Gaston

"He's handsome, all right, and rude and conceited. Oh, Papa, he's not for me."

- Belle expressing her dislike for Gaston to her father.

Gaston is the main antagonist of Disney's 1991 animated feature film, Beauty and the Beast. He was an arrogant, chauvinistic hunter, who was determined to have Belle's hand in marriage, even by force if necessary. This obsession turned him into a ruthless, traitorous villain, especially when he found out that Belle's love was not for him, but for a Beast.

Official Description

 * An egotistical hunter who vies for Belle's hand in marriage and is determined not to let anyone else win her heart, even if it means killing her true love.

Development
In the 1988 screenplay, Gaston himself wasn't part of the story. Instead, there existed three suitors for Belle who competed for her hand in marriage who were ultimately similar to him, and shared the role of antagonist with Belle's wicked sisters. They ultimately were transformed into animals, alongside Belle's sisters, by the Enchantress as punishment for their misdeeds, including nearly murdering the Beast.

In the 1989 screenplay, the three suitors were condensed into a single character, Gaston. In this version, Gaston was depicted very differently. Instead of a hunter who was the town hero, he was a marquess, or French nobleman. He would have shared the role of antagonist with Belle's aunt Marguerite, who would have chosen him as Belle's suitor, specifically as revenge towards Maurice (who in this version was a failed merchant who lost his wealth at sea, just like in the original tale). In the climax, he was to have traveled to the Beast's Castle, also stealing the Sedan Chair to ensure he tracked down the castle, and upon arrival, fight off several of the Enchanted Objects with a rapier before personally dueling the Beast in battle. He also met his fate differently (see Death section below).

As such, his design was also completely different. He was tall and lank with a mole on the left side of his face and a crooked nose. His attire consisted of a sky-blue jacket and a powdered wig tied with a red ribbon. All of these features gave him a somewhat similar appearance to French noblemen, such as Jean Rousseau or Napoleon.

After Jeffrey Katzenberg demanded a rewrite of the film, Gaston's characterization was altered significantly, being made into the town hero as well as the village's local hunter. According to Linda Woolverton, she had based this version on Gaston on her own unsuccessful relationships, and she had also wanted Belle's decrying of Gaston being her suitor (whom Woolverton referred to as a blockhead) to be the focal point of the film, necessitating that Belle's wicked sisters and their respective love interests be left out, as well as cutting her snobbish Aunt Marguerite.

Story reels for the original screenplay (included in the Platinum and Diamond Editions of the final film) indicate that his surname was intended to be LeGume, as he is referred to with said name by Marguerite. This acted as a pun on his small-minded views. This was presumably dropped by the first draft of Linda Woolverton's treatment of the story, as in both "Belle" and its reprise, the Bimbettes and Belle referred to him and herself as "Monsieur Gaston" and (albeit sarcastically) "Madame Gaston" respectively, implying that "Gaston" was his surname. In addition, Linda Woolverton's initial draft of what would become the story of the film had his role largely being similar, although he would have paid slightly more attention to the triplets by giving them a handsome look their way during the opening song, and also proceeded to sarcastically give his "review" of a book Belle was reading, and also supplied her with a trophy as a "gift." In addition, Gaston when learning the failure of his plans and Belle falling for Beast, also nearly attempted to hit Belle, but stopped when realizing the villagers were watching, although it was implied that their fearful gasps at what his nearly hitting Belle was what inspired him to rabblerouse them into killing the Beast. The initial draft also emphasized that Gaston was feared by the village rather than truly loved during the aftermath of the wedding scene, where he went over to the wedding cake in fury and the villagers were horrified. One of the cut lyrics for the Gaston song also had "Who breaks hearts like Gaston", implying that even before the Beast entered the picture, Gaston was a very treacherous individual to his friends and allies. He also was intended to directly go over to Monsieur D'Arque's asylum to recruit him, instead of having him arrive at the Tavern illicitly.

Death
Story threads show that in the original screenplay, Gaston would have tried to use his sword to stab the Beast, only to lose his balance and fall off the garden wall to his death. In the 1989 screenplay, Gaston was not meant to be killed at the end of the film. Instead, the Beast was to finish their battle via knocking him over a wall, leaving him unconscious.

In one of the earliest scripts, Gaston's death would have been different, as the battle against Beast would have taken place in the forest. In this early version of the script Gaston would wound the Beast and nearly kill him with his gun, when Belle strikes him from behind with a rock. This would have prompted him to fall off a cliff. Upon trying to stand up, he notices that the wolves who attacked Maurice and Belle earlier are looking at him, and kill him. This idea was scrapped because the writers thought that it was too gruesome and horrible. Although this idea was later used in The Lion King, more specifically in the sequence of Scar's death at the hands (or rather, jaws) of the hyenas. Ironically, the above mentioned scene of Scar's death (as the final version of the ending) was chosen for the exact same reason why Gaston's original death was cut: The original ending was deemed to be too graphic and scary for a Disney film.

In addition, the final version of Gaston's death also had some alterations: moments prior to his plunge from the castle to his unseen death, Gaston was supposed to stab the Beast in the back, and later in the leg, but the second injury was cut from the final script to edit violence; it was also originally intended for Gaston to commit suicide after stabbing the Beast in the back and laugh madly as he fell from the tower, believing that if he could not win Belle, nobody else would (which might explain why Gaston chose such a dangerous position to stab the Beast from behind, despite knowing that he would never win Belle's heart). However, this was edited out due to the dark nature of the scene. In the initial draft of Linda Woolverton's story, Beast would have immediately fought Gaston after the latter kicked the footstool, with the Wardrobe also aiding Beast to some degree. In addition, Gaston, after Beast decided to be merciful and spare him, proceeded to run Beast through the back with his sword, with Beast in turn punching him off the balcony to his death.

Personality
Gaston is strong and handsome, and exploited these traits to the fullest. While it is not clear if he considers himself as a good person or not (like Ratcliffe and Frollo do), the villiagers very much do, considering how popular he is with them (especially the Bimbette triplets), and seem unaware of his true nature (Gaston reprise in the original film notwithstanding), and this serves to fuel his already massive ego. A narcissist who sees himself as superior to everyone around him, Gaston is proud, boorish, uncultured, impolite, and sexist. He was also arrogant, as evidenced by his setting up a wedding before he even proposed to Belle under the expectation that she'd approve of becoming his wife. He was also convinced that he is powerful enough to defeat the bigger and stronger Beast by himself. He even taunts the Beast, wanting him to fight back as he wants to prove that he can kill him in a fair fight. However, his arrogance makes him underestimate his opponent and once he realizes his life is on the line, he may have to rely on desperate measures to survive. Despite this, he was not arrogant enough to believe there was no risk to being killed by the Beast, as he freely admits that fighting the Beast does have the likelihood that he or the other villagers might very likely die during the "Mob Song".

Despite his belief that thinking is "a dangerous pastime" (suggesting that he is anti-intellectual), Gaston is not unintelligent; in fact, he is quite cunning, which is emphasized twice in the story; he comes up with a plan to get Belle to marry him by threatening to have her father, Maurice, thrown into an asylum should she refuse. When that plan is foiled by Belle showing the Beast with a magic mirror, Gaston simply improvises and quickly turns the tables by manipulating the villagers into forming a mob to kill the Beast, thus eliminating his competition. Gaston is not above using underhanded tactics, which had earlier been implied with LeFou's claim about Gaston being "slick" as well as Gaston's admission about being good at "taking cheap shots", and confirmed when he shows himself to literally be a backstabber in his final moments, showing that he also cheats at things. In fact, his "begging" to the Beast may have been nothing more than a trick: he still had a knife on his person, and if the Beast was as "kind and gentle" as Belle described him to be, then Gaston would've appealed to his enemy's better nature, thus allowing him to be brought back on solid ground before he could get one last shot.

Gaston is the kind of person who won't give up on his goals easily; no matter how much Belle evades him or however hard the humiliation he receives, he is determined to make her his wife. His persistence is such that he will go to great lengths and sink so low to ensure he wins. Even when the Beast overwhelms him, Gaston will not tolerate losing Belle to this "monster." This drive will blind him to the dangers of climbing a balcony, which overlooks a deep abyss, causing him to fall to his death.

In the film, Gaston vocabulary skills are slightly inconsistent; when Belle refers to him as being "positively primeval" early in the film, the latter apparently takes it as either a compliment, clearly not knowing what the term actually means, or a joke. However, in the "Gaston" song, he at one point accurately used the word "expectorating" in reference to his skills at spitting ("expectorating" being a more fancy way of saying the term "spit").

Gaston's view of women is extremely sexist even by standards of the time in which the film takes place, and while he appears charming to all of the other women of the village, such as the Bimbettes (who, being products of an upbringing in the village, grew up to see nothing wrong with Gaston's behavior, completely mesmerized by his muscles and handsome face), Belle is the only woman in the entire town to be able to see him for what he really is from the start of the film on. He believes that women should not be able to think for themselves or even get ideas, and even stamps Belle's book into the mud in an attempt to get her to focus on "more important things" (namely, himself). Because of this, Gaston's attempts to charm Belle always fall flat because of his chauvinistic and boorish behavior. His sexism is also shown by the fact that he does not seem to even consider the possibility of fathering any daughters, as he states he wants "six or seven strapping boys" like himself.

Gaston suffers from which is shown by his intense infatuation with Belle. Indeed, he is so obsessed with her that he ignores all the other pretty women in the village who would be happy to be his "little wife", even ironically, those who technically matched Gaston's standards of how women should behave. When Gaston is singing about wanting to marry her in the opening song, he says "When I met her, saw her, I said she's gorgeous and I fell", implying that he fell in love for Belle at first sight. The Marvel Comics serial likewise strongly implied that he had feelings for Belle since they were children. These facts imply that another reason for his relentless pursuit of Belle is to satisfy his pride which may have have hurt by her resistance to him. Gaston is also adulterous (at least in the musical), as he states to Claudia and her sisters that his "rendezvouses" with the girls will continue after he marries Belle, which makes it clear that he does not know or care that marriage is a one-woman commitment or that is it supposed to be based on love and affection rather than ownership of property.

Notably, at the start of the film and musical play, Gaston did not seem truly evil. Rather, he was simply conceited, male-chauvinistic, boorish, and rude than a true villain, but as time goes on his pride and obsession with Belle becomes so intense that it turns him into a twisted, sadistic and murderous monster. With his obsession consuming him, Gaston became manipulative at this point; his speech to get the mob to kill the Beast in order to protect the village was nothing more than a ploy to get them to help him infiltrate the castle. All he wants is to kill his rival so he can have Belle as his property. By the time of his death, Gaston feels that if he can't have Belle, nobody can. In an earlier version of the story, he was even going to commit suicide after killing the Beast as he knew that no matter what he did, Belle would never love him.

Physical Appearance
As noted throughout the film, he possessed an extremely athletic build, a double chin, and possessed a handsome appearance. His black hair was long and tied into a ponytail. He possessed icy blue eyes. He generally wore yellow hunting gloves, although he discarded them by the midpoint. He also wore a red tunic and black tights, alongside boots. He mainly carried a quiver of arrows on his back and wore a cape during cold evenings and his final battle with the Beast. He also had a lot of hair on his chest.

During the failed wedding attempt, Gaston wore a red tailcoat trimmed with gold fabric, a waistcoat, black ribbon tie, breeches and even black boots, and also had white tights.

As a child, his hair was slightly disheveled with its ends standing on top, although he retained the ponytail. In addition, he possessed freckles, and his outfit consisted of a shirt, pants, and elf-shoes.

Abilities
While lacking in agility, Gaston is shown to possess a tremendous amount of physical strength, evidenced by his effortlessly lifting up a bench with three adult females (the Bimbettes) on it, as well as holding it up with only one hand. He later effortlessly rips off a stone ornament from the castle to use as a makeshift club during his battle with the Beast. He is also able to fire his blunderbuss with pinpoint accuracy, noted by LeFou proclaiming, "Wow! You didn't miss a shot, Gaston!" This, however, was briefly contradicted in the Marvel Comics, where he managed to miss a rabbit despite it being fairly close by; since then, he had managed to improve on his aim. In addition, he has proved that he is a skilled archer during the climax at the castle. He is also shown to be skilled at stealth attacks, as implied in the song "Gaston" with the lyrics: "No one's slick as Gaston," and confirmed when he manages to stab the Beast in the back while the latter was distracted with joy that Belle returned, even though he had to climb up several areas to reach him.

