CrystalLight brought it up before, but this is a perfect opportunity for me to expand upon a theory that I've had for a while. Namely, that Gaston is the hero of Beauty and the Beast. That movie actually ended with the villain killing the hero and then tricking the princess into marrying him.
So what do I base this on? Clearly Belle's two love interests are Gaston and the Beast. So we can define the "hero" and the "villain" as the person who is better and worse for Belle, respectively. And in every comparison, Gaston comes out ahead.
Let's start with their introductions. We're first introduced to Gaston as the hero of the village. He has all the social skills that Belle lacks: he has lots of friends, women want him, and men want to be him. And since everyone knows Gaston better than Belle does (by her own admission, she avoids him), maybe everyone else sees something that she doesn't. And on top of that, he has skills that make him a good provider: he's an expert hunter in an era when subsistence is actually pretty important. Now let's compare him to the Beast. Even in human form, the beast was the exact opposite of all this: he had no social graces, no friends (only servants who were afraid of him), and apparently no women wanted him because no mention was made of him courting anyone he knew. He has no skills or talents of any discernible kind, only inherited wealth that he seems content to squander away in self-pity.
Gaston - 1, Beast - 0.
Both of them, also, try to court Belle. Gaston tries to pick her up with what would be known nowadays as the "cocky and funny" pickup-artist style: douchebag behavior, to be sure, but it's just an affectation; one that has always worked for him in the past. When he's rebuffed, Gaston assumes that Belle is playing hard to get and kicks his strategy into high gear. He surprises her with a wedding proposal: again, clumsy but well-intentioned. He's rightly rebuffed again. And what does he do? He goes out drinking with his mates and tries to forget it all. It's an entirely human response. Gaston's problem is that he's so well-liked, he doesn't know how to actually put effort into reaching out to people. And that's not a character flaw, it's entirely fixable, if only Belle would take ten minutes out from her day to explain why Gaston is being a douchebag. He honestly has no idea. But now compare that with the way the Beast "courts" Belle. He kidnaps her father. He arranges a hostage exchange for Belle, because he explicitly knows that he has to get her to drop her panties in order to break his ugliness curse. Any woman would have done. And once he has her, he locks her up like a prisoner. When he tries to make his move, and asks Belle out to dinner, he too is rebuffed. His response? He flies into a homicidal rage and informs her that until she agrees to date him she can slowly starve to death. Unlike Gaston, the Beast does not take "no" for an answer.
Gaston - 2, Beast - 0.
And then we come to Gaston's villainous moment. Belle's father comes into the tavern and starts raving about a Beast that has kidnapped Belle. We're supposed to think Gaston is cruel and heartless when he throws her father out. But that's just because we, as viewers, know the Beast exists. Think about it from Gaston's point of view. Here he is, having a night out with his mates, finally feeling better about life. And then the local crazy guy comes in, and starts raving about UFOs abducting his daughter, because the government man, they're in on everything, and they knew about the Twin Towers, and you've gotta listen to me, man! Gaston does what anyone else would do. He tells him to get lost. But then this gets him thinking. This guy is obviously crazy. What if he could throw him in the sanitarium, and then use that as leverage to get Belle to marry him? It's nefarious, all right: emotional blackmail. But think about it. He intends to create an artificial "danger" which he will then step in and defuse in order to win Belle's heart. Remind you of anything? Yes, the Beast does it too, only worse. He tells Belle to stay out of the West Wing and then doesn't tell her why ("Because my bedroom's in there" would have been enough, you know). Then when Belle gets curious and goes looking in there, he terrifies her so much that she runs out of the castle. Right into a bunch of timber wolves. When the Beast rescues her, it's supposed to be a noble gesture, but has she forgotten that she's only surrounded by wolves in the first place because of the Beast's monumental asshattery? That situation was entirely preventable, and her life was put in danger. At least Gaston's plan didn't involve unnecessary mauling by wild animals.
Gaston - 3, Beast - 0.
And in the meantime, we see the Beast winning Belle's heart. But how does he do it? With stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. His grand gesture is "giving" her his library. But what does that mean, anyway? She can't take the books anywhere since she has to stay in the castle. The door wasn't locked. And it's not like he had the library built just for her. It was there, the whole time, and all he said was, "I won't kill you if you want to go in there and read." But Belle was blown away by how wealthy he was, which is pretty shallow on her part. But things go so well that he lets her go, apparently out of a momentary (and uncharacteristic) pang of guilt. So she goes back to the village just in time to save her father, by showing the mirror to Gaston and proving the Beast really does exist. Gaston immediately goes into "kill the beast" mode, which we're supposed to find hypocritical and wrong-headed. But think about it. What does Gaston know about this Beast? He knows that a.) It exists, and b.) It kidnapped Belle and locked her away in a castle. That's it. He draws the very reasonable conclusion that this Beast likes to kidnap people and lock them away in castles. And Gaston isn't going to stand for this shit. He's a community leader, after all. So you think you're going to come into my home and kidnap my neighbors? Not on my watch, buddy. And that's some downright heroism there. All the while, the Beast is busy feeling selfishly sorry for himself, not even sparing a thought for his servants who he doomed to furniture-form for all eternity. Gaston is a leader of men, while the Beast is in full emo mode.
Gaston - 4, Beast - 0.
And then the final confrontation. Gaston doesn't quite come out well here: he attacks, loses, begs for mercy, attacks again, and then falls to his death. But remember: he still thinks that he's fighting a scourge of the people. If he gives up, who knows when the next time the Beast will fly into a homicidal rage and start kidnapping people? He has to finish this. But unfortunately, that's not in the cards. He dies, and the Beast is back to human form. Great for Belle, right? Well, remember: the Beast has lost his super-strength, but he's still the same dude who threatened Belle's life several times. He's the same dude who would rather have seen Belle starve than duck a date with him. And now she's stuck with him, and the only man who had the force of character to stand up to the spoiled prince is sidewalk pizza. A happy ending? I think not.
