I rewatched Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame last night. Great movie! However, I realized the true villain of the story isn't Judge Frollo, it's the Archdeacon who lives in Notre Dame.
Like, what's the deal with this guy? I'm a big fan of his early work: he sees Frollo murder a young mother in cold blood and stops him from murdering the child as well. That's some good stuff! But then he proposes his solution and it's that the guy he just saw try to kill an orphan baby should raise said baby. Hey, baby-murderer! Would you like to be a baby dad?
I think it's easy to forget about this guy because he's not really a significant character after the opening scene. I figured maybe he was a good guy who just like, died or retired a couple years after the Frollo/Quasimodo incident so that's why he didn't do anything about that whole situation.
Except!! Then he shows up in a scene set 20+ years later, to tell Esmeralda she can claim sanctuary in the cathedral. So he's been here and in charge the whole time?!?! So he saw Frollo raising this kid into a servant who calls him Master and thinks of himself as a monster and never thought he should maybe intervene?! His one act of kindness toward Quasimodo was saving his life, but given the life the Archdeacon gave him, I'm not sure that can reasonably be considered kindness at all, actually. He sold Quasimodo up the river! And why? Because Frollo asked how to get into heaven. Meaning the Archdeacon prioritized a chance at redemption for a man he just witnessed attempting infanticide, over the actual health and wellness of the actual infant.
That's fucked up!
You might think - as did I - "okay, Scout, you're making some assumptions here. How do we know the Archdeacon witnessed how Frollo treated Quasimodo? Maybe he was just assuming the best in Frollo, can we really blame him for that?"
Here's the thing, though - there's a scene late in the movie where Frollo brings Quasimodo dinner and Quasi says he didn't think Frollo was coming. The way it's framed makes it seem as though it's pretty normal for Frollo to only visit Quasimodo once or twice a day. So where does Quasimodo get his other meals from? Who tailored his clothes and ordered his shoes? Who taught him how and when to ring the bells? Who changed his diapers and bathed him when he was small? Let's be real, Frollo was not doing all that. I think it's safe to assume that the people who actually did the majority of care for him as a child were the staff at Notre Dame.
So as the head of said staff, and also as a person repeatedly characterized as empathetic, observant, and moral, the Archdeacon should absolutely have noticed that Quasimodo was not being raised as if he was Frollo's own son - what the Archdeacon specificially called for - and he chose to do nothing about it.
In conclusion, the guy who abused an innocent child is bad, but the guy who pulled the strings to make it happen and then sat idly by and watched it for years? That guy is worse. Just, like - dude, fuck the Archdeacon.