Lady Tremaine

Lady Tremaine is the main antagonist of Disney's Cinderella. She is Cinderella's very mean, cruel and selfish wicked stepmother, based on the character of the original fairy tale.

Personality
Lady Tremaine is portrayed as a very refined and collected person who never loses her calm, even when furious. She speaks with great courtesy to anyone, including Cinderella, while concealing her true feelings of contempt, and revels in her victim's torment. She is highly intelligent, being able to recognize small details and to use them skillfully to serve her interests. She always makes sure that she does not have to keep her promises, while staying true to her worlds.

In Cinderella
Prior to the beginnig of the story, Lady Tremaine married Cinderella's wealthy father, who wanted to give his daughter a motherly figure, and sisters in the person of Lady Tremaine's daughters Anastasia and Drizella. After Cinderella's father died, Lady Tremaine revealed her true nature, smiling wickedly while Cinderella was crying over her father's corpse, without even bothering to pretend mourning. During the following years, she wasted the family's wealth to spoil her bratty, obnoxious daughters and reduced Cinderella to a lowly servant, abusing he out of jealousy for her beauty and kindness.

When the Tremaines are invited to a ball organized by the king to find a spouse for his son, Cinderella asks to go with them, arguing that "each fair maiden in the kingdom is invited." Lady Tremaine agrees under the conditions that she gets all her work done and that she finds something suitable to wear, but Cinderella does not realize that she is giving her hopes to better crush them. While Cinderella works very hard to do the immense amount of chores given by Anastasia and Drizella, her birds and mice friends make her a gorgeous dress from the cloths discarded by the Tremaine sisters. When Cinderella shows up, prettier than the Tremaines will ever be, Lady Tremaine recognizes the necklace she wears as one of Drizella's old pieces of jewelry. She subtly points it to her daughters, who tear Cinderella's dress to shreds in a rage, accusing her of stealing their clothing, cruelly breaking Cinderella who dissolves into tears.

Fortunately, Cinderella attends the ball thanks to her Fairy Godmother who gives her a marvellous attire, and she and the Prince fall in love. Meanwhile, Lady Tremaine spies on them because the unknown princess looks familiar to her and she hears them singing.

The next day, Lady Tremaine learns that the Grand Duke of the kingdom is looking for the maid who fits the glass slipper that Cinderella lost in her hurry, so that the Prince could marry her. Overjoyed by these news, Cinderella starts singing carelessly, with her wicked stepmother recognizing her song and instantly figuring who the mysterious princess really was. Furious, she follows her upstairs and locks her in her room, keeping the key in her pocket.

The Duke arrives and tries the slipper on Drizella and Anastasia but it does not fit. As the Duke prepares to leave, Cinderella arrives, having been freed by the mice who managed to steal the key. Lady Tremaine then resorts to a last underhanded trick, tripping the lackey to shatter the slipper on the floor. She grins victoriously, revelling in the Duke's despair, until Cinderella displays the other slipper to prove that she was the one dancing with the Prince, leaving the Tremaines dismayed and ruined.

Cinderella 2
Lady Tremaine makes a short appearance in the first direct-to-video sequel, in which she disapproves of the blooming romance between Anastasia (who is portrayed in a much more positive light) and a young baker apprentice.

Cinderella 3
Lady Tremaine returns as the primary antagonist in the final sequel. A few years after the first movie, Anastasia witnesses a meeting between Cinderella, the Prince and the Fairy Godmother; and gets her hands on the magic wand, accidentally turning the Fairy into stone when she attempts to get it back.

Lady Tremaine seizes the wand and uses it to travel into time, back when her daughters were trying the glass slipper. She then creates her own horrific version of a "happily ever after", more akin to a nightmare than a fantasy.

She first bewitches the slipper to fit Anastasia's foot, verbally tormenting the bewildered Cinderella while making the second slipper "accidentally" fall in the staircase to destroy the evidences. When the Tremaines are welcomed in the royal castle, the Prince remarks that Anastasia is not the one he is looking for but Lady Tremaine magically alters his memories.

When Cinderella learns that the Tremaines have the wand, she sneaks into the castle and enters their quarters to get it back, while covering her face and passing for a servant. But Lady Tremaine recognizes and unmasks her, sending the royal guards after her and forcing her to flee. During the chase, Cinderella crashes into the Prince, who is eventually told the truth by the mice. The Prince, whose heart recognized his true beloved in spite of the spell, rescues Cinderella from exile and exposes Lady Tremaine's treachery, forcing her to teleport away with her daughters.

Knowing that the Prince's feelings are stronger than her magic, Lady Tremaine resolves to replace Cinderella with a shape-shifted Anastasia before the wedding. She teleports Cinderella inside a pumpkin transformed into a coach (in a gloomy retelling of the fist movie) and turns her pet cat Lucifer into a human coachman, instructing him to dispose of her for good. Fortunately, Cinderella manages to escape and she barges into the wedding, shortly after a repentant Anastasia (who knows that the Prince will never love her for what she really is) breaks the masquerade. Livid, Lady Tremaine storms into the scene followed by Drizella. She turns all the royal guards sent to capture them into animals, and prepares to turn Anastasia, and Cinderella who is shielding her, into toads, but the Prince uses his sword to deflect back the spell, defeating her for good.

In the end, Anastasia is pardoned, the magic wand is returned to the (healed) Fairy Godmother and Cinderella marries the Prince happily ever after. As for Lady Tremaine and Drizella, they are made into servants in the castle. (This is actually an act of mercy by Cinderella, who does not wish to see her step-family in jail, despite them deserving it. However this is also a just retribution, given that they are condemned to suffer the painful life of servitude they inflicted on Cinderella right inside the castle where they wanted to live in luxury. Besides, it can be guessed that the King, who was absolutely outraged by their actions, will NOT go easy on them.)