Characters / Tangled - Main Characters

Tangled Main Character Index
Main Characters (Cassandra | Varian) | Allies & Others | Villains

Character page for the main characters of Tangled and Tangled: The Series.

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Debuted in Tangled (the 2010 movie)

Rapunzel

"When will my life begin?"

Click^here to see her with her hair cut.

Voiced by: Mandy Moore, Delaney Rose Stein (as a child, film), Ivy George (as a child, TV show), Kelsey Lansdowne (Kingdom Hearts III) (English)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Romina Marroquín-Payró (trailer and The Series), Danna Paola and Sara Paula Gómez Arias (as a child)
Voiced by (French): Maeva Méline (Europe), Catherine Brunet (Quebec)
Voiced by (Japanese): Shoko Nakagawa
Voiced by (Korean): Park Ji-yun, Park Sae-byeol (singing), Kim Mi-rang (as a child)
Appearances: Tangled | The Series | Ever After | Frozen (2013)^note The Cameo only | Sofia the First^note as a magical summon
Appearances in alternate continuities: Disney Infinity | Ralph Breaks the Internet | Kingdom Hearts III^note Retelling of Tangled

Born to a queen who needed the power of a magic flower to come to term with her, she was stolen by the witch Gothel who had been previously using the flower to remain forever youthful. The witch discovers that Rapunzel's hair now holds the power of the flower unless it is cut, and so keeps her locked in a hidden tower and unaware of her heritage, until the thief Flynn Rider (Eugene Fitzherbert) tries to make her tower a hideaway spot. She strikes a deal for him to bring her to see the floating lanterns that have appeared every year on her birthday, in exchange for the object he stole: the Princess' crown.

