- He's legally blind. He just pretends to see, calling Cinderella beautiful and such, and has been trained so well to pretend he can see that it is as if he is not blind to all outsiders who don't know. He can also sense what people are like with a Magic Eye (given by his fairy godfather).
- Considering the fact that he was being set up with meeting all the eligible bachelorettes of the land (against his will), he was probably pretty hammered by the time he was dancing with Cinderella. Luckily for the prince, the shoe was left behind.
- He's treated basically like a rockstar (look at the scene when he's surround by girls after Cinderella runs off - he doesn't get too far now, does he?) So it could have been impossible without injury for himself (even in a carriage) to have gone out without eligible maidens hounding him.
- "I'm looking for a blonde who wore a silver dress to the ball." At a time when hair bleaching, while not common, was possible, he had to use one thing he knew no girl could fake as a cover - as in, "If your foot size is bigger then 4 1/2 don't bother trying."
- Check the release of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. She may have only married Cinderella's father for his money and aristocrat status, then secretly poisoned him and made it look like an illness, similar to the Trunchbull in Matilda.
- One of the tie-in books confirms this (he had an allergy to cats.) No wonder she had Lucifer. She used him as part of her murder scheme. If she had been a tad bit nicer, then no Lucifer.
- This possibility is presumably backed up in Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, because Lady Tremaine dismisses Anastasia's dicovery of what love is by saying that love isn't necessary when they can have power, which likely means that she just married Cinderella's father for his wealth and power and disposed of him once he outlived his usefulness.
- It's jossed in the live-action film, however. Cinderella's father died naturally, which triggered Lady Tremaine's Despair Event Horizon (she's more symptomatic here). But that's an alternate continuity, so the theory is still open (and all but confirmed in Kingdom Hearts).
- Taking this theory further, who's to say Cinderella's father was her first victim? She may have pulled the same stunt on Drizella and Anastasia's father, and potentially Cinderella's biological mother. This raises some unsettling questions of what she would have done if one of her daughters succeeded in marrying the prince...
- What if... The stepmother was just helping a poor orphan girl and Cinderella agreed to all her chores. The day of the ball, she decided to steal the stepsisters' belongings to make her own dress, so they punished her with what they considered a humane punishment, and Cinderella later exploited the poor woman by claiming forced labour! After all, she did always say "Yes, stepmother".
- Alternatively, there could be no mistreatment because Cinderella was a Spoiled Brat. Her father married again partially so she would have a mother figure, but Cinderella did not want to share him so she mistreated her new family, but claimed the reverse whenever they disciplined her. Many novels and reconstructions from the stepsisters' point of view take this tack.
- Maybe the whole thing was a fantasy from a paranoid Ella that dreaded the day her father would re-marry to another woman...only for the revelation that the real stepfamily is/was Fairy Godmother and two kindly brothers named Jaq and Gus?
The main Disney page compares the two through Reused Character Design, and each does appear to be a Gender Flip of the other to some degree. Also note that several of the last names and terminology (e.g. "chateau") would indicate Cinderella takes place in a French universe. (Double points considering that Disney borrowed most if not all of its source material from Perrault's version). Finally, both Lady Tremaine and Frollo are abusive to those around them who are weak, vulnerable, and able to be controlled. It Runs in the Family.
Despite Tangled taking place in Germany-does that mean Mother Gothel could also be related to LT and Frollo?
Eleanor Audley voiced both female characters, so that's a starting point. Audley also pulls off a wonderful British accent with evil undertones, just like Tony Jay. Lady Tremaine is a first- or second-degree relative to Maleficent, and part of the reason for Tremaine's own bitterness and abuse is that she doesn't have Maleficent's magical abilities. Thus, she can't have exactly the type and breadth of power she wants. She has to settle for locking Cinderella in the attic when the prince comes looking for her, which is a weak ploy almost immediately defeated thanks to sentient mice. Meanwhile, Maleficent gets to try killing her quarry. (As noted above, all this could be a result of the Fairy Godmother's interference, thus adding insult to injury for Tremaine). As for Frollo, he claims Tremaine as a relative but probably wouldn't claim Maleficent, considering his feelings on witchcraft.
Two out of three of their nemeses are voiced by the same woman. Two out of three villains are evil stepmothers. All three villains are, to some degree, jealous of the princess in question's beauty (inner and outer) and use that as either a primary or secondary motive (with Maleficent, the primary motive is being snubbed at Aurora's christening). Two out of three villains have magical powers that would allow them to kill their target if they were not defeated, and the one who doesn't have powers (Lady Tremaine) has to settle for doing the best she can with mortal means and thus being humiliated in a big way.
In addition, Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty are not only the first three Disney princesses, but are also the three most passive and Princess Classic types of the entire line, with Mary Sue or Purity Sue personalities. Their physical appearances are quite similar, except that Snow White is the only brunette. None of them fall in love with princes who have definable personalities—heck, they don't even talk much. All three have the Friend to All Living Things trait, and Cinderella's animal friends are even sentient. Two out of three experience a "sleeping death" climax. It follows that...
