Entertainment
 

Princess Aura

From Flash Gordon Wiki

Performer:
Anna van Hooft (Sci Fi Channel)
Priscilla Lawson (1936 serial)
Shirley Deane (1940 serial)
Ornella Muti (movie)

Princess Aura is Ming's daughter. She falls in love with Flash Gordon, and risks her father's displeasure to protect him. She's jealous of Dale Arden, and will resort to anything to defeat her rival for Flash's attention.

Contents

Comic strip

Princess Aura first appears in the fourth installment of the Flash Gordon comic strip. [1] When Ming orders that Flash be shot, Aura impulsively stands in front of Flash, rescuing him. Flash disappears down a trap door, and Aura jumps down to follow him. She locks Flash in a rocket ship, and gloats that she'll keep him there until her father marries Dale. [2]

Aura's plans to seduce Flash come to nothing -- and she finds herself swept off her feet by the rebel leader Prince Barin. Flash battles for his freedom in a "Tournament of Death", hoping to win a kingdom and the right to marry Dale. Before the tournament begins, Barin sees Princess Aura fall into the path of King Jugrid's lions, and he leaps to her rescue. He gallantly declares that he saved her because "you are a woman and beautiful --- because I can no longer deny the fact that I love you!" [3]

Barin decides to participate in the tournament, to win the right to claim Aura as his bride. He and Flash share the prize, and Ming rewards Barin with a kingdom of his own, the forest kingdom of Arboria. Barin claims Aura as his loving bride. [4]

Aura and Barin have a son, Prince Alan. Ming plans to take his grandson away from Barin and Aura, and raise him as a worthy successor to the throne. [5]

Sci-Fi Channel series

As in the comic, Aura is the daughter of Ming the Merciless and disagrees with her father on how to rule. Ming has her engaged to Barin, a man who she despises. (At least in the first season they despise each other; however, in future seasons it is possible that their relationship will change, since they fall in love in the comic.) Aura has several clashes with her father throughout the series. In the episode "Til Death", to rebel against her engagement she obtains a love potion from the Omadrians and uses it on Flash. However, her plan goes awry when Ming forces Barin and Flash to fight to the death for her hand, using poisoned weapons. When faced with killing Flash, Barin turns his weapon on Ming instead. However, unwilling to see someone die from her actions, Aura had substituted a tranquilizer for the poison. When he wakes up Ming is not happy that his daughter kept him alive instead of killing him, asking how he could have fathered such a weak daughter. She later discovers that her mother did not die when she was born and that it is Vestra. She also learns that Vestra would be killed by Ming if she were to reveal her relationship to Aura or tell her that Terek is her twin brother.

Aura through the years

First words

  • Comic strip: "Stop! Stop, I say! If you kill this man, you must also kill me!"
  • Radio serial: "This way, Earthman! This way! Here, to my balcony!"
  • 1936 serial: "A bargain, father -- if he survives, he's mine!"
  • 1979 cartoon: "Hold!"
  • Movie: "Come along, Fellini."
  • Sci Fi Channel: "My name is Chianza, I'm one of Ming's abbotts. They're talking about you; is it true you're from another world?"

References

  1. ↑ Flash Gordon comic strip. January 28, 1934.
  2. ↑ Flash Gordon comic strip. February 4, 1934.
  3. ↑ "The Tournaments of Mongo", December 9, 1934.
  4. ↑ "The Tournaments of Mongo", December 18, 1934 - February 24, 1935.
  5. ↑ "The Tyrant of Mongo", November 20, 1938.
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