Maleficent

Maleficent appeared as the main antagonist in the Disney Channel television movie *Descendants*. In the film, she is the mother of Mal, her teenage daughter, and was portrayed by Kristin Chenoweth.

According to some press release information, Maleficent is the only villain featured who hasn't given up hope on conquering the kingdom, and scolds her daughter for failing to reach her evil potential. Despite her drive, this incarnation of Maleficent has displayed a quirky and comical side, such as dolling out petty punishments upon her daughter, subjecting Mal to glaring contests, and forgetting where she stored her spellbook (which turned out to be inside the refrigerator that she has no knowledge on how to open without the Evil Queen's help). Also she wanted to put good and evil in her will but failed by being shrunk by Mal's magic (the spell of being shrunk as a lizard.) which is the same size of goodness in her heart.

## History

Maleficent was born in an enchanted forest kingdom known as the Moors, bordering a human kingdom. Her parents, Hermia and Lysander, were killed by humans, leaving her as an orphan. One day, she learns that a human peasant boy has been discovered in the Moors from three pixies, Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistlewit. Maleficent immediately leaves to investigate. She finds that the Tree Warriors have cornered the boy in an alcove and demands that he come out of hiding. Reluctantly, he comes out and introduces himself as Stefan, Maleficent orders him to hand over the gem he had stolen from the kingdom. He surrenders the gem and Maleficent tosses it into the water. She escorts him to the border of the Moors where they both admit to each other that they are orphans. Stefan wishes to return to the Moors to see her again, but she tells him that it is forbidden. Nonetheless, Maleficent begins to develop feelings for Stefan. The next day, Stefan returns to the Moors to see Maleficent and the two develop a close friendship, which,as they grow older, develops into a romance. On her sixteenth birthday, Stefan gives Maleficent a present: True Love's Kiss. However, over the next several years, Stefan stops coming to see Maleficent.

At the christening of the newly born Princess Aurora, the Three Good Fairies come to bestow three gifts on the child: Flora's gift is Beauty, and Fauna's is Song. Before Merryweather has a chance to give the child a gift, Maleficent appears with Diablo, perched on her staff. Angry at not receiving an invitation, she curses the child, decreeing that before the sun sets on Aurora's 16th birthday, the child shall die by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. She then disappears, cackling. Merryweather, unable to undo the entire curse herself, is able to alter it such that Aurora will not die, but merely enter a deep sleep that can only be broken with true love's kiss.

As Aurora's 16th birthday draws near, Maleficent punishes her Goons, who have stupidly been searching for a baby for 16 years to find the princess. After angrily calling the goons idiots and imbeciles and intimidating them into running away by conjuring dark lightning bolts with her staff, she then sends her raven Diablo to search for the princess. After managing to find the hiding location of Aurora and the fairies, Diablo flies back to Maleficent to inform her of Aurora's whereabouts. With this new knowledge, Maleficent plans her next move.

When the three fairies return the princess to the castle late that afternoon and leaves her alone for a while, Maleficent finds Aurora and, as a hypnotic apparition resembling a will-o-the-wisp, lures her up a secret stairway in the castle atop a high tower to a spinning wheel conjured by Maleficent. Maleficent orders Aurora to touch the spindle; she does, pricking her finger in the process, and subsequently falls to the floor, motionless. The fairies, who have been frantically trying to stop Aurora, arrive to find Maleficent, who briefly mocks them of their efforts to stop her. She then uncovers the fallen princess before their eyes and vanishes. She then recruits her goons, and they go to the cottage to wait for Prince Phillip, who have previously arranged to meet Aurora (whom he only knew to be as a peasant girl). Upon his arrival, they immediately capture him and take him to Maleficent's domain, the Forbidden Mountain. Only the prince's hat has been left behind at the cottage when the fairies arrive, allowing them to deduce that Maleficent has captured Phillip and imprisoned him at the Forbidden Mountain.

At the Forbidden Mountain, Maleficent visits the imprisoned Phillip in the dungeon. She taunts him with the knowledge that Briar Rose is actually Princess Aurora, who is currently in ageless sleep in the topmost tower of King Stephen's castle, and how Phillip will be free to exit Maleficent's domain a hundred years later to wake Aurora with love's first kiss, making Phillip struggle against his chains. She then leaves Phillip locked in the dungeon and states to herself that she will sleep well for the first time in 16 years as she heads up to her tower to sleep. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather melt the dungeon lock, cuts the chains that are restraining Phillip and arm him with the Shield of Virtue and the Sword of Truth. As they make their escape, they are confronted by Diablo, who fetches the Goons. As the prince and fairies dodge the Goons and make their escape, Diablo flies to warn Maleficent of Phillip's escape, with Merryweather in pursuit. Diablo reaches outside Maleficent's tower, where Merryweather finally turns the raven into a statue.

Awakened by Diablo's constant cawing, Maleficent emerges from her tower and, enraged at the sight of Diablo now a statue and that of Phillip escaping, she attempts to strike him down with lightning. As he continues, she summons a forest of thorns to surround Stefan's castle. When she sees that Phillip, with help from the Good Fairies, has managed to hack through the thorns, she appears before him, blocks his entry and transforms into an enormous dragon.

