Beast (Disney)/Synopsis

Past
In the comic book prequel to the films, The New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is shown as the human prince Adam roughly ten years before the events of the first film. He is brought up in a sophisticated and strict manner due to his royal status, but was very bitter and cruel towards everyone, especially his servants. He was skilled in academics and sportsmanship, and especially enjoyed hunting, though his hunts often were inhumane, including one where he attempted to shoot a fawn. He also had a horse named Thunder, but showed no love towards it and treated it poorly, causing it to run away. Adam would lash out at everyone, including hitting an old woman (who was later revealed to be the Enchantress) when she annoyed him. Despite this, he did harbor a softness for Mrs. Potts and her son Chip, as they were always too kind to him for him to become angry at.

However, one Christmas Eve, an old woman came to the castle and asked for shelter from the bitter cold outside, offering a beautiful rose as payment. However, Adam was disgusted by her appearance and poverty and turned her away. She warned him not to judge solely by appearances, but he dismissed her again. Suddenly, her ugly appearance disappeared, and she transformed into a beautiful Enchantress. Adam attempted to apologize, but she saw the darkness and evil in his heart and punished him, transforming his body to match his soul, into the form of a monstrous beast. She then placed a spell on the castle, transforming all who lived there into household items and transforming the castle into a dark, cold place. She then gave him a magic mirror as his only view of the outside world. She also gave him the rose, which was enchanted. It would bloom until his twenty-first birthday; if he could learn to love another and earn her love in return, he, his castle, and his servants would be freed. If not, they would remain cursed for eternity.

Adam, now known as the Beast, fell into depression and despair. His violent temper only grew, and he lashed out and became enraged at everything, even destroying the West Wing of his castle and one of his favorite childhood toys in his fits. Though the servants tried to help him with his temper and continue his education, he would too often become furious and lash out.

Eventually, when the rose first started to wilt, the Beast lost all hope and attempted to live out in the wild. He failed, ending up falling off a small cliff and being knocked unconscious, only to be rescued by Chip and the footstool dog Sultan.

Meeting Belle
In Beauty and the Beast, an inventor from a nearby town named Maurice went on his way to a fair. However, he became lost, and was chased off of his path by a pack of vicious wolves. He found himself at the Beast's castle, where he was taken in by the servants and cared for. However, the Beast arrived and saw Maurice as an intruder, proceeding to violently kidnap him and lock him in the dungeon.

Maurice's daughter, Belle, then arrived at the castle to rescue her father, but was caught by the Beast. She offered herself to take her father's place, and the Beast agreed, seeing it as a way to possibly learn love with this beautiful girl. He threw Maurice out and had him taken back to the town. After some convincing from his servants, the Beast allowed Belle to move out of the castle's tower and into a bedroom, though he tried to force her to join him for dinner. When she refused and stayed in her room, the Beast became infuriated and decreed that she should not eat unless it was with him. He then left to sulk in the West Wing of the castle, where he uses the enchanted mirror to look in on Belle and overhear her speaking to the Wardrobe about how much of a monster he was.

Saving Belle
Belle eventually came out of her room, and was treated to a secret dinner by the servants. She then wandered into the West Wing of the castle and came upon the enchanted rose, which she attempted to touch. However, the Beast stopped her and lashed out again. Belle fled the castle, only to be attacked by the wolves that had attacked her father. However, just as she was cornered, the Beast arrived, having felt remorse for scaring her away and coming to save her. he fights off all of the wolves, but is badly injured. Belle takes the Beast back to the castle and tends to his wounds, an newfound respect having grown.

Wanting to do something kind for Belle in return for her kindness, the Beast gives her access to his library and the thousands of books he has. In return, Belle decides to teach the Beast to be more civilized and put up with his more aggressive moments.

Belle's Magical World
In the midquel, Belle and the Beast continue to try and get along, though they have issues. The Beast does several rude gestures that annoy Belle, though he stands by the fact "his castle, his rules". He grows angry at Belle and his servant Webster for objecting to him. The Beast refuses to apologize, so servants Webster, Crane, and LePlume forge a fake apology letter to Belle. This angers the Beast so much that he banishes the three from the castle, decreeing that any who comfort or try to let them back in will be punished. Belle brings them back, and the Beat later realizes the error of his actions and apologizes.