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• The Ace:
  • She's good at everything, as seen in the song "When Will My Life Begin" in the movie. Her talents include cooking, painting, chess, pottery, candle making, sewing, ballet, ventriloquy, playing the guitar and many more. Not to mention that she's brave, strong, a Badass Adorable, able to befriend everyone she meets, and of course, like every Disney Princess, has a beautiful singing voice. Somewhat of a Deconstruction, as it's heavily implied the reason she's so good at many different things is because she was locked in a tower for 18 years of her life and had to keep busy to basically keep her own sanity and find ways to pass the time, year after year.
  • In the series, she joins a competition on a whim, seeing it as a fun way to spend a Saturday. She ends up outperforming everyone who'd spent much time heavily training for the event... without even extending much effort. In fact she's very rarely legitimately challenged by anything except for overwhelming odds, and most of the conflict comes from struggling with moral questions, her naivety when it comes to dishonesty, and the depressing frequency with which she's manipulated and let down by those close to her.
• Action Girl: This comes out in the series, where she regularly goes on dangerous quests and faces powerful enemies, especially as the story progresses. Though her escape from the palace guards in the movie also gives her a good moment, even if it’s not a fight scene.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the traditional version of Rapunzel, while Rapunzel being kicked out of the tower isn't very pleasant, it still isn't emphasized as being the worst thing ever. In this adaptation, Rapunzel has to deal with discovering that her "mother" actually kidnapped her in infancy and intends to imprison her for as long as she lives (just to use her unique abilities to maintain her youth). And when Rapunzel fights back, it ends with Mother Gothel nearly killing Eugene to keep her presence a secret from her true parents and being forced to watch Gothel die in front of her from falling out of the tower. She doesn't react nearly as much as expected, but still has more trauma than in the fairy tale.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In the original fairy tale, the heroine is a Damsel in Distress and not much else. Here, she's a Girly Bruiser who sets out in a quest and drives the story with her own actions. Even Eugene notes that Rapunzel doesn't need anyone to take care of her and she's the one who "normally does the saving".
  • The series takes this even further: she's portrayed as a fearless and capable fighter against even the toughest opponent, unlike her movie self who was still a take-charge badass, but didn’t have any direct fight scenes.
• Aesop Amnesia: She has a very hard time understanding Cassandra's issues. For example, she does not take her lesson from "Big Brothers of Corona" to respect Cassandra's wishes to heart.
• Affectionate Nickname: Eugene calls her "blondie" and "sunshine", while Cassandra calls her "Raps".
• Age-Gap Romance: With Eugene. Rapunzel is clearly stated as being 18-years-old but Eugene's age is more complicated. In short, his age is somewhere between 18 and 26. The series reveals he is 26 during Season 3 (while Rapunzel has turned 20), giving them a 6 year age gap.
• Agony of the Feet: The first time she wears shoes (high heels, no less) in Tangled: Before Ever After, it does not go well since she has literally never worn shoes before.
• All-Loving Heroine: Rapunzel is a caring and sweet person who wants to be friends with everyone. She was even disturbed to see Gothel fall to her death after Rapunzel found out that she was an manipulative abuser.
• Almost Kiss: Twice. The first time is in the rowboat before the Mood Whiplash where Flynn sees the Stabbington brothers, and the second is right before he cuts her hair off to save her from Gothel. Taken to Running Gag levels in Before Ever After.
• Ambiguously Bi: While Rapunzel is in a relationship with Eugene, there's quite a bit of subtext between Rapunzel and Cassandra, at times getting too close for comfort. In fact, when Rapunzel lost her memory, Cassandra decides to show Rapunzel the world like Eugene did in the movie, and there are hints she would’ve fallen in love with Cassandra if it were her instead of Eugene.
• Art Shift: As Disney's first princess to appear in a 3D computer-animated film, Rapunzel is given a 2D makeover◊ in promotional material for the line to match with the other princesses.
• Badass Adorable: Cute as a button, but not even the least afraid to talk down angry thugs and angry horses.
• Bad Powers, Good People: In the series, the reverse incantation makes everything wither and decay around her. She is still unambiguously good and uses the incantation to fight evil forces and to free Varian's father from the ember.
• Ballet: Just one of many things she became good at in her captivity.
• Barefoot Captives: Played with. She's kept barefoot as a prisoner in Gothel's tower, but once she escapes, she continues going barefoot throughout the movie and all its sequels. In the TV series, it's stated that she Prefers Going Barefoot.
• Battle Couple: With Eugene. They help each other fight off the guards chasing him and save each other several times as they fall in love with each other. The pilot movie for The Series shows that the two of them have lost none of their stride. When Lady Kane attempts to kidnap the royals, a few eye gestures between Eugene, Rapunzel, and hand maid Cassandra are all they need before they leap into action to save the day. Rapunzel even tosses Eugene a frying pan, at which point the tide of battle really begins to turn in their favor.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Rapunzel runs off to adventure with 70 feet of hair and bare feet. She gets wet but dries off quickly, and at no point are her hair and feet ever seen to get dirty. The hair is justified because it's magical. The feet have no excuse.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She may be an adorable and sweet if not naive young girl but she is capable of kicking your butt either with her hair or a frying pan. Even Cassandra can get unnerved when Rapunzel gets genuinely angry up until her Face–Heel Turn that is.
• Big Sister Instinct: She becomes a surrogate one towards Varian, protecting him from Cassandra when she attacks the group.
• Blessed with Suck:
  • Rapunzel briefly alludes to the difficulties of having 70-foot long hair during her "I Want" Song.
    And then I'll brush and brush and brush and brush my hair!
  • Gothel has also made Rapunzel believe that she would be in constant danger outside the tower because selfish people would want her healing power for themselves. Along with the actual truth in that statement and the resulting tower imprisonment as well.
• Blithe Spirit: Her cheerful, genuine nature is what brings out the good side of the thugs at the Snuggly Duckling and saves Flynn's life.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: She suffers this at the hands of Cassandra, who had taken the role of protector for a long time.
• Bound and Gagged: Mother Gothel ties up and gags Rapunzel for wanting to save Flynn from execution and to lure Flynn into a trap later on.
• Brainy Brunette: Zigzagged. Rapunzel is a smart girl, and a natural brunette, as shown at the end of the movie and in Tangled Ever After, but during most of the movie and series she appears as a blonde since the magic in her makes her hair blond.
• Broken Pedestal: Varian loses all respect for her when she refuses to help him free his father, though it becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal in Season 3.
• Brought Down to Normal: After Flynn cuts her hair. It kills Mother Gothel and turns her into a brunette. However, it's implied to not be the case in the short Tangled Ever After, where her kiss with Eugene makes the sun shine brighter. In fact, the series further confirms she herself is magical.
• Building Swing: Using her hair as a rope, she can swing.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Princess Rapunzel is using a Paper-Thin Disguise trying to discover why Uncle Monty does not like her.
  Uncle Monty: I got that thing as a gift and I'm trying to find some use for it but let me tell you, it's not even useful as a doorstoop.
  Rapunzel: Yeah, dumb and totally useless thing. I surely hope the foolish but clearly well-intentioned person who made it regrets it.
• Butt-Monkey: Downplayed. She suffers Amusing Injuries occasionally but Eugene gets it much worse when it comes to physical comedy.
• Cain and Abel: The Abel to Cassandra's Cain. Though Season 3 reveals that Rapunzel and Cassandra are adoptive sisters, Cassandra also tries to murder Rapunzel several times.
• Casting a Shadow: Thanks to her powers being derived from the moonstone in the series, Rapunzel gets basically all in-universe dark powers, from controlling moon rocks to decaying incantations that turn her eyes and hair black.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Gives Mother Gothel a spiteful earful near the climax of the movie when she realizes the truth of their relationship (i.e. kidnapping and exploitation).
• Cavalier Competitor: In the series, she treats every competition she participates in as a game and just wants to have fun, contrasting Cassandra who fights tooth and nail to win.
• The Chains of Commanding: Rapunzel is the crown princess and future queen of Corona so as the series goes on she gains more and more responsibility and authority. The responsibility of leading quicky starts to wear on Rapunzel. During "Queen for a Day" Rapunzel makes decisions that put her loved ones in danger, risks the lives of her subjects, and leaves Varian abandoned. The stress of this leads Rapunzel for a time to start second guessing herself and avoiding making hard decisions. In season two Rapunzel leads her group on a quest beyond Corona's borders. Her role as leader results in Rapunzel making decisions that Cassandra disagrees with and the two butting heads more and more straining their friendship. Near the end of the season Rapunzel is put in a dream where everything is perfect and she doesn't have to make any difficult decisions. Even though she knows its a dream she is still very tempted to embrace it.
• Character Development: Rapunzel loses her fear of the outside world and learns to stand up to her abusive adoptive mother.
• Character Tics: Rapunzel tends to run her finger through her hair when nervous or excited.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Rapunzel's complete, non-negotiable unwillingness to break her promises greatly informs the film's climax, when she promises to Mother Gothel that, if she lets Rapunzel heal Flynn, Rapunzel will stay with her forever and offer no resistance. Needless to say, it makes the scene pretty tense.
  • The fact that her hair glows helps her and Flynn escape a watery death.
  • Her passion for painting bright, colorful patterns and flowers on the walls of her tower proves essential to her realizing her true identity.
  • The handkerchief of the kingdom's sun emblem is what she uses (as well as her paintings) to realize that she is the lost princess.
• Cloudcuckoolander: With her using a frying pan as a weapon and walking barefoot through towns, bars, and forests, you've gonna admit she definitely looks the part. Not to mention the fact that she doesn't know much about the outside world because she has been locked in a tower her entire life. Flynn's blatant flirting with her when they first meet in her tower also totally flies over her head and has no effect on her whatsoever (shocking to him: "This doesn't normally happen...", "You broke my smoulder!"), showing her lack of experience in social interactions.
• Compressed Hair:
  • While touring the kingdom, her 70 feet of hair is compressed into one floor-length braid.
  • When her hair first grows back in Tangled: Before Ever After, she tries to hide it by wrapping it in fabric in one giant mass on top of her head.
• Cosmic Motifs: Of the sun. She was born after her mother drank a potion made from the flower that was imbued with the sun's power. Her hair is as blonde as the sun. She has an energetic personality and is a magnetic person.
• Create Your Own Villain: She does this to Varian in the latter half of Season 1. It was her being forced to turn him down when he begs her to save his father when she has far more important matters at hand regarding her kingdom, as well as never checking on him afterwards, that makes him undergo a Face–Heel Turn and vow Revenge against Corona and its royal family. In Rapunzel's defense, however, she couldn't help him during the blizzard, and Varian ignored his own role in his father's imprisonment.
• Cute Bookworm: When living in the isolated tower, she liked to spend some of her free time reading books.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Thanks to her hair, she is endearingly klutzy. Even beyond this, she seems to have a bit of klutziness in general; witness her attempts to get Flynn into her cupboard, the way she accidentally clonks herself with her own frying pan, and so forth.
• The Cutie: She's a cute, kind, and playful Genki Girl, and her mannerisms (such as hiding in her hair when scared) and personality make her the one of the most adorable Disney Princesses.
• Dance Battler: In a brief sequence during a tournament in the series, she manages to knock several of her opponents out of the ring by using dancing moves.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Rapunzel has been emotionally and psychologically abused by the woman who kidnapped her as a baby.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Throught the series she gains lots of dark based powers, like controlling moon rocks and getting an incantation where her hair and eyes turn black and she rots things, but she remains a good, kind-hearted person. In fact her powers in the series are derived from a fragment of the moonstone's powers rather than the sundrop's. Unfortunately, using this incantation more will make it harder to snap out of, and touching her will either kill you or lose you a limb.
• Determinator: As she makes clear to Zhan Tiri, "I'm not big on giving up!"
• Ditzy Genius: She's incredibly multi-talented and capable of great insights, but also has her moments of (perfectly understandable) naive idiocy.
• Dumb Blonde: Zigzagged. Rapunzel may be naive and a bit ditzy, but she's proven to be quite intelligent. And while she has sun-gold hair, it becomes brunette after Eugene cuts it.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the pain she goes through throughout the movie and series, including the betrayals of two of her closest friends, Rapunzel finally obtains her happily ever after by defeating Zhan Tiri and marrying Eugene.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: Her lack of shoes reflects her free-spirited and energetic nature, her way with animals, and her healing powers. She gets mocked for this in Before Ever After, mostly by villains and other nobles.
• Empathic Weapon: In the series, Rapunzel's regrown hair now reacts to her mental state, such as flying wildly all across the room when she's suffering a nightmare and forming a protective sphere around her and Eugene when they think they're going to die together under a collapsing building.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Calliope is so annoying that Eugene was freaked out that Rapunzel could hate someone.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • Rapunzel has her hair braided and decorated with flowers when she finally reaches Corona. On a practical level, she couldn't really run around with 70 feet of hair dragging behind her. On a symbolic level, it's a sign that she's finally able to let loose and have fun, without her Magic Hair being the center of her very being. This is contrasted with when she is convinced to go back to the tower with Gothel; the braid is undone, and the flowers taken away, with Gothel off-handedly commenting "There... like it never even happened."
  • At the end of the movie, Rapunzel's hair is cut off and reverts to its likely natural brown color. This severs her past as a living magical item and the next scene shows her reunite with her brown-haired birth mother.
• Eye Color Change:
  • In "Happiness Is...", her eyes become a more sickly vivid green when she sees her heart's desire with the Idol of Vershaftsbezeigungengien. When she sees a bad vision from it, her eyes turn a fiery red.
  • In "Rapunzel and The Great Tree", while she uses the hurt incantation, her sclera turns black and her pupils glow green.
• Family Eye Resemblance: She has the same eyes as her birth mother, which is helpful in the first film's epilogue.
• Family of Choice: She essentially sees Cassandra as the older sister she never had. Made even more notable when she finds out that Cassandra is Gothel's biological daughter, making them in a way sisters and claiming the only good thing she ever did was bring them together.
