Queen La

**Queen La** is the ruler and high priestess of Opar, a lost city located deep in the jungles of Africa and one of the main antagonists from Disney's 2001 television series, *The Legend of Tarzan*.

## Background

Long ago, La was once a member of the African Waziri tribe, but was banished from the tribe after using forbidden magic to immortalize her spirit. Since that time, the Waziri have battled La as she reigned over her personal kingdom of Opar, turning leopards into humanoid slaves under her control and capturing men from outside the kingdom to serve as her consort before killing them for refusing her advances.

## Appearance

In original screen and print, Queen La wore very few clothes, mainly sporting a small leopard print bikini. Possibly taking inspiration from Opar's roots as an Atlantean colony in the books, much of La's design takes inspiration from Kida Nedakh and *Atlantis: The Lost Empire* but in a darker color to reflect her evil nature.

Her ensemble includes a jet black and maroon bikini top and matching sarong, with what appear to be canine teeth - possibly a leopard's - decorating the edges. She wears golden curved earrings with bracelets, anklets, and arm braces as well a golden necklace. Attaching her long menacing hooded cape to her bikini top is a single red ruby in a gold frame. When climbing she removes the cape so she may have more freedom to climb and swing through vines.

She has cyan eyes with slit pupils like a cat. Her hair is platinum blonde and messy, possibly bleached from spending too much time in the sun or to show off her immortal age. Her pale hair may also be a nod towards the Atlantean people in *Atlantis: The Lost Empire*, who are depicted as having white hair, dark skin and light colored eyes, much like La. Although La is not British, she certainly speaks in that accent (it is never specified how she learned to speak English in the series).

At the end of *Tarzan and the Lost City of Opar*, La is seen wearing the crown of Opar, which is a golden head piece with a small golden leopard skull with ruby eyes. Her hair is also thickened when wearing this crown.

In her spirit form, La is a bright red astral projection with no visible legs or feet. She still wears the crown of Opar on her head with the rest of her clothes and jewelry. Whenever she possesses a new body, red flame shaped smoke surrounds her victim.

## Personality

Queen La reigns over Opar with tyranny and fear, controlling the Leopard Men by threatening them with the powers of her magic staff. This reputation has long made her feared throughout the jungle, even by the Waziri. Seeing Tarzan as a perfect physical specimen that would definitely serve as a match to herself, she is determined to win Tarzan's love, though his love for Jane serves to thwart those plans.

La is generally shown to be cruel, power-hungry, manipulative and tyrannical. She is very self-absorbed, lacking any sort of empathy for others, and is used to having people bow down to her and give her whatever she wants. She quickly becomes angry if she is denied what she desires. She is not above using murder or other cruel methods to achieve her goals and can be very irrational, including being very abusive towards her minions as well, such as when she kills two Leopard Men simply because they failed to bring her a *suitable* mate. She even at some point kills a Leopard man by accident when she gets angry at Tarzan for turning her down, but still doesn't show any remorse for the accidental murder of said Leopard man whatsoever.

She is also very stubborn and also somewhat delusional, continuing to pursue Tarzan despite the fact he is clearly in love and is loyal with Jane. La's desire for a 'perfect' mate also displays a certain level of shallowness about her; she is more interested in Tarzan's physical appearance and strength than his personality, though she admires and is attracted to his fearlessness.

## Powers and Abilities

Most of the time La is seen carrying around a long, golden staff (similar to Jafar's snake staff) that helps harness all her dark, magical powers. It has a handle resembling the shape of a leopard's head and in its mouth is a large red gem.

With this staff, La can summon rain, project energy to vaporize her Leopard Men or force them into submission, alter her clothing, teleport herself, create fire, generate smoke to put others to sleep, turn humans into animals, bring inanimate objects to life, make metal objects (like chains) appear, destroy floors, command her carnivorous octopus into attacking her enemies, restore the ruined city of Opar on her whim, and block off entryways to trap her foes. Although this remains unseen in the series, it is very much implied that the staff has the power to allow anyone who uses it to stay forever young. When Jane smashes the staff into pieces to reverse all of Queen La's spells, La's physical age catches up to her, turning her into nothing more than a pile of dust which is immediately blown away by the wind. Clearly, La used this power to preserve her youthful appearance and physical strength. But because her spirit survived the death of her body, this probably was the forbidden magic she used to immortalize her spirit.

La also demonstrated to be very agile and fast, as seen when she goes out with Tarzan to the Springs of Opar and also when battling her Leopard men to regain her staff.

La also demonstrates the ability to understand animals, as seen when she had a conversation with one of her leopard men and later with Tantor. She displays the same skill later on when she tells the Okapi to go away after she leaves its body and possesses Jane.

After her physical body crumbles into ash, La's spirit can move and possess the bodies of other creatures by making physical contact with her target, putting them under her total control, overriding their will as long she wants to remain in their body. Her spirit although immortal could cease to exist if the body she possesses dies. That would explain why she possesses Tarzan when he jumps off the building with her on his back and then the rat when her statue warrior attacks her while she was still in Tarzan's body. Usula was aware about this as he keeps trying to shoot arrows at her hosts' bodies to finish her off for good. However, this is illogical as spirits are already dead and cannot die again by any means. The only known way to get rid of a spirit is to either contain it somewhere or banish it.

She uses the powers of darkness to stop Sora and his friends.

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

La had appeared in Sora's Adventures in Deep Jungle as she meets Young Xehanort and use the Heartless to do her bidding even after her death.