| NOTE: This page specially covers the details regarding the character in Maleficent. The original character in Sleeping Beauty is Base Breaking. |
| “ | How does it feel to be a fairy creature without wings? IN A WORLD WHERE YOU DON'T BELONG! | „ |
| ~ King Stefan, while taunting Maleficent of the stolen wings. |
King Stefan is the main antagonist of the 2014 live action film, Maleficent. In sharp contrast to his original counterpart in Sleeping Beauty, this version of Stefan is depicted as an evil, heartless, and ruthless tyrant.
He was portrayed by Sharlto Copley.
What Makes Him a Scrappy?[]
- Even if his original counterpart is a Base-Breaking Character, it is agreed by most fans that this character was quite poorly written in the 2014 live-action remake.
- While the original King Stefan is still disliked by several detractors that accuse him for unintentionally causing the conflict by poorly handling the conflict of not inviting Maleficent, he still has defenders. The same can't be said for this version of Stefan that is meant to be hated.
- In the original animated film, he was depicted as a flawed but loving father and a jerk with a heart of gold, but here he is an even bigger jerk than he was in the original film and is shown to be an evil, tyrannical, and ruthless ruler of his kingdom and was used as a plot device for the role of the Big Bad that Maleficent left behind. This is why many fans of the original Sleeping Beauty have a difficult time seeing another version of this character due to lacking several qualities of his original canon self to the point of feeling like a completely different person. Rewriting him as a tyrant is arguably considered by most fans to be a horrible idea, even if his original counterpart still serves as the unintended catalyst of the original film’s story for not inviting Maleficent to Aurora's birth ceremony that unintentionally caused her to her inflict a curse on Aurora.
- It is noted that he didn't have a backstory of why he was able to do villainous things that led to him stealing Maleficent’s wings to become a tyrannical ruler as King Henry was, since his villainy seemed forced and came out of nowhere without any clear explanation.
- Him learning his wife was dying and basically saying "sure she is, what's your point" comes off as a try-hard shock value.
- Additionally, some fans also noticed that he wasn’t portrayed as fully evil when he was a kid and showed some remorse over taking Maleficent’s wings, while in the present this is ignored since he acts like a complete sociopath. This felt like a wasted opportunity to the viewers.
- It has also been noted that he doesn't show any expressions and he's prone to having fits of anger and is always just frowning.
- He is seen as a wasted talent by Sharlto Copley as most people noted that his performance as Stefan was too much for them to handle.
- Overall, his derailment is regarded to be one of the criticized aspects that didn’t age well in Maleficent, which gained mixed reception by fans and audiences.
External Links[]
- King Stefan on the Villains Wiki
- King Stefan on the Disney Wiki
- His original counterpart on the Base Breaking Character Wiki
[]
 Scrappies
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Animated Films Live-Action Films Animated Television The Proud Family Phineas and Ferb Star Wars: The Clone Wars Star vs. the Forces of Evil 101 Dalmatian Street What If...? Others Live-Action Television Shorts Video Games See Also | ||