Maleficent

"But, 'beast' is so harsh. I prefer Maleficent."

- Maleficent to Prince Charming

Maleficent is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the second episode of the first season. She is portrayed by Kristin Bauer van Straten, and is the Enchanted Forest counterpart of Maleficent.

Maleficent is based on the Wicked Fairy character from the fairytale "Sleeping Beauty".

Before the Curse
Many years ago, Maleficent is bested by Sleeping Beauty. Years later, Maleficent inflicts Sleeping Beauty's daughter, Aurora, with the sleeping curse, putting both the princess and her kingdom into a thorn-adorned ruin. The reason and circumstances for this currently remains unknown.

She transforms Prince Phillip into a beast known as the Yaoguai and banishes him to a far away land, Mulan's kingdom, so that he is incapable of reaching Aurora.

In order to punish Snow White, the Evil Queen trades Maleficent the dark curse, which has been created by Rumplestiltskin, in exchange for Maleficent's sleeping curse.

Prince Charming is tasked by Rumplestiltskin in a deal to hide a potion inside the belly of a beast. He heads to the location and encounters Maleficent sitting on a throne in the middle of an empty room. He asks where the beast is and does not expect Maleficent to transform into an enormous fire-breathing dragon. In her dragon form, she shoots streams of fire at Prince Charming and chases him around the room. Prince Charming manages to hide behind a pillar from her sight, and he gets the idea to throw the potion into Maleficent's body via the flap behind her ear. He succeeds, and when he does, Maleficent roars in anger, but Prince Charming jumps out of the glass castle window in time to avoid another one of her fire breaths.

Later, after Maleficent is defeated, she retires and lives with her unicorn, until the day the Evil Queen comes to her. Frustrated at the failure of the sleeping curse, which was broken by true love's kiss, the Queen desires the dark curse once more, but Maleficent refuses, proclaiming that they made a deal and the curse belongs to her now. She keeps the curse held in the orb of her staff, and when she refuses to willingly hand it over, the Queen challenges her to a magic spar. The Queen draws fire from the fireplace, and Maleficent jumps away. Regina throws the fireball at Maleficent, who uses her staff to protrude a magic shield and block the fire. The Queen then collects all the weapons from the room and sets them to Maleficent but changes them and directs them at the unicorn. Maleficent jumps in front to intervene, blocks the weapons, but the Queen drops the overhanging chandelier above Maleficent, who then is tied up with the metal of it and then thrown into the wall. She believes she will be killed, but the Queen states she would never do that since Maleficent is her only friend. Free to get the curse's recipe from her friendly-rival's clutches, the Queen is warned of the curse's dangers and of how it would leave a void in her, but she takes this all in stride and leaves.

When the Evil Queen casts the curse, the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest, including Maleficent, are engulfed and transported to world without magic.

For events occurring after the casting of the Dark Curse, see Maleficent.

Trivia

 * The Once Upon a Time adaption of her character is based primarily on Maleficent from the Disney film Sleeping Beauty:
 * The name "Maleficent" is an invention of the writers; she is identified only as an evil fairy in the original tales.
 * The staff she uses resembles the staff Maleficent uses in the Disney film, and her costume is primarily inspired by this.
 * In Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent had a pet raven named Diablo. On the Once Upon a Time series, she has a pet unicorn.
 * Maleficent's outfit and hairstyle from "The Thing You Love Most" was featured in the Facebook game Sorority Life during the Fairytale Adventure travel abroad series.