As noted above, despite his otherwise revulsion to the idea of reading, ideas, and overall intelligence (specifically for wives), he is shown to be a somewhat skilled plotter, having come up with the blackmail idea. In addition, he also had decent enough observation skills to pick up the hint that Belle may have had feelings for the Beast just from a few subtle clues late into the film. He is also very good at manipulation; after discovering that Belle was in love with the Beast, he used the villagers' ignorance and prejudices (as well as his own popularity) to rally them into killing the Beast. Despite this, however, he has ultimately shown himself to be very reckless regarding his planning. This is especially evident in Gaston's reprise where he loudly divulged in a crowded tavern enough key details about his blackmail plan to have all but ensured that everyone knew his true nature.

Beauty and the Beast
Gaston is the local hero of a small French village at an unknown point in French history. He owns a large tavern where he and the villagers drink and talk. Inside, there is a large portrait of himself along with "trophies" from his hunt consisting mostly of animal antlers. He also says he eats five dozen eggs every morning to help make him "roughly the size of a barge" (even though he earlier mentions to Belle that he would have his latest kills roast over the fire).

He starts off in the film shooting down a waterfowl headed south with perfect accuracy (implying that he had just returned from a hunting trip) and declaring his intent to marry Belle after acknowledging from LeFou his popularity with the females in the village. He then started pursuing Belle throughout the village as she returns home after buying a book from the local bookstore. Their meeting starts off well, but Gaston's remarks about women reading and thinking drive Belle away from him, and she goes home, leaving him disappointed. In addition, Gaston, after LeFou, learning Belle was going to aid her father, mocked her father, scolded LeFou for mocking Maurice (although it was implied that he mostly did that in an attempt to impress Belle rather than out of any genuine concern for Maurice).

The next day, however, Gaston organizes a wedding outside Belle's cottage in an attempt to "surprise" her, complete with various decorations, a priest, and a wedding cake. He forces his way into the cottage and attempts to strong-arm her into marrying him, again making sexist remarks about women and housewifery (he even envisions the home they would live in as a "rustic" hunting lodge, with his latest kill roasting over the fire and Belle massaging his feet while their children—six or seven boys—play on the floor with their dogs). While he attempts to corner Belle, her using her wiles to keep him at bay, she manages to open the door that he has pinned her against. This causes him to lose his balance and fly headfirst into a large mud puddle (complete with cat-tail plants) in front of Belle's cottage, where we find out that a pig (Pierre) is there too. Furious and humiliated, Gaston storms off but not before vowing to make Belle his wife regardless of her refusals and throwing LeFou into the mud to boot.

Later, during a snowstorm, the villagers in the tavern, along with LeFou, sing a song about Gaston's greatness to cheer him up after being rejected and humiliated by Belle. Maurice suddenly interrupts and warns the villagers about a monstrous beast who has locked up Belle as a prisoner in the tower of his castle. Thinking he is talking nonsense, the villagers throw him out of the tavern. Gaston then realizes that he can use Maurice's outrageous claim to his advantage. In a surprising display of animalistic cunning, he bribes the owner of the local asylum, Monsieur D'Arque, to threaten to throw Maurice into the asylum in order to pressure Belle into marrying him. While D'Arque realizes that even Maurice's nonsense about a beast and his odd inventions do not make him dangerous, he is willing to accept the bribe, mostly because he liked the despicability of the plot. Considering the management of asylums of the 18th century (the time that the film takes place), this is an extremely harsh threat. However, just before Gaston and LeFou barge into Belle and Maurice's cottage, Maurice left for the castle on his own. Gaston orders LeFou to stay outside the cottage and wait for their return.

When Belle and Maurice eventually return to the cottage, LeFou immediately informs Gaston, and he sets his plan into motion. With the villagers gathered outside the house, D'Arque has his men drag Maurice towards their carriage, while Gaston slinks out of the shadows and slyly makes Belle his offer - he will clear up the "misunderstanding" if she marries him. Horrified and disgusted, Belle refuses, and Gaston allows Maurice to be dragged away. Belle, however, manages to prove her father's apparently insane claims about a beast inhabiting a huge castle in the woods to be true by using showing the Beast to the entire village through a magic mirror that the Beast had given her. Gaston grows even more frustrated after his plan fails and shocked that Maurice was indeed telling the truth but becomes increasingly jealous when Belle begins referring to the Beast as "kind and gentle," realizing that she prefers a "monster" over himself. When he refers to the Beast with this insult, Belle angrily retorts back that he is the real monster, which is the final straw that makes him snap.

In his jealousy and pride, Gaston snatches the mirror from Belle and successfully convinces the villagers that the Beast is a threat to the village and therefore must be brought down immediately for if he couldn't have Belle then no one could. Shocked, Belle tries to stop him, but perceiving that Belle is against him, has her and Maurice locked in the basement to keep them from warning the Beast. He then leads a lynch mob to attack the Beast's castle and leave no one alive while declaring that he himself is to take down the Beast. Gaston bypasses the ensuing battle between the rioters and castle servants and confronts the Beast alone in the West Wing. He fires an arrow into him, tosses him out of the window onto a lower section of the roof and taunts him. When the Beast doesn't respond, having lost his will to live since Belle's departure (to rescue her lost father, who was searching for her), Gaston breaks off a nearby castle statue and uses it as a makeshift club to try to kill the Beast. The Beast, however, regains his strength when he sees Belle return (she had escaped from the basement with help from Chip, who stowed away with her) and grabs for the club, viciously fighting back with strength and animal ferocity, much to Gaston's sudden surprise.

Though roughly even with his adversary, Gaston soon realizes that he cannot rely on brute strength alone to kill the Beast, and instead begins taunting him in order to infuriate him enough to let his guard down, pushing the final button by claiming that Belle could never love a monster and that she would always be his. The plan works but immediately backfires with the Beast lunging forth, overcome by animalistic urges and emotion, head-butting him in the chest, grabbing him and then holding the terrified hunter at his mercy by the throat above the castle moat. With his life at stake, Gaston abandons his pride and pathetically begs for mercy; the Beast accepts, ordering Gaston to leave immediately and never return. In spite of this, when Gaston recovers his strength, he looks up to see the Beast climbing up a balcony to embrace Belle which makes him more jealous than ever. Determined to kill his rival once and for all, Gaston follows and stabs the Beast in the back with a knife while dangling somewhat precariously from the balcony. This final cruel deed leads to his ultimate downfall when the Beast swings his arm backwards at him in pain, causing Gaston lose to his balance when he tries to dodge it and plunge into the deep moat below, to his death.

