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| “ | I am La. Queen La. | „ |
| ~ Queen La introducing herself to Tarzan, Jane, and their friends. |
| “ | Don't worry. I'm not gonna dispose of you. Not at least until I can find an especially gruesome and painful way of doing it. | „ |
| ~ Queen La to Kaj, the leader of the Leopard Men rebels. |
Queen La is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Tublat) of the Disney animated TV Show The Legend of Tarzan.
She was a former member of the African Waziri tribe who was exiled due to her continued practices of forbidden magic to extend her life. Like her original counterpart, Queen La is an occult cult leader who rules over the abandoned city of Opar, lording over the Leopard Men. Also like her original counterpart, she falls in love with Tarzan, wanting him to become her king, trying to do so by attempting to kill his wife, Jane as her archenemy.
She was voiced by the late Diahann Carroll. While possessing Jane, she was voiced by Olivia d'Abo, who portrayed Tak in Invader Zim, Morgaine le Fey and Star Sapphire in Justice League and Unlimited, and Nicole Wallace in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Appearance[]
Queen La is a tall woman with a slender build and a muscular physique. She generally wore a little bikini with a leopard design and very little else. Much of La's design is influenced by Kida Nedakh and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, however in a darker shade to symbolize her wicked character. This may be due to Opar's historical beginnings as an Atlantean colony in the novels.
She is wearing a matching maroon and jet black bikini top, as well as a sarong with what look to be canine fangs on the borders (perhaps those of a leopard). She accessorizes with a golden necklace, curved bracelets, anklets, and arm braces. A single red ruby set in a gold frame fastens her long, frightening hooded cloak to her bikini top. She takes off the cape to climb and swing through the vines with more freedom.
She has a dark tan complexion and cat-like cyan eyes with slit pupils. Her platinum blonde, untidy hair may have been bleached due to excessive sun exposure or to emphasize her immortality. Although La is not British, she definitely has that accent when she speaks (it is never made clear in the series how she learnt to speak English).
La is shown wearing the crown of Opar, a golden headpiece with a miniature golden leopard skull and ruby eyes, towards the conclusion of Tarzan and the Lost City of Opar. When she wears this crown, her hair also gets thicker.
La is an astral projection that is a vivid red color with no discernible legs or feet in her spirit form. Along with the rest of her attire and jewels, she continues to wear the Opar crown on her head. Smoke in the shape of a crimson flame envelops her victim whenever she takes possession of a new body
As Jane[]
While possessing Jane, she has an slender, hourglass build, fair skin, green eyes, rosy cheeks, pink lips, thin brown eyebrows and long, brown hair.
For attire, she wears a yellow shirt and green skirt as her main outfit, and barefoot.
When La gets her staff back, she replaces Jane's clothes with her black bikini top, sarong, cape and teeth accessories.
Personality[]
Queen La uses her magic staff to intimidate the Leopard Men into submission as she rules over Opar with tyranny and dread. She has long been dreaded throughout the forest because of her reputation, even by the Waziri. She is desperate to gain Tarzan's affection since she views him as the ideal physical specimen and believes that he would be the perfect match for her. However, Tarzan's love for Jane foils her efforts.
La is typically depicted as being ruthless, ambition, cunning, and despotic. She has little empathy for others, is highly self-absorbed, and is accustomed to having others submit to her and giving her everything she requests. If she is not granted what she wants, she becomes enraged very fast. She may be highly unreasonable, including being very nasty to her minions, like when she murders two Leopard Men only because they didn't bring her a suitable partner; this shows that she is not beyond using murder or other brutal tactics to accomplish her goals. Even after she accidentally kills a Leopard man as a result of her rage at Tarzan for rejecting her, she never expresses any regret for the incident.
She is also quite obstinate and a little bit deluded since she keeps pursuing Tarzan despite the fact that he is obviously in love and faithful to Jane. La's search for the "perfect" partner also reveals a certain amount of shallowness in her; even though she admires and finds Tarzan's courage attractive, she is more interested in his physical attributes and strength than his personality.
Biography[]
Past[]
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.
The Legend of Tarzan[]
Lost City of Opar[]
Queen La appears when two Leopard Men bring Professor Porter before her, but she is outraged that they did not bring her a man more suitable to be a king like she asked them, so she uses her staff to vaporize the two Leopard Men as punishment for failing her. She decides to leave her throne for the time being and tells the other Leopard Men to sacrifice the Professor since she has no use for him.
