Frozen Is Cool! Elsa the Snow Queen Rules!

So almost two years since the release of Frozen II, I think this scene, the scene that reveals Runeard’s true colors regarding his feelings towards the Northuldra and magic, has become famous. It’s less than 20 seconds long and he says only approximately 30 words in it, but judging from the things he says, how he says them, and the faces he makes while speaking his words are enough to reveal just how much of a wrathful, egotistical, arrogant, hypocritical, bigoted, hostile, xenophobic, paranoid, supreme, power-hungry man Runeard was.

But even so, almost two years later, fans are undoubtedly curious as to why Runeard hates and fears magic so much. Sure, he explains his belief that magic corrupts people into thinking they are so powerful and entitled that they are better than a king (which is hypocritical since he is clearly displaying his own love of power, sense of entitlement, and supreme belief that he is better than everyone else by being a monarch), but there is no deeper explanation on just why he thinks this. I have explained in several analyses why I believe he has these feelings, and now I want to explain all of my beliefs and thoughts about it in one piece, so here I go. 😁😉👍🏻

As mentioned in Seek the Truth: Unraveling Frozen II, a big project about the movie that was written by @yumeka36, it is not uncommon to fear people and things that are different, with “different” in this case meaning unusual, strange, or foreign (which is what the term xenophobia means). Such fear can eventually blossom into hatred, and this is especially so for a person like Runeard, someone who is in a high position in society with a lot of power. Furthermore, by being in such a high social, political rank, people like Runeard will sometimes get the idea that they are better and smarter than others, they discriminate everyone who is below them in status as being beneath them in all other ways, and they want to have total control over everything. From the one scene in which his true nature is revealed, it’s not difficult to comprehend that Runeard enjoyed the power, authority, and control that came with his kingship, so much so that he abused it, albeit in secret. It convinced him that he was the best person of all, that he was always right and could never do any wrong, so he was extremely intolerant of disobedience, defiance, challenges to his authority and his judgment being questioned. This is all proven by the furious face he makes after his aide tries to reason with him that the Northuldra are not untrustworthy in nature following Runeard ordering him to round up all of Arendelle’s soldiers to bring to the forest. Runeard also hated the idea of anything or anyone being better than him, and particularly anyone who thought they were better than him. As a result, he could not tolerate competitive rivals, challenges, or threats of any kind to his power, and he was obsessively determined not to lose it to anything.

I have always thought that the main reason why Runeard loathed magic is because it is not a normal force in the world; in other words, it is an abnormal, unpredictable, unnatural, otherworldly entity (the latter terms were also said by @yumeka36), making it difficult for him to control or understand it. As a king, Runeard had a deep-rooted need and desire to control everything and everyone in his path, to always be on top of things and other people, to always be obeyed, and he felt satisfied when he had complete control of things that were normal and natural. But much like how he resented his judgment being questioned and authority being challenged, he also resented anything he couldn’t control or understand, and magic is one thing that was far beyond his comprehension and control. So without question, Runeard’s complete inability to control magic is definitely one of the key reasons why he detested it.

And as revealed in Dangerous Secrets, the disappearance of Runeard’s wife Rita was a contributing factor in his abhorrence of magic. After many years of feeling depressed and homesick, combined with Runeard’s inability to be loving, understanding, and sympathetic of her situation, Rita fled after Pabbie erased her memories of her family and life in Arendelle. Like I said in “There Goes the Bride”, I believe Runeard wanted to have total control and authority over Rita since he saw her as his inferior by being his wife, but also as a queen and a woman. But once she left him, he no longer had any control over her, which infuriated him because he had ultimately failed to control her with all the power he could muster and was unable to do anything about it afterwards. As a result, Runeard refused to accept that he had been an awful husband and was the only person to blame for Rita’s departure. He officially said that she disappeared due to evil spirits, making it one of many instances in which he refused to take responsibility for his misdeeds and faults, and instead took the easy approach by blaming them on an uncontrollable force like magic. 😔

Moving on, because of the abnormality and unpredictability of magic, it would be the only form of power considered to match or be greater than that of any monarch, the only type of power that could stand in Runeard’s way as a ruler. So since the powers of magic could present themselves as a competition, threat, and challenge to his kingship, it is another reason why he abhorred it, and this ties into his bigotry and wrath towards the Northuldra. The Northuldra are peasants, people of the lowest rank in society, which puts them below him in society by default, and he already believed he was better than them and saw them as uncivilized people. But even more so, Runeard just couldn’t stand the fact that these peasants follow magic, the very thing he saw as being in the way of his kinghood. He also couldn’t stand the thought that the Northuldra might think their magical ties made them think they are far more powerful and greater than him. So Runeard saw them as being an obstacle to his kingship in two separate ways that combined together, and because of this, he felt the need to obliterate them. As I said in “King Runeard, the Lying Hater”, Runeard’s xenophobia and paranoia of magic was so extreme that he probably believed that the Northuldra might try to usurp him and take control of Arendelle using the magical spirits. They wouldn’t have, of course, but Runeard wasn’t going to take the chance of any such thing happening, or anything else that could lead to him losing his power, and he had to come up with a plan to get rid of them.

But then why did he want to use the dam to do so?

Because Runeard had built up a facade of a benevolent, generous leader to his kingdom and the Northuldra, and he had to keep his real malevolent nature under wraps. If he tried to take down the Northuldra using direct, unprovoked force, his entire cover would be blown instantly and he would lose everything he had gained from his artificial image. But it’s also because Runeard feared what the spirits could do to him if he acted by force. So he decided to take a more subtle approach by building the dam in the Enchanted Forest and using it to weaken the lands and, by extension, the magic. As we see in the film, the dam caused a massive blockage of water, which completely disrupted the flow of the once free-flowing river, so it can be assumed that this was one way the dam was harmful to the environment. Like other real-life effects of a dam, it also may have disturbed the sediment composition of the water, which practically eroded the river, and harmed or killed the plant life that grew on the fjord beneath the dam. Runeard knew all of this since, as a king, he was a very educated man and had more privileges regarding such knowledge than other people. It could even be assumed that his soldiers and the Arendellian citizens did not have the same amount of knowledge he did (at least not regarding what harmful effects dams do in a natural setting), which might explain why no one ever questioned him (on screen, at least) if the dam would actually help the forest. However, out of arrogance in thinking he was better and a lot smarter than the Northuldra, Runeard assumed that they wouldn’t have this knowledge, either, or that it would take them a very long time to figure it out. So he thought he could get away with his true intentions by presenting the dam as a gift of peace, which would also easily fool his people into thinking he was doing an utmost good deed and keep them on his side if the Northuldra suspected otherwise.

I previously explained in “Panic Attack” what I think Runeard’s long-term plan was to eliminate the Northuldra, so I don’t want to explain all the details. I will say, though, that, since his actions were subtle, I am wholly convinced that he never intended to wipe out the tribe and start a war with them on the very day of the gathering in the forest. However, his plans instantly changed and began to crumble once the Northuldra leader told Runeard that the dam was harming the forest rather than helping it as promised. In a panic, and knowing his whole ruse could be exposed, he knew he had to act fast and get rid of the leader to keep anyone else from discovering the truth. But immediately after carrying out his murderous deed, Runeard panicked again since he knew that the tribe would eventually discover their leader’s absence and be searching for him. So not really knowing what else to do, given the circumstances, he started a full-fledged war between them and the Arendellians to turn any suspicion away from his crime...but his desperation to hide everything clouded his thoughts and caused him to make such a poor, impulsive move which ultimately drove him to his death.

Up until his death, Runeard’s xenophobia towards magic made him want to destroy anyone with magical powers or who had ties to magic that came his way. Little did he realize, though, that his own actions to try and eliminate the Northuldra would lead to the births of Anna and Elsa (who was born with magic, the very thing he abhorred most in the world), who would one day rectify his sins. The subsequent revelation of Runeard’s murderous, treacherous acts would forever ruin his legacy, causing his own worst fear to become reality, and rather than the Northuldra be obliterated like he had aimed to do, they would come together with the Arendellians to form a true union of peace, thanks to Elsa and Anna. 😉

Introduction

Among the villains in the Disney animated canon, there are those that are truly intelligent in terms of brains and intellectualism if they possess a great deal of knowledge due to being educated and having undergone many different experiences in life. Some of them are even more intelligent if they possess high skills in manipulation, calculation, and cunning, and a good example of this kind of villain is Hans. However, for other villains, even if they are manipulative, calculating, and cunning, it does not always mean they are intelligent, and one shining example of this type of villain is Gaston.

