Gaston

Gaston (his name meaning "from Gascony" in French, which is a real life area of France and possibly where the film takes place) is the main antagonist of Beauty and the Beast. He is voiced by Richard White. His original last name, LeGume, is a pun on his "peabrained" intelligence.

Personality
Gaston is strong and handsome, and is all too aware of this. He is hailed as a local hero and the greatest hunter, desired by many of the young women of his village (he is even described as "cute, dreamy and handsome" by the Bimbettes in the first opening number), but he is boorish, uncultured and egotistical (the townsfolk don't seem to notice or care, however). Given his narcissistic nature, he loves to boast about this at every opportunity, especially when the villagers begin singing a song about him to cheer him up after Belle's rejection of him.

When it comes to women, he is extremely vain and rude, demonstrated by his interest in Belle being solely physical rather than emotional. As a result all his attempts to spend time with Belle end in disaster due to his sexist and chauvinistic behavior. This chauvinism also makes him believe that women are only good for being (unintelligent) housewives and mothers (especially of handsome sons in the latter), something that Belle is disgusted at becoming. On the matter of children, he doesn't seem to acknowledge the possibility of having daughters with Belle despite claiming to like Belle for her good looks, as he tells her that they will have "six or seven strapping boys" like himself as soon as she marries him. His chauvinistic attitude even leads him to condescendingly refer to Belle as his "little wife", and this sexist attitude ultimately leads to him being rejected by Belle and kicked out of her house. ("Little" can also refer to Belle's height, as she is much shorter than Gaston.) At one point, he mentions to Monsieur D'Arque that he's "got [his] heart set on marrying Belle", meaning that he may actually be in love with her and not merely lusting after her. (However, he was actually perceiving women in a way that was true to the time period, as women were expected to raise families and be subservient to men at that time, not read or go to school.)

At the start of the film, Gaston did not seem truly evil, but simply mean-spirited, conceited, chauvinistic and rude. However, Gaston's lust for Belle, combined with the harm to his narcissistic self-image her rejection of him did, caused him to evolve into a sadistic, murderous monster. This develops throughout the film as he shows his true intelligence, revealing he is quite smart and cunning, rather than stupid or brainless as Belle claims. He also reveals his true nature as cruel, violent, and insane. This is first shown when he formulates a plan to blackmail Belle into marrying him by bribing Monsieur D'Arque, the owner of the local madhouse, to threaten to lock Maurice up. When this fails, Gaston again uses his intelligence to instill fear into the villagers by fueling their paranoia about the Beast's "monstrous" nature, and easily gathers a lynch mob to attack Beast's castle and leave none alive. In the ending, his cruel nature is the very foil to Beast himself; by killing a true monster like Gaston, Beast is no better, and his act to spare him was Beast's humanity to what Gaston lacks almost any form of.

Beauty and the Beast
Gaston is the local hero of a small French village sometime in the late-17th to mid-18th century. He owns a large tavern where him and the villagers drink and talk. Inside there is a large portrait of him along with "trophies" from his hunt of mostly animal antlers. He starts off in the film, pursuing Belle through the village as she borrows a book from the local bookstore. Their meeting starts off well, but Gaston's remarks about women drive Belle away from him and she goes home, leaving him disappointed. The next day, however, Gaston organizes a wedding outside Belle's cottage in an attempt to "surprise" her, complete with modern-era decorations and 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 their home they'd 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, she manages to open the door that he has pinned her against. This causes him to lose his balance and fly headfirst into a giant mud pond that lies in front of Belle's cottage, leaving himself a mess. Furious and humiliated, Gaston storms off and away from Belle's home, but not before vowing to make Belle his wife regardless of her refusals.