La later hears all of the chaos caused by Tarzan, Jane, and their friends, and she watches from the balcony, impressed with how easily and skillfully Tarzan was fighting her Leopard Men. When the heroes then try to escape with the Professor, she appears before them to stop them. It initially seems like she has ill intentions toward them, but instead amicably apologizes for the Leopard Men's behavior. Professor Porter is quick to accept her apology despite his near-sacrifice, and La introduces herself to the group. She then asks who Tarzan is, admiring how he "fights with the strength of ten lions," and he gives his name. However, she interrupts Jane as she introduces herself as Tarzan's wife.
La takes the heroes on a tour of Opar, and she weaves a phony tale of woe about her life. She tells Tarzan, Jane, Terk, Tantor, and the Professor that she had lived in the city for most of her life, raised by the Leopard Men since her childhood. When Tarzan tells her that he had been raised by gorillas, La is even more smitten to him, seeing their "similar" backgrounds. This is instantly noticed by Jane, who knows that La is just throwing herself at Tarzan. Fortunately for her, Tarzan's attention is drawn away from La when part of the bridge that she (Jane) and Tantor are on breaks due to the latter's weight, and they both fall into the water. Tarzan jumps in to save her, despite her being unharmed by the fall (as is Tantor, who swims out of the water himself), which puts La off. Eventually, La has the Leopard Men prepare bedchambers for the heroes since they will be staying for the night.
Once alone, Jane admits to Tarzan that she doesn't trust La, since it is obvious that she likes him "a little too much." Tarzan assures Jane that La will not get anywhere with him because of all of the women he knows, "Jane is the best" (his way of telling Jane that he loves her). Jane now feels reassured that Tarzan loves her and doesn't have to worry about La. However, it turns out that she does have to worry, as La is privately venting to one of her Leopard Men that "Tarzan must be [hers]." The Leopard Man reminds her that Tarzan is married (with a roar, of course), but La already has a plan to work around that. "Until death do they part," she says. "So we'll just have to part them, won't we?"
The next morning, while Tarzan is further exploring Opar, La takes a walk with Jane and starts manipulating her subtly, bringing up her not exactly being native to the jungle, and Tarzan finding her "an easy burden to bear." Jane does not like the idea of being a "burden" to Tarzan, something that, unbeknownst to La, had already been eating at her since before meeting La. She later extends an invitation to show Tarzan and Jane the hot springs of Opar up in the mountains. While Jane is a bit unnerved by how much of a hike it appears to be, she decides to go, as well. However, she balks upon seeing that it will require climbing trees to get there instead of simply walking up the mountain. She nonetheless tries on her own, but fails. She then rejects Tarzan's offer to help her, telling him to go on with La so she can try herself. Tarzan reluctantly goes on, while Jane continues her futile attempts to climb the tree herself for another minute before eventually giving up and walking back into the city in frustration.
Meanwhile, La reaches the springs with Tarzan and, after admiring the view (of him, while he admires the view of the springs), she tries coming on to him, asking him if he believes in fate. In this case, she means two people finding each other against all odds. Tarzan thinks that she means Jane and himself, but La tells him outright that she means herself and him.
However, before Tarzan can reply to this, La's trap is sprung, as now that Tarzan is at the springs with her, Jane is alone and vulnerable back in Opar, and she finds herself ambushed by two Leopard Men. They grab her, carry her to the bridge overlooking Opar's waterfall, and waste no time in throwing her to what they presume to be her death. Tarzan hears her screams and rushes back to Opar, while La watches him run off with an evil grin on her face.
Tarzan arrives just in time to see Terk, Tantor, and Professor Porter mournfully looking over the edge, thinking that Jane is gone. La suggests that Jane might have slipped and gives Tarzan her false condolences, privately pleased that Jane is out of the way and that she now has a clear path to Tarzan. Tarzan is initially distraught, as well, until he notices three sets of footprints leading up to where Jane "slipped." He notices her own footprints suddenly disappearing well before the edge, and both Leopard Men's footprints only leading up to it, which makes him realize that it was no accident. "Jane didn't slip," he growls furiously. "She was pushed." The reveal of this also brings anger to Terk's face, and shock to Tantor and Professor Porter's faces.
La nervously tries to blame the Leopard Men's behavior, but Tarzan is hearing none of it, saying that the Leopard Men "do what [La tells] them!" He then tries to pounce on La, presumably to kill her for having Jane killed, but the Leopard Men quickly capture and restrain him, Terk, Tantor, and Professor Porter. With the remaining heroes now down, La tries to appeal to Tarzan once more, saying that Jane "was all wrong for [him], anyway," and that she is more perfect for him since they are more alike, with both of them being "part-human, part-beast." Tarzan roars that La is nothing like him, and that he will never join her. La warns Tarzan not to "test" her and randomly vaporizes a Leopard Man standing behind her just to show him what may happen if he continues to refuse her. Then, she arrogantly says, "Queen La always gets what she wants. And she wants . . . is you."
