I used to give into the hype and I still like her but I've recently realized that she's not that strong or effective of a villain. I've never seen the Angelina Jolie live action movie and quite honestly I don't think I ever will. This is all based on the original Sleeping Beauty.

Now, Maleficent definitely has the classic villain personality (sinister, petty, arrogant) and aesthetic. (she can turn into a dragon, and green fire is cool) She's one of the most quotable and meme-able villains in all of Disney. In fact, I think she's the one who really perfected the look and feel of a "Disney Villain" within the classic era, but while she has the look and she definitely talks the talk, I don't think she really walks the walk.

When I look down the list of horrific things Disney villains have done, she kinda comes up a bit short. Ursula has enslaved dozens, Shan Yu has killed thousands, The Evil Queen, Tremaine and Gothel's have inflicted deeply traumatic abuse onto their respective princesses. Maleficent hardly does anything of that caliber. I mean Aurora had to live in seclusion because of her but that wasn't directly Maleficent's doing (actually it just made Aurora harder for her to find) and Aurora's living situation really isn't all that bad to be honest.

Maleficent's not really one for clever plots and scheming either, the closest thing to that is when she captures Phillip. Outside of that, she only ever manages to do stuff right whenever the fairies make a mistake. The reason her crow found where Aurora lived was because of Flora and Merryweather's pink/blue magic duel. Let's not forget it took her sixteen years to accomplish that one goal. And the only reason she finally got Aurora to prick her finger on the spindle is because the fairies stopped watching for a minute. Honestly, Ursula, Jafar and even Gaston seem more cunning than Maleficent.

Her magic doesn't seem all that effective either. In addition to the fact that her spells can easily be weakened and flat out thwarted by the fairies, even Aurora seemed to able to resist her mind control to some extent. Once Merryweather lightened the curse, Aurora was never in any real mortal danger. As for kidnapping and fighting Phillip, Maleficent did seem like a real threat in that instance but with the fairies' help, he pretty much resolved that problem rather quickly.

All of this really just brought me to the conclusion that as long as Flora, Fauna and Merryweather were around, everyone was pretty much safe from Maleficent's wrath. It's almost weird that the fairies are afraid of her, considering they hardly break a sweat dealing with her. I mean, even going off their stories about her, the worst thing she's ever done is....ruin their flowers? That just makes Maleficent sound more annoying rather than dangerous, and going off of what we actually see in the film, it seems fairly accurate.

"Mistress of all evil"? Mistress of pettiness or mistress of being a nuisance maybe, but I don't know about all evil. Don't get me wrong, she is an entertaining character, her charisma makes her fun to watch. Is she an actually intimidating and effective villain though? I don't think so.