Later, during the winter, the villagers in Gaston's Tavern, along with LeFou, sing a song about Gaston's greatness to cheer him up after being rejected by Belle. Maurice suddenly storms in and warns the villagers about a monstrous Beast who has locked Belle as a prisoner in the tower of his castle. Thinking he is talking nonsense, Gaston has the villagers throw him out of the tavern, but then realises that he can use what Maurice has said 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 realises that even Maurice's nonsense about a beast and his odd inventions do not make him insane or dangerous, he is willing to accept the bribe. 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 their arrival, Maurice has left for the castle on his own. LeFou is ordered to stay there 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 makes Belle his offer - he will clear up the misunderstanding...if she marries him. Shocked 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 the huge castle in the woods to be true by using 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", realising 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 makes him angrily bare his teeth and is the final straw.

In his jealousy and pride, Gaston snatches the mirror from Belle and successfully convinces the villagers that the Beast is a man-eating monster that has to be brought down immediately. Locking Belle and Maurice in the basement to keep them from warning the Beast, Gaston leads a lynch mob to attack the Beast's castle and leave no one alive. In the ensuing battle between the rioters and castle servants, Gaston confronts the Beast alone. He fires an arrow into him, tosses him onto a lower section of the roof and taunts him. When 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 uses a makeshift club to try and kill the Beast. The Beast, however, regains his strength when he sees Belle return (she had escaped from the basement), and viciously fights back.

Though roughly even with his adversary, Gaston soon learns that he cannot rely on brute strength 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 can never love a monster. The plan works, but immediately backfires: the Beast lunges forth, snapping viciously at him, and then holds the terrified hunter at his mercy by holding him above a chasm by the throat. With his life at stake, Gaston abandons his pride and begs for his life, and the Beast accepts, ordering Gaston to leave immediately and never return. In spite of this, when Gaston sees Beast embracing Belle, his great hatred and jealousy arises again which leads to his ultimate downfall. Determined to kill his rival once and for all, Gaston stabs Beast in the side with a knife while dangling precariously from the balcony. The Beast swings his arm backwards in pain, causing Gaston to lose his balance and plunge into the chasmic moat three hundred feet below where he drowns.

Comics
Gaston plays a key role in one of the comics produced by Marvel Comics in 1994, three years after the release of the film. In the story "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 one of the Bimbettes in a clever disguise.

Beauty and the Beast (musical)
Gaston's role and personality in the musical based on the film is pretty much the same—a pompous, sexist, misogynistic jerk who loves only himself. Instead of ignoring the Bimbettes like in the film, he pays more attention to them but still wants Belle as his wife, making them very upset. During the proposal scene (where there's no wedding party outside unlike the movie), Gaston gives Belle a miniature portrait 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. Like in the movie, he dies after falling off the roof of the Beast's castle, but not before fatally wounding him 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. Other actors include Steve Condie.

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.

House of Mouse
Despite his death in the movie, Gaston gained a recurring role on House of Mouse as a guest character. 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. A notable example is when Daisy compliments Ariel's singing voice. He walks by and says "No one sings like Gaston!" Gaston was one of the many villains to join the takeover in Mickey's House of Villains.

Once Upon a Time
Gaston is featured in the ABC series played by Sage Brocklebank. Here, he was engaged to Belle through an arranged marriage, but like in the film she did not love him because she found him "shallow". Unlike his Disney counterpart he appears to be more noble and focused, as shown when he expressed concern for Belle's agreement to go with Rumpelstiltskin. He attempted to reclaim her from Rumpelstilskin, but was transformed into a rose and given as a gift to Belle.

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.

Walt Disney World
Gaston appears in Walt Disney World 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.

Gaston has his own restaurant, Gaston's Tavern, in the Beauty and the Beast area at the Magic Kingdom. He can be found there for meet and greets daily.

Tokyo Disneyland
Gaston appears in Tokyo Disneyland in parades.

Disneyland Paris
At Disneyland Paris Gaston can be found for meet and greets in Fantasyland.

