King Stefan

### Dislikes

Being separated from his daughter, the notion that Aurora is not good enough for Phillip, Aurora in danger, Maleficent's curse, anyone threatening/causing trouble to his kingdom

## Family information

### Children

Aurora (daughter)

 ―King Stefan

**King Stefan** is a minor character in Disney's 1959 animated feature film, *Sleeping Beauty*. Stefan is the husband of Queen Leah, the father of Aurora, and the father-in-law of Prince Phillip.

## Background

### Personality

Despite being a king of royal heritage, Stefan is portrayed to be a humble and debonair king, a loving and protective father to his daughter, and a more forceful side of the kingdom's monarchy consisting of himself and Queen Leah. When the Mistress of Evil, Maleficent, confronts Stefan, he mostly remained quiet but with a sern and intimidating impression. Aside from that, he is a soft spoken man, specifically with his best friend, King Hubert, Stefan's jolly friend and the father of Phillip.

Despite this, Stefan can also be prone to being somewhat temperamental and having some anger outbursts, especially when he got upset at the thought of Aurora not being good enough for Phillip or when Hubert said that his grandchildren will not like him. He can also be somewhat of a hypocrite, especially when he opposed his and Hubert's original idea of having their children marry, even if he clearly missed his daughter and knew it was best to wait until they get better acquainted, leading to his quarrel with Hubert. Nevertheless, Stefan is also shown to be strongly caring and devoted to his family, kingdom, and to all of his servants, including Lord Duke and Minstrel.

### Physical Appearance

 ―King Hubert to King Stefan

Stefan appears to be a tall, slender, lanky middle aged man. He is shown to always wear a large golden crown on his shoulder length black hair along with a decorated moustache and goatee. Stefan is also shown to be lavishly dressed with a long yellow tunic, and a long black and gold robe with a coral red coloured collar and sleeves.

## Appearances

### Sleeping Beauty

 ―Narrator

At the beginning of the film, King Stefan and Queen Leah are shown to be part of the royal family of an unnamed European kingdom in the early 1400's. It was shown that Stefan and Leah had both longed for a child for many years until their wish was finally granted with a daughter which they called Aurora.

After Aurora's birth, the whole kingdom was invited by Stefan to celebrate his daughter's birth, including his best friend, King Hubert and Hubert's son, Prince Phillip who was betrothed to Aurora. Also invited were the three good fairies called Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, whom Flora and Fauna gave Aurora the gifts of beauty and song, respectively. But the happiness between him and his wife is short-lived as their celebration got crashed by the arrival of the evil fairy, Maleficent. As Maleficent is about to leave, both Stefan and Leah failed to provide a proper explanation of their lack of invitation to her, with Stefan remaining silent and Leah asking Maleficent if she's not offended, to which the latter pretended she wasn't. To take revenge on him and the others for not inviting her to the baby's celebration, Maleficent then prophecies that on Aurora's sixteenth birthday, she will die from pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. An enraged Stefan angrily ordered his troops to capture and arrest Maleficent. But before the troops can get to her, she cackles and disappears, leaving Stefan, his wife, and the other servants and guests in the royal court worried about Aurora's doomed future. However, one of the Three Good Fairies, Merryweather (who still had her wish), alters the curse that their daughter will sleep instead of death until True Love's Kiss that will break the spell. As a first response, Stefan ordered all spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned in an attempt to prevent the curse from happening, but the fairies knew that it is not enough to prevent the curse. The King and Queen are persuaded to make the hardest decision of their lives: their daughter must be raised by the Three Good Fairies away in the forest in order to protect her. The narrator reveals that sixteen sad and lonely years passed for Stefan and his dear queen.

Sixteen years later, he is waiting for his now teenage daughter's return to the his castle. While in the dining room drinking, with the court composer, Minstrel, drinking to himself, Hubert reveals that upon Aurora's return, she and Philip shall be instantly wed and move to another home (which is already built), startling him. And upon Hubert stating what if Phillip doesn't like Aurora, the two begin to quarrel with each other. But when Hubert grabs a fish as a weapon, it leads to laughter between the two. Later in the film, Stefan is subsequently put to sleep by the fairies (though unknown to him and the others, Aurora pricked her finger and is in a state of sleep) so that he will wake upon Aurora's awaking, along with Hubert, Leah, and the other residents of the kingdom. However, it is prior to Hubert telling him what Phillip had told him on a peasant girl (she is Aurora in reality, though neither Hubert nor Phillip were able to realize this).

Afterwards, King Stefan is not seen again until the end of the film just after Maleficent's demise at the hands of Phillip when Stefan wakes up from his slumber, along with Hubert, Leah, and the other residents in the kingdom that were all freed by Phillip's True Love's Kiss on Aurora. Stefan, Leah, and Hubert share a happy reunion with Aurora and Phillip, and the three watch their children dance.

### Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams

King Stefan reappears in the *Keys to the Kingdom* segment of the film *Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams*, now voiced by Corey Burton.

