Te Kā

Te Kā is the (former) main antagonist of the Disney's 56th full-length animated feature film Moana.

Te Kā was what became of Te Fiti after her heart was stolen by the demigod, Maui.

Personality
Te Kā is—quite literally—a heartless creature with a fiery deposition. The theft of her heart has stripped her of Te Fiti's benevolence, replacing it with malice aimed at both Maui and the world at large. Te Kā and Te Fiti are polar opposites, with differing goals and ideals; while Te Fiti wishes to spread life and beauty, Te Kā seeks to bring death and corruption, purely out of the belief that mankind is undeserving of the gifts brought to them by Te Fiti. As it was Maui who was responsible for the theft of Te Fiti's heart (and not mankind as a whole, thus making them innocent), Te Kā can be painted as a vindictive and (arguably) purely evil entity.

Despite this, Te Fiti's purity lies deep within Te Kā. Should someone call to it, as Moana did during the climax, she will slowly ease her tension and succumb to her inner gentle nature.

Appearance
Massive in size, Te Kā towers above all who encounter her, and is usually depicted with a hollow scowl. Always surrounding her slender form is a dense pyrocumulus cloud, coupled with bolts of lightning and volcanic ash.

In the movie
Te Kā first appears in Gramma Tala's story, where he is revealed that she was once the island goddess Te Fiti, who created all islands on the ocean with her heart, who had the ability to create life. But one day, the demigod Maui, in a misguided act of heroism, stole Te Fiti's heart. As a result of this, the island was quickly consumed by darkness, while Te Fiti's physical form morphed into that of the deadly and powerful Te Kā.

As Maui tried to escape on his boat, Te Kā rose from her cloud and attacked the demigod. Their battle resulted in the loss of both the heart and Maui's fish hook, and as punishment for his crimes, Te Kā banished Maui to a desolate spit of land in the middle of the open ocean, where he would be doomed to remain stranded for eternity while his missing fish hook gets taken by the greedy giant crab, Tamatoa. Also, because of the loss of the heart, all the islands that Te Kā has created were cursed, causing the destruction of food supply, flora, and fauna, thus making it impossible for humanity to survive. According to legend, only the restoration of Te Fiti's heart can save the world from annihilation.

Three thousand years later, at the film's climax, Moana finally reach Te Fiti with Maui after helping the latter to retrieve his fish hook from Tamatoa. But before they can make it to her shores, Te Kā emerged and attacked them. Maui then turns into a hawk and tries to fly past her, only to be struck from the sky several times. He is soon weakened too severely and orders Moana to turn the boat around. But not wanting to back away from her mission, Moana continues to sail towards Te Fiti and directly by Te Kā, who tries to smite the duo. Maui quickly blocks her blow with his fish hook, the impact sending him and Moana miles away from Te Fiti and severely damaging the boat. When they recover, Maui finds his fish hook severely damaged and nearly destroyed.

Furious at Moana for endangering their lives despite his orders to turn away, and knowing that one more blow from Te Kā to his hook will destroy it forever, Maui leaves her.

Despite this, Moana refuses to give up. She repairs her boat and sails back to Te Fiti, once again sailing up to the gap. Te Kā immediately reappears and fires a fireball to destroy the boat, but Moana steers toward another gap, barely avoiding the blow. When Te Kā catches up to her, she sails back to the first gap. But Te Kā sends a giant wave at Moana, causing her boat to capsizes. With boulders raining down around her, Moana tries to right her boat, but she isn't strong enough. Te Kā almost delivered the killing blow to Moana, but at the last second, Maui returns and blocks the blow, after having a change of heart. He then distracts Te Kā again, while Moana reaches Te Fiti, although her boat is destroyed by Te Kā in the process.

However, Moana cannot find the spiral in which the heart is to be placed. But at this same time, Moana notices the spiral circling Te Kā's chest and comes to a stunning realization: Te Kā is actually Te Fiti without her heart. Meanwhile, Maui continues to fight despite his fish hook having been destroyed. This enrages Te Kā immensely, and the lava demon conjures a massive fireball meant to kill the demigod once for all. Maui accepts his fate to protect Moana, but before he can be burned alive, Moana distracts Te Kā by shining the heart of Te Fiti's light in the distance. Moana also asks the ocean to clear a path, allowing Te Kā to lunge at her. But Moana sings "Know Who You Are" to tame Te Kā, who finds peace in Moana's inspiring words. She turns herself into molten rock, and Moana places the heart into the spiral of Te Kā's chest. The lava monster then crumbles, and Te Fiti is reborn. She warmly forgives Maui for stealing her heart and then revives the dying islands across the world, as well as Moana's boat and Maui's fish hook. Afterwards, Te Fiti forms back into her resting position.

Trivia

 * Te Kā is depicted as one of Maui's tattoos, as the aftermath of their battle for the heart of Te Fiti is illustrated on the latter's back.
 * Te Kā is probably the tallest, and one of the most powerful and dangerous Disney Villains, because she is totally covered by magma and lava.
 * Te Kā bares similarities to the religious Hawaiian figure Pele, the goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes.