 ✓
| ||
| This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. | ||
| NOTE: This article is about Gaston from the live-action version. The mainstream version can be found here: Gaston LeGume (Disney) |
|
| “ | This creature will curse us all if we don't stop him. Well, I say we kill the Beast! | „ |
| ~ Gaston applauding the villagers into assisting him kill the Beast. |
Gaston LeGume, better known by his first name Gaston, is the main antagonist of the 2017 film Beauty and the Beast, a live-action remake of the 1991 traditionally animated classic film of the same name.
He is a treacherous, chauvinistic, egotistical, deceptive and conceited hunter and former army captain from Belle's village. Despite all his admirers, Gaston is set on having Belle as his wife by force regardless of her thought. He is Belle and the Beast's arch-nemesis. He is also based off his original incarnation with the same name.
He was portrayed by Luke Evans, who also played Driver in No One Lives, Owen Shaw in the Fast & Furious franchise, Ben Hawkins in Ma and the Coachman in the live-action Pinocchio remake.
Biography[]
Meeting Belle[]
Gaston appeared in the 2017 remake, portrayed by Luke Evans. However, in this film, Gaston is portrayed as a former army captain of the French Royal Army prior to his career as a hunter due to a portrait of him standing over fallen soldiers in the tavern. It is also implied that this incarnation of Gaston is a much darker portrayal than in the original, as he is far more manipulative and sociopathic in nature.
Just like his animated counterpart, Gaston is authoritative, well-liked and respected in the village — this time for his previous war heroics against the Portuguese. He still aims to have Belle as his wife.
Proposing to Belle[]
At first, he attempts to woo Belle to get her approval for marriage many times, but she respectfully turns him down due to his inappropriate and offensive behavior. Gaston then warns Belle that she will end up being in the streets as a beggar if she doesn't marry him, but she still refuses by saying that she is not that simple to hang out with much to his dismay.
Getting his Praise[]
Eventually, in the local tavern, Gaston mopes over his failure to woo Belle; even when LeFou pointed out that there are other girls that he can try to court, Gaston refuses by saying that a great hunter doesn't waste his time catching rabbits, implying that he only wants Belle. He eventually gets cheered up by LeFou and the villagers following his failed attempts to woo Belle, right before Belle's father Maurice arrives and exclaims that Belle has been taken prisoner by the Beast (the son of a wicked king) in his castle.
The villagers instantly laugh at this as they find Maurice to be downright insane (due to a spell cast by an enchantress that erases all of the townsfolk's memories of the castle), but Gaston decides to tag along, in hopes of getting Maurice's approval for Belle's hand in marriage. However, as they stroke into the woods with LeFou, Gaston tires himself of Maurice's story and reveals his true intentions, which incited a furious Maurice to refuse Gaston's proposal.
In retaliation, Gaston punches Maurice before tying him up in a tree, intending to leave him to die of winter exposure and be fed by the wolves (despite LeFou's objections), so that Belle would be alone for Gaston himself to grasp on. However, Maurice ends up being saved and nursed back to health by the local hermit named Agathe before returning back to the village.
Concocting his Plan[]
As Gaston returns to his tavern, he is shocked to see that Maurice has returned alive and is now accusing him for his attempted murder. However, Gaston uses his charisma to convince the villagers that Maurice is insane and must be locked up in the local asylum (even secretly silencing an uneasy LeFou from testifying against him and convincing everyone that Agathe is untrustworthy).
To that end, Gaston gets the villagers to torment Maurice before having the local asylum owner Monsieur D'Arque in escorting Maurice away, in hopes of blackmailing Belle into marrying him. However, Belle arrives back to the village and foils this by revealing the Beast's existence with the magic mirror that latter given to her, making the townsfolk realize that Maurice was telling the truth.
Realizing now that he would be exposed of his true colors and that Belle has feelings for the Beast (as the latter saved her from the wolves and let her go to help Maurice), Gaston angrily lashes out by stealing the magic mirror and using the villagers' fear of monsters and sorcery to manipulate them into helping him kill the Beast, much to Belle and Maurice's horror.
Final Battle and Death[]
After having Monsieur D'Arque to lock up Belle and Maurice in the asylum carriage and keep them on watch, Gaston leads the villagers to assault the Beast's Castle, which forced the castle servants to fight back against the villagers. During the battle, Maurice frees himself and Belle before allowing the latter to head to the castle while Gaston betrays the villagers by leaving them to their fates, and even using LeFou as a human shield before leaving him for dead and escaping from the fight unharmed and unnoticed, which incited an outraged LeFou to side up with the servants. As the villagers flee away in humiliation and defeat, Gaston heads over to the West Wing, where he finally finds the Beast sulking (as the latter lost his will to live after letting Belle go).
