Claude Frollo

"I am a virtuous man. Good and evil shall be made plain...once the gypsies face the fires of judgement."

—Claude Frollo to Riku and Phoebus

Claude Frollo is an antagonist, who appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. He comes from the Disney film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but despite being the film's main antagonist, he is not a boss in the Kingdom Hearts series.

Story

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

When Sora first arrives in La Cité des Cloches, he passes Frollo, who stops him and wonders whether or not he is a gypsy, until Phoebus turns up. Later on, at the Festival of Fools, Frollo sees Quasimodo enjoying himself, despite his earlier order for Quasimodo to stay inside the belltower, and refuses to help Quasimodo when he is attacked by Dream Eaters. By doing this, he gains two enemies in the form of Sora and Esmeralda, who aid Quasimodo and defy Frollo. For his part, Frollo becomes infatuated with Esmeralda and begins a manhunt for her, slowly reaching madness. At one point, Frollo orders Phoebus to burn down the home of an innocent miller, but Phoebus rebels against Frollo and turns his sword on him as Riku turns up. Using his inner darkness, Frollo summons the Wargoyle Dream Eater to fight Riku and Phoebus as he flees back to the cathedral.

In desperation, Frollo bluffs to Quasimodo that he knows where the gypsy hideout, the Court of Miracles, is hidden, and plans to attack it at dawn. He follows Quasimodo, Phoebus and Sora to the Court and captures Esmeralda himself, frog-marching her away and using his darkness to stop Sora from attacking him (though it is not shown, it is implied that the Wargoyle strikes Sora from behind).

Frollo sentences Esmeralda to be burned at the stake as Sora arrives on the scene. As Quasimodo rescues Esmeralda, Sora confronts Frollo, ready to fight him, but Frollo summons the Wargoyle again and follows Quasimodo into the cathedral, where they end up fighting on the balcony of Notre Dame. During the battle, Frollo spitefully reveals that he murdered Quasimodo's mother twenty years ago, in stark contrast to the tale he had brought him up with about his mother abandoning him. Frollo moves in to strike Quasimodo, but misses and the two fall off the balcony. Frollo hangs onto a nearby stone gargoyle and climbs up, ready to kill Esmeralda and Quasimodo, but the gargoyle he is standing on breaks off and he falls to his death.

In Riku's story, Frollo's fate differs. Frollo stands atop the balcony of the cathedral madly, witnessing the damage below as Riku confronts him. Frollo prepares to fight Riku personally, but the Wargoyle suddenly emerges from below and the ensuing vibrations cause Frollo to lose his balance and fall to his death.

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.

Origin

"And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!"

—Claude Frollo

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

El Cetro y el Reino

Frollo in El Cetro y el Reino

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 they 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.