Tamara (Jewel Riders)

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Tamara
First appearance	Jewel Quest
Last appearance	The One Jewel
Statistics
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Age	Teenager
Occupation	Jewel Rider/Musician
Title	Lady
Family	Doc and Charity (parents)
Portrayed by	Jean Louisa Kelly
Created by	Robert Mandell

Tamara is one of the main heroine characters on the animated television series Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders.

Aside from being a Jewel Rider, she has been referred to as Lady Tamara by several secondary characters and is a well-known musician in the enchanted land of Avalon, as well as a caretaker for baby magical animals.

[edit] Biography

Tamara is a resident of Heartland Farm in Avalon. The farm is used to raise baby magical animals so that they can eventually grow up and become a special friend to a Jewel Rider. After becoming a Jewel Rider, Tamara's parents, Doc and Charity, took on most of the responsibilities of raising the animals at Heartland Farm, but some of them were so attached to Tamara that they followed her on her journey anyway. These include Spike, a baby blue panther, Cleo, a baby pink unicorn, and Sugar, a baby green dragon. Tamara is unique in that she is the only Jewel Rider without a fully grown unicorn as her special friend, until the second season where she met Shadowsong, an outcast pink zebracorn. When she needed to ride a unicorn in the first season, she usually sat on the back of Moondance with Fallon.

Tamara was likely a Jewel Rider for the longest of the three because she is the one Princess Gwenevere and Fallon often go to for advice. Her Heart Stone's main ability is healing. It is very useful to her if one of her many baby animal friends gets hurt. It also has musical powers and can transform into or enhance the potential of any instrument.

Music is Tamara's other talent. She is famous throughout the kingdom for her talent to excel at any instrument and is the only of the three Jewel Riders who sings in the series. The songs Tamara sings are "Feel the Magic" (from Song of the Rainbow), "Heartland Farm" (episode Home Sweet Heart Stone) and "Nothing Like a Friend" (Shadowsong).

Tamara's Heart Stone allows her to talk to any animal in Avalon, unlike the other Jewel Riders, who are only able to communicate with their one special friend. This ability, as well as her experience on Heartland Farm, gives her a special bond with every animal and causes most animals to be drawn to her. Tamara was the only one who was able to get through to the very hyperactive prism fox, Kit (in the episode Home Sweet Heart Stone). The bond she formed with her allowed her to call her for help later in the series and eventually summon the gliders who gave the Jewel Riders wings to glide through the wild magic.

[edit] Personality

Tamara is extremely sweet and nurturing and is always willing to lend a helping hand. She rarely gets angry and always remains calm to think out a situation, no matter how dire an emergency it is. She's always a good person to be around Archie, Merlin's owl, who tends to panic and does not think clearly when the stakes are too high. She has a knack for calming down even the roughest of crowds and always manages to be polite, sincere, and modest, no matter how rude someone else is being toward her. In the episode For Whom the Bell Trolls, for instance, the troll Murray kidnapped the pack, but Tamara uses friendship and kindness to convince him to release her friends, instead of leading an attack.

She more or less treats Cleo, Sugar, and Spike as a mother and washes, feeds, and cares for them. In the episode Song of the Rainbow, when she fell under the influence of an enchanted harp, her primary worry was finding someone to care for the babies in her absence. She always tries to befriend everyone she meets and if she fails to, she considers it a challenge that she will always take on. It was in this way that Shadowsong, the zebracorn, became her special friend in the second season in the episode Shadowsong. The zebracorn would not respond to her Heart Stone no matter what she did, so she tried singing to him and naming him and doing everything she could to make him feel comfortable until he opened up to her and became bonded to her through her jewel.

Tamara was likely created to contrast Fallon's tomboyish aggressive nature, but though Tamara is physically weaker and somewhat more feminine, Princess Gwenevere is more of a contrast to Fallon due to her obsession with fashion and beauty. Gwenevere and Fallon often get into arguments due to their differences and it is Tamara who must settle these arguments due to her constant drive for peace. Everyone in the series knows that she is always fair and will never take sides.

[edit] Special Friends

Tamara's three special friends in the first season were Cleo, Sugar, and Spike, and though they wore Heart Stone charms around their necks, they were not bonded to her simply because they were too young. They are three of the baby animals that Tamara was raising with her parents at Heartland Farm, and they followed her when she became a Jewel Rider because they liked her so much.

• Cleo, the pink unicorn, is very girly and likes to dress up.

• Spike, the blue panther, is very brave and protective of Tamara.

• Sugar, the green dragon, is very cute and child-like.

In the second season, Tamara is rescued from a giant spider monster by Shadowsong, the pink zebracorn. At first, he is covered in brown mud because he is ashamed of his pink stripes, but Tamara sings to him and gives him all of her attention until he is no longer afraid to reveal himself to her. After he saves the Jewel Riders from having their magic absorbed by Morgana, Tamara thought he had used all his powers and was about to die. Her tears split her Heart Stone in half and bonded her with Shadowsong, saving his life.

Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders
Episodes
Characters
Jewel Riders:	Princess Gwenevere | Tamara | Fallon
Villainesses:	Lady Kale | Morgana
Other main characters:	Drake | Prince Ian | Merlin | Queen Anya