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This Pure Evil was Headlined on February, 2022. | ||
| “ | And He shall smite the wicked, and plunge them into the fiery pit! | „ |
| ~ Frollo's most famous quote, as well as his blasphemous last words before suffering his very ironic demise. |
Judge Claude Frollo, also simply known as Frollo, is the main antagonist of Disney's 34th full-length animated feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is based on the 1831 French novel of the same name by the late Victor Hugo.
He is the religious Minister of Justice in the city of Paris who uses his position to enrich himself and persecute those he considers inferior, especially the city's Romani. He is the also the abusive ex-foster father and arch-nemesis of Quasimodo.
He was voiced by the late Tony Jay, who also voiced Lord Dregg in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Megabyte in ReBoot, Baron Mordo in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, The Elder God in Legacy of Kain and Machestro in Xyber 9: New Dawn.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?
- He devoted his life to a genocidal crusade against the Romani people, persecuting them on account of their ethnicity and race which confirms he has both racist and supremacist views.
- He chased and then murdered Quasimodo's mother in the prologue merely under the suspicion that she was running off with stolen goods.
- Even worse, he killed her right on the steps of Notre Dame, which was extremely blasphemous to his religion.
- He was immediately disgusted by Quasimodo's appearance upon seeing him and attempted to drown him in a nearby well, only to be stopped by the Archdeacon, who reminded him that the eyes of Notre Dame are watching him.
- He adopted Quasimodo in order to make up for the sin of killing his mother, but not out of any actual remorse, guilt or regret, but due to fear of God's wrath. He also claimed that the child would one day be useful to his schemes.
- And even then he's far from a decent parent, keeping him in isolation for 20 years, within that duration emotionally and psychologically abusing him into poor self-esteem and the belief that he's a monster and forcing him call him “master”, not saving him from the crowd torturing him as punishment for disobedience (while he wasn't wrong that people would bully Quasi for his appearance, this still doesn't excuse Frollo's actions), and attacking him the day after he helps Esmeralda escape the cathedral.
- He casually has his former captain of the guard tortured (probably to death, and presumably for his failure to hunt the Romani) with a whip, displaying clear sadism.
- He is misogynistic. Through his lustful interactions with Esmeralda, it's already clear that he was intending to rape her. In the cathedral, he grabs Esmeralda's wrist and was extremely close behind her, saying that "gypsies don't do well inside stone walls" while sniffing her hair. During his song "Hellfire", he sings, "Or let her be mine and mine alone", referencing Esmeralda as he grabs the smoke representing her against his body.
- He sets fire to a large part of Paris, possibly killing many innocents. He even directly attempts to burn a family alive simply because he falsely concludes they're traitors on the flabby grounds that they've accommodated Roma in the past.
- He attempts to have Phoebus promptly executed for not following his orders to burn a family alive.
- He attempts to rape Esmeralda by forcing her into a double bind between submitting to him or burning alive, due to his own insatiable lust for her, and attempts to burn Esmeralda at the stake when she refuses his offer.
- He attacks and defiles the Notre Dame cathedral while throwing the old Archdeacon down the stairs.
- He attempts to murder his own foster son, Quasimodo, when the latter wrenches free from his guardian's grasp, even after Quasimodo saves Frollo from falling just moments before.
- He did not have any remorse for any of his actions, instead claiming to be a "just and righteous man" who served God under his name. If he ever recognized his actions as immoral, he'd quickly blame it on other people or just not care about it.
- He lacks any comedic moments (although his humor is very twisted, morbid, edgy and dark), tragic backstory, and/or redeeming qualities whatsoever and as a result is played completely seriously in-universe, thus solidifying his arrogant, cruel and sadistic nature.
Trivia
- In the original Victor Hugo novel, Frollo isn't nearly as evil as in the film. On the contrary, the novel depicts Frollo willingly adopting Quasimodo out of genuine mercy after his parents abandoned him. He is even caring towards his foster son until Esmeralda comes on, leading Frollo's lust and obsession over her to begin his slow descent into insanity and villainy. Thus, Frollo is Pure Evil in the animated film, but nowhere near it in the original novel.
- Despite the number of Pure Evil villains Disney has, Judge Claude Frollo has been considered by many the worst of them all, primarily due to his realism.
- One could argue, however, that the Horned King and Coachman are technically worse; the former attempts genocide on a much greater scale than that of a single ethnic group simply to be exalted as a god rather than out of delusional prejudice, and the latter is essentially a more family-friendly (yet even crueler) depiction of a child slaver/trafficker who also completely, irrevocably strips hundreds (if not thousands) of boys of their identity and humanity. Given Frollo's relative realism, he could instead be considered the darkest.
- The producers of the movie have directly stated that Disney's version of Frollo is based off another Pure Evil, that being Amon Goeth's depiction in Schindler's List.
- To help drive the point of Judge Claude Frollo being pure evil, just like a lot of villains here like Koba, Femto and Starscream (Cyberverse), he's infamous on this wiki for the fact that he would have easily been a hate sink if it weren't for Word of God declaring him as a Tragic and 3-Dimensional character.
- Frollo seems to care about his horse, Snowball, as he ordered his soldiers not to harm him when Pheobus tries to escape. Though very likely, he did not have any real care for him, but just needed him as a means of transportation.
- It is an irony that he is a complete foil to Esmeralda who is Chaotic Good and Pure Good, while Frollo is Lawful Evil and Pure Evil.
External Links
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Villains Wiki
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Disney Wiki
- Judge Claude Frollo on the VS Battles Wiki
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