Lady Tremaine

Drizella and Anastasia (daughters)

Cinderella (stepdaughter)

**Lady Tremaine** (also commonly known as the "**Wicked Stepmother**") is the main antagonist of Disney's 1950 animated feature film, *Cinderella* and its sequels as well as being The Main Antagonist of Descendants 4: A Twist In Time. As the cold-hearted stepmother of Cinderella, Lady Tremaine does not harm her stepdaughter physically. Rather, she seeks to punish and abuse her psychologically, motivated by her jealousy of Cinderella being far more beautiful 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. L

### Personality

“*Cold, cruel, and bitterly jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty, she was grimly determined to forward the interests of her own two awkward daughters.*”
―Opening narration[src]
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 frustratingly 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, her personality and overall aura take a somewhat darker turn, as 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 nor even caring if the Unversed in question harms her or her daughters in the crossfire.