He is first seen in the beginning of the first segment, talking to Aurora about him, Leah, Hubert, and Phillip going out of town for the Royal Conference for two days (where Hubert is due to give a speech) before asking his majordomo, Lord Duke about the arrangements he made for the kingdom and for the Royal Conference. After Stefan leaves with Phillip, Hubert, and Leah, Aurora is given the *Keys to the Kingdom* and with a little advice from Duke, she becomes a temporary ruler for Stefan and Leah, though he is seen unsure and worried if Aurora can rule, but she comforts her father.

King Stefan is then seen at the end of the first segment, arriving back from the Royal Conference, along with King Hubert, Queen Leah, and Prince Phillip, when Duke comes running to the carriage and told him that he saw giant chickens, green pigs, and cows in the throne room. At first, Stefan was confused about what Duke said, but he told his master to check the throne room immediately. But when Stefan, Leah, Hubert, Phillip, and Duke all arrive in the throne room, there were no animals and Stefan frustratingly asks Duke if he sees any cows, to which his majordomo said no.

Stefan is seen at the end of the first segment, sitting next to Hubert at the Royal Banquet, alongside the other major characters as they talk about "the rumor" about cows and green pigs, as Phillip mentions giant chickens. He starts laughing, along with the fairies, Duke, Hubert, Leah, Phillip, and Aurora.

## Live action Appearances

### Maleficent

King Stefan reappears in the 2014 live action film perspective, *Maleficent*, portrayed by Sharito Copley. In contrast to the Stefan seen in the original Disney *Sleeping Beauty,* this version of Stefan is the main antagonist of the film and is shown to be evil, power-hungry, vengeful, and angry tyrant. He is also shown to have a love history with Maleficent.

As a young boy (in his teenage years probably), Stefan was an orphan who lived in a farm and often stole things. He first meets Maleficent when he goes to the Moors to steal a gem from the pool of gems. Upon realising the things they have in common, the two became best friends and on Maleficent's sixteenth birthday, Stefan gives her a "true love"'s kiss as their friendship became romance. However, one night, hearing that King Henry would make the one who kills Maleficent king, Stefan steals her wings and lie that he had killed her. Stefan becomes the new king and later marries Princess Lelia, Henry's daughter, and together they have a baby girl: Aurora. However, his betrayal will cost him dearly as Maleficent places a dark curse on his daughter for revenge on what Stefan did to her. Stefan, in desperate need, gives Aurora to the three fairies and orders to bring her back a day after her birthday.

Over the next sixteen years, Stefan becomes obsessed with killing Maleficent. When Aurora returns home a day before her sixteenth birthday, Stefan locked Aurora up so that Aurora could not witness the curse. But after Aurora escapes, she finds the dungeons where the spinning wheels are and pricks her finger, putting her into a deep sleep, much to Stefan's anger. Maleficent is able to lift the curse, but Stefan and his guards capture the mistress and Diaval. He then tortures the two and taunts Maleficent, but as he is about to kill her, Maleficent's wings return, thanks to Aurora.

Stefan is then overpowered and carried onto a tower. She beats Stefan up and nearly kills him, but then decides to just spare him. Blinded by pride and rage, Stefan refuses to call defeat and attacks Maleficent again. The two end up falling, but Maleficent flies while Stefan plummets and dies.

### Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

As Stefan was assassinated in the first *Maleficent* film, he makes no physical appearance in *Maleficent: Mistress of Evil*, but he is mentioned by Queen Ingrith when she tells how Aurora became Queen of the Moors. Aurora also states that Stefan's castle has been used by the villagers ever since his death and that Aurora was not entirely saddened by her biological father's passing, saying that she had never even met him.

## Trivia

* Though King Stefan and Queen Leah do not appear in *Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep*, the thrones on which they sit are present in the hall of the castle where Terra faces the Wheel Master Unversed.
* Stefan is one of the few characters who are good in their original appearance and then antagonized in the live action version of the character.
* Before Taylor Holmes was cast in as Stefan in the final version for his final film role, Hans Conried was originally considered to voice Stefan, as he recorded some additional lines of dialogue.
	+ Due to this, Stefan is technically the first Disney Princess Father to have different voice actors; Hans Conried for the dialogue version for the deleted song and Taylor Holmes for the film's final cut.
* There was originally a scene that was to have taken place in the beginning where King Stefan and King Hubert argue about the future of their children and compare portraits of their young children, a song called "It Happens I Have a Picture" (heard in the second disc of the 2008 Platinum Edition DVD of *Sleeping Beauty* and *The Legacy Collection: Sleeping Beauty*), spoken by Hans Conried and Bill Thompson. Although Thompson ended up voicing Hubert in the final film, the truth regarding the herald's voice may still never be known because after providing some additional lines, Conried himself was eventually replaced by Taylor Holmes for the vocal part of Stefan in the film's final version.
* He is the first Disney Princess father to not be deceased, not counting his villainous counterpart in *Maleficent*.