Theory Thursday: Prince? Over What?

Although it was nominated for an academy award for best picture, and it was the first animated feature to gain that honor, Beauty and the Beast has had more plot holes and unanswered questions than my last 4 dates. What is the Beast’s real name? Where are his parents? How does chip exist? But the one that has bugged me for the longest time has been the fact that Beast is definitely a prince (it’s mentioned in the beginning of the film) but what was he prince over?

Welcome to Theory Thursday

So, 10 minutes from the little town (it’s a quiet village) is a wolf infested forest. We know that the castle can’t be too far away from the quiet village (every day like the one before) because Gaston and his men were able to ride through the wolf infested forest and get to the castle with relative ease. No one in the little town (full of little people) seems to remember that there was a castle in the forest and it’s only been 10 years. Most people that we see in the town (I ran out of lines from the song) are old enough to be able to remember 10 years ago.

At the beginning, we have a beautiful stain glass montage of Elsa turning the Beast into the Beast, an often referenced window is this one.

left side is before. right side is after.

The two sides of the window show the differences after the curse was cast, note that the castle is not the only thing directly affected. The forest was also, so was the weather (another point that Elsa is the enchantress. She does weather).

Now I have pointed out several times that the forest is filled with Wolves that are apparently extremely hungry. When the enchantress cast the spell, it effected all the servants in the castle. Luminaire mentions that they have been rusting 10 years needing exercise and a chance to use their skill. They literally are trying to keep themselves sane until the curse could be broken. Their situation is different since they still get to serve beast, but what about the villagers in the town from the window? We know it’s not the village Belle is from because none of the villiagers remember the castle and the castle is not visible from any point in the town, so the only logical point is that the town in the window was transformed into the dark and scary forest in the same window.

Now the villagers, spoiler: they are the wolves. The villagers, since they had no goal other than their own survival, they ended up losing their entire identity and became carnivorous creatures. Notice that in the entire fight with the wolves, Beast does not permanently hurt any of them (maybe that one against the tree, over all though,not bad). All the wolves escape as far as I can tell. 

Why? They are under the same curse.

Once the curse is lifted, we never see the woods again. We never hear about the wolves again, and out of the woodwork we have a lot of people showing up at the castle that were nowhere in the original village.

The theory: Beast was prince over a village that was cursed to become the woods, and the villagers were transformed into the wolves.

What do you think? What are some other questions that Beauty and the Beast leave you with? Let me know in the comment section below

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