• Fantastic Light Source: Rapunzel uses her magic hair to find the way out of a flooded cave.
• Fearless Fool: In the series, she's mostly overcome the fearful nature Mother Gothel instilled in her, but seems to be taking it a little too far in the other direction; she's developed a definite reckless streak and repeatedly throws herself into danger without hesitation or fear.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Escaping the guards chasing after them and nearly drowning together help Rapunzel and Flynn begin to trust each other and become closer.
• Flowers of Femininity: Rapunzel is a beautiful, kind-hearted, and innocent princess who for convenience, keeps her hair tied in a long braid decorated by flowers.
• Fluffy Tamer:
  • She converts Maximus, a badass war horse, to her side with petting and baby talk.
  • In the series, she effortlessly tames a wild wolf and has him rolling on the ground like a contented puppy before Cassandra can bring her sword to bear on him.
• Fountain of Youth: Her hair is the key to Mother Gothel's immortality after her mother ate the magic flower during pregnancy.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The sanguine. The cheerful, friendly Genki Girl.
• A Friend in Need: To Pascal, as evidenced when she gets furious at Cassandra for suggesting they call off their search for him in "Pascal's Story".
• Friend to All Living Things: From militant horses, to human thugs and thieves, and beyond.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Her rather dynamic weapon is a cast iron version.
• Full-Contact Magic: In the series, she directs her light with hand gestures.
• Genki Girl: One of the most energetic of all of the Princesses (only matched by Ariel in her first days as a human and by Anna).
• Girl in the Tower: Lived in there all her life. Unlike the standard trope, she could physically leave whenever she wanted, but her "mom" didn't allow her to.
• Girly Bruiser: Rapunzel spends all day cooking, painting, reading, sewing, and brushing her hair. The first sign of her, in the original trailers, is also her beating someone up with Prehensile Hair. Although this didn't make it into the film, she remains a pretty mean hand with a frying pan and saves Flynn's bacon on more than one occasion. Cranked up in the series where she suddenly becomes a fearless combatant on par with any warrior.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She has a very bubbly and sweet personality, normally wears very feminine dresses, and has hobbies such as cooking and sewing. But she also doesn't mind getting rough when in a fight and has an unwavering love for adventure.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her main outfit is a purple and lavender dress and she is quite agile in a pinch despite her 70 feet of hair. Social grace is a little more difficult.
• Grew a Spine:
  • From her adventures outside the tower with Eugene, Rapunzel gets over her fears of the outside world and begins to realize she can take care of herself without having to depend on Mother Gothel. She goes from acting as an Extreme Doormat to Gothel to being able to give the woman a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • She goes through something similar during the series, becoming increasingly willing to call out those who lie to or try to manipulate her, and a lot less patient with dealing with bad behavior from those close to her.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Although the hair is gold by magic, she is still kind enough to stir the hearts of the thugs at the Snuggly Duckling.
• Hair Reboot: In the series' pilot episode, Rapunzel gets into contact with a magic rock that causes her to regain her long blonde locks again. In "Beginnings", this was because of some of the Moonstone's magic from the rocks being transferred to her hair when she touched them, making it grow back and become indestructible like them to protect her on her journey to the Dark Kingdom.
• Hartman Hips: Rapunzel starts having slightly wide and very curvy hips when she turns 18.
• The Heart: She is able to bring people together for a common goal and even inspire people who despise each other to work together. One instance of this is when, in the movie proper, she manages to get Maximus, who is hunting Eugene down, and Eugene, to work together.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Tries to do this at the end of the movie by sacrificing her freedom for Eugene's life. He beats her to it by sacrificing his life for her freedom.
  • In "Freebird", she uses the last egg to turn Cassandra back into human, thus making her own transformation irreversible. Of course, a few minutes later, they find out there are more eggs after all. Unfortunately, Season 3 shows that Cassandra isn't the least bit grateful for this sacrifice.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: She lamently admits she doesn't know what Cassandra is going through, despite the fact that it was Cassandra's choice to turn against her and attempt to kill her, not to mention she suffered far more under Gothel's abuse yet still remained unambiguously kind, whereas Cassandra was at least taken in by a loving adoptive father but still underwent a Start of Darkness.
• I Gave My Word: Whenever Rapunzel makes a promise, she intends to keep it, from promising to return Flynn the satchel that has the tiara he stole to promising Mother Gothel that she will go with her willingly only if Eugene can be healed first. In fact, if she breaks a promise, it ends up really costing her.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Although her initial wish was to simply leave her tower just once for her birthday, when she discovers the joys of freedom, she doesn't want to give it up and wants a new life.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: When she confronts the two remaining disciples of Zantiri, Rapunzel is tempted with the idea of abandoning her destiny as the Sundrop and her responsibilities as princess. While she does reject the temptation, the episodes show that Rapunzel is tempted by the idea of living a comfortable and safe life in the castle and letting others make the hard decisions.
• Important Haircut: Granted, it's done to her hair by Eugene, but it's to stop Gothel from enslaving Rapunzel for the rest of her life.
• Improbable Hairstyle: Rapunzel gives us a two-fer. First of all she has over 70-feet of her long golden hair, but it's justified since the hair is magic. When she reaches the kingdom capitol, she gets a more convenient style when three girls compress that huge mass of hair into a fiendishly-complex mass of ankle-length braids. Then she gets her hair cut off into a perfectly styled and layered pixie cut. The hair was cut off in one go with a pane of glass.
• Improbable Weapon User: Rapunzel favors using frying pans. In the series, she can also use her hair as a weapon as well as a shield since it somehow became denser than steel. An axe fails to cut through it.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: In the animated series, Rapunzel's figure is noticeably curvy.
• The Ingenue: Her naivete and innocence are two of her biggest traits, and end up being strengths for her on occasion.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Once her hair's cut off, she resembles a younger version of her voice actress Mandy Moore.
• Kidnapped While Sleeping: She was kidnapped by Gothel as a baby while she was still fast asleep in her crib, leading her to grow up thinking she was her mother.
• Kubrick Stare: Near the end of the movie, as she calls Gothel out, Rapunzel gives her a Death Glare from beneath her eyebrows.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Rapunzel, when she turns 18 and after her hair gets cut, looks a little like a boy due to her being a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak, despite being a cutie and a beautiful woman who wears clearly feminine dresses.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Toward the end of Season 1, Rapunzel never bothers to check on Varian during the months following Zhan Tiri's blizzard, nor does she send someone to do so. It comes back to bite her when he betrays her and manipulates her to get the Sundrop Flower, she's locked by her father inside a tower on her birthday due to his overprotectiveness, and her mother gets abducted by Varian as well.
• Laugh of Love: She giggles briefly after Flynn responds to her compliment before going to get some firewood, and she later admits to Gothel that she thinks he likes her.
• Letting Her Hair Down:
  • Inverted, as in Rapunzel's case, it's actually when her normally loose (70 feet) hair is braided up that she first is happy and finds herself. Later her abusive adoptive mother pointedly unbraids her hair while rubbing salt in her wounds by saying "There... Like it never happened." about the most beautiful experience of her life.
  • Also inverted in the series where she usually wears her hair in a braid but, since it's her improbable weapon, she lets it down to kick ass.
• Light Is Good: She's heavily associated with the sun and she's the heroine.
• Light 'em Up: In "Cassandra's Revenge," the 4th incantation allows her to wield light that makes the indestructible black rocks crumble into dust.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: She is the Light Feminine (sweet, innocent, and Obliviously Beautiful) to Mother Gothel's Dark Feminine (a cold and ruthless Proud Beauty). Fittingly, Mother Gothel is dark-haired in contrast to Rapunzel's Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter:
  • The series reveals that Rapunzel inherited more from her real mother than her looks; Rapunzel's wanderlust and sense of adventure also comes from the Queen, who traveled the world in her younger days. They both also had an amazing variety of hobbies, as shown in her royal portrait. Furthermore, their reaction to being unexpectedly confronted by a thief (the same thief, no less!) is to whack them on the head with a blunt object.
  • On a darker note, the both of them have a tendency to excuse the severe misdeeds of their loved one or otherwise stay with them (Frederic for Arianna, Cassandra for Rapunzel).
• Limited Wardrobe: She mostly wears her signature purplish-pink dress, in both the movie and the first season of the series. The only exceptions (justifiably) are scenes in the series where she's woken up at night and wearing pajamas, and flash-backs to her as a child/baby. After season 2 of the series, she gains a new adventure fitted outfit that features darker colors and leather, but only switches between that and her old dress. In season 3, she almost only wears a dress that is dark purple and that features the Kingdom of Corona's motifs as a sort of temporary Queen outfit.
• Lost Orphaned Royalty: Was stolen by Mother Gothel shortly after her birth and isolated in a tower away from the outside world, all so Gothel could preserve her immortality.
• Love Martyr: In Season 3, platonically, towards Cassandra. Rapunzel never gives up on her and keeps on reaching out to her, while Cassandra attempts to murder Rapunzel and her loved ones multiple times, allies with the Big Bad, and nearly destroys Corona.
• Lunacy: In the first season finale of The Series, she temporarily gains the power to control the black rocks, which are the lunar counterpart to the sun flower. Later it is revealed that her powers in the series are at least in part derived from the moonstone.
• Make Them Rot: In the series, the reverse incantation makes everything wither and decay around her.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: Her hair, which can heal any wound and sickness and grant someone everlasting youth, is why she's locked in a tower. Then we later find out it's not just her hair, she is the sundrop child.
• Made of Iron: In the series, she falls off great heights, takes a brutal beating, and never spots a scratch afterwards.
• Magical Barefooter: Rapunzel has 70-feet of Magic Hair with healing and age-reversing powers. She also goes around barefoot throughout the entire film as a result of being cloistered for said magic hair.
• Magical Incantation:
  • In the film, she needs a spell to activate the healing magic of her hair:
    Flower gleam and glow,
    Let your power shine,
    Let the clock reverse,
    bring back to me what once was mine.
  • In "Rapunzel and the Great Tree", she reads an ominous reverse incantation after which she becomes possessed by dark powers:
    Wither and decay, end this destiny,
    Break these earthly chains, and set the spirit free...
• Magic Hair: It can heal injuries as well as sickness, glows in the dark, and can reverse aging. The climax and Tangled Ever After imply there's magic in her main body as well. Her new hair in the series trades magical healing with Made of Indestructium.
• Magic Knight: In the series, she turns into a fearless athlete and also learns Magical Incantations to Make Them Rot and Light 'em Up.
• Magnetic Hero: Rapunzel's infectiously cheerful presence visibly affects the seemingly hostile Pub Thugs, Eugene Fitzherbert, Maximus, and all of the Corona citizens she meets.
• Make Them Rot: In the second season of the series she discovers a counterpart incantation to her former healing powers that goes with her new Moonstone-empowered hair. It makes her eyes and hair black as life is drained from the things around her, withering them into dust.
• Meaningful Name: Rapunzel's name derives from the magical rampion of the beginning prologue.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: Rapunzel has had no formal combat training, and tends to leave physical confrontation to others and use diplomacy as a first resort. She is however physically exceptional in every aspect, and when she does get involved often outperforms the trained fighters in the cast.
• Mood-Swinger: In one memorable scene when she goes out to the world for the first time in 18 years. She even provides the image for the trope.
• Morality Pet:
  • To Flynn/Eugene. His nicer side doesn't show until he's forced to help her and he falls in love with her in the process.
  • The thugs at Snuggly Ducklings also help out her and Flynn because of her positive influence. Had she not been there, they probably would've turned Flynn in to the authorities for payment.
• Motor Mouth: When she's nervous, Rapunzel tends to start babbling rapidly. Exploited by her emotionally abusive (adoptive) Mother Gothel, who picks out her "mumbling" as something to put her down for.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Rapunzel has a slim build but is able to pull up a grown woman with her hair, knock out Eugene, and effortlessly lift up a woman with a Bear Hug.
• Nature Lover: Frolicking in the woods is fun enough to distract her from her guilt about deceiving her mother.
• Nervous Tics: She often runs her fingers through her hair when she's anxious or excited.
• Never My Fault: In "The Alchemist Returns", she states "I don't even know what he is anymore!" in regards to Varian's betrayal and theft of the Sundrop Flower, even though she brought it upon herself by not checking on him after Zhan Tiri's blizzard was over.
• Nice Girl: Rapunzel is helpful, sweet, kind, and will never break a promise.
• Nice to the Waiter: She is kind to those lower-ranked than her as well, including handmaidens, and becomes Cassandra's First Friend.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: In the "Before Ever After" movie and subsequent series, after her hair regrows it becomes this, even breaking a pair of scissors Cassandra tries to cut it with.
• No Infantile Amnesia: Downplayed as it is more of a subconscious resonance. Despite the fact that she was an infant, she remembers the layout of her room and has been painting signs of it her whole life unknowingly.
• Official Couple: With Eugene. They become a couple towards the end of the movie and then get married in the sequel short.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • She gets a few of these, though one of her biggest ones is when she realizes she's the missing princess. She gets a minor one when she sees Gothel fall out the window to her death.
  • She has these moments in the series as well.
  • Two early ones are in the premiere when she notices her hair glowing after coming into contact with the black rocks, and when she notices her hair suddenly grew back.
  • Her biggest one up to date is in "The Alchemist Returns" when she finds out Varian betrayed her.
• Older Than They Look: Despite being 18-20 years old, a cutie and a beautiful woman, Rapunzel not only looks like a child, but she especially looks a little like a boy.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: The last third of Season 1 has her up against 14-year old alchemist Varian, who has undergone a Start of Darkness after his father being frozen in crystal.
• One of the Boys: She fits right in with the Snuggly Duckling thugs, mainly due to what kind of boys the thugs are and her being a princess who likes being sweet, girly and kind yet tough, manly and adventurous.
