☀️Captain Phoebus☀️

Captain Phoebus is the tritagonist of Disney's 1996 animated feature film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

He is a gallant war veteran summoned by Judge Claude Frollo to assist in the eradication of Paris' Romani community. However, Phoebus's righteousness and love for Esmeralda drives him to betray his superior and fight for the liberation of Romani people.

Personality 1

The Disney Animators chose to deviate from the book and created a down-to-earth Phoebus who is far less the dimwitted, womanizing cad that he is portrayed in the book. Though he tends to over-analyze and act like he knows what he's doing, he is described as a soldier who is sarcastically witty, brave, confident, and enjoys finding humor in situations. He also embodies the spirit of the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Gary Trousdale admits that what he most likes about Phoebus is that "although he can keep a straight face when it's required of him, you can tell deep down, he'd rather tell a joke." Phoebus is almost always seeming to get into arguments, even with Esmeralda.

Personality 2

Out of Frollo and his men, Phoebus is the only one that cleverly sees through the disguise of Esmeralda and is also quick to discover that Frollo's ideals for justice are unethical and a twisted kind of corruption. Unfortunately, the opportunistic Phoebus had already accepted Frollo's summon to be his Captain of the Guard under the assumption that the Minister of Justice was righteous and fair; therefore, he accepts this reality of working for a corrupt man as a consequence for driving into this opportunity he should not have readily taken. He is disgusted when Quasimodo is tortured at the festival and asks Frollo for permission to stop the cruelty, but is held back when Frollo tells him, "A lesson needs to be learned here." When Phoebus meets Quasimodo formally, he treats him with a friendly attitude, not at all bothered by his deformities (most likely from seeing him before at the festival) and treating Quasimodo like a brother. As Frollo's cruelty towards the Roma increases with the level of obsession he has for Esmeralda, Phoebus is forced to choose between his passion for guarding the defenseless people with the condition that he works under Frollo, or be jobless due to the fact that he is trained to be nothing else but a soldier that he is fated to be in this feudalistic society.

Personality 3

Throughout the film, Phoebus becomes more of the neutral hero that takes orders from Frollo then later goes behind Frollo's back and helps those who were caught in Frollo's trail of injustice. However, when Frollo unreasonably orders Phoebus to burn down a miller's home with the innocent family trapped inside, Phoebus takes a stand and refuses to murder the innocents. When Frollo sets fire to the windmill and sends the miller's home ablaze, Phoebus bravely risks his own life on the line for the lives of another family and dives through the window of the burning building, takes the two children in his arms, and kicks down the bolted door to lead the rest of the family out to safety. When he is sentenced to be beheaded for insubordination, Phoebus holds no fear of death from his experience in the wars and boldly accepts it as his highest honor. As an ex-soldier fugitive, Phoebus continues to help the Romani from Frollo's obsessed wrath and after escaping from his imprisonment instills courage in the people, telling them, "Citizens of Paris! Frollo has persecuted our people, ransacked our city, and now, he has declared war on Notre Dame herself! Will we allow it?" and joins both the townspeople and the Roma together to fight against Frollo and his men from the attack on Notre Dame.

Personality 4

At first glance, Phoebus finds Esmeralda to be an attractive woman to look at. But it was only until after witnessing her stand up against Frollo did his interests in her setting herself apart prompt him to find out her name. In the cathedral scene, Esmeralda takes him off guard when she abruptly takes him down and points his own sword at him, the first woman to do that in a time when women were regarded by everyone as submissive to men. Phoebus took her challenge and got out from his dangerous position in order to talk to her, but then finds his flirtatious entertainment in deflecting her attacks with the candle stand. Because he fails to take things seriously, he gets injured a few times as a result. Not intending the fight to be as serious as she was making it out to be, Phoebus bows out and acknowledges her as an equal. His confidence is neither passed arrogance nor conceitedness, as he displays awkwardness to Esmeralda when he introduces himself with the meaning of his name, "Sun God." Contrary to all the men that fawn over her beauty, Phoebus is the only one that simply asks for her name out of his interest to get to know her better. The captain of the guards finds her to be more than just a beautiful woman to look at after she proved to stand out from what society expected of women and also have a true sense of justice. According to the Disney animators, the soldier Phoebus enchants, beguiles, and challenges Esmeralda in the same way that she does to others. Explains Kirk Wise, "we had to create a character who would seem worthy of Esmeralda's love and be loved and accepted by the audience."

Personality 5

When Phoebus realizes Quasimodo also has feelings for Esmeralda, however, Phoebus steps back to give Quasimodo a chance to impress Esmeralda and settles on a friendship with Esmeralda instead. In the end, despite the fact that they are from two worlds that are forbidden to be together by society, Quasimodo steps back and reunites Phoebus with Esmeralda as an official and passionate couple in the end. Phoebus then shows Esmeralda a new Paris where the townspeople and the Roma are united, and both watches as Quasimodo is cheered on and accepted by the people like he rightfully deserved and wanted.

Personality 6

Phoebus, as shown in the second film, also has a very bad habit of asking his horse, Achilles, rhetorical questions (this happened twice in the second film, the first was "How many times have I ever been wrong?" and "Achilles, do you believe this? Everybody is mad at me. How often does that happen?") to which the horse ends up answering and Phoebus always stops him by saying he was being rhetorical.

Physical Appearance

Phoebus is a muscular man in his 30s with fair skin, dark blue eyes, shoulder-length blond hair, and a small goatee. He mostly wears golden armor and blue clothing underneath and a blue cape, and underneath these, he wears a white shirt and brown pants.