Yes, despite what anyone believes, and I cannot stress this enough, Gaston is NOT intelligent. He is calculating, cunning, and manipulative, yes, I’ll admit that. But intelligent? NO!!! Throughout the film, Belle proves herself to be far smarter than him due to her intelligence being based almost entirely on strong intellectualism, logic, knowledge, and wit. The benefits Belle has gained from reading books over the years include an elevated vocabulary, an open, unprejudiced mind, and the ability to be a quick-thinker, which proves useful when it comes to her making retorts with little hesitation. But none of these things apply to Gaston. Heck, while you can describe Belle as the one with beauty and brains, Gaston has beauty AND brawn…but no brains! He has built up all his major muscles, but his only muscle that he’s never bothered to exercise is his mind! 😆🤣

What makes Gaston stupid is how overconfident, proud, egotistical, narcissistic, and arrogant he is as a very handsome, strong, muscular man with superb skills in hunting and killing animals. He seems to believe that all he needs to be a “good” man is his handsome appearance and great physical strength, and so he dismisses reading, intelligence, ideas, and anything and everything related to intellectualism as stupid and unnecessary. Gaston carries such a high, superior opinion of himself which is further exacerbated from the townspeople admiring him and regarding him as the best, most popular man in the village. This status has him extremely convinced that he really is the best of the best, and so much so that no one can ever surpass him or refuse him for anything. He particularly has so much of this pride since his good looks and superficial charm has almost all of the young, attractive, single girls in town falling at his feet and swooning over him. (On the side, Gaston’s overconfidence and arrogance in his strength makes him foolish enough to underestimate the Beast’s great size and strength during the climax.) But while Belle is the only woman who never shows any interest in or attraction to him, Gaston is fully convinced, to the point of being extremely delusional (as part of his stupidity and another result of his overconfidence), that Belle is truly no different from the other girls and is in love with him, too.

Unlike everyone else in town, and especially unlike the Bimbettes, Belle, from the very beginning of the film, is the only person who is not immune to Gaston’s arrogant, vain, egotistical, pompous, misogynistic nature, and easily sees all of his faults behind his handsome, muscular appearance. Because of her smarts, she never judges people based on their appearance, but by their character. Despite being a handsome man, Gaston gives off a lot of personality traits that Belle easily recognizes and detests, so she does not see him as a catch nor does she want anything to do with him. But little does Belle know that she is the only woman on whom Gaston has set his sights and that he strongly desires her hand in marriage.

So now I want to talk about the moments in Beauty and the Beast that best show how Gaston isn’t smart and how his overconfidence, pride, and arrogance constantly gets the better of him, especially when he is outsmarted by Belle. It has turned out to be longer than I anticipated, so I have decided to add the “Keep reading” feature. Hold on to your hats, and enjoy reading what lies ahead! 😁😄😉

While there have been a number of main antagonists from the Disney animated canon who die, only six of them have fallen to their deaths. Two fall-to-deaths occur for two Disney villains outside of WDAS, that being Queen Narissa from the live action/animation hybrid Enchanted, and Charles Muntz from the Pixar film Up.

Again, my dear buddy and little soul sis @minerva-warner came up with this title, and I see it as fitting since the Disney villains who die by falling from great heights perceive themselves as mighty people, with three of them being ruthless, cunning, murderous hunters/poachers, and the other five being cruel, ruthless, sadistic, murderous tyrants.

Thanks again, sis! I love you, and enjoy this new analysis! 😁😊❤️

WDAS Villains

Outside WDAS

Exceptions

In the animated canon, there are a few Disney villains who fall down and die, but the fall is not what causes their deaths. Rather, they fall and meet their demise through some other means shortly afterwards.

When Gaston makes his “proposal” to Belle, he describes his envisioned life as a married man, including that he and his little wife have six or seven children, all of which will be “strapping boys, like me!”, as he proudly declares. As part of his misogyny and sexism, he doesn’t appear to consider the chances of having any daughters. Now obviously, this means that Gaston doesn’t want to have girls, but I think there’s a bigger reason besides that. 

I get the impression that Gaston sees himself as a “real man”, meaning that he thinks he is the prime example of what every man should and must be, mainly based on his own incredible physical strength, muscular physique, and handsome exterior while simultaneously believing that men are superior to women and women’s only purposes are to serve and obey men. And so because Gaston thinks he is a real man, he believes real men like him ONLY produce sons, not daughters.

So it’s not simply that Gaston doesn’t want girls; it’s that he thinks he is incapable of making girls because he is a “real man”. Furthermore, he thinks making just sons will make him more manly than he is now and boost his (toxic) masculinity. Gaston feels he would be a lot stronger than ever by fathering sons, but he thinks fathering daughters would make him feel and look weak, and he clearly detests the thought of being weak in any way.

Of course, what all of this REALLY proves is just how STUPID and narrow-minded Gaston is because he doesn’t comprehend that the chances that having that many children all being the same gender is extremely remote. I mean, it’s possible, but it’s NOT something that life can guarantee. But again, because he thinks he is a “real man”, Gaston’s logic dictates that having this many children be boys, and ONLY boys, is indeed guaranteed. The proof that he believes this concept is a guarantee is when he lightly pounds his chest while boldly saying “strapping boys”, which displays his utmost confidence that there are absolutely zero chances that ANY of his six to seven children would be a mix of boys and girls, or even all girls.

But like I said, this only proves just how incredibly stupid Gaston is due to his lack of knowledge about human science and nature. He is anti-intellectual and unintelligent, so his extreme arrogance about himself is what makes him very confident that such a thing could happen. Therefore, any logic he possesses is deeply flawed and all the more stupid.

Now I’ll admit it, Gaston can be cunning, calculating, and manipulative, but just in the right circumstances. He is NOT intelligent, and Belle is always two steps ahead of him in that regard.

In my analysis “Through a Mirror Darkly”, I described how Runeard is a unique Disney main antagonist to be an evil counterpart to not only a heroic character, but to another main antagonist, that being Hans. Between the events that occur in both Frozen and Frozen II, I see that Runeard is arguably a dark reflection to Agnarr, his own son, his granddaughters, Elsa and Anna, and as I said, to Hans, another evil monarch.

Agnarr: 

Therefore, Runeard serves as a dark example of what Agnarr could have become if his father was much more personally involved in raising him.

His older granddaughter Elsa:

Therefore, Runeard serves as a dark parallel of what Elsa might have become if she allowed her fear to consume her.

His younger granddaughter Anna:

Therefore, Runeard serves as a dark counterpart of what Anna would have become if she gave up on Elsa and learned to develop prejudice and fear towards magic.

Hans: 

Therefore, Runeard is what Hans could have become if he had successfully murdered both Elsa and Anna and been crowned king of Arendelle.

I’ve described in previous analyses that I have a strong affinity for villains in fiction, including those by Disney. But like any fan of Disney, there are villains that I love and ones that I deeply detest with every bone in my body. So for my last analysis of the year, I will discuss my five most favorite and five least favorite Disney animated villains, though I also want to list a couple of other characters as honorable mentions to explain why I like or hate them.

The reasons I have for liking my favorite villains are simple, if not somewhat shallow, because I don’t exactly have deep reasons for liking them. Regardless of how evil, sadistic, cruel, and ruthless they are, I like them primarily because they are funny or charismatic. But it’s so much easier for me to list why I hate my least favorite villains, which is largely attributed the kinds of traits they display (most of which I cannot stand in people), their motives for being evil, and how they carry out their evil deeds while showing their evil natures.

This essay has turned into a longer one than I anticipated, so I am adding the “Keep reading” feature. Before I begin, I want to thank my dear buddy and soul sis @minervadeannabond for coming up with this title. Here is yet again another analysis of mine for you to enjoy, sis! 😁😄😉❤️

One of my favorite things about villains is how they can serve as dark reflections of their protagonist or deuteragonist (or some other major supporting character) enemies. By this, I mean that villains are basically the evil counterparts to the heroic ones. They share some personality traits or have similar goals to the heroes, making them the example of what the good characters could or would become if they go down the wrong path or do not change whatever negative traits they possess.

In Disney, many of the villains from the Renaissance and Revival Eras are dark parallels to the protagonists, as well as occasional deuteragonists. Here are all the villains from the Disney animated canon who are evil counterparts to the heroes and what makes them as such.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The evil queen is this to Snow White.

Therefore, the queen is a dark reflection of the kind of person Snow White would have become had she grown obsessed and vain over her physical appearance.

Beauty and the Beast: Gaston is this to the Beast.

Therefore, Gaston serves as a dark example of what the Beast could have become if he had never met Belle, but also the Enchantress. In fact, the Beast makes this realization when he grabs Gaston by the throat and the latter pathetically begs for mercy. The Beast sees that Gaston is the monster he would have become had it not been for Belle, and if he killed Gaston, he would be no better than him. And since he wants to be better than Gaston, especially because he truly loves Belle, the Beast reluctantly spares him by telling him to leave the castle.

Aladdin: Jafar is this to Aladdin.

Therefore, Jafar serves as a dark parallel as to what Aladdin might have become had he not freed the Genie and become too obsessed and hungry for the power and status that would come with him succeeding the Sultan.

The Lion King: Scar is this to Simba.

Overall, Scar proves himself to be the very tyrant Simba would have become if he had grown so obsessed with his future power and authority and not learned to understand what important responsibilities come with being a ruler. In fact, one could even say that “Be Prepared”, Scar’s song about his plot to become king, is a dark reflection of “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”, young Simba’s song about his excitement over becoming king and all the great things his rank will do for him.

Pocahontas: Governor Ratcliffe is one to John Smith.

Therefore, Ratcliffe serves as a dark parallel as to what John would have become if he had never met Pocahontas.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Frollo is this to Quasimodo.

