Aurora



"Every day since my waking has been a gift, so let me do something with it. It's my turn to help someone else."

- Aurora to Mulan

Princess Aurora is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the first episode of the second season. She is portrayed by guest star Sarah Bolger, and does not have a Storybrooke counterpart.

Aurora is based on the daughter of Sleeping Beauty from the fairytale, "Sleeping Beauty".

History
In the past, Aurora's mother Sleeping Beauty is afflicted with a Sleeping Curse by a witch named Maleficent. At a later time, Aurora becomes betrothed to Prince Phillip. She is separated from him when Maleficent places her under a Sleeping Curse. Since then, Aurora remains in a peaceful slumber on a bier in her palace. While she is asleep, the Evil Queen casts the Dark Curse over the Enchanted Forest. Due to the effects of Cora's protection spell around a piece of surrounding land, Aurora is not taken by the curse. Time becomes frozen in the Enchanted Forest for twenty-eight years.
 * -|Before the Curse=

Twenty eight years later, the savior breaks the Dark Curse and lifts the remaining inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest from their frozen states. Prince Phillip and his traveling companion, Mulan, reach the palace to find Aurora asleep under the Sleeping Curse. With true love's kiss, he releases her from the curse. They have a brief, happy reunion that is interrupted by the appearance of a soul-sucking creature called the Wraith. Unbeknownst to Aurora and Mulan, Prince Phillip is marked for death by the being's medallion. Afterwards, they journey on and stop in the woods to set up camp for the night. Prince Phillip goes off alone, promising Aurora that he will come back. The two women discover too late where he has actually disappeared to. Aurora exhibits jealousy towards Mulan, believing the woman to be in love with Prince Phillip, though the latter attests that she only considers him a friend. They arrive in time to witness him sacrifice his soul to the Wraith. Devastated, the two women lay Prince Phillip's body on the palace bier. Mulan briefs Aurora about the Dark Curse, and what happened to their land while she was still under the Sleeping Curse. As they prepare to leave, a noise startles them. Under a pile of rubble, they find two women, Emma and Mary Margaret, unconscious. Mulan blames the strangers as the culprits in Prince Phillip's death.
 * -|After Broken Curse=

Aurora and Mulan ride away from the palace while forcing the women to follow along with their hands tied. They reach a Safe Haven where many survivors inhabit the area. Mary Margaret attempts to escape by kicking Aurora, giving Emma a head start, but Mulan throws a weapon to bring her down. Then, Emma and an unconscious Mary Margaret are thrown into a holding pit.

The leader of the Safe Haven, Sir Lancelot, requests to speak with Emma and Mary Margaret. He recognizes Mary Margaret as Snow White and they have a warm reunion. Since Lancelot trusts them, Mulan lets down her guard. Aurora, on the other hand, mistrusts Lancelot, and still holds the two newcomers responsible for Prince Phillip's death. Mulan warns her not to confuse vengeance with justice. Up front, Aurora reluctantly lets the subject drop, but holds onto a knife for later use. Lancelot decides to let Mulan accompany Emma and Mary Margaret on a journey as they try to find a way back to their home, Storybrooke. Aurora secretly follows them. Once Mary Margaret is alone, she brandishes the knife on her. While openly berating the woman as the cause of Prince Phillip's death, Aurora is easily overpowered. Mary Margaret states that she knows what it's like to lose someone, too, but what happened is not her fault. Mulan intervenes to promise she will handle Aurora. Emma, however, reacts defensively by firing a gunshot into the air. The noise attracts ogres, so they split up until Mary Margaret takes the creature down with an arrow to the eye. When they arrive at an abandoned castle, Aurora and Mulan keep watch at the gate while Emma and Mary Margaret go inside. By chance, Cora, disguised as Lancelot, ambushes the pair inside the castle. As a battle ensues, Mulan and Aurora hear the commotion and rush to help. During the commotion, the magic wardrobe Emma and Mary Margaret planned to use for returning home is burned to ash. The four regroup with plans to head back to the Safe Haven while Aurora agrees to help Emma and Mary Margaret find another way home as the challenge will give her a way to channel her anger.

On their return to the Save Haven, all the survivors are found dead with their hearts ripped out, except for one Aurora discovers beneath a pile of bodies. The man explains Cora attacked the camp, and he only survived by hiding under some dead bodies, but Emma is not buying the story and pulls a knife on his throat in an attempt to squeeze the truth out. When he keeps to his story, she ties him to a tree as bait for the ogres, though Aurora believes the man may be telling the truth. Unable to best Emma, the man reveals himself as Captain Hook. Though he was working with Cora, Hook offers to help Emma and Mary Margaret retrieve an item necessary for the journey home to Storybrooke. Later, he leads them to a giant beanstalk, and at the very top is a magical compass guarded by a giant.

At the beanstalk, Aurora volunteers to go up as she has no one left in this world, and has nothing to lose, but is overridden when Emma prefers to take her own chances. After Emma's departure up the beanstalk with Hook, Mulan suggests each of them should take turns on watch duty. Though Mary Margaret volunteers for first watch, Aurora would rather not sleep since nightmares are keeping her awake. With reassurance from Mary Margaret, Aurora decides to get some shut-eye. She falls asleep, but wakes up screaming in terror. Aurora describes to Mary Margaret a dream atmosphere of being trapped in a room devoid of windows or doors with red curtains and flames as another person, a man, staring at her. Mary Margaret tries her best to coax Aurora back to sleep. Much time passes, Mulan sees Emma has still not come back from the beanstalk, so she moves to cut it down. Aurora doesn't understand why, though Mulan's efforts are stopped after being tackled to the ground by Mary Margaret. Luckily, Emma jumps down from the beanstalk in time. Aurora inquiries about Hook's whereabouts. Emma, distrustful of the pirate, replies he is being watched so they can have a ten-hour start to get ahead.

