History Recap / TangledTheSeriesS1E21SecretOfTheSundrop

* GreenEyedMonster: What finally pushes Varian into his VillainousBreakdown is watching Rapunzel happily share a hug with her mother and father while Varian himself is unable to reunite with his own parent.

* GoBackToTheSource: The episode revolves around Rapunzel returning to Varian's home in Old Corona, where she first met him and tried to get answers about her HairReboot, to save her mother and take him down.

* {{Envy}}: What finally pushes Varian into his VillainousBreakdown is watching Rapunzel happily share a hug with her mother and father while Varian himself is unable to reunite with his own parent.

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Varian gets very touchy-feely with the royal family, holding Rapunzel's hair and grabbing Arianna while the women show obvious discomfort. He even leans up against Frederic ,''while his sword is drawn'', to mock the king's lack of power over Varian.

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Varian gets very touchy-feely with the royal family, holding Rapunzel's hair and grabbing Arianna while the women show obvious discomfort. He even leans up against Frederic , 'while his sword is drawn'', to mock the king's lack of power over Varian.

* {{Outgambitted}}: The heroes have Shorty act as a decoy for Rapunzel so she can secretly break into Varian’s home and stop him, knowing the alchemist would expect her to be arriving with the army. Unfortunately, Varian planned for this and left his own decoy as bait to capture Rapunzel and Frederic when they broke in.

* GoBackToTheSource: The episode revolves around Rapunzel returning to Varian's cottage in Old Corona, where she first met him and tried to get answers about her HairReboot, to save her mother and take him down.

* RootingForTheEmpire:Its pretty hard not to root for Varian when [[spoiler: Rapunzel ignored Varian for months after coming her to help, and King Fredrick sent armed guards after him, leading Varian to turn against Crona]].

* RootingForTheEmire:Its pretty hard not to root for Varian when [[spoiler: Rapunzel ignored Varian for months after coming her to help, and King Fredrick sent armed guards after him, leading Varian to turn against Crona]].

* IfICantHaveYou: Said by Varian when he is furious upon realizing Quirin cannot be freed with Rapunzel’s hair as he thought and emerges in his giant atomaton:

* BlackGuyDiesFirst: More accurately, Asian Guy Gets Knocked Out First, but he's still the first minority to go down.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: So... [[GaiasVengeance the black spikes popped up]] after an important item [[GreenAesop was removed from their ecosystem?]]

* ThemeTuneCameo: While disguised as Rapunzel, Shorty briefly sings "Wind in My hair", before being told to put a sock in it.

* NotSoDifferent: It's clear Varian and King Frederic are a lot more similar than one realizes, especially once you learn the full backstory of the King; they've both been willing to do anything to save their loved ones, even if it meant endangering others.

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Done by the heroes. The Royal Guard, led by Cassandra and Eugene, stage an assault against Varian's home.

* DamselInDistress: Queen Arianna is taken prisoner by Varian and she doesn't defend herself even before he has her chained, needing Frederic and Rapunzel to come rescue her.

* NoSympathy: {{Downplayed}}; Rapunzel, Frederic, and Arianna embracing in front of Varian crying over his encased father can be justified by the pain he just put them through. However, Varian is still a child in their kingdom who was left without any guardians or companions and pushed to increasingly desperate situations.

* DamselInDistress: Queen Arianna is taken prisoner by Varian and Frederic and Rapunzel come rescue her.

* NoSympathy: Frederic, Arianna, and Rapunzel happily embrace, despite the fact that Varian is near them breaking down over his father not being freed from the amber.

* WouldHurtAChild: No-one has any problem with trying to attack Varian.

* BittersweetEnding: Even though Corona and the queen are saved, not only is Varian now in the dungeon for four charges of high treason, but his father still hasn't been freed yet.

* WouldHurtAChild: No-one has any problem with trying to attack Varian. In particular, Cassandra charges at him with her sword.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Varian was introduced in the series as a geeky, awkward alchemist who showed Rapunzel respect by calling her, "Your Highness," upon first meeting her, giggled giddily when he first met Eugene, being a huge Flynn Rider fan, and tried impressing Cassandra with his invention at the Exposition of Sciences. Flash-forward to this episode, and Varian has become an extremist in his single-minded obsession to save his father. He commits high treason by attacking Corona and kidnapping the Queen, throws caution to the wind and puts Rapunzel's life in danger when trying to use her hair to free his father, and even attempts to crush both Cassandra and the Queen to death with his giant automaton in order to make Rapunzel suffer. It makes watching previous Varian episodes a little bit hard seeing how far from grace he has fallen.

* BondVillainStupidity: Even if you disregard the fact that Rudiger gave Pascal the means to free Frederic, Varian ''didn't'' confiscate his weapon, and we can see that free or not, he was still at decent throwing distance towards his wife.

* SympathyForTheDevil: Even Queen Arianna can't help but feel so much pity for Varian, and Rapunzel also does, even requesting that he not be treated too harshly in prison and also to give him actual help despite him having attempted to kill her and her loved ones.

* TheGlovesComeOff: It's clear from the promos that Varian is done playing nice and has made his grievances known, and will throw everything he has against Rapunzel, even using her mother as leverage against her. Of course, Varian finds that once you take the gloves off, you can’t put them back on.

* NeverMyFault: Varian still insists it's not his fault he is on his current path, and still doesn't see that was the result of his own actions from "Queen For a A Day". This line from the song shows just how bad it is:
-->'''Varian:''' I'm the bad guy, that's fine, but it's no fault of mine.
** Later, his VillainousBreakdown is kicked off by him desperately trying to convince himself that everything that happened wasn't his own fault, ending with him placing the blame squarely on Rapunzel instead.

* VillainousBreakdown: When Varian fails to free his father while Rapunzel is able to save both her parents, he loses it and tries to kill everyone with a giant mech suit.

* TheGlovesComeOff: It's clear from the promos that Varian is done playing nice and will throw everything he has against Rapunzel, even using her mother as leverage against her.