Despite laying a deep stab on the Beast, Gaston would die alone that night; just as the Beast nearly succumbed to his own wounds, Belle confessed her love for him just before the last petal of the enchanted rose that kept him bound to his beast form fell, breaking the spell and healing the Beast's injuries.

House of Mouse
Despite his death in the movie, Gaston gained a recurring role on House of Mouse as a guest character, once again voiced by Richard White.

His most notable appearance, in the episode "Daisy's Debut", had a running gag in which he frequently injected himself into other people's conversations to say that "No one [verbs] like Gaston!" This gag would later go through the entire series and would become a memorable catchphrase for Gaston, as well as becoming something of an internet meme.

Notable examples of this is when Daisy compliments Ariel's singing voice. He walks by and says, "No one sings like Gaston!" Another one is when Timon and Pumbaa are making a face in a spoon. Gaston leans over and says, "No one makes faces in spoons like Gaston!" with an annoyed Timon answering back, "Actually, no one asked the opinion of Gaston!"

He also overhears Goofy complementing Mickey and Minnie on their performance after Daisy pretended to break her leg so that Minnie could perform, saying that he should pretend to break his leg to help Mickey with Gaston misunderstanding and saying "No one breaks their leg like Gaston!" He then goes off screen and a tremendous crash is heard leaving Goofy and Daisy stunned, which is assumed that he literally tried to break his own leg by injuring himself.

In the episode "Halloween With Hades", he eats one of the queen's poisoned apples, saying "No one eats candied apples like Gaston!", and falling into the Sleeping Death, to which Daisy says "and now no one needs a wake-up kiss like Gaston".

Gaston was one of the many villains to join the takeover in Mickey's House of Villains.

Other appearances
An emoticon version Gaston appears in the Beauty and the Beast entry of the As Told by Emoji short series.

Sing Me a Story with Belle
Gaston made sporadic appearances in Sing Me a Story with Belle, mostly acting as a comedic foil to Belle. Once again, he is trying to convince Belle to marry him.

Once Upon a Time
Gaston is featured in the ABC series in a very minor role played by Sage Brocklebank. Here, he was engaged to Belle through an arranged marriage, and as in the film, she did not love him because she found him "shallow." He attempted to reclaim her from Rumplestiltskin regardless, but was transformed into a rose and given as a gift to Belle. A nobleman, Gaston was the eldest son of Lord LeGume, a reference to the original surname planned for his Disney counterpart.

Gaston returns in the fifth season episode "Her Handsome Hero", now portrayed by Wes Brown. In this episode, Gaston's backstory is more fleshed out. Lord LeGume has agreed to ally his kingdom with Sir Maurice's if Maurice's daughter Belle were to marry his son Gaston. In the beginning, Gaston is portrayed as more noble and focused than his Disney counterpart, but he is later proven to be just as villainous. After he and Belle discovered a captive Ogre, Gaston tortured the youngling for information, an act Belle considered to be unconscionable. It is hinted that Gaston's aggression might have provoked the Ogres into war. In order to protect the kingdoms, Belle finally agrees reluctantly to marry Gaston. As stated above, he is later killed by Rumplestiltskin when he tried to rescue Belle from the Dark Castle.

After his death, Gaston grew further villainous, as the circumstances of his death caused him to blame Belle for his death. Rather than following Belle's idea of forgiveness and redemption, Gaston now believed that it was wisest to defeat an enemy by being strong and that he should have brought an army before he confronted Rumplestiltskin. After Belle and Rumplestiltskin turn up in the Underworld, Hades offers Gaston the chance to redeem himself by killing the Dark One. The god makes a further deal to Belle, that if either Gaston or Rumplestiltskin push the other one in the River of Lost Souls, then Belle could keep her unborn son. However, when the time came, Belle tried to convince Rumplestiltskin not to harm Gaston, as she was not prepared to protect Gideon in this way. However, when Gaston tried to fire at the Dark One, Belle accidentally knocked her ex-fiance into the river, damning him for eternity. Unfortunately, Belle darkened her soul just to save Rumplestiltskin, as Hades found a loophole in their deal; the deal was for either Rumplestiltskin or Gaston to push the other one in the river, not Belle.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Gaston appeared in the 2017 remake, portrayed by Luke Evans. However, in this film, Gaston is portrayed as a former army captain prior to his career as a hunter due to a portrait of him standing over fallen soldiers in the tavern. It is also implied that this incarnation of Gaston is a much darker portrayal than in the original, as he is far more psychopathic and violent in nature.

Just like his animated counterpart, Gaston is well-liked and respected in the village for his previous war heroics against the Portuguese, and aims to have Belle as his wife. At first, he attempts to woo her to get her approval for marriage many times, but she respectfully turns him down due to his rude behavior. Gaston then warns Belle that she will end up being in the streets as a beggar if she doesn't marry him, but she still refuses by saying that she's not that simple to hang out with, much to his dismay.

Eventually, in the tavern, Gaston gets cheered up by LeFou and the villagers following his failed attempts to woo Belle, right before Belle's father Maurice arrives and exclaims that Belle has been taken prisoner by the Beast (the son of a wicked king) in his castle. The villagers instantly laugh at this as they find Maurice to be insane (due to a spell cast by an enchantress that erases all the townsfolk's memories of the castle), but Gaston decides to tag along, seeing an opportunity to get Maurice's approval for Belle's hand in marriage. However, as they stroke into the woods with LeFou, Gaston tires himself of Maurice's apparently groundless story and begins to lose his temper with the old man. LeFou intervenes, calming Gaston down with memories of the war. Even as Gaston apologies for his outburst and proceeds to ask for Maurice's blessing, an indignant Maurice refuses. Outraged, almost without thinking, Gaston ties Maurice up in a tree and leaves him to die of winter exposure and be fed by hungry wolves (despite LeFou's objections), though Maurice ends up being saved and nursed back to health by a hermit, Agathe.

