Gaston LeGume

"It's over, Beast! BELLE IS MINE!"

- Gaston during his battle with the Beast.

"No one (Verbs) like Gaston"

- Internet–famous snowclone associated with Gaston

Gaston Legume is the main antagonist of Disney's 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast. He is an arrogant hunter from Belle's town who declared himself as Belle's would-be fiancee and this made him the Beast's archnemesis. He was voiced by actor Richard White.

In the Story
At the beginning of the story, Gaston is known to be as the village's town hero and is well-respected by much of the villagers and the object of affection of every girl in the village, except for Belle. He tries to propose marriage to Belle, who respectfully refuses. Depressed and upset he tried to do whatever it takes to marry Belle.

Gaston knows that this act will rouse little suspicion because Maurice already seemed to be insane to the rest of the town, raving about a monstrous Beast holding Belle as his prisoner (thanks to a deal she made with the Beast). Even when D'Arque comes to take her father, Belle still refuses to marry Gaston, and proves that the Beast indeed does exist by causing him to appear on the magic mirror that the Beast gives her which proves to be a mistake: It was then the whole town (including Gaston) realized that Maurice was right about his claims of the Beast's existence.

Upon seeing this, Gaston suspects that Belle has feelings for the Beast (since he had let her go to help her father). Out of jealousy, Gaston plays off the villagers' fear to incite them to form a mob to lay siege to the Beast's castle. Though the mob end up being warded off by the castle's enchanted servants for good, Gaston himself finds the Beast in the West Wing, and fights him. The Beast doesn't fight back, as he feel disheartened that Belle won't come back for him. Eventually, Belle does return with Maurice, and upon witnessing this, the Beast regains his will to defend himself, engaging into a fight with Gaston.

Though Gaston initially appeared to have an advantage over the Beast, his arrogance would be his undoing; once he taunted the Beast for his monstrous appearance enough, the Beast finally snapped and overpowered him, holding him by the throat over the edge of the castle. With his life at stake, Gaston finally abandons his pride and pitifully begs for his life. The Beast almost kills him, but doesn't, because he had become more human through his love for Belle. He throws Gaston aside, angrily telling him to leave the castle and never return. Just before the Beast can comfort Belle, Gaston jumps onto the Beast and stabs him with a dagger. The Beast swings his arm backwards in pain, causing Gaston to lose his balance and fall screaming from the roof to his death.

Despite laying a fatal stab on the Beast, Gaston would die alone that night; the Beast had been bonded to an enchanted rose that kept him in his beast form and would bloom until his 21st birthday, and he would only turn back into a human if he could learn to love another and earn her love in return before the rose's last petal fell. Just as the Beast succumbed to his wounds, Belle tearfully begged him not to leave her and admitted she loved him, mere seconds before the last petal fell. The spell was broken bringing the Beast back to life and returning him to his human form.

Personality
As stated earlier, Gaston is a rude, egomaniacal narcissist who will go any length to get what he wants, even if it involves bribes or blackmail. He is very narrow minded to the extant that he dislikes reading. This is due to the fact that he regards ideas as dangerous, and is content to go through life not thinking about it. He is very handsome and muscular and he is also well respected in the village- he is able to rouse a mob whose intent is to kill the Beast. This goes to show that he is also very vengeful, since he suspected that Belle, whom he wanted to marry, had feelings for the Beast.

Despite Belle calling him "brainless", he is not the least bit stupid, as he can come up with very clever plans from time to time.

Reception
Gaston is considered one of Disney's most popular villains. He ranked 11th in an official poll, and the Nostalgia Critic placed him as the 5th best Disney villain, citing him as being different from most other Disney villains in that he is not pure evil from the start. Fans on the internet often jokingly idolize him similar to how the townspeople do in the movie, giving birth to the "No one (X) like Gaston" meme, and the "Gaston" song in particular is a very popular source for YouTube Poop.

Once Upon a Time
Gaston is featured in the ABC series in a very minor role played by Sage Brocklebank. Here, he was engaged to Belle through an arranged marriage, but just like the film, she did not love him because she found him "shallow." Unlike his Disney counterpart he appears to be more noble and focused, as shown when he expressed concern for Belle's agreement to go with Rumpelstiltskin and when she refused his marriage proposal. He attempted to reclaim her from Rumpelstiltskin regardless, but was transformed into a rose and given as a gift to Belle. Gaston hasn't made an appearance in the series since.

Trivia

 * Gaston's traits and personality might have inspired the creation of at least two Non-Disney villains, Drake from The Pebble and the Penguin, and Steele from Balto as they have the following traits.
 * Vain, muscular, and arrogant and believe they are the best.
 * While all three are adored by many females, they haves eyes for the female main protagonist who know the villains aren't right for them.
 * All three try to get rid of the main male protagonist to get the girl.
 * They only want to marry the female lead protagonist because of their beauty.
 * Gaston was supposed to be voiced by Rupert Everett, the same man who played Doctor Claw in the live action film adaptation Inspector Gadget and the voice of Prince Charming in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third.
 * Gaston is very similar to Jim and Victor Quartermaine. All are in love with the female protagonist and all become jealous when the male protagonist falls in love with the female protagonist (Gaston, the Beast, Jim, Edward Scissorhands, Victor, and the Were-Rabbit) however they are not evil at first. But they all share different fates. Whilst Gaston and Jim die from falling, Quartermaine survives but gets chased out of town, and whilst Gaston and Quartermaine are hunters, Jim is not. Also, whilst Gaston bribed Monsieur D'Arque, Quartermaine and Jim did not bribe anyone nor did they have any henchmen, although Quartermaine did have a hunting dog. Jim also worked alone.
 * He also has similarities to Victor Maynott.
 * The animators researched high school and college jock stereotypes to create Gaston's menacing and arrogant mannerisms.
 * Gaston was not present in Kingdom Hearts II, despite being the main villain of Beauty and the Beast. Xaldin, a member of Organization XIII, serves as this world's main villain & reprises the role of Forte. In many Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, Gaston is one of the most popular Disney Villains added to the series.
 * Originally, Gaston was going to say to The Beast: "It's over Beast, time to die!". This was changed, because it was slightly out of character, as Gaston is attempting to kill the Beast out of love, not malice. If you look carefully when Gaston says: "Belle is mine!" his lips are slightly off.