| “ | Cause we're rotten... to the core | „ |
| ~ Mal's slogan. |
| “ | For us? Yes. But somewhere another story could be just beginning. | „ |
| ~ Queen Mal's last words, Descendants: Royal Wedding |
Maleficent Bertha ''Mal'' Jr. is the main protagonist of the Descendants franchise.
She is the daughter of Maleficent and Hades and the wife of the King Ben.
She was portrayed and voiced by Dove Cameron, who also portrayed Ruby Hale in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Biography[]
Isle of the Lost[]
At the very beginning, Mal made her mother, Maleficent, banish Evie and the Evil Queen to the Castle-Across-the-Way, which is described as more of a cave than a castle, a prison within a prison. Mal did this because the Evil Queen did not invite her to Evie's six-year-old birthday party. Ten years later, when Evie is finally allowed to leave the castle, Mal continued to torment her.
In the novel, Mal was told by her mother that she will receive her mother's full name when she proves herself worthy to the world, and that she is currently only worthy of one part of her name. Mal continues to torment Evie, despite the fact that Evie herself had nothing to do with the guest list.
She decides to play a dangerous prank on Evie for her school project at Cruella's house while she is away. Mal forces Carlos to host a party there, but is disappointed to see Evie come out unscathed after she shoves Evie into a closet full of bear traps. When her mother's raven, Diablo, returns to her, she informs Mal that her scepter is out there, and Mal must retrieve it for her, so they can destroy the barrier and gain freedom.
Mal realizes that she needs Jay, her only friend, and wants to bring Evie along so that she will touch the scepter and be cursed for an enchanted 1000-year-long sleep. Evie brings Carlos with her.
The villain kids make their way through many different obstacles and tests while navigating Maleficent's fortress. At last, they reach the throne room, the scepter obtainable. Evie stretches her hand out to grab the scepter, but at the last second Mal stops her. Mal has realized that Evie is useful to her, and she doesn't want that usefulness to be taken away. Mal grabs the scepter and is knocked out for only a few minutes because she is the daughter of Maleficent.
While knocked out, Mal experiences a vision of Maleficent's past, when she was all-powerful and interrupted baby Aurora's christening. Mal realizes that her mother, in a way, was just like herself: a jealous girl who wanted revenge for not being invited.
She looks around to see that the scepter has vanished.
Disappointed, she and the others return home where her mother is waiting for her, scepter in hand and Diablo on her shoulder. She explains that Diablo brought the scepter back, and he told her that Mal was supposed to let Evie touch it, lamenting furiously that sometimes Mal is such a disappointment.
Mal still vows to make Maleficent proud of her, and joins forces with the three villain kids, now much closer to all of them than before, and begin a raid on the town, kicking off the events of the movie.
Descendants[]
Mal and her gang are seen in the beginning of the movie doing a graffiti and walk in the town. She loves being evil and making her mother proud of her, because everyone also knows her and all the children of villains as trouble makers. After the song "Rotten to The Core" where she had been dancing with her friends and all the other villain kids, she stole a lollipop from a baby. Maleficent tells her she does recognize her nasty little girl like she said. When Mal hears that she and her friends was going to Auradon Prep, by the order of Prince Ben, she was surprised, because she knows no villains and their offspring can leave the Isle of the Lost, but Maleficent told her she needed her to go and steal the wand from the Fairy Godmother. Mal agrees, and she and her friends take the limo to go to Auradon. When she and her friends finally arrive, everyone in Auradon Prep greeted them. Ben greeted her with Audrey. When she, Carlos, Evie, and Jay walk in the school museum, they finally find the magic wand, but Jay accidentally activates the museum alarm, and they have no choice but to escape, getting away clean only because of Carlos' quick thinking.
They continue to go to Auradon Prep, and Mal decides to befriend Jane, Fairy Godmother's daughter, in order to get information about the wand. Mal preys on Jane's insecurities and makes her think that she can only be beautiful, aka she can only have worth as a person, with a magical makeover that Mal provides. Jane, believing that Mal is her friend, tells her that Fairy Godmother will use the wand during Ben's coronation. Ben later lets them know that his girlfriend gets to sit in the front row with him at said Coronation.