• One-Track-Minded Artist: All of her paintings have the sun on them somewhere. This could have something to do with either the lanterns that get sent up on her birthday, the fact that she was the lost princess of a kingdom who use a sun as their symbol, the fact that her powers come from a flower that was powered with "a drop of sun", or a combination.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the Season 2 premiere, Eugene is blackmailed into (almost) marrying his evil ex-girlfriend Stalyan. Rapunzel, not knowing about the blackmail, gets very jealous of Stalyan, to the point of making petty and rude comments about her that she (and everyone else) notes is very unlike her. She calms down once it's made clear Eugene isn't marrying Stalyan of his own free will and is determined to get him back.
• Opposites Attract: With Eugene. She's a spirited, innocent princess, he's a jaded, worldly-wise thief.
• Out-of-Character Moment: When Varian is thrown out into an intense magical snowstorm, she never bothers organizing a search party for him, which is quite jarring for her.
• Parental Favoritism: Cassandra accuses Rapunzel of being this to Gothel, saying Gothel chose Rapunzel over her. Even Rapunzel knows this is not true as Gothel didn't care about either of them and was a selfish person.
• The Pawn: Rapunzel is a Girl in the Tower with Fountain of Youth powers who is convinced she has been protected by her selfless caring mother from a Crapsack World who would abuse her powers because Rapunzel is The Ingenue. Then Rapunzel discovers at her 18th birthday that she really is the kidnapped princess of her Kingdom, that the woman he has called Mother all this time is her kidnapper putting on a Wise Old Folk Façade, who has been Gaslighting Rapunzel all her life so she can use Rapunzel as her personal Fountain of Youth, and that The World Is Just Awesome and Rapunzel is a Determinator.
• Pietà Plagiarism: She holds Eugene in this manner after his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Plucky Girl: She's quite determined to see the "stars" from her birthday, even though her mother is constantly gas-lighting and deriding her, and she definitely takes some initiative in fulfilling her dreams.
• The Pollyanna: Rapunzel is a very optimistic and cheerful person who tries to see the good in others and get along with people. Even when Gothel is dismissive and emotionally abusive towards her, she never feels the need to think bad about her as she genuinely loved her as a mother.
• Politically-Active Princess: The first season of the series shows her getting increasingly involved in the duties of a princess, culminating in her being temporary ruler while her parents are away and holding audiences and making decisions just as they would. In Season 3, with the incapacitation of her parents, she spends much of the season as more or less de-facto Queen, making important decisions and leading much of Corona.
• Power Dyes Your Hair:
  • She was born with her hair dyed by the power of the sun. When cut, her hair loses its magic powers and returns to its natural brown color.
  • In the series, when she uses the hurt incantation, her hair turns black with glowing green streaks.
• Power Glows: She has The Power of the Sun, after all.
  • Her hair glows when she sings the healing incantation.
  • In "Cassandra's Revenge," as Rapunzel uses the fourth incantation, her hair and eyes glow bright gold.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: In the series, Rapunzel touches some magic rocks that make her hair grow back to its original length.
• The Power of the Sun: It lets her heal, and at first sun magic seems to be imbued in her hair because of the sun flower potion her mother drank when she was pregnant with Rapunzel. However, we later find out that she herself is a product of of it.
• Prefers Going Barefoot:
  • Rapunzel is of the youthful innocence variety, plus she never needed shoes due to never leaving her tower. Interestingly, no one in the entire film comments on it, aside from Mother Gothel pointing a mirror down at Rapunzel's bare feet and commenting that she's "underdressed" — causing Rapunzel to immediately pull the bottom of her dress down over her feet. (There's considerably more lampshading in Tangled: The Series since she's a royal princess who spends time outside and yet never wears proper shoes.) In the storybook version of Tangled Ever After, she's still barefoot, even at her wedding. (In the short film, her dress is too long to tell.) The later storybook Ghosts of Christmas Past then shows that while she'll shun shoes most of the time, she'll renege to them if it calls for walking in snow. At least one bit of early concept art shows Rapunzel with shoes... however, in the artwork, she's shown kicking them off her feet. In Ralph Breaks the Internet her comfy outfit includes sneakers.
  • Tangled: The Series calls a lot more attention to Rapunzel's preference for going barefoot everywhere than the original movie did (which mentioned it a grand total of once, and even then not explicitly). "The Way of the Willow" introduces Rapunzel's aunt Willow, who shares a great many personality traits with her, including going barefoot. Another episode featured O.O.C. Is Serious Business, where Rapunzel willingly wearing shoes is a sign to Eugene that something is very wrong. By the final season, she's even stopped wearing them in the snow (or any other winter clothing for that matter, just wearing her standard Limited Wardrobe instead) while in the earlier seasons she would bundle up and put on some boots.
• Prehensile Hair: To varying degrees throughout her appearances. In the initial trailers, it appeared fully prehensile and capable of fighting Eugene and flinging him about the room. This trait is absent in the movie, save perhaps for the hair's uncanny ability to wrap around anything Rapunzel throws it at and to just as easily untangle itself when she wants it free. In the cartoon series, it can move freely but reacts to her emotions and mental state instead of being controlled directly by her will.
• Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Her signature outfit is a pretty purple dress and, of course, she has very long and beautiful blonde hair. She's not a royal guard but very few people, like Gothel, have outright overpowered her. Otherwise she's very capable in a fight, and will only lose when worn down or outnumbered.
• Princess Classic: A generous, naïve, cheerful and sweet princess with golden hair and a preference for pink dresses. Yep, she fits the bill. The most notable difference is that she marries a Reformed Criminal instead of a Prince Charming, although he turns out to be a prince after all.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: At the end of the movie, after she remembers that she is a princess, she wears a rosy-pink dress.
• Rags to Royalty: A Goose Girl type; kidnapped as a baby so Mother Gothel can make use of her Magic Hair and ignoring that she's a long-lost princess.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The energetic and emotional Red Oni to Eugene's laid-back and snarky Blue Oni.
• Relative Button: Cassandra quickly finds out that leaving someone Rapunzel cares about behind, is a safe way to get on her bad side real quick. She is furious at Cassandra's suggestion to call off the search for Pascal, and Rapunzel's livid expression when she was about to suggest they should stop looking for Eugene and come back with the guards was enough to scare Cassandra.
• Remembered I Could Fly: In the scene where Rapunzel and Flynn are trapped in a sealed cave while it gets flooded, Flynn fails to find an underwater exit since the cave is pitch-black. It takes a little while for Rapunzel to realize she can get some light with her hair.
  Rapunzel: I have magic hair that glows when I sing.
  Flynn: What?!
  Rapunzel: I have... MAGIC HAIR THAT GLOWS WHEN I SING!
• Renaissance Man: She's very skilled in many areas, such as literature, music, baking, astronomy, and art. She actually learned to do all of these things on her own when living isolated in a tower.
• Required Secondary Powers: Rapunzel's magic hair must also include immunity to split ends and other problems that would plague normal hair that hasn't been cut for 18 years. Swinging on it like she does would also require incredible physical strength and practical knowledge of physics... which indeed she demonstrates even outside of that specific situation.
• Royal Blood: In a switch from the fairy tale, where she isn't a blood-born princess, and he is, now she is and he isn't. It's also a small part of the story since her non-royal magic hair is more important.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: With Eugene. She's excitedly running to and fro while he stands there and snarks at her naivety.
• The Scapegoat: Throughout the third season, Cassandra repeatedly victim-blames her for overshadowing her and Gothel abandoning her in favor of Rapunzel, despite her having no choice in the matter, having been kidnapped by Gothel as a baby, and almost always treated Cassandra with kindness and respect. Given the traumatic childhood they each had under Gothel, this kind of behavior is rather typical between abused siblings.
• Secret-Keeper: To spare Cassandra from facing severe consequences, Rapunzel is forced to promise to not tell anyone that Cassandra got her out of the kingdom and is responsible for her hair growing back. This briefly troubles her relationship with Eugene.
• Series Goal: In the TV series, to find out why her hair has grown back after coming into contact with mysterious sharp rock spires.
• Shared Family Quirks: In "The Way of the Willow", Rapunzel meets her aunt Willow for the first time and discovers they have many things in common: they both enjoy painting, going on adventures, and running around barefoot.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: Despite being 18, Rapunzel is shorter than most adults, including her real parents.
• Simple, yet Opulent: Her princess dress and wedding dress are both subtly royal.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Rapunzel doesn't start falling for Eugene until she sees his softer and nobler side.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Rapunzel gets along well with others, but as seen in the pilot movie Tangled Before Ever After her sheltered upbringing leaves her unaware of what is and isn't socially appropriate.
• Stepford Smiler: Rapunzel has a habit of acting like everything's fine when it isn't. Case in point, when Cassandra turns evil.
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: Rapunzel has lived a sheltered life inside her tower up until her 18th birthday, wondering where she came from and what the world outside is like. Sweet, curious, and energetic, and with the rough mannerisms of a gentle princess, Rapunzel captures the hearts of most of the people she encounters on her journey to the lanterns.
• Stronger Than You Look: Implied; while she's a short, thin teenage girl, she's able to swing around a heavy cast-iron frying pan like it weighs nothing.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Between Rapunzel and her real mother, the queen. Especially at the end, when they're both brunette and the camera frames them reuniting, right down to the huge green eyes. Rapunzel and the Queen look so alike that she does not need to do anything else to show that she's the lost princess, despite having a completely different hair color when she was a baby. It's common enough for babies' and toddlers' natural hair colors to slowly change as they grow up.
• Supernatural Floating Hair: In the Series, Rapunzel's magical hair sometimes moves on its own, floats, and glows, too. In the Reverse Incantation mode, it turns black and slithers.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: When she uses the fourth incantation, her eyes glow bright gold.
• Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Rapunzel is the muscle between her and Eugene, while Eugene helps her learn more about the world.
• Supreme Chef: Rapunzel is shown to be good at baking. She baked a pie and has made delicious frying pan cookies.
• Swiss-Army Tears: She heals Eugene with her tears, which is also in the source material.
• Tears of Remorse: When she thinks she and Flynn are going to drown, and it's all her fault, she's crying.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Among other activities, she knits and does laundry to distract herself when alone in the tower.
• Took a Level in Cynic: The events throughout the first movie and series have made her a lot more impatient and slightly less optimistic than she was in the movie. For example compare how movie!Rapunzel would have reacted to Calliope versus her series counterpart.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Cute, bubbly and feminine yet tough and adventurous Rapunzel is the Girly Girl to tough, sword-wielding Cassandra's Tomboy. Rapunzel enjoys feminine activities like painting and sewing and wears light, pastel-colored dresses.
• Tranquil Fury: When the all loving princess gets royally pissed off...
  • In the movie, after she realizes that she is the kidnapped princess, she is furious and restrained as she gives Gothel a piece of her mind.
    Rapunzel: I am the lost princess. Aren't I? Did I mumble, mother? Or should I even call you that?
  • In the season 1 finale, after Varian kidnaps her mother and nearly kills said mother and Cassandra, she goes to fight him with a determined but calm expression, contrasting his growing Villainous Breakdown.
  • In "Cassandra's Revenge," as she uses the fourth incantation, floating above the ground and glowing with power, she gravely orders Cassandra to let Eugene go and, after Cassandra refuses, proceeds to stop and disintegrate all the black rocks Cassandra throws at her.
• Traumatic Haircut: Not only does she get the hair she's been growing out her whole life chopped off, losing it means she can't save Eugene's life.
• Universally Beloved Leader: She almost has this among the citizens of Corona. In the movie, it's said she's "beloved by all." In the TV series, when Monty boos her, she initially doesn't know what being booed means, having never heard it before due to her previously being overly sheltered.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: You'd think a girl with 70 feet of hair would get a bit more notice when she first strolls into town. Becomes humorously lampshaded in the series.
  Rapunzel: Seraphina's a mermaid?!
  Hookfoot: Yeah, so? You're a woman with seventy feet of hair.
• Uptown Girl: Rapunzel, the lost princess, and Flynn Rider a.k.a. Eugene Fitzherbert, an orphan turned thief. Neither of them know she's the princess for quite some time, though. Subverted by the series, which reveals that Eugene is actually the lost Prince of the Dark Kingdom.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend:
  • In the first movie, Rapunzel saves Eugene from the palace guards, helps him escape a water filled cave and later becomes quite protective of him, even to the point of trying to warn him when Gothel lures him in with her hair.
  • In "Cassandra's Revenge", she had repeatedly refused to fight Cassandra. This changes when Cassandra threatens to kill Eugene; Rapunzel uses the hidden fourth incantation of the Demanitus scroll to unlock the sundrop's full power, and utterly flattens Cassandra with it (and the only words Rapunzel speaks during their clash is a repeated "Let. Him. Go.").
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: In the series, one of Rapunzel's main concerns is to not make her father feel disappointed and live up to his expectations of her as a princess. It doesn't help her free-spirited nature clashes with his strict and overprotective personality.
• What Does She See in Him?:
  • Cassandra often asks this about Rapunzel with regards to Eugene. All Cassandra sees is a careless ex-thief and thinks Rapunzel can do better, but all Rapunzel sees in Eugene is her Prince Charming. If "Islands Apart" is of any indication, Cassandra doesn't understand why Rapunzel doesn't break up with him.
  • At "Beyond the Corona Walls", Cassandra admits to Rapunzel that the one thing Cassandra doesn't hate about Eugene is that Eugene loves Rapunzel, more than anyone has ever loved anybody, but given Cassandra's childhood with Gothel, she also thinks that Love Is a Weakness.
• Womanchild: She's known for her naivety and childlike demeanor due to Gothel not raising her properly as she wanted to keep her young even when she turned 18.
• You Are Grounded!:
  • In the film, Rapunzel has been grounded in the tower her whole life and when she asks to go outside, Mother Gothel snaps and yells "You are not leaving this tower! EVER!"
  • In the series, she is locked up in her room by her father. It gets to tragic levels when it turns out not only he's unable to fully protect her, but such measures encourage his enemies and not deter them. Sure enough, Varian endangers her anyways.
• Youthful Freckles: She has light freckles, mostly around her nose, to go with her youthful naivety and energy.