Later, Belle saves a bird with a broken wing, only for the Beast to lash out due to hating birds. However, in his outrage, he falls down some stairs and hits his head, completely forgetting about his hatred for birds. However, he captures the bird and puts it in a cage in his room, demanding it to sing for him. Belle explains that the bird will only sing if it is happy, and the Beast learns to let the bird free.

Christmastime
Belle and the Beast soon reconcile, but still occasionally butt heads. As Christmas approaches, Belle wants to celebrate, but the Beast has forbade it due to his hatred of the holiday, mostly because Christmas Eve was the day the Enchantress curses him. However, he does relent to let Belle have her celebration, but wants to sit it out. Behind the scenes, one of Beast's servants, Maestro Forte, is plotting to break up the growing friendship/romance with Belle and the Beast so that they can remain under the spell forever, as he likes his new form and likes that the Beast comes to him for advice and to play his music. He manipulates the Beast and encourages him to not fall in love.

Belle decides to do something kind for the Beast by writing him a book to give as a Christmas present. She also meets Forte later on in a chance meeting. Forte then manipulates her, telling her that the Beast used to love Christmas, and that his favorite tradition was the tree. He then lies to her and tells her large Christmas trees can be found in the woods right outside the castle grounds. Belle disobeys the Beast's orders to not leave the castle to get a tree, but falls through thin ice.

The Beast cannot find Belle, and Forte tells him she has abandoned him. He goes out to look for her, and saves her from freezing and drowning. However, he believes she was trying to run away, and locks her in the dungeon. However he finds Belle's gift to him and realizes what she was trying to do, and lets her go. They prepare to celebrate Christmas together, but Forte becomes enraged and tries to destroy the castle with his music. Beast makes his way to Forte's chamber and destroys his keyboard, casing Faorte to not be able to continue his music. He angrily rips himself from the wall in an attempt to fight, but loses his balance and falls down on his face, killing him. Beast mourns Forte's death, but realizes that his old friend was too dangerous and evil to continue on. Despite the loss, the Beast still celebrates Christmas with Belle and the others.

Marvel Comics
In a thirteen issue Beauty and the Beast comic series by Marvel Comics, the Beast has a nightmare and becomes angry for the rest of the day because of it. He explains the situation to Belle, who invites him to participate in a surprise birthday party for the Wardrobe. He reluctantly agrees, but becomes angry and begins acting out when the Wardrobe failed to show up for the party. The issue was eventually resolved, and the party went as planned.

Later, Belle decides to reteach the Beast how to read and write, which he had forgotten to do as a result of his curse and more "animal" mind. He became frustrated at his lack of progress and tried to have Lumière write a poem and pass it off as his. belle saw right through it, however, and decided that she would teach him, albeit stricter.

Later, Belle and Chip get lost in a snowstorm, and the Beast heroically saves them both. He tends to Belle and even has breakfast served to her in bed.He then helped her around and even helped her find hollies to help make her happy.

The Beast and Belle are later seen reading in the library, when an open window blows in snow and ruins Belle's favorite book. The Beast tries to comfort her, but accidentally insults the book. He repairs the book after a suggestion from Chip, and gives it to Belle as a gift.

He later begins thinking and lamenting about his past evils, putting him in a bad mood and causing him to lash out at Sultan and Mrs. Potts, which he had never done before. He realizes his mistake and joins Belle for dinner. When Sultan accidentally ruins Belle's dessert, he shows a sudden maturity by not getting angry and instead being thankful and pleased that Belle even made a dessert for him.

Disney Adventures
In the Disney Adventures comics, the Beast tries a spa day to make himself less scary to look at, but fails, even though Belle is charmed by the gesture.

However, one day, the Beast is in one of his bad moods again, but later saved Chip from another blizzard. He reveals that he was once betrothed to another woman, but she disappeared and he never saw her past their childhoods.

Ballroom Dance
As Belle and the Beast grow closer together, they finally decide to have a dinner date. The Beast gets cleaned up ans puts on a regal costume, then joins Belle for dinner. At the end of the meal, Belle leads Beast to the ballroom and shows him how to dance. He quickly picks up on it, and the two dance together in the ballroom. It is at that point where the two finally fall in love with each other, and end the night out on the balcony.

