Adira is a character in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. A fierce, yet mysterious warrior, she serves as Rapunzel's guide to the source of the ominous black rocks that have plagued parts of the world.
She is voiced by Kelly Hu, who plays Stacy Hirano from Phineas and Ferb and Karai in the 2012 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Twenty-five years before the start of the series, Adira was a servant of King Edmund and resided in the Dark Kingdom corrupted by a powerful opal. When the stone's power made their home too unbearable for life, Adira and her associates Quirin and Hector were ordered to leave the kingdom and stop anyone from finding the stone's location.
In the following years, Adira dedicated her life to studying the mysterious black rocks connected to the opal that destroyed her kingdom. She believed that a source of light existed that will counter the darkness of the Moonstone. Her travels would lead her to Corona, where she discovered that the rocks had been searching for Princess Rapunzel—the sun-drop. Having learned the same, Rapunzel left her kingdom to uncover the truth behind the rocks, prompting Adira to reveal herself so to steer the princess on the right path, to the Dark Kingdom.
Abilities[]
Adira is a master of martial arts, swordplay, and marksmanship, able to easily dodge Rapunzel and Cassandra combined with both hands behind her back. She is quite fast with her agility.
Role in the series[]
Season One[]
Adira makes her first appearance in a brief scene at the end of "Secret of the Sun Drop". After the fall of Varian through the power of the blacks rocks—activated by Rapunzel—Adira looks over the damage of Old Corona before using her blade to slice through one of the rocks.
Season Two[]
As seen in "Beyond the Corona Walls", Adira had followed Rapunzel and her allies while lurking in the shadows. She does not reveal herself until a few days into their journey, meeting the princess and her bodyguard, Cassandra, when she does. Adira asks for a moment to speak with Rapunzel, alone, but Cassandra is less welcoming to the idea. Though she has no intentions of fighting, Adira fiercely throws Cassandra off her feet after being touched by the latter. Furious, both Cassandra and Rapunzel attempt to strike Adira down, but the latter dodges each of their attacks with ease. Eventually, Rapunzel grabs hold of Adira's wrist with her hair, prompting an infuriated Adira to try to cut it with her blade. As Rapunzel's hair is impenetrable, however, nothing happens—shocking Adira. Before things can continue, Hook Foot appears with urgent news for Rapunzel, so Adira takes her leave.
Though not onscreen, Adira continues to watch over Rapunzel. When the princess finds herself in battle with a notorious kingpin and his thugs over her boyfriend, Eugene, she tries to unleash the rocks' power by touching it, though nothing occurs when she does. Adira explains that the rocks no longer react because they have already found what they were looking for. This forces Rapunzel and her friends to battle the Baron, themselves. Adira jumps into the fight, as well, but silently leaves the moment it is over.
The next day, she approaches alone with Rapunzel and explains her mission. After informing the princess that the rocks are leading to the Dark Kingdom, Eugene assures that they will make it. Satisfied, Adira takes her leave but continues to watch on from a distance.
She returns in "Forest of No Return", where she serves as a guide to Rapunzel's gang through a dangerous forest she dubbed as "the deadly forest of no return". According to her, only a few had gotten out of the forest alive and she's one of them. She also revealed to have bronchitis. Her excellent survival skills, however, made Eugene jealous and causes him to attempt to compete with her until the two talked it out when they got separated from the others. When everyone finally got out of the forest, Adira makes her leave again but apparently still watches them from a distance.
In "Keeper of the Spire", she told Rapunzel to find the third piece of the scroll in the spire when the princess asked how she's supposed to find her destiny. She did not go with them but presumably watches Rapunzel and her friends as they follow Calliope, the Keeper's apprentice, to the spire. Her next onscreen appearance shows her listening in on Rapunzel and her friends' conversation about the third scroll piece and smiles suspiciously.
In "Rapunzel and the Great Tree", she arrives in time to help Rapunzel and her friends escape Hector, whom she had known 25 years ago. She explained that she, Hector, and Quirin are members of the Brotherhood, a group of people dedicated to keeping anyone from reaching the Dark Kingdom. She leads the team through the Great Tree, despite Cassandra's distrust in her and the fact that it was once a home of Zhan Tiri. Along the way, they learned about the Moonstone's incantation and its effect on Rapunzel. Later, they ran into Hector again and fought him, even when he became possessed by the spirit of the Great Tree. As the tree crumbled by Rapunzel's use of the Moon Stone incantation, Hector told them that Adira's lying to them and if they go to the Dark Kingdom, they're doomed. Adira saved Hector from his fall and went with him as Rapunzel and the team continued their journey.
She returned in "Destinies Collide", in time to help the gang fought King Edmund, but got pushed down the deep trench. Fortunately, she survived the fall but lost her sword in the process. She climbed back up to lead Rapunzel and the others inside the castle. Along the way, she told them the whole story, about the origins of the Moonstone and her true intentions. When King Edmund and Eugene, who turned out to be Edmund's son, blocked them from entering, Adira brought them inside another way. She, Lance, and Cassandra tried to take down the king but were overpowered by him. Then when the ghosts of the Dark Kings rose to stop them, they managed to defeat them by destroying their statues. Then she helped to lift a part of a statue blocking the entrance to the chamber, where the Moonstone resided and presumably heard Cassandra betrayed Rapunzel and Eugene.
Season Three[]
In "Rapunzel's Return", Adira, Lance and Maximus enter the Moonstone chambers and discover Cassandra's betrayal. When Cassandra attacks Rapunzel, Adira goes to strike and urges Cassandra to release the Moonstone, but is met with refusal and is flung back against the room and loses her sword in the process. Lance goes to Adira's aid while Cassandra gains possession of Adira's Shadowblade and escapes. Adira remains behind in the Dark Kingdom, informing Lance a new path has been made for her and watches as Rapunzel and her friends depart.
In "Race to the Spire", Adira is briefly seen back in the Forest of No Return, when she, Hector, and Quirin fall under the control of the Mind Trap that Cassandra and Zhan Tiri stole from the Spire.
Adira, along with Hector, returns in "Once a Handmaiden...", still under the control of the Mind Trap and helping Cassandra take over Corona against her will. In the process, she duels against a reluctant Lance, who cannot bring himself to harm her and ultimately retreats with Rapunzel and her friends and the kingdom's people.
Trivia[]
The comet shaped mark on Adira's hand is the emblem of the Dark Kingdom.
She has bronchitis.
The character design on Adira's face paint is to hint that sometimes there are two sides to a character, may or may not be trustworthy.
Adira's costume design is inspired by Korean culture.
Adira is one of the few people to have successfully navigated the Forest of No Return and the only one we know of who has done it twice (and with bronchitis both times, no less).
Adira prefers to create nicknames inspired by peoples' looks than learn their real names.
She is voiced by the same woman who had voiced Hamato Miwa/Karai in the 2012 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.