King Stefan (Maleficent)

## Stefan

### Inspiration

King Stefan from the Sleeping Beauty film but much crueller than the original Disney version

## Character information

### Other names

Stefan
Father
Jerk
Your Highness
Majesty

### Occupation

King of the Human Realm (formerly)
Servant (formerly)
Thief (formerly)
Farmboy (formerly)

### Home

A Barn
King Stefan's Castle
Scotland

### Likes

Power, being king, King Henry, Maleficent (formerly), his daughter's safety, revenge, killing Maleficent, iron

### Dislikes

Maleficent (currently), being overthrown, the three fairies bringing Aurora back early, the curse, the Moors, magic, true love|powers=Strength

## Family information

### Other relatives

King Henry (father-in-law)
Phillip (son-in-law)
King John and Queen Ingrith (in-laws)

### Partner(s)

Maleficent (former love interest)
Queen Leila (wife)

### Children

Aurora (daughter)

 ―King Stefan, enraged

**King Stefan**, simply known as **Stefan**, is the overall main antagonist of the *Maleficent* franchise. He is the main antagonist of the 2014 live action Disney film *Maleficent,* and also a posthumous antagonist in the 2019 sequel *Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.*

He was an ambitious man who was Maleficent's best friend and love interest when they were children. Unlike his animated version of the minor character (who is portrayed as a kind and debonair ruler of his kingdom), this version of Stefan is an evil and cruel tyrannical ruler. His cruelty is heavily implied to be what caused Maleficent to become evil in the first place. After getting King Henry's confidence by cutting Maleficent's wings, he later became king, but he became paranoid with taking over the Moors with his hunt and vengeance for Maleficent after she cursed his newborn daughter.

He was portrayed by Sharlto Copley.

## Physical Appearance

**King Stefan** has scruffy chin-length hair, a beard that covers half his face, small eyes, bushy eyebrows and a skinny posture. As the king, he wears a crown, and a set of floor-length robes. When in battle, we wore a full set of iron-clad armor, with the helmet, made to look similar to the face of a dragon.

## Personality

This version of **Stefan** is paranoid, evil, treacherous, manipulative, and obsessed with hunting and killing Maleficent, to the point where he did not care of seeing his dying wife Queen Leila.

At a young age, Stefan had always been honest, ambitious, and enthusiastic. He formed a close friendship with Maleficent, falling in love with her, but his ambitions eventually led him to stop seeing her and start working for the king that was her enemy. When the king announced that whoever killed Maleficent would be his successor, Stefan finally had a chance to fulfill his ambition. He hesitated at killing Maleficent at first because of their past friendship, but his desire for the throne led him to betray her anyway. The ultimate consequence of this betrayal was severe; he painfully cut off and stole Maleficent's wings, which ultimately turned her to evil, as she vengefully retaliates by cursing Aurora as the baby out of rage once she learned this.

His hatred was spawned from his guilt for stealing her wings, in fear that she would take her revenge upon him. As seen when Maleficent curses Aurora while he helplessly watches this, Stefan indeed shows his remorse over his past betrayal and begs Maleficent not to kill Aurora, in which Maleficent responded by cursing Aurora to death-like sleep instead of actual death.

Unfortunately, due to his paranoia and guilt for his crime against his old friend, combined with Maleficent's act of revenge by cursing Aurora, Stefan's sheer hatred towards Maleficent proved too great, even greater than Maleficent's own hatred against him. He becomes intensely violent and extremely cruel, shown at the climax, where he sadistically taunts and tortures Maleficent as soon as she enters his castle and undoes Aurora's curse (though he may never learn this). Therefore, whatever friendship and love that he had with Maleficent ultimately dies as he tries to stab her from behind, leading to his own death. In fact, his obsessive hatred for Maleficent overruled his love for anyone else, even his dying wife and his own daughter, whom he neglects after meeting her for the first time.

## History

**King Stefan** was initially an orphaned peasant boy who lived in a barn but dreamed of one day living in the castle. As a child, he proved to be innocent, thoughtlessly kind, accepting in nature, more open-minded, and braver (or more desperate) than other humans as he was willing to venture into Moors to steal a crystal. However, he was caught and cornered by the Tree Warriors. Arriving at the scene, the Moor's fairy guardian named Maleficent convinces the boy to come out of hiding (curious to see what he looked like as she had never seen a human before) despite his fears that the Tree Warriors would kill him for stealing.

