Disney Villain Backstory Analysis: Maleficent

Intro

How did our favorite Disney villains become who they are? What do we actually know about them? Is their backstory actually good or are they done dirty?

In the spirit of Halloween, let's take our favorite Disney Villains, and analyze their backstories. With all the resources we have, there are a lot of different backstories to choose from. Think about books, remakes, adaptations, even the original fairy tale. Which one is the best? And can we write a better one by perhaps combining them? That is what this series is all about.

To kick off the series, let's dive into the tale of Maleficent!  

 

Resources

For this post, I have done some research, because I don't have all the resources myself. For this I used the following media, besides the movies:

Villains - Mistress Of All Evil: This is a series of books, going into the villain's story. I think I have this book, but I haven't taken the time to read it yet. So here's a quick summary on the wiki for now.

A Disney Villains Retrospective, Part 14: Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty): This is a youtuber who has gone through most, if not all, Disney villains and told their story from all the media that we have. Definitely give his other videos a watch, because these are filled with great information!

The Sleeping Beauty In The Woods - Charles Perrault

This is the version that Disney has based the movie of, but Maleficent is actually barely in it. According to the summary, the King and Queen invite seven fairies to their daughter's celebration, but they don't invite an eight elderly one. This is because the fairy lives far off in the distant mountains, and hasn't been seen for so long, that everyone assumed she was dead.

When she arrives at the party alive and well, she is bitter and assumes she has been left out intentionally. When it's time to give the gifts, she puts a curse on the new born princess, saying she will prick her finger and die.

This is the only appearance in of Maleficent in the original. She disappears and the story goes on without her. She doesn't interfere with the curse and force Sleeping Beauty to prick her finger, or stop the prince from saving her.

My Opinion on this version

So we don't get to know a lot about the dark fairy in this version, other than that she is bitter and angry for not being invited, and apparently old and alone. This version does leave me with a lot of questions to explore. Why was she living so far away on her own? Why did everyone assume she was dead and did no one check up on her? Was she actually a dark fairy, or did she just have a short temper?

With what we know, I could understand that she is bitter. When you are the only one not invited to an important celebration like that, and when you confront them they awkwardly say they thought you were dead... Yeah that hurts. Cursing a baby over it though? That would go a little bit too far. But I think this story does have potential if someone were to rewrite this classic fairy tale and give her a bigger role. 

The Animated Disney Movie

As is said in the Disney Villains Retrospective, there isn't really a sign of a backstory in this movie. She clearly has a history with Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, as they mention how she always destroys Flora's most beautiful flowers. One of them mentions she feels like Maleficent is never really happy and she feels bad for her. But the reason why she does this, or how she became like this is never mentioned. At Aurora's celebration, she is simply told she weren't wanted, and in a deleted scene, King Stefan mentions that wherever Maleficent goes, there is trouble.

She is simply evil for the sake of being evil. She enjoys causing trouble and taunting others without any specific reason. It just makes her happy.

My opinion on this version

Honestly? Sometimes people are just evil for the sake of being evil. Some people just enjoy other people's suffering. I like a villain like that. Though it is fun to find out why my favorite villain became the way they are, I sometimes just enjoy a sadistic villain who has no real reason to be like that other than just... Being like that. So in conclusion, this is a version that I like, just for her being evil because she wants to be.

Writer's note: I've mentioned it before, but a villain doesn't NEED a backstory. Maleficent is a perfect example of that. Some villains just like to cause mayhem and watch other people suffer. Or they simply just wanted to be king or queen for power. They don't actively hate the hero for any specific reason, they could even simply start off as their next target. But when the Hero proves to be strong and standing in the way of what they enjoy, their motive is just to destroy and break them.

Maleficent (Live Action)

The first Disney Villain who got their own movie was Maleficent, and she got a new backstory of what actually made her evil.

In this version, she is a protector of the fairylands, already as a child, and she has her long black wings. She is a curious and happy child, taken in by the fairy creatures after being abandoned. At the beginning of the movie, she meets a young boy Stefan, who she becomes friends with and later falls in love with. Stefan is not royalty in this version, but simply a peasant who has nothing. Meanwhile the kingdom outside the fairylands is at war with the fairies, wanting them destroyed. Stefan comes to visit far less often as he works for the king. After the king is injured and dying, he says that whoever can kill Maleficent will take his place on the throne and become the new king.

