Disney Villain Apologist

I like to explore ethics and the nature of good and evil. I love “origin of evil” stories, and retellings from the villain’s perspective. When I watch movies/read books, I generally empathize with the villain. 

I watch horror movies and cheer for the monster. Which, makes sense because I’m one of the creatures humans like to cast as the monster. I’m a proper faerie tale villain.

So, I’m gonna go down a list of well known Disney villains, and justify their actions.

Snow White:

So we start out of the gate with a tough one. Not because her actions are difficult to justify, but because we know nothing about Queen Grimhilde. The story starts in the middle.

Where did she come from? How did she come to be Snow White’s step mother? Is vanity really the only reason she hates Snow White? I doubt it.

She’s a two dimensional character who must have a story, and we have no right to judge her until we know what it is. 

Besides, Snow was kind of insufferable. This is a movie with eleven characters. Only two are women. One is a perennial victim with no agency over her own situation, and the other is painted as the villain. There’s something fishy here.

Cinderella:

Okay so Lady Tremaine was awful (and she dies in the original faerie tale) but the step sisters are just as much victims as Cinderella herself. Their mother was abusive to all three of them. She was just worse to Cinderella. That’s often the case with abusive parents. They are emotionally abusive and neglectful to all their children, but they pick one to be their preferred target.

The step sisters became awful out of self defense. In some other versions of the tale, one or both of them actually apologize to Cinderella, and mean it. It doesn’t get them out of well deserved punishment for being terrible to her, but it redeems them a little.

Alice in Wonderland:

The Queen of Hearts has some kind of undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. It’s illuminated in the book that the King quietly pardons people behind her back, they show back up at court the next day, and she doesn’t even notice, because she’s delusional and they’re doing their best to cope with it. As the Cheshire Cat said, everyone’s mad here. There are no therapists to take her to.

Peter Pan:

This one has some deep symbolism, and it’s kinda cool. Captain Hook represents old age and inevitable mortality. That’s what everyone’s afraid of, but it’s not something to be feared, it’s just part of the process. Peter’s refusal to grow up, and influencing others to follow in his footsteps, was holding them back from their potential. The protagonists went home because they realized it was actually a pretty toxic environment.

An alternate fan interpretation (which was not the intention of the original author) is that the Lost Boys are dead, and Peter is a spirit keeping them from moving on, and Hook is Death itself. Wendy and her brothers had a near death experience and went to Neverland.

Sleeping Beauty:

Ah, here’s my favorite Disney villain. This one requires some knowledge of politics. It wasn’t just a party. This was 14th century Europe. I think the tale is French, specifically. The Christening of a royal child was a major political event. It Mattered who was and was not invited.

If you had two neighbors, and they weren’t on the best of terms, and you invited one but not the other, you were picking sides in a potential war.

Which is what King Stephan did. He sided with the Seelie court over the Unseelie. The “good faeries” weren’t actually good. They were Seelie. Which means they look pretty, but they’re just as dangerous and just as unpredictable.

This was a slight that would have risked war if he’d done it to a human. Faeries take those things far more seriously, and he knew that. He should have known that failing to invite her was going to lead to trouble.

Maleficent even gave him an opportunity to apologize. She was prepared to pretend she thought it was a mistake and allow him to save face. He threw it back at her and insulted her. And she cursed the kid when she could have cursed them all and destroyed the entire kingdom, and by fae standards would have been totally justified.

Stephan was a moron. If he’d invited her, or even just apologized and moved on, the faeries would have given the most awesome gifts they could in an attempt to one up each other, as opposed to the party favors Aurora wound up with.

I find Maleficent very relatable. Fae witch with a corvid companion who has fun with curses, references infernal contacts, and is secretly a dragon. I like.

The Sword In The Stone:

Madam Mim was just playing a little game. Merlin was an insufferable pompous jerk to her. Clearly they have a history of him being that way. It’s no wonder she wanted to break his toys.

The Little Mermaid:

This one’s actually really really easy.

So, the bit about how Ursula has her little garden... She casts spells for people. Magic has a price, which someone has to pay. She has to give something up to work her magic for people, and they sign a contract about payment. It’s not her fault if they fail to fulfill their end and complete the contract. They are responsible for the consequences of their decisions, and blaming her is a cop out.

As for her specific arrangement with Ariel, which required Ariel to find something (true love’s kiss) to seal the spell and bind her to the human world, Ursula was totally justified. Her plan from the first moment was for Ariel to fail, and then trade her for her father.

She had good reason. She’s Triton’s sister. That’s canon, it’s in a scene they cut for time. She’s the rightful queen and he stole the throne. Of course she’s bitter.

Aladdin:

Jafar spent his entire life serving an incompetent boob who’s running the state into the ground. He went a little nuts, and went a little over the top, but if you think about it, he never actually hurt anyone but the abusive royal family and an apparent kidnapper turned imposter prince.

We can’t look the other way on him being a gross creepy misogynist but I don’t really have a problem with his reactions to the sultan.

The Lion King:

There’s canon somewhere that Scar’s birth name was Taka, which means “dirt” or “trash”. That’s pretty damn abusive if you ask me. Mufasa was an arrogant jerk. And the entire family treated him like he could do no wrong and like Scar was worthless and unwanted, going so far as to relegate him to sleeping off in a little alcove alone. No wonder he wound up bitter.

Also, The Lion King is Hamlet with animals and he can’t help that Shakespeare wrote him as a villain.

Hercules:

Ugh. They butchered my pantheon, and Hades is the only one who isn’t totally absurd.

STOP MAKING HAIDES THE BAD GUY!

Within the narrative of the story, the background is Zeus tricked and/or forced Hades into the Underworld while the other gods got to party it up on Olympus.

The fact that there’s no actual mythology for this and Haides isn’t unhappy with his kingdom not withstanding, the movie character has every right to be pissed.

There are a lot more of these I could do, but these are some of my favorite highlights, so I’ll leave it at that. Hope you enjoy, and I’d love to hear additions or counter arguments anyone wants to make.