Headscratchers / Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

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King Stefan’s involvement in Queen Ingrith’s version of the fairytale

• What role did King Stefan have in Queen Ingrith’s version of how Sleeping Beauty went? She seemed to know that he was dead, so is she trying to imply that Maleficent drove him to his death behind the scenes? I asked someone on the Queen Ingrith Disney Wiki page and they said that she DIDN’T know that Stefan was dead.
  • It's clear she knows he was dead, but asks Maleficent "if he died or was killed" to try to subtly dig at Maleficent and imply she's responsible for his death. The story circulated is likely that Maleficent murdered Aurora's innocent father, the king, but that this "fact" was covered up in some way.

Maleficent: Mistress of...Resurrection?

• Towards the end, after Queen Ingrith shoot and kills Maleficent. This causes Maleficent to dissolve into a pile of dust. But then a few minutes later, Maleficent is reborn from that dust, in the form of a phoenix like the one we saw earlier. Um...what? Even setting aside the fact that it cheapens the meaning of the earlier death scene, it raises some questions. Since when did Maleficent have that power? I think I remember that one evil fairy telling her that she was the last of the phoenix's descendants, and it is true that phoenixes can be reborn from their ashes. But again-why can Maleficent do that all of a sudden? Did I misunderstand something in the scene where the evil fairy told her that she was the phoenix's descendant? In fact, now that I think about it, if every one of the evil fairies is part of the phoenix's lineage, then they must have that ability too. So why are any of them worried about the humans killing them?
  • Maleficent is explicitly the most magically powerful of all the fairies. The other fairies can manipulate plants, but she's capable of both stronger (she can blast people with her magic) and more complex (she can transform creatures like Diaval into other things) magic. That's why she's capable of rebirth when the other fairies aren't. Given the symbolism of the transformation as being born of love (Conall says that she was already reborn when she raised Aurora), I think it's also likely that the only reason she was transformed into a phoenix is because she died in order to save Aurora. Had she died for some other reason, she wouldn't have been reborn.
  • Another possibility is that Maleficent is, in fact, truly unique. That her "element" is in rebirth and renewal from death and decay (she loses her wings, but they return to her, she dies, but is reborn). In a sense, her "element" is essentially Spring (regrowth, life, beginnings)

The Spindle

• Wasn't the curse broken already by Maleficent's love for Aurora? Why would the curse still be in the spinning wheel (which was created by the curse, since all the spinning wheels had been destroyed)?
  • While I believe you are ultimately right, and what I'm about to write may create more questions than it answers, the film does attempt to explain it away by mentioning that "curses don't end; they are destroyed", perhaps in detriment to the lore regarding the curse itself. This implies the following (ignoring some of the lore of the previous film to try to follow this one's logic, btw):
    • The cursed spindle was a side-effect of Maleficient's magic, perhaps out of her control. Even if the curse was lifted, the spindle remained a magically-charged object that would bear the power necessary to make the "finger prickling" part of the curse work.
    • As shown in the film, anybody could have been affected by the spindle, not just Aurora. Aurora was just the one magically forced to interact with it. The latter in turn implies that the curse would have magically transformed any spindle Aurora happened to prickle her finger on to be a catalyst for eternal slumber anyways, and that transformation was independent of the curse's status. In other words, it didn't matter if the spindle was magically created or not; the results would have been the same for the effects of this movie.
    • Due to Maleficient's wording, the unrevokable parts of the curse were specifically the ones regarding Aurora. Meaning that, regardless of circumstances, Aurora had to be afflicted by the eternal slumber at least once before it could be properly dispelled, and this is why Maleficient was unable to revoke it during the first film.
    • As a result, Maleficient saw no need to destroy the spindle since Aurora's part of the curse had already come to be and was lifted, and/or Ingrith seized the spindle before Maleficient got to it.

There may be other explanations at hand, but this is the one I can think of that relies the least on WMG.

A Traitor... But why?

• Lickspittle engineers the dust used to kill countless fairies, and held his own kind in captivity to test out ways to destroy fairies. Since he is a pixie himself, WHY would he do this? We know the Queen took his wings and nothing else.
  • In most fairy mythos taking a body part such as wings (or skin in the case of selkies) puts them under your power. The only reason I can think of why this didn't work on Maleficent is because shes a different type of fae.
  • It could also be that Stefan never explicitly tried to enforce his will on Maleficent after taking her wings; he had at least the potential to have power over her, but he never actually tried to do so.
    • Another possible reason Stefan couldn't control Maleficent is sheer force of will. Maleficent has shown time and time again that she has a will stronger than diamond, and she absolutely will not stop. It could be that, in a contest of wills, her will far outstripped Stefan's

Diaval the man?

• Other than 'so he wouldn't be in the chapel', why did Maleficent's injury trap Diaval as a man? His default form is a *raven*. Why would he be stuck in human form instead of raven?
  • It seems like h goes through a sort of stuttery raven-man-raven-man transformation right before he settles on "man," so maybe it wasn't that the spell stopped working completely, but she lost control over it and accidentally made him a man.
  • Seeing as he has been Aurora's father figure for about a good number of years perhaps he has became more familiar with his man form, basically because he considers himself more of a man than a raven anymore, Man became his default rather than Raven.
  • Alternatively, he WILLED himself into human form, in order to be far more useful to Aurora. He forcibly kept his human form instead of reverting to a raven because he knew that Aurora needed him in human form.