Stefan, having grown up with nothing wants to be king and lets his greed take over. He goes to Maleficent and spend the night together until she falls asleep. But he can't bring himself to kill her, and instead decides to cut off her wings. Maleficent is in pain and heartbroken because of what Stefan has done to her, and this is what makes her evil. She crashes the celebration of Aurora and puts the curse on her. When Stefan begs her not to let it happen, it is she herself who puts on the addition of that she will NOT die, but just fall asleep and can only be awoken by a true love's kiss. She does this, believing that true love doesn't exist after what Stefan has done to her.

She watches over the baby, and becomes unintentionally attached to her. She even tries to take away the curse, but she can't. But in the end it is not Philip, but Maleficent who breaks the curse with motherly love.

My Opinion on this backstory

For me, it is a good movie and fun to watch. The second movie of Maleficent wasn't bad either, and I liked her finding more Fairies like her. I think the tragic backstory could be a good one. She once loved someone, and was betrayed just because this person was filled with greed and choose becoming king over being with her. But it contradicts what Stefan did at the beginning of the movie. He was wearing a silver ring, which hurt her when he shook her hand. He simply took it off and threw it away so he wouldn't hurt her... And you're telling me this boy suddenly grew into a man that would choose ruling a kingdom over her. I don't like that they made Stefan the villain, because they didn't really have too.

To me, this movie feels more like a 'What if Maleficent was good?' story rather than a villain back story. We saw how she became evil, but in the rest of she is more taking care of Aurora and denying that she loves her rather than being evil. I do think the thing with someone betraying her, even taking away her wings is a fun approach.

Once Upon A Time

Once Upon A Time is a live action series, where all sorts of fairy tale characters are banished from the fairy tale world, to ours. Maleficent is a part of this whole franchise as well, and getting her backstory and redemption like almost everyone does in this series.

In the first few seasons, she makes some appearances, showing her to be a villain. She failed to put Aurora's mother asleep, who apparently was the original Sleeping Beauty in this version, and lives on her own, hiding in the mountains. She has given up on herself. But Regina (the evil queen from snow white) decides to motivate her into being evil again. Since she used to be the mistress of evil after all. She regains her courage and will to do evil again, and this time she puts Aurora asleep. Not only does she put Aurora asleep, but turns Philip into a wild beast, so he is unable to get to Aurora and break the curse.

She is actually killed by the end of season 1, but revived during the second half of season 4 where she suddenly gets a whole new backstory. In this version, Maleficent is pregnant at the same time as Snow White, who's daughter Emma is the main character of the series. Snow White and Prince Charming find out that their baby has potential to become either pure light, but she has just as much potential to become evil as well. Panicked about the last part, they want to make sure their daughter does not become evil. They steal the dragon egg from Maleficent which holds her child. Maleficent pleads with them to not take it, but they do anyway, though promise to bring it back. But after Emma's darkness is transferred into the dragon egg, something goes wrong. A portal is opened, and the egg falls through it, falling into the real world and being completely taken away from Maleficent.

After being revived, Maleficent first wants to take her revenge on Snow White and Prince Charming for taking away her child. Later, she asks Emma for help to find her, who does find her and brings her back. Maleficent now is not focused on revenge anymore, but wants to have a relationship with her daughter, even though she is already an adult and she missed her whole childhood. Gaining her 'redemption arc' and allowing her to get a second chance.

There is an indication of her and her daughter wanting to find the father, and somewhere in season 6 it is implied that someone called "the dragon" is the father. But they don't go into it any further. Just at the final episode of season 7, they see a dragon flying over and it's like: "Oh yeah, they found Lily's father." 

(I am sorry for the strange summary, Once Upon A Time is great, but VERY complicated. If you'd like to read it for yourself, you can find a summary on the wiki here ) 

My Opinion On This Backstory

I absolutely love Once Upon A Time. Seen all seven seasons 3 times, and I would watch it all over again. You'd think my opinion would be biased because of this. But for Maleficent though... Well, I like the twist of her having a child, and losing it to the actual heroes of the story because they were afraid of their daughter's darkness. It is a good twist, but to be honest, a bit too sudden. There was no mention of anything like that before the second half of the 4th season. She was simply evil. She was the Mistress of all evil. So the sudden change of her having a baby and simply dropping everything and being good when she gets her child back is a bit unrealistic to me. They could have done something with wanting to take revenge on Snow White and Prince Charming, but she instantly cut it of saying she doesn't want to waste their time together on revenge.

 

In this series all villains either get redeemed or killed, which is logical, but I do wish they would have played out her whole backstory out better.