Eugene Fitzherbert, a.k.a. Flynn Rider

"I have dreams like you, no really—just much less touchy-feely: on an island that I own, tanned and rested and alone... surrounded by enormous piles of money!"

Voiced by: Zachary Levi, Sean Giambrone (teenage in The Series);
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): José Gilberto Vilchis (trailer and The Series), Elmer Figueroa Arce aka Chayanne (film)
Voiced by (French movie): Romain Duris, Emmanuel Dahl (singing) (Europe), Hugolin Chevrette-Landesque (Quebec)/(French series): Alexis Victor, Emmanuel Dahl (singing)
Voiced by (Korean): We Hoon
Voiced by (Japanese): Hiroshi Hatanaka
Voiced by (Swedish): Mans Zelmerlow (Swedish)
Appearances: Tangled | The Series | Ever After | Frozen (2013)^note The Cameo only
Appearances in alternate continuities: Kingdom Hearts III^note Retelling of Tangled.

The film's Deuteragonist, a career thief on the run for stealing the missing princess's tiara, who finds himself trying to hide out in her tower. Rapunzel, with no previous knowledge of the outside world, convinces him to accompany her to see the lanterns.

---

• #1 Dime: He carries a small hair comb, which he claims is the first thing he ever stole. He even went so far as to have it personalized with his alias's name.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Without trying to, he discovers the Kingdom of Corona's lost princess who the royal guards have been trying to find for the past 18 years.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the original tale, "the prince" (whom Flynn is based on) apparently had no sort of troubles given his royal status. Here, he grew up in an orphanage with a desire to make money.
• Adaptational Badass: In a fighting sense. The prince from the original doesn't do much aside from climbing Rapunzel's hair. Here, he is an excellent fighter when he needs to be.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the original tale, "the prince" (whom Flynn is based on) is the stereotypical heroic character. Here, he is a selfish anti-heroic thief, but becomes less selfish after spending time with Rapunzel and steps up to true blue heroism.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. Not in a fighting sense, but his original version is royalty, not a peasant. That is, until Season 2 of the series reveals that he was royalty all along.
• Age-Gap Romance: With Rapunzel, kinda, albeit a small gap. She is clearly stated as being 18-years-old, but his age is more complicated. In short, his age is somewhere between 18 and 26. It's clarified in the series. By the season 2 finale, it is shown that he is 25 years old. Since the season 2 finale is almost a year after the 1st season finale (Rapunzel says they've been on the road for nearly a year), which is stated to be almost exactly one year after the movie, Eugene is 23 in the movie; making him 5 years older than Rapunzel.
• Amazon Chaser: He admires Rapunzel's Action Girliness.
  • He meets Rapunzel in a Love at First Punch nature. He compliments her gutsy nature when confronting the Pub Thugs, thinking she wouldn't have it in her, and it's only after this moment that he starts to fall for her. During their escape from the royal guards and Maximus, a quick moment shows Eugene looking in admiration at Rapunzel using her hair as a means to escape.
  • In "Cassandra's Revenge," he gets to see Rapunzel as she unlocks the full power of the Sundrop, faces off with Cassandra, and wins. He says it was awesome.
  • In "Flynnposter", when the fake-Flynn Rider comments in awe about how they were supposed to save Rapunzel, Eugene proudly declares that Rapunzel is the one who normally does the saving.
• Anti-Hero: He's a greedy and self-centered thief; he's shown early in the movie to be perfectly fine with leaving his fellow thieves behind to keep all the goods for himself. He starts out helping Rapunzel for his personal gain, but as the story goes on, Flynn reveals that he's not really a bad person deep down. His growing love for Rapunzel is enough for him to change his ways and leave his criminal life behind.
• Antiquated Linguistics: When he first meets Rapunzel. "I know not who you are..."
• Ascended Extra: In the original, the Prince doesn't show up until at least halfway through the story, here he's present from the very start and rescuing Rapunzel from the tower is only the beginning of the story.
• Audience Surrogate: Flynn can be seen as this, especially during the "I've Got A Dream" song, where he is the only one (besides Pascal) who wonders why all the bar tenants of the Snuggly Duckling broke out into a Crowd Song all of a sudden. His reaction to Rapunzel's magic hair, full of shock, is also relatable. Out of all the characters, he seems to be the one that understands how bizarre the situation is like fighting Maximus (who is a horse using a sword) with a frying pan in a duel.
  Flynn: you should know that this is the strangest thing I've ever done!
• Back from the Dead: He initially dies in the film's climax from a fatal stab wound. But, Rapunzel's tear (which also had her healing ability) brings him back to life.
• Balls of Steel: During his escape from captivity at the climax, he is launched high in the air and lands on Maximus on his pelvic area. He doesn't show any pain from landing like that afterwards.
• Battle Couple: With Rapunzel. They help each other fight off the guards chasing him and save each other several times as they fall in love with each other. The pilot movie for The Series shows that the two of them have lost none of their stride. When Lady Caine attempts to kidnap the royals, a few eye gestures between Eugene, Rapunzel, and handmaid Cassandra are all they need before they leap into action to save the day. Rapunzel even tosses Eugene a frying pan, at which point, the tide of battle really begins to turn in their favor.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Eugene mentions Rapunzel is the first person to like his real self better than whom he pretends to be, which is why he falls in love with her.
• Berserk Button: While Eugene doesn't completely fly off the handle, he really doesn't like having his abilities as a thief questioned. He reacts deeply insulted when Angry suggests he was bad at thievery, and shows only disdain towards people labeled a "master thief", dryly refusing to call the Silent Swiper by that name.
• Be Yourself: His character development is kicked off with Rapunzel saying she prefers "Eugene" to "Flynn".
• Big Brother Instinct: Develops this towards Varian in the third season, to the point of protectively holding his hand when Cassandra pulls them into her black rock tower.
• Bilingual Bonus: Eugene speaks fluent Italian and this is what tips him off when a fake Italian arrives at the castle. Eugene notices that the impostor fails at basic Italian grammar/sentence structure and thus can't be who he claims he is.
• Book Dumb: The series notes that as an orphan, Eugene has had very minimal schooling (he claims three days) and so he's actually quite bad at math. He's street smart to make up for it thankfully, and surprisingly is multilingual and good enough at spelling to recognize a homograph pun.
• Brainy Brunette: No, he's not academically smart compared the other characters. But, Eugene is very quick-witted (and has dark brown hair). He has the most street-savvy, knows every criminal trick (and invented a great deal of them) and will usually rely on his wits to get out of a sticky situation. What he lacks in book smarts, he more than makes up for in street smarts.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Considering he was a selfish thief, he doesn't really remember half the things he did, including to other people. This royally serves to bite him throughout the TV show, which include:
  • He doesn't recall having robbed the Queen eight years prior, because for him back in the day, she was just another noblewoman victim to his routine business. But, since he wants to marry her daughter, he has sudden reason to care.
  • Years ago, he left his then-fianceé Stalyan stranded at the altar when they were supposed to marry. Now, she's still understandably very pissed about it, while he acts nonchalant about it and insists they let it go.
  • Lampshaded in "Rapunzel and the Great Tree" when he is being pursued by Hector and rescued by Rapunzel, and he's more accustomed to events that would have fazed him in the past:
    Eugene: Two years ago, I'd call fighting jackal monsters on the back of a speeding carriage whilst a rhinoceros chases the woman I love absolutely bonkers. Now I call it Tuesday.
• Butt-Monkey: He takes a lot of comedic abuse in the movie and the series as well. Though this is only of the comedic variety (with some exceptions); he considers himself an extremely fortunate person to have met Rapunzel and gained a better life.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Eugene isn't very good at keeping secrets. This is one of the reasons why Cassandra didn't want to trust him with her and Rapunzel's secret of how her hair grew back.
• The Captain: In "Flynnpostor", the Captain of the Guards passes his title to him due to not wanting to fight Cassandra, despite him being a former thief. The following two episodes have Eugene putting his new position to very good use.
• Character Development: He stops caring only about himself and learns to love and care for others, as well as to just be himself. While he still maintains his aloof and narcissistic facade in company, he proves to be very insightful whenever Rapunzel's having trouble and does whatever he can to protect her and others. This is a large improvement from his originally selfish and greedy character.
• Character Name Alias: His real name is Eugene Fitzherbert or so he thinks. "Flynn Rider" is the name of the hero of "The Tales of Flynnigan Rider", a story he loved as a child. He starts going by Eugene again later in the movie. However, it led some people like Varian to believe he's the real deal.
• The Charmer: Played with. Flynn tries (and fails) to be this when first meeting Rapunzel, using his smolder, which he even attempted on her mom in the past. However, it's implied outside of the movie that he really was a successful charmer, as he really got around prior to meeting and settling with Rapunzel. He calls himself the "dating master" and says his trick was "about the charm". On one occasion, Rapunzel orders Eugene to charm everybody out of a room. He succeeds within seconds. Later on in the series, we finally get to see the smolder to its full effect. The conclusion seems to be that rather than him simply being bad at it, Rapunzel has no experience or understanding of seduction of any kind, so she's completely immune to his moves (including said smolder) due to her innocence.
  • He later uses the Full Smolder on Rapunzel's evil doppelganger clone to distract her. She's so stunned with adoration, she literally cannot move and is stuck in a love-struck daze. In season 2, while on the island, he practices the smolder on a group of (implied female) crabs. One crab gasps from awe and faints. Even pure evil (and female island creatures) cannot resist the impact of this charm!
• Childhood Friends: He has known Lance Strongbow/Arnwaldo Schnitz since his childhood at the orphanage. They're very close friends, though their relationship went a bit rocky for a while when Eugene gave up his life as a thief.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Flynn, at least at the start of the film, cares more about what will work out best for him than keeping alliances. Right at the beginning, he betrays the Stabbington brothers by taking the tiara for himself and leaving them to get caught by the royal guards. After "agreeing" to take Rapunzel to the lights, he at first attempts to manipulate her and scare her off.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Part of his backstory is being an orphan to simplify his character in the movie. Though he does hint that there was an Orphan's Ordeal back there.
• Cunning Linguist: Eugene states that he's been all around the world. In "Fitzherbert P.I." Eugene, who speaks fluent Italian, smells a rat about the impersonator painter because the latter messes up his subject-verb tense. Eugene explains his skills with, "Italy has stuff to steal too!" He sometimes drops in some Spanish words, too.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He grew up in an orphanage and became a criminal in order to support himself and achieve his dreams of a better life.
• A Darker Me: Flynn Ryder is a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder Gentleman Thief who thinks of himself as a Lovable Rogue but really is more like a Smug Snake who is not as cool as he imagines himself to be. He merely adopted a Character Name Alias of a Childhood Hero persona (A fourth grader idea of someone cool) to cover for Eugene Fitzherbert, a guy who suffered an Orphan's Ordeal and considers himself a This Loser Is You protagonist who whenever is afraid, becomes Flynn Ryder to cover for his Hidden Heart of Gold.
  • At the series, Flynn Rider only emerges whenever Eugene feels menaced, by Villain of the Week, the Duckling Thugs, The Captain of the Guard but most of them all, by Cassandra. The series chronicles the evolution of Eugene Fitzherbert from a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to a Hidden Heart of Gold to The Heart. It's only at the Series Finale Eugene Fitzherbert will Be Himself.
• Deadpan Snarker: He takes every opportunity to snark about his current situation.
• Death by Adaptation: Subverted. His counterpart in the source material suffers a nasty Eye Scream instead of dying. The problem is still sorted by Rapunzel's tears, though.
• Decoy Protagonist: The trailers made it seem like Flynn was the star, even though he is very much the deuteragonist. In-movie, Flynn is the leading narrator, but he quickly denounces himself from being the main character and goes on to tell that yes, this is the story of Rapunzel.
• Defrosting Ice King: At first, Flynn comes across as a self-centered jerk who doesn't really care about Rapunzel and her dreams. He only helps her because she hid the princess' tiara he stole and will only give it back to him once he takes her to see the kingdom lanterns. He even tries to trick her into giving up on seeing the lanterns just to speed up the process. But, he slowly warms up and falls in love with Rapunzel as she convinces him to just be himself.
• Deuteragonist: He's the second main character after Rapunzel.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: He dies in Rapunzel's arms, albeit temporarily, as he's revived moments later. Speaking of which...
• Disney Death: He is stabbed to death by Gothel, but Rapunzel is able to revive him with her tears.
• Distressed Dude: Rapunzel's interventions save Flynn on a few occasions, most notably during the Snuggly Duckling scene. That said, he is able to hold his ground against the palace guards and he kind of repays the favor by performing a Heroic Sacrifice, thereby freeing Rapunzel from Gothel.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": After his Meaningful Rename, he insists that his name is Eugene. In the series, he corrects Stalyan who calls him "Flynn" and his father king Edmund who calls him "Horace".
• Doesn't Know Their Own Birthday: Since he's an orphan, Eugene doesn't know when his birthday is and has never celebrated it, although it doesn't bother him. "Lost and Found" has Rapunzel giving him a birthday so they can start spending it together as a special day. After meeting his father, King Edmund, he finally learns when his birthday is... and also finds out that he's a year older than he thought he was.
• The Dreaded: There's a reason why Flynn Rider was one of the most feared thieves — he's evaded capture quite easily (even alerting guards to his presence just to keep things interesting), invaded one of the most impenetrable and heavily guarded castles in another kingdom (he's stated to be the only person to ever achieve this), and no prison can hold him.
• The Drifter: This was very much his life before meeting Rapunzel, living a solitary life on the run, never forming attachments to people he meets.
• Dying Declaration of Love: He confesses his love to Rapunzel right before he (briefly) dies.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After spending the majority of his life as an orphaned thief, Flynn/Eugene finally gets his happy ending once he marries Rapunzel and "lives happily ever after".
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Between the start of the movie and the epilogue, Flynn goes from being wanted for grand theft, to presumably becoming Prince or Prince Consort, and eventually King of the same country. Wow. Well, given that he did bring back their daughter who had been missing for 18 years, you can see the King and Queen issuing a pardon there.
  • Downplayed in the series. The fact that he's just the princess's unemployed former thief almost-fiancé leaves him without much of a place in the castle. The guards still don't trust him much (especially the Captain), past transgressions sometimes pop up to make things rough for him, and Rapunzel's dad takes a while to give him any true respect while Cassandra, Rapunzel's new best friend, initially sees him as a Gold Digger.
• Embarrassing First Name: Believes this of his real name, Eugene Fitzherbert. Rapunzel doesn't think so. By the end of the movie, Eugene has embraced his real name.
• Face Death with Dignity: Eugene almost dies no less than six times, but stays calm and self-assured every time.
  • First, when he's trapped with Rapunzel in a slowly flooding cave. Rapunzel sheds Tears of Remorse while apologizing to Flynn. He replies invoking Dying as Yourself:
    Flynn/Eugene: Eugene Fitzherbert is my real name. Someone should know.
  • The second time when the Captain of the Guard is leading him away to be executed. Though a bit unnerved and scared at first, Flynn doesn't resist, struggle, or cry, just marches along with the guards quietly... until he sees the Stabbington Bros. in a cell and realizes that Rapunzel is in danger.
  • The third time is when he performs his Heroic Sacrifice, choosing to die in order to save Rapunzel instead. He even attempts to smile and comfort her as he passes.
  • In "What the Hair!?", one of Varian's malfunctioning inventions causes a building to collapse. Eugene refuses to leave a stuck Rapunzel behind when she pleads for him to save himself, bravely choosing to stay with her instead. They declare their love for each other and embrace each other as the place collapses all around them.
  • In "Flynnpostor", he solemnly closes his eyes when the Baron attempts to drown him and he fails to break free from the handcuffs keeping him tied to a pole.
  • In "Plus Est en Vous", when he's about to be axed by his Brainwashed and Crazy father, courtesy of Cassandra, he simply tells him he forgives him and accepts it. This breaks through to Edmund, who promptly destroys the Mind Trap.
• Facial Composite Failure: A running gag is that the "Wanted" posters he's on don't correctly portray his nose. Each time he spots such a poster, it is worse. An episode in Season 3 of the series reveals that the artist is old with cracked glasses, thus warping the way he sees Eugene.
  Eugene: They just can't get my nose right!
• Family Eye Resemblance: He and King Edmund have the same eyes.
• Fingore: He isn't awake when it happens, but Rapunzel accidentally slams his fingers in the doors of her closet.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He and Rapunzel start to become more friendly with each other after escaping the guards chasing after them and nearly drowning together.
• First-Person Peripheral Narrator: He claims, when narrating the opening, that it's not his story, it's Rapunzel's. Which in important respects is only technically true.
• Flynning: Besides the obvious Pun, he engages in some of this with Maximus when he's wielding a Frying Pan of Doom and the horse is dueling him with a sword. He even lampshades the absurdity of it.
  Eugene: You should know that this is the strangest thing I have ever done!
• Foil: His interactions with Rapunzel make him this to Mother Gothel. Gothel is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who keeps the lost princess imprisoned into a tower by demolishing her self-confidence, Flynn is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who encourages the girl to explore the world by building her will up. Gothel is obsessed by Rapunzel's magic powers to the point she cares more for the girl's hair than her adoptive daughter, while Eugene is openly freaked by magic and falls for Rapunzel in spite of this. Gothel had Mortality Phobia that led her to exploit an innocent girl, and Eugene bravely sacrificed himself for said innocent girl's sake.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The phlegmatic. Charming, mellow, and even-tempered, but a bit lazy.
• Freudian Excuse: In the pilot movie for the series, he proposes to Rapunzel, unaware of how stressed she is about being a princess, and the fact that he's putting her on the spot in a royal banquet doesn't help matters. It leads to her temporarily rejecting it. Cass calls him out for this, and he explains later to Rapunzel (actually Pascal in disguise) that the reason why he proposed is because he grew up in an environment where he had nothing and he wants their future family to have everything. He learns to be patient with her, though, and to go at her own emotional pace.
• Friend to All Living Things: In the third season of the series, he becomes increasingly attached to animals, in spite of his initial antagonism against Pascal and Maximus.
• Gentleman Thief: He exhibits some traits of this trope. The two times we see him actively stealing, it's from the king and queen of Corona, who wouldn't exactly be financially ruined by the loss of a tiara and a ring. Given his background as an orphan and his desire to be as rich as possible, it's likely Eugene was always after bigger fish. Furthermore, he uses violence as a last resort, preferring to either charm his victim, make a run for it, or otherwise outsmart his opponent. And he's very snarky, too. What doesn't fit is his betrayal of the Stabbington Brothers (and given their distrust of him, it's probably not the first time he tried it), seeing how it could have gotten them hanged.
• Given Name Reveal: Twice.
  • In the movie, he confesses to Rapunzel that "Flynn Rider" is an alias taken from the series of adventure books he read as a child, and his real name is Eugene Fitzherbert.
  • In the series, he is revealed to be the lost son of King Edmund of the Dark Kingdom, and his given name is Horace. He still prefers "Eugene".
• Gold Digger: Subverted. He isn't with Rapunzel for her wealth or status, but fell for her before finding out who she really was. In the show, he's still initially seen as one by Cass, due to his unemployment and shady past. She comes to respect him more as he starts training the guards to better their technique at catching thieves.
• Good Feels Good: Is a staunch believer of this after putting aside his criminal ways, especially in the TV show. This is the lesson he tries to - and ultimately succeeds in - teach Red and Angry when they first meet, and whenever he meets anyone else at the cusp of changing sides he'll always say something about how being and doing good feels better and makes one happier than the alternative.
• Greed: His original motive is to be "surrounded by enormous piles of money". He gets better with Character Development.
  • He'd also love to own a private island. Though after spending an entire arc stuck on Terapi Island, Eugene comes to the conclusion that... He'd like a better one.

