Dr. Facilier

Dr. Facilier (commonly known as the Shadow Man) is the main antagonist of Disney's 2009 animated feature film The Princess and the Frog. He is an evil, smooth-talking witch doctor who plots to rule New Orleans with help from his "friends on the other side". Having come from a poor background, Facilier grew to resent the rich and prosperous—none so much as the most powerful man in the city, Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff. Facilier sought to supersede his rival using voodoo and pawns while offering the souls of New Orleans' denizens to his "friends" as recompense.

Since his inception, Facilier has garnered critical acclaim and major popularity with fans, making him one of Disney's most popular villains. In response, he quickly became a primary member of the Disney Villains franchise, and he is also the first member who is an African-American.

## Background

Facilier's past is mostly unknown, though he mentions being a descendant of royalty through his mother (whose severed, shrunken head he keeps in his emporium). His motivations toward taking over New Orleans were briefly implied to be a result of a poor upbringing, where the wealthy either treated him with disrespect or ignored him altogether.

At some point in time, through unknown circumstances, Facilier encountered a group of dark loa and formed an alliance with them, granting himself power over black magic, which he would regularly use to swindle the citizens of New Orleans for easy money by "granting" their wishes—posing as an amoral businessman of sorts. Facilier refers to the loa as his "friends on the other side", and they typically act as his lackeys throughout the witch doctor's various schemes. His crooked nature and affiliation with these shadowy figures earned Facilier the nickname "Shadow Man." However, Facilier's power comes at a price; should he fail to remunerate his "friends" for their services, Facilier must recompense with his soul.

As evidenced by Tiana's knowledge and distaste for him, Facilier has an infamous reputation around the city and is a feared figure in the eyes of its inhabitants. Despite having access to the loa's magic, however, Facilier continued to struggle socially and financially—unlike others, like his wealthy rival Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff. This played into Facilier's belief that the true "power" that controls the world is money, not magic, thus setting off his coup to seize the La Bouff fortune.

Facilier is accompanied by his sidekick shadow, which has a will and personality of its own. It is obedient to Facilier's wishes and seems to reflect his inner mood (ex. when Facilier was luring an unsuspecting Naveen and Lawrence to his parlor table, the shadow briefly formed into a snake, hinting treacherous intent). His base of operation was a seedy parlor known as Dr. Facilier's Voodoo Emporium, which is shown to be filled with strange objects and voodoo paraphernalia (some of which he admits that he "ain't even tried") including shrunken heads and voodoo dolls which seem to come alive, chant, and beat drums when Facilier is about to perform his biggest spells. The dolls also serve a practical application - he has a voodoo doll of 'Big Daddy' La Bouff primed and ready for the moment he can get his hands on the rich man's fortune.

### Personality

Facilier is a scheming bokor, driven mostly by greed and the desire to have authority over others; more specifically, the citizens of New Orleans. As Naveen mentions, Facilier is indeed suave, smooth-talking, polite, and often charming, which aids him in luring unsuspecting victims into his lair. When it comes to sorcery, Facilier is not as powerful as he seems, as his magic is primarily derived from his "friends", forcing the witch doctor to mostly rely on his power of persuasion to carry out his bidding. This was a weapon perhaps even more dangerous than black magic during his lifetime, as Facilier was able to maintain control over his "friends" by repeatedly manipulating them with charm and temptation. Despite their nearly unlimited power, this made the voodoo demons just as susceptible to Dr. Facilier as his human victims.

Facilier is an opportunist and can be quick to formulate plots. After overhearing the planned arrival of a foreign prince, and Charlotte La Bouff's lovesick infatuation with the said prince, Facilier was able to quickly concoct an elaborate scheme—one of which that could have very well succeeded, if not for unexpected interference.

While a polite, charismatic showman, Facilier is also cruel, remorseless, and sadistic. He has no qualms with terrorizing innocent civilians as a means to reach his own goals and often relies on manipulation and false promises to achieve said goals. As evidenced by his words to his "friends", while ordering them to capture Naveen: "Bring him to me alive, I need his heart pumpin'... For now.", Facilier is not above killing his victims, once their usefulness has been fulfilled. His murderous state is also shown when Ray the firefly interferes with his plot, as the witch doctor quickly resorted to murder to prevent further interference, and appeared nonchalant about the matter although it's never shown if Facilier is aware the animals are sapient and Ray was attacking the shadow demons. On a larger scale, Facilier would even use New Orleans' denizens as a bargaining chip, offering their lives in exchange for more power from his "friends".

While generally composed, Facilier has instances of lashing out in anger, particularly when he feels disrespected. For example, when Lawrence questioned Facilier's legitimacy by referring to him as a charlatan, Facilier immediately confronted Lawrence in fury and nearly hit Lawrence with his stick, though he managed to pull himself back fairly quickly and refrained from harming him. Likewise, Facilier's equanimity is somewhat of a façade. Though he gives off the impression of being totally in control of every situation, in reality, he lives in constant fear of being unable to repay his debt to his "friends". When the notion of failure comes into play, Facilier becomes vulnerable, desperate, and high-strung.

