Perfuma

— Perfuma, to Horde Prime in "Return to the Fright Zone"

**Perfuma** is the princess and current ruler of Plumeria and a member of The Princess Alliance in The Rebellion. She was the first to join the new Princess Alliance, and is one of the Elemental Princesses.

## Appearance

Perfuma has tanned skin, a slim-fit body structure, freckles on her cheeks and shoulders, brown eyes and wavy, waist-length pale blonde hair. She often has flowers decorating the back of her hair, little ones sprinkled throughout. She wears a pink flower tiara, the flowers mostly on the sides and back of her head, thickening as they go back, and a vine in the front. She wears a pink sundress with a green, long-sleeved shawl that falls off her shoulders. Her footwear consists of pink barefoot sandals. She is also notably one of the tallest members of the Princess Alliance.

In Season One, she had pink arm guards, the green shawl and barefoot sandals. In Season Two and onward, she no longer has her shawl, her arm guards have been replaced with green bracers, and the parts of her sandals that cover her ankles are now green.

## Personality

Possessed of a strong core, Perfuma is a peace-loving person who believes that the universe will reward those who do good and punish those who are evil. Despite being strongly against violence, she is more than willing to fight for what is right even if it means risking her life. However, she often has self-doubt when it's not necessary. Perfuma is, by and large, unfailingly kind and loving, hugging both Scorpia and Shadow Weaver, but she does have her limits. If she doesn't get her morning meditation, she finds being peaceful difficult, as well as dealing with ongoing stress (like Entrapta and cacti plants). Perfuma is bubbly, upbeat, and compassionate, for the most part. Adora once described her as "a demon on the battlefield" for her powerful abilities whilst in battle.

## Powers and abilities

### Powers

* **Heart-Blossom connection**: Perfuma is linked to the Heart-Blossom Tree, thus making her one of the Elemental Princesses. Her connection grants her a variety of abilities, primarily associated with plant life.
	1. **Chlorokinesis**: Perfuma can grow and control plants. She can command trees to grow and cause vegetation to spring from the ground. Perfuma primarily uses huge vines in combat.
		+ **Golem creation**: As seen in "Roll With It," Perfuma is capable of creating a massive golem entirely out of vines and plants.
		+ **Statue creation**: After the presumed death of Entrapta, she created a statue made of plants to memorialize her.
	2. **Aura Generation**: When united with the other princesses, Perfuma can generate an aura that greatly amplifies her powers. Her aura manifests in green.

### Abilities

* **Trust**: Perfuma's self-proclaimed greatest strength is her belief in her friends, understanding there is true power in love, joy, and friendship. She maintains faith that her friends will always come through and that they'll be with her to the end.

## Weaknesses

* **Cacti (formerly):** Before the Season Four episode "The Valley of the Lost," Perfuma struggled controlling cacti due to their unpredictable attributes.
* **Fire:** According to Netossa, fire is one of Perfuma's weaknesses, presumably because plants are relatively susceptible to fire or extreme heat. This was also implied in "Roll With It" when Adora shut down Perfuma's suggestion of using a plant-golem, saying "the Horde will set it on fire."
* **Fear of harming relations:** As claimed by Netossa, Perfuma's "overwhelming fear of hurting the people [she] cares about" restricts her from unleashing her full power.

## Relationships

### Bow

Bow and Perfuma met when taking supplies to Plumeria and wound up defending them from the Horde. Perfuma asked Bow to Princess Prom during their battle against the Horde near Plumeria. He gladly accepted her offer, though it did cause some friction between him and Glimmer. The two have worked together on numerous occasions and are good friends.

### Entrapta

During their mission to rescue Bow and Glimmer from The Fright Zone, Perfuma and Entrapta worked together, although Entrapta was often distracted by the technology present in The Fright Zone. This caused Perfuma to become frustrated throughout the mission, at one point using vines to prevent Entrapta from wandering away. When Entrapta later wandered back after going missing in the Fright Zone, Perfuma was annoyed with Entrapra and asked where she was, with Entrapta asking where Perfuma was. While making their escape, Entrapta is locked behind a furnace door, causing the others to believe she had died. Perfuma is visibly affected by Entrapta's "death" and goes on to build a monument to her out of vines in Plumeria.