Upon seeing her, a young Stefan responds to Maleficent's observation that he's just a boy with how she's just a girl. After some prodding, Stefan hands a shining crystal her and she drops it into the water after some examination before guiding him back to the borders. He comments how he would have kept it if he'd known she was going to throw it away. Maleficent corrects him, telling him that she was simply returning it home. As they talked, they bond over their lack of parents and mutual loneliness.

Despite the fairy telling him he shouldn't return as it isn't safe, he is determined to come back in order to meet her. Shaking on it, the boy is instantly contrite when she accidentally burns herself on his iron ring and immediately takes it off and flings it into the distance. Touched that he, a poor peasant boy with so little, would throw away one of his few possessions without hesitation just to avoid hurting her, they quickly formed a friendship and he tells her how he likes her wings.

They became companions and went on adventures in the Moors, with a young Maleficent even taking him flying. And over time, they grew to love each other to the point that he gifted her with the only thing he could afford to give her on her sixteenth birthday: a true love's kiss.

Soon after though, Stefan left to seek his fortune and consequently chose to live among the humans over being with Maleficent in the Moors. Years later, it is seen that he winded up working as a servant for King Henry.

After King Henry's defeat by Maleficent and the Forest Army, he contracted an infection and he laid on his deathbed when he gathered his lords and generals where he proclaimed that his kingdom and care of his daughter (marriage) would go to whoever killed the fairy and avenged him. Stefan overheard and left for the Moors, reuniting with his childhood friend and former lover after years of separation. He warns her about how the king is now targeting her specifically, begging her to trust him. They talked, catching up on each other's lives and "the years faded away...and all was as it had been long ago." Maleficent forgave him for "his folly and his ambition," accepting a drink from him as they cuddled.

Stefan had doctored this drink with a potion that immediately put her into a deep, death-like sleep. However, he was unable to bring himself to kill her, hinting that at the time he was unable to sacrifice her life for his ambition. Improvising, he instead uses iron chains to burn and cut off his childhood friend's wings before leaving her and fleeing back to the castle to present the amputated limbs as proof that he'd killed the "winged creature." Thereafter, he becomes the new king alongside with his wife, Queen Leila, and they have a daughter named Aurora.

On the day Aurora is to be christened, Maleficent interrupts the ceremony. Initially, King Stefan tells her that she isn't welcome there and wasn't invited, but can only stand as she walks over to give baby Aurora a "gift" as well. His nervous agitation further confuses Queen Leila, who is ignorant of their history and bewildered by the undertones in Stefan and Maleficent's back and forth. He watches as Maleficent then curses Aurora to fall into "a sleep like death, a sleep from which she will never awaken " on her sixteenth birthday by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, inspired by one that was among the gifts for the princess.

Recognizing the circumstances she set for the curse and that this was meant to be her revenge against him, he begs her not to do this. After hearing her comment about how she liked him begging, Stefan heeds the unspoken demand and slowly kneels in front of Maleficent and begs again. As a final jab at Stefan, she agreeably adds a clause where Aurora could be awoken. By "true love's kiss." Stefan despairs as, at this point, neither Stefan nor Maleficent truly believed such a thing actually exists, therefore raising Stefan's hopes only to bring them crashing down while publicly humiliating him in the process.

To protect Aurora from any further harm, King Stefan sends baby Aurora away to be raised by the three pixies in a hidden cottage. Meanwhile, he has all the spinning wheels in the kingdom destroyed (with the remains thrown into the dungeons) and proceeds to spend the next 16 years on a campaign to pass through the wall of thorns Maleficent raised around the Moors and kill her. The boy who once thoughtlessly threw away his iron ring to prevent Maleficent from getting hurt grew into a man who outfitted his castle into a fortress with iron weapons and defenses and made extensive strategies to hunt her down and kill her. This included training his soldiers in tactics and iron weapons (shields, nets, chains, spears, etc.) specifically to trap and kill a fairy.

Over time, he is "consumed by paranoia and vengeance," devoting all his focus, all his resources, and all his people towards the goal of destroying Maleficent and preventing the curse. It becomes an obsession for him, and he would spend time gazing at the wings he'd amputated and stolen, now kept on display in a locked glass box. Sometime during those years, Queen Leila contracts an illness and dies, though King Stefan shows little reaction or grief. Even when his daughter returns, their reunion is abruptly short and King Stefan quickly dismisses her in order to refocus on his battle plans, having her locked up in her room for protection.