As Gaston returns to his tavern, he is shocked to see that Maurice has returned alive and is now accusing him for his attempted murder. However, Gaston uses his charisma to convince the villagers that Maurice is insane and must be locked up in the local asylum (even secretly silencing an uneasy LeFou from testifying against him and convincing everyone that Agathe is untrustworthy). To that end, Gaston gets the villagers to torment Maurice before having the local asylum owner Monsieur D'Arque to take Maurice away. However, Belle arrives back to the village and foils this by revealing the Beast's existence with the magic mirror that he given to her, making the townsfolk realize that Maurice was telling the truth. Overcome by this revelation of "sorcery," and believing that this Beast has put Belle under some sort of love trance, an angry Gaston snaps out by stealing the magic mirror and rallies the villagers into helping him kill the Beast, much to Belle and Maurice's horror.

After having Monsieur D'Arque to lock up Belle and Maurice in the asylum carriage and keep them on watch, Gaston leads the villagers to attack the Beast's castle, which forced the castle servants to fight back against the villagers. During the battle, Maurice frees himself and Belle before allowing the latter to head to the castle while Gaston betrays the villagers by leaving them to their fates, even using LeFou as a human shield before leaving him for dead, which incited an outraged LeFou to side up with the servants, finally turning against the man he admired for years. As the villagers flee away in humiliation and defeat, Gaston heads over to the West Wing, where he finds the Beast sulking (as the latter lost his will to live after letting Belle go). Taking the opportunity, Gaston shoots the Beast, arrogantly claiming that Belle sent him over to kill him. However, Belle arrives to the rescue by breaking Gaston's arrows, throwing away his gun and briefly pushing him off the balcony into the roof, demanding him to stop. Undeterred by Belle's intervention, Gaston angrily vows that he will mount the Beast's head in his tavern wall and marry Belle by force before climbing through the roof to kill the Beast. However, the Beast regains his will after witnessing Belle's return and realizing what Gaston said is a lie, so he fights back against Gaston for good.

After a brief fight, the Beast finally overpowers Gaston and grabs him by the neck, preparing to drop him off the tower for the trouble he caused. With his life at stake, Gaston begs for mercy, to which the Beast grudgingly obliges by coldly telling Gaston that he is not a monster. Shoving Gaston away from his sight, the Beast furiously orders him to leave the castle before climbing back on the castle balcony to reunite with Belle. However, Gaston retrieves his gun and shoots the Beast fatally twice from a footbridge, much to Belle's horror. However, Gaston's victory is short-lived when the footbridge breaks apart (due to the curse slowly crumbling the castle as the Beast succumbs to his wounds), leaving Gaston to fall screaming to his death to the castle floor below.

Comics
Gaston appeared in the official comic adaptation for the film. His role is largely the same as in the film, although because of the songs (including the Gaston reprise) being cut from the comic, it is implied that only he, LeFou and Monsieur D'Arque knew about the blackmail plan unlike the film where the other villagers were strongly implied to be in the know about the plan.

Aside from the comic adaptation above, Gaston also appeared in various side panels of the comics produced by Marvel Comics in 1994 to 1995, three to four years after the release of the film. In the first issue, Gaston apparently noticed Belle's disappearance, and was looking for her. The Bimbettes were nearby and decided to sway him away from Belle by spraying a "love potion" (strongly implied to actually a strong perfume) in their direction. However, Gaston alongside LeFou were forced to flee after a skunk ended up emitting an odor in anger of potential competition. Later, during a hunting trip with LeFou, Gaston attempted to shoot a rabbit, although he accidentally caused it to flee, shoving LeFou in irritation, also unknowingly placing LeFou into a net trap set by the Bimbettes that was meant for Gaston.

In Issue 2, Gaston decided to announce a wife auction in the hopes that Belle would be lured over. During this time, he also shows himself off, causing the Bimbettes to faint. Later on, the maidens proceeded to rush to Gaston. In Issue 3 "Has Gaston Finally Won Belle's Hand at Last?", he is holding an auction for his perfect wife. Naturally, he is looking for Belle, and she seemingly comes to him having forgone reading and intelligence for being Gaston's "little wife". It is actually Laurette, one of the Bimbettes in a clever disguise. He eventually ranted about being publicly humiliated, although he eventually decided that Belle may not have gotten the message and forgave the insult, although not without determining how to get Belle to marry him.

In issue 4, Gaston, after doing 783 lift ups (ironically with a stack of books) as the Bimbettes watched, ended up deciding to take a mountain hike in the hopes this would actually impress Belle (which might have impressed her had she been there as the Bimbettes were extra determined to stop him because they feared that actually would impress Belle), and even managed to restrain a hibernating bear so he could demonstrate to Belle that he killed it (he initially planned to kill it then and there until LeFou reminded Gaston that bears hibernate during the winter). However, this plan ended up foiled by the Bimbettes, who tricked the Bear into thinking it was springtime. Gaston tried to fight the bear (mostly to show off), although he ended up thrown out of the cave by the Bear, and decided with LeFou that it was probably easier to just give Belle a smaller bear.

Although he does not appear in Issue 5 of the main serial (despite being mentioned in the solicitation for the issue to still be plotting to make Belle his), he does appear in Belle's flashback to her time in the village, although his reason for Belle not wanting to read books was tweaked a bit to imply that he was attempting to flirt with her in a poorly-done manner. In Issue 7, Gaston became irritated that Belle hasn't even appeared at all, and eventually decided to simply stake her out at the bookstore via the bookshop owner, even having LeFou keep watch at the bookstore in case Belle shows up. However, the Bimbettes thwarted this plan by interacting with LeFou, hoping to make Gaston jealous. Gaston eventually attacked LeFou after a heaping of eggs at the tavern, although only because LeFou was distracted from his duty, to the Bimbettes' chagrin. Besides the main story, he also briefly appeared in Beautiful and Beastly mail, where he was the subject of a trivia question, and was shown lifting books like in Issue 4.