Therefore, Frollo serves as a dark parallel as to what Quasimodo could have become if he developed bigotry and wrath towards the gypsies after seeing that Esmeralda only loved him as a friend.

The Emperor’s New Groove: Yzma is this to Kuzco.

Therefore, Yzma serves as a dark reflection of what Kuzco would have become if he had not met Pacha and undergone his transformation.

Tangled: Gothel is this to Flynn Rider (aka Eugene Fitzherbert).

Therefore, Gothel serves as a dark parallel of what Flynn could have become if he had never met Rapunzel.

Wreck-It Ralph: King Candy, who is later revealed to truly be the long-presumed-dead Turbo, is this to Ralph.

Therefore, Turbo serves as a dark example of what Ralph might have become if he had grown too obsessed with getting what he wanted.

Frozen: Hans is this to Anna.

Therefore, Hans serves as a dark counterpart of what Anna would have become had she finally given up on mending her relationship with Elsa.

Big Hero 6: Professor Robert Callaghan is this to Hiro.

Therefore, Callaghan serves as a dark reflection of what Hiro would have become had he let his grief turn into vengeance and not learned to move on from Tadashi’s death.

Zootopia: Dawn Bellwether is this to Judy Hopps.

Therefore, Bellwether serves as a dark parallel of what Judy might have become had she allowed her mild bigotry towards predators intensify into pure hatred.

Frozen II: King Runeard is this to Elsa, his own granddaughter.

Therefore, Runeard serves as a dark example of what Elsa might have become if she allowed her fear to consume her.

However, while Runeard serves as a dark parallel to Elsa, he also serves as a darker counterpart to Hans.

Therefore, Runeard is what Hans could have become if he had succeeded in killing both Elsa and Anna and been crowned king of Arendelle.

I owe a thanks to my dearest friend and soul sis @minervadeannabond for coming up with this title. Although I am called the Queen of Puns, I sometimes have trouble coming up with clever puns as titles for my analyses, and she’s always there to help me out. Thank you so much, girl! Love you much! 😁😊❤️

And since today is All Hallows Eve, what better kind of analysis for me to post today than one about villains?

Happy Halloween, everyone! 😁🎃👻

After talking it over with my dear buddy and soul sis @minervadeannabond​, I came up with a great title to refer to the tyrant Runeard was, similar to those for Ivan the Terrible and Vlad the Impaler.

His title? Runeard the Ruthless! 😡😡😡

Thoughts on this, anyone? 😉

When Frozen was released almost seven years ago, I fell in love with it and the love hasn’t stopped since, especially with the following of Frozen Fever, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, and last year’s Frozen II. I am very proud to be in this fandom and have enjoyed expressing my love for it by writing analyses about them, and my friends and followers can rest assured I will never stop doing it, especially as long as there is more material for me to discuss! 😁😁😁

One of the reasons I fell in love with Frozen was because of Hans and the fact that he was a surprise villain. Disney introduced him by making us think he was another typical heroic prince: benevolent, noble, brave, caring, selfless, and kind. Hans tells Anna that he is the youngest of 13 sons from the kingdom of the Southern Isles, and in being the youngest, he has apparently faced ignorance, neglect, and abuse from most of his brothers, if not his entire family. But then in the third act, we discover that Disney had purposely misled all other characters, and even the audience, about who Hans really is. He reveals himself as a truly ruthless, sadistic, dishonest, power-hungry, selfish, two-faced sociopath whose only goal is to become king and gain the status, power, admiration, and respect he apparently never received from his family, and would never gain as the 13th heir of the Southern Isles. So he plotted to take control of Arendelle by marrying into the throne. He initially wanted to marry Elsa just because she was the oldest and rightful heir, which would give him a legitimate chance to become king. However, he decided to pursue and marry Anna when he realized that Elsa was an antisocial recluse, and planned to kill Elsa to get her out of the way and rise to power with him as king and Anna as his queen.

When I first saw Frozen, I was very shocked that Hans was the true villain, though at the same time, there were a few moments that made me suspicious of him. After seeing the film a few more times, I realized there were subtle clues of his villainy in many of his preceding scenes, so his villainous revelation did not come totally out of the blue. But Disney using the twist and idea of having a hidden main antagonist, one that was a prince, who is stereotypically a heroic character in fairy tales, no less, was something I very much enjoyed about Frozen because it was something so new, different, unexpected, and very unique, particularly for a Disney fairy tale.

When I saw Frozen II, I wasn’t expecting it to have a villain, hidden or not, since the trope of surprise villains by Disney, which started with Wreck-It Ralph, had been waning and it was getting easier for me to figure out who they were. Needless to say, when Runeard was revealed to be the film’s main antagonist, I was very shocked. I wasn’t shocked in the same way I was when Hans revealed himself to be an evil prince, but for different reasons. For one thing, Runeard only appears on screen as a living character during Agnarr’s story about the Enchanted Forest in the prologue, then as a snowy ice figure Elsa discovers in Ahtohallan years after his death. He has the shortest time on screen than any other villain in the Disney animated canon, yet Runeard also has a major effect on the film’s plot. He is one of the few Disney animated villains who affects the flow of the story from the very beginning, and is rather unique in doing so because he is a POSTHUMOUS main antagonist, the first one from Disney animation. In fact, Runeard is the Greater-Scope Villain of the Frozen franchise as his heinous actions against the Northuldrans not only led to the main events of Frozen II, but also to what became of his bloodline and what led to the events of Frozen. The fact that Runeard has such a short time on screen while simultaneously impacting so much to the story makes his actions even worse than those of Hans.

While the revelation of Runeard being the main villain has received mixed reception from fans and critics like that of Hans did, I can still focus more on the positive about the former’s villainy than the negative. Heck, when you look at both films and both of their main villains, Runeard and Hans actually have quite a lot in common, even though Runeard is far less developed as a character and has a much shorter amount of time on screen than Hans.

The fact that Runeard killed the leader of the Northuldra while Hans didn’t kill Elsa suggests that Runeard is potentially a darker example of what Hans could have easily become if he had succeeded in his goal to kill both sisters and become king of Arendelle. But in the months since Frozen II came out, another possibility on how Runeard is suggested to be a darker reflection of Hans, with the former having succeeded in the past where Hans failed in the present, has been suggested by fans. As I’ve said before, Runeard was the founder and first king of Arendelle. Prior to this accomplishment, perhaps like Hans, he was once a prince who was overlooked and neglected by his family, and he craved power, respect, and admiration after having never received them from his family and/or the majority of his kingdom. Or perhaps Runeard was just a commoner, a poor nobody who still craved power and respect after never having received it, or even anything fine and desirable, in his life...and he ended up getting what he wanted when he created his very own kingdom and was proclaimed its king. AND when he became king, Runeard was set on expanding as well as protecting his power, with his only concern being his own status as a monarch.

Runeard and Hans both have underdeveloped backstories as villains and what makes them as such, even though it feels easier to figure out that of Hans based on what he does reveal to Anna. But considering how much they do have in common, perhaps Runeard WAS once in the same position Hans used to be, and he managed to succeed where Hans did not. With all we do know about them, though, Runeard appears to be far more evil and despicable than Hans, given his bigoted, judgmental, paranoid, hateful behavior towards the Northuldra and the magical spirits and his actions against them.

Hans briefly gets his chance of being a leader when he takes over as temporary ruler of Arendelle in both Elsa and Anna’s absence. He successfully wins the hearts of the Arendellians by acting as a kind, caring, benevolent ruler during the harsh conditions brought on by Elsa’s magical winter. The fact that he earned the trust and respect of the Arendellians and acts very competent as a ruler suggests that Hans really could have been a very good king. However, as I said in “Tyrant Terror”, while Runeard was revealed to be a ruthless, power-hungry, obsessive king in secret, he used the same kind of benevolent mask that Hans used when he appeared in public. Runeard apparently was also very competent as a ruler since he knew how to run the kingdom while pretending to be a noble leader to the public. He led the citizens, the guards, and the castle staff on to believe that his kind facade was his true nature.

Because getting power and respect for himself was all that both men ever really cared about, I have absolutely no doubt that, had he succeeded in stealing Arendelle’s throne, Hans also would have become the same kind of secretly ruthless, power-hungry, selfish tyrant that Runeard was before him.

Now the biggest difference between Hans and Runeard’s villainy is what motivates them to carry out their evil plans. Runeard seeks to destroy the Northuldra because they have ties to magic, something he detests, fears, and towards which he holds bigotry, since he believes it to be a threat to his royal rank and authority. The fact that the Northuldra are peasants who follow magic rather than a government ruled by a king is also how Runeard saw them as a threat. He presumably believed that the Northuldra might try to use their magic to one day plot to usurp him and take over his kingdom. Consumed by his hateful, bigoted, and paranoid feelings towards the tribe and their magic, Runeard decided to destroy them to prevent any chances of them trying to destroy him first.

