| Taranee Cook | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Disney |
| First appearance | W.I.T.C.H. #1 (April, 2001) |
| Created by | Elisabetta Gnone |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Taranee Cook |
| Place of origin | Earth |
| Team affiliations | W.I.T.C.H. |
| Abilities | Controls the power of fire. Also has telepathic abilities which she can use to read and project the thoughts of herself and others. Psionically-based superhuman awareness and understanding. Her power is described as wild and uncontrollable and her power increases along with her temper. In the cartoon, all five Guardians, including herself, can fly. |
Taranee Cook is a fictional character in the Italian comic series W.I.T.C.H. and the French animated series of the same name. She is one of the members of a group, called W.I.T.C.H. who make up the Guardians, the people who guard Kandrakar, the center of the universe, from evil. Taranee is pyrokinetic, thermokinetic and telepathic. Her mother and father are of Asian and African descent, respectively. She soon finds a guy named Nigel who thinks she is very sweet. Although she is shy, she has been known to be very smart and willing to help in school and when W.I.T.C.H. goes into action.
Taranee is 13 years old and was raised in the town of Sesamo, but later moved to Heatherfield. Her best friend is Will Vandom, the leader of W.I.T.C.H..
Taranee is a shy and reserved teenager, and her boyfriend is Nigel Ashcroft, an ex-member of Uriah's gang, who quit because Taranee wanted him to, and so did he. She can be a bit of a "goody-goody" at times and always does what's right. Taranee is the most intelligent member of the group, and her favorite subject is mathematics. She loves photography, basketball, dancing, and classical music, but hates bugs (especially spiders) except for butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets.
Her mother is a judge, Theresa Cook, and her father, Lionel is an ex-lawyer turned psychologist, and Taranee stated that she believes that they are overprotective of her. Taranee has an older brother called Peter Lancelot Cook, who, unlike the siblings of other fellow W.I.T.C.H. members, is really kind and respectful to her and her friends. He loves to surf and skateboard.
When people play with Taranee's feelings, or when she gets angry, her powers start up. Even Cedric once stated that her elemental power is the most indomitable of all five elements. Her voice is provided by Miss Kittie.
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Before living in Heatherfield, Taranee lived in another town known as Sesamo. Because of the move to a different town, Taranee was emotionally and mentally affected but understood that she had no choice but to move to Heatherfield because of her parents new job placement. In the comics, it is stated that a year before moving to Heatherfield, the Cook family went house hunting on their own accord. Taranee, upset by this, wondered off by herself and found a house of her own. Looking through the window, she saw a hypnotic fire dancing inside. When Taranee asked the real-estate agent about the house, he told her that it was abandoned and that nobody had lived there for years. When Taranee and her parents enter the house, the fire Taranee saw disappeared and the house appeared to be empty. The Cook family made the decision to move into this particular house. In the comics, Taranee moved to Heatherfield just a few days before Will, but in the animated series she moved one year prior to Will.
Comics: In the comics, Taranee bumped into the new girl Will Vandom, just a few days after moving to Heatherfield herself. The two girls became fast friends, and soon became friends with Cornelia Hale, Irma Lair, Hay Lin and Elyon Brown as well. One night, their local school was throwing a Halloween dance where Cornelia, Irma, Hay Lin and Elyon urge Taranee and Will to come with them. Uriah, the school bully, and his gang play a prank involving firecrackers that puts the girls in harms way, but after a bit of Taranee's quick thinking and unidentified powers, the girls get off without a scratch. The next day Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin meet at Hay Lin's house to discuss the strange dreams that they had. It was then that Yan Lin , Hay Lin's grandmother, informed the girls about their powers and about Kandrakar, entrusting the Heart of Kandrakar to Will.
Animated series: In the animated series, Taranee had been friends with Irma, Cornelia, and Hay Lin since living in Heatherfield. After Uriah's gang picks on the new girl Will at the science fair, Taranee encourages the girls to be nice to her and calls Will over to talk to them. Taranee tells Will that she knows what it's like to be the new girl. While the other girls talk about how they hate Uriah, they somehow exude a bit of their powers. Hay Lin arrives and invites the girls for tea and cookies at her house, as that's what her grandmother had influenced Hay Lin to do. At Hay Lin's, Yan Lin explains about the Guardians and entrusts the Heart of Kandrakar to Will. This is when Taranee and the girls learn about their powers.
In the third saga of the comic books, Taranee is provoked by the Oracle's recent actions, which include not telling Cornelia about Caleb's decision to go back to Meridian and not helping them in their next task. Taranee's last straw is when the nymph Xin Jing's gift of regenaration cures her eyesight, as she did not ask for it in the first place and did not want it and had to wear glasses when she did not need them.
Taranee then decides to leave the team temporarily. For this reason the Oracle decides to find a replacement. The replacement is the warrior Orube, from the Oracle's home planet of Basilíade, who is given no elemental power but is great at martial arts and can shoot energy beams.