Taking the opportunity, Gaston shoots the Beast before he taunts him by claiming that Belle sent him over to kill him. However, Belle arrives to the rescue by breaking Gaston's arrows, throwing away his gun and briefly shoving him off the balcony into the roof, demanding him to stop. Undeterred by Belle's intervention, Gaston angrily refuses and instead swears to mount the Beast's head in his tavern wall and force Belle to marry him. However, the Beast regains his will after witnessing Belle's return, realizing that Gaston had deceived him. As such, the Beast proceeds to attack Gaston, instigating a hostile confrontation between the two.
After a brief fight, the Beast finally overpowers Gaston and grabs him by the neck, preparing to drop him onto the castle floor for the trouble he caused. With his life at stake, Gaston abandons his pride and begs the Beast for mercy. Initially ignoring his opponent, the Beast reluctantly obliges by coldly telling Gaston that he is not a monster. Shoving Gaston away from his sight, the Beast furiously orders him to leave the castle before climbing back on the castle balcony to reunite with Belle. In that moment, however, Gaston finds his gun and fatally shoots the Beast twice from a footbridge, much to Belle's distraught. However, Gaston's victory is short-lived when the footbridge breaks apart (due to the curse slowly crumbling the castle as the Beast succumbs to his wounds), leaving the platform under Gaston to become disconnected and crumble beneath his feet, resulting in him plummeting to his end in the darkness below.
Despite putting fatal shots onto the Beast, Gaston's death proved to be in vain as Belle's expression of her love for the deceased Beast inspired an arriving Agathe (who is revealed to be the enchantress responsible for placing the curse) to revive the Beast before transforming him and his servants back to normal, much to their delight. This also allows the castle and the townsfolk's memories to be restored as several villagers recognize some of the servants as their long-lost relatives before reuniting with them.
Personality[]
Like the animated version, Gaston himself happens to be a handsome and burly hunter, and he certainly likes to brag of his abilities toward others for pleasure in the first place. However, beneath his charming looks is an extremely rude, impatient, manipulative, and ruthless person who likes to please his own ego by any means necessary.
He is very conservative and narrow-minded to the extent that he disapproves of intellectualism as he regards ideas as "dangerous pastimes"; he is also extremely misogynistic and lascivious, as he believes that ladies' sole purpose in life is to serve and obey men. Because of his charming looks, he is well-respected in the village (in spite of rarely, if ever hiding his more unpleasant traits) as he was able to rouse up a mob to assist him with slaughtering the Beast, although it was clear that he cared nothing for the villagers in general as he was using them all as pawns to justify his own needs.
He is also shown to be completely lustful and provocative towards Belle, as he plans to marry her because of her beautiful looks as opposed to her nonconformist and unconventional personality. Even when Belle made it clear that she doesn't feel like being with Gaston (with LeFou pointing out that the different ladies in the village are quite fond of Gaston), the latter still wants to marry Belle to satisfy his own ego, proving to be quite insensitive towards the feelings of her or anybody else.
He even feels extremely possessive and envious after learning that Belle has feelings for the Beast, which only incites him in hunting down the Beast so that he can have Belle for himself. He is also very abusive, discourteous, vituperative, uncomplimentary and quarrelsome towards LeFou and his four buddies, as he would subject them to pain and suffering whenever things go wrong (even if it is not their fault).
Despite his anti-intellectualism, Gaston is also shown to be very rational and knowledgeable, as he can come up with clever plans to get what he wants, such as throwing Belle's father Maurice into the local asylum in order to force Belle into marrying him, as well as manipulating the villagers into assisting him with slaughtering the Beast in case his plan would fail. In spite of his brilliance, Gaston can also be quite spontaneous and impulsive, as shown when he tried to grope Belle by menacingly cornering her announcing "Say you'll marry me", before attempting to kiss her, which forced a disgusted Belle to throw him out of her house in retaliation.
In addition, he is extremely devious, reckless and passionate, as shown during the climax when he took his chance to fatally ambush the Beast without assessing any perilous risks, which ultimately led to his own demise. That said, his peak-human strength along with his superior experience, resulted in him doing well against the Beast despite the latter's superior strength.