In Hans’s case, he obviously viewed Elsa as a threat to his plans since she was the legitimate heir of Arendelle, and he plotted to kill her to get her out of his way. When Elsa accidentally revealed her powers and caused the eternal winter, Hans was just as shocked as everyone else. However, while his motive to kill Elsa expanded so that he also wanted restore summer to Arendelle (and appear to be a hero in the eyes of the Arendellians for doing so), Hans was always presumably indifferent to Elsa’s powers. Throughout the whole movie, he never once shows any true feelings of prejudice towards magic or fear that her magic makes Elsa so powerful that she is a greater threat to his goal of taking over her kingdom than he initially believed. The best example of this is when he reveals his true nature and plans to Anna, who says “You’re no match for Elsa!” and Hans callously retorts “No, you’re no match for Elsa!” Hans knows that Anna means that Elsa is more powerful than him with her magic and she could use them to bring him down, but Hans is completely unconcerned and unconvinced about this concept. If anything, by this time, he has realized that Elsa was scared of her own power and of losing Anna...and he knew how to use both of her fears against her.

So unlike Runeard’s fear of magic being his overall motivation to destroy the Northuldra, I don’t believe Hans ever feared or was prejudiced towards Elsa for being magical. He only wanted to kill her just because she was in his way of gaining access to Arendelle’s throne.

As with any Disney villain, though, in the end, Hans and Runeard’s confidence and arrogance ends up being their downfall, and they end up being forever ruined due to their actions. Hans extinguishes all heat sources in the library, then locks Anna in so she will die from her frozen heart. But because Olaf helps her escape the castle, Anna intervenes in the nick of time when Hans attempts to kill Elsa. After the winter is lifted, Hans is humiliated and defeated when Anna reveals that she survived, and many witness the punch she gives him to his face. Hans is then apprehended, imprisoned on a French ship headed back to the Southern Isles, and banished from Arendelle forever. He is later shown working in the royal stables in his kingdom, cleaning up after the horses.

Though he makes no further appearances in the franchise, Hans’s betrayal has undoubtedly ruined him forever and he will probably never be allowed to leave his kingdom in order to try his plot all over again. Furthermore, the allusions to and mentions of him in the sequel shows that he will never be forgiven by Elsa, Anna, and their family.

Despite having succeeded in murdering the tribe leader, the war that Runeard instigates leads to him falling off a cliff to his death and causing the angered spirits to cast a mist over the Enchanted Forest, trapping the people, including his surviving soldiers, in it for decades. Though he is long dead by the time the main events of the story take place, what remains of Runeard’s evil reign is finally brought to an end when Anna and Elsa destroy the dam. This act lifts the mist and frees the Forest, and a true union of peace is at last established between Arendelle and the Northuldra.

In life, Runeard had been desperate to protect his power, status, and legacy from being ruined by the Northuldra and their magic. But in great irony, his misdeeds caused his own fear to become reality (though not like he had envisioned), and his legacy is now forever ruined by his betrayal.

Stalk the Stalk

Since doing “Bride and Prejudice”, I have consciously realized that Gaston exhibits behavior like that of a stalker in his ruthless pursuit of Belle’s hand in marriage. And out of inspiration from my analysis on what makes Hans a sociopath, I wanted to write an analysis on what makes Gaston a stalker.

By definition, “stalking” is known as unwanted and/or repeated attention or surveillance by an individual or group towards another person. Stalking behavior generally consists of a person constantly following another person around and spying on them and their actions. In many stalking cases, the individual receiving the attention does not want it in the first place, and is repeatedly pursued and sought out, even after the stalker has been repeatedly told that the victim is not interested in them and/or wants to be left alone. When a person grows more committed to stalking another person, they grow more persistent and ruthless. As a result, the victim finds themself facing more frightening situations from the stalker, such as harassment and intimidation, even while not in the physical presence of the stalker.

Stalking always begins with fantasy and turns obsessive, and the most serious cases escalate to the point of being deadly. Stalkers can be anyone, from complete strangers to people we know. Female stalkers often target other women, while men primarily stalk women. Men who stalk women often do so because they have a romantic interest or infatuation towards the women they pursue. Though not all stalkers are the same, the following traits or behavior pattens are seen in most stalkers, particularly those who are romantically interested in their victims:

Most if not all of these traits fit Gaston to a T, though some only become more obvious over the course of the film as his evil nature begins to surface, so it’s safe to say he is indeed a stalker. Despite having a handsome face, muscular physique, and brutal strength ability that no other man in town can surpass, Gaston is also extremely vain, narcissistic, conceited, egotistical, and arrogant. The fact that he is so popular, admired, respected, and regarded as the best man by almost everyone else in the village (primarily by women, especially the Bimbettes) just for his handsome, muscular appearance, brute strength, and the “good” qualities that come from them is what exacerbates Gaston’s already large ego. He relies on his own traits and the villagers’ positive opinion of him for his sense of self, and the image he has created for himself in the eye of the public means everything to him. Gaston’s high opinion of himself is such that he believes he is superior to everyone around him in every way, showing perfectly that he has a massive superiority complex. In regarding himself as superior, Gaston also has a strong sense of entitlement to always have his way, especially when it comes to his own desires. In other words, he sees himself as a winner, someone who is always meant to get his way, to get whatever he wants. Gaston hates hearing “no” as an answer because such a response makes him look like a loser and a failure, which something he finds totally unacceptable and intolerable to his image. Even when he initially doesn’t get what he wants, no matter how much humiliation he receives or how much he is rebuffed, Gaston refuses to give up on his goals until he finally succeeds in getting whatever it is he wants.

Seconds after he first appears on screen, Gaston announces to LeFou that Belle is the woman he is going to marry because she is the most beautiful woman in town. Her beauty alone is the reason why Gaston shallowly believes that she is the best woman. Because she is “the best”, he feels that he and he alone deserves her, as emphasized the way he asks LeFou “And I don’t I deserve the best?” Then Gaston sings, “Right from the moment when I met her, saw her, and I said she’s gorgeous, and I fell”, which implies that he fell in love with Belle, or rather, with her beautiful face, when he first laid eyes on her.  Though Belle never outwardly show any signs of interest or attraction in him, which is a stark contrast to the Bimbettes, Gaston is so overconfident in his own outer beauty that he develops a delusion that somewhere deep within, Belle IS just like all the other women in town by having an infatuation with him. In fact, Gaston organizes an entire wedding outside Belle’s house to surprise her before he even makes his proposal. This act, along with him saying, “This is her lucky day”, shows that Gaston is totally convinced, though also lost in this delusional fantasy, that, even though she doesn’t show it, Belle is in love with him. Therefore, he is completely confident that EVERYTHING will go like he expects, and that NOTHING will go wrong. Gaston not only believes that Belle will accept his proposal in a heartbeat, but that she will agree to marry him on the spot. This is why he has the whole wedding prearranged without her knowledge and prior to his proposal. When he gets inside Belle’s house to make his proposal, Gaston says today is the day her dreams comes true, and claims he knows “Plenty!” about them right before describes his visions as a married man, which include more sexist remarks about women and housewifery. This is another moment that displays Gaston having this delusional fantasy that Belle not only has love for him, but also shares his visions of married life. And in having this delusion, he does not doubt at all that she will approve of becoming his wife.

However, when he invites Belle on a date to the tavern and makes his marriage proposal to her, Gaston gets rejected both times, though the second time is much more blunt and explicit on her part. When they have their first interaction, immediately after exchanging hellos, Gaston rudely and curtly snatches Belle’s book out of her hands and tosses it into the mud. After she picks it up and cleans it off, he takes it away again and forces her to walk with and beside him as he “invites” her to come to the tavern with him. But Belle successfully grabs her book back and walks away from Gaston as she politely tells him she can’t go, much to his disappointment. Throughout this entire scene, Gaston taking the book from Belle, trying to keep it away from her, and forcing her to walk with him and come to the tavern shows his deep-rooted desire to dominate, control, and possess her. His reason isn’t just because it’s part of his stalking behavior, but because he sees men as superior to women. To him, women are property possessions that are meant to be owned and controlled by men, especially in a marriage. If Gaston married Belle, he would see her just as his slave whose purpose would be to obey any command he gives her, without question, argument, defiance, resistance, or refusal. And since he wants to marry her, Gaston starts his pursuit Belle with ways to try and make her his property. He takes her book away and attempts to make her come with him to the tavern to try and get her to submit to him, to make her see things his way, to show her that she should do what he tells her and wants her to do (particularly since he doesn’t want her, or even any woman, to read and become smart). But Belle quickly figures out what Gaston is trying to do by being forceful with her, and she fights back because she absolutely refuses to let him do that. On the contrary, she does not view him as someone who has the right to control her and give her orders, especially if it’s to force her to do something she doesn’t want to do. So Belle manages to resist Gaston’s efforts by grabbing her book back from him and walking out of his “embrace” before she makes her way back to her home.