The Beast asks Belle if she is happy, and she says that she is. However, she also misses her father and would like to see him again. The Beast remembers his magic mirror and takes Belle over to the West Wing to give it to her. She uses it to see her father, who has become lost in the cold woods looking for her. As she worries about her father, the Beast decides that he cares too much for her and her father, and lets Belle go to find her father, giving her the magic mirror as a gift. Belle agrees and thanks him, then leaves. Believing that she would never return and all hope for the curse being lifted was gone, the Beast lets out a roar as Belle goes off to find her father.

Siege on the Castle
After Belle saves her father, she is approached by Monsieur D'Arque, LeFou, and an angry mob led by Gaston LeGume, who want to throw her father in an insane asylum because of his stories and ramblings about a "beast". Belle stands up to them by using the magic mirror to show them the Beast and prove her father is not insane, but they simply see him as a monster and head off to siege the castle and kill the Beast.

Gaston and the others arrive at the castle, but the Beast orders no counterattack due to his depression. The mob enters the castle, but is fought off by the servants. Gaston gets away and finds the Beast, shooting an arrow into his back and knocking him through a window onto the rooftops. Beast sadly waits for Gaston to finish him off, but Belle returns. Seeing that hope is not lost, the Beast finally works up the strength and courage to fight back against Gaston, dueling him on the jagged rooftops of the castle. He finally manages to overpower Gaston and grab his throat, dangling him over the edge. Gaston pleads for his life, and the Beast pities him. He pulls him back and simply tells him to get out. He then sees Belle calling to him from a nearby balcony and climbs up to meet her. However, he is stabbed in the back by Gaston, causing him to fail and roar in pain. Gaston loses his grip and falls off of the castle to his death.

Death and Return
The Beast begins to suffer from his wound, though Belle tries to comfort him. He is thankful that he got to see Belle one last time, but then succumbs to his wound and dies. Belle cries over his body and announces that she loves him just as the last petal of the rose falls. As the Beast learned to love and had someone confess her love for him in return before the last petal fell, the criteria for the spell to be broken were met. Magic lifts the Beast from the ground and transforms him to a human again, while also restoring him to life. Belle sees him as a human for the first time, and the two share a kiss that breaks the rest of the spell, transforming all the servants back into humans and the castle back to its former glory.

The Beast, now back to his former form as Adam, and Belle then open the castle to the town and share another dance.

Beauty and the Beat: Belle's Royal Wedding
In this short story sequel, Adam gets roses for he and Belle's wedding and gives her a book as a wedding gift. She, in turn, invites all of the remorseful villagers to the wedding to show how loved he truly is. He loves the gift, and the two are married.

Second Christmas Celebration
In the sequel, Beauty and the Beast 2:The Enchanted Christmas, taking place a year after the original film, it is Christmastime again in the castle, and all the servants prepare for the holiday. They tell the story of Adam and Belle's first Christmas together, and the film ends with Adam giving Belle a rose as a Christmas gift.

Past
Prince Adam was once a calm child. Though his servants and his mother (the Queen) tried to give him a through education and raise him to become as, he was constantly corrupted by his wicked and manipulative father (the King) after the Queen died succumbing to an illness. Following the King's death, the Prince becomes as arrogant as his father, even raising taxes on the villages to fund parties for himself. It was not until one winter night during a debutante ball, a visiting enchantress named Agathe placed a spell on the Prince as punishment for denying her any shelter, transforming him into the Beast and the servants into household objects. After erasing the memory of the castle from the townsfolk, Agathe tells the Beast that he can break the spell by learning to love another and earn her love in return before the enchanted rose's last petal falls, otherwise his monstrous form will remain and that the servants will become permanent antiques, much to their distraught.

Because of this event, the Beast felt so extremely ashamed of his actions and despised his deceased father for causing his pain; even furiously tearing up a family portrait of himself and the King in retaliation (though the portrait of the Queen remains intact as the Beast still mourns for her death). Even the servants felt depressed over their role in the event, as they are full of regret of letting the Beast becoming so arrogant due to the King's treatment.

Meeting Belle
As a old music inventor named Maurice wandered into the castle after being lost, the Beast silently watched as Maurice surf through the castle. However, Maurice decides to leave the castle, but not before he spots a rose in the castle garden. Maurice tries to take the rose, but the Beast catches him in the act and locks him up in the dungeon.

When Belle runs to the rescue, she spots Maurice inside the dungeon before meeting up with the Beast, who reveals that's he locking Maurice up for life for trying to steal the rose. Belle pleads with the Beast to let Maurice go by taking his place, revealing that she's the one who told Maurice to get the rose for her. The Beast grudgingly obliges and lets Maurice and Belle say their goodbyes, before letting Maurice go and locking up Belle in the dungeon.

