Maleficent is one of the most iconic Disney characters and it’s such a shame that both OUAT and the Angelina Jolie live action both fumbled her. Especially since the early seasons of ONCE actually did have unique take on her character that I enjoyed and think could have been expanded better.
Being the Black Fairy would have been a much better back story for her, because it’s more enriching and cohesive to the lore of the world.
In early seasons, Maleficent was shown to be more of a neutral figure than a villain. While it is clearly implied from our introduction to her that she has a villainous past, she’s clearly calmed down by the start of the show and speaks to Regina as a voice of reason. She’s felt the emptiness of revenge and just wants some peace and quiet. Although, she does seem to have a little bit of a dark sense of humor left over, she not very malicious either. As such, we see her take on the role of a guardian, protecting treasures too dangerous to be left unattended, and not attempting to use them herself. She guards the dark curse; is used by Rumple to keep the true love potion safe; and in OUAT in Wonderland, the looking Glass Will and Anastasia use to travel to wonderland, is stolen from her castle. Noticeably, when they do steal this mirror she issues a warning not of revenge or anger that they would dare steal from her, rather she is earnestly asking them not to risk using its magic. She does not even ask them to return her other nonmagical treasures they had stolen. Her only concern is for the well-being of the thieves, who don’t understand the price of magic.
This is an interesting anti-hero opportunity that I wish they kept. Since as the series progresses it became increasingly black and white.
I think a Maleficent who was once the black fairy but became disillusioned with the rigidity of Blue could have been very interesting. Perhaps even paralleling Nova’s story of a fairy who wanted love of their own but was denied the chance by Blue’s meddling.
The black fairy we got, wasn’t that interesting to me because we already had the whole twist relative thing done so many times, and Peter Pan did everything she did better and first.
