Lady Tremaine

Lady Tremaine (also known as the Wicked Stepmother) is the main antagonist of Cinderella and its two sequels. The arch-enemy of Cinderella, Lady Tremaine doesn't harm her stepdaughter physically, but seeks to destroy her psychologically, motivated by jealousy of Cinderella's beauty, as it serves to accentuate the ugliness and awkwardness of the stepmother's own daughters, Anastasia and Drizella. Lady Tremaine is also a socialite, determined to gain higher status by marrying one of her daughters to Prince Charming.

She is often considered the most hated Disney villain, being very cold, calculated, bitter and ruthless, and also for maltreating her stepdaughter even when there is no material gain to be made; she locks Cinderella in her tower room when she knows her own daughters won't fit the glass slipper.

PersonalityEdit
Unlike most other Disney villains, Lady Tremaine doesn't possess any magical powers or exert any physical force. She strongly believes in maintaining grace and self-control, reminding her daughters of this when the two fight during their music lesson. The only time she herself breaks this rule is, ironically, at this point when Cinderella interrupts the music lesson to bring Lady Tremaine the invitation to the Royal Ball, she slams her hands onto the keys of the piano in frustration. She is very cruel to Cinderella; an example is when she repeatedly silences her when Lady Tremaine orders her to do chores in the chateau. She even does the same to Anatasia and Drizella occasionally.

DesignEdit
Lady Tremaine appears to be old, but has aged well. She has gray hair shaped like two buns, green earings and a red gown.

CinderellaEdit
Lady Tremaine is introduced in the prologue of the film. Young Cinderella's father, a widower, anxious for his daughter to have a mother figure, married Lady Tremaine, who is described as a woman of good family, with two daughters of her own, and a cat named Lucifer. After Cinderella's father died, Lady Tremaine showed her true colors, pampering her own daughters while forcing Cinderella to become a servant in her own home. After the prologue, it is revealed that Cinderella lives in a small room at the top of the tower in her house.

Lady Tremaine consents that Cinderella may attend the Royal Ball - that is, if she can finish all her chores and find a suitable dress. She and her daughters then proceed to heap chore after chore on Cinderella. When, despite this, Cinderella appears ready for the Ball in a suitable dress (her mother's, altered to be more fashionable by her mice and bird friends), Lady Tremaine (indirectly but intentionally) causes her daughters to tear apart Cinderella's dress, leaving her unable to attend the ball. When Cinderella, with the help of the Fairy Godmother, nevertheless attends the ball, her stepfamily does not recognize her. This was because of a combination of their belief that Cinderella was at home with her dress in tatters- a dress very different style to her new dress at that -and that she was made up so very differently to her usual appearance, but Lady Tremaine notes a familiarity about her as she dances with Prince Charming. She is not, however, permitted to study Cinderella long enough to make the connection.

At the news that the Prince will marry the girl whose foot fits in the glass slipper (it having been accidentally left behind by Cinderella at the Ball), Cinderella becomes quite distracted and falls into a dreamlike state, dancing and singing to herself. Lady Tremaine makes the connection that Cinderella must somehow have attended the ball and danced with the Prince, and realizing the identity of the mysterious girl at the Ball, quietly follows Cinderella up the tower and locks her in her room, putting the key in her pocket.

The Duke then arrives with the glass slipper, which both Anastasia and Drizella attempt to force their feet into. While this is happening (prologued by the stepsisters' repeated attempts to get the slipper to fit their own feet), two mice, Jaq and Gus, steal the key from Lady Tremaine's pocket and bring it to the door of Cinderella's room. Though delayed by Lucifer, the mice succeed in returning the key to Cinderella, who rushes downstairs to the Duke. Lady Tremaine, in her determination to keep Cinderella from getting a happy ending that her own daughters will not, trips up the servant bearing the glass slipper, causing it to smash. However, Cinderella reveals that she has the other slipper, and that it fits her foot, much to her stepmother's horror.

Cinderella II: Dreams Come TrueEdit
Lady Tremaine made her second film appearance in the direct-to-video sequel Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, this time voiced by Susan Blakeslee. In this film, she only appeared in the An Uncommon Romance segment, where Anastasia has to go against her mother for the first time. Lady Tremaine is shown to be cold towards her own daughters, forbidding Anastasia from entering a relationship with a common baker's boy, since she still wants her daughters to marry wealthy husbands.

Cinderella III: A Twist in TimeEdit
Her latest appearance - and her most significant role so far - was in the second direct-to-video Cinderella sequel, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (once again voiced by Blakeslee). This time, she acquires the Fairy Godmother's magic wand after Anastasia finds it. Lady Tremaine, intent on ruining Cinderella's happy ending and stealing it for her own daughters (turning Cinderella back into her slave), uses the wand to reverse time to undo Cinderella's "happily ever after". She also enchants the glass slipper to fit Anastasia so that Cinderella never gets to try on the slipper herself, then uses the wand to enchant Prince Charming into forgetting Cinderella and marrying Anastasia instead. Most notably, she uses the magic wand to transform Anastasia into the mirror image of Cinderella (making her beautiful), and teleports the genuine Cinderella into a pumpkin, which becomes a twisted parody of the original coach from the first film, and transforms Lucifer into its coachman, to take her far away from the palace and to her death.

Ultimately, Anastasia is her mother's undoing; she comes to feel reluctant to marry somebody under false pretenses- while she cares for the prince, he does not love her legitimately, and she cannot bear to live the rest of her life pretending to be something she is not, even if she has a beautiful face.

Furious, Lady Tremaine tries to turn both Cinderella and Anastasia into toads, but the Prince defends the two from the spell and reflects it back with his sword, turning Lady Tremaine and Drizella into toads instead. Anastasia then restores herself to normal before giving the magic wand to Cinderella so that she can undo all the wrongs that have been committed. During the end credits, Lady Tremaine and Drizella have been restored, but are wearing scullery clothes identical to those Cinderella used to wear, implying that they will be working in the palace under Cinderella's authority as their punishment for the cruelty she endured under her stepmother.

Role in Ultima
In Ultima, Lady Tremaine has been freed from her servitude by Maleficent in order to join the Organization because of her cunning intellect and scheming. She has now been given her own dark version of the magic wand to use for stealth missions, and is a recurring enemy of the Society Team 36.