Phillip charges at the dragon, who drives him backwards with her blasts of flame. As Phillip retreats, Maleficent chases him up onto a high cliff and corners him at the ledge. With another powerful flame blast, she blows his shield off. As she is about to burst out laughing and to finish the now defenseless Phillip off, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather magically empower the Sword of Truth, and Phillip immediately fires the sword at the dragon's heart. Maleficent screams in pain and collapses onto the ledge, attempting to devour Phillip for the last time, but he dodges. Her enormous weight, upon impact, causes the ledge to crumble, sending Maleficent tumbling down from to her demise below. Phillip looks down to see what remains of Maleficent to see nothing more than her shredded cloak on the ground, plus the Sword of Truth, still embedded in the cloak, turning black.

## *Descendants*

When Beast became King and joined the kingdoms together as Auradon, he sent all of the villains to live on the Isle of the Lost and Maleficent was among them. Sometime on this island, Maleficent gave birth to a daughter named Mal and raised her to be as evil as she is. Once Mal has grown into a teenager, she is given an offer to attend Auradon Prep. This gives Maleficent an idea and she plots with Evil Queen, Cruella De Vil and Jafar to send the children there and have them steal the Fairy Godmother's wand to use for evil. Maleficent gathers them all together and convinces the at first reluctant villains to send their children.

The week of family day, Maleficent video chats with Mal, who reveals the upcoming coronation to her.

Maleficent gathers with the other villains on coronation day to watch it live on television and when Jane steals the wand and accidentally creates a hole in the barrier, Maleficent escapes and travels to Auradon. She tries to convince Mal to give her the wand but with the power of goodness, Mal and her friends defeat Maleficent and she is turned into a small lizard, which Fairy Godmother says is the size of the love in her heart And when she learns to love she will grow

## Personality

Maleficent, on top of her deviousness, is very misleading in her personality. But, underneath the mask of stoicism, Maleficent unleashes the full brunt of her wrath with a smile. A sign she relishes in the pain of others. This is displayed during her first appearance during Aurora's birthday ceremony. When Merryweather states bluntly, "You weren't wanted," Maleficent pretends to be shocked and hurt, remarking, "In that event I'd best be on my way." But then she turned around and cast a curse upon Aurora, cackling in the sweet revenge she attained.

Maleficent has no real motivation for her evil, making her arguably little more than a vicious animal (which is later shown when she turns into a Dragon). Although she is soft spoken, proper and elegant, underneath she is simply a monster who enjoys being evil.When Maleficent and Mal have a disagreement they stare into each other eyes untill one of them gives up.

Everyone believes that Maleficent is a woman of pure evil, representing everything that is evil, but they just do not know the true story. Maleficent is actually a benevolent young woman of purity who will stop at nothing to guard the Moors and all of its inhabitants from all harm. However, after her closest childhood friend and lover, Stefan, betrays her by severing her precious wings, Maleficent's pure heart begins to darken and eventually turns to stone. Becoming the Evil Queen of the Moors, Maleficent has become a shadow of her former self, striking fear into the hearts of all, even those closest to her.

She is sadistic and merciless, which is proven when she mercilessly places a sleeping spell on Stefan's baby daughter, Aurora, that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep like death, leaving Stefan's castle with a sadistically laugh at the sweet revenge she just attained. She also forces and enjoys watching Stefan plead for his young daughter's life.

## Appearance

*Maleficent appears in the form of a tall, slender, beautiful, pale green-skinned (although some appearances of her depict her with gray skin) woman with a narrow face and a prominent chin. She also has yellow eyes and black horns (it is unknown if those are her horns, or a headdress, or simply a hair style), which is symbolic of her dark magic. She is clad in a black-and-purple robe with bat wing-like edges, and wears a gold ring with a large mysterious circular black stone in it. Both the horned headdress and bat wing-like robe represent and foreshadow her dragon form.*

Maleficent is an evil sorceress, unlike the other three fairy godmothers in the movie and her evil enables her to perform many magical and powerful spells. She carries a staff with a glowing green orb at the tip through which she casts her spells, which include an ability to teleport herself, or send bolts of lightning at enemies. She is also capable of shape shifting at will into numerous forms, including a floating hypnotic light resembling a will-o'-the-wisp and a massive, monstrous black-and-purple dragon. She is not at all comical or goofy like some of the other Disney villains, although she does at times display something of a dark sense of humor. Her minions are a legion of goblins and troll-like creatures. She is also frequently accompanied by her pet raven called Diablo. She seems to have a minor quirk in regards to holding light objects, as she seems to extend her pinkie when holding a torch in the forward direction, as evidenced during her capture of Prince Phillip.

## Trivia

* She is the Mother of Mal
* She is also the leader of the Disney Villains.
* She later shrank to the size of the love in her heart.
* She does vocals on 1 song

**Web Series:** *School of Secrets* | *Descendants: Wicked World*
**Video Games:** *Descendants: Isle of the Lost Rush*
**Music:** Soundtrack

**Descendants: Wicked World:** Jordan | Freddie Facilier | Ally | Ruby