Again, with the Villains

Whether you love them or hate them, Disney villains take up a special place in the hearts and minds of people everywhere.

Not all of them are the same as most villains. Some are short-sighted (see my other post about that) whereas many have the same old goal of domination and wanting more power.

Here's a list of several villains that have certain motives that are different than most.

Cruel but stupid villain: Lady Tremaine

You all know of the Cinderella's wicked stepmother and who is suspected by many who are familiar with the story to be a black widow, marrying Cinderella's father only so she could achieve wealth and status.

What makes Lady Tremaine stupid, is that when it came to the ball where she was able to introduce her daughters to prince charming, is that she could have also passed off Cinderella as her daughter.

She was already aware that her daughters weren't exactly the ideal spouses for the prince despite her efforts and if she had passed off Cinderella as her daughter, Tremaine would have gotten married into the royalty and then would be able to have her daughters get married into the nobility.

But for those of you who have watched or read about the Cinderella sequels, that never happened because Lady Tremaine preferred being a cruel, cold-blooded bitch of a women who never really cared for anyone other than herself.

An obvious villain that wants what any villain wants: Jafar

How can one not see what his main goal is? It's plainly obvious from the beginning when he wants the lamp.

He wants absolute power, control, world domination and whatever the hell else he sets his sights on, which of course leads to his downfall for those of you have seen the first film and the sequel Return of Jafar.

Not surprising of course, but also eviler than the list of Disney villains I had in my previous post about how some of them were more short-sighted in their goals

Not much of a villain, but still bad: Madame Mim

Rival to Merlin in terms of magic and life, Madame Mim seems to delight in misery, suffering and anything else that is ugly and gruesome. Just look at how she hates sunlight after being defeated by Merlin.

But what is her real goal besides being able to beat Merlin in a battle of wizards, where she will no doubt cheat in order to win.

But say she was to win against Merlin even if she played fair. What next?

Would she go on to best other magic users? Would she try to take over the world?

Her true motives as a villain aren't revealed in Sword in Stone, but she's good enough to be considered bad.

A villain with an actual reason? Shere Khan

Making his first appearance in the 1967 Disney adaptation of the Jungle Book voiced by George Sanders, the real king of the jungle hates humans and would go as far to kill them when they are as young as Mowgli.

But isn't it obvious that creature like him would hate humans enough to want to kill them? Even if they were boys and girls? We humans are far more destructive to the wildlife and the environment than wildlife itself. Not to mention that wildlife has more of reason for doing things than we humans

I am not saying it would have been right for Shere Khan to kill Mowgli and later Chanti in the sequel, I am just saying it kind of makes sense why Shere Khan is the bad guy.

I wonder why Disney hasn't done a prequel about him like they did with Maleficent or Cruella DeVille.

A scary villain that would be a scary villain in real life: Claude Frollo

I say scary in real life because people like Claude Frollo were not exactly uncommon in 15th Century Europe.

While the events of Hunchback of Notre Dame are clearly fictional, such evil done by someone like Claude Frollo was not uncommon in France before Hunchback of Notre Dame. It wasn't gypsies that were targeted, it was a group known as the Cathars that were targeted.

Even still, Disney captured just how much evil people can do and still believe it is God's will.

Another historically accurate villain that is so wicked, he doesn't need a theme song: Shan Yu

In the 5th Century Common Era, it was accurate that China was invaded by the fierce raiders of the north. But it was the Rouran (also known as the Xiongnu) not the Huns that invaded China during the Northern Wei period of China as said in the Ballad of Hua Mulan

That being said, a villain like Shan Yu existing during any time period in Chinese history would not be uncommon, but the Rouran never made it anywhere near the capital as seen in both the live action and animated films.

The fact that he has no theme song that he himself sings (which is often rare amongst Disney villains} doesn't make him as scary as the fact that he had released two Chinese soldiers, only to have his best archer kill one of them.

Such brutal tactics were not uncommon by those who invaded China and Shan Yu is no exception to that and Disney captured that very same essence.

(1) https://www.cathar.info/cathar_inquisition.htm

(2) https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/article-movie-real-story-of-mulan.htm