What is Virana’s plan in Kelly Marie Tran) who hails from the mystical land of Kumandra. Hundreds of years before she was born, Kumandra was a peaceful land until it was overrun by evil spirits known as Druun who turned its people into stone. Luckily, a dragon named Sisu (Awkwafina) crafted a gemstone that was able to keep the Druun at bay and revive the petrified people. On the downside, however, a power struggle for the gemstone arose and resulted in Kumandra being divided into five different tribes – Heart, Fang, Spine, Talon and Tail.
Raya And The Last Dragon picks up half a century later and reveals Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) – leader of the Heart tribe and Raya’s father – has the gemstone and training his daughter to protect it. Benja believes he can unite the five Kumandra’s tribes and invites them for a feast but during the festivities the Fang tribe – led by Chiefess Virana – try to steal the gemstone, resulting in it shattering into five different pieces. Each of the five pieces are then snatched up by Kumandra’s tribes but the gemstone’s destruction releases the Druun who take over the Heart tribe’s land and turn many Kumandran people into stone, including Chief Benja himself.
The main plot of Pixar's Raya And The Last Dragon then follows Raya as she sets out to find the dragon Sisu, retrieve the missing fragments to rebuild the gemstone and banish the Druun, so she can revive her people and restore harmony. Along the way she’s pursued on her mission by the Fang’s warrior princess Namaari (Gemma Chan) who is acting under orders from her mother Chiefess Virana to collect the fragments. But what is Virana’s end game in Raya And The Last Dragon? What she wants is for Fang to be responsible for the gemstone’s restoration and defeat of the Druun, rather than Raya and the Heart tribe. Virana recognizes the other tribes blame the Fang as it was their plot to steal the gemstone that led to its destruction in the first place and believes the tribe will be forgiven if they restore it
On a more ulterior level, it’s suggested she would also enjoy the power of being the leader responsible for defeating the Druun and uniting Kumandra. Virana’s ego soon puts her people in peril but by the Grey’s Anatomy star Sandra Oh.
In an interview with EW, Oh stated she appreciated how Virana’s role in Raya And The Last Dragon wasn’t as a one-dimensional villain but a “nuanced character” who understands “the sacrifice and the choices that a leader can make … to protect her people.” Oh received praise for her performance as the complex Fang tribe leader and audiences are already wondering whether a Raya And The Last Dragon sequel could be in the works. Disney has yet to confirm whether a sequel is on the cards, but hopefully Oh will return as Virana if Raya And The Last Dragon 2 happens.