After Maleficent wakes Aurora with true love's kiss, the fairy is ambushed by Stefan and his soldiers. Once the soldiers encircled a disoriented, weakened Maleficent with iron shield, Stefan in his iron armor and outfitted with iron weapons walks through the fire and into the ring. After posturing, he beats, tortures, and taunts her, asking her how it is to be "a fairy creature without wings in a world where [she] doesn't belong." However, the tide is turned when Aurora finds Maleficent's wings, pushing over the cage and freeing the struggling limbs that fly themselves back and reattach themselves to Maleficent's body right as Stefan was delivering the final blow. Wide-eyed in stunned horror, he looks back and forth in disbelief between a now winged Maleficent and his smiling daughter. Gathering his wits, he orders his soldiers to continue the attack, managing at one point to grab onto a long chain wrapped around the flying fairy's ankle.

Pulling him off his feet and out the stained glass windows, she flies them around the castle and throws him onto the top of a tower. They struggle and Maleficent gains the upper hand, but lets him go and tells him that's over before turning away to leave. Unwilling to stop, he attacks her from behind and attempts to strangle her, their struggles resulting in both of them being thrown off the turret. While Maleficent is able to untangle herself from Stefan and stop her fall, the king falls to his death.

In a deleted scene, Stefan's ambitiousness is emphasized when he delivers a meal to the King's bedchambers. Seeing the King's crown, Stefan tries it on and admires himself in the mirror. He's caught by Henry who remarks that it is one thing to wear a crown and another to own it before asking him how dark his heart is. That the question to ask oneself is what and who you're willing to sacrifice to get what you want, to discover what you're capable of and if those things are the worst imaginable and if his heart is black, then he too could have a crown one day.

The King then dismisses Stefan with a warning never to touch the crown again. Stefan discovered just how black his heart is and just how much and how many he's willing to sacrifice. Ironically, not in pursuit of his childhood dream to become king, but in his all-consuming obsession to destroy his enemy. In the film, this darkness in Stefan's heart is reflected by the darkness of the human kingdom and the castle after the christening, as well as the almost ritual savageness in the final battle.

Another thing to note is that in the final battle, Aurora is roughly pulled away by the soldiers and shoved aside/out of the way when trying to pull the iron net off her godmother. Their collective focus is to destroy Maleficent and no attention is paid to their princess's safety. Ironically, after overcoming the curse and this initially being about her protection, this inattention leads to Aurora almost being crushed by falling debris a few times in the ensuing battle. Only Maleficent notices the danger and calls for her to run. Whether or not Stefan (who was likely overseeing the battle before he stepped into the ring) saw Aurora in danger or not, his attitude and priorities reflect in his soldiers and their training.

While this may have started out as a campaign to protect his daughter, Stefan's obsession and steady decline make it so that neither Aurora, her mother, nor the kingdom is of priority to Stefan anymore by the time Aurora returns. He and Maleficent are reflections of each other in that they both allowed vengeance to consume them, hurting others as collateral damage and (literal) darkening both of their kingdoms as a result. However, while Maleficent was able to let go of her grudge and walk away at the end when she literally had him by the throat, his inability to let go of his own grudge and obsession led to the final fall and his death. This was a cycle that was fueled by King Henry's greed but started by the folly of Stefan's ambition and betrayal.

## Origin

Almost nothing is known about King Stefan's origin. As a child, Stefan was a peasant. His parents died sometime during his childhood prior to the events of the movie. When he first met Maleficent, the orphaned peasant boy Stefan told her that he lived in a barn. He also said that one day he would live in King Henry's Castle.

## *Maleficent*

One day, the Moors was disturbed by the presence of a young peasant boy named Stefan, who had escaped there after stealing a precious gem from the human kingdom. As the Tree Warriors cornered him, Maleficent showed up and told him to hand over the stolen gem, which he reluctantly does after realizing it was from a pool filled with jewels within the Moors. After tossing it into the water, she escorted Stefan to the borders of the Moors. They admit to each other that they are both orphans whose parents are dead, and meeting each other is forbidden to both their worlds.