Perfuma and Entrapta have had little contact since then as Entrapta was working with the Horde.

### Mermista

Mermista's more cynical personality often clashes with Perfuma's optimistic one. Perfuma is annoyed when Mermista sits in her seat during the war council but says nothing. Despite this, they still work well together in battle and Perfuma often hugs Mermista after they have won. In "Roll With It" the pair work together to take over a Horde target, Perfuma backed up Mermista's water attack with a plant golem attack.

Much later they with many others infiltrated the Fright Zone to liberate Adora, but Catra turned on the portal machine.

The pair experienced some discord at Glimmer's coronation when Mermista got the job of flower arrangement. But they worked in harmony when ferreting out the spy, Double Trouble.

### Huntara

Huntara was skeptical of Perfuma's ability to perform while in the Crimson Waste. But after sharing some friendly banter the two got along well. Later, when the two were liberating Mara's Ship from the Horde, Huntara was awed by Perfuma's powers as she lifted the ship with cacti roots. After the team freed Mara's Ship, Perfuma states to Huntara, that she was wrong about her and that all cacti have their flowers, then makes a flower crown for Huntara.

### Scorpia

Scorpia and **Perfuma** have battled several times in the early seasons of the show. But when Scorpia sought help from the Princess Alliance, Perfuma was the first to believe, trust, and openly welcome the Horde Princess after a brief skirmish in Bright Moon. She instantly forgave Scorpia for stinging her unconscious and even made her a salad.

In Season Five, the two princesses worked together several times. In "Perils of Peekablue", Perfuma helps Scorpia believe in her abilities and gain a sense of self-esteem. They battled each other after Scorpia got chipped. After the chip was deactivated the two were free to explore their deep friendship.

### Shadow Weaver

After rescuing Adora from the Fright Zone in the episode "The Portal," Perfuma hugged the sorceress; she is the only person to have done that. However, she still disliked Shadow Weaver and can't stand her manipulative nature. In seasons 4 and 5 Perfuma frequently objected to working with the sorceress and complained about not knowing if Shadow Weaver was an enemy, a prisoner, or an ally.

### Catra

Perfuma knew how badly Catra used to treat Scorpia and berates her for it. However, she is willing to befriend Catra, even offering to help her with her abandonment issues and negativity by meditating with her. Perfuma understands why Catra was acting the way she was because of Shadow Weaver's mistreatment of her.

## Plot

### Past

The mural in Bright Moon of the first princess Rebellion shows a person using similar powers to Perfuma, though it has not been stated if they were her predecessor. She ruled Plumeria for some time before She-Ra, Bow and Glimmer visited her kingdom.

### Season One

In the episode "Flowers for She-Ra," Perfuma was depending on She-Ra to save her dying kingdom. She and the other Plumerians welcome She-Ra and company with open arms telling them of their deep connection with the land and its plant life. When Adora finds out that the Horde was attacking, Perfuma and her kingdom rushed in to help She-Ra. After they won, Perfuma decided to join the Princess Alliance. Then, Perfuma went to Princess Prom with Bow, which put a strain on his friendship with Glimmer because Glimmer feared she would lose him as a best friend.

With Bow and Glimmer in Horde custody Mermista, Perfuma, Sea Hawk and Entrapta volunteered to rescue Glimmer and Bow along with Adora and mounted a daring escape. Perfuma's patience was challenged by Entrapta's constant distractions. She fought alongside the others and freed Bow and Glimmer. She wept as they left the Fright Zone, thinking Entrapta was dead. She left the Princess Alliance for fear of losing others to Horde aggression. She rejoined to fight the Horde in "The Battle of Bright Moon."

### Season Two

Perfuma destroyed bots along with the others and helped capture a Horde bot for Bow to study. She participated in an attack on a Horde held tower. She helped plan the attack and then created a plant golem that spearheaded the charge where the heroes took the fortress.

### Season Three

After overhearing an argument between Glimmer and Queen Angella, Perfuma and others agree to help with the rescue. Beneath the Moonstone, Shadow Weaver prepares to draw power from it even as Frosta, Perfuma, and Mermista arrive. They all insist on going as well and tell Shadow Weaver to "make that thing bigger", referring to her sorcerers' glyphs. They all teleport to The Fright Zone where Perfuma stays behind to take care of some enemies while the others move on.