Gaston only appears at the end of Belle's flashback in Issue 8, where Gaston welcomes Belle and Maurice back (Mainly Belle), who had gotten lost and barely avoided missing the fair and won first prize due to the Bimbettes sending them on the wrong direction in an attempt to ensure they don't return to the village. He is also mentioned beforehand, as the reason the Bimbettes did that was specifically so they won't have any competition regarding getting Gaston to marry them. Although he never appears in any of the remaining stories themselves after Issue 8, he did briefly appear as a trivia question for the Beautiful and beastly mail section of Issue 9, where he is shown fuming while LeFou is timidly trying to cheer him up. He also appears as a child in Issue 5 of Disney Comic Hits!, also made by Marvel Comics, alongside Belle and the Bimbettes, where he is standing on his sled during a snowy day in an obvious attempt at impressing her (with the Bimbettes trying to get his attention) before he and the Bimbettes ended up crashing into a tree. The narration also had Maurice telling Belle, when giving her a sled, that she can use it to "go sledding with your friends" when it cuts to this scene, which implies that Gaston and Belle may have been friends during childhood.

Kingdom Keepers
Gaston makes a small cameo in the fourth book of the saga. He is seen along with Prince John and the Horned King when Finn and Amanda see all the Overtakers together at Tom Sawyer Island.

Villain Files
Gaston also appears in the tongue-and-cheek book about Disney Villains called The Villain Files. According to the book, he had been vicious since he was a baby (and implied that the bearskin rug was actually created by someone other than Gaston, perhaps his father or grandfather) and met Belle while practicing archery. In addition, in the page depicting him as a baby, he was lying buck-naked on the bearskin rug, which acted as a pun on the phrase "bare on a bearskin rug," which is slang for a nude centerfold.

The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince
Gaston appeared in this book by Serena Valentino and given a slightly more sympathetic and tragic portrayal, where it was revealed that he was a former friend of the Prince who would become the Beast. He often hunted with him and hung around the tavern earning the gazes of young women. He was also indirectly responsible for the curse, as he informed the Prince that a woman he was betrothed to, Circe, was a farmer, resulting in the Prince coldly refusing her, as well as her and her sisters deciding to exact revenge by cursing the Prince and his staff. Eventually, Gaston ended up evicted from the castle by the Prince after strange episodes occurred that ruined an attempted betrothal with a princess of a nearby kingdom. Although Gaston did not turn into an object, he was nonetheless affected by the curse in the sense of forgetting his friendship with the Prince. He later ended up attacking the castle, largely due to the manipulations of Circe's sisters who wanted the spell to remain unbroken, and was eventually manipulated into stabbing his former friend in the back after Beast spared him, resulting in his death.

Gaston also mentioned about a prince from a neighboring kingdom who had a great success "after the matter of the glass slipper was sorted", hinting that Cinderella takes place in the same world as Beauty and the Beast, along with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Little Mermaid.

Descendants: Isle of the Lost
Gaston is one of the villains that was brought back to life only to be imprisoned on the Isle of the Lost. He is now the father of twin boys named Gaston Jr. and Gaston the Third; he named them after himself due to his egomania. They even share his personality to some degree, but aren't as obsessed with women; they are even kind to other students. However, it is unknown who his wife was at this point.

In the actual film, Maleficent mentions him in passing, saying he should be jealous of Jay's outfit for Prince Ben's coronation.

As Old as Time (A Twisted Tale)
In As Old as Time (A Twisted Tale), Gaston's role is fairly similar to the original film, up to the point where he has Maurice sent to the asylum. As Belle returned for Maurice slightly later than she did in the film, Gaston's plan to send him to the asylum is a success, and it is revealed that he and D'Arque have a long-term business arrangement of Gaston dealing with various 'problems' for D'Arque. After he burns down the bookshop, Gaston is shocked when the Beast arrives in the tavern to ask the villagers for help rescuing Belle from D'Arque, the Beast using the mirror to expose the brutal conditions in the asylum, where D'Arque essentially tortures his 'patients' to try and remove their magic, even if they only possess some minor gift such as an aunt of LeFou's who made exceptional cakes. Although Gaston is just as shocked at the villagers at the sight of D'Arque's true nature and accepts the Beast's request for help, he soon reverts to type, shooting D'Arque in the back during the raid on the asylum and immediately proposing to Belle again with the explanation that they will end this dark day on a happier note. Belle coolly rejects his offer after confirming that he burned down the bookshop on D'Arque's orders, with the rest of the village rejecting him despite his past reputation after witnessing his brutality, others noting that they would have preferred for D'Arque to be put on trial rather than killed in such a manner.

Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast
In Roar of the Beast, Gaston has led an invasion on the Beast's castle, endangering the entire castle as well as Belle with the help of his angry mob and LeFou.

Belle's Quest
In Belle's Quest, Gaston plays out his role in the film to some degree, though at the start, he appears to be much more tame, even using his strength to assist Belle in a task. Nevertheless, he continues to pursue her in hopes of marrying her, as well as invade the Beast's castle at the conclusion of the game.

Disney Princess
Gaston appears as the villain of Belle's stage. Here, he plots to manipulate the villagers into believing the Beast's castle is evil and should be destroyed. To do so, he breaks into the dark castle and tries to capture Lumière, Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts, hoping to use them as proof of the castle's dark magic. However, Belle is able to defeat him using her quick wits.

Kingdom Hearts χ
Gaston makes his debut appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series in Kingdom Hearts χ. His role in the game is identical to the film, only he leads an army of Heartless to the castle instead of villagers, and sets the Enraged Elk Heartless to fight the player as he confronts the Beast. He is not directly fought as a boss within the game, although it should be noted that the Enraged Elk Heartless has several notable similarities to Gaston, in overall appearance, hairstyle and attire, with the primary differences being skin color and bearing an overall more demonic look.

Disney Magic Kingdoms
Gaston returns in search of Belle's love. He organizes a trap to lure her to the castle under the guise of Beast, claiming a ball is to be taken place. Fifi the feather duster gets word of this and informs Lumière, who then warns Cogsworth. They tell the Beast, and he warns Belle of the danger shortly afterward. Even so, Belle goes to the castle to deal with Gaston herself. She rejects him to his face, and declares that she has an actual ball to attend, infuriating Gaston. He goes to sabotage the ball, but is defeated by the combined forces of Belle, Beast and the servants.

Agitated and aggressive, Gaston tries to subdue his anger by going around the Kingdom and flaunting his greatness. Even after doing so, however, he starts to question why Belle would choose a beast over him. He briefly starts to believe he may not be as beautiful as he had always thought, but he looks to regain his confidence by checking himself out in a mirror. This works so well that Gaston forgets why he was so furious in the first place. With his renewed vigor, Gaston makes another attempt (one that's, by choice, considerably less hostile than previous attempts) to win Belle's heart, only to fail once again.

