Lady Tremaine

Lady Tremaine (also known as the "Wicked Stepmother") is the main antagonist of Disney's 1950 animated feature film, Cinderella. As the cold-hearted stepmother of the title character, Lady Tremaine doesn't harm her stepdaughter physically. Rather, she seeks to punish and abuse her psychologically, motivated by her jealousy of Cinderella being far more beautiful and graceful than her own awkward daughters, Anastasia and Drizella. Lady Tremaine was also a socialite, determined to gain higher status by marrying one of her daughters to Prince Charming or another bachelor of noble blood.

## Personality

Unlike most other Disney Villains, Lady Tremaine doesn't possess any magical powers (barring her use of the Fairy Godmother's wand in *A Twist in Time*) or exert any physical force. She strongly believes in maintaining grace and self-control, reminding her daughters of this when the two fight during their music lesson. The only time she herself breaks this rule is, ironically, at the point when Cinderella interrupts the music lesson to bring Lady Tremaine the invitation to the Royal Ball (at which point she frustratedly slams her hands onto the keys of the piano). She has a sinister glare and is very cruel to Cinderella; an example is when she silences her harshly twice when ordering Cinderella to do chores in the château. She even does the same to Anastasia and Drizella occasionally.

She holds a great envy towards her stepdaughter simply for her beauty and wholesome charm, so she treats her stepdaughter like a servant in her own home. A tyrant who employs subtle methods, she is deviously manipulative in controlling Cinderella by maintaining a sham benevolence in her authority of the household; she never *physically* abuses Cinderella and leaves that to her daughters instead. For example, when she slyly noted that Cinderella fixed up her dress with the help of Drizella's beads and Anastasia's sash, her daughters took the initiative to rip Cinderella's dress to shreds. She then cruelly bid Cinderella "good night" (since she couldn't go to the ball in rags), ultimately maintaining her ostensible fairness. By *Cinderella III: A Twist in Time*, however, Tremaine herself was implied to have become physically abusive; specifically towards Anastasia; Drizella briefly suggested she and Lady Tremaine beat Anastasia with a stick she had found. Her newfound violent nature was unleashed during the climax when she tried to turn both Cinderella and Anastasia into toads when the latter refused to marry Prince Charming, having already turned the guards into animals, and would most likely have done the same to the King had she succeeded.

Almost all of Tremaine's actions are motivated by a narcissistic hunger for prestige, as she wants to marry her daughters off to those on the top of the social ladder. Tremaine expects her daughters to be utterly obedient and is infuriated when they are not, as seen when Anastasia chose not to marry Prince Charming out of love.

In the *Kingdom Hearts* games, she is also shown to be quite reckless when she doesn't get her way, as evidenced by her summoning an Unversed to kill Cinderella and Aqua, apparently, neither being aware or even caring if the Unversed in question harms her or her daughters in the crossfire.

## Physical appearance

Lady Tremaine appears to have aged well, with sharp facial features, including a notably large hooked nose with pronounced creases on both sides. She has gray hair (brown in her youth) worn in a high heart-shaped pompadour, with a small light gray streak in the middle. Her green eyes are notably fierce and evil-looking when she is either angered or harboring evil thoughts, and her green orb-shaped earrings contrast her eye color. Her casual and most commonly seen set of clothes consists of a large crimson gown with a golden brooch near her neck that has a green gem in it and the gown has a high purple collar with extended purple sleeves (She wears a purple version of this outfit in the third film). She wears a large green ring on her right ring finger that matches her earrings and brooch, and in the finale, certain close-ups show her nails are painted a lavender hue to compliment her sleeves. Her formal attire (which she wears to the ball) is a long purple gown with short sleeves. Usually carries an ebony cane with an inlaid stone, more for esthetics than physical support.

## Role in the series

Lady Tremaine reprises her role in the film.

However, much like the Evil Queen, Lord Rottenday abandons her after his attempt to capture Cinderella failed, and by the time she gets a hold of the Fairy Godmother's magic wand, he will come to regret that decision, whether he wanted to or not.