Wait, hold up. You wanna run that by me again? People are saying he didn’t deserve to be turned into a beast? When he literally was rude for no reason to that “old lady”?
Yup. Like he was just a teenager, he should be cut some slack, she was setting him up.
But it’s like
Yeah
She was setting him up because she knew he had no love in his heart. Do you know how horrible a King with no love in his heart would be when the Prince grows up? Do you know how awful the “little poor provincial town” would have it in the shadow of a Prince who reaches adulthood with the kind of character and heart that shuts old women out in the cold? The Enchantress did. So she cursed him so that he’d develop into a kind, gentle, loving man. There’s a reason the curse lasted until his twenty-first birthday. That’s adulthood. He had till then to learn to love.
And you know what else?
Of course the castle and servants would be cursed too.
That’s the Beast’s first lesson: you’re being cursed because when you have no love for anything but yourself, it’s the people closest to you who suffer for it. His household is a living object lesson for him to be faced with, day after day, for ten years, about how the consequences of your actions affect more than just you—they affect the people who depend on you. Really important lesson for the King of a kingdom to learn.
And even if that weren’t enough, which it is, don’t come griping to me about the servants being cursed for something the Prince did. Riddle me this: why is the Prince answering the door? Why isn’t a footman doing that? Why isn’t Lumiere doing that?
Why is it they’re turned into furniture instead of little beasts? Why is the first scene they’re introduced in an old MAN begging for shelter from the bitter cold, and choosing to welcome him in despite “The Master?”
Why is their big number “Be Our GUEST?”
The answers to those questions aren’t given but it’s strongly implied that, instead of doing their jobs, and instead of standing up to their Master up to and including the incident with the Enchantress, they used to just stand to the side, making no sacrifices, taking no risks.
The theme of the movie is “true love is self-sacrifice.” Hospitality is one of the most self-sacrificial practices you can engage in. You’re literally making yourself vulnerable: you’re inviting someone into your home, you’re putting their comfort before your own, you’re giving them your hard-earned food and heat and drink and time, you’re allowing them to come into your sanctuary, your safe space, and judge it while you make them comfortable. Be Our Guest, indeed! Standing up to the Master, indeed! They’ve learned their lesson by the time Belle and her father are on the scene.
The thing is, we love to try and excuse away the responsibility of the main character because we love to try and excuse away our own character flaws. Blame it on trauma. That’s not the point. The point is, for the story to work, and for the fictional kingdom to have a happy ending with a Prince who’s like that, the Beast has to grow out of his character flaws. He has a problem, and it needs solving—how he got the problem is irrelevant.
And there’s just so little chance that a Prince, who has everything in life that he could ever want and is dependent on nobody, for anything, would ever feel the need for love. Or worse, he’d never feel the need to correct himself, or change, or grow in any way. He needed to have some discipline—some MAJOR discipline, some KINGDOM-SAVING discipline—in order to even be the kind of guy that could notice a peasant girl’s self-sacrificial loving nature, much less value her and fall in love with her.
Thank goodness for the Enchantress and the Curse. Or else this fairy tale could’ve turned into the French Revolution.
thinking about the nrc staff but in "beauty and the beast" plot:
vargas as gaston (obviously) who aims to marry you (the belle in this concept). perhaps crowley as lefou (lol) and maybe sam as lumière. trein as your father/grandfather/step-father who is taken captive after he trespasses on the beast's castle. and who is the beast, you might ask? crewel. <3 i just adore the idea of beast!crewel...... it scratches an itch deep within my brain. orz
Gay as an Umbrella Term: The character arc of Mulan/Ping and how they relate to their gender roles has been considered relatable to transgender fans.
It’s a Secret: Throughout the film, Mulan/Ping attempts to pass as male despite being born female, in a way that mirrors the experiences of transgender individuals at many instances.
Do Not Separate: While Mulan/Ping is considered queer on their own, Shang is often read as bisexual due to the way he exhibits interest in Mulan/Ping regardless of how they present.
VS
LeFou from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
It’s Canon: As of the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast in 2017, LeFou made headlines as “Disney’s First Gay Character!”.
Obsession: LeFou, in both the original animated film and the live action remake, is the lackey to the antagonist Gaston, and is characterized by his devotion and loyalty to him.
VS
Shere Khan from The Jungle Book (1967)
It’s Fanon: Shere Khan exhibits what is considered to be campy behavior throughout the source material, leading him to be considered among the many queer-coded villains within Disney animated canon.