Other games
Gaston does not appear in Kinect Disneyland Adventures, although he is mentioned by Belle explaining that he hasn't been to Disneyland yet, probably due to the fact that there were no antlers.

In Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, Gaston was one of the Disney villains the evil witch Mizrabel had the ability to morph into. However, her Gaston disguise only appeared briefly and never again throughout the rest of the game.

Musical
Gaston's role and personality in the musical based on the film is pretty much the same—a pompous, sexist, egotistical, boorish, brutish, brainless and chauvinistic caveman who loves only himself. His ultimate goal is the same too—marry the prettiest girl in town and make her his "little wife" and his "property". Instead of ignoring the Bimbettes like in the film, he pays more attention to them (saying that their 'rendezvouses' will continue after his marriage to Belle, implying ) but still wants Belle as his wife, making them very upset (to the point of wailing and crying like infants). During the proposal scene (where there's no wedding party outside unlike the movie), Gaston gives Belle a of himself as a present.

In addition to the song "Gaston", the song "Me" is performed by him (in which he conceitedly proposes to Belle). The song is of interest because one verse implies that his feelings for Belle are more than for her looks (he even calls her 'pumpkin' as an endearing appellative), but he never says it outright to her. In addition, presumably to avoid any implications that the villagers were in the know regarding Gaston's plan to blackmail Maurice, he has all the patrons and staff, except LeFou, leave the tavern before conducting his reprise. The reprise itself was expanded to have Gaston and LeFou brag about Gaston's resourcefulness as well as Gaston fully admitting he doesn't have any remorse to resorting to something as dirty as blackmail to ensure Belle married him, as well as breaking the fourth wall somewhat by having them brag about Gaston being "entertaining" and capable of "keep[ing] up with these endless reprises." Like in the movie, he dies after falling off the roof of the Beast's castle, but not before fatally stabbing him multiple times (as opposed to just once in the movie) after arrogantly lying that Belle sent him to the castle to kill him.

Notable actors who have played the role on Broadway include Burke Moses (who originated the role on Broadway and in the original London production), Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, Cody Carlton, and Donny Osmond (singing voice of Li Shang in Mulan). Other actors include Steve Condie. In the Australian production the role was first played by Hugh Jackman.

Walt Disney World
Since 2012, Gaston has become a common, and very popular, character within the Walt Disney World Resort. He appears in the live stage show Beauty and the Beast: Live! at Disney's Hollywood Studios. During Halloween, he is a part of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom.

He is also seen walking around in the parks, such as walking down the International Gateway. Depending on which Cast Member is portraying him in the parks, his sexism towards women and his opinion on reading and thinking varies depending on who plays him, but he is very popular with female guests and is much nicer to young girls, as he even gives them hugs.

Gaston has his own restaurant, Gaston's Tavern, in the Beauty and the Beast area of the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland. He can now be found there for meet-and-greets daily, but before 2015 he was the only character present there (though LeFou is mentioned). The Bimbettes can now be met along with him. Before then, Gaston's park appearances were mostly confined to parades, shows and special events.

Tokyo Disneyland
Gaston plays a notable part in the nighttime castle show Once Upon a Time, where he engages in a battle against the Beast during the show's climax; eventually falling to his death.

Disneyland Paris
At Disneyland Paris, Gaston can be found for meet-and-greets in Fantasyland. He also appears in several shows, specifically during Halloween time.

