

* It is stated in Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes that if she was born as a boy, would have been named as 'Brian'.

* Brynne once stole her mother's purse, so that she would have to visit her to get it back.
* Brynne is a Taurus Sun, Capricorn Moon

## ReadRiordan's Articles On Her

*“Brynne, an ultra-strong girl who knows more than she lets on, is a shapeshifter, a Pandava, and a force to be reckoned with. .. Brynne, the third reincarnated Pandava, is claimed by Vayu, god of the wind. She has been bestowed with the ability to shape shift into animals, and she wields a celestial mace that can summon powerful gusts. Unlike Aru and Mini, heroism and grace come naturally to Brynne, but her quick temper constantly puts her at odds with her soul sisters. They’re all going to have to learn how to get along if they want to prevent the human race from transforming into a horde of heartless zombies.”*

*"Brynne Tvarika Lakshmi Balamuralikrishna Rao is a half-Indian, half-asura girl who is the reincarnation of the Pandava brother Bhima. Of all the current Pandava sisters, she’s by far the most headstrong and the one you definitely don’t want to mess with"*