RSAHNP - La and her mom. (Patreon)

One of the things about villains that has always fascinated me, is the story behind them.

The irredeemable villain has always been annoying to me, mostly because they are so… realistic - meaning we have seen too many of them in the past history.

But Disney Villains have a great way to show themselves of as characters with a deep background - or at least a portion of them ;)

Queen La from the Disney series, The Legend of Tarzan has always meant a lot to me. Especially because we are given some wonderful bread crumbs of her origin.

She is explained as being of the Waziri tribe. Many years ago she immortalized her soul with forbidden magic. I suppose in a Voldemort kinda style - not by breaking her soul in pieces but by somehow making her body and soul into two different things.

Puzzling as I thought the soul concept was immortality. But I guess La perhaps didn‘t immortalize said soul, but instead trapped it in the first world - the world she Inhabits. This is apparently unnatural in her universe, and so she is an outcast of the tribe.

I sorta want to build a little on her history.

I never really saw La as an ultimate evil character. She was more a character you could feel a little sad for. She is surrounded by slaves, but no family. Unlike Tarzan. She is an outcast of her people, and the Queen over a city. And the way she gets into Tarzans life, is when her leopard men captures professor Porter and brings him before La.
La sought a King… a mate, a partner… and she seems like she has instructed the leopard men to avoid the otherwise handsome men of the Waziri tribe. So they bring professor Porter.

This speaks to me that La is a lonely figure. She wants to love, and to be loved. Now all has a mother, and La herself as a Waziri must have had some family. The very fact that she has dubbed herself Queen La of Opar speaks to me as she was perhaps once the daughter of the Chief, who never got her due.

Perhaps La experienced some early resentment in the tribe she belonged to - perhaps because of her white hair. La is not albino, but she has pearl white hair, if this is a gift from birth, then she could have been a victim of bullying.
Usually characters that long for love and affection were once victims of such, but I am not a psychologist so I will just keep it in thought.

La has perhaps always felt like an Outcast, and if so, then the threat of being exiled from her tribe didn’t feel like such a harsh punishment for experimenting with forbidden magic.

So when La finally becomes immortal, she is no longer part of the Waziri tribe, but takes residence in the lost city of Opar. She acquires the staff and makes herself the ruler of the city and makes leopards into humanoids to serve her every whim.

There is a reason for everything.

Just like John Clayton in the movie wants to sell the gorillas in Tarzans family.
According to the books Clayton is in fact Tarzans cousin, and if you look at their designs they are in fact rather… familiar. They have the same masculine chin.

If Money is the cause for Claytons actions then perhaps he lives an expensive lifestyle. I can’t imagine Safaris being cheap, and perhaps he has some other vices he likes, like gambling. Short story is that Clayton needs money, and he is willing to kill to get it. This speaks of fear. He fears death.

La is a character who perhaps is unwilling and unable to admit that she has given up her mortality for something empty. An empty city of stone, rather than a tribe of family.

In many ways a sad figure - who I love so ever much.

That’s a little perspective from me.
btw, I want to name La’s mom on this picture for Suli.

Yours truly
Hammer