H-M

• Has a Type: Or so he says. After Rapunzel's hair turns brown, he tells her he has a thing for brunettes. Still, Rapunzel was blonde when he fell in love with her, and his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend in the series has dark red hair.
• The Heart: Flynn Ryder is A Darker Me personality to cover for Eugene Fitzherbert, who turns out to be a highly empathetic guy. At season 2, Adira names Eugene as Fish Skin as the glue that keeps everything (everyone) together. He is also a Deconstructed Character Archetype: Eugene, a highly empathic person, uses A Darker Me in the Flynn Ryder character to confront The Rival Cassandra, and even when Eugene understands Cassandra and forgives her constant Snark-to-Snark Combat, Cassanda and him still remain Headbutting Heroes. The result is that Eugene cannot connect with the person who needs him the most. This would be resolved at the Series Finale, when Eugene, after being set up in a cruel trap by Cassandra, forgives her and hugs her with Rapunzel.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He sacrifices his life for Rapunzel's freedom at the end. He is saved from his fatal wound though.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He casually mentions reading to the other orphans in the orphanage, and how he wants money to be able to do things and go places like a character he read to them about.
  • He correctly suspects that the supposed painter from "Fitzherbert P.I." is not whom he claims to be because he can speak Italian.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: "You can't tell anyone about [his real name]. It could ruin my whole reputation." This, of course, is toned down afterwards. While he remains aloof and sarcastic in company, especially towards Cassandra, he provides important insight for Rapunzel in a moment of quiet. Interestingly, whenever his Rapunzel is having trouble understanding her best friend, Eugene usually knows what makes Cassandra tick.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Snuggly Duckling backfired badly on his desire to scare Rapunzel back into her tower.
• Hot Consort: Through his marriage to Rapunzel, Eugene is currently Prince Consort of Corona. However, since his father is King Edmund, this means that Eugene could possibly end up as King of the Dark Kingdom, and therefore hold the title of King Consort of Corona.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: In the cartoon series, it's shown that Eugene's history as a successful career thief means he knows how thieves think and therefore knows how to catch them. He ends up being assigned to teach the Royal Guard how to better anticipate and catch thieves.
  • Ends up going a step further in "Flynnposter" where he becomes captain of the guard at the old Captain's insistence no less. He even goes so far as to hunt down another Flynn Rider imposter.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Insists he is the "only guy allowed to annoy Cass" and will leap to her defense if another man causes her misery.
• I Am What I Am: Eugene's arc across the series is him coming to terms with various parts of himself. Firstly, accepting his own name instead of the Flynn Rider person, then coming to terms with who "Eugene" is and what he can do with his life now that he's no longer a thief.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: He's a thief in the first place because he wants to emulate swashbuckling adventurers.
• Improbable Weapon User: He does pretty good at fencing with a frying pan. Better, in fact, than with an actual sword.
  Flynn: I have GOT to get me one of these!
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Hinted at. In full "Eugene-mode" he is very sensitive and understanding, but he only shows that side around Rapunzel, whom he loves and trusts deeply. Even now that he's going under his birth name again, he acts more like Flynn Rider, uncaring, aloof and superior, especially around Cassandra, around whom he feels quite unsure. This dynamic changes at Season 3, that chronicles Eugene learning to Be Yourself and becoming The Heart.
• Iron Butt-Monkey: He seems to be Made of Iron when it comes to physical comedy. Not so resistant to stabbing, though.
• Ironic Echo: In the trailer, Eugene calling for Rapunzel to let down her hair is humorous. Less so for the single time he uses it in the movie.
• It's All About Me: Heavily accused of that by Cassandra. And while he does still have an impressive ego, she's not entirely correct, though, since Character Development already heavily kicked in to bring out Eugene's more considerate side.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Due to growing up an orphan and becoming a thief, Eugene is a great deal more cynical in the world, and became somewhat of a jerk before meeting Rapunzel.
  Teenage!Eugene: Yeah, well, being a selfish jerk is how you get ahead in this world!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not exactly malicious, he just gets himself in a lot of trouble thanks to his thieving and he's greedy, self-centered, and really sassy. He gets better.
• Karma Houdini: Justified. Since he helped Rapunzel return to her birth parents, he's pardoned from stealing the princess's tiara. However he's worried about some of his other past crimes, such as robbing the queen eight years ago (he thought she was a random noble), and tries to not get into any more trouble these days.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Gothel stabs him and leaves him to die to keep Rapunzel's existence a secret.
• Ladykiller in Love: Implied. When first meeting Rapunzel, she ties him to a chair for invading her home, and he tries to flirt his way out. He remarks that it's an "off-day" for him when his smolder fails on her. In the TV series, there are several remarks about his past; Lance mentions Eugene having had a fling with twins, then there's his standing up ex-fiancee Stalyan at their wedding along with his implications of a lot of ex-girlfriends and dates. However, ever since meeting Rapunzel, he's only been devoted to her and (throughout the TV show) repeatedly states his full intention to marry her. In fact, he proposes to Rapunzel three times (and had one planned proposal get interrupted, technically making it four times) throughout the show while anxiously hoping she'll accept.
• Land in the Saddle: Eugene is catapulted over a high wall as part of his prison breakout and lands in Maximus's saddle. Thanks to Rule of Cool, nobody gets hurt. He's just as surprised as anyone else about that.
• Lazy Bum: Downplayed. He starts out the series perfectly content to lounge around the castle, getting massages and manicure and enjoying the finer things in life. However, he also puts in lots of effort to support Rapunzel and look out for her. It isn't long at all until Character Development hits and Eugene starts to become a more productive member of the castle.
• Le Parkour: Flynn and the Stabbington brothers use this at times in the movie, perhaps most noticeably while climbing on the palace roof in their first scene. He uses it more often in the series.
• Like Brother and Sister: He eventually comes to see Cassandra as like a sister to him, even if she's an annoying one. He also becomes hurt by her betrayal, though not quite as much as Rapunzel, and readily forgives her after she helps save Corona from Zhan Tiri.
• Loners Are Freaks: Complete with the usual aesop. Flynn even admits that his dream involves him being alone and has to be forced into participating in the Crowd Song and the Dance Line at sword point.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: He briefly loses a boot when he's used as a human tug-of-war rope between Rapunzel and Maximus.
• Lost Orphaned Royalty: He was orphaned as a baby, but it is later revealed in the Season 2 finale of the show that he's really King Edmund's lost son.
• Lovable Rogue: Invoked. He tries to cultivate this image, but his wanted posters just can't get the nose right.
• Love at First Punch: Rapunzel and Eugene's relationship kicks off with her knocking him out with a frying pan after he breaks into her tower. Then she proceeds to knock him out two more times afterwards. He remembers it, ironically, as a fond memory and "first date".
  Eugene: Rapunzel, from the moment I first met you and you knocked me out with that frying pan, I knew it was love.
• Love Redeems: His growing love for Rapunzel causes him to change his thieving ways and return to bearing his old name Eugene Fitzherbert. He also leaves his criminal past behind and goes fully legit in his life.
• Lying by Omission: His opening narration includes the phrase "This is the story of how I died." He then hurriedly adds that the audience shouldn't worry because it's actually a very fun story and it isn't really even about him, thus leading you to understand that he was pulling your leg. Except he wasn't. He does die, in point of fact. He omits that he doesn't stay dead.
• Made of Iron: Flynn should at least be bruised from head to toe with many broken bones and concussions from all the abuse he goes through in this movie, but most of it doesn't leave a scratch on him. Though, he's still vulnerable to daggers and pointy rocks.
• Malicious Misnaming: While "malicious" might be a strong word, as they just don't get along, it's notable that Eugene mispronounces Cassandra's name- he pronounces her name as "Cas-sandra", while every other character, including Cass herself and both her known parents, pronounces it "Ca-saundra".
• Meaningful Echo:
  • When Flynn and Rapunzel are about to see the lights appear, Rapunzel is worried about what to do with her life after she realizes her dream of seeing the lanterns. He consoles her by telling her, "Well, that's the good part I guess. You get to go find a new dream." This turns up again later when Eugene has returned to the tower in an attempt to free Rapunzel. After being fatally wounded, he admits to Rapunzel, "You were my new dream." Rapunzel responds, in a tear-filled voice, "And you were mine."
  • In the TV show, they use the "you're my dream" line as their special way to re-confirm their love for each other.
  • The first and last times Flynn sees Rapunzel's long hair emerge from her tower are nearly identical, with her golden hair forming a loop as it flies out of the window into the sunlit air as he clings to the wall of the tower. The second time, it's not Rapunzel.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Eugene is Greek for "well born", so it's only fitting that he later marries the princess. In "Destinies Collide", Eugene learns that his father is King Edmund, who sent him away to avoid being corrupted by the Moonstone opal's power, with his ancestors serving as mystical guardians to protect the world from the opal's power.
  • Subverted. Fitzherbert is a patronymic surname that means "son of Herbert", but he neither knows who his biological parents are nor is his father named Herbert anyways. It turns out that his father's name is Edmund.
• Meaningful Rename: He reveals in the epilogue that he goes back to his birth name, which we see happen in the series. After all, Rapunzel says she likes "Eugene" better.
• Money Fetish: He admits his dream is to be "surrounded by enormous piles of money".
• Motor Mouth: Anytime he's freaking out.
  Eugene: I'm-not-freaking-out-are-you-freaking-out-no-I'm-just-very-interested-in-your-hair-and-the-magical-qualities-that-it-possesses-how-long-has-it-been-doing-that-exactly?
• Mr. Fanservice: According to an interview, Flynn's design came from the artists having the female staff members writing down all of the celebrities they thought were most good-looking and borrowing from that. The creators called the gathering of female staff members "The Hot Man Meeting".
• Named by the Adaptation: He's only ever referred to as "the prince" in the original tale.
• Nice Guy: In the series, his heart of gold shines brighter in the later seasons. In addition to being a wonderful boyfriend towards Rapunzel, he becomes regularly compassionate towards others, even to those he can't stand (Calliope, Brock Thunderstrike), or even have deeply hurt and wronged him (the Stabbingtons, Hector, Cassandra). He also helps former criminals turn their lives around, and becomes a kind and responsible Captain of the Guard. Of course, he's still a Deadpan Snarker.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Rapunzel (nice), Cassandra (mean), and Eugene (in-between). He's not a saint like Rapunzel, but Eugene is still consistently loyal and selfless.
• Nice to the Waiter: Despite being Rapunzel's boyfriend, The Series paints him as friendly and interactive towards the members of the castle staff.
• The Nicknamer: He loves giving various clever nicknames to people, but is especially affectionate with Rapunzel and Varian.
• No Honor Among Thieves:
  • He betrays his original partners in the film's opening.
  • Averted in his relationship with Lance Strongbow. They're like brothers and help each other out often.
• Not with Them for the Money: He falls in love with Rapunzel before finding out she's the lost princess. He clearly appreciates the benefits of being the princess' boyfriend, but he makes it clear that all he truly wants is to be with Rapunzel and to make her happy. (It still doesn't stop others from believing he's a Gold Digger though.) If he wants money, he prefers to get it from somewhere else; like from a treasure hunt or a legit job.
• Official Couple: With Rapunzel. They become a couple towards the end of the movie and get married in the sequel short taking place several years later. The TV series takes place in between the two, with the two as a not-yet-engaged but still very serious couple.
• Oh, and X Dies: The opening narration starts off with Flynn stating, "This is the story of how I died." By the time it comes up in the story, odds are good you've forgotten about that line. Additionally, the first-time viewer, after observing his personality, would think he was exaggerating for drama.
• Oh, Crap!: He gets a lot of these reactions.
  • It's played for laughs during his encounters with Maximus.
  • It's played for drama when the guards reveal he's going to be hanged for stealing the crown.
  • Subverted anytime he sees one of his "Wanted" posters — which would cause most people an "Oh, Crap!", but he only fusses about how his nose is badly drawn.
  • He also has some of these reactions throughout the series, given the situation.
    • In "Cassandra vs. Eugene", when he and Cassandra are confronted by the Stabbington brothers.
    • In "The Return Of Strongbow", when he realizes that the ring he stole eight years earlier belongs to Rapunzel's mother, Queen Arianna.
    • In "In Like Flynn" when he and King Frederic are surrounded by King Trevor's guards.
    • At the end of "Lost and Found", Eugene receives a fortune slip from Vigor the Visionary that warns him of impending betrayal once Rapunzel reaches the end of her journey in the Dark Kingdom. He takes a long look around their group and ganders at Cassandra, who bears a sinister smile. Eugene is shocked and his eyes widen, beginning to suspect that Cassandra will turn against Rapunzel.
• Only Sane Man: Just check out his expressions during the "I've Got A Dream" song. He's the only Disney character (along with Robert from Enchanted) to question why everyone is randomly singing during a Crowd Song.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the movie, Eugene has been arrested and is being escorted out of prison for his execution. He encounters the Stabbington Brothers again in a passing cell. Rather than normally being intimidated by them, Eugene is furious because they found out about Rapunzel's magical hair and put her in danger. He wants to know how they found out about her right now. He easily breaks free of the guards and cows two men twice his size and strength who are behind literal cell bars into answering his questions. Why do they suddenly cave so quickly? Because he's just that furious.
• Opposites Attract: With Rapunzel. He's a jaded, worldly-wise thief, she's a spirited, innocent princess.
• Parental Abandonment: He's an orphan, and he never really knew his parents. He eventually gets to meet his father, King Edmund, who is the guardian of the Moonstone.
• Pretty Boy: Intentionally invoked; his design is a composite of many men the women in the studio deemed attractive. The Stabbington brothers mockingly refer to him as "Pretty boy" in the movie.
• Prince Charming: Back in the day, Flynn Rider was a lying, cheating jerkass. But as Eugene, he proves he doesn't need to be a prince to embody the spirit of this trope, taking it even further than other Disney Princes by going as far willing to die out of love for Rapunzel. That said, the animated series reveals that he actually is one, but Rapunzel doesn't care because in her eyes, he was always her Prince Charming.
• Protector Behind Bars: His imminent execution doesn't bother him as much as when he realizes that Rapunzel is Mother Gothel's captive.
• Proud Beauty: A contrast of Mother Gothel. He's proud of his handsome features, but not to the point that he will take advantage of Rapunzel like Gothel insinuates he will. In turn, when Rapunzel offers herself to Gothel to save his life, he cuts her hair, rendering its magic no more, ensuring no one will ever use Rapunzel to keep their youth and beauty like Mother Gothel ever did. That said the series establishes he has a slight vain streak, in trying to keep his good looks heavily pronounced, but not to the point its his entire personality.
• Rags to Royalty: He is an orphan and a thief who marries a princess (though he didn't know that she was royalty when he fell in love with her). Though it turns out that he was royalty all along.
• Really Gets Around: It's implied he has quite a number of ex-girlfriends from his old days as a thief, if Lance's account of a warlord's twin daughters was any indication. The fact that he got with a crime boss' daughter (only to dump her and run) and his season 2 comment about how he's had "tons of dates" while giving dating advice only increases the implication. Whenever his past gets brought up in front of Rapunzel, he tries to immediately change the subject and appears embarrassed.
• Really Royalty Reveal: The show's Season 2 finale reveals that he is the lost son of King Edmund of the Dark Kingdom, making him a prince.
• Rebellious Spirit: Due to growing up as a thief, Eugene doesn't get along with rules, procedures, or any kind of authority. This shows in "Fitzherbert P.I.", where he can't keep a job because he keeps refusing to do things by the book.
• Red Herring Mole: In the Season 2 finale, Eugene briefly attempts to prevent Rapunzel from reaching the Moonstone out of fear that its power might kill her like his mother. With Pascal's scolding, Eugene realizes he's turning against Rapunzel as Demanitus' prophecy warned and he decides to have faith in his girlfriend instead. In the end, it turns out the prophecy wasn't referring to Eugene... but Cassandra.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The laid-back and snarky Blue Oni to Rapunzel's energetic and emotional Red Oni.
• Recruiting the Criminal: After the movie, Eugene puts his skills as a former thief to use by eventually getting a job as a consultant for the Royal Guards and helps train them to catch thieves better.
• Reformed Criminal: By the end of the movie, Eugene turns his life around, stops thieving and goes legit. In the TV show, he's able to take his changed life a step further by eventually becoming the official Captain of the Royal Guard.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Near the end of the third season, he takes on this role after becoming Captain of the Guard. He pardons Brock Thunderstrike, makes sure the people of Corona flee to safety when Cassandra attacks the kingdom with her black rocks after appealing to her doesn't work, and lets her off the hook following her Heel–Face Turn and rescuing of Corona with Rapunzel.
• Reverse Psychology: Flynn uses this, trying to get rid of Rapunzel by using her fear of disobeying her mother by encouraging her to do it:
  Flynn: Overprotecting mother, forbidden road trip... But let me ease your conscience: this is part of growing up. A little rebellion, a little adventure. That's good, healthy even. [...] Does your mother deserve it? No. Would this break her heart and crush her soul? Of course. But you've just got to do it.
• Runaway Groom: The series reveals that he left his one of his ex-girlfriends at the altar.
• Running Gag: In the movie, whenever he encounters a wanted poster, they never can draw his nose right.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: With Rapunzel. He just stands there and snarks at her naivety as she's excitedly running around and exploring the world.
• Secret-Keeper: Rapunzel lets Eugene know her secret that Cassandra sneaked her out of the kingdom the night she got her hair back. Eugene would love to see Cassandra getting in trouble for this, but he promises Rapunzel to keep the secret.
• Small Name, Big Ego: While he does have a fair amount of wit and charm, it pales in comparison to how witty and charming he thinks he is.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: His antagonism with Cassandra leads to much verbal snipping at each other. In any other Power Trio series, this trope would be used to showcase the Vitriolic Best Buds vibes between them and show the wit of the writers. Here it's deconstructed, showing the real consequences of verbal abuse: Cassandra is Rapunzel's First Friend and Eugene is Rapunzel's Love Interest. Both of them snark so much they constantly Kick the Dog one to another: Jerkass Cassandra barely tolerates Eugene — She becomes a constant Shipping Torpedo with him and Rapunzel in all the seasons, at Season 1 Cassandra's snarkiness makes her a Unwitting Instigator of Doom that inspires Eugene to walk into a Suicide Mission. At season 2, she barely tolerates Eugene and pulls a The One Thing I Don't Hate About You. As for Eugene, whenever he is verbally attacked, he pulls his A Darker Me persona of Flynn Ryder, who Kicks The Dog a lot with Cassandra. Eugene displays Hypocritical Heartwarming to Cassandra, but Cassandra is The Paranoiac and she never acknowledges it. The worst part is that when Eugene is not putting his A Darker Me persona, he becomes a Hidden Heart of Gold. This means that Eugene gives emotional support to everyone except Cassandra, the person who needs it the most. Cassandra makes a Face–Heel Turn at season 3, betraying Rapunzel and Eugene. That season shows Cassandra geographically far from Rapunzel and Eugene. Without Cassandra's constant Snark-to-Snark Combat, Eugene feels confident enough to Be Yourself and experimentes true Character Development and becomes The Heart. When Cassandra comes back, she tries her best to use Snark-to-Snark Combat to hurt Rapunzel, and prepares a Disproportionate Retribution trap for Eugene, but Eugene is now enough of The Heart to forgive Cassandra when she makes her Heel–Face Turn.
• Spanner in the Works: Flynn entering her tower to escape the guards with the stolen tiara is what leads Rapunzel to discovering her true identity.
• Sticky Fingers: Lifts the loot from his partners early in the film and Rapunzel's tiara in the epilogue.
• Street Smart: Eugene knows any criminal trick to run from the law, mostly because he invented some of them. This proves helpful to catch some criminals and eventually, he's assigned to teach the royal guards how to think like a thief.
• Strong Girl, Smart Guy: The quick-witted and crafty Smart Guy to Cassandra's Strong Girl. While Eugene is capable of impressive athletic feats and skilled in combat, it's more of a last resort, as he usually prefers to make a run for it or outsmart his opponents, as opposed to Cassandra, whose go-to move is a direct confrontation likely involving violence.
• Swashbuckler: He wants to be one of these so much he called himself "Flynn Rider" after a swashbuckling hero in a story he read. Thus, his initial portrayal is one of a dashing thief who uses trickery and "the smolder" to charm his way through adventures. Albeit a bit more anti-heroic and snarky than usual for this kind of character.
• That Man Is Dead: Flynn Rider dies as Eugene begins embracing his true name and personality. So the Tonight, Someone Dies warning at the beginning is very true; it is the story of Flynn's death and his rebirth as Eugene. However, everyone he's ever met in the past will still refer to him by his previous name. In "Beyond the Corona Walls", after Stalyan attempts to persuade him to marry her, only to be stopped by Rapunzel and Pascal saving him, he embraces his future with Rapunzel as Eugene Fitzherbert.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Thanks to Rapunzel. As a career thief, he used to say, "Every man for himself," and leave his partners in crime behind without a second thought, and that included not only the likes of the Stabbingtons but even his best friend Lance. In "Return Of The King," he decides to save the Stabbingtons because thanks to Rapunzel he now believes in second chances, and in the series finale, he warmly forgives Cassandra.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • When Flynn gets angry, his voice gets more intense, but he doesn't devolve into shouting or a mindless rage. He's basically still himself, but suddenly a lot more willing to get physical.
  • He doesn't have this in the film when he's confronting the Stabbingtons in prison, due to his anger there being fueled by fear and anxiety, but he still maintains enough control to get the information he needs.
• Unfortunate Names: His real name, Eugene Fitzherbert. The poor bastard... Then he finds out his actual real name is Horace, which he finds even worse.
• Unreliable Narrator: He announces that the story isn't about him, but rather Rapunzel. It's actually about both of them.
• Vague Age: His official age is less than clear. One popular rumor spread that Eugene was imagined by animators to be 26 years old during the movie, making an eight year age gap between him and Rapunzel (the largest age gap between any Disney couple). However, directors Bryan Howard and Nathan Greno stated their belief that Eugene is 24 years old at his oldest and the story writers see him as 22 or 23. Basically, Eugene's age is between 18 at his youngest and 24 years old at his oldest depending on whose opinion you go with. As a flashback from "The Return of Strongbow" shows, 8 years prior to the present events, Eugene is still an adult while Rapunzel is at least 10 that time around. "Destinies Collide" reveals that he was a newborn child 25 years before that episode, which itself takes place about two years after the movie.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: This dialogue from In Like Flynn:
  The Captain: Your dad's lifetime rival King Trevor of Equis likes to play pranks on him.
  Rapunzel: By just drawing a silly face on dad's statue? I can't imagine any intelligent person finding this funny.
  Eugene:: Ha ha ha ha ha.
• Would Hurt a Child: Downplayed. He sees Varian experimenting with Rapunzel's hair's durability using a machine that looks like a torture device and assumes the princess is in danger. Eugene then bursts in and threatens the boy, stating Rapunzel's hair might be unbreakable but Varian himself isn't.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Played for laughs. "What The Hair" finally has a wanted poster where they got his nose right, only for it to be destroyed in Varian's lab, much to Eugene's chagrin.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • Courtesy of Rapunzel: Flynn really starts to grow after Rapunzel tells him that she likes Eugene better. She also takes to calling him by that name as well, a gesture of respect that greatly fosters Flynn's later Character Development.
  • When Maximus rescues Flynn (with the help of the thugs), Eugene is truly pleasantly surprised, because he has not been nice to him.
  • Eugene also is very surprised when Queen Arianna offers her hand and pulls him to be part of the group hug.
    • It's the same at the series:
  • When Cassandra helps Eugene at Fitzherbert, P.I., he is again surprised,
  • When the King assures Eugene that he takes him seriously at In Like Flynn, he is again surprised.
  • When Adira tells Eugene he is The Heart at Season 2, he is again surprised.
  • When the Captain selects Eugene to be his replacement, he is so surprised he does a Spit Take.
  • It's not until the third season he will become someone who doesn't get surprised when others think well of him.
    That's when I realized that if they believed in me, well, darn it, it's okay for me to believe in me.
  • And you can see the Character Development Eugene gets after they destroy Zhan Tiri, when he applies this trope to a reluctant Cassandra, offering her his hand and pulling Cassandra into the group hug with Rapunzel.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: The only appropriate response to seeing your not-quite girlfriend making friends with the hell-beast of a horse that's been chasing you all over the place.

