Malora

Malora is the femslash ship between Maleficent and Aurora from the Sleeping Beauty and Once Upon A Time fandoms.

Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Aurora's parents, the King and Queen invited the entire kingdom, including fairies Flora, Fauna and Merryweather to Aurora's christening, but neglected to invite Maleficent. Maleficent arrived at their castle anyway, but when the other fairies rub her lack of an invitation in her face, she is so insulted that she takes her anger out on the royal family. She curses the baby to prick her finger on a spindle on her sixteenth birthday and drop dead, she then leaves before any of the castle guards could stop her. Since Maleficent interrupted Merryweather giving the baby princess her gift, the good fairy chooses to use her gift to weaken Maleficent's curse; instead of dying, Aurora will fall into a deep sleep until her beloved arrives to give her true love's kiss. The King and Queen are so scared of Maleficent's curse that they not only burn every spindle in their kingdom, but also give Aurora to the fairies to raise as one of their own. To protect Aurora from Maleficent, the fairies call her "Briar Rose", so that Maleficent wouldn't recognize her if the two of them ever were to meet. Unfortunately, as soon as Aurora turns sixteen, Maleficent takes a more active role, calling Aurora towards the castle and having her completely under her spell. Inside the castle, she changes the interior into a hidden passageway so the fairies couldn't stop her and creates a spindle out of dark magic for Aurora to prick her finger on. When the fairies found Aurora, she's already unconcious and Maleficent's mocks their failure before returning to her realm. But when Maleficent realizes that Prince Phillip is the beloved Merryweather meant, she kidnaps him and keeps him prisoner in her dungeon. When the fairies come to Prince Phillip's rescue and thwart all of her attempts to stop them, Maleficent takes action by transforming herself into a huge dragon as a last effort to prevent Phillip from reaching Aurora. Phillip stabs her with his sword, leaving her incapable to stop him from kissing Aurora as Maleficent dies from her wounds.

Maleficent (2014)
The Live-Action adaptation of the story spins perspectives so that Maleficent is the hero and is given a reason to antagonize the royal family, as she fell in love with King Stefan, who mutilated her by cutting her wings off in her sleep to prove his loyalty to his dying father. Though she starts out hating Aurora, she eventually grows to love her as she was left as the only person capable of taking care of her behind the fairies backs, who are utterly incompetent at raising a child in this version. At the end of the story, Prince Phillip refuses to kiss an unconcious woman, no matter how much he loves her, so Maleficent had given up hope and gives Aurora a little peck on the forehead as a way of saying goodbye to her. However, that little gesture counts as a true love's kiss, so Aurora awakens and Maleficent gives her and Phillip her blessing.

Fanon
Malora always had a bit of popularity with Hero/Villain ships, as fans noticed how surprisingly easy it is to recontextualize their few scenes together romantically.

The Maleficent movies really helped kickstarting the ship's popularity, as Maleficent is the one who gave Aurora her true love's kiss in this version. However, that didn't stop controversies from cropping up due to Aurora being sixteen in the first movie and actually looking sixteen (unlike her animated counterpart), along with Maleficent essentially raising Aurora making the idea of shipping them uncomfortable for some people. It is still the most popular ship for Aurora in the movies, overshadowing Philora, though Maleval is the preferred ship for Maleficent.

Fandom
FAN FICTION