Quotes

 * "How can you read this? There's no pictures."
 * "Here, picture this: A rustic hunting lodge, my latest kill roasting on the fire, and my little wife massaging my feet, while the little ones play on the floor with the dogs."
 * "That girl has tangled with the wrong man!"
 * "No one says 'NO' to Gaston!"
 * "Dismissed! Rejected! Publicly humiliated! Why it's more than I can bare!"
 * "As a specimen, yes I'm intimidating!"
 * "And every last inch of me is covered with hair."
 * "When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large. And now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs, so I'm roughly the size of a barge!"
 * "No one has great ideas like Gaston!
 * "No one sings like Gaston!"
 * "No one eats candied apples like Gaston!"
 * "Hmm I might be able to clear up this little misunderstanding if, if you marry me."
 * "One little word Belle, that's all it takes."
 * "Have it your way!"
 * "If I didn't know better I'd think you had feelings for this monster."
 * "I say we rid the village of this beast! Who's with me!?"
 * "If you're not with us you're against us, bring the old man."
 * "Take whatever booty you can find. But remember the Beast is mine!"
 * "What's the matter, Beast? Too 'kind and gentle' to fight back?"
 * "Let me go! Let me go! Please don't hurt me, I'll do anything. Anything!
 * "Well, it looks like Gaston hasn't visited here yet.  I don't see any antlers at all." (Belle about Gaston in "Kinect Disneyland Adventures")
 * "I've got my heart set on marrying Belle but she needs a little...persuasion"
 * "Everyone knows her father's a lunatic. He was in here tonight raving about a beast in a castle"
 * "The point is Belle would do anything to prevent him from getting locked up."

Trivia

 * 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.
 * 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).
 * In the early concept art (revealed on the diamond edition of BatB) Gaston was a wealthy marquess. In the final version, he is a hunter, but it is implied in one scene that he is still wealthy.
 * 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 Beast and prepared kill him with his blunderbuss, when Belle strikes him from behind with a rock. This would have prompted him to fall off a cliff and breaking one of his legs. Upon trying to stand up, he notices that the wolves who attacked Maurice and Belle earlier are looking at him, and attacked him. This idea was scraped because the writers thought that it was too gruesome and horrible (even for someone like Gaston), although this idea was later used in The Lion King, more specifically in the sequence of Scar's death at the hands of the hyenas.
 * Despite his death, Gaston has recently been enjoying a considerable degree of fan popularity on the internet, with the character himself becoming a minor internet meme. In recent months, for example he has shown an obsession with Taco Bell, and has been the subject of Chuck Norris-style jokes.
 * In addition, he was ranked 11th in a poll by UltimateDisney.com on the top 30 Disney villains of all time
 * Spike.com ranked him the #9 spot in their "The Top 10 Hollywood "Villains" Who Got Totally Screwed" below Rambo villain Will Teasle.
 * Gaston is the youngest Disney villain to date, apparently being in his mid-20s at the oldest.
 * Gaston is based on the Avenant character from the 1946 Beauty and the Beast film, played by Jean Marais. 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 the Avenant character from the 1946 film, Gaston doesn't outright confess to Belle that he loves her, which leads to his demise.
 * 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. However, the 2002 DVD commentary confirmed his death, and mentioned that the skull and crossbones seen in his pupils as he falls, which were either speculated to be some sort of demonic subliminal message or that he had seen death himself, were intended to confirm his death.
 * The amount of arrows in Gaston's pouch often changes from three to two and sometimes even four.
 * The horse that Gaston rides to Beast's Castle is actually the horse from The Headless Horseman, the main antagonist from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the second half of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
 * In the movie's continuity, Gaston is the first Disney character of the Disney Renaissance era to have negative attitudes and opinions towards females, the second is Chi-Fu from Mulan.
 * Interestingly enough, as mentioned in one of the above Trivias, Disney made absolutely certain to remove to 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.
 * 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.
 * Gaston is the first villain to have an obsessive crush on the female lead, Belle. Although in Aladdin, Jafar was a bit affectionate with Jasmine in the scene where she kissed him. Claude Frollo was the second villain to have an obsessive crush on the female protagonist, Esmeralda.
 * Notably, Gaston is 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 Prince Adam 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.
 * Gaston also 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 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 for 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.