While once again asleep, Aurora reappears in the same enclosed room being engulfed by flames. Unable to defend herself, she is saved when the other person in the room, a young boy, uses a necklace to put out the fire out. Without the blaze separating them, he convinces Aurora not to be afraid and tells her his name, Henry. Pulled out of the dream, Aurora reaches consciousness with alarm and tells Emma, with great urgency, the name of the boy she met.

Shocked, Emma shows Aurora a photo of Henry, which she confirms is the boy in her dream. Emma is confused as to how Aurora and Henry are sharing the same dream, but Mary Margaret knows how it is possible. She talks about her own same experience in the Netherworld, which is a side effect of being woken up from the Sleeping Curse. Angrily, Aurora asks why she wasn't informed of this, which Mary Margaret says was necessary to keep her from worrying. They come to a group decision that Aurora should go back to sleep and contact Henry. As they are walking through the forest, Mulan notices burns on Aurora's arms and inquires about them. Aurora claims she got them from brushing up against poison ivy, which Mulan does not believe. Shrugging off the subject, Aurora focuses on her own determination to be helpful, and will be doing it with or without Mulan's approval. Returning to sleep, Aurora sees Henry again amidst all the smoke and combustion. The two attempt to communicate as the flames rage and Henry attempts to notify her of the squid ink in Rumplestiltskin's cell at the ruins of the palace, which will help Emma and Mary Margaret defeat Cora. Unfortunately, she is unable to hear him and is brought back to wakefulness by Mulan during an ambush siege from Cora's army of heartless victims. Aurora and Mulan escape together, but are attacked by a group of zombies. While Mulan is pinned down by one of the creatures, Aurora is dragged away by another.

Taken prisoner in a cell beneath the Safe Haven, Aurora fends off Cora's attempts at gaining her trust. Cora finds her paranoia silly, and claims her intent to keep Aurora alive so she can be traded for the compass. Aurora doesn't think it's a good idea since she is a stranger to Emma and Mary Margaret and returning home is the most important to them. Nonetheless, Cora tempts her with news that Prince Phillip's soul is in another world, and if Aurora cooperates, she will retrieve him. Unswayed, she refuses and stands up to Cora, who, in turn, uses magic to fling her against the wall. While out cold, Hook steals Aurora's heart with intentions of handing it to Cora later. Unaware of what transpired, she awakens in surprise to see the pirate, who frees her. Before Aurora leaves, Hook asks her to tell Emma that she should have trusted him all along. She runs back to her companions in time to break up a scuffle between Mary Margaret and Mulan. She explains how Hook helped her escape and delivers his message to Emma. Aurora is brought up to speed on their next plan of action to nab some squid ink from an old cell, which can paralyze Cora.

Once at the cell, Aurora discovers a parchment note with Emma's name written all over it. Upon further searching of the premises, Aurora, manipulated by Cora, picks up a rock and throws it at a switch; closing the cell. Out of the darkness, Cora reveals Aurora's heart is in her control, and squeezes it as a demonstration, causing much pain to the girl. After Cora and Hook have left, Mary Margaret realizes there is squid ink on the parchment, and melts away the cell bars with it. Aurora understands she is still a risk since Cora has her heart and asks to be left behind. She is tied up as a precaution. A short while passes and Mulan returns to place the retrieved heart into Aurora's chest. In turn, Aurora tells her the information Cora shared concerning Prince Phillip's retrievable soul. They set off to find a way to bring him back.

Through unknown means, Aurora and Mulan retrieve Phillip's soul. By the beach's shoreline, the trio come across an unconscious man. They take him back to the palace and tend to his injuries. Once he awakens, Aurora and Prince Phillip rush over to examine the stranger. They learn his name is Neal. Judging from his surprised reaction to where he is, Aurora deducts Neal must be a native to the Enchanted Forest, but Mulan points out his clothes are foreign and similar to Emma and Mary Margaret's. At the mention of Emma's name, Neal tries to explain that he needs to save her from harm. When he brings up Henry, Aurora recognizes him as the boy's father and promises to help find his son. She tries her best to seek out Henry in the Netherworld, but the attempt is unsuccessful. In an alternative plan, Neal decides to go to his father's old castle to look for something that might help reach his loved ones while Mulan accompanies him.

At her palace, Aurora is busy straightening up the palace gardens when Mulan arrives back with news she wants to share. Coincidentally, so does Aurora, who excitedly confirms she and Prince Phillip are expecting their first child. Mulan reacts with shock, but quickly congratulates her. She waits to hear her friend's news, to which Mulan announces her intent to join Robin Hood's band of Merry Men. Sadly, Aurora watches her abruptly depart from the palace grounds.

Trivia

 * The casting call described her as, "female, early to mid 20s. Born into a life of wealth and privilege, [Aurora] was raised every bit the polished princess. But beneath the shiny veneer of a spoiled young girl beats the heart of a woman willing to sacrifice everything for love."
 * The casting call name for her was "Anastasia".
 * The name "Aurora" is of Latin origin that means "dawn".
 * Aurora's mother is the original "Sleeping Beauty".
 * There is a spinning wheel at the foot of her bier, which serves as homage to the original fairytale.
 * She is the first person to have her heart magically reinserted.
 * She is currently the only Enchanted Forest character to not appear in a flashback.