Besides the facts that she has to get home to help her father and that she already doesn’t like him, Gaston’s attempts to force Belle to do what he wants her to do, and even not to do, are why she refuses to go out with him. While he becomes frustrated and disappointed that he fails to charm her, he does not take this rejection very seriously. Since Belle is kind and polite when she turns him down, Gaston doesn’t not consider her rebuffs as a true rejection, or even a lack of interest in him. He is given clear evidence to the contrary by her subtly resisting, defying, and fighting his efforts to control her. But due to his delusion in thinking that Belle is in love with him, like all the other women in town, Gaston likely thinks that her refusal is just her playing a game of “being hard to get” with him. However, though he is annoyed and frustrated when she refuses going to the tavern with him, Gaston becomes totally furious when Belle rejects his marriage proposal. This is primarily because she does so by tricking him to get out of her house as she says, “I just don’t deserve you!”, and he doesn’t even realize she is leading him into a trap until it’s too late. Belle lures Gaston towards her door and after he corners her there, then he closes his eyes and tries to kiss her, making him totally unaware that she is opening the door to get rid of him. Once she opens it, he loses his footing, causing him to fall headfirst into a mud pond in front of the cottage. Since the villagers witnessed that Gaston was rejected by Belle and was the victim of a trick she played to lure him out of her home, this results in him being humiliated. He is so enraged by the rejection and resulting humiliation that by nightfall, he is still sulking about it and refuses to let it go. While sitting in his chair at the tavern, Gaston loudly complains about it, first by ranting, “Who does she think she is? That girl has tangled with the wrong man! No one says ‘No’ to Gaston!”, then he finishes with “Dismissed! Rejected! Publicly humiliated! Why, it’s more than I can bear!” As he says the final word, Gaston gets physical in displaying his rage over the situation when he throws two mugs of beer he grabs from LeFou into the lit fireplace. These words and this action perfectly display Gaston’s stalker trait of his inability to cope with and accept rejection.

So from the way his marriage proposal is turned down, Gaston finally learns the hard way that Belle is not in love with him and has no desire to marry him. But even though he learns that he was wrong about Belle, that doesn’t mean he accepts it as a final answer. Right after he is kicked out of her house, Gaston grabs LeFou and vows that he will have Belle for his wife by any means necessary, regardless of her refusals. Despite having been proven that Belle does not want to be with him, Gaston does not care what she thinks or feels. His determination to marry her even after she refuses him reveals a more possessive, persistent side of him. It drives him to obsession, and he decides to resort to more forceful measures of deception and manipulation to win her hand in marriage. Gaston comes up with a plan to have Belle’s father Maurice locked up in an asylum (due to his claims about the Beast, which no one believes) unless she agrees to marry him. But Belle refuses Gaston once again and also proves her father’s sanity by revealing the existence of the Beast to everyone. When she talks about the Beast in such a positive way despite his monstrous appearance, Gaston quickly deduces that Belle is not in love with him, but with the Beast. With this concept in mind, and enraged by a second refusal from Belle, Gaston grows extremely jealous and decides to kill the Beast just so that he can have Belle all to himself. He further displays manipulation when the speech he makes to get the mob to kill the Beast is a claim to protect the village, when in reality, it is nothing more than a ploy to get them to help him infiltrate the castle, and he cares nothing for the villagers themselves. When he is at the castle and fights with the Beast, Gaston taunts him by saying that Belle would never love a monster and that she belongs to HIM.

Stalk Like a Man

So from all of the scenes I described above, Gaston fits the profile of a stalker all too well. But just what kind of a stalker is he? 🤨

According to the article "A Study of Stalkers" by Mullen et al. (2000), five different types of stalkers have been identified:

Out of these five types of stalkers, I would classify Gaston as an incompetent suitor, though his actions against or towards Belle also make him a bit of an intimacy seeker, a resentful stalker, and a rejected stalker.

As an incompetent suitor, Gaston develops a fixation on marrying Belle, but his attempts at charming her always end poorly because his boorish, brazen behavior, combined with his inferior opinion of women, do nothing but annoy and repulse her. Additionally, Gaston’s superior views of himself, combined with the same feelings the villagers shower upon him, has given him a sense of entitlement in which he believes he deserves anything he sets to get for himself. Since he and the rest of the town view him as the best man around, Gaston thinks he is entitled to have the best woman, that being Belle, and only because he and the other townspeople regard her as the most beautiful woman, as his wife. Once he makes up his mind to marry Belle, Gaston immediately starts trying to schmooze and woo her by inviting her to the tavern with him and looking at his trophies. However, right before and as he makes his invitation, Gaston attempts to get Belle under his control by taking her book away and discourage her from reading while making sexist remarks about how it’s wrong for women to read since they shouldn’t become smart and think for themselves. Because he insults her intelligence and love of reading, Gaston ultimately fails in his attempt to court Belle, and she turns down his invitation to the tavern. Right before he makes his marriage proposal, Gaston disgusts Belle by not only dirtying her book with his mud-covered boots and smelly feet, but also by his description of married life where his wife would massage his feet and their six or seven children would only be “strapping boys, like me!” Further appalled when Gaston admits he wants her to be his wife and tells her to say she will marry him, Belle rejects his proposal, much to his fury. Gaston also fits the incompetent suitor type of stalker because he becomes consumed with jealousy when he learns that Belle is in love with someone else: the Beast, whom she describes as “kind and gentle” even though he has a hideous exterior. Refusing to lose Belle to someone he thinks is nothing more than an ugly monster, Gaston decides to kill the Beast so he can have Belle all to himself.

As an intimacy seeker, Gaston does sees Belle as his soulmate, the only woman meant for him. With his “handsomest man in town” status, and Belle being the most beautiful woman in town, Gaston thinks that he and Belle are a perfect match, that the two of them alone are meant for each other. However, Gaston is much less of an intimacy seeker than he is an incompetent suitor because he does not actually seek to have a true loving, intimate relationship with Belle. Like I’ve said before, Gaston has very misogynistic, sexist, inferior views of women, believing that their sole purposes in life are to serve and obey men, and be their sex partners. Therefore, he does not see women as people who are capable of having individual personalities and have equal rights to men, but rather as objects, possessions, and potential property that are meant to belong to men.

Gaston could also be classified as a resentful stalker because he develops a vendetta against Belle following her rejection of his proposal and tricking him out of her house, all of which humiliate him in front of the villagers. With his pride and ego damaged by her actions, Gaston feels that Belle has wronged him, so he sets out to be righted by forcing her to be his wife, regardless of what she thinks about it. While they barely have any kind of relationship, much less know each other well enough to have one in the first place, the fact that he wants to correct and avenge Belle’s rejection of him by forcing her to marry him, even if it is against her will, means that Gaston can classify as a rejected stalker, too.

Look Who’s Stalking

In most infamous stalking cases that have led to the murders or attempted murders of the victims or other intended targets, especially where the stalkers follow their victims out of a romantic interest, stalkers tend to be lonely people with few to no friends, withdrawn, unpopular, socially awkward or inept, regarded as strange or nerdy, and keep to themselves. At the same time, the victims tend to be popular, intelligent, well-liked, respected, and socially competent with a good number of friends. But Gaston and Belle are quite the opposite as the stalker and victim, respectively. Gaston is popular, respected, admired, and well-liked by virtually everyone in town, while Belle, despite being considered the town’s most beautiful woman, is unpopular, withdrawn, friendless, and regarded as odd and nerdy due to her intelligence, love of books, independence, and free spirit.

After careful consideration, one conclusion that I can make about Gaston as a stalker in regards to his pursuit of Belle is that, no matter what he would have done and how low he would stoop just to get her to be his wife, Belle would never agree to marry him. Gaston sought to kill the Beast just so he could get his competition out of the way and make Belle his once and for all. Had he succeeded in his murderous goal, I believe that Gaston would have then resorted to other forceful measures to get Belle to comply, such as physically assaulting and beating her. However, in my confidence that Belle would always refuse him, even if she was threatened with physical harm, I truly believe that if Gaston continued being told “no” as Belle’s final answer, it would make him so furious that he would decide to permanently end her refusals by killing her in a blind rage. I believe this because if Gaston felt couldn't he have Belle, then no one could, But he wouldn’t kill himself, he would kill her because she would be causing him the “suffering” by her nonstop rejections of him. Therefore, she wouldn’t deserve to live any longer.

In the film, Gaston thinks that murdering the Beast to get him out of the way would be how he could finally win and marry Belle. Though like when he underestimates her wit and intelligence the first time she rejects his proposal, Gaston also underestimates Belle’s inner strength, independence, and assertion. She has her own mind, can make her own decisions, can stand up for herself, and is confident in who she is and the decisions she makes. She hates Gaston and hates the idea of marrying him, so she would never change her mind and agree to become his wife under any circumstances. This is why I believe that, had Gaston succeeded in killing the Beast, but was still refused by Belle again and again, he would end his “suffering” caused by her unending rejections of him by murdering her.

If Gaston could not win by making Belle his wife, then he would find another way to come out on top and win. And to me, that would be by him ending her life, not his own.

Conclusion

And so there you have it on all the reasons as to what makes Gaston a stalker. Although Gaston is the Disney villain I hate the most, I do think he has a good role in the film to help the story move along, particularly with how he serves not only as a rival to the Beast, but as a dark reflection to him, too. Considering how much his obsession with Belle gradually turns him into a twisted, sadistic, ruthless, dangerous, murderous monster, it’s safe to say that he would resort to physical violence to get Belle to surrender and marry him. But since she would never give up, never change her response, never submit to his desires, I have no doubt that Gaston would gradually grow so furious about receiving umpteen rejections from Belle that he would kill her, just so he could still come out on top and win.