Later, La has Tarzan tied to the same slab to which the Professor had previously been tied and gives him one final chance to live, as she will otherwise sacrifice him. Live with her in life, or with Jane in death. Tarzan snarls in reply, "I choose Jane." La, however, tells Tarzan to reconsider, reminding him that Jane is dead, while she is very much alive. "I choose Jane," Tarzan repeats. Unbeknownst to both of them, Jane, who has actually survived her fall and has climbed back up the waterfall and into the city, has overheard, and she holds her heart, touched by Tarzan's words. Still, she knows that she must save her husband somehow. She realizes that La is using a gigantic jewel to cast a powerful, searing sunbeam on the slab to cut Tarzan in half. The jewel is powered by the sun, so Jane just needs to block the sun itself from reaching the jewel.
After making a fire (by unintentionally burning an Opar tapestry hanging nearby her while trying to burn some cinders), the smoke indeed blocks the sun from hitting the jewel. La sees the smoke and takes some Leopard Men outside to investigate. Jane uses the distraction to slip inside and release Tarzan out of their sight. Unfortunately, Terk, Tantor, and Professor Porter are all sitting near the door, chained up and forced to watch the sacrifice, and Professor Porter sees his daughter and, not realizing why she is there, loudly expresses his relief that she is alive, which draws La and the Leopard Men's attention to her. La orders them to kill Jane, and a brief chase ensues. However, Tantor grabs the Leopard Man with the keys to their chains, and Terk catches them with her foot, using them immediately to free herself and then her friends.
After Terk, Tantor, and the Professor are free, they free Tarzan, who runs off to save Jane, who has been chased to a wall and cornered near it. La has her surrounded and moves in to vaporize her with her staff. However, Tarzan lets out his jungle cry, jumps down onto the scene, and fights off La's Leopard Men. La starts to aim her staff at him, but Jane grabs it from her, runs to Tarzan, and slams the ground with the staff, causing herself, Tarzan, Terk, Tantor, and the Professor to disappear, thus escaping from Opar. La screams in frustration and despair over their escape.
Tarzan and Jane ride home on Tantor's back, with Tarzan assuring Jane once more that "Jane is the best." Jane makes sure that he doesn't find her a burden, and Tarzan simply says it again, causing Jane to lovingly tell her husband how "wonderfully stubborn" he is. However, La, somehow watching the whole thing, says that Tarzan will find that she can be stubborn, as well. She then calls on a rainstorm to extinguish the fires set by Jane and says deviously, "Quite stubborn, indeed."
Leopard Men Rebellion[]
La is overthrown by her Leopard Men, including Kaj, and her staff was taken from her. The Leopard Men then break into Tarzan and Jane's treehouse, kidnapping Jane. While Tarzan pursues them, he runs into a powerless La who is cornered by a normal leopard and begs him to save her. He saves her and the two reach a mutual truce in order to free Jane.
They succeed and La takes back possession of her staff from the entranced Jane. When Tarzan leaves with Jane she begins to punish all the Leopard Men who rebelled against her, most of all Kaj. Later, Tarzan discovers that Jane was taken so the Leopard Men could make her their new queen and free them from La's oppression. Sneaking into Opar with Tantor distracting La, Jane and Tarzan manage to take the staff away from La, so that Jane can perform the ritual to restore the Leopard Men to their original leopard forms. Jane breaks the staff and La is turned into dust, with Opar falling into ruins with it. But before she dies, La places a curse on Jane.
As Jane, Tarzan, the Leopard Men and the rest of their friends leave, it is revealed that the staff has fixed itself and La's sinister laugh can be heard echoing into the ruins of Opar.
Return of La[]
While setting up a croquet tournament for her father, Jane discovers a fallen okapi and tries to nurture it to health. Unknowingly, the animal contains the wandering spirit of Queen La. Seeing Jane, La takes control of her body and tries to revive the city of Opar with it. Yet Jane's body is too weak and frail to climb the cliff in order to reach Opar. Realizing she needs help, La first tries to convince Tarzan to take her on a romantic outing. When this fails, she seduces Dumont into helping her. Unknown to La, Tarzan is worried for Jane and follows her. La takes care of this by slipping on a rock, dislodging boulders which fall on Tarzan as he climbs after Jane.
Believing she no longer has to worry about Tarzan, La and Dumont reach Opar. Dumont, unimpressed by the ruins of the once great city, tries to set up a picnic for him and Jane to enjoy together. La isn't interested in Dumont and then forces him to dig up the first half of her staff (the leopard head handle) and Dumont, believing Jane is starting to lose her mind tries to leave to tell Tarzan . When La finds the other half (the stem), Jane's hair is unbundled and her clothes change into La's sarong and bikini top as well as all her jewelry. Her voice also changes from Jane's normal, high-pitched voice to La's low, soothing voice. Dumont tries to flee, now terrified of Jane in her new appearance, but La (already tired of Dumont) uses her staff to turn him into a gibbon. She then uses her staff to resurrect the Lost City of Opar to all its proud glory.