Trivia

 * While Gaston has no noble status in the final version, it is implied in one scene that he is still wealthy, at least in regards to the other villagers.
 * In addition, one of the earlier drafts of the post-rewrite film also made his wealth a bit more explicit, where he was apparently a lavish spender, often being extremely careless/reckless in his extravagant endeavors. This resulted in LeFou (here named "LaFou" and acting as his long-suffering family accountant) getting high-strung and neurotic as a result of this as well as Gaston's bullying.
 * On an interesting note, most of Gaston's actions were edited out of the final cut of the film: during his battle with the Beast, Gaston was originally intended to shout "Time to die!", but it was changed to "Belle is MINE!" (but his lips still mouth "Time to die!") in order to edit violence and get the main point of his rage straight. Also, Gaston's death scene originally had him stabbing the Beast in the back and willingly falling to his death while laughing maniacally, as if satisfied that if he could not have Belle, then neither would the Beast. Though this was changed to Gaston accidentally losing his footing, it appears to explain why Gaston chose such a dangerous and risky position to wound the Beast despite knowing that it would not help him win Belle's heart.
 * Gaston became more popular with his quote "No one (insert any name of activity) like Gaston" from the titular song from his name, which also became a somewhat popular internet meme. This even becomes a running gag in House of Mouse.
 * Gaston has some similarities to Avenant, a character from the 1946 French film Beauty and the Beast, played by Jean Marais. Specifically, both characters were madly in love with the "beauty" character in the film, and also eventually conspired to put an end to the Beast. A character named Avenant was originally intended to serve as the villain of a proposed sequel to the Disney film, as Gaston's younger brother, but the idea was scrapped. Unlike Avenant from the 1946 film, Gaston doesn't outright confess to Belle that he loves her, which leads to his demise.
 * Contrary to popular belief, Gaston himself was not actually based on Avenant, as Linda Woolverton, the screenwriter for the Disney film, refused to watch the Jean Cocteau version specifically because she didn't want to use it as the source material for the Disney movie. Woolverton had instead based Gaston on several of her own unsuccessful relationships.
 * Richard White stated in an interview that while he himself doesn't know whether Gaston survived, he does mention that the viewers never saw the body, implying that he might have survived
 * Skull eyes.jpger, the 2002 DVD commentary confirmed his death, and mentioned that the skull and crossbones seen in his pupils as he falls, which makes it possible that he had seen death himself, were intended to confirm his death.
 * Interestingly enough, Disney made absolutely certain to remove the skull and cross bones from Gaston's pupils as he fell to his death in the theatrical and VHS version, yet made no attempt to do so in the later releases on DVD and Blu-ray.
 * The amount of arrows in Gaston's quiver often changes from three to two and sometimes even four.
 * In the comic adaptation of the film, he never wears his cape and his ponytail stays intact like Belle's even though it is raining.
 * When Gaston falls, the strap of his quiver on his back is the wrong way round.
 * On the 2011 Cartoon Voices Comic Con, Bill Farmer said that he had done Gaston, during Gaston's song in the bar. Bill did the sound of Gaston eating the eggs.
 * Notably, until the release of Kingdom Hearts χ, Gaston was the only main antagonist who did not appear in the Kingdom Hearts series despite his homeworld, Beast's Castle, appearing in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. As Beast is shown to have transformed back into the Prince during the credits of Kingdom Hearts II, it is possible that Gaston's fight against the Beast and subsequent death occurred while Sora, Donald, and Goofy were absent from the world.
 * Xaldin (An antagonist from Organization XIII and the nobody of Dilan) played the role as the antagonist of Beast's Castle in Kingdom Hearts II in substitute to Gaston (despite the fact that it isn't his home world). Although, his intentions were entirely different to Gaston's (being closer to that of Forte, in fact) as Xaldin used the Rose and the Beast's anger to create a Heartless and a Nobody of the Beast to serve Xaldin and only ever used Belle to further pursue his intentions of manipulating the prince by using Belle as bait.
 * Ironically, his debut appearance, Kingdom Hearts χ, took place eons before the events of Kingdom Hearts II, where Beast still remained a beast.
 * In the book Disney Villains: The Essential Guide, Gaston didn't even appear until the very last page, where's he actually shown complaining about why he didn't even appear in that book.
 * It is implied in the trailer that Gaston may have been aware of the Beast's curse, and had ulterior motives besides wanting Belle as his wife for attempting to kill the Beast, as the trailer described him as being "one man who wants to keep the spell alive," although it is unconfirmed whether this was the case in the film itself outside of Gaston being suspiciously subdued about Belle's exposure of the Beast's existence compared to the fearful gasps of the other villagers.
 * Gaston's proposal outfit, consisted of a red tailcoat trimmed with gold fabric, a waistcoat, breeches and even black boots, which implies that the events of the film occurred sometime in the late-17th to mid-18th century. However, Belle's cameo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which took place in the mid-to-late-15th century) renders this date questionable. Glen Keane confirmed in the commentary for Beauty and the Beast that the film's setting was indeed intended to be the late 18th century.
 * At the tavern, besides the aforementioned antler and deer-related trophies, Gaston also had among his hunting trophies a bald eagle's head and a bighorn sheep's head, implying that he may have hunted abroad (as they were not native to his village, France, or even Europe, being instead native to North America). This was further supported by his first appearance in the film, where some of the kills carried by LeFou included a raccoon (although raccoons technically were present in France via the French-German border, they weren't part of France's ecosystem at the time until two pet raccoons were released into the wild at Germany in the 1930's).
 * Gaston is the opposite of the Beast. While the Beast is an ugly monster based on his appearance, he is actually innocent and truly cared for Belle, and became a protagonist of his film; Gaston, on the other hand, while being superficially handsome on the outside and praised by the populace, is actually egotistical and male-chauvinistic, and only wanted to marry Belle based purely on her beauty, and eventually allowed his lust to make him a villain in the film. One of the filmmakers even described Gaston as having "the heart of a pig" due to his sloven behavior during his proposal to Belle.
 * In addition, after he fell into the mudpool during the failed proposal, a pig's head rose up before Gaston's head emerged, acting as a slight pun on "pig-headedness", alluding to arrogance.
 * Gaston has blue eyes, the same eye color as his rival. So far in Disney history this is the only time the villain has had any physical features (i.e. eye color, hair color, etc.) as a protagonist.
 * Before "Me" in the Broadway version begins, Gaston mentions to the Silly Girls that their "rendezvouses" will continue after he marries Belle, suggesting that he would be unfaithful and that he is an adulterer. He is the first Disney villain to conspire to commit adultery, at least in a Disney musical. In addition, one of the lyrics for the Gaston song in the first draft of Woolverton's treatment of the film was "Who breaks hearts like Gaston", implying that he may have committed some indisgressions with various females in the village.
 * Despite various concept materials, as listed above, give Gaston the surname of LeGume, the Bimbettes during the song of "Belle" refer to Gaston as "Monsieur Gaston" and Belle in the reprise twice sarcastically refers to herself as "Madame Gaston" suggesting that Gaston is his surname in the final version.
 * Despite the praise for Gaston in the eponymous song (specifically the lyrics "No one hits like Gaston, matches wits like Gaston"), the visuals show Gaston either having lost a game of Chess or otherwise about to lose (due to him angrily swiping the board away).
 * Although no character like Gaston originated in the original tale, the name itself was originally used in the first known tale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the original author of the fairy tale, and was a reference to "Gaston Phoebus", full name "Gaston III de Foix-Béarn" and also known as "Comte de Foix". Similar to Gaston in the Disney version, Gaston Phoebus was also a renowned and expert hunter, and was even used as a book-reference to the book "The Art of Hunting".
 * Rupert Everett was a considered choice for the voice of Gaston, but was turned down because he didn't sound "arrogant enough." Everett eventually made sure to sound as arrogant as possible when voicing Prince Charming in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, whose narcissism was coincidentally very similar to Gaston (although his motives are closer to Jafar).
 * According to the creators, Gaston's primary colors were red to symbolize evil to contrast with Belle and Beast's blue. Despite this, however, there were various characters who wore red in the movie without actually being evil, including Sultan, Claudette, and even Belle herself (during "Something There" as well as the Christmas Party in The Enchanted Christmas) and Beast (who in the original film wore a wine-red cape).
 * Ironically, in the film's original screenplay, Gaston actually was shown wearing blue.
 * In the Disney cruise line show Villains Tonight, Hades mentions Gaston and compares him to actor Charlie Sheen.
 * His original last name LeGume is a pun on his "pea-brained" insight and views of women.
 * In the original story, Belle simply managed to find him dying from wounds. But this was changed in the Disney film which lead Gaston to stab the Beast and dying from wounds.
 * Had The Enchanted Christmas not been rewritten to its current form, Gaston would have been the first Disney villain to have a sibling who was also a villain, as well as the third Disney villain to have a sibling overall (being preceded by Scar and Hades, who acted as siblings to Mufasa and Zeus, respectively), preceding Ursula and Morgana.
 * When the objects attack the mob in the castle, Gaston's cape disappears.