Mal decides to spell Ben into falling in love with her, so that she will be his girlfriend. The spell causes Ben to confess his love through a musical number in front of two entire schools. His girlfriend Audrey is hurt, betrayed, upset, embarrassed, and utterly humiliated. She breaks up with Ben on the spot. Mal does not really care about hurting Audrey.
Ben then asks Mal on a date, and she tells Evie to help her get ready to go on the date. Ben shows her the place he wanted to go swimming, but Mal refuses to follow him. When she can't see him in the lake anymore she believed he had drowned and tried to save him, but she can't swim and was about to drown when Ben came to save her.
Ben presents Mal as his girlfriend to his parents on Family Day, where the students' parents come visit. At Family Day, Queen Leah, Audrey's grandmother, believes Mal is Maleficent and causes a scene. Many of the AKs picked on Mal and her friends after this event, including Jane. Mal takes away Jane's magical hair.
Ready to carry out their plan, Mal says that she wants to break the love spell. She makes a brownie with her spell book open to the page, "How To Break A Love Spell." However, the anti-love spell that we see is not a potion and has no cooking process, so the brownie might have been a completely separate thing from the anti-love spell. Ultimately it is unclear if the brownie is an anti-love spell, or even if she actually went through with breaking the love spell.
However, Ben reveals that he hadn't actually been spelled since his and Mal's first date at the Enchanted Lake, which has enchanted water that undid the spell. However, the fact that the spell was broken does not absolve Mal of the moral implications of what she did. She was perfectly okay with the idea of controlling Ben and his feelings.
At the coronation, Jane takes the wand to make herself beautiful, because Mal's bullying and toxic/fake friendship convinced her that she was worth nothing if she didn't fit conventional standards of beauty. However, Jane accidentally removes the barrier from the Isle of the Lost, thus making it possible for all the villains to invade Auradon.
Mal then takes the wand from Jane, and Ben believes that she wanted to give it back. However, Mal threatens everyone with the wand. Ben convinces her to give the wand back by telling her that he's following his heart. Mal realizes that she enjoys being in Auradon, and that Ben loves her. Mal gives the wand back to Fairy Godmother, but Maleficent breaks in and freezes everyone, then takes the wand. Maleficent transforms into a dragon when Mal doesn't want to go with her. Mal says a spell and turns Maleficent into a lizard, which would not have been possible without Evie, Jay, and Carlos. At the end of the movie, she celebrated with Ben and all of the other students of Auradon. At the very end, she tells us the story isn't over.
Descendants: Wicked World[]
Season 1[]
Mal appears to have adjusted to live in Auradon but still gets stressed and irritated over everything there. She isn't exactly evil in the series but more of witty and sarcastic girl who is always poking fun at the AKs whenever they do something she finds amusing. Most of the AKs accuse Mal of various bad things happening to them despite Mal's insistence that she's innocent, they eventually turn on Mal after Ben was kidnapped and assumed it was her until CJ Hook revealed herself as the true culprit along with Freddie Facilier who helped sneak CJ into Auradon. After CJ left Freddie apologized to Mal for sneaking her into Auradon and Mal forgave her.
Season 2[]
Mal appears in this season as the main protagonist and false antagonist. She was informed of the upcoming Jewel-bilee where she was informed that Maleficent hid her jewel on the Isle of the Lost, upon hearing this Mal and Freddie went back to the Isle in search of the jewel. After failing to find it, Freddie gave Mal what she thought was a lucky necklace however it began making Mal act odd as if it were brainwashing her. She later returned to Auradon and caused a lot of mischiefs until Audrey banished her from the Jewel-bilee. She then sneaks into the museum and steals Jafar's staff, giving it to Zevon. Evie, Jay and Carlos discover that Mal's jewel was cursed and unknown to them Zevon was in Auradon, knew about Mal's jewel and was using this to his advantage. By the end of the series Mal defeats Zevon, and makes up with the AKs and gets her jewel without it being cursed.
