Edgar is a fic by The Parody Master. It is a Perspective Flip of The Aristocats about the movie's villain, Edgar, which is all about how Edgar was really a misunderstood hero throughout the original movie who intends to do the right thing and help the cats despite being pushed around by Georges and Madame, who are actually kind of horrible.
...well, actually, the fic is a parody of Disney's recent revisiting of classic animated film to make the villains more sympathetic. It can be read here
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Don't these tropes give you an appreciation for Edgar?
- Adaptational Heroism: Edgar...supposedly. Whereas he was trying to get rid of the cats in the original movie, here he's trying to save them and himself from Georges.
- Adaptational Villainy: Georges and Madame. Played for laughs because of how hilariously over-the-top they are.
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Double subverted, in that "Creme de la Creme a la Edgar" in this is no longer a saucer of milk...but Edgar still gives the cats a lot of sleeping pills, which are still dangerous to cats. For once, this is not lampshaded.
- Bait-and-Switch: Near the end, Edgar goes to the top of the Eiffel Tower and walks to the edge with the basket in hand, as the narration ponders whether he'll throw the cats to their death... only to smile at the cats sleeping inside.
- Better than a Bare Bulb: The narrator points out basically every instance of Politically Correct History, Adaptational Heroism/Villainy, and Perspective Flip.
- Big Bad: Georges Hautcourt, the funny lawyer in the original, is instead this.
- Cerebus Retcon: Parodied throughout the story, where events in the original story which were funny are made to seem traumatic to Edgar. Though, given the tone of the story, they're still pretty funny.
- Darker and Edgier: Parodied. Police violence, capitalism, gun violence, murder, and swearing are all included.
- Demoted to Extra: Duchess, her kittens, and an orange cat who's implied to be Thomas O' Malley, are mostly reduced from the protagonists to Living Props, and the narrator even lampshades it.
- Disney Villain Death: Georges' fate, fitting as he is the villain in this telling. Especially funny because this was not present in the original Aristocats despite Disney's tendency towards having this.
- Disproportionate Retribution: What does Georges do when Edgar's mother can't pay rent? Rubs her in catnip and throws her out the window to be eaten by stray cats.
- The Ditz: Madame, who despite being villainous mostly just listens to Georges' ideas for villainy, leaving Georges as Edgar's main tormentor.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: While the Eiffel Tower played practically no role in the original, it's the site of the climax in this fic.
- Evil Laugh: Georges on a few occasions. Madame as well once or twice.
- Evil Laugh Turned Coughing Fit: After Georges murders Edgar's mother and forces him to take care of Madame's cat, he laughs so hard that he ends up wheezing for breath.
- Evil Old Folks: Georges and Madame, though they're younger earlier in the movie.
- Fruit Cart: The climactic car chase sees a fruit cart getting knocked over, with the narrator even saying that it's what always happens.
- Giftedly Bad: Madame, who in this is not a good singer.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the final scene, Madame has inexplicably become a much nicer person and acknowledges Edgar’s many contributions to her household.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Edgar is growing up poor, his mother is then eaten by cats, and he has to go work as Madame's butler.
- Human-Focused Adaptation: Parodied, like everything else. Every now and then, the narrator lampshades the fact that the cats are barely relevant to the story that they originally starred in.
- Ironic Echo: "Elevators are for poor people!" announces Edgar when climbing into the elevator on the Eiffel Tower during the climax, echoing Georges' earlier statement to him. Lampshaded, natch.
- Kick the Dog: Georges, who reassigns Elvira to Timbuktu for no other reason than she makes Edgar happy.
- Lemony Narrator: Who spends much of their time commenting sarcastically on the goings-on of the fic.
- Living Prop: Duchess, her kittens, and O’Malley spend the majority of the fic asleep or just sitting around, not reacting to anything around them.
- Original Character: Elvira, a beautiful maid who exists to be a love interest and to make Edgar even more sympathetic.
- The Man Is Sticking It to the Man: The narrator pulls no punches in lampshading the irony of Disney, a company with controversial corporate policies, making a story that denounces capitalism. This is best exemplified with the ending lines of Chapter 4:"Adelaide can do whatever she wants to her cats because they're her property!" Georges laughed evilly. "That's how it works under white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy!"Is this woke yet? (By the way, don't forget to buy all the merchandise associated with this brave new film so that all your friends can see how woke you are. We're Disney!)
- Mood Whiplash: The intense scene of Edgar being ambushed by wolves is followed by a scene of Edgar serving tea to Georges and Madame. The jarring mood shift is even lampshaded by the Lemony Narrator, who sarcastically dismisses the previous scene as uninteresting.
- Police Brutality: The flashback Edgar has while outside by the police station reveals that he was beaten by police officers as a child, and drives away knowing that the police wouldn't help him because of his poverty.
- Politically Correct History: Played for laughs several times:
- Despite the story being set in the late 1800s, Elvira pays for her dinner "because this is 2019" and she has to be a role model for young girls.
- Edgar mistaking the tree branch for a gun is now traumatic instead of funny, due to current context.
- The president of France is portrayed as a black woman, and the Lemony Narrator states that whoever complains about this inaccuracy should've minded the inaccuracy of Talking Animals in the original movie, and blames their complaints on their supposed intolerance.
- Running Gag: Doesn't this make you appreciate the characters? Doesn't it?
- Satire: Of Disney's tendency towards movies creating sympathetic villain origin stories.
- Savage Wolves: After Edgar gets to the countryside, a pack of wolves suddenly runs to him and starts chasing him.
- Writers Can Not Do Math: When Edgar comes across Duchess, her kittens, and an orange cat sleeping in the countryside, the narration states that he "placed all four cats into the basket", when it's five cats in total.
