[DISCUSS] Gaston is better than the Beast

[Kim]

I've recently come to the conclusion that Gaston is better than the beast in basically every way, and every way that he isn't the Beast is just as bad.

Gaston is confident, charismatic, strong, very skilled in his areas of interest, and has a great singing voice. Based on the movie, we can really only say, of these, that the beast is strong. Hell, the movie tries to characterize Gaston as dumb, but he's quick to come up with plans and has a pretty decent vocabulary. He's only dumb if you think the only kind of intelligence that matters is book smarts, which is silly.

Both were evil guys who locked Bell and her father away, but the Beast did it right off the bat. It at least took Gaston time to resort to that. What's more, the Beast locked Bell's dad away for the stupidest fucking reason. At least when Gaston did it, it was part of a plan, even if it was an evil plan.

Ultimately, people compare Gaston at the end of the movie to the Beast at the end of the movie, which really isn't fair. Everything was geared in the Beast's favor from the beginning, in terms of becoming a less terrible person. That's why he was cursed, after all. He had more motivation to become a less terrible person as a result, he also had an entire house full of servants with personal interest in him becoming a less terrible person. He also had Bell's Stockholm Syndrome love to ~change him into a better person~, because we all know that love makes abusive people change their ways.

I mean, say what you will about Gaston, but at least he doesn't have that fucked up moral attached to his character.

[stefan]

Gaston is the one who shot Bambi's mother.

I rest my case.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by stefan

Gaston is the one who shot Bambi's mother.

I rest my case.

Is there anything he cannot do?

No, there is not.

[Solid Snake]

I just told you this on AIM but I'll say it here anyway;

Belle's high point as a character was at the very beginning of the movie, and from there on, she just perpetually regressed from "awesome independent booksmart likable human being" to "submissive stereotypical twit."

Seriously it's like if you could watch the movie in reverse, you'd have a great tale of feminism and self-respect.

[Fifthfiend]

Yeah B&TB was a fucked up movie on a whole lot of levels.

[Gregness]

Wait, I thought general was for Fartz and Butz?

[Kim]

This is a Serious Discussion.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I thought Gaston was supposed to be an arrogant douche who couldn't take a hint, with a dash of predjudice against beastmen thrown in?

I mean yeah the whole thing is still fucked up what with the kidkapping and stockholm syndrome on the beasts part, and Belle herself getting stupider with every passing minute, but at least by the end the beast ended up nice and bettering himself, whereas Gaston was always pretty douchy and just got worse as time went on, culminating in his insane rage boner to kill the beast and get his end away with Belle.

[Solid Snake]

The biggest suspension of disbelief for me was the notion that Gaston, given his personality and his appearance, would be deadset on pursuing Belle when he could (for shallow reasons, but hey) basically have nearly anyone he wanted in the entirety of France.

I mean if you're Gaston and Belle's like "Nah seriously I'm into furries and I like being physically abused beyond even your meager abusive abilities" is it really that much of a loss? She's just a stranger and you're a one-man army of a muscleman who's got an entire damn town swooning over you. It'd be more consistent with his characterization for him to just be like "Your loss, sweet-cheeks" and stumble into the nearest bar in search for a one-night stand.

Also, Belle should have totally pretended to wuv Beast to break the curse and help out all those innocent people trapped in it, then just said to the characters who were once furniture "You really don't want to work for and live with this asshole, do you?" and run off with them, leaving human-Beast to rot in his castle.

Like Belle could have started her own little adventuring troupe there, maybe marry one of the unnamed background servant characters who wasn't a total abusive asshole or something.

/why am I over-analyzing this Disney movie

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

I mean if you're Gaston and Belle's like "Nah seriously I'm into furries and I like being physically abused beyond even your meager abusive abilities" is it really that much of a loss? She's just a stranger and you're a one-man army of a muscleman who's got an entire damn town swooning over you. It'd be more consistent with his characterization for him to just be like "Your loss, sweet-cheeks" and stumble into the nearest bar in search for a one-night stand.

Gaston is a dude with a hugely outsized ego and sense of entitlement and priviledge responding to someone he sees as failing to acknowledge aforementioned priviledge and self-perceived importance.

This is not an area where obsessive, disproportionately aggressive overreactions are unheard of.