Cornelia Hale

Cornelia Hale
Publication information
Publisher	Disney
First appearance	W.I.T.C.H. #1 (April, 2001)
Created by	Elisabetta Gnone
In-story information
Alter ego	Cornelia Hale
Place of origin	Earth
Team affiliations	W.I.T.C.H.
Notable aliases	"Corny", a name Irma uses to annoy her.
Abilities	Controls the power over earth. She is able to move the earth at will and alter plants by manipulating their growth pattern. (Geokinesis and Chlorokinesis) Also possesses telekinetic powers, able to move objects from afar, and has a minor glamouring power.

Cornelia Hale is a fictional character in comic book W.I.T.C.H. and the television series of the same name. She is one of the five teenage girls who are chosen to be the new Guardians of Kandrakar. Their mission is to protect Kandrakar the centre of the universe and the other planets from evil.

Cornelia is 14 years old, and is the second oldest of the current group of Guardians of Kandrakar, each with a different elemental power. She attends Sheffield High School with the other four Guardians. She is a competitive ice-skater and has won numerous medals for her skills displayed in the sport. She has a cat named Napoleon, and a younger sister named Lillian who is somewhat of a pain in the neck. She has long blond hair and blue eyes and is the tallest Guardian. Cornelia's father is named Harold Hale and runs a very successful bank. Her mother is named Elizabeth Landon, and is very strict. Her favorite school subject is History, and she was born on May 10, making her a Taurus. She is voiced by Christel Khalil.

Personality and Guardian form

The eldest daughter of a wealthy family, popular Cornelia is a somewhat a materialistic person, who cared a lot about her looks and fashion. She is born on May 10, making her a Taurus. In the comic/books Cornelia was annoyed that Will is the leader and not her as she was better at leading than following, but she told Will that she will support her and that she deserved to be a leader. Cornelia is also overconfident and thinks that she can do just about anything by herself. Still, she is deep down a considerate person who can be very romantic. She is not always the most positive person, but manages to get through obstacles with an attitude. She is also very firm and stubborn, and the least likely of the Guardians to accept or believe something, as was shown the very first time that she became a Guardian.

In the comic, Cornelia is calm and normally friendly. In the television series, she is more childish and spoiled. She can be quite vain and sarcastic, caring more about fashion, beauty, her popularity, and her looks in contrast to her comic book self, so much to the point that she sometimes even insults others because of their fashion sense and/or appearance. She still has a good heart, showing this kinder streak several times, like during Hay Lin's brief breakdown towards the end of the second season, where she was the one who told Hay Lin that Yan Lin hadn't truly betrayed her, but was only fighting her because of Nerissa's brainwashing.

Cornelia loves ice skating (in the TV series Lillian states she has won many medals showing she is very good at ice skating) and hanging with her friends. She hates the fact that her parents spend more time with Lilian than with her.

Later on in the series, her mother tells her that her grandfather, whom she believed to be dead, is still alive.

When in her guardian form Cornelia grows taller and her hair longer. Like Irma she wears a long sleeved teal top but it doesn't have any swirls,a long purple skirt that falls to her ankles and has one split to near her waist, knee length purple boots and a sole swirl that hooks over her navel and a pair of pixie wings and the trademark guardian tights that are green and blue in colour. Besides Will she is the only other guardian who wears knee high boots.

Love life (comic book)

Before W.I.T.C.H., Cornelia always had a crush on Taranee's brother, Peter Cook but her dreams of a certain handsome boy made her distant and avoid any date with Peter. She talked so much about the boy of her dreams with Elyon that her friend drew him as a gift for her. Eventually, Cornelia entered Meridian on her own, in hope to recover the friendship between her and Elyon. She then meets with Caleb, who looks like the boy of her dreams. When she mentions this to Caleb, he replies with the fact he saw her face in his own dreams as well, and the two fall in love.

During the last battle between Phobos and Caleb, he was changed back into his 'flower' form. Heartbroken Cornelia takes the flower back to her world and becomes distant, depressed, and withdrawn. In time, Cornelia collected enough power to restore Caleb's true form. But in order for Caleb to prove himself loyal and pure to Oracle, he has to complete a few missions, separating Cornelia and him again.

Before the last battle against Nerissa, Caleb sees Cornelia's true form. He only saw her 'transformation-form', which has a much older and mature appearance; seeing her younger form made him rather shocked that the Oracle would let young girls going through such battles. After Nerissa's defeat, Cornelia and Caleb discuss their future. Caleb admits to Cornelia after seeing her 'true form' he doesn't know if their relationship will work. Angered and shocked, Cornelia tells him that he is a monster, and after the break-up, Caleb decided to return to Meridian.

It took Cornelia many months to get over Caleb. Because she still missed him, she started to have a negative view on love. Even when Peter start asking her on dates, she often rejects or backs out on the last minute. Though Peter has always liked Cornelia, he does sometimes find her selfish and spoiled. After a long recovery, Cornelia started dating Peter, and they are now in a relationship.

In the comic special Cornelia and Caleb: A Love Not Meant to Be, the Oracle visits their dreams, and in order to help them recover from the breakup, he shows two possible outcomes of what could have happened if they had stayed together, neither of which has a happy ending.

A possible future shown in issue 50 showed Cornelia and Peter still together.

