Maleficent: When The Villain Was Never the Monster 🪽❤☀

What if the evil fairy who cursed Sleeping Beauty wasn't evil at all? What if she was actually the hero of her own story—and maybe even the real hero of Aurora's?

Picture from Pinterest

This is not a tale about a princess who has slept for a thousand years, but one of how a woman finally awakens from the wounds, betrayals, and images of evil placed upon her. Maleficent takes us back, in 2014, to the world of Sleeping Beauty, not from the tower of a princess, but from beneath the black wings of the fairy that was once loved and betrayed.

It opens in a world we never saw in Sleeping Beauty—Maleficent's backstory. She wasn't born a villain; she was a powerful young fairy, protector of the Moors (a magical realm), with magnificent wings and pure of heart. She believed in people's goodness, in trusting them, and in love.

Then she met Stefan, a human boy from the neighboring kingdom. They formed a real connection, possibly even love. For years, their friendship was the bridge between the human and fairy worlds.

But Stefan was ambitious: consumed by greed and the desire for power, he made a choice that would destroy everything—to betray Maleficent in the cruelest of ways, drugging her and cutting off her wings to steal her ability to fly, her freedom, her very essence—to prove his loyalty to the dying king and claim the throne.

Picture from Pinterest

It wasn't only physical mutilation; it was the violation of trust that ran so deep it made her heart turn to stone.

When Stefan becomes king and his daughter Aurora is born, Maleficent crashes the christening. This is the scene we know from the classic film—the dark fairy cursing the innocent baby. But now we understand why.

The curse isn't random villainy. It's revenge. It's pain made manifest. "Before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep like death—a sleep from which she will never awaken." The only thing that can break it? True love's kiss, which Maleficent bitterly declares doesn't exist.

Stefan is horrified, but it is too late. The curse is cast.

Here's where the story deviates from the original entirely: Maleficent doesn't disappear after placing a spell upon Aurora. Maleficent keeps an eye on the child from afar, originally to ensure her curse takes hold. But something unexpected happens.

Picture from Pinterest

Aurora grows into a joyful, innocent, kind-hearted girl raised by three bumbling fairies who can barely keep her alive. Maleficent finds herself protecting Aurora from dangers, keeping her safe—even revealing herself to the child. Aurora, in her pure-hearted way, calls Maleficent her "fairy godmother."

Against her will, against every wall she's built around her heart, Maleficent begins to love this child. Not out of revenge for Stefan, but as a mother loves a daughter. Aurora becomes the light stolen from her life.

Around Aurora's sixteenth birthday, in desperation, Maleficent seeks to retract the curse. But such strong magic cannot even be broken by the one who sent the spell. The curse is bound to happen; no matter what, it will take place.

Aurora pricks her finger. She falls into her death-sleep. Stefan, paranoid and cruel after years of guilt, has become the real monster in this story.

In the classic tale, Prince Phillip's kiss wakes Aurora—true love conquers all, roll credits. But Maleficent flips the script entirely.

The prince kisses Aurora. Nothing happens. Because they hardly know each other. There's no true love there, just fairy tale fantasy.

Heartbroken and full of regret, Maleficent bends and kisses Aurora upon the forehead-a mother's farewell to the daughter she has grown to love. That kiss, now filled with true maternal love and contrition, breaks the curse.

Picture from Pinterest

True love is not romantic; instead, it is the unadulterated, selfless love of the person who learned to love another human being more than herself.

This is what makes Maleficent such a powerful entry in "Princess Tales Beyond Disney"—even though it IS Disney, it completely dismantles Disney's own formula.

The villain becomes the hero. The "true love's kiss" isn't from a prince but from a mother figure. The real monster is the human king driven by greed and ambition. And the princess's salvation doesn't come from being rescued by a man but from the love of a woman who learned to open her heart again. The film delves into trauma, betrayal, and healing in ways classic fairy tales never did. Maleficent's arc from innocent fairy to broken, vengeful creature to loving guardian shows that people aren't born evil—they're made that way by the cruelty of others.

But they can also heal if given a reason to.

Maleficent is not a retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty; rather, it deconstructs absolutely everything the original stood for: giving voice to the silenced, contextualizing the condemned, and showing how the line that defines hero versus villain often comes down to whoever gets to tell the story.

What do you think? Have you ever rooted for the "bad guy" once you understood their side? 😏