One Hundred Fantasy Clichés That Really Need To Rest In Peace

#9 The Evil Queen

  This cliché has always rubbed me the wrong way for multiple reasons.  One, I find the idea that only making the female side of the royal family is very sexist, especially if the King is shown to be the one with morality.  I know this statement is pretty extreme, but with the rising importance of gender equality in modern society, doing this is not exactly the best idea ever.  Two, it is overused as heck, especially in the older Disney films that were still good, but just played this card a bit too often.  Third and finally, there is no chance for the character to grow in these situations.  90% of the time the evil queen stays static the entirety of the story, never having a change of heart or doing something that makes them stand out character wise.  The Queen stays completely the same, ready to butcher in the end so the damsel in distress can get the guy.  I believe this cliché needs to stop or at least have a bit more variety.
  If you are going to make a complex villain, the evil Queen route is playing it way too safe.  How about instead of the Queen being evil, the King is evil instead and the Queen is the one that the audience sees as morally right.  If that isn't enough maybe making both members of royalty evil would be an excellent idea, as it would give the protagonist not just one character to fight, but two instead.  Besides that, it solves that little sexism problem I mentioned earlier.  If in the end you still really want to make the Queen a villain though, make the character more complex or give them a chance to redeem themselves.  Times have changed and it is time to make a few adjustments to the formulas of our fantasy stories so all crowds can be satisfied.  If we can have genre changing tales such as the re-imagined Snow Queen movie Frozen, I don't see why other stories can't give some variety to this trope.