disneygirl7 Great article! I agree with very much, I think Maleficent is a very bad villain too. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't the worst villain or anything, but she was certainly not the best.

shanyuisboss Thanks!

CRaZy_rawR Perfect. I love you so much for making this! She isn't the worst, but not better than Shan Yu or Ratcliffe, imo. c:

shanyuisboss ^Well, I don't agree with the Ratcliffe thing but she definitely isn't better then Shan Yu. Thanks for reading!

prussiaducky Nice! I don't agree entirely, but I completely understand and great points!

KataraLover Maleficent actually isn't the devil, she's just an evil fairy. I think the not being invited was more of the principal of the thing or something. Although in the upcoming movie Maleficent they're going to give more of a reason for it. I love her action during putting the curse because she could have just been mad and killed Aurora at that moment but she did something even more evil and clever. She would allow this child to grow and have everyone to love her for her charm, grace, beauty, and kind heart so that when she died it would be even more cruel and heart breaking. Plus the fact that they would be over-protective of Aurora so she would be suffering and grow up unhappy was even more cruel to Aurora, a fate worse than death. Aurora did suffer being over-protected, didn't have her parents, never had a real friend (non-animal), and never allowed to be free. She didn't intend for her to grow up without her parents but I bet she planned on making her resent her parents for protecting her, that's the way the princess did in the original Sleeping Beauty. Indeed people did suffer a great heartbreak when she died, the fairies had raised her as their own daughter and grew to love her, it was as if their own child had died and it was their fault for failing to protect her. She laughed so much because the joy of knowing how much suffering she would bring just over came her with such delight. She doesn't just get angry very easily and when she realize the mistake her stupid minions made she didn't just yell at them. She decided instead to make them feel safe, that she was alright with it, even laughing at the mistake like it was nothing, but in the end she revealed her true feelings and blasted them. Her only real flaw as a villain was trusting those morons to be able to find her. Instead of trying to fool Aurora into touching the spindle like the Queen from Snow White did or the original witch from Sleeping Beauty did she did something even more clever, she hypnotized her.When she finally puts Aurora to sleep she just has so much joy and laughs because she just loves the look of pain and suffering on the three good fairies faces. She makes up for her mistake of trusting her minions and decide to take matters into her own hands by capturing the only one who can break the curse. She even says she's eventually going to let him go but in a hundred years, should he even live that long, when he'd be an old man. He would be took old for his true love, he'd be a stranger in the world because since the kingdom was put to sleep until Aurora awoke no one would believe him and might even be thrown into prison or killed for impersonating the prince. Aurora would be awoken but would have to live without her one true love and would likely either kill herself or refused to marry by letting herself die and old maid. The two kingdoms would be without heirs and would fall into ruin and an ending line. Even when there were little bumps in the road changing her plans she took advantage of them by just changing her plans slightly while still causing enough suffering. Shan-Yu actually, in my opinion, is one of the most forgettable villains Disney has ever created. His design is cliche by making the white part of his eyes black and what's supposed to be black yellow. Plus the gray skin and the stereotypical mustache that's on pretty much EVERY cliche villain isn't helping. His motivation isn't very strong either, it was just because the Emperor created the Great Wall to protect his people so he thought of it as a challenge. Why is he even wanting to concur anything anyway? Disney isn't known for making complex villains. Maleficent without magic would be Lady Tremaine; a classy, manipulative, smart, and cruel person that enjoys causing suffering. Shan-Yu would just be like every other villain that's on the opposite side of the good guys in a war movie. I'm not crazy about Sleeping Beauty. The animation is dull and messed up, the characters are boring (except Maleficent and the Three Good Fairies), it has a lot of plot holes, the songs aren't anything special, the story is all over the place, it likes it side characters more than it's main characters, the protagonist and the hero are two completely undeveloped snorfest characters, and the couple is just terrible. However one of the few things they did right was Maleficent as the villain. However I respect you for having the guts to speak out against popular opinion, keep on speaking your mind.