Little does La know that Tarzan survived the boulders, with the assistance of local Waziri mystic elder named Usula, who explains to Tarzan that La possessed Jane. The two climb up the mountain only to discover Opar is back to its glorious state. Knowing that La believed Tarzan to be dead, the two sneak into the palace and watch as La speaks to Dumont and then kills a rat without mercy, confirming to Tarzan that it is truly La. When he turns to ask Usula what they should do, he is horrified to see Usula is about to strike Jane's body with an arrow in an attempt to kill La. Tarzan messes up his shot, believing he can free Jane from La. This fails, however, and La summons two giant Statue Warriors to kill Tarzan and Usula. The warriors follow him, but Tarzan tricks one into destroying the other, and after a swim loses the other one. Usula then tries to explain to Tarzan that Jane is gone as long as La refuses to move from her body of her own free will and why she must be killed, but Tarzan offers himself to be sacrificed instead in order to save his one true love. He finds La and she threatens to turn him into a gibbon or jackal. Before she can try anything, however, Tarzan kicks her staff out of her hands, then jumps off a balcony with La over her shoulders to either force her to leave Jane or kill them both. Wishing to avoid her demise, she exits Jane and possesses Tarzan. Using his body, he stops their descent towards the ground and plans to kill Jane in Tarzan's body, calling it a "tragic twist" -- the love of Tarzan's life being slain by his own hand. Thinking quickly, Jane kicks La in the chest and escapes, only to be cornered in the throne room. Just as it seems she is doomed, the Statue Warrior arrives and attempts to assassinate Tarzan, not knowing he is now possessed by La. Wanting to live, she transfers her spirit into a rat as Jane defeats the statue and saves Tarzan's life.
Realizing that her plan has failed, La tries to flee, but Usula snatches her up in a brown sack telling her she is not going anywhere. It is not mentioned what happens to Queen La afterwards, quite possibly Usula decides to lock her away somewhere where she can no longer do harm to anyone else or kill her offscreen, and her staff is later used by Usula as a croquet mallet.
Other Media[]
Tarzan: Return to the Jungle[]
Queen La appears as the first boss of Tarzan: Return to the Jungle
Powers and abilities[]
La is frequently seen walking around with a long, golden staff that enables her control all of her dark, magical abilities. This staff is comparable to Jafar's snake staff. It features a handle in the form of a leopard's head, and it has a large ruby jewel in its mouth.
With the aid of this staff, La is able to summon rain, project energy to vaporize her Leopard Men or subdue them, change her appearance, teleport, create fire, produce smoke to put people to sleep, transform people into animals, make inanimate objects come to life, make metal objects (such as chains) appear, destroy floors, order her carnivorous octopus to attack her enemies, repair the destroyed city of Opar at will, and block off entrances to trap her enemies. The staff has the ability to keep anybody who uses it youthful forever, even if this isn't explicitly shown in the series.
The staff also has matter transmutation abilities, seeing as La could transformation the clothes of her host, Jane, into her familiar top and sarong.
La dies when Jane breaks the staff into pieces to undo all of her powers, converting her into nothing more than a mound of dust that is swiftly carried away by the wind. La exploited this ability to maintain her physical fitness and young beauty. But since her soul lived on after the death of her body, this was undoubtedly the illegal magic she employed to make her spirit everlasting.
La also showed that she was exceedingly quick and nimble when she accompanied Tarzan to the Springs of Opar and when she engaged in combat with her Leopard soldiers to reclaim her staff.
La also exhibits an aptitude for communicating with animals, as seen by her conversations with Tantor and one of her leopard men. Later, after leaving the Okapi's body and taking possession of Jane, she uses the same ability when she orders the animal to go.
La's soul may flow through and inhabit the bodies of other animals when her physical body turned to dust by establishing physical contact with her target. This places the target under her complete control and enables her to override their will for as long as she desires to stay in their body. Even if her spirit is eternal, if her physical body perishes, she may no longer exist. Usula was aware of this since he continually attempting to kill her by shooting arrows at her hosts' bodies. This, however, defies logic because spirits have already passed away and cannot pass away again in any way. The only known methods for getting rid of spirits are to confine them or expel them.
Trivia[]
- Despite only appearing in the television series, Queen La proved to be more evil than Clayton, who was the main antagonist of the original 1999 Tarzan movie and Tarzan's arch-nemesis.
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 Villains
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