Pascal

Voiced by: Frank Welker [uncredited in Tangled and in Tangled Ever After]; Dee Bradley Baker [in Tangled: Before Ever After and Tangled: the Series]
Appearances: Tangled | The Series | Ever After
Appearances in alternate continuities: Kingdom Hearts III^note Retelling of Tangled

Rapunzel's pet chameleon and constant companion.

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• Amplified Animal Aptitude: He's an emotive chameleon. In the series he is shown to be smart enough to play chess and win.
• Artistic License – Biology: Pascal is able to handle extremely cold conditions such as snow and blizzards, which he wouldn't be able to in real life since chameleons are cold-blooded.
• Ascended Extra: While he was definitely there in the original movie, he tends to play a notably more substantial role in the series, with season 1 and season 2 each having an episode centering on him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Pascal is a kid-friendly lizard, but he intentionally tripped Gothel out the tower window (to get her away from Rapunzel) during the film's climax. In the show, he also shows fairly decent defense moves despite his small size (although he's easily overpowered eventually). Pascal is also one of the few Disney sidekicks with a body count - it may only be one body, admittedly, but it still counts.
• Butt-Monkey: Pascal and Maximus are subjected to many hijinks and embarrassment as they try to keep the royal wedding on track in Tangled Ever After.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As a baby chameleon, Pascal's mother sent him down a river to escape a snake chasing them, dying by said-snake in the process (and little Pascal witnessing it). Pascal ended up falling over a waterfall and washed up near Rapunzel's tower. Upon hearing the young Rapunzel singing, he decided to check things out and climbed up her tower. However, the snake followed him and bit him as he made it to the window, killing him. Rapunzel knocked the snake out of the window and saved Pascal with her hair's healing ability. He decided to stay with Rapunzel afterward.
• Disney Death: In "Queen For a Day", he willingly jumps into the Demanitus Device to remove a stone jamming the gears in order to stop a dangerous blizzard from destroying Corona and harming its citizens. He gives Rapunzel a Tearful Smile and lets himself fall into the gears. Everyone thought he surely died, but he turned out okay albeit severely injured.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The melancholic. Shy and romantic Silent Snarker, but fiercely loyal to Rapunzel.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Almost sacrifices his life in "Queen For a Day" when he jumps into the Demanitus Device and gets injured when he removes the stone jamming the gears.
• Hero Secret Service: Played for laughs, as Pascal seems to view himself as a guardian for Rapunzel, often acting as her protector and defender... which gets a bit tricky, seeing as he's a very small chameleon. Although he does manage to stare down Flynn and Maximus. He's the one ultimately responsible for Gothel falling out of the tower in the film's end, pulling up Rapunzel's discarded hair on the floor to make her trip.
• Hollywood Chameleons: Zig-zagged trope. At the beginning of the movie, his body's colours match a pattern on a flower vase (which isn't how chameleons work in real life), but later he does change color with mood, like real chameleons, just with a different code.
• I Am Not Weasel:
  • Flynn initially keeps referring to him as a "frog", probably not out of genuine mistake but more to annoy Pascal, as Flynn didn't like him at first.
  • In the novelization Rapunzel and the Lost Lagoon, Cassandra refers to him as a "lizard"^note which is technically correct, as chameleons are lizards.
• Living Mood Ring: While he mostly uses his color-changing to blend into his environment, he sometimes changes color on emotions — for example, when he's startled and scared by Maximus suddenly dragging Flynn away, he turns red.
• Lovable Lizard: A cute and feisty chameleon who is Rapunzel's loyal (if sometimes snarky) pet.
• Loyal Animal Companion: To Rapunzel. Despite his small size and not having much strength, he always supports and helps Rapunzel. Especially in the series, where he saves Rapunzel's life a few times. Rapunzel refers to him as her best friend.
• Meaningful Name: His name is related to the Hebrew word "pesach", which means "Passover." This ties directly back to his Backstory of being floated downstream by his mother to escape an attacker, eventually finding his way into the care of a princess; just like Moses. "Pascal" is also the French form of "Pascha", which is Latin for "Easter"; Pascal is Rapunzel's close companion, and Rapunzel's healing tears resurrect Flynn from the dead, which can be considered as a resurrection experience for Flynn, who is reborn anew as Eugene Fitzherbert.
• Only Friend: He was Rapunzel's only companion for most of the years she lived in the tower.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Inverted, as he's a good friend to Rapunzel that's a positive influence on her, and is just adorable. One exception plays it straight though: he sticks his tongue in Flynn's ear, to Flynn's disgusted horror, twice.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: A cute and small chameleon.
• Shipper on Deck: He's happy at the thought of Rapunzel and Flynn getting together. In Tangled Ever After, he's shown to be in Tears of Joy during the couple's wedding ceremony.
• Spanner in the Works: Often plays this role in the series. Being so small, he's not much of a physical threat, but he's really good at being in just the right place in just the right time.
• Silent Snarker: He manages to be a Deadpan Snarker, without ever saying a word.
• Stock Sound Effect: He makes little squeaky toy sounds when he's abused.
• Undying Loyalty: To Rapunzel, to whom he owes his life.

Maximus

Voiced by: Frank Welker [uncredited in Tangled]; Nathan Greno [in Tangled: Ever After]; Dee Bradley Baker [in Tangled: The Series and Tangled: Before Ever After]
Appearances: Tangled | The Series | Ever After
Appearances in alternate continuities: Kingdom Hearts III^note Retelling of Tangled

"That is one determined horse!"

— Lance, summing up Maximus' character

The Captain of the Guard's horse, who is unfortunately more competent than the captain himself. At the beginning of the movie, he dedicates himself to hunting Flynn down for getting the tiara. He later serves as the Royal Guard's mascot.