### Season Four

Perfuma did not get the job of flower arranger for Glimmer's coronation, causing her great emotional distress. Her powers were needed in the Crimson Waste, so Queen Glimmer sent her with Huntara, Bow, and She-Ra to find Mara's ship, and bring it to Bright Moon. After confessing that she does hate one kind of plant, cacti, she had an emotional break-through, with the help of Huntara. She realized that she does love cacti and used her very frighteningly powerful plant magic to liberate Mara's ship from the Horde using its strong roots to carry it and bring it to Bright Moon. At the end of the episode, she becomes friends with Huntara, giving her a cacti flower tiara. In reciprocation, Huntara admits that she was wrong about her.

Perfuma helped interrogate suspects when Mermista launched her investigation into who was the Horde sympathizer spying on the heroes. Later when Scorpia visited Bright Moon, Scorpia stunned Perfuma by accident. Perfuma then 'cuffed' Scorpia with vines and treated her to a salad.

When the Heart of Etheria was activated across Etheria, as they ambushed the Horde army, the Princesses all surged with newfound power. Frosta and Perfuma lay waste to legions of Horde robots around themselves with blasts of ice and vegetation but later collapsed under the Heart's power. Then she and the others witnessed Horde Prime's invasion of Etheria.

### Season Five

Perfuma, along with other Princesses, evacuated villagers to safety, fought bots and created a hidden base. She seemed distressed at not knowing if Shadow Weaver was or was not a prisoner. When the bots attacked their base she helped relocate the refugees to the deepest part of the Whispering Woods on Adora's orders.

With Mermista in charge, Entrapta led Scorpia and Frosta to one of Prime's spires where she believed that they could discover Glimmer's location by hacking into the spire's computer. The four Princesses sneaked past many of the bots but Entrapta wandered off and walked into a bot that activated the spire's defenses. This created a heated exchange where Entrapta realized that people were angry at her for joining the Horde and her perceived lack of empathy. Entrpta apologized and with reckless abandon rushed toward the spire to get the signal and find Glimmer's location. Mermista blessed her plan and sent Scorpia and Frosta as Entrapta's back-up while she and Perfuma distracted the rest of the bots. Entrapta hacked the spire, discovered Glimmer's whereabouts, and found out that Prime was sending reinforcements to Etheria.

Captain Sea Hawk formulated a plan to contact Prince Peekablue by sneaking into the Enchanted Grotto's underwater soiree. He is hoping to get Peekablue to use his farsight to help the Rebellion. Mermista gave everyone secret aliases: Scorpia is Lynda D'Ream, Perfuma is Tara. Sea Hawk and company bluffed their way into the soiree. Perfuma and Scorpia had a heart-to-heart where Perfuma encouraged Scorpia to not let her dreams be dreams; this led Scorpia to sing a song beautifully. Perfuma bound the shape-shifter so that they could be interrogated. They told the crew that they had been masquerading as the Prince since they left the Fright Zone. They also claim to know where She-Ra and the gang are. They claim to have posed as one of Prime's clones, to get in with Prime's group but found it boring. They also let the gang know that half of the party-goers were chipped, She-Ra was returning with Catra and Prime was ready for Darla's return with a blockade. Mermista joined the gang questioning Double Trouble and broke the glass that kept the sea out of the building, revealing that she had been chipped moments before. Following Double Trouble's instruction, they rushed the stage and Sea Hawk, Perfuma and Double Trouble escaped using an elevator that descended from above, leaving Scorpia and Mermista behind. When Entrapta contacted the rebels and Perfuma responded, warning them of Prime's blockade and told her that many, many friends had been chipped.

    Inside the rebel base, Adora leads a planning session on how to stop the chipped Princesses. Netossa revealed everyone's weaknesses in an effort to do that. They lost track of Spinnerella but found out that Scorpia returned to the Fright Zone. Catra pointed out the best way to save their friends is to first damage the chip. Adora made a plan to sneak into Scorpia's home. Glimmer and Bow agreed to check up on his dads as Bow was really worried about them. Netossa, Perfuma, Adora, Catra sneaked into the Fright Zone, cloaked by Melog. Perfuma walked in calling out to Scorpia, forgetting what stealth means. This got her attention and she attacked her friends. Catra got separated from the group and Mermista attacked her. Then, Spinnerella joined Scorpia and attacked.