shanyuisboss ^First of all, where in the movie did it say she was a fairy? I just want to know. Anyway, even if she was, she was a representation of the devil with her colors and horns and everything. It seems pretty obvious. I think that the way they portrayed this whole idea of "I am maleficent, I feel nothing and I am just completely evil" is really stupid. She is just a redone idea of the devil. That's really all she is. They could have given her unique attributes of something because it was not unique at all. People only really like her because she is evil and all but she is not a well thought out villain at all. And about the whole sidekick thing, Maleficent should have been smart enough to be aware from years before how she shouldn't have trusted her sidekicks. They acted like complete idiots and she shouldn't have been stupid enough to not see that from their clowny personalities. Okay, she "realized" but should have realized so much longer before. And when I said the whole thing about the powers, what I meant was without her powers she would have gotten knowhere in the movie. The things you pointed out were things anyone really would do. It's nothing remarkably smart or anything. She did the obvious. But thanks for being nice about it.

Jayden-G Brilliant shanyuisboss. I says thought Maleficent was very bland and very overrated, but I could never put it into a that words. You said it so beautifully. Her personality traits and character all revolves around her powers, which is not the case for Grimhilde, Gaston, Jafar, etc. She has no ultimate goal. I am sure Swanpride will make a comment in the morning. Right to the favourites.

shanyuisboss ^Thanks so much! We have so much in common it is unbelievable! I am sure Swanpride will make her comment though. But thanks!

fiina I don't really have anything to add, great article. I think I change my favorite villain as you brought really good points about Maleficent, I still like her as a villain but I think I used to like more her powers. Will you write "why Shan Yu is best villain" or something along same lines because I sure would love to read it. You analyze and write so well.

Swanpride I guess, now I do have to make a comment. For me, there are three different approaches for a villain. You can either create a human gone wrong - Disney has done this a couple of times. For example Edgar might have been the dutiful butler for the rest of his life if not for the will Amos Slade is a better done example of this. The best is currently Gaston - how he develops from a harmless bully to a full fledged beast is very well done. Then you can create someone truly evil who has a strong motivation for his actions - one of Disney's favourite is greed (I actually once wrote an article about Villain motivations: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/disney/articles/189297/title/ten-best-disney-villain-motivations ) - and in the best cases, they are layered character. Jean Claude Frollo is the best example of a villain who has a very layered and complex personality And the third group, those are the villains who were created from the get go to be more symbols than full-fledged characters. Shan Yu (who I btw like very much, just not as much as Maleficent) and Maleficent belongs to the category, as do Chernabog and "Man". In Shan Yu's case, he is a symbol for war. When it comes down to it, his motivation (how dare you to built a wall!) sounds trivial (and I just realized that he fits better in the "just evil" category than "Wrath"), we don't even know what he plans to do if he wins the war. Personally I enjoy the hell out of this kind of characters if they are done well. And Maleficent is done exceptionally well. From character design to voice acting, everything is spot on. She truly is the Mistress of all Evil. Shan Yu's design is nearly as good, but I like the voice acting of Maleficent better. Plus, he can't turn into a giant dragon. Sorry, but that part is just badass.

shanyuisboss ^I agree. The mistress of Evil idea was good, but in my opinion the character wasn't really and they didn't do it right. But I do see your point. I guess that's your opinion but thanks! fiina- Thanks! I love writing this type of stuff so I think I actually will make the why Shan Yu is a great villain article, but that would take me WAY longer then this. I think I will start in a few days and finish in around two weeks.

uploaded900 Great job! I always thought she was overrated and I never saw the big deal about her! She has an interesting design, I'll give her that, but yeah, extremely overrated and kind of boring. Are you saying a villian with no goals is bad?

shanyuisboss ^Thanks! Wow, I never thought this many people actually thought that Maleficent is overrated. I guess their are some but they just never want to speak. I'm glad I did. Anyway, not exactly about the goals thing. It kind of depends. But the way they did Maleficent was an artificial way of showing that.

pretty_angel92 finally <3 i totally agree

shanyuisboss ^i'm glad other people feel the same way :)

SilentForce I agree.Maleficent is pretty much overrated.The only reason why people like her is because of her cool magic powers.