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• All Animals Are Dogs: Maximus hunts things by following their scent, sits on the ground with his front legs extended, and wags his tail out of joy. ^note When horses swish their tail, it expresses annoyance / anger (much like in cats) — as opposed to dogs who wag them out of joy. He uses his tail in the dog-like manner. All in the name of Rule of Funny. Also, Rapunzel pets him and speaks to him in the same way you would to a dog.
  • This is toned down for the series, where he generally acts more like an actual horse... though his doglike traits have in no way been done away with altogether.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Maximus is the most badass character in the entire movie: if he had been around when Rapunzel was a baby, he would have tracked down the missing princess before the sunrise. He's also more skilled with a sword than his rider.
• Animal Reaction Shot: Gets a few of these, although the job is mainly Pascal's.
• Badass Adorable: Don't let the fact that he's a cute horse (that has dog mannerisms) deceive you, he is miles more competent than the soldiers he fights alongside. In the series episode "No Time Like The Past", we get to see him as a foal: He's twice as adorable and just as unstoppably badass.
• Big Damn Heroes: Part of his modus operandi, especially in the series. When the heroes are imprisoned, or just about to get overpowered... guess who's coming rushing in to save the day?
• Butt-Monkey: Pascal and Maximus are subjected to many hijinks and embarrassment as they try to keep the royal wedding on track in Tangled Ever After.
• Character Development: Maximus in the beginning was all about protocol and rules and regulations, going so far as to track down the lawbreaker even after his rider, the head guard, had fallen off. Later, it turns out he's a real softie for cute young girls and their dreams, and even gives the aforementioned lawbreaker some leeway for the sake of their love, lending his super-horse strength and fighting skills to break Eugene out of prison and the gallows.
• Cool Horse: Not only is he a massive Determinator, he's a master fencer despite not having hands.
• Cutlass Between the Teeth: When fighting Flynn. Hey, it's not like he has thumbs.
• Demoted to Extra: Maximus has a much less prominent role in the series than in either the movie or Ever After, especially in the first season. He's still considered part of the main cast and gets A Day in the Limelight every so often, but he's not the major scene-stealer that he was in the movie.
• Determinator: When hunting Flynn, he's not gonna stop for anything. Except for Rapunzel calling him a good boy.
• Establishing Character Moment: Flynn knocks the Captain of the Guard off his horse and hitches a ride, only for said horse to stop running and glare at him to show to the audience he is sapient, and the following fight as Maximus tries to get the crown back proves he is a much bigger threat than the rest of the royal guard.
• Expy: The directors described him as The Tommy Lee Jones of horses.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Choleric. He has temper but he’s easily the most competent member of the Royal army.
• Handy Mouth: Maximus can hold a swordfight against Flynn Rider with a sword in his mouth.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: After he realizes that Eugene truly cares about Rapunzel, and assembles the Pub Thugs to help him escape execution. From a certain point of view, this could also be considered a Face–Heel Turn. Or it could be that Maximus felt he had an obligation since he'd promised to cut Flynn slack for 24 hours as a favor to Rapunzel (it was her birthday). Maximus has a funny Animal Reaction Shot when Flynn starts acting heartfelt about being rescued.
• Horsing Around: Being the Captain of the Guard's horse, Maximus does his best to capture Flynn.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: More competent and effective than the entire royal guard put together.
• Improbable Weapon User: A sword normally isn't the world's most improbable weapon, but when a horse is wielding it, it could count. In the end, Maximus trains an entire squad of frying-pan wielding guards.
• Inspector Javert: Towards Flynn, at first, because he's a thief and must be punished no matter how difficult it will be to catch him.
• Le Parkour: While Flynn's riding him as part of his prison break, he makes jumps that tournament bred horses would envy.
• Made of Iron: The abuse that Maximus' legs put up with would cripple a normal horse a dozen times over. But thanks to Toon Physics, they do fine.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: Maximus recruits the Pub Thugs to help Flynn escape execution, which brings all of Rapunzel's allies together for a heroic moment.
• The Nose Knows: Snuffles along the ground like any blood hound. This trait is almost his trademark in the movie, but only shows up on a very rare occasion in the series.
• Shipper on Deck: Eventually, he starts shipping Rapunzel and Flynn, including pushing the latter into the Falling-in-Love Montage. Literally.
• Silent Snarker: He manages to be a Deadpan Snarker, without ever saying a word.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Ruddiger the raccoon in the series. From their first meeting in "What The Hair?" they took an instant dislike to each other, and whenever they share an episode they tend to fight... usually over apples. They do have an Enemy Mine episode in Season 3's "Day of the Animals."
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: A royal mount that got separated from his rider but still kept trying to bring Flynn in. He eventually warms up to him.
• Team Pet: By the series, Maximus goes from being the Captain's personal steed to being the Royal Guard's mascot. Just like any military mascot, he has ranking status.
• They Have the Scent!: He whinnies rather than bays, of course.
• Think Nothing of It: In an eloquent whinny when Eugene thanks him for the rescue. Just doing his duty, you know.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Letting Eugene be hanged for theft is the lawful part. Freeing him so he can do good by Rapunzel and redeem himself is good. Surprisingly, he chooses good. Doubles as Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Mother Gothel goes back to the tower to find Rapunzel isn't there because Maximus ends up running into her in his attempts to find Flynn, and him still missing his rider causes Mother Gothel to worry his rider is at the tower.
• White Stallion: Originally the horse of the captain of the guard, now friends with Flynn Rider who becomes Rapunzel's hero.

Debuted in Tangled: The Series

Cassandra

Cassandra

Voiced by: Eden Espinosa, Cassie Glow (kid), Hudson D'Andrea (toddler) (English); Erika Ugalde (Latin-American Spanish); Mie Sonozaki (Japanese); Kim Oh-kyeong (Korean)
Appearances: The Series

Rapunzel's handmaiden and the adoptive daughter of the captain of the Royal Guard.

For her tropes, see her page.

Lance Strongbow / Arnwaldo Schnitz

Voiced by: James Monroe Iglehart (adult) , Blake Moore (kid), Vargus Mason (teenager) , Mioo Tanaka (Japanese)

Appearances: The Series

Eugene's best friend since childhood. The two grew up in the orphanage together and once they were older became partners in crime. He arrives in Corona hoping to get Eugene to help him with a job, but is convinced to reform and go straight. He becomes a loyal companion in Eugene and Rapunzel's adventures.

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• Amazon Chaser: He quickly becomes attracted to Adira the instance he sees her cutting down trees with her sword. He also attempts to charm Cassandra in "The Return of Strongbow" only for it to go... very poorly.
• Apologetic Attacker: In "Once a Handmaiden...", he apologizes while fighting a mind controlled Adira.
• Ascended Extra: Appears in a few episodes of season 1, joins the main cast in season 2.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Not surprising considering who is his voice actor is but Lance is acknowledged in-universe as having a great singing voice.
• Berserk Button: Don't call him by his real name, Arnwaldo.
• Best Served Cold: He waited years to steal a treasure from the Baron, another thief who betrayed him and Eugene. He was in jail for a while, though.
• Big Eater: Lance has a very healthy appetite, able to eat whole multi-course dinners on his own. Despite this he doesn't gain any weight.
• Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Lance has a very large ego and loves to boast and talk himself up. This is contrasted with the fact that he is a kind fun loving, and brave person. He genuinely cares about his friends and willing to face danger to help them.
• Big Fun: While not fat Lance is the largest member of the group and the most fun loving.
• Book Dumb: Science is not his strong suit. Lance can't understand even half of Varian's Technobabble, and he will get bored. When that happens, bad things will follow.
• Big Eater: Has a deep fondness for food. This eventually leads him to becoming the new chef of the Snuggly Duckling.
• Brains and Brawn: Lance is the Brawn, who is big, tough, yet dives into situations without thinking, whereas Eugene is the smart, clever one.
• Childhood Friends: He grew up with Eugene in the same orphanage and they became partners in crime later on.
• Consummate Liar: He can come up with convincing lies quite quickly.
• Convenientlyan Orphan: Lance is an orphan who was placed in the same orphanage as Eugene.
• Cowardly Lion: In contrast to Eugene, Lance is usually the first to admit how scared he is of all the monsters, villains, and evil magic that tries to kill the heroes, but he nevertheless does his best to help and is always fighting by his friends' side when they show up.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While goofy and prone to bouts of panic, Lance knows how to fight. While not at the level of Cassandra or Adira he can hold his own and he was the one to turn the tide in the battle against the ghosts of the dark kingdom at the end of season two.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": His birth name is Arnwaldo, but he wants to be called Lance, and reacts very annoyed when addressed as "Arnwaldo".
  Eugene: Let's just get out of here... Arnwaldo.
  Lance: HEY! Don't. Call me. Arnwaldo!
• Easily Forgiven: After he enlists Eugene's help to recover some treasure from the Baron, only to discover that one of the stolen content is a ring belonging to Queen Arianna with him and Eugene being caught when they try to steal the ring back from Rapunzel, he becomes friends with Eugene and Rapunzel after apologizing to them, and donates most of the treasure to the Corona orphanage.
• Embarrassing First Name: It's hard to blame him for going by "Lance Strongbow" instead of "Arnwaldo Schnitz".
• Everyone Has Standards: He eventually comes clean about dragging Eugene into trouble, especially once he realizes he's jeopardizing Eugene's relationship with Rapunzel.
• Foil: Lance also serves as a foil to Cassandra as they are both the best friend to a member of the main couple. While Cassandra does love Rapunzel she carries a lot of anger, jealously, and resentment towards her. Lance on the other hand shows no jealously or resentment towards Eugene's good fortune and is clearly happy that Eugene has found love and happiness. Cassandra also avoids talking about her feelings, which leads to her issues getting worse, which leads to Cassandra eventually betraying Rapunzel. Lance is very open with his thoughts and feelings and never has any major issues with Eugene. He is also loyal and stands by Eugene's side all the way through to the end of the series.
• Family of Choice: Lance considers Eugene to be like a brother. He also forms a strong bond with Rapunzel and ends up adopting Angry and Catalina by the end of the series.
• Friend to All Children: Lance gets along very will with the ex-thieves/orphan kids Kiera/Angry and Catalina/Red. They get along so well that by the end of the series he ends up adopting them.
• Giver of Lame Names: Clever and creative at spinning a yarn from nothing, but Lance is not good at giving people nicknames.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Once they reconnect Eugene and Lance become this. This is clearly shown during their musical duet "Buddy" that they sing in season two. Its all about how the two are best friends who love each other like brothers.
• The Highwayman: Though not exclusively, Lance and Eugene did rob many a coach and carriage during their criminal days.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Bears more than a passing resemblance to his voice actor, James Monroe Iglehart.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be quite a prick at times, as shown in his second appearance, but he's still a nice guy and he and Eugene are still friends like they were in the good old days.
• Large Ham: He has a great time hamming it up when he plays the role of a bandit in "The Return of Quaid".
• Likes Older Women: Has a crush on Adira - who was already an adult when he was a baby.
• Literal-Minded: So much that Lance will interpret drawings as he sees them.
• Lovable Coward: Lance has shades of this as he is the one who tends to freak out the most when the group faces off against threats. That said he remains lovable since even though he is clearly scared he still stands and fights with his friends.
• Lovable Rogue: Though a thief, Lance has always been a nice, fun loving, and friendly guy.
• Manchild: While good-hearted, Lance can be very immature at times. Varian certainly seems to think so too: Lance ignoring Varian's orders to not mess with his inventions is akin to a child disobeying an adult.
• Miles Gloriosus: Lance isn't as daring as he appears to be, and tends to cower when it comes to performing death-defying acts, often hilariously exclaiming: "I'm not getting on that" or some variant.
• Not So Above It All: It's shown Lance and Eugene tend to have childish arguments, such as who should steer the boat.
• Papa Wolf: Towards Varian, Kiera, and Catalina. He empathizes with the two girls and later adopts them, and he catches Varian when the latter falls off Cassandra's tower.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He donates the treasure he stole to the Corona orphanage's charity. Most of it anyway. Makes sense when you consider that Lance was an orphan alongside Eugene and likely empathizes with orphans as a result.
  • In the season 1 finale he joins in on Eugene, Cass, and the guard's attempt to rescue the Queen.
• The Pig-Pen: Lance is rather messy, and Eugene is okay with it, just not in front of the royals.
• Reformed Criminal: Lance was a thief who worked with Eugene in the past, but after they meet again in the present, he's convinced to give up crime and go straight.
• Romantic Wingman: Lance is very supportive of Eugene and Rapunzel's relationship and gives Eugene advice on what to do with relationship issues. How good the advice is varies but his heart is in the right place.
• Scary Black Man: Subverted. Lance is the only black member of the main cast but is the least threatening and scary of the bunch.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's the Sensitive Guy to Eugene's Manly Man. While Eugene is more willing to throw himself into danger, Lance is more of the Cowardly Lion who tries to avoid danger as much as possible.
• Ship Tease: He develops a crush on Adira as Season 2 progresses.
• Spiders Are Scary: Lance has a very vocal fear of spiders.
• Shout-Out: His roguish personality and willingness to make things right are reminiscent of Lando Calrissian.
• Sticky Fingers: He just can't resist snatching up riches when the opportunity is there.
• Those Two Guys: He's best friends with Eugene.
• Underestimating Badassery: Lance joins the Coronan army to attack Varian's home after the boy kidnaps the queen. Upon arrival, he's surprised to find no defences readied and wonders if Varian is less of a threat than they thought. Cue everyone being ambushed by the alchemist's own army of automatons.
  Lance: Maybe Rapunzel was wrong and we overestimated the little guy.
  Eugene: You don't know Varian very well, do you buddy?
• Unfortunate Name: Lance's real name is Arnwaldo Schnitz. Like Eugene he finds his real name very embarrassing so took the name Lance Strongbow. Unlike Eugene who abandoned the name Flynn Rider and went back to his original name, Arnwaldo never takes back his original name and stays as Lance for the whole series.
• Vague Age: While it is unknown how old he is, fans have guessed that he's the same age as Eugene.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Varian. Lance's carelessness and disobedience infuriates Varian, who tends to remind him not to mess with his inventions, and scolds him when he does. Lance, in turn, gets irritated by Varian's bossiness. However, the two are very close friends and care deeply about each other, to the point where Varian is overjoyed to see Lance when he catches him in "Cassandra's Revenge", and they are also shown to work well together in the final episodes.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • His debut episode reveals that he's scared to death of spiders (it's implied he's been arachnophobic even during his and Eugene's days as partners in crime). Unfortunately, for Lance, this phobia is taken advantage by The Baron by having Lance bitten and poisoned by a toxic spider as he gets captured and brought before the Baron.
  • Lance also seems to have an irrational fear of clowns.
  • A significant plot point of "Be Very Afraid" is Lance learning to overcome both these fears, as well as his stage fright.

Varian

Voiced by: Jeremy Jordan, Yasuaki Takumi (Japanese), Jeong Jae-heon (Korean)
Appearances: The Series

"Magic? I do not work with magic! I mean, technically it's not magic, it's alchemy. But yeah, don't sweat it."

A young alchemist and inventor who tries to study Rapunzel's hair in the Season 1 premiere and is a recurring ally.

For his tropes, see his page.

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