| “ | Seize that creature! | „ |
| ~ King Stefan, ordering his guards to arrest Maleficent |
King Stefan is the overarching protagonist in Disney's 16th full-length animated film of 1959, Sleeping Beauty. As ruler of an unnamed French kingdom, he is Princess Aurora’s kindhearted, yet grumpy father.
In the original film, he was voiced by the late Taylor Holmes (who, in his last film role, replaced the late Hans Conried, Stefan’s original intended voice actor who auditioned and provided live action reference for the character in the same film). In Disney Princess Enchanted Tales Follow Your Dreams, he was voiced by Corey Burton.
His Good Ranking[]
His Heroic Deeds[]
- He is a kind and debonair ruler over his kingdom, residents, and all of his servants.
- He is best friends with King Hubert and together, they planned to have their children marry and unite their kingdoms.
- He is a devoted husband to Queen Leah.
- He is a loving father of Aurora, as proven when he cares about her safety by sending her to live with the fairies until her sixteenth birthday, due to her being cursed by Maleficent.
- Though no avail, he ordered his soldiers to arrest Maleficent, who had already placed a curse on his daughter.
- Despite not being highly intelligent, he shows some common sense for when he wanted Hubert to take time with their plan as he wanted their respective children to know each other better.
- After being freed by Prince Phillip from his enchanted slumber, Stefan, along with Leah and Hubert, reunited with Aurora and Phillip.
- In Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, he has Aurora in charge of the kingdom until he, King Hubert, Queen Leah, and Prince Phillip returns home from the Royal Conference.
- At the end of the first segment, he, along with Queen Leah, King Hubert, Prince Phillip, Lord Duke, and the Three Good Fairies attend Aurora’s royal banquet for their return.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- Like Aurora, Stefan fails to pass the baseline for a lot of reasons:
- While it’s true he tried his best to keep everyone in the kingdom safe, he massively fails the admirable standards way too much to Phillip and the Three Good Fairies, who all played active roles in defeating Maleficent and freeing the kingdom, including Stefan, from their slumber.
- He spends most of the film worrying about Aurora and having a friendly argument with Hubert about the future marriage of their children.
- He did not take part in a battle against Maleficent, though to be fair, he, along with everyone in the kingdom, was put under a sleeping spell by the Good Fairies until he and the others can be awoken when Phillip breaks Maleficent’s curse on Aurora.
- While this is only used for extra precaution, this is not truly heroic or successful enough because his attempt of burning spinning wheels does not do enough to prevent Maleficent's curse from taking place, as stated by the Three Good Fairies.
- Not to mention, his decision of burning spinning wheels heavily relies way too much on Fridge Brilliance, since its not fully expanded enough in detail to interpret how it’ll affect the environment or how the kingdom would be able to get or make clothing and fashion.
- Speaking of which, Stefan also suffers from Fridge Brilliance, as he was oblivious that his failure to invite Maleficent would culminate the latter in placing a curse on his daughter.
- Overall, he is just a generic kind ruler whose confirmed heroic deeds never go beyond the Goodness Zone, making him extremely bog-standard.
- Despite being a debonair and soft-spoken father for the most part, one of the biggest reasons why he cannot be PG or NPG is because he is still prone to being wrathful, jerkish, and temperamental at times.
- While trying his best to protect his family and his people, he did not formally explain or confess to Maleficent about their lack of invitation to her and only did more to enrage her by passively letting one of the fairies to insult her.
- However, this was technically out of fear of angering her too much, although it could also be argued that he and Leah were indirectly responsible for causing the conflict of the whole film by angering and being oblivious towards Maleficent, who fooled him and Leah into thinking that she’s not offended, which led to her placing a curse on their daughter.
- He can be somewhat semi hypocritical at times for several reasons.
- Even though he did inform Hubert to take their time as he wanted Aurora to get to know him and wanted her and Phillip to get better acquainted, it is still too much of a prevention as he initially opposed to having Aurora marry Prince Phillip by proclaiming the plan as a shock for them, which angered Hubert due to this.
- He called out Hubert for his stubbornness by calling him an “old windbag”, yet he’s also one as well and that is somewhat hypocritical in Stefan’s part.
- Even though he’s married to Leah and wanted unity between his and Hubert’s kingdoms, he tried to declare war at Hubert and that contradicted their original plan.
- Before subverting his anxiety of Aurora's safety after being freed by Phillip's True Love's Kiss on Aurora, Stefan still lets his anxiety get the better of himself anyway.
- Due to this and while it is understandable that he wanted to make sure that Aurora and Phillip should get to know each other, he unintentionally started the argument when he inadvertently offended Hubert about the presumed thought of Aurora and Phillip being together as a shock for Aurora.
- As mentioned above, he also went too far in lashing out his wrath and insult Hubert, as well as threatening to declare war at him for no good reason.
- While his threat of declaring war with Hubert never happened, this is still considered a very lethal act that neither of them fully apologized to each other for what they did. However, since the two quickly made amends with each other over their children by realizing they’re fighting over nothing, this is considered a slightly minor prevention.
Trivia[]
- Due to him being the first Disney side character to be depicted as a villain in a live action remake, his live action counterpart is considered Villainous Benchmark, making him the first Heroic Benchmark to have a different continuity and canon counterpart that qualifies as Villainous Benchmark, as well as the only Heroic Benchmark of Sleeping Beauty to have a different continuity and canon counterpart that qualifies as Villainous Benchmark.
- Because he's the first father in a Disney Princess movie to be alive, he is also the first father of a Disney Princess to be Heroic Benchmark.
External Links[]
- King Stefan on the Heroes Wiki
- King Stefan on the Disney Wiki
[]
 Heroic Benchmarks
| ||
|
Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television Live-Action Television Shorts Fanon See Also | ||