In the animated series, Cornelia and Caleb fall in love and do not break up. Peter and Cornelia do have crushes on each other, but in the episode dealing with that part of the storyline, they both realize that she has no strong feelings for him.

Relationships

Before being friends with and a part of W.I.T.C.H. Cornelia was best friends with Elyon Brown first and friends with also Hay Lin and Irma. When Will and Taranee came to town, she was open to them being part of the group, but through trials of the Guardians and friendship, she proved that she had become best friends with Will and the others, without alienating Elyon, even though she sometimes was left out. Cornelia has a brief relationship with Taranee's older brother while using her power of age change to make herself seem old enough (in the comic book version it was Irma who used the age-change trick twice to flirt with a boy named Andrew ) and poses as her "older sister Lillian" (actually her younger sister), but soon rekindles her relationship with Caleb, who returns her affections. Despite the strength of their love, the pair are shown to fight with each other a lot at the beginning of the show's second season. In the further series, their relationship will become stronger.

In the cartoon, Cornelia's sister Lillian is the Heart of Earth, and has powers like Elyon's, but doesn't know it. To keep her safe until she can use her powers properly, Cornelia tricks her into handing her powers to their cat Napoleon, Matt Olsen and Will's dormouse Mr. Huggles. It is also revealed that it is because of this relationship that she was chosen as the Guardian of Earth, so she could guide her sister to use her powers wisely. Since these events, Cornelia has secretly pledged to be there for her little sister ensuring nothing ever divides them again.

Powers

As the Guardian of Earth, she is geokinetic and can control plants and their growth and structure and manipulate the earth and all related materials such as paper, wood, silt, minerals, crystal, gems, sand, mud, some foods like sugar and wheat, silicon, molten rock, etc. At first she thought her powers are lame only consisting on making plants grow to giant sizes and altering their shape but she discovers her powers were much more learning to create earthquakes, levitate and throw rock and stone, create trenches, and cause avalanches and mudslides. In the animated series, Cornelia happens to be the Guardian whose power happens to dwarf the others but ironically, her powers are useless when she is not near the ground or there are no plants to control.

The Guardians met Kadma Starlighter, the former Guardian of Earth, when on an adventure in the dimension of Zamballa; Kadma had taught Cornelia the ability of green-speaking, the ability to communicate and sense the location of vegetation. Cornelia also has learned to manipulate certain types of metal that have a composition with a substantial amount of Earth in it.

When the Guardians received a power boost from when the Oracle and the Council of Candracar deactivated the Veil causing the power used to sustain and create it to flow back into the Aurameres, Cornelia gains the power of telekinesis, the power to levitate and manipulate objects with the power of her mind. With her telekinetic powers, Cornelia can not only hurl rocks at her opponents she can mentally throw objects such as flatware, trashcans, books, people, brooms etc. She can levitate herself also to gain limited flight powers, can defend herself with a telekinetic barrier, and fire pulses of sheer telekinetic power. When she first got her powers she also had the power over wishes, when she wished for something she got it.

She also gains a minor glamouring-shape shifting power to transform into herself but look like her Guardian self but without the wings, amplified powers or the costume but definitely the mature body and voice.

Cornelia's newest power is the ability to heal wounds using the warmth of the earth. The former guardian of Earth, Kadma Starlighter, also has the same exact powers as Cornelia.

Cornelia has shown that she is able to:

• Control vegetation, such as plants,trees,shrubs,bushes,etc. growth and structure
• Manipulate the earth and all related materials such as paper, wood, silt, minerals, crystals, gems, sand, mud, metal etc., by throwing them,
• Form earthquakes,fissures and avalanches
• Create shields and armour from rock.
• Greenspeak
• Teleport forms of earth-related materials
• Telekinesis
• Healing powers
• Change from her normal self to her Guardian self without the wings and costume
• Throw beams of green energy
• Wishes to herself
• Bring dead plants and fruit to life
• Use telekinetic barriers and throw fire pulses of energy
• Communicate the location of vegetation
• Create fruit from branches and tree's such as apples
• Limited flight powers
• Sense and visualise people
• Sense vibrations of the earth
• Travel underground
• Her emotions are linked to nature (when she's feeling sad or angry the plants will die)
• Drag or sink people under the ground
• Bore through concrete,metal,walls,etc.
• Make metal soft and melt
• Manipulate metal

Cornelia's powers as a Guardian include:

• Flight (animated series)
• Teleportation
• Glamouring
• Invisibility

Differences between comic book and the TV series

While Cornelia is "boycrazy" in the TV series, in the comic, she seems to show a dislike for boys; before Caleb came into her life, she ignored other boys' flirting or kindness. Despite this, she became very "soft" when she and Caleb started a relationship. When he dumped Cornelia, she became more narrow-minded towards boys, and also became very negative about love.

Unlike the comic book version, Cornelia in the TV series seems to be more positive about many things and often points out other people's bad taste in fashion and also makes jokes and sarcastic remarks. In the comic book, Cornelia can also be sarcastic at times but over more serious topics and she often fights with Irma and Will and complains about almost everything, while she still has these mood swings she has matured throughout the comic book series. Cornelia remains in a relationship with Caleb in the TV series; in the comic book, they break up, and Cornelia eventually begins dating Peter Cook.