Diablo

### Personality

Evil, diligent, dignified, mysterious, pesky, loyal, intelligent, leading, sneaky, sadistic, shadowy, sinister, competent

### Appearance

Slender raven, soot-black feathers, orange beak and claws, magenta eyelids and bags under his eyes

### Enemies

Prince Phillip, Princess Aurora (formerly)

### Dislikes

Failure, the goons' incompetence, Maleficent's fury, Merryweather

### Powers and abilities

Flight

**Diablo** is Maleficent's pet raven

## Background

Diablo appears to have a similar role to the raven in *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*. However, he plays a larger role in the storyline and is in almost every scene that Maleficent appears in. In addition, unlike the raven in *Snow White*, he is completely and genuinely loyal to her and, unlike the rest of her servants, he is competent and easily succeeds in his task to find Aurora, and sometimes notices things even Maleficent fails to. He is also the only one she genuinely cares about, and she is visibly horrified when she discovers him turned to stone. In return, he apparently cares a great deal for her, specifically seen when he fell into despair alongside her after her goons were revealed to have been searching for a baby for sixteen years, as opposed to a teenager, which Aurora would have been at that point in time.

Unlike her goons, who Maleficent constantly abuses and treats as pathetic wastes, he serves as her confidante and assistant, more so than her lackey, joining her more often than not from scene to scene, and having complete knowledge of her devious plots. He's also second-in-command, having control over her goons, along with her.

He shares Maleficent's sadism. When she captures Prince Phillip in the cottage, and later when she torments him in his cell, Diablo shows just as much pleasure as Maleficent herself.

### Physical Appearance

In *Sleeping Beauty*, Diablo is a black raven with pink bags under his eyes. He has a sharp, long yellow beak and yellow claws.

## Appearances

Diablo is first seen with Maleficent, crashing Aurora's christening. There, she casts a spell on her that schedules her death to come before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday when she pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. After the curse is set, she and Diablo depart. Oblivious to them, her rivals, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, change the curse so that Aurora would only fall into a deep sleep when she pricks her finger. Meanwhile, back at the Forbidden Mountains, Maleficent sends her goons on a hunt for Aurora but fail to find her after sixteen years. It is revealed that they were foolishly looking for a baby during the entire hunt. Maleficent explodes in rage and sends Diablo to find her. He begins his search in the forest where he spots magic from wands being blasted out of a chimney (and in the process gets hit with it when he takes a closer inspection). It is from Flora and Merryweather who have been hiding Aurora in a woodcutter's cottage to keep her safe from Maleficent.

Diablo, listening at the doorway, hears Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather confirm Aurora's identity, and tell her that they are returning her to King Stefan's castle that evening. Hearing this, Diablo quickly flies off and sends Maleficent the news to her great delight. He also hears that Aurora has fallen in love, and that the man she loves will be coming to the cottage that evening. This allows Maleficent and her goons to capture him, who is Prince Phillip, to prevent him from breaking the curse. They hold him hostage in Maleficent's castle but Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather break him out. Diablo, however, overhears them as Maleficent retires, and catches them escaping. He quickly rallies the goons to attack. However, they stand no chance against Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather's magic, so Diablo heads for Maleficent's quarters to inform her of what's going on. Merryweather gets mad at him and turns him into stone. Maleficent emerges, planning to silence her goons after hearing all the commotion, but she finds his stone body instead, gasping in shock before witnessing Prince Phillip, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather making their escape, prompting her to take matters into her own hands.

### Other appearances

Diablo made frequent cameos as one of the guests in *House of Mouse*. He is perched on Maleficent's shoulder in all of his appearances. In the episode, "Halloween With Hades", he doesn't seem to like Hades and even tried to bite his finger. He also appears alongside the villains in *Mickey's House of Villains.*

## Live-action appearances

### *Once Upon a Time*

Diablo made a small appearance in the season four episode, "Heroes and Villains" where, following Belle's kidnapping, he delivers a message indicating her capture to the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin.

As another reference to the film, Maleficent can shape-shift to and from a flock of ravens.

### *Maleficent*

Diablo appears in the film under the name of Diaval, and actor Sam Riley plays his human form.

Diablo is a raven and Maleficent's confidant who can under her command take on not just the form of a human, but also a variety of other creatures such as a wolf, a horse, and the dragon that Maleficent turned into in the original film. All his transformations appear very birdlike. In human form, he dresses in black and has a collection of huge visible scars all over his body.

Diaval first meets Maleficent when she saves him from a farmer's net by transforming him into a man. At first, he is upset, protesting, "What have you done to my beautiful self?" Maleficent retorts that he should be thanking her. In gratitude for her kindness, he dedicates his life to serving her. She commands him to be her "wings" and spy on the kingdom. He brings news that King Stefan has had a daughter and a christening will be held the next day. Over time, he helps Maleficent to seek revenge against King Stefan for his treachery and finds where the pixies are hiding the princess. Despite her dislike for the little "beastie," she reluctantly has Diaval care for the princess since the pixies are incapable, as they struggle to adapt in their human forms.

As the years pass, Diaval develops a friendship with Aurora, and when she meets Prince Phillip, who he believes could be the key to saving her. However, all this is in vain when Prince Phillip's kiss fails to awaken her, but Maleficent's motherly kiss is true enough love to do so. When King Stefan and his men capture Maleficent, she turns Diaval into a dragon, and he fights off the guards while she battles King Stefan.

In the last scene, he witnesses Maleficent crowning Aurora the new queen of both the human and fairy kingdoms and flies happily alongside the reformed fairy, Maleficent.

### *Maleficent: Mistress of Evil*

Diaval overhears Prince Phillip proposing to Aurora. When he relays this to Maleficent, she is not pleased. He attends the banquet alongside Maleficent that Queen Ingrith has invited Aurora too. Due to being able to pass off as a human, he is not amongst the Moors Folk who get taken to the church to get killed. He is able to get into the castle, and help rescue some of the ones trapped. Amidst the fighting with Queen Ingrith's Army, Maleficent transforms him into a bear, and he fights off countless soldiers as a result. In the form of a bear, Diaval frees the fairies trapped inside by destroying the door that is too heavy to be pushed while Maleficent prepares to take out Ingrith for her tyranny.

## Trivia

* Diablo is the Spanish word for "devil" or "demon".
* Diablo was not actually named in the original film.
* In Irish folklore, crows are associated with the winged battle goddesses, the Morrigan. In most all other folklore, ravens are associated with death, the dead, and trickery. Thus, they can be "devilish" birds.
* In *Maleficent*, the name Diaval is pronounced similarly to "devil".
* *Maleficent* actor Sam Riley believes that Diaval has romantic feelings for Maleficent.