Descendants 2[]
Mal struggles with her new celebrity life as the girlfriend of King Ben, putting a spell on her hair making it blonde, and uncomfortably maintaining a princess-like personality. She tries to convince Evie, Jay, and Carlos that they should go back to being evil, but they are content with their new lives in Auradon and do not wish to return to the Isle of the Lost and dredge up their trauma. Evie tells Mal that she should stop using magic to solve every little problem that she has. Carlos, wishing to ask Jane to the upcoming Cotillion dance, turns to Mal for help with honesty. Mal gives him a sweet that will make him speak the truth, but his dog, Dude, eats it, and now magically speaks the blunt truth in English.
During their picnic date, Ben discovers Mal's reliance on magic, and she tries to cast a spell on him instead of taking responsibility for her actions, causing a falling-out. Mal returns to the Isle, now ruled by her rival Uma, Ursula's daughter, along with Harry and Gil, the sons of Captain Hook and Gaston. Mal visits hairstylist Dizzy Tremaine, Drizella's daughter, who restores her signature purple hair, saying she felt that Mal's blonde hair was unnatural. Harry discovers Mal's return and informs Uma.
Ben, Evie, Jay, and Carlos learn of Mal's departure and sneak onto the Isle to find her, but Gil recognizes them. Ben confronts Mal, who rejects his feelings. Ben leaves dejected, only to be captured by Uma. Mal and Uma arm wrestle for Ben and Fairy Godmother's wand, which Uma wins. Uma then orders Mal and her friends to retrieve the Fairy Godmother's wand or Ben dies. Carlos and Jay return to Auradon Prep, where they create a replica of the wand using a 3D printer. They are caught by Lonnie, Mulan's daughter, who blackmails them into letting her come, having previously been rejected from Jay's sports team based on her gender.
Uma speaks with Ben, angry that the Core Four got to go to Auradon while the rest of the Isle kids were left to rot in false imprisonment and poverty when they had done literally nothing wrong. Ben takes this into account and invites her to Auradon, but Uma refuses the exclusive invitation. She refuses to leave anyone behind. Mal's group returns, handing over the fake wand in exchange for Ben, but Uma realizes the forgery. The group flees back to Auradon, but Mal and Ben's relationship is still rocky, and Mal isn't the happiest about being back in Auradon. The villains' children come to terms that they cannot run from their pasts and agree to be honest with themselves and each other. Carlos confesses to Jane but struggles a little bit, while Jay appoints Lonnie as the captain of his team.
Aboard a ship during the Cotillion, Ben stuns everyone by appearing with Uma, who he declares as his true love and announces he will destroy the barrier on the Isle on her behalf. Jane unveils a stained glass display Ben commissioned to show his affection for Mal, who realizes he loved her for who she was all along. Suspecting Uma has given him a love potion, Mal confesses her love for Ben and kisses him, breaking the spell. Enraged, Uma leaps into the water using Ursula's magic seashell to transform into an octopus, and Mal fights back as a dragon. Ben intervenes, quelling the battle, and Uma returns the ring that Ben had originally given her when he had declared her as his true love. She leaves, despite his offer still standing.
Mal and Ben reunite, Mal surrendering her spell book to the Fairy Godmother. Evie requests that Dizzy be allowed to attend Auradon Prep; when Dizzy is offered, she excitedly accepts.
Descendants 3[]
Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos visit the Isle of the Lost to choose four new villain kids (VKs) to take to Auradon. They pick Dizzy, granddaughter of Lady Tremaine, Celia, daughter of Dr. Facilier, and Squeaky and Squirmy, the twin sons of Mr. Smee. The day the kids are to be picked up, Ben proposes to her, and she accepts. Ben's ex-girlfriend Audrey is hurt and upset about this, and her grandmother Queen Leah admonishes her and basically tells her that she's worthless because she failed to secure the family legacy by marrying Ben, despite the fact that none of it is Audrey's fault.