 

Writer's note: This is the danger of writing a series, even if it is a popular one, and especially when it goes on for a very long time. It has to be consistent, but often new things and twists are added to the series. Which is normal, but often it evolves into a: "Where the hell did that come from?!" from the audience. Sometimes story points are not explained or even resolved by the end of the series. This doesn't only happen in tv, but also sometimes in Book series. If you want to write a book or tv series, try to be cautious of inconsistencies and keep note of important things. Granted, inconsistencies will always sneak into your works, and readers will find them even if they are minor, but we can at least try to keep it at a minimum. 

Mistress Of All Evil: A Tale Of A Dark Fairy

This is a book series where they go into the backstory of different disney villains. I have not read this one yet, but I will summarize what I found on the wikki.

Maleficent has been abandoned while she was still young and taken in by ravens, until she was found and adopted by a fairy named Nanny. She enrolled into the fairy academy, actually wanting to be a good fairy, but she was seen as an outcast by Flora, Fauna, Merryweather AND her adoptive aunt, the Fairy Godmother (which I am assuming is Cinderella's Fairy Godmother). Especially Fairy Godmother though she was evil.

She fell under the influence of the three Odd sisters, and Nanny herself, who tried to make her into a dark witch. She learned a lot of dark magic, but she still wanted to become a good wish-granting fairy. When Flora, Fauna and Merryweather accused her of sabotaging their exams (when she was actually framed), she got so furious that she turned into a dragon, knocking out her adoptive mother in the process. Grieving in belief that she actually killed Nanny, she then attacked various places in her dragon form before fleeing to the Forbidden Mountain.

 Manipulated by the Odd Sisters, decided to cast a spell to create a daughter with all of her best aspects. But what she didn't realize, was that this meant she would lose all her good aspects herself, forcing her to become purely evil. Knowing she could not love her daughter and would only be a danger to her, she let's king Stefan and Queen Leah adopt her daughter. She then puts the sleeping curse on her, so Aurora won't turn evil like her when she is sixteen. Eventually she is killed in the final battle with Prince Philip.

My opinion on this backstory

Though I've never actually read the book, this is very interesting to say the least... I am more compelled to read the book now for sure. The fact that Aurora actually is HER daughter is interesting, though also a lightly cheap way to make her purely evil. I do think her trying to be good and actually having a history with the three good fairies has a lot of potential.

How Would I Do Her Backstory?

There is a LOT to go off here. As I was doing research I was surprised by the amount of different lore she got. So, I will point out all the elements I would like to create the perfect backstory of Maleficent.

Being evil for the sake of being evil 

As I mentioned, I do like this kind of villain. She could just be evil from the start or at least not nice from the start. Maybe starting out as a bully, and growing into pure evil because she simply enjoys peoples suffering.

The tragic love and child story

I mean... If we want to give her some backstory, I think the tragic love story from her live action movie would be fun. Just not it being Stefan and her completely turning evil because of what he did. Going with the 'Evil for the sake of evil' trait, she can still fall in love. Maybe there was another evil person who manipulated her, or did feel attraction to her. She falls pregnant from her lover, and he leaves her, wanting nothing to do with her or the child.

Does she give up the child? No! In my vision she doesn't have too. She might be pure evil and torment people by putting curses on them. But wouldn't it be fun for her to teach the same thing to her child? Imagine how proud she would be when they put their first curse on them? You could go for the classic case of that the child is redeemed and nice, or you could make them just as bad as their mother. The choices are unlimited. Maybe Maleficent can have a Heir for when she is is gone. She might even love them, but doesn't show much affection.

(This is just something I came up with on a whim. There is no wrong or right for what you like or don't like.) 

Writer's Note: Often in stories there is at least one person of a family or group who is not like the others, often portrayed as the love interest for the main character. Which is fine, I love these kind of stories as well, but a whole family of evil people would be fun to experiment with. Have someone pretend to be on the heroes side, only to betray them...

Conclusion

Well, there you have it, the first installment of the Disney Villain backstory Analysis series. I had a lot of fun doing this and going into detail. I never expected there to be so much lore for Maleficent. Maybe I have even missed a bit.

So, what do you think of this new series and Maleficents backstories. Is there one you know that was not in there? What is your favorite backstory? Do you have your own approach for her perfect backstory? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

What villain would you like to see analyzed next? I have three more slots for October, but if it is popular I would love to continue this series. Let me know if you'd want that and who I should do next! Love hearing your thoughts.

   

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