As the Princesses fought in the Fright Zone, Scorpia forced Adora and Perfuma into Horak's throne room that Prime had taken over and remade in his image. Scorpia bound the two Princesses while Prime explained that he had to come and see Etheria for himself. He revealed that he no longer needed She-Ra to activate the Heart of Etheria; building upon Hordak's research and his personal knowledge of the First Ones he said that he could access the Heart on his own. Horde Prime ordered Scorpia to end Adora and Perfuma, and she powered up her lightning and devastated the platform that Adora and Perfuma were on. But that only released the Princesses and angered Prime. Glimmer found and transported the two Princesses back to their base off-screen. There Catra and Perfuma bonded while talking about their mutual friend, Scorpia.

## Quotes

"It's hard keeping your heart open. It makes you vulnerable. But it doesn't make you weak, and I have to believe it's worth it." -"Return to the Fright Zone"

"For She-Ra!"-"Flowers For She-Ra"

**Perfuma**: "*Repeat after me: I can do this.*"

**Scorpia**: "*Perfuma can do this.*"

**Perfuma**: "*No, no. You can do this. Say "I"*"

**Scorpia**: "*I can do this? I can do this. I can find Prince Peekablue!*"
**Perfuma**: "*Yes, that's the spirit!*"

—Perfuma trying to help Scorpia grow her confidence *"Perils of Peekablue"*, minute {{{minute}}}

"But we don't dwell on the negative. Look at the positive."-"Flowers for She-Ra"

## Trivia

* Perfuma's astrological sign is Pisces, also known as "the two fish".
* According to ND Stevenson in the podcast Progressive of Power, Perfuma is "the most anxious princess" and uses meditation to cope. Stevenson was completely negative about the "Perfuma becomes everyone's therapist" fanon, stating that Perfuma needs therapy herself.
* Her undercover name "Tara" is a reference to the 2012 Perfuma doll by Mattel stating that her real name is Tara.
* She is the only person to ever hug Shadow Weaver in the show, she does this at the end of Season Three, upon their return to Bright Moon.
* Perfuma was designed to be a transgender woman as confirmed by a post by her (trans) character designer Ray Geiger, although nothing was ever explicitly stated in canon and Geiger stated they regretted they never shared their intent with the rest of the crew. This is also supported by creator ND Stevenson, though again this isn't exact confirmation as if Perfuma had been canon trans, she would have likely had a transgender voice actress much like other trans characters like Jewelstar and Double Trouble. However, considering the semi-canonical nature of the idea, transgender Perfuma is a popular headcanon by fans.
* Similar to Perfuma’s trans identity, Ray Geiger also designed a semi-canonical child for her and Scorpia as a way of convincing the writing staff to pair the two together. The child, referred to usually as Flora or similar flower themed names by fans, is popular among fans.

* Perfuma doesn't like spoilers.
* In Fractures, she was shown to try to make her decision by peeling petals off a flower nervously.

## References

1. ↑ "Mermista is the Coolest" (Princess Rebel Recruitment Shorts)
2. ↑ Stevenson confirmed Scorpia and Perfuma are in a relationship in an article
3. ↑ S5:E10 "Return to the Fright Zone" (18:30). PRIME: "As always, your childish fixation on saving your friends has distracted you. It has made you vulnerable. Weak." PERFUMA: "You're wrong. There's power—*real power*—in love, joy, and friendship... Friendship isn't a weakness. It's my greatest strength, and it's Scorpia's too! ... Scorpia, you can break through this. I know you can."
4. ↑ S5:E10 Return to the Fright Zone (21:20). PERFUMA: "Scorpia missed. She missed on purpose... I know, because I believe in Scorpia... It's hard keeping your heart open. It makes you vulnerable, but it doesn't make you weak. And I have to believe it's worth it."
5. ↑ "I think Perfuma needs therapy. She's the most anxious person on the show, even if she's like, 'I'm trying to be calm', she's like, freaking out at all times." -ND Stevenson, https://open.spotify.com/episode/3r1Sz5yPchGSBYFZfYCAez
6. ↑  Mer-Mysteries