Claude Frollo

"I should have known you'd risk your life to save that gypsy witch! Just as your own mother died trying to save you."

—Frollo to Quasimodo.

Claude Frollo is a character who appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. He originates from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Appearance

Frollo appears as an aging man, defined by his wrinkled face and white hair. As the Minister of Justice and a high-ranking public official, Frollo is most frequently dressed in dark robes, a purple and black striped hat with a red ribbon attached, and shoulder pads with red stripes. He also wears rings on his fingers, two on the right and one on the left, with the jewels colored red, green, and blue.

Development

Frollo was the first Disney villain confirmed for the game, and he was first revealed to appear in the game in the November 2011 issue of V-Jump, where he was depicted meeting Sora alongside Phoebus, as well as harassing Esmeralda in another scene. These scenes or others featuring Frollo later appeared in the Jump Festa 2012 and February 2012 Special Trailers.

Origin

Frollo's original appearance dates back to 1831 in Victor Hugo's classic novel, Notre-Dame de Paris, where he is the Archdeacon of Paris and the novel's tragic villain. This incarnation of the character first appeared in the 1996 adaptation, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where he was changed from a tragic figure to a fully-fledged villain. In this version, he is the Minister of Justice of Paris, and apparently the ruler or Governor of the city, given that he seems to be above every law in the city outside the cathedral, and even has his own army of thugs who dress up as soldiers to enforce his will. In the film, Frollo murders Quasimodo's mother outside Notre Dame and is forced by the Archdeacon to raise the child as atonement, an act Frollo only performs to save himself from damnation and in hopes of finding the gypsy stronghold, the Court of Miracles.

Twenty years later, Frollo falls for a young gypsy girl, Esmeralda, but also makes himself her enemy when he orders her arrested for defying him in public by defending Quasimodo. Frollo's lust reaches the point of obsession when he begins a ruthless manhunt to find her, burning down most of Paris in the process. Eventually, Frollo finds the Court of Miracles with Quasimodo's unwitting help and sentences Esmeralda to execution when she refuses to become his mistress. This, however, proves to be his final mistake, since it arouses Quasimodo's anger and results in a ferocious battle between the citizens and Frollo's army of thugs. Frollo forces his way into the cathedral and attempts to kill Quasimodo, but the two end up fighting across the balconies of Notre Dame. During the battle, Frollo spitefully reveals that he killed Quasimodo's mother, but the fight eventually culminates in Frollo falling to his death into a lake of molten copper.

Other appearances

The Sceptre and the Kingdom

When Donald transports Sora and Riku to La Cité des Cloches by mistake, they appear out of the air and fall on top of Frollo. Although the two boys helps him up, he is perturbed by their strange clothes, and when one of his thugs comments that that popped out of the air, he declares them to be witches who shall be burned at the stake. However, Esmeralda suddenly appears and hides Sora and Riku from Frollo and his thugs, by bringing them to the Cathedral of Notre Dame.