By the time of his death, Gaston was a true danger to both Belle and the Beast, so his death was the best way for him to be defeated. And while he fell to his death all alone, the curse on the Beast was broken because of his and Belle’s love for each other. In the end, Belle got rid of her stalker and found the true man of her dreams. ❤️❤️❤️

Hope you all enjoyed another analysis from me! Thank you all for reading, and thank you, @minervadeannabond, for coming up with my section title “Stalk Like a Man”! Until next time, everyone, and have a wonderful day! 😁😁😁

So I know it’s no surprise to my closest friends and fellow Disney fans on Tumblr that I have a strong, deep affinity for villains, including those by Disney. And over the last several months, the more I wrote about King Runeard in my Frozen II analyses, the more I realized what made him a tyrant, albeit a secret one, and that led me to think about other villains in the Disney animated canon who were tyrants.

The thing is, while most historical tyrants were people of royalty, you don’t necessarily have to be a monarch in order to be a tyrant. The definition of a tyrant isn’t limited to being a KING or QUEEN who is openly cruel, hostile, harsh, uncaring, oppressive, persecuting, and unjust towards the people they rule. I mean, that is one way to express tyranny, and probably the most famous way it is and has been done. But what it really means for a person to be called a tyrant is being in a position of power, authority, and/or control over other people and MISUSING, to the point of ABUSING, that position, and often for that tyrant's own selfish desires rather than in the best interest of the people being ruled by the tyrant.

So from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Frozen II, there are a handful of tyrannical antagonists who are indeed monarchs, such as the Queen of Hearts, Prince John, and Scar, but also plenty others who are not. There are tyrants who are corrupt government officials, such as Governor Ratcliffe, Frollo, and Bellwether, and even those who wield magic, such as Maleficent, Ursula, and Jafar. And like the villainous monarchs, the non-monarch villains prove themselves as tyrants all because they abuse their positions of power, magic or non-magic power, and authority that they have over other characters. In fact, there are even a couple of heroic characters who start off more as protagonist villains because they display tyrannical behavior before they become better people. On the contrary, the main antagonist enemies of these tyrant heroes serve as darker reflections of what the latter characters could have become had they not learned the error of their ways.

Below is my list of all the villains from Walt Disney Animation Studios that I perceive as tyrants, from monarchs to government officials to sorcerers, and what scenes in their respective movies depict them displaying tyrannical behavior. I even listed villains that would have become tyrants had they succeeded in their longterm goals.

Monarchs

Government Officials/Authority Figures

Magic Users

Tyrants-Turned-Heroes

Would-Be Tyrants

As a continuation of these two posts, I made this one to give a thousand thanks to @britishchick09 for adding the term “tyrannical” to the personality box on the Disney Wiki page for Runeard, which was the only remaining word from my second comment in which I listed the negative traits that best fit the character, but had yet to be added.

Thank you again, SO much!!! 😁😁😁

But hey, it doesn’t have to stop here! 😆 Despite his brief time on screen, I can think of more adjectives that fit Runeard to a T, and all based his feelings about magic and crimes against the Northuldra! 😉

Check this out, guys! 😉

On March 1, I made this post in which I showed a comment I wrote with adjectives that I thought described Runeard’s personality well on his Disney Wiki page, and my joy at seeing that someone eventually added those adjectives to his personality box (over a month since I posted the comment)! 😁

But after I saw this, I thought of some more negative traits that fit Runeard, which I wrote in the comment below.

And then after I submitted that comment, I got hopeful that a user or administrator of the site would some day see it and add those adjectives. Lots of times I would come to the page to see if anything new was added to his personality box...but nothing had changed. 😔

But then today, I stopped by Runeard’s page again just for the heck of it...and guess what I saw?! 😮

Yep, my adjectives (except one, that being “tyrannical”) were FINALLY added! 😁😁😁 Hooray! 🥳🎉🎊

Now I’m a little disappointed that “tyrannical” was not included because even the page itself describes him as “a ruthless tyrant”, so I thought whoever made the edits to the page with my adjectives wouldn’t have left that out, you know? 🤨

But anyway, I’m just happy again to have received recognition in the fandom and, like I said on my post about my first comment, that there are people in charge of the site who agree with me. Again, I don’t aim to have everyone agree with me, but for the last seven months, I have enjoyed Frozen II and studying Runeard’s villainy so much that I feel my opinions are valid and I don’t believe I am wrong about him.

Introduction

Although I love to study, observe, and analyze fictional villains, especially those from my favorite movies, both Disney and non-Disney, Gaston has always been my least favorite (animated) villain from Disney because he is extremely vain, narcissistic, arrogant, egotistical, chauvinistic, superior, and shallow. In real life, as well as in fiction, I strongly dislike people who display snobby, condescending, supreme, and superior attitudes by obsessively thinking so highly of themselves, and believing they are better than others in everything, from their social class to their physical appearance, so much so that they coldly dismiss, insult, belittle, and/or ignore others they see as being below them and not worth their time.

But my other main reason for hating Gaston goes even beyond his attempted murder of the Beast and aggressive persistence to force Belle to marry him after she refuses his so-called “proposal”. Because I am a feminist who believes in gender equality, and that women have the ability to do almost anything men can do (even though I accept that men will always be physically stronger than women by nature), I also detest Gaston due to his prejudiced, inferior, sexist, misogynistic views of women.

Now please don’t take this the wrong way; I don’t let my hatred of him stop me from enjoying Beauty and the Beast, because I LOVE the movie, and I do think Gaston makes a great presence with his role as the main antagonist. And I’m not a misandrist, or a person who hates the male gender as a whole, so I apologize in advance to my male friends on here if you think I’m giving off that impression. But in real life, I hate prejudice and bigotry aimed towards people when it comes to their race, gender, nationality, and/or social rank. And since I am a woman with feminist beliefs, I sometimes take it personally (more so than any other types of bigotry) when men exhibit sexist beliefs about women.

So with all of his major flaws, those being his bigoted, condescending, inferior views of women, his beliefs that men are (and always will be) above women, AND his narcissistic, egotistical, conceited, self-centered personality, the overall reason I hate Gaston and announce him as my least favorite Disney villain is because he is THE epitome and archetype of the very kind of man that I despise. Now I don’t know anyone like that in person, but I know that there are still prejudiced people out there in the world today. I have seen both real (like on live talk shows) and fictional men who show these kinds of prejudiced demeanors. When real men in particular show this kind of attitude, I get very offended by it. And Gaston probably holds these thoughts at greater extremities than any other fictional prejudiced male characters (at least those of which I know or am aware).

The more I thought about how strongly Gaston’s prejudicial thoughts on women are displayed, which are what drive Belle away from him, the more that I believe that, despite setting his sights on marrying her and determining to make it happen at all costs, I believe that Gaston considered Belle a challenge, and even a threat, to his public image, to his gender, and to his own identity. I say this because her personality makes her so unconventional and atypical for a woman for the era in which the film is set. And due to these thoughts, I decided to write this analysis on how I think Gaston saw Belle as a threat to himself and his own gender, but remained set on marrying her, regardless of her refusals. And of course, I will throw in my interpretations of Gaston’s prejudiced attitude towards women since the kind of personality Belle has goes against what he thinks both men and women should be.

What Men Want

During their first meeting, Gaston insults Belle by making sexist remarks about women who read and are intelligent. He states that it’s wrong for women to read since it leads to them thinking for themselves and getting intellectually smart, which he also thinks is ridiculous (though more so for women). In their next scene together, which is when Gaston makes his “marriage proposal” to Belle, he makes more sexist remarks, this time about women and housewifery. He describes to her how he envisions his life as a married man: living in a rustic hunting lodge in which his latest animal kill would be cooking on the fire, while his “little wife” would be massaging his feet as their six or seven children (all of whom would be sons) play on the floor with their dogs. Part of Gaston’s sexism in this scene is stressed with how he doesn’t even appear to consider the possibility of fathering any daughters. He arrogantly and proudly announces that his desired number of children is six or seven “strapping boys, like me!” The manner in which Gaston makes this statement sounds as if he is 100% confident (as indicated by him lightly pounding on his chest while saying said gender) that the chances that this many children would be boys, and only boys, is absolutely and logically possible. Therefore, he is also confident that there are no chances that any of his six to seven children would be a mix of boys and girls, or even all girls.

Additionally, in both of these scenes, besides what Gaston says that offends her, Belle recoils from him in annoyance, shock, and revulsion because he is VERY brazen. He makes unwanted advances on Belle to the point that he attempts to physically force himself onto her and get her under his control. By doing so, Gaston shows a total lack of respect for Belle’s personal space and property (hinting that he doesn’t think she should even have any in the first place). This all starts in the first scene, when Gaston literally and curtly snatches Belle’s book out of her hands and keeps it out of her reach to prevent her from taking it back from him. Then he carelessly tosses the book into the mud, and even tries to prevent Belle from retrieving it by stepping in front of it and the mud puddle. While he does this, Gaston flatly tells Belle that she has to stop reading and start paying attention to more important things (namely, himself, which does not impress Belle at all). After she recovers and cleans off her book, Gaston puts his arm around Belle’s shoulder and subtly forces her to walk with him as he suggests they go to the tavern together. Before they start “walking together”, Gaston again snatches the book out of Belle’s hand and attempts to keep it out of her reach when she tries to take it back.

