Villains Wiki

Hi. This is Thesecret1070. I am an admin of this site. Edit as much as you wish, but one little thing... If you are going to edit a lot, then make yourself a user and login. Other than that, enjoy Villains Wiki!!!

READ MORE

Villains Wiki
Advertisement

“The world doesn't need another dream girl” - Vivian singing Dream Girl

-Idina-Menzel-Vivian

Vivian, also known as the Wicked Stepmother or simply The Stepmother, is the main antagonist of Amazon’s 2021 film Cinderella. She is Malvolia and Narissa's biological mother, from a previous marriage, and Ella’s stepmother. She is played by Idina Menzel who also played Elphaba Thropp in the Broadway production of Wicked.

Biography[]

Like her previous incarnations, Vivian was previously married and had two daughters, named Malvolia and Narissa, but later married and was widowed to Ella’s father. Unlike her previous incarnations Vivian is somewhat less abusive to Ella, though she remains rather harsh on her daughters and stepdaughter. She pushes her daughters to marry well to raise the family status while willing to marry off Ella to the neighbor Thomas the vegetable merchant, despite Ella’s not being interested in marriage and is in favor of a career of being a fashion designer and owning her own business.

When Prince Robert spots Ella on top of a statue and convinces to hold a ball to help him find a bride, he disguises himself as a commoner and sets out in hopes of meeting her. Robert finds Ella among the local vendors, trying to sell one of her creations. He buys her dress for three times her asking price. After the town crier announces the upcoming ball Robert invites Ella by convincing her its a networking opportunity, where, he promises, to introduce her to representatives from more liberal kingdoms who may look more favorably on Ella’s designs.

This was thwarted, however, when the day of the ball arrived, Vivian revealed that Thomas asked Vivian for Ella’s hand in marriage and she is no longer an eligible maiden and proceeds to throw ink on Ella’s new homemade ball gown. After leaving, Ella discovers a caterpillar she rescued earlier from a spider's web turns out to be Ella’s godparent, Fab G, who crafts Ella a dress based on her design and glass slippers, enchanted so no one but the prince could recognize her. During her time at the ball, Ella meets with visiting queen Tatiana, who offers to take Ella around the world as her personal dressmaker. She also meets Princess Gwen, Robert's sister, who is wearing the dress Ella sold him in the market.

Ella regents Robert's proposal, explaining that marriage will put an end to her dressmaking dreams, which are finally within reach. At the stroke of midnight, Ella leaves the ball after throwing her shoe at one of the royal attendants, who tries to catch her. The next day Vivian reveals to Ella her own backstory, she had an opportunity to attend a fine school of music for one month and took it, but her first husband objected to this believing that a wife's place was in the home suggesting he left her and their daughters. Vivian later finds the remaining glass slipper in Ella's room and realizes she is the mystery girl the prince has been seeking. Vivian is in favor of Ella to marry Robert as it means to raise her and Malvolia and Narissa social status, but when Ella refuses, Vivian vows to pass her off to Thomas.

Ella later runs away and is reunited with Robert in a forest, they profess their love for each other and share a kiss. The pair reach the market in time to show her designs to her benefactor, Tatiana, who accepts them and invites Ella to travel with her. Vivian later sees Ella in the marketplace and later accepts Ella’s life choices. [1]

Personality[]

Unlike her previous incarnations, especially from Disney's more recognizable incarnation, Lady Tremaine, Vivian is far less villainous to the title character and comes off as passive-aggressive, overbearing, arrogant, ignorant and blindly ambitious opposed to evil and cruel. Rather than wanting to keep her as a slave and taking joy out of making her life miserable, Vivian wants to marry Ella off to a wealthy man. She believes that Ella’s ambition of being a fashion designer and owning her own business is the wrong direction and tries to convince Ella of her belief that going off to pursue one's personal dreams is incompatible with love and marriage and women marrying into wealth and status is the only way to live. She believes in the rather traditional society the kingdom is ruled by. This wasn't always wasn't so, this belief is rooted by her failed marriage with her first husband when she attended a fine art school of music and he left her for it, leaving her broken with her daughters and explains her materialistic ambition and her cold demeanor, thus making her a somewhat more tragic incarnation of the stepmother.

She is however not without some level of cruelty to Ella as she is shown coldly criticizing Ella throughout the film and later throws ink on her ballgown after announcing her marrying Ella off to Thomas and preventing her from going to the Prince's ball and reminding Ella that only her love for Ella’s father is what prevented her from kicking her out of her home. However unlike Lady Tremaine, Vivian is in favor of Ella marrying the prince and convinces her to do so and is angered when Ella refuses (however this is more out raising hers and her daughters social status more than her concern for Ella’s future.)

Quotes:[]

[seeing Cinderella in a pink dress she made]  Cinderella, you don't need to go to the ball.

Marry him, and all our problems will be solved. (Vivian trying to convince Cinderella to marry the prince)

Cinderella, it's only my love for your father, that's just all, that stands between you and a life on the street.[2]

I was given the opportunity of attending the finest school of music, and I took it. It was just a month… ONE MONTH, and then when I returned, my husband…well…he believed real wives don't act so civillessly! (Vivian giving her backstory to Cinderella)

Trivia:[]

  • This version of the stepmother, Vivian, wasn't a widow when she married Cinderella's father, but a divorcee. Because she explained this to Cinderella at the 11th hour, she may had kept her divorce a secret (since their kingdom was ruled by tradition its assumed that divorce was publicly frowned upon by nobility).
    • When she was saying this to Cinderella, Vivian had an air of frustration and sadness and was in tears. Meaning she may have loved her first husband and felt betrayed/ashamed.
  • Earlier in the film Vivian told Cinderella if it wasn't for her love for Cinderellas deceased father she would have thrown her out into the street, meaning (unlike other incarnations where she likely married for money and wasn't particularly sad of Cinderella's father dying) she genuinely loved her husband.
  • Due to her first husband leaving her because he didn't approve her going off to a school of music and her second husband dying and both leaving her the burden of being a single mother, may explain her cold and bitter view of the world and taking it out on Cinderella.
    • This might mean despite her cold and harshness towards her, Vivian, might had loved Cinderella and deep down sees her as her own daughter, but her tragic backstory and twisted views of life may had lead to carrying out her frustrations on her step daughter.
  • In her song Dream Girl one verse of the song says about being green and having wings to fly (with the green butterfly), this is likely a reference to Broadway's Wicked where Vivian's actress, Idina Menzel, played the green skinned title character Elphaba.
Advertisement