Despite this complete lack of morals and treacherous nature, Facilier frequently sympathizes with the downtrodden or poor. With Lawrence, he made a genuine effort to retain a calm and patient demeanor when commencing with him; he was adamant about having Lawrence willingly work as his accomplice, rather than forcing him into villainy through torture or intimidation. There is also no evidence that Facilier intended to betraying Lawrence to keep all the money for himself even if he was getting the (slightly as it 60-40) larger amount of money. He also sympathized with Tiana and her late father, he even offered to make her dream a reality in exchange for his talisman and it nearly worked until she regained her senses.

### Physical appearance

Facilier is tall, skinny, mustached; and dressed in very linear black-and-red clothing. He has purple eyes, and a thin mustache, as well as a gap between his front teeth. He has long, bony fingers, and lanky arms and legs.

Dressed as the infamous Loa of the dead Baron Samedi, Doctor Facilier wears a top hat with a purple feather in it and a skull and crossbones on it; the skull can be magically removed and change into a skull make-up as shown in "Friends on the other side". Under his top hat, instead of being bald or having a comb-over, Facilier has a huge hairdo to fit in his hat, also many villains are seen to have hair as he does. Around his neck, he wears a necklace with two crocodile teeth. Facilier wears a dark maroon undertaker tailcoat and black pants, white spats over black shoes, a purple vest under his coat that doesn't entirely cover his midriff, and a red cummerbund. One might say he somewhat looks and performs like a showman. Like most Disney Villains, Facilier's clothing consists mainly of red, black, and purple.

He wields a cane with a purple globe on top, possibly a crystal ball, though it is never revealed. Facilier seems to use his cane for show performances, a tool, or a weapon. He carries a voodoo talisman, which is the fragile source of his powers. As shown, only a person besides Facilier, who wears the talisman, becomes whoever they want, provided it has a particular person's blood.

### Powers and abilities

* Voodoo: Facilier is a bokor that performs left-handed or Petro Voodoo (the dark and stereotypical voodoo magic). He is a conjurer and sorcerer of sorts, possessing powerful dark voodoo magic capable of accomplishing nearly anything. He can see into the past of a person and see what people desire the most. He is proficient in sleight of hand, effortlessly shuffling, twisting, and manipulating his deck of tarot cards. He is a skilled conjurer as well, being able to pull his staff and tarot deck out of thin air (although this may also be attributed to sleight of hand.) Curiously, despite having great power, the nature of his voodoo leaves Dr. Facilier unable to conjure a thing for himself. Instead, he must rely on trickery and guile to manipulate other people into doing what he wants. The nature of his power seems to stem around making deals; he only gains full access to his voodoo when fulfilling someone else's wishes (although he can usually twist them to suit his ends) or tempting them.
* Fortune-Telling: Facilier's tarot cards possess unique properties: the images on them seem to change, reflecting the history and/or desires of Facilier's victims (such as when one of his cards elongated to show Naveen is descended from two long lines of royalty and when Tiana's restaurant picture appeared on a card in the deck.) The cards usually show his victims their future in a positive light; however, they are unable to corrupt the truth entirely and usually include a clue as to the victim's real fate (for example, when Naveen sees his future filled with "green," he fails to see the lily pad made of money in the background).
* Spell-Casting: Facilier is shown casting spells through the use of a strange pink powder. The effects of this powder include the reversal of the frog spell on Tiana, a man spontaneously growing hair (then having it sprouts all over him), producing puffs of smoke that display memories, and the creation of a full-scale rendition of Tiana's dream restaurant (although it is possible, and implied, that what he works with the powder are only illusions).
* "Friends on the Other Side": Facilier's evil abilities are primarily derived from his "friends" on the other side: these "friends" of his are a multitude of dark spirits (known as Loa) which appear in the forms of voodoo masks in his Voodoo Emporium. While he does call upon them for help, he is in actuality deeply indebted to them already (the nature of which is never explained but, it is implied the only way to pay them back is by giving them souls), and secretly fears them.
* Deception: Facilier has proven to be cunning, conniving, and persuasive. Facilier can charm and persuade anyone to strike a deal with by using their desires and tempt them, and his voodoo to make their dreams come true. However, he can twist his promises to fulfill his own desires by lying to them or misleading them. Facilier had tricked Prince Naveen into promising him money and Lawrence for a chance to be a prince, for the former he turned into a frog for the latter's dream to be genuine, but used both of them to give himself what he wants. Facilier almost convinced Tiana to hand him the talisman by offering her the restaurant her and her father's been working so hard to achieve.

## Role in the series

Facilier will reprise his role in the movie, and will be one of the first subjects in the Three Lords Alliance's new resurrection policy.

After his first defeat, Lord Rottenday had to seek out Soleil, Facilier's "apprentice", the latter having given the former a Lovers card that turned into a message that read "If something should happen to me, seek out my apprentice. She will help you in anyway she can."