Eventually, Belle is freed by Lumiere, who gives her a room and he and the other servants intend to incur Belle into making a relationship with the Beast. Upon hearing of this, the Beast is less than thrilled as he finds the idea to be completely ridiculous. Nevertheless, the servants convince the Beast to try by stating that the time is slowly going. Despite this, Belle refuses to dine with the Beast, who decides to let her starve as retaliation for her refusal.

Rescuing Belle from the Wolves
It wasn't until Belle went into the West Wing (against the servants' orders), that the Beast spotted her and angrily ordered her out. Fed up with this, Belle decides to leave the castle with her horse Phillipe, though they end up being attacked by a pack of wolves. However, feeling guilty for frightening Belle away in the first place, the Beast comes to the rescue by fighting against the wolves before roaring at them to scare them away. The Beast then falls unconscious due to his injuries inflicted by the wolves, and Belle decides to return him back to the castle as thanks.

After tending to the Beast's injuries, Belle is told of the Beast's backstory by the servants, who admit of their regret of letting the King abuse the Beast.

Forming a Relationship with Belle
After recuperating from his injuries, the Beast listens as Belle reads him stories to cheer him up. The Beast then shows her castle library, admitting that he had an expensive education during his childhood. As time goes, the Beast takes a hobby in reading more books with Belle and taking walks around the garden; he even showed a magical book left by Agathe that transports anyone to anywhere around the world. Using the magical book, Belle transports herself and the Beast to an old mill in Paris where she was born. Spotting a plague mask and a baby rose rattle inside mill, the Beast deduced that Belle's mother was infected by a plague and that Maurice was forced to leave her while taking a infant Belle (per her mother's orders) away to safety. As such, the Beast apologized to Belle for his behavior towards Maurice.

After returning to the castle, Belle and the Beast have a dance, just as Belle reminisced of the time she danced with Maurice as a child. Feeling that Belle misses her father so much, the Beast gave her the magic mirror to look, where they are horrified to learn that Maurice is being tormented by Gaston and the villagers for his silly cravings of the Beast and Gaston's attempted murder on him. Despite knowing that the rose is withering away, the Beast decides to let Belle go free to save Maurice, even apologizing to the servants and telling them to await their fate along with himself.

Siege on the Castle
Belle saves her father by using the magic mirror to prove the Beast's existence, but Gaston, fearing that his attempted murder on Maurice would be exposed and being jealous of Belle's relationship with the Beast, snaps out by goading the villagers to help him kill the Beast. To that end, Gaston locks up Belle and Maurice in the asylum cart to prevent them from warning the Beast, though Maurice uses Belle's hair pin to free themselves before allowing Belle to run back to the castle

Gaston and the villagers arrive at the castle, but they fought off and driven away by the servants. However, Gaston gets away and shoots the Beast, who is too depressed to fight back. Though Belle arrives to rescue by destroying Gaston's arrows before calling out to the Beast. Seeing that Belle has returned, the Beast regains his will to live and fought back against the Gaston, coldly telling him that he's not a beast on the inside as Gaston thinks.

Shoving Gaston away, the Beast angrily orders him to leave just as he jumps back to the balcony to reunite with Belle. Unfortunately, Gaston finds his guns and shoot the Beast in the back twice, much to Belle's horror. However, the drawbridge starts to break (due to the curse slowly crumbling it thanks to the Beast's injuries), causing a screaming Gaston to fall to his death.

Death and Return
As the Beast succumbs to his death, he sadly tells Belle that his time has come, taking solace in the fact that he got to see her again one last time, just as the final rose petal falls. The Beast then dies, and all the servants accept their fate in becoming inanimate objects, much to Belle's distraught. As Belle tearfully proclaims to the Beast that she loves him, her sorrow is lifted when an arriving Agathe witnessed the scene and uses the rose petals to revive and transform the Beast back into the handsome prince he was before. As Belle and the Prince kiss, the curse is lifted, all the servants are turned back to normal, and the villagers' memories of the castles are restored as they recognized some of the servants as their lost-lost relatives.

With the curse uplifted for good, the Prince happily reunites with his servants and is last seen performing a ball alongside Belle, the servants and the villagers by his side.