Atara Tigris

Atara Tigris - more commonly known as Tara - born on 2 June 995 in the Underworld, is a Bengal tigress shapeshifter born to parents Esther and Caesar Tigris. She was one of the few sole survivors of the Jawa Massacre - along with her older sister Katrina; her parents were killed in the process. She survived at the age of 5. For a little while on the streets, her and her sister begged and stole whilst living on the streets to survive. A few months later, they were found and taken in by a middle-aged woman who has looked after them since. She is still haunted by the events of the massacre - though can't remember it as clearly as her sister does because she was so young. Luckily for her, she did not witness her parents' death - unlike that of her sister.

Appearance
Atara is said to be the prettier and the more endowed of the two sisters, and is generally the more feminine of them both. She is extremely beautiful - noted to be one of the prettiest girls in school. She has lovely long thick wavy auburn hair with large round emerald green eyes and flawless pale skin. Unlike her tomboyish sister, she dresses more femininely, wears make-up and is generally self-conscious and takes more pride in her looks. She tends to wear short skirts or shorts or jeans with low-cut tops or just anything really. In one of the books, she dyes her hair a light orange then highlights it blonde. Her sister comments that it was a shame for her to ruin her lovely auburn locks. She tends to wear a lot of perfume. Even though she wears quite a bit of make-up, she doesn't wear too much of it (not that she needs to, anyway.) She likes to wear little black heeled boots with her school uniform.

She also grows a lot, although she is already tall for her age at only just 13 (5"5) - and grows to 5"10 by the time the story's finished. She also becomes curvier and hour-glassy as she gets older, too.

                                                                                    

Personality
Unlike her sister's more serious, traumatised and introverted personality, despite her tragic past, Atara is rather bubbly and cheerful, often speaking in a babyish sing-song-voice and was so young when it happened to remember a lot of it. She is simple and narrow-minded and doesn't take anything seriously, taking everything as a joke. She is rather silly, quirky but friendly. She is rather childish despite her feminine nature. She tends to ask rather dumb questions in class, and, despite being in middle-high sets, she acts completely stupid. In her biology test for example, the question asked: how do plants lose and keep their water?" and she answered with, "plants sweat when they get too hot - " even though she perfectly well knew the answer. She can be childish to the point of annoying, although some comment that she's rather cute. She's a bit slow and day-dreamy sometimes, preferring to stay in her own little world.

She appears to have no problem socialising and loves to be the center of attention. She is loud and obnoxious and is rather self-centred.

However, when angered, she has a temper as violent as her sister's and can be just as fierce as her sister. She is daring and bold and adventurous. She can be rather aggressive, and is willing to fight rather than run away. Her moods tend towards extremes, when she's happy, she's over the moon, when she's angry, you don't want to know her. She rarely gets sad - although when she is - she does show it, unlike Lily - who does not and will act happy no matter what the situation.

But in later books, as things get more serious, she gets more serious. She uncharacteristically calls both Duma and Howl cowards at different points of the books and attempts to fight them, only to be stopped by her more rationalised sister. She punches Duma for saying her sister is a "danger to society." Sometimes her current personality can subside over for a more serious personality and can show a surprisingly mature side.

Emotionally, she rarely gets upset and tends to be detached from other people's emotions and tends to be ignorant towards other's needs. However, she shows a surprising amount of maturity towards Lily when she's upset and comforts her along with her sister. She generally cares for her friends, even though she doesn't seem so genuine on the outside.

It soon also becomes more and more apparent that she uses that personality as a front in order to hide her insecurities and fears - showing that she's a very good actress. She is traumatised by her past - and later her sister's death - and has to go for counselling which helps her a lot and gives her more confidence - more so after her sister's death. She can get angry about it, but rarely cries - except for once when she does break down in tears. Her sister notes that she is very brave. Tara, too, admires her sister's courage and strength. Tara even admits that she talks in a baby-like voice so that her sister doesn't ever leave her, because if she knew that she was independent, she's scared that she might leave her - as Katrina almost did abandon her once when she had one of her temper tantrums. This suggests that Tara can be quite manipulative when needs be - although not maliciously.

Boys often make snide comments about her, calling her "fake" and a "slut." She, like Tanya, is known to have a bit of a reputation with boys and is very flirtatious and alluring when she wants to be. She doesn't seem to have a large amount of self-respect - which she is completely oblivious to.

Although very bright, she acts very stupid - and attains good grades in her GSQs despite not trying very hard. She wanted to do her sister and family proud, as the last of the Tigris family. This shows that she can be very bright when she wants to be - and isn't as dumb as everyone thought she was. Despite this, only those close to her know how intelligent she really is. Although not one of the most intelligent character out of the entire series, she's certainly not stupid, either.

Atara has a mental breakdown after her sister's death, feeling like as if she has no reason to live anymore and does try to commit suicide - but fails and is hospitalised. But, by visiting a psychoanalyst and a bereavement counsellor she begins to come to terms with both her parents' and her sisters' deaths - as neither her or her sister never had closure from their parents' deaths. She decides to work hard to become a guardian and take her sister's place as a guardian and vows to live on in her family's name. She also does fall in love with Raji - Katrina's childhood friend - as both bond and come together due to Katrina's sudden demise.