Dejah Thoris - description, appearance, references

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Fans of exciting fantasy books and movies know well who Dejah Thoris is. However, some people have not heard anything about this character. So it would not be superfluous to tell about it in more detail.

Who is she?

All fans of Edgar Burroughs, who also gave the world Tarzan, are familiar with Dejah Thoris. A Princess of Mars was the first book by a famous writer where this character appears. She belongs to the race of red Martians - very close to people in appearance and size.

The heroine is the rightful heir of Helium, one of the most powerful city-states on Mars, ruled by her grandfather Mors Kayak. She meets the main character - John Carter - when the ship of the Red Martians was fired upon and captured by the Tarks - green Martians of huge growth, ferocious, not knowing love and pity. John not only saves her, but also takes care of her later, protects, does everything to bring her home, to his native Helium, although he seriously insults her several times, not really understanding the customs and customs of the Red Martians.

Later she became Carter's wife, and when he left Mars - it seemed forever -went on a suicidal journey to the valley of Dor, before reaching the age of a thousand, as is customary. She gave birth to her husband two children - a son Carthoris and a daughter Tara.

Appearance

The appearance of Dejah Thoris is described in some detail in the first book of the series - "Princess of Mars". Edgar Burroughs describes her as an amazingly beautiful woman - perhaps the most beautiful on a dying planet.

Each feature of the oval-shaped face strikes with sophistication. The eyes are large and shining. The hair is very long, jet black, styled in a strange but very graceful hairstyle. The skin, like all red Martians, has a reddish copper tint. The cheeks are ruddy, and the amazingly delicately carved lips are reminiscent of a ruby.

Like most Martians don't wear clothes - this is not condemned by morals and is made possible by the warm climate of Mars (in Burroughs' time, relatively little was known about this red planet). The only outfit was jewelry of the finest work.

Mentioned in books

Edgar Burroughs wrote a lot of books included in the Martian cycle. There are eleven novels and seven short stories. However, Dejah Thoris, like John Carter, is far from present in all.

The heroine plays an important role in only a few books: the first three, the eighth and the eleventh. In other works, she is either an episodic hero, or is simply mentioned in passing.

However, she turned out to be so colorful that she was included in their works andother famous science fiction writers. For example, Robert Heinlein, George Effinger, David Weber, Hunot Diaz. In some cases, Dejah Thoris is just the name of one of the characters, in others it is just a reference to the heroine from the works of Burroughs.

Appearing in films

Alas, it cannot be said that Edgar Burroughs' Martian Cycle can boast of successful adaptations. Most of the films were simply abandoned at the filming stage. But the directors tried to film the novels during the life of the writer.

The first movie ever completed and released was Princess of Mars in 2009. Alas, it has practically nothing to do with the original book - only the main races from the Red Planet and the names of the main characters are taken. Here, actress Tracey Lords performed Dejah Thoris. It can not be said that she coped with the task flawlessly.

Things only got a little better with the more famous John Carter movie released by Disney in 2012. Here the beautiful Martian was played by Lynn Collins. Critics are divided. Some believe that the actress was chosen extremely unsuccessfully, while others argue that it is she who is the only thing worth watching the film for. Unfortunately, the plot is also conveyed very remotely, extremely simplified, which caused an outcry from fans of the book.

Comics

Dejah Thoris appeared in comics. This genre, popular in the USA, has allowed many readers to get acquainted with an interesting character.

The first appearance of steeladaptations of Burroughs' Martian Cycle. However, not only. For example, in 1995, she unexpectedly appeared in comics telling about the adventures of Tarzan. In addition, the mention of her can be found in the second volume of the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", where Gulliver Jones and John Carter talk.

From 2010 to 2012, a whole series of comics based on the novel "Princess of Mars" was released. She gained some popularity, as a result of which a separate spin-off was released - "Lords of Mars: Dejah Thoris. Its main character was the Martian princess. John Carter is not even mentioned here. No wonder - the action takes place 400 years before the earthling first set foot on the surface of Mars. A little later, the additional series "The Pirate Queen of Mars" was released.

Finally, the name "Dejah Thoris" was given to the spaceship in one of the issues of the comic book "Amazing X-Men".