Mara (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

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“	You can save the world we love.	„
	~ Mara to Adora.

Mara is the overarching protagonist of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. She was the previous She-Ra before Adora and member of the First Ones who sacrificed herself to save Etheria and the universe from her genocidal people.

Personality[]

Mara was very brave and loyal as Madame Razz recalls. However, she also incredibly scared and insecure due to the secret fact that Light Hope and the First Ones were evil all along and She-Ra was only meant to be used as a weapon to commit genocide by activating the super weapon known as the Heart of Etheria. Once Mara discovered the evil nature of her people, she sacrificed herself without a second thought to save Etheria and the entire universe from complete destruction showing that despite initially not wanting to be a hero, she proved to be one of the most selfless and heroic characters in the series.

Powers and Abilities[]

Being the She-Ra before Adora, Mara has all the abilities her successor has, which include:

Transformation: Using the Sword of Protection, Mara could transform into the legendary warrior She-Ra.
Healing: Mara is able heal not just herself, but also anyone and anything who was hurt, as she was able to heal the Whispering woods all by herself.
Portals: Mara is able to open portals and is able to send anything through it, from ships to entire planets.
The Heart of Etheria: As the first ones connected She-Ra to the heart, Mara is able to absorb all the magic sucked into the sword and fire it.

Biography[]

Becoming She-Ra[]

Mara was born a long time ago to a race of spacefaring explorers called the First Ones who colonized the planet Etheria to study it's magic. When she was old enough, she was chosen by the First Ones leaders to become the latest She-Ra, and is given both an A.I companion called Light Hope and the Sword of protection as part of it.

Rebelling against her people[]

Traveling to the planet Etheria to train on becoming She-Ra, Mara soon bonded with a native named Madame Razz and grew attached to the planet and it's inhabitants, but in doing so, Mara discovered that the First ones are planning to syphon the planet's very life force as part of a weapon they invented called the Heart of Etheria to wipe out their enemies the Horde, but it would wipe out everything on the planet in the process.

Not wanting to go through with this, Mara formed a rebel group called Grayskull, and together, they lead a battle against the First Ones leaders and planned on destroying the Heart by using it's built-in failsafe.

Sacrifice[]

Unfortunately, the rebellion ultimately fell and, determined to not let this sort of situation happen again, the First Ones reprogrammed Light Hope to activate the Heart by any means necessary. In a last-ditch effort to save both Etheria and the universe, Mara hid the sword of protection in the whispering woods and, upon boarding her ship and turning off Light Hope, used the last of her power to hide Etheria in the shadow dimension of Despondos in order to prevent the First Ones from ever regaining access to the Heart of Etheria. But after that, her ship entered the atmosphere and hurtled toward the ground, crashing in a desert and dying of her wounds.

Legacy[]

Despite this, Mara was able to leave a holographic message that detailed everything that has happened for the future She-Ra to discover and to learn, and thanks to her help the current She-Ra, Adora, is able to undo the damage their people did, as well as destroy the Horde and their tyrannical emperor, Horde Prime, for good.

Quotes[]

“	"I love Etheria. I love how old, and weird, and beautiful it is. I'm sworn to protect it as She-Ra, just as I'm sworn to serve my people, but... I know we're doing something to the planet. [she walks to look at the sword wedged in the ground] The Heart of Etheria Project... I don't know all the details, but I know it's big. They say we're the heroes, but... I don't know if it's right."	„
	~ Mara showing concern about the Heart of Etheria project.

“	"The sword is gone. There's not going to be a She-Ra anymore. [she walks through Light Hope to get to another part of the console; magic flairs outside the ship, and Mara continues to click buttons] [...] She-Ra's destiny was to be a part of your machine. [determined] But I won't ever let you use her again. [The ship flies and dodges spikes of magical energy in the sky][slams her hands down on the console, tearing up; angrily] How will destroying worlds bring peace? [tears spill over, angrily] You're not Light Hope. And you don't get to tell me what my destiny is."	„
	~ Mara to a now reprogrammed Light Hope before turning her off.

“	Adora? I know you're there. Razz said you would be there. I don't have much time, I barely made it out. If you are seeing this, it means you are the new She-Ra. It means I failed. I don't know what they told you, but it wasn't all bad at first. We were the first ones to settle Etheria, to really study this planet's magic. How could it go so wrong? You can't trust Light Hope. She's been reprogrammed to set off the weapon at any cost. The weapon... I didn't know what they were doing until too late. I knew they were rerouting Etheria's magic for their own purposes...siphoning it, collecting it in the planet's core... The Heart of Etheria Project. It was supposed to be an energy source, capable of so much good...but that's not what they made. My people turned our planet, all of Etheria, into a weapon. And She-Ra is the key. I opened a portal to a completely empty dimension and pulled Etheria in. I hid us from the rest of the universe, to keep everyone safe. This is the one place they'll never find us. The weapon can't hurt anyone else here. I saw what they would do...the deaths that would follow...I couldn't stop them before, but I can now. Hiding is our only option. Adora...this isn't over. The Heart of Etheria is still siphoning magic, storing it. It's unstable, it will tear Etheria apart if it goes off again. So it's up to you now. I couldn't stop it. In the end, I wasn't strong enough. But you--Adora, you will be more powerful than they ever planned. Adora...I believe in you. You can save the world we love.	„
	~ Mara's recordad message to Adora.

“	You're worth more than what you can give to other people. You deserve love too.	„
	~ Mara assuring Adora that despite having the weight of the universe on her shoulders, she to deserves a Happily Ever After.

Trivia[]

The meaning of Mara is "bitter", which carries the implication "strength." It also means "Lady" in Aramaic, because Mar means "Lord", and is a title of bishops in the Syriac Christian church, as well as the name of a bitter lake in the Bible, and a title of the Kabbalistic sephira Binah. Mara means joy in Arabic and can be a unisex name. In ancient Egypt it meant "The truth of God Ra" Ma for Truth ('Ma-at') and Ra the God of the Sun, possibly also linked to Ado-RA as they are both She-RAs. "Mara" also means "vague nightmare" or "vague dream" in Polish. Additionally it's a "mare" (kind of ghost) in folklore.
In Comic-Con San Diego 2019, ND Stevenson revealed that Mara is a character from "A different version of He-Man", referencing the 1990s animated series, The New Adventures of He-Man. While Mara was not an incarnation of She-Ra in that series, the two characters do share many similarities, and Mara's outfit strongly resembles her original armour from the New Adventures.
While she is based on a character from He-Man, Mara is also named after the character of Mara Jade from the Star Wars Legends comics and novels. Mara Jade is also one of ND Stevenson’s favourite Star Wars characters.
Her She-Ra form, with her hair dyed blonde and eyes turning blue, might be a reference to the Super Saiyan transformation from Dragon Ball Z.
In "Once Upon a Time in the Waste", it is revealed that Mara's Ship is in the Crimson Waste and had everything stolen from it. Mara appears as a hologram, saying "I am Mara, She-Ra of Etheria, and I am gone." It's also revealed that people thought that Mara's ship was haunted.
At the New York Comic-Con 2019, footage from Season Four revealed that, from Season 4, she starts replacing Queen Angella's spot in the title screen at the end of the intro.
It is implied that Mara is the first She-Ra to use the Sword of Protection, and Adora is the second. Mara's species, the First Ones, created the sword.

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