The Oracle orders Orube to live on Earth under the alias of Mrs. Rudolph's niece Rebecca Rudolph in order to understand the human's habits on Earth and get along with the girls. After solving the conflict with Ari, Orube decides to enlarge her knowledge about Earth. In the next adventures Orube only gives the girls a helping hand.
Taranee's heritage is unclear. She was just a baby when a fire made her biological parents totally broke and they were incapable to bear the costs of raising their daughter. She has blue-black hair and eyes, and wears black glasses. Her birthday is March 23 making her an Aries. She is also 13.
Although she is shy and laid-back, Taranee is very determined when she sets her mind on a goal, and is usually the one who reminds her friends of important tasks to be done. Her hobbies include basketball, listening to classical music, photography and even math. Taranee is very close to her family, which consists of her parents and Peter Cook, her older brother, who is very nice to her and her friends. Though she is very sensitive, Taranee gets annoyed when people hurt her feelings and could become dangerous when that happens.
Taranee has power over fire. Her theme colour varies from red to orange and her symbol is a triangle with a corner opened.
Taranee's guardian form is unique and has been compared to a jogger with wings in the past. Her outfit includes a short sleeved shirt that curves to her rib cage, a green pair of boy shorts, a pair of pixie wings, purple track shoes and the trademark guardian tights which are blue and green. Despite the fact her hair is short, Taranee's hair is still short when she is transformed it separates into six smooth dread-lock like parts of hair on either sides of her head. She also sports two pink wrist bands on each of her wrists.
Taranee is the Guardian of Fire. She is therefore pyrokinetic and thermokinetic.
Taranee, as the Guardian of Fire, can spontaneously generate and manipulate flame and heat. In the basic application of her power is extinguishing fire and throwing fire, bombarding her opponent with fireballs in varying intensity and size. She soon learns to throw whirling discs of fire and create large wildfires and infernos with a thought. Later she uses her powers in more advanced techniques such as like using pure thermal energy as a defensive barrier that vaporizes nearly all projectiles, breathing fire, and shooting a pinpoint flame from her finger.
Using the more thermokinetic aspect of her Guardian powers, Taranee can sense nearby sources of heat and releasing concussive bursts of heat called heat waves. She can manipulate the temperature of an object by thoughts, melting it by adding it to its heat or making it brittle by taking away the objects heat. She has accomplished the feat of absorbing the heat of others like she did with Nerissa's soldier, Ember, who was fire made flesh.
Taranee is a potentially powerful telepath, able to read, project, and perceive thoughts. She can project her thoughts outwards similar to talking and is the center of the special psychic link between all the Guardians. When she uses her telepathic powers, flames flash in her eyes and when she's angry, flames appear as a reflection on her glasses. She also has psychically-based superhuman awareness and understanding able to sense the presence of others by just being in the vicinity and understanding the concepts of dreams almost instantly.Taranee can use her telepathic ability to stun or kill opponents, mainly by sending a fire blast from her mind or just meddling with their mind. She can even communicate with animals, only ones with great intelligence such as ravens, dogs or dolphins.Her psychic power in conjunction with her intelligence makes her an extremely valuable ally. The former guardian of Fire, Halinor Clarkson, also has the same power as Taranee.
Taranee has shown she is able to:
Taranee's powers as a Guardian allow her to:
Like the other girls from the comic book series, Taranee has a love life. Nigel was first part of a bullying boys group and got into trouble when they broke into a museum and Taranee's mother judged them. Because of this Nigel's friends holds a grudge against Taranee, Nigel however defends Taranee against his friends. Later on a special friendship blooms and Nigel and Taranee started dating. Nigel's friendship with his former friends ends, and he starts a new way of life by doing good and making new friends such as Martin, Matt, Eric, and Peter.
Nigel's brother, who was judged and punished by Taranee's mother, shortly returns to Heatherfield and reunites with his little brother. This causes a rift between Nigel and Taranee, ending with him breaking up with her unexpectedly. Despite this, their relationship does not stop there; Taranee tries to find out what is going on, but Nigel ignores her and even starts harassing her with his brother. Soon, though, Nigel is overwhelmed with guilt; feeling sorry for what he did, he apologizes to Taranee and her parents, and they become a couple once more
Their relationship soon develops more problems, however. Taranee starts having dancing lessons, which takes up a lot of her free time and allows her to make new friends. She starts neglecting her old friends and even Nigel, who has started to get annoyed at her spending most of her time practing dancing moves. Taranee befriends a new boy named Luke, who is also part of the dancing group, but she never gets a crush on him. Peter was angry with Taranee for breaking up with Nigel, as he was good friends with the boy and saw how much Nigel had given up in order to be with her.
Later on, in issue 77, she develops a holiday friendship with a boy named Hamza, whom she meets on a vacation.
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