When the barrier is opened for the new VKs, Hades, the god of the underworld, attempts to escape, but Mal beats him back in her dragon form. That night, unable to overcome her feelings of worthlessness, Audrey steals the Queen's Crown and Maleficent's Scepter from The Museum. The theft and Hades' escape attempt has the citizens panicking. Belle and Beast look to Mal, as future Queen, to decide the best way to protect the subjects and restore peace. Instead of placing Hades in a more secure location or increasing security at the museum and the Isle, Mal proposes to close the barrier permanently, meaning no new VKs can come, nor can anyone enter the Isle. This also means that no supplies can reach the Isle.
Audrey attacks Mal with Maleficent's scepter, turning her into an old hag. Mal and the other VKs go to the Isle to get Hades' ember, the only thing powerful enough to break the scepter's curse. Mal is restored upon entering the Isle due to the suppression of evil magic there. Celia gets Mal into Hades' lair, but he thwarts their effort to steal the ember. He is revealed to be Mal's absentee father and reluctantly gives her the ember, warning her that it mustn't get wet and will not exhibit its full powers for her. While leaving the Isle, Mal and the others are stopped by Uma, Gil, and Harry, who take the Ember. They agree to help after Mal lies to them and says that she will release all the children from the Isle.
Mal lies to Evie about who came up with the plan to close the barrier. Although we don't see it, we can assume that Mal lied to Jay and Carlos as well. Audrey then attacks Jane's birthday party with a sleeping curse; Chad aligns himself with Audrey, while Jane escapes into the Enchanted Lake. As the entire kingdom falls under Audrey's spell, she offers to reverse it if Ben will marry her; he refuses, so she turns him into a beast and begins turning people to stone. Mal refuses to let Uma have any power within the group as they all return to Auradon. They defeat suits of armor animated by Audrey. Uma finds Audrey's diary and learns that she spends time at Fairy Cottage, a contribution for which Mal thanks her. Evie, nervous to define her feelings for Doug, wakes him with "true love's kiss." After finding Ben in beast form, Carlos calms him down until Jane restores him with lake water. As Mal and Uma are thawing towards each other, Audrey traps them in Evie's house; they reverse Audrey's spell by combining their magic, and they all reunite there.
At the Fairy Cottage, they find only a shell-shocked Chad. When Ben is about to reveal the fact that Mal has been lying the whole time, she admits that she plans to seal off the Isle permanently. The group implodes and Celia, learning she can never see her father again, throws the ember in a birdbath, and Uma and Harry leave, telling Mal that they shouldn't have expected anything other than betrayal from her. After Evie tells Mal how upset she is for lying to her and their friends, they are all suddenly turned to stone, except for Mal.
Mal sings a song about her life story, My Once Opon a Time. She begs Uma and Harry for help, but they refuse her because she is still going to close the barrier, so they know she doesn't actually care about them.
Audrey takes Celia hostage and attacks Mal, who turns into her dragon form. Realizing she is Celia's only hope, Uma combines her magic with Mal's to reignite the ember, Audrey is defeated and falls comatose, and the curses are lifted. The ember could revive Audrey, but only in Hades' hands; Ben agrees to send for him, while Uma, Harry, Gil, and Celia plan to return to the Isle so that they can protect their people as best they can. Mal apologizes for lying; her friends and rivals forgive her despite the fact that she would leave antagonists and childrens, teenagers in poverty, illness and exile like her during the first sixteen years of her life. Hades arrives and revives Audrey, but reveals the double standard by which Audrey is immediately forgiven because she is not considered a villain. Audrey apologizes to Mal and Ben; in response, Mal and Ben admit they owe Audrey an apology but don't actually apologize.
Mal announces that she cannot be the Queen of Auradon unless she can also be the Queen of the Isle, despite the fact that she was planning on killing all of the people on the Isle. With Ben and the Fairy Godmother's non-verbal, last-second agreement, Mal removes the barrier and creates a bridge. The people of the newly merged society celebrate.
In the mid-credits scene, Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos are seen looking at the Isle of the Lost; then racing across the bridge to their parents.
Descendants - The Royal Wedding[]
Mal and King Ben finally get married surrounded by their family and friends, although Carlos is had died between Descendants 3 and Royal Wedding (due to his actor passing away).
Personality[]
Mal is sneaky, intelligent and ruthless girl, is a natural leader and skilled in art, especially in spray painting. Although she is compassionate, she is avenger and does not easily forgive others. She has a gift of casting spells but only if necessary.
