Gaston Vs. Brom Bones

Hello and welcome to another edition of Vs.  This time on Vs.,  I'm pitting two Disney bullies against each other. From Beauty and The Beast, Gaston and from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Brom Bones.   Now this will work differently than last time,  the categories that I'l be using here are Ego,  Town Admiration,  Song,  Actions & Outcome and finally, The Film Factor.    Which this time will be used to determine who has a bigger role in their respective piece of animation. Yes, I know, Brom Bones is from a short but that is the name of that round and I'm sticking to it. 

Ego (Round 1)

For this I'll start off with Gaston.

Gaston

There is no doubt about it, Gaston has a huge ego.  I'm not even sure where he stores all of it.   He is just a major jerk and that makes his turn to becoming a villain less surprising honestly.  His ego is literally dripping off of him in every scene that he is in.   Heck, he isn't even really attracted to Belle, he just wants her because he is the best and he think that he deserves her.  He just thinks of her as a trophy.  Gaston's ego is one of the great things about him

Now let's move onto Brom Bones

Brom Bones

Bing Crosby states that Brom is a good person and I can see that. I don't think he has much of an ego but his actions rather come from jealousy. As he can't stand seeing Katrina with Ichabod.   Which the same can be said for how Gaston feels about Belle but whereas Gaston thinks of Belle as a trophy,  I think Brom had true feelings for Katrina. 

For this reason,  Round 1 goes to..

Gaston

Town Admiration (Round 2)

Both of these characters are highly admired where they live but which is moreso. Well, let's find out.


Gaston


The town where Gaston lives showers him with praise and thinks that he is the greatest. He is regarded as the town hero.  If you need any further proof of this just turn to his songs,  I mean the song, "Gaston" is all about how great and he is and "The Mob Song" shows that the town is willing to follow him into battle.  If Gaston told these townspeople to jump off a cliff, they would do it.


Brom Bones

It's mentioned that the town where Brom lives admires him and loves having fun with him but I don't think it's on the same scale as Gaston.  It feels more like they look at Brom as a guy they can have a beer with after a day gone wrong.  People like him but the people of Gaston's town LOVE him!


For that reason this round goes to...

Gaston

Song  (Round 3)




Now we turn to the songs these two have and while they both can be considered villain songs, they are done in a different manner.


Gaston





I have talked about this song many times. Again this song celebrates the character of Gaston and how much the town loves him. This goes back to Gaston's ego.  This is a fun song and I just love singing along with it.  I really don't have many complaints toward this song.  It shows off Gaston quite well.  It just helps to boast his ego.  The reprise is great as well in showing his fall into villainy.



Headless Horseman (Brom Bones)




Now as stated in my review of this short Bing sang this song and boy does he put a lot of emotion into it.  Just the way the song scares Ichabod is great and Brom's plan to frighten Ichabod works quite well with this song.  Both of these songs are fun but I think that this song has the better sound and just all of the animation in Brom's expressions in telling this story give it an edge over Gaston.


For that reason,  this round goes to...


Brom Bones

Actions & Outcome ( Round 4)


For this round we take a look at what happened to each character throughout the film. Again, I'll start with Gaston.


Gaston

In the beginning of the film starts out as a big jerk and through his repeated actions to woo Belle and being rejected by her he becomes the monster that ultimately dies at the end of the film.  So kind of a depressing outcome for Gaston.  Now even though Gaston's arc does end in tragedy,  it is still a great build up and parallel to see him become the villain of the film.  As I stated in my review of Beauty and The Beast this is one of the more crucial elements of the film. It was done well here.


Brom Bones


Brom's actions are light compared to what Gaston did but part of what made him fun to watch was that he had an onscreen rival in the form of Ichabod to fight over to affection of Katrina.  As evidenced by his song,  he knew Ichabod was a coward and tried to use to his advantage.  Now this may be unfair but Ichabod's death actually helped Brom as it is seen at the end of Sleepy Hollow that Brom ended up marrying Katrina.  He was able to succeed where Gaston failed.    Now even though Brom succeeded where Gaston failed,  Brom was a bit more of a one note character.  Which while true of his character I have to say I actually had more fun watching all he unfolded with the different events and while I will say that Gaston is more threatening, Brom had the better outcome.  This was perhaps the toughest area to judge because I went back and forth on to give it to but when  you look at the outcomes for these two it clear that...

This round goes to...


Brom Bones

The Film Factor (The Final Round)




We're all tied up with Gaston taking Ego and Town Admiration while Brom took Song along with Actions & Outcome.  This is the round to decide it all, The Film Factor.  How well did these characters work form the film (or short) that they came from?  Let's find out.


Gaston


Gaston was one of the big driving forces in his film.  His turn to becoming a a true villain helped move the story along quite nicely.   His transtiton throughout the film is one of my favorite parts.  Just seeing how he goes crazy and how he tries to kill Beast is one of the highlights. He is very essential to his film.  The story wouldn't be complete without him.


Brom Bones


With Brom, we have interesting case.  He does serve an important role in the first two acts of Sleepy Hollow but by the time,  Ichabod reaches the forest you don't see him again.  However he does tell the tale of the Headless Horseman that helps to tighten Ichabod's nerves when he is travelling.  So he does do that and that does work well. As stated in my review of Sleepy Hollow, there is fan speculation that he really was the Headless Horseman.  Let's assume that he was for a moment that would have given him a bigger edge had I believed that but   there are no hints or clues as to whether or not that is true. Unlike with Gaston, you know he is the bad guy from the get go.


For this reason,  this round goes to...

Gaston

The End Result




By a score of 3 -2, Gaston is the victor.  He had the bigger ego (Go figure that would help win),  the town admiration was much more obvious and I think that he played a bigger part in his film than Brom Bones did in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  What's your opinion, who do you think should have won this Vs.?  Tell me in the comments.