However, the two of them eventually become the best of friends and lovers. On Maleficent's sixteenth birthday, as a gift, Stefan showed her true love's kiss. But it was never meant to be.

Over the next couple of years, Stefan stopped visiting the Moors for some reason, and due to the threatening attacks on the Moors by the ruthless King Henry, Maleficent becomes her homeland's sworn protector. With the forest army by her side, she engaged the King's army in battle, defeating them and wounding the King. On his deathbed, the King demanded to be avenged and promises whoever kills Maleficent shall become the new king and marry his daughter Lelia. It is revealed that Stefan has become one of the king’s servants and wanting to claim the throne, he journeys to the Moors to find Maleficent.

The two are reunited and spend the night together like they used to. Stefan tricks her into taking a drink that puts her to sleep and after she falls into her slumber, Stefan makes the attempt to kill her. However, he hesitates and just cannot bring himself to do it. So instead, he cuts off her wings using iron and presents them to the dying king, leaving Maleficent in agony over what has happened to her wings.

One day she comes across a farmer who has captured a raven she met earlier at the abandoned castle. Taking pity over the small bird, she turns the raven into a man to help him rise and come free from the net on him. After the farmer runs away in fear, Maleficent approaches the human bird who introduces himself as Diaval. Since she saved him he offers to be her humble servant and Maleficent gives him his first task to find Stefan.

Diaval flies to the castle and witnesses Stefan being crowned king, with Princess Leila, the daughter of King Henry, becoming his wife and queen. When he informs Maleficent of what he has learned, she becomes enraged. She returns to the Moors as dark clouds loom across the forest, then after roots form a throne, Maleficent sits there claiming herself as the Evil Queen of the Moors.

One day Queen Leila gives birth to a daughter and she is named Aurora. A royal christening is taken place at the castle and the three pixies Knotgrass, Thistlewit and Flittle gift the infant princess with three magical gifts.

Then just before Flittle could present her gift, Maleficent shows up. Still disgusted by what Stefan did to her and a little distressed of not receiving an invitation, she curses the princess to fall into a "sleep like death" by the prick of a finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday. However, when Stefan begs her to spare his daughter, Maleficent also includes that the curse can be lifted by true love’s kiss and no power on earth can change it.

Stefan had every spinning wheel in the kingdom burned and locked away in the deepest dungeon in the castle. He also had the three pixies take Aurora into hiding where they take her to an old cottage and pose as her three aunts. His paranoia and obsession with Maleficent are so strong, that he doesn't care that his queen dies in the night from a sickness.

Over the next sixteen years, he became extremely paranoid and he was obsessed with hunting Maleficent down, so obsessed that he didn't care that his queen was gravely ill and on the verge of death.

On the day before Aurora’s sixteenth birthday, Aurora has decided to stay in the Moors with Maleficent (whom she thinks is her fairy godmother). As Aurora returns home she meets Prince Phillip, and it instantly becomes love at first site. Diaval sees him as the key to lift the curse but Maleficent disagrees as there is no such thing as true love (the latter describing her first love turned hatred by Stefan when he cut off her wings). However, after the pixies reveal the truth to Aurora, she sadly returns to her father after Maleficent admits the truth of her identity. Feeling ashamed, she decides to take the chance that true love will be her only chance to live and goes looking for Phillip.

After sixteen years, Stefan meets his daughter. He coldly looks at her and is furious by the pixies' failure as they were supposed to bring her back the day after her sixteenth birthday. He has her locked up in her room and prepares for Maleficent to arrive.

As night draws, Maleficent and Diaval sneak inside the castle with Phillip and bring him to the sleeping Aurora. Hiding in the shadows, she watches as Phillip approaches her and leans over to kiss her. Unfortunately, nothing happens, Aurora remains asleep. After the Pixies drag Phillip out to find someone else to kiss her, Maleficent comes out of hiding and looks sadly upon what she has done. She was so blinded by hatred and revenge she forgot to love and happiness until she met Aurora who helped her find her happiness again. Then in tears, she kisses Aurora on the forehead and bids her goodbye but before she can even leave, a miracle happens, Aurora wakes up and is delighted to see her Fairy Godmother. Maleficent and Aurora’s strong friendship was the truest love that can ever be.