Now this moment interests me because I realize that Gaston was starting to use more direct force to try to get Belle to stop reading. He was trying harder to get her to do what he wants her to do and make her see things his own way. And of course, Gaston arrogantly believes that his views and ways of doing/seeing things is right, so he tries to get Belle to see that while also showing her that what she does and likes is wrong. But Belle finally succeeds in grabbing the book back from Gaston, during which she turns down going with him to the tavern since she has to get home to help her father. The fact that Belle uses physical force herself when she grabs her book out of Gaston’s hand also interests me, because I see it as her way of telling him, “I’m not gonna let you stop me from reading because it’s what I love.” What happens between the two over the book and him “inviting” her to the tavern shows me that Gaston was trying to take the reins and show Belle that he wanted to be in control of her. He wanted to be in charge of her. He wanted to dominate her by telling her what to do, and would resort to using more abrupt force if necessary, in order to make her see things his way. But Belle taking her book from Gaston and turning down going out with him showed that she ABSOLUTELY would not give him that chance to do that. She refused to let him believe that he could dominate and control her, that she would willingly submit to him, that he was in the right to tell her what to do and not to do.

Nope! Just with using her book, Belle stood up to Gaston, defied him, and resisted him. By doing so, she indirectly told him that she is capable of making her own decisions, that she is very independent and likes to do her own thing, regardless of what he and others think. To Belle, Gaston is not someone who has the right to give her orders and make her do something she doesn’t want to do…and this is why he frowns after she manages to take her book out of his grasp while saying that she cannot go out with him.

During the proposal scene, before and while he describes his visions as a married man, Gaston again displays a total disregard and disrespect for Belle’s personal space and property. This begins when he briskly opens the door to her cottage and lets himself in without waiting for her to open it first after he knocks on it (AND without even waiting for her to grant or deny him permission to come inside in the first place). Once inside, Gaston makes more advances on Belle by continuously walking towards her, as if he’s trying to make her keep her eyes on him and block her attempts to get away from him. He then dirties her book (which is placed on the table) for the second time when he sits down and slams his muddy boots on it, kicks his boots off, and stinks up the book with his feet. (The fact that Gaston puts his feet, both boot-covered and bootless, smack-dab on top of the book clearly shows that he is again telling Belle, even without words, that he will NOT stand for her reading because she is a woman, and that he hates the concept of reading entirely.) When Gaston finally makes his proposal, not only does he continue to advance on Belle by trying to corner her, he does not ask her to marry him. Rather, Gaston tells her that he wants her to be his wife, then tells Belle to say she will marry him, like he’s giving her no choice in the matter, which is fitting because by then, he has her pinned against her door.

Like their previous meeting, Belle is shocked and repulsed by Gaston’s actions throughout the whole scene (though she manages to keep a straight face when he is inside her home). She groans and makes a face of pure disgust when she first sees him outside her door. She is repulsed by Gaston’s descriptions of married life, and more so by him dirtying her book and by the odor of his feet. When he finally “proposes” to her, Belle is more appalled than ever, but keeps a cool face as she successfully tricks him into leaving her house while simultaneously telling him her words of rejection.

The things Gaston says, and even the things he DOESN’T explicitly say, and the way he acts, during these two scenes, combined with how he displays his own arrogance, narcissism, and superiority as a man, and as a person in general, provide enough information for me to decipher just how prejudiced he is when it comes to how he sees women. It is CRYSTAL clear to me that Gaston considers men to be the superior gender, that men are (and meant to be) better than women at anything and everything, not JUST physical strength. He believes that women will ALWAYS be beneath men, and that women should KNOW their place by being the inferior gender. As such, Gaston has absolutely NO respect for women at all! In fact, he doesn’t even have respect for other men, despite regarding the male gender as the superior one! The only person for whom he has ANY respect is HIMSELF!!! 😡 (As if that was hard to figure out, anyway! 😆)

As part of his belief that men are superior to women, Gaston sees women only as potential property for men. He sees them as nothing more than objects, as things, as possessions that are meant to belong to men. He does NOT see women as people who are capable of having or are meant to have their own individual personalities. In seeing them as men’s property, Gaston thinks that women are useless and worthless except for the only two significant purposes they have to men.

So while he believes he has women’s places figured out in the world, especially in married households, like I said above, Gaston believes that men are supposed to be the masters, the bosses, of women, whose primary purpose is to serve their men. This means that only men are meant to be the ones “in charge”. They are meant to be the ones who take control of things. They are meant to be the dominant person in the relationship. As the ones in control, married men have the right to tell their wives what to do and treat them any way they want. Men are supposed to make all decisions, not just for themselves, but for their wives and children. Women (and even children) do not have any sort of rights, especially if they are married. They are not meant or allowed to have any say in the matter; their opinions are never important when it comes to making decisions. Women should never even bother to voice their own opinions, and they must never even speak at all unless their husbands speak to them first and/or give them permission to speak. Since men are supposed to be dominant and the women submissive, women must never, NEVER attempt to meet or rise above men’s level by defying them, disobeying them, or standing up to them, and that includes talking back to them! As part of Gaston’s belief that women must be dutiful and obedient to their their husbands, they are not allowed to ever do anything or make any decisions without their husbands’ approval or permission first. Whatever feelings, thoughts, and desires women have or may have, none of those should matter to their men. Men can always get what they want, and do what they want, whenever they want it. But the same does not, nor should it ever even, apply to women. Men do NOT need to ask their wives’ permission for something, but women always have to ask their husbands’ permission and earn it. If the man does not allow the woman to have what she wants, then she has to drop it all together.

So in summary, in Gaston’s eyes, women were put on the earth to be nothing more than mens’ slaves and sex partners. Women cannot, are not allowed, nor should they ever even try to do anything that is regarded as being stereotyped for men, and men only. They should never try to compete with men in any way, because men are the best gender and will forever be above women. To him, women are always meant to be seen and never heard; they should not be allowed to think or speak for themselves. This essentially means that Gaston thinks women should be brainless and be lacking in any kind of intelligence or intellect, which would explain why he is so dead set on trying to discourage Belle from reading. When in the presence of other people, be it just men or men and women together, women must keep their mouths shut at all times. They are NEVER supposed to speak at all unless spoken to first, and ONLY when a MAN speaks to them first, no less! And furthermore, when a man speaks to a woman first, she must ALWAYS answer immediately, without hesitation, and not keep the man or men who spoke to her waiting for long!

As we know, King Runeard had the dam constructed in the Enchanted Forest as part of his conspiracy to bring down the Northuldra people, since it would weaken the forest and limit their resources, forcing them to turn to him in their desperation.

But then, how exactly does the dam’s purpose work into his premeditated plan to eliminate them? What were all of his steps in carrying out his plan the day he started the war between his people and the Northuldra, and died during it?

First of all, let me make this clear: Runeard did not want to incorporate the tribe into his kingdom and rule them; he wanted to DESTROY them! I mean, he saw them as a threat to his monarchal rank and power all because of their relations with the magical spirits, so he wanted to wipe them out to extinction in order to remove this "threat"!

Second of all, I don’t think Runeard brought Agnarr, his whole army, and the citizens of his kingdom to the celebration in the forest just to start a war with the Northuldra...at least, not on that very day. Remember his memory figure in Ahtohallan tells the second-in-command, “We bring Arendelle’s full guard” and then "They will come in celebration, and then, we will know their size, and strength.” These quotes make it sound to me as if Runeard planned this gathering with both groups of people just so that he could determine the exact number of Northuldrans that resided in the forest, and just how much they outnumbered the Arendellians, or vice versa. Perhaps he planned to instigate a war between them at a later time, but only after he counted the Northuldra’s numbers so that he could know exactly what he and his kingdom were up against and make future preparations.

So for a while now, I had been trying grasp the whole picture on how Runeard plotted to eliminate the Northuldra using the dam...and then I remembered the kind of person he was. Runeard was a selfish, arrogant, ruthless tyrant, yet he hid this true nature of his extraordinarily well by presenting a false, artificial image of a generous, peaceful, noble king to his subjects and the Northuldra. He used this facade to gain everyone’s trust and respect, and it worked. Since he fooled everyone into believing that this was real nature, it was an image he had to keep up, one he had to protect, and ESPECIALLY because he projected it with his building of the dam.

On a motivation to protect his false image and keep his real nature under wraps from everyone, and especially to make the Northuldra completely unaware of his true intentions, I have a headcanon that Runeard decided that the best approach to bringing them down was to do it subtly rather than with direct force. As the dam was put to work in weakening the forest, perhaps Runeard thought the limitation of their resources would slowly kill off the Northuldra, significantly reducing their population size. Perhaps in his arrogance, supremacy, and superiority, he thought the people wouldn’t be smart enough to realize the dam's true purpose right away. When they finally would and come to him for help, maybe he thought it would be when their population size was greatly declined with few members remaining, leaving them in a very susceptible state.

