VILLAINS AND HEROES

I believe villains need to win or at least get their happy endings. I’ve read hundreds of novels in my life, where heroes always win and that villain always loose. From snow white and the Evil Queen to Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. I used to think villains deserved to lose because they always took everyone’s happiness. I never understood why they did that. We’ve been so quick to judge them without exactly knowing the reasons behind all their wicked doings. 

Unlike many fairy tales, sleeping beauty is one of my favorites. A beautiful princess is cursed by a powerful mistress. That on her 16th birthday, before the sun sets, she would prick her finger on a spindle and fall into a deep slumber, and would only be woken by a true love’s kiss. The powerful mistress is maleficent. The story of maleficent is more saddening. Maleficent was born with magic; she was the only one of her kind. In her kingdom there were so many magical creatures, fairies among many others. Everyone was threatened by her. I mean, we all get scared of what we don’t truly understand, don’t we all?  

In the neighboring kingdom, lived only humans and it was ruled by king henry. And even though maleficent had done no harm to anyone, king henry wanted to kill her. On the other side as maleficent grew, the more powerful she became than any other being and so she became the ruler of her kingdom. It happened that maleficent fell in love with a human, his name Stephan, whom she had caught stealing. But as it turned out Stephan was greedy for power, and he ended up betraying maleficent. King Henry had promised whoever that would kill maleficent would be the next king.

Stephan being so thirsty for power would do anything to be king. He knew that maleficent was in love with him, and that it would be easy for him to trick her and kill her. But Stephan couldn’t bring himself to do such a monstrous thing and so he cut off her wings and brought them to the king pretending that he had killed maleficent. Of cause king henry believed him, and since the king was already on his death bed, Stephan became the next king. Maleficent was filled with hate and vengeance. When King Stephan sired a child, a baby girl princess aurora, maleficent placed a sleeping curse on her. King Stephan sends aurora far way where she would be safe from maleficent. 

Over the years as aurora grew, maleficent kept her eyes on her. With time maleficent grew fond of aurora and she even tried taking back her curse, unfortunately it wasn’t possible. Maleficent ended up loving aurora as her own daughter.  In the end aurora, whom we’ve all come to know as sleeping beauty pricked her finger and fell into a deep sleep waiting for her truelove to someday wake her up. But it was maleficent kiss that broke the spell. Even after all the cruelty that had been done to maleficent, she never got her happy ending and we still see her as a villain.

We’ve always thought that The Evil Queen from Snow White and the seven Dwarfs was just evil. But have you ever asked yourself why she was so determined to destroy snow white’s happy ending? I believe she also deserves her happy ending. The Evil Queen, Regina was not always evil, she’s just misunderstood. Before, she even became a queen she was just a princess. Her mother wanted her to marry into a royal family so that she could be queen someday. But Regina was already in love with someone else, a stable boy. Regina kept her relationship with the stable boy a secret. She knew her mother would never allow her to marry a commoner let alone a stable boy.

Regina’s mother was once a maiden without any royal statuses. Her life was miserable, and she dreamed of becoming a queen someday. Of course she did everything in her power to become royal. Luckily she managed to marry a king. After what she had endured, all the insults and mistreats, she never wanted that for her daughter Regina. So she made sure that her daughter got the best education so she could be perfect princes who would someday marry a king.

Regina’s mother made arrangement for her daughter to marry a king; Snow White’s father who had just lost his wife. Regina had no other choice than to marry the king, all she wanted was to make her mother proud. The king already had a daughter snow white, who with time Regina grew so found of. The bond between Regina and snow white was unbreakable. Regina treated snow white as if she were her own daughter. With time snow white noticed that Regina wasn’t happy being married to her father the king.

Since Regina and snow white were so close, it was easy for Regina to confide in snow white. Regina told her about her relationship with the stable boy, and how much she really loved him. Snow white promised that she would never tell anyone, especially Regina’s mother but she ended up breaking her promise to Regina. Snow white told Regina’s mother about the relationship between Regina and the stable boy. Regina’s mother killed the stable boy because she didn’t want her daughter to be distracted. 

When Regina found out what had happened she became so angry and wanted to revenge. Since snow white had caused her so much pain and took her happiness, she swore that snow white would also feel her pain and take away her happiness too. Regina poisoned snow white with an apple that kept her under a sleeping curse that would only be broken by true loves kiss. I believe Regina wasn’t evil; she could have killed snow white if she wanted to, but instead she kept her under a sleeping curse. Regina is a villain because she kept snow white under a sleeping curse. As for snow white she’s the hero, why? Isn’t it fair that we only judge Regina and we even call her The Evil Queen? If snow white hadn’t broken her promise to Regina, then the stable boy would still be alive and Regina wouldn’t have to revenge. The evil queen deserves to get her happy ending too. Snow white got her happy ending, and the curse was broken and even ended up marring prince charming. While Regina ended up being The Evil Queen without her happy ending.