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It’s Good to Be Bad

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! 😁😄😉❤️

hafanforever

Two Female Main Antagonists, Same Voice Actress

While Kathryn Beaumont was one actor who voiced two heroines in two different Disney films, Eleanor Audley was another actress who did the same thing, only in her case, it was two different villains: Lady Tremaine, the main antagonist of Cinderella, and Maleficent, the main antagonist of Sleeping Beauty. In fact, it was because of her chilling vocal performance as Lady Tremaine that Audley was chosen to play Maleficent, since Disney wanted a powerful voice for someone as evil as Maleficent. And like Beaumont, Audley was the physical model for her characters, too.

Besides being the main antagonists in their respective films and ones to have the same voice actress (they are probably the only main Disney villains who do), Lady Tremaine and Maleficent have a few other things in common:

Both are villains of Disney Princess films
Both are cruel, sinister, cunning, manipulative, ruthless, devious women who enjoy taunting their enemies
Both hold a noble title or a high form of status, with the title of "Lady" being present in Lady Tremaine's name, and Maleficent having been addressed as "Your Excellency"
Both seek to ruin the lives of their main, female enemies
Both have loyal pets (Lady Tremaine has Lucifer, while Maleficent has her raven, Diablo) who are colored black, have names that associate with the devil (Lucifer is the name of the fallen angel who became Satan, while "Diablo" is Spanish for "devil"), and are the only ones to whom they show affection

And then the two villains have some significant differences:

Lady Tremaine is a normal human being who does not exert physical force, while Maleficent is magical and uses her powers to harm others
Lady Tremaine is a mother of two daughters, who act as her allies, while Maleficent has allies in her goons
Lady Tremaine's evil demeanor is motivated purely because she is jealous of Cinderella's beauty and charm, while Maleficent has no real motivation for her evil behavior
Lady Tremaine believes in maintaining grace and self-control, so she seldom raises her voice, while Maleficent flies into rages and yells when angered
Lady Tremaine interacts a great deal with Cinderella during her film, while Maleficent has no direct contact or interaction with Aurora
Lady Tremaine's final defeat is her shock at seeing that Cinderella has the other slipper, while Maleficent is killed by Phillip
Lady Tremaine is one of the most hated Disney villains, while Maleficent is one of Disney's most popular villains

hafanforever

Disney Villains: Seven Deadly Sins

After I read that the seven main characters of SpongeBob SquarePants are each meant to represent the seven deadly sins, and after having written a couple of analyses about Hans and rewatching older Disney films again, I wanted to figure out which Disney villains best fit each sin.

I wanted to choose only Disney villains that were animated and the main antagonists of their films. No live action villains, no sidekicks, and no villains that were from direct-to-DVD movies or others from films released by DisneyToon Studios. I just wanted to choose those from the Disney animated canon.

So without further ado, here are my seven choices of Disney animated villains that I think best fits each sin and their quotes that reflect how they fit each respective sin:

Envy: The evil queen of Snow White is the first Disney villain ever created, and among the most evil. She definitely fits the sin of envy so well because of her extreme vanity and insane jealousy over the fact that Snow White is the only one whose beauty surpasses her own. Vainly determined to remain the fairest one of all, she sets out to have Snow White killed to ensure this. After the huntsman tricks her by providing her with the heart of a pig, the queen disguises herself as an ugly old woman in order to visit Snow White at the dwarfs' cottage and eliminate her herself. (Her disguise is an extremely ironic method for her to make sure she remains the fairest one of all.)
Lust: Another one of Disney's darkest villains, judge Claude Frollo best fits the sin of lust. A cruel, prejudiced, and hypocritical judge, Frollo despises gypsies, but develops lust for Esmeralda, due to her beauty. Although he feels shame that his lust is turning him towards sin, he does not see any evil in his past deeds, instead blaming his lust on witchcraft and the devil. After Esmeralda escapes Notre Dame, Frollo ruthlessly hunts Paris for her, arresting and harming innocent people. When he is about to execute her, he offers to spare her life if she becomes his mistress, which she refuses.
Sloth: It was tricky figuring out which villain best fit the sin of sloth, but in the end, I chose Lady Tremaine. While she is jealous of her stepdaughter's beauty much like the evil queen, it is more for the sake of her own daughters, and she does not physically harm Cinderella. Rather, she does it indirectly by forcing Cinderella to do all of the housework, giving her orders and loading her with chore after chore each day while she and her daughters act lazy and do none whatsoever. Such an example is the scene where Lady Tremaine punishes Cinderella with more chores: as she lists them, she is sitting in her bed, stirring and drinking her tea. Even though she says Cinderella can to go to the ball, she keeps giving her more chores so that she will not have time to fix up a dress. This proves that she never wanted Cinderella to attend the ball in the first place.
Wrath: By far one of Disney's most popular villains, Maleficent fits the sin of wrath well. Having declared herself "the mistress of all evil," she is all bad and exhibits nothing but anger and hatred towards others. After not being invited to Aurora's christening, Maleficent takes revenge by putting a curse on her that will cause her death when she turns sixteen. Although the curse is weakened so that Aurora will fall into a deep sleep, Maleficent makes sure that it still happens. Afterwards, she does everything in her power to make sure that Phillip does not get to Aurora, becoming furious when she seems to have failed after doing everything. Thus, she is forced to take him on herself as a dragon.
Pride: Gaston's narcissistic nature is why he best fits the sin of pride. He is extremely vain and egocentric due to his handsome appearance and the fact that he is the most admired man in his village. As shown in the song appropriately named "Gaston," he takes great pride in all of this, especially when people say that no one does something like how Gaston does it, which means that he does it the best. He wants to marry Belle purely for her beauty, and to him, that means she is the best, which he thinks he deserves. By being married to the most beautiful woman in his village, that would only inflate Gaston's pride and ego.
Greed: There is no doubt in my mind that the sin of greed best fits Governor Ratcliffe. This is best shown by his intense craving for gold and desire to be a wealthy man. He leads John Smith and other sailors on an expedition to Virginia to find gold and other riches, but he fails to tell this to his crew since he wants to keep all riches for himself. When he and his crew cannot find any gold around their settlement, Ratcliffe's intense greed makes him believe that the Native Americans have all the gold. To get it from them, he decides to attack the Powhatans and refuses to believe John's claim that there is no gold around the land.
Gluttony: The sin of gluttony seems to connect that of greed well because it includes an excess of something. My choice as the villain to best represent this sin is Cruella De Vil. Although it seems that she fits greed more than gluttony, which usually refers to the excess of food, I chose this one due to her obsession and indulgence with fashion and furs. She even tells Anita that she cannot live without furs. When Cruella learns that Perdita is expecting puppies, she takes an interest, solely because she wants to use their skin to make a new fur coat. She hires Jasper and Horace to steal the puppies and then acquires eighty-four others just so she can have her desired spotted coat. When the puppies escape her mansion, Cruella, along with Horace and Jasper, goes on an obsessive hunt for the puppies, determined to catch and kill them.

The gifs of these villains and their quotes were made by my best friend Stephanie (letitgoleviosa), and I could not have made this post without her help and encouragement. Thank you, Steph! :D