Considering how much damage the dam could do to the forest and affect the Northuldra population over a certain period of time, perhaps there was a more direct part of Runeard’s plan to eliminate them. Perhaps when any of them would finally turn to him in their desperation, it would be in their greatest moment of vulnerability (as I described above), when their size has greatly declined and very few of them are remaining. Perhaps when they would come to him for help, they would do so as a whole group. And when they did, Runeard would lure the unsuspecting remaining Northuldrans into some kind of trap, and kill them all in one place at one time. In doing so, he would catch them completely off guard, making it so much easier for him to have them killed.

However, I believe that Runeard’s entire plan began to fall apart once the leader confronted him about the dam on the gathering day, then more so after he murdered him and started the war, and that is what led to him to his death.

Observe Runeard very closely in the gifs below from the scene when the Northuldra leader confronts him about the dam: after he is told “The dam isn’t strengthening our waters” and then while being told that “It’s cutting off the north...”, he glances behind the leader, over his shoulder, where there are people nearby, close enough to be within earshot.

Despite looking calm and composed (as well as we can make out from a blue/purple snowy figure of him), It’s all too obvious that Runeard twice looks past the man because he is terrified that the Northuldrans and Arendellians nearby will overhear the latter’s complaints. So he gently interrupts him, acting as if he’s really listening while claiming that they can discuss the matter in private...when all he’s really doing is shutting him up so that NO ONE will hear the dam is doing the exact opposite of what everyone else believes it is doing.

We know what comes after this, but I want to add something before I dive into that: any beliefs Runeard may have had about using the dam to bring down the Northuldra subtly, with it taking a long time for them to realize it was weakening their lands, reducing their numbers, and turning to him for help as a whole group at once, are instantly put to rest during this scene. The Northuldra leader clearly caught on to what the dam was doing very quickly, a lot faster than Runeard anticipated. He was obviously not expecting to be confronted about the dam too soon, and this might explain why he subtly frowns when he is told that the dam isn’t strengthening the forest’s waters.

Like I said before, Runeard had to keep up appearances by protecting his false image as a generous ruler from everyone, especially since he projected it with the construction and presentation of the dam. He had everyone fooled into believing that he was a good man, and a good king, who did an utmost good deed for the Northuldra. But once the leader voiced his suspicions about the dam harming the forest instead of helping it out loud, Runeard secretly panicked, and especially so because of how many people were close by in the forest. If someone else heard the leader talking about the dam, or if the leader had the chance to tell his tribe and the Arendellians about the dam, not only would Runeard’s long-term plan to destroy the Northuldra have been ruined, but his ENTIRE cover would have been blown. He would have been exposed as a liar and traitor to the tribe, as well as his people, staff, and Agnarr. This would have made him immediately lose the trust and respect of everyone in his kingdom, and he would have faced utter humiliation, wrath, and disdain; essentially, the revelation of the dam’s real purpose to everyone present would have destroyed Runeard’s reputation and legacy.

And Runeard wasn’t going to take a chance on having his reputation, image, and legacy being ruined. So the instant the leader tells him the harm the dam is causing, Runeard quickly concluded what his next move was: murder, and he had to do it NOW!

Again, on the day the forest fell, I honestly don’t think Runeard had a plan to start a war against the Northuldra and start by killing the leader in secret. Yes, he planned to eradicate the Northuldra tribe for sure, but on said day, he carried out his acts because things weren't happening according to his exact plan. Runeard’s act of killing the leader was premeditated, but also a simultaneous act of impulsion. He did it to prevent him from telling everyone else about how the dam was actually harming the forest. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision Runeard made in order to keep the truth a secret from rest of the tribe, and from his soldiers, people, and son.

After his deed, though, Runeard instantly realized that the Northuldra would discover their leader’s absence, much sooner than later, and be searching for him. Without a doubt, this realization drove him into another state of panic, so he had to act fast again and make another attempt to cover his tracks, to divert any possible suspicion away from himself...and that attempt was made when he instigated the battle between his people and the Northuldra. But this step was entirely carried out on impulse; it was not premeditated. It was a feeble and poorly executed attempt to wipe out the whole tribe, which Runeard was only trying to do now just because he had to cover up his deed of killing their leader before any of them found out.

In summary, Runeard panicked that his plan to eliminate the Northuldra started to fall to pieces when the leader voiced his suspicions about the dam, so it led to him committing murder on the spot...and since that act caused him to go into further panic, he instigated an attack on the rest of the tribe to try and eliminate them.

Runeard’s improvised, spontaneous attempts to cover up his crimes and keep his original plan intact were poorly done...and that, combined with his prejudice and arrogance, is what drove him to his death.

Even though his appearance in Frozen II is extremely short, and his treachery is revealed only in snow figure form years after his demise, the revelation of Runeard’s true personality and how it drove him to his death reminds me SO much of those of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

In his life, Runeard presented himself as a noble, kind, peaceful, generous, benevolent king and was truly believed to be as such by his people and staff. When he and his kingdom made peace with the Northuldra tribe of the Enchanted Forest, he had a dam constructed in the forest, gifting it as a peace offering between both groups of people with a purpose of bringing prosperity to the Northuldra’s land. What no one knew was that this image that Runeard presented to outsiders was a complete facade. He was secretly and truly a cruel, arrogant, ruthless, obsessive, selfish, egotistical, prejudiced, sadistic, murderous tyrant who cared for nothing and no one other than himself and his position as a monarch. Runeard hated and feared magic because he viewed it as a threat to his monarchal power; therefore, he actually distrusted the Northuldra SOLELY due to their relationships with the forest’s magical elemental spirits. All of these feelings consumed him so much that he wrongly believed that their magical ties made them believe that they were too entitled and far more powerful than a monarch like Runeard himself, which made him perceive them as a very great threat to his kingly rank and legacy. Determined not to give the Northuldra a chance to ruin him using the spirits’ magic, Runeard secretly plotted to eradicate them. He carried out his plan by building the dam, which would actually weaken the forest and limit its resources, forcing the people to turn to him in their desperation, then instigated a full-out war between the tribe and the Arendellians.

Likewise, Gaston is the most admired, popular, and respected man in his village, primarily because of his handsome, muscular appearance and incredible strength. But at the same time, the villagers are completely unaware and ignorant (or perhaps just too narrow/small-minded that they are totally unable to see anything wrong with him, or they just don’t care) of his true nature, which (unlike Runeard) he doesn’t even hide very well, if he’s even trying to hide it at all. Gaston is extremely arrogant, prejudiced, egotistical, conceited, narcissistic, rude, and superior, then later becomes very sadistic and ruthless. From the very beginning, Belle is the ONLY person in the village who sees Gaston for who he truly is. She does not like what she sees in him; therefore, she knows right away that he is not the right man for her. Though ironically, she is the one and only woman Gaston is obsessively fixated on marrying. Even after Belle flat-out rejects his advances and his marriage proposal, he remains relentlessly bound and determined to make her his wife. When Belle reveals that the Beast’s existence to the town and her friendship with him, Gaston becomes consumed with jealousy upon realizing that Belle is in love with a monstrous-looking creature rather than a handsome man like himself. He becomes totally intolerant and angered at the fact that this “monster” is his competitor, the one who poses a threat to him in vying for Belle’s heart. Further enraged, and offended, after Belle calls him the true monster, Gaston plots to eliminate the Beast in order to make Belle his once and for all.

So as I just described above, Runeard and Gaston are very alike with how proud, arrogant, superior, ruthless, prejudiced, and obsessive they are, especially when it comes to their respective goals and their persistence in attempting to achieve them. In Gaston’s case, he is set on marrying Belle and refuses to lose her to the Beast, so he conspires to kill the Beast to get him out of his way. In Runeard’s case, he is set on making sure the Northuldra don’t have a chance to challenge, threaten, or ruin his position as a monarch with their magic, so he conspires to eliminate them to get them out of his way.

In the end, however, it is Gaston and Runeard’s pride, arrogance, and prejudice that ultimately proved to be their downfalls. This is because they each start a fight with the innocent individuals they see as a threat and being in their way of what they don’t want to lose. Just before their deaths, both men are so caught up in and focused on trying to kill their enemy that they aren’t paying attention to their surroundings. They don’t stop and take a moment to notice the dangerous situations in which their battles have put them…until it’s too late.

Upon seeing the Beast climb up the castle’s balcony to embrace Belle, Gaston becomes more jealous than ever and fiercely determined to kill the Beast once and for all. He follows and stabs the Beast in the back with his knife while dangling from the balcony without any kind of protection or support. Being so focused on having just stabbed the Beast while also preparing to do it again, Gaston apparently does not even realize the dangerous spot he is in…until the Beast swings his arm backward at him in pain, causing Gaston to lose his balance when trying to dodge it, fall off the castle, and plunge into the ravine below to his death.

After he murders the Northuldra leader, Runeard tries to cover his tracks by instigating a battle between the rest of the tribe and his own people. He gets so caught up in fighting with one Northuldran that he apparently does not even notice when their fighting leads to them approaching a cliff…until the Northuldran manages to dodge him, leading Runeard to stumble and lose his balance, then hitting the man as he begins to fall over him, which pushes both of them over the cliff, causing them to fall down into the depths below to their deaths.

All in all, Gaston and Runeard learned the hard way, and in quite a literal sense (just as my title says), that pride truly comes before the fall. 😉😆