However, additionally in this version, he is somewhat tragic and had a stressful moment during the time, of which he had shown to have a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in that period after the Seven Years' War, given of his role as a former army captain and veteran of the French Royal Army.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- The Village Lasses (unrequited love on their side)
- Elise
- Eliana
- Eloise
- Monsieur D'Arque
- Gaston's Buddies
Enemies[]
- Beast - Arch-nemesis, love rival, attempted killer and attempted victim
- Belle - Former Love interest (on his side), would-be trophy wife turned arch-nemesis
- Maurice - Indirect attempted victim
- LeFou - Former best friend turned enemy
Quotes[]
| “ | Look at her, LeFou. My future wife... Belle is the most beautiful girl in the village, and that makes her the best. | „ |
| ~ Gaston to LeFou about Belle. |
| “ | For your dinner table, shall I join you this evening? | „ |
| ~ Gaston presenting Belle with a bouquet of flowers and asking her out on a date which Belle turns down due to his unacceptable and discourteous behavior. |
| “ | It's outrageously attractive, isn't it? | „ |
| ~ Gaston remarking to LeFou about how attractive Belle is. |
| “ | You are the wildest, most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. Nobody deserves you. But at least I know our children will be beautiful. | „ |
| ~ Gaston admiring himself through a mirror. |
| “ | I'm not done with you yet. | „ |
| ~ Gaston to his reflection on the mirror. |
| “ | Belle, I heard you had trouble with the headmaster. He never liked me either. Can I give you a little advice about the villagers, though? They are never going to trust the kind of change you're trying to bring. | „ |
| ~ Gaston telling Belle the villagers will never trust Belle's change of teaching a kid to read. |
| “ | The only children you should concern yourself with are... your own. | „ |
| ~ Gaston telling Belle she must start concerning more with her own future kids. |
| “ | Oh, Belle. Do you know what happens to spinsters in these villages after their fathers die? (pointing at a beggar woman) They beg for scraps like poor Agatha. | „ |
| ~ Gaston warning Belle she will end up as a beggar woman after her father passes on at last if she doesn't marry him. |
| “ | Picture it, LeFou. A rustic cabin, my latest kill roasting on the fire, adorable children running around, just as my love rubs my tired feet. And what does Belle say? "I will never marry you, Gaston". (LeFou: You know, there are other girls.) A great hunter doesn't waste his time on rabbits. | „ |
| ~ Gaston ranting about his unsuccessful marriage proposal to Belle before not paying careful attention to LeFou's advice to charm the other village girls. |
| “ | I'll help, Maurice. (Maurice: You will?) Everybody, stop making fun of this man at once. | „ |
| ~ Gaston offering to "help" Maurice to rescue Belle from the Beast. |
| “ | If you say "Beast" one more time, I WILL FEED YOU TO THE WOLVES! | „ |
| ~ Gaston browbeating Maurice to leave him to the wolves if he says Beast one more time. |
| “ | If Maurice won't give me his blessing, then he is in my way. Once the wolves have finished with him, Belle will have no one to take care of her but me. | „ |
| ~ Gaston plotting to slaughter Maurice by leaving him to be fed by the wolves. |
| “ | There are no such things as beasts, or talking teacups, or magic. But there are wolves, frostbite and starvation. | „ |
| ~ Gaston disbelieving Maurice's claim about the Beast. |
| “ | Agathe? You'd hang your accusations on the testimony of a filthy hag? No offense, Agathe. | „ |
| ~ Gaston's disbelief on Agathe rescuing Maurice. |
| “ | This is sorcery... | „ |
| ~ Gaston stealing the Magic Mirror after Belle reveals the Beast's existence to the villagers. |
| “ | The monster has her under a spell! If I didn't know better, I say she even care for him. | „ |
| ~ Gaston mocking and fibbing to Belle, as she would prefer a "monster" over him before Belle tells Gaston that he is the real monster, not the Beast. |
| “ | We can't have them running off to warn the Beast, lock her up too. | „ |
| ~ Gaston before ordering Monsieur D' Arque to lock Belle in the wagon in order to prevent her from warning the Beast. |
| “ | Sorry, old friend. It's hero time. | „ |
| ~ Gaston after he double-crosses LeFou by using him as a human shield to protect himself from the Beast's servants. |
| “ | Hello, Beast. I'm Gaston. Belle sent me. Were you in love with her? Did you honestly think she'd want you? | „ |
| ~ Gaston encounters and fibs to a dejected Beast before shooting him with a pistol, yet not after tormenting him into believing the Beast into telling him Belle sent him there to kill him. |
| “ | When we return to the village, you will marry me, and that Beast's head will hang on our wall! | „ |
| ~ Gaston furiously vowing to force Belle to marry him after killing the Beast. |
| “ | I'm coming for you, Beast! | „ |
| ~ Gaston to the Beast before fighting with him. |
| “ | Don't let me go. Please, I'll do anything. Don't hurt me, Beast. | „ |
| ~ Gaston's last words moments before falling off the castle to his demise as he attempts to kill the Beast one last time. |
Trivia[]
- Gaston was the first role Luke Evans played in a Disney live-action remake, who will reprise his role as Gaston in the Disney+ prequel miniseries Little Town, which takes place before the 2017 Beauty and the Beast live-action remake. He later played the Coachman in the live-action remake of Pinocchio also for Disney+.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Castle Grounds Village of Villeneuve Others | ||