They're either all bent on making the same girl's life totally miserable, or Disney really wanted practice with this whole princess story thing.
She certainly has the right personality for a witch, but doesn't show powers in her film. This could be of her own volition because she saw an opportunity for greater evil and power in the mortal realm, but then blew it. Or, if she's related to/a reincarnation of Maleficent and the Evil Queen, it could be that they all agreed Tremaine would be the one out of the trio who would relinquish her powers to wreak havoc in a (slightly) more realistic, mortally bound universe.
Check the similarities. Both women have a form of Ella as some portion of their name or their whole name. Both are blonde (though Cinderella was originally titian) and have blue—ice blue—as a signature color. Both are orphans. Both have been "shut away" from the rest of society for one reason or another. Both have a sentient friend—or several—who in the real world would not interact (Olaf the snowman and Cinderella's mice). Both seek freedom from their restrictions but go about getting it in different ways. Elsa is obviously the stronger and more resourceful of the two. Whether she's the more intelligent is debatable, but she probably is.
Also, if any WMG about Lady Tremaine having powers is true, then Elsa could be what Cinderella would have been if she had access to magic (through herself, not the Fairy Godmother). Think about what Cinderella could've done to her evil step-"family" with ice powers. But it's possible that her Fairy Godmother felt Cinderella was too innocent, and too battered, to deal with magic responsibly, so she just intervened and fixed all of Cinderella's problems herself.
Finally, Elsa could be a reincarnation of Cinderella—that is, Cinderella with Character Development. As an added bonus, this new version of Cinderella would have Anna in her life—the sweet, fun sister she always wanted.
First, because someone had to say it. More importantly, her story has transcended generations and as noted, other WMGs indicate she may be a reincarnation or at least relation of other Disney princesses. Some of the more modern Disney princesses also carry Cinderella's character traits (Tiana has her diligence, Belle has her status as an outcast and nobility in spite of that, Anna has her All Loving Heroine traits). Therefore, she must exist outside of time, not only in terms of her own story but in terms of the Disney canon.
There was a (rather sexist) law on the books that stated that an unmarried woman could not inherit property. Widows, however, could. So, Lady Tremaine got everything and Cinderella got nothing. There may have been a stipulation saying that Cinderella could inherit a good share of her father's wealth upon marriage. Lady Tremaine, being too greedy to share even a little with her stepdaughter, saw to it that Cinderella hardly ever left the house, as even marrying a beggar would mean Cinderella could legally collect her inheritance. Fortunately for Lady Tremaine, Cinderella is not a vengeful person and decided her stepmother could keep the house, money and other properties. (This generosity probably stuck in Lady Tremaine's craw.) Cinderella, however, did insist on taking custody of Bruno the Dog and Major the Horse as she didn't feel anyone in her step-family was responsible enough to care for them.
And Maleficent is her Witch form. She likely witched out shortly after being forced to stay home from the ball. Now remember how Maleficent cursed Aurora because she wasn't invited to Aurora's christening?
Suddenly the fairy Meriweather saying Maleficent "isn't really very happy" becomes a whole lot sadder…
- That wouldn't be possible without time travel. Cinderella is set around 1850. Sleeping Beauty is set in the 1300s.
- Poor Cinderella probably suffered some Sanity Slippage not just from missing the ball but also from the years of abuse she received from her stepmother and siblings. It might explain the Evil Queen's obsession with beauty since that's all Cindy seemed to have going for her. Whatever magic or fairy power created the tree and the hyper-competent birds may also have created the mirror that tells her whose the fairest of them all. Most adaptations of Snow White tend to have the Evil Queen initially sympathizing or relating to Snow White in some way, usually the queen having lost her mother at a young age. Also the most obvious point is that Cinderella ends her story becoming Queen...
- Perhaps Prince Charming could be Snow White's dear old dad. Might explain why he's in such a rush to get married, despite clearly not being terribly interested - he's looking for a mother figure for his infant daughter. Won't Anastasia and Drizella be surprised to see what they narrowly avoided...
That's makes NO sense at all. I mean the entire reason Prince Charming's dad wanted to have him marry off is that he (the KING)is so that there WOULD be "pit patter of feet" in the place-now if Charming already HAD a kid-why would the King be so egar-sp? to marry him off? It's sort of stated that it was going to be the Prince's First marriage and Snow White's step-mother was her dad's SECOND marriage.
- Lady Tremaine would've been executed or imprisoned for breaking the glass slipper. Think about how desperate the King was to have his son married. I doubt that he would've been lenient toward the intentional breaking of the only clue to find the woman his son agreed to marry. If anything Lady Tremaine should feel lucky despite Cinderella winning in the end.
- She'd also get into trouble for illegal slavery, domestic abuse, and maybe murder (if the WMG on her killing her husband(s) is truenote ) if Cinderella, now shown to be determined to get as far away from her stepfamily as possible, told the Grand Duke about all that. Drizella and Anastasia would get the gallows as well. I wouldn't know what could've happened to Cinderella herself, but if she was brought to the castle to testify against her stepmother, the prince would recognize her, and they'd marry anyway.