Is Phillip French or Swedish?

• Is Phillip Swedish or French? Ingrith is a Swedish/German name and Ulstead just screams Sweden to me.
  • Ingrith's name indicates nothing, since she is from other kingdom. But Ingrith is most likely North European, her name indicates this and Michelle Pfeiffer often plays North Europeans.

True Love's Kiss

• After the queen's "kiss" failed to wake King John from the curse, why didn't Phillip give it a try? One of the most pivotal moments in the original film was that a kiss of familial love (and adopted familial love, at that) could suffice as the curse-breaker instead of romantic love.
  • It likely didn’t occur to them as the presumption, in-universe and real life, has essentially always been romantic love (hence why it was considered a twist in the original film). Even Maleficent and Diaval didn’t know a non-romantic love was a possibility until Aurora woke up after Maleficent had kissed her, which itself was just a fluke decision. And even if Aurora had told others that it was familial love that woke her, the stories that spread about the curse breaking notably omitted (on purpose as we find out) how it was done, so no one else knew it could be done. And since Queen Ingrith was also dead set about not waking King John up, she likely would have made an excuse dismissing the possibility the same way she wouldn’t allow his body to be checked for any marks.
  • Given how much Phillip insists that she should try true love's kiss, this would indicate that he thinks that his mom genuinely loves his dad (not an impossible thought for a 20-something to have). The kiss failing would therefore indicate, not that his mom hates his dad, but that true love's kiss of any kind, romantic or familial, doesn't work, so there's no point in Phillip trying as well. (What doesn't make sense is why Phillip doesn't try it while he's in the bedroom with Aurora as she shows him the identical spindle marks.)
    • The not trying later could be due to the wording of the curse - Maleficent saying "true love's kiss", not "kiss from someone who truly loves the cursed". Maleficent wasn't trying to wake Aurora up, just showing affection and regret. Maybe it had to be done innocently (or at least close enough), so an attempt with intent to break the curse wouldn't work (yes, I'm aware of the WMG lines I'm crossing)

Just one nest?

• The dark fae used to inhabit every corner of the Earth before humans started weaponizing iron? As humans far more advanced than those seen in the movie still don't inhabit every dry spot on the globe there should still be plenty of places above ground for dark fey. Furthermore, there are many human societies, a few civilizations even, that don't use iron ore at all. That would be even more obvious back when crossbows and muskets were still state of the art weaponry, when anyone bothered with chain mail or plate armor in combat. Conall's statement cannot be logistically true. And even if literally every human being had iron weaponry of some kind humans on such a scale can't come to a consensus on anything. Dark fae are tougher, faster, more mobile, can converse with humans at an equal level and have several services to offer humans. This is not a mentally or physically inferior relative species that only existed on the corner of a continent. This was an older, almost totally superior species that was everywhere.
  • You're under estimating the ferocity and wickedness of man in a fairytale specifically about how wicked humans can be as opposed to magical beings. Iron bullets wielded by an army of men can easily take down a bunch of flying human sized creatures. One bullet is enough to ground them after all. Nets of iron can trap a slew of them. Heck, the only reason Maleficent surived the first film is because of her magical powers which the other dark fae don't seem to have. Humans have no issue getting to higher ground. It's not unbelievable that humans were able to wipe these creatures down in a variety of ways causing the remainder to flee them.

Maleficent's appearance?

• Why are Maleficent's wings suddenly black instead of brown and why does she now have slightly longer, sharper incisors—fangs, as Diaval even notes—with no explanation? We haven't seen her change her appearance before in the story. Can she change her appearance at will or is this some kind of fae evolution over time? The film doesn't say a word and almost acts like we're not going to notice.
  • Possibly age, 5 years have passed since the first movie, and she isn't human, perhaps when Dark Fae age their feathers darken and teeth lengthen, probably why people consider the Dark Fae "evil" is that older members of their species get much more "evil looking" as they get older, either that or it's a reflection of her disapproval of Phillip, the moodier she gets the more "evil" her appearance becomes, at the start of the movie she is basically in peak "I hate Phillip" mode so she has black wings and fangs.
  • This would be consistent with thing seen in the first movie, where not only Maleficent's clothing and appearance seem to fit her mental state and emotions, but even her magic changes color depending on what she's using it for (green for evil, brown/gold for good).

Why not go straight after the organ player?

• You got something like 3-4 Ents in the room with a lone organ player. The organ fired the pink dust in an arc far away from her. The Ent could have just easily hopped up, grabbed her head and drag her down to floor. Considering something similar happens to her anyways, AFTER the organ is jammed, its not like the Fae had moral objections.
  • They may not have realized at first given the sheer shock of witnessing your friends get murdered at a wedding of all places. Their first instinct would have told them to run/hide.

What's with the organ firing the deadly red powder so slowly?

• The powder is only firing when a specific marked key is pressed, which results in a very gradual deployment of the stuff. Since the whole point is to kill everybody and it kills on contact it would be more effective to flood the entire room as fast as possible.
  • Sadism, most likely. Even a bit of contract seems to be bad for the fae, and it seems like the executioner is going for slow, torturous death over effectiveness.

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