Maleficent

**Maleficent** is the main antagonist of Disney's 1959 animated feature film *Sleeping Beauty*. A malevolent fairy, she is an incarnation of pure evil and is responsible for all the misfortune in King Stefan's kingdom. Taking offense at not being invited to the christening of Princess Aurora by Stefan and his wife, Queen Leah, Maleficent curses the princess to die by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun sets on her 16th birthday. She also appears to be particularly disdainful of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, her benevolent rivals. She is frequently accompanied by her pet raven, Diablo.

Role in the series

## Personality

Maleficent represents pure evil. She is ruthless, dark, devious, and will do whatever it takes to achieve her evil goals. Additionally, she is very sinister, which is shown when she taunts Prince Phillip after she captures him. Her most famous quote ("*You poor simple fools, thinking you could defeat me. ME!? The mistress of all evil?*") indicates that she thinks herself above everyone, even calling her closest allies "her pets" in a pseudo-affectionate manner. Other than herself, the only entity for which that she seems to have a genuine care is her pet raven, Diablo. This is especially evident in her horror at seeing the aftermath of Diablo getting turned to stone. Maleficent also seems to have some emotional instability. This is especially evident in her reaction to the discovery that her goons spent the previous 16 years looking for a baby, where she pitched a nearly truly evil laughing fit before reacting violently towards her goons. She is also shown to be very sadistic, which is especially evident when she proceeded to psychologically torture Prince Phillip simply for her own amusement late in the film.

On top of her deviousness, Maleficent is very misleading in her personality. But underneath the mask of stoicism, she unleashes the full brunt of her wrath with a smile, which shows how she relishes in the pain of others. This is displayed during her first appearance during Aurora's birthday ceremony. When Merryweather states bluntly, "*You weren't wanted*," Maleficent pretends to be shocked and hurt, remarking, "*In that event, I'd best be on my way*." But then she turned around and cast a curse upon Aurora, cackling while taking in the sweet revenge she had attained. Owing to her misleading personality, she also expresses sarcasm, which is especially evident during her psychological torture of Prince Phillip, where Maleficent states that when he leaves, he will be "up on his noble steed, straight and tall" despite the vision making very obvious that he and his steed were barely even able to leave due to being near-death.

Maleficent is soft-spoken, proper, and elegant and has two possible motivations for her crimes, either out of pride, considering she curses Aurora because Stefan didn't invite her to the christening, or she is simply a monster who enjoys being evil. The latter is further suggested by her admitting that she's not offended by them not inviting her before cursing Aurora.

Fauna indicated that Maleficent has no knowledge of love, or kindness, or joy that comes from helping others. However, her later capture of Prince Phillip, taunts toward Phillip regarding his role in undoing the curse, and later her attempts at preventing Phillip from reaching the castle implied that she knew enough about love to realize it was a massive threat to her curse on Aurora.