As the three of them attempt to sneak out of the castle and back to the Moors, Maleficent is captured by Stefan’s men, Aurora tries to save her but the castle guards overpower her and Diaval. Maleficent turns him into a dragon and he manages to fight off the guards and free Maleficent. Aurora flees as Maleficent and Diaval fight the guards, but they quickly become pinned down as Stefan enters the scene. Stefan takes his time killing Maleficent by brutally torturing her. Then, after pulling out his sword, he prepares to finish her off but just before he can impale her, Maleficent’s wings return to her after Aurora frees them.

With her wings back, she is able to fly and free Diaval. Maleficent and Diaval easily take down Stefan’s guards, leaving only the treacherous king standing. She easily overpowers Stefan and carries him onto a tower. Maleficent beats him up and is on the verge of killing him, but she spares him claiming, “It’s over.” Blinded by his overwhelming pride and seething rage, Stefan refuses to accept his defeat and attacks Maleficent again once her back is turned. The two fall from the tower, but Maleficent manages to become airborne while Stefan falls to his death, ending his tyranny forever.

## *Maleficent: Mistress of Evil*

Because of his death in the first film, King Stefan does not return in *Maleficent: Mistress of Evil*, but is briefly mentioned by Queen Ingrith, when she tells how Aurora became the current Queen. It's revealed that in the five years following his death, Stefan's castle has been inhabitated by the town, whom Aurora allowed to reside there as it was never her home and that she is the Queen of the Moors.

Despite the fact it was Stefan who turned Maleficent evil through his betrayal, the fallen king was perceived as martyr and victim as much as Ingrith's late brother whom killed during an expedition at Moors long ago, possibly by powerful defenses placed by Maleficent herself. Maleficent was initially reluctant to bless Aurora and Prince Phillip's marriage out of fear that tragedy between her and Stefan in the past repeated in both of them. When the war between Dark Fey, faeries of Moors, and human kingdoms ensued, the love and compassion between Maleficent and Aurora managed to stop the conflict altogether, with Ingrith is spared from the same fate of Stefan by being cursed into a goat where it can only broken once she learns from her errors.

At the end of the film, Stefan posthumously gains a grandson-in-law with Phillip, who marries Aurora.

## Trivia

* King Stefan is different from the minor character of the same name from *Sleeping Beauty*.
	+ The *Sleeping Beauty* version of King Stefan was a just a good king and a minor character.
	+ He and Maleficent only met when Maleficent curses his infant daughter Aurora.
	+ Maleficent has been killed at the hands of Prince Phillip.
	+ Stefan still lives.

* The *Maleficent* version of King Stefan was initially good, but he became an evil villain.
	+ When Stefan was first crowned king after cutting off Maleficent’s wings, until Aurora's christening, he appeared to be just a wise king, but that all changed quickly when Maleficent cursed his infant daughter Aurora.
	+ He and Maleficent met during their childhood.
	+ King Stefan dies from falling at such a high height during his battle with Maleficent.
	+ King Stefan betrayed Maleficent

* He is the first iconic Disney side character to be depicted as a villain, followed by the Grand Duke and King Louie.
* King Stefan was not happy to see Aurora when she returned on her sixteenth birthday. He only said that she looks like her mother Queen Leila, before ordering his guards to lock her in her room.
* In the novelization of the film, it was told that when Stefan brought Maleficent's wing to King Henry in person, rather than accepting Stefan as his successor, Henry instead mocks Stefan as he still thinks that he's unfit to rule. This is what provoked an angry Stefan to smother King Henry on his deathbed before forging a royal proclamation declaring himself as the new king.
* This was possibly based on an early version of the film's script, however, as King Henry was clearly depicted on the film fulfilling his word and naming Stefan his successor.

* Stefan might have redeemed himself if only he had known that Maleficent was the one who resurrected Aurora from her curse and that he would have met King John for the first time to plan the future wedding of their children and their kingdoms, like the original *Sleeping Beauty*. But due to his desperation and unmerciful obsession to destroy Maleficent, he wasn't able to be informed about this and never had the chance to redeem himself or become best friends with John.
* Stefan is the second villain in the *Maleficent* franchise to die in their first appearance, followed by Gerda and preceded by King Henry. Additionally, he is the first (and so far only) main villain to die in their first appearance.
* Stefan is also the first main villain to be a monarch, followed by Queen Ingrith.