In the first film, as the daughter of Maleficent, she wants to be like her mother: pure evil. Yet whenever she tries to prove herself to her mother, she often disappoints her instead.
She enjoys coming up with wicked schemes and wreaking havoc and is the most feared in the Isle of The Lost because of her reputation.
She isn't fond of beautiful surroundings or anything pink, calling them gross, but she does sometimes wonder about how life would be off the island. Despite this, she is not necessarily immoral; she is just misguided.
Her "mean girl" facade is mostly an act, likely because she does not want to be seen as weak in her mother's eyes; being evil is the only way she is respected by Maleficent.
Mal is extremely goal-oriented, driven by her desires to please her mother. This causes Mal to often prioritize her objective over the feelings of others, especially those of whom she manipulates in order to achieve her goals. Despite this, Mal's goals are not her own, but her mother's, and this causes Mal to become morally conflicted and increasingly reluctant to carry out her objective.
Ben is the only person who sees through Mal's act (including herself), and saw her for who she was - a good person.
As the series progresses, Mal lets go of much of her fears and goals, becoming in tune with her true her.
Thus she abandons the hollow life of evil, for a life of being good.
With friendship and love, Mal ended filling the hole in her heart that could not be satisfied through what her mother had taught her.
Appearance[]
Mal is a pale-skinned, fairly attractive young woman with eyes to bright green who is of average height and slim physique. In her dragon form Mal appears as a gigantic dragon with horns and glowing green eyes that had a consistent accent pattern of black, purple and pink across her body.
In the first movie Mal had wavy, dark violet colored hair with magenta highlights in a long bob style that sits over her collarbone, she continues having this style throughout Wicked World with it subtly growing slightly longer across the series.
In the second movie Mal started with long platinum blonde hair with violet highlights which she changed once returning to the Isle into a slightly shorter style with bangs in a lilac color. In the third movie Mal's hair was changed once again into that of a long wavy style with an indigo color.
Mal usually wore punk style clothes such as custom made leather jackets which were usually designed with different shades of purple, pink, green and black.
In the third film, her hair is velvet purple with of shades blue. She wears a midnight blue vest, as well as a purple shirt under it, with her emblem. She also sports a pair of blue and purple leather pants. She wears purple wedge high-tops with painted blue flames, as are her purple fingerless gloves.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
As the daughter of Maleficent and Hades, Mal inherited the following powers:
- Fairy Magic: Like her mother, Mal is able to manipulate fairy magic at her will, which usually manifests a green energy glowing in her eyes.
- Spell Casting: Mal is able to change and control events through the use of incantations and recitations, which either she creates or comes from her mother's old book.
- Potion Making: Mal is able to brew and concoct paranormal potions with supernatural effects. Mal successfully made the love potion and place it inside a cookie, which was later given to Ben. Subsequently, she made the counter potion in order to end the last one all by herself. She was able to create a Truth Potion, for Carlos in the form of a sweet.
- Dragon Transformation: Mal is able to transform herself into a giant dragon, like her mother Maleficent. She transforms into a dragon in Descendants 2 and Descendants 3.
- Demigod Powers: Because her father is Hades, this would make Mal a demigod. However, it is currently unknown what goddess powers she possesses. Mal can use Hades's ember, but not to the same level as her godly father.
Abilities[]
Aside from her magical powers, Mal also have the following abilities:
- Art: One of Mal's most notable talents. She's an avid lover of art, especially for graffiti. She is seen doing multiple drawings throughout Descendants, Descendants: Wicked World and Descendants 2.
- Driving: As seen in "Pair of Sneakers" and "Wild Rehearsal", Mal is capable of driving cars. In Descendants 2, she learned to drive a scooter.
- Swordsmanship: As seen in Descendants 2, Mal is capable to withstand a sword fight with Lost Revenge's Crew.
Trivia[]
- In Descendants 3, her father is Hades.
External Links[]
- Mal on the Descendants Wiki
- Mal (Descendants) on the Heroes Wiki
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 Villains
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Protagonists Main Secondary Groups See Also | ||