History Fridge / Tangled

** If Eugene ''does'' turn out to be the illegitimate son of a royal or noble father (though not Rapunzel's own father) [[FridgeBrilliance it would explain why he's considered a suitable match for the heir apparent to the throne.]]

* Mother Gothel's main gesture when interacting with Rapunzel is to pat her on the head, acknowledging only her hair and putting her down. Her real mother, the Queen, strokes her face, showing her value for Rapunzel as a person and lifting her up.

* Speaking of hiding her little mirror in a box, ever notice Rapunzel has to hide most of the things she loves from Gothel? It's a well-known strategy for abusers to use their victims belongings as leverage, threatening to break them if they don't get with the program. Ironically, Rapunzel hid the unconscious Flynn with the intention of showing Gothel she could go out on her own, but decided to keep hiding him when Gothel yelled at her. [[spoiler: Almost as though she suspected her "mother" would do something ''really'' bad to her captive. Unintentionally, her hiding Flynn foreshadows that she would come to love him. Not to mention that Gothel would once again [[InTheBack destroy]] the very thing Rapunzel loved once it was discovered.]]

* Speaking of hiding her little mirror in a box, ever notice Rapunzel has to hide most of the things she loves from Gothel? It's a well-known strategy for abusers to use their victims belongings as leverage, threatening to break them if they don't get with the program. Ironically, Rapunzel hid the unconcious Flynn with the intention of showing Gothel she could go out on her own, but decided to keep hiding him when Gothel yelled at her. [[spoiler: Almost as though she suspected her "mother" would do something ''really'' bad to her captive. Unintentionally, her hiding Flynn foreshadows that she would come to love him. Not to mention that Gothel would once again [[InTheBack destroy]] the very thing Rapunzel loved once it was discovered.]]

9. Fang: Puppet shows -- Rapunzel does ventriloqy.\\

* [=ENDING SPOILERS PRESENT=] So in the end after Flynn [[spoiler: cuts Rapunzel's hair]], Gothel shrivels away- but the Queen doesn't become ill/near-death again in the kingdom. Apparantly the healings are permanent while youth restorings, while temporary, can be revoked.

*** I assumed that her tears contain (or possibly contained) the same power as her hair, and since [[spoiler: Flynn had just died it was able to ressusitate him and heal the wound, much like our doctors can technically bring somebody back from the dead, if they've only been dead for a very short time.]]

*** If he introduced himself as [[spoiler: Eugene]] wouldn't everyone recognise his face? No, because every. Single. Wanted poster. Got his nose wrong. Surely [[spoiler: Eugene]] would have looked very similar to Flynn Rider, but Flynn Rider has a totally different nose.

* She make a starchart on her wall with the phases of the Moon, her own constellations and what looks like an analemma. She spent serious time looking out the window at night and at how the Sun moved along the wall.

*** Also he was kind of going by the ExactWords of Rapunzel's promise- [[spoiler:the bargain was that when she'd saved him, Gothel could take her away. So if he ''destroyed'' her means of saving him, the bargain would be void, right? (Not a great bit of reasoning by any standards, given what he'd already seen of Gothel, but at least it would give Rapunzel licence to fight her, and anyway, he wasn't exactly in a condition to think that straight at the time.)]]

** I realised this upon hearing the destroying sunshine line, but thought of it a different way as well; maybe Gothel wasn't only talking about [[spoiler:the loss of Rapunzel's sunny demeanor]], but also feeling as though it was ''unfair'' for anyone to search for and then take her healing flower for any reason, and was bitter about the plant being destroyed in order to save two unimportant people (in Gothel's own opinion).

* Rapunzel's usage of the frying pan as weaponry has upon the third rewatching, seemed to just ''smack'' of Girrrl Power. It makes sense thusly: the frying pan is a tool used in the kitchen, and Rapunzel remarks in her IWantSong that she is fond of cooking, and using frying pans throughout history by women of the past to defend themselves doesn't sound so unlikely either. In short, the "tool of the kitchen" in Rapunzel's hands becomes a symbol of "Girl Power."

** Just a hunch, but i'm guessing that Rapunzel didn't have access to swords and such in her tower/prison. Now, cue the arrival of an unknown male of unknown intentions (Flynn). How can she defend herself? By grabbing the first heavy thing at hand: a frying pan. It's more about [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer practicality]] than girl power. Also, {{Rule of Funny}}.

*** In defence of the OP, neither you nor your rolling pin are elements of a fictional story either. A frying pan in an animated movie might have symbolic reference and value that an actual real rolling pin does not have, because the former is a visual signifier that produces varied connotations in the mind of the viewer and the latter is an actual object with practical real-world uses.

* When [[spoiler: Rapunzel's hair is cut]], the Queen doesnt spontaneously die and [[spoiler: Eugene's]] hand stay healed. But all the anti-aging of Mother Gothel is [[spoiler: reversed]]. I noticed something about this: ''both times, the hair/flower is wet/in water''. The Queen drinks a ''tea'', [[spoiler: Eugene]] is healed while Rapunzels hair is still wet. [[spoiler: And when he is healed at the end, its from her ''tears'']]

*** Also not a ''Princess'' movie, but it also has [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchBackOfNotreDame the villian raising the hero as their own child, forbidding them to go outside under the claim that the world is a cruel, dangerous place.]]

*** Actually, no Rapunzel wouldn’t be scalped. Mattpatt from Film Theory did a video on the possibility that if a person had the length of Rapunzel’s hair, would they be able to do the stuff that she is shown to be able to do. [[note]] The answer is yes btw, but I do have to mention that after confirming that it’s entirely possible to do what Rapunzel does, he does go off topic and theorises that Rapunzel doesn’t wash her hair because of its length and would therefore be a giant dreadlock and that she has traction alopecia due to the weight and length of her hair, because he has to find a way to “ruin” the movie- how Rapunzel washes her 70 feet of hair is actually shown in a deleted sequence, and there’s real life Rapunzels, all of whom don’t have Traction alopecia, not to mention that her hair heals, so both the traction alopecia and dreadlock theories are jossed. The main thing is that Rapunzel can do what she does in the film.[[/note]] His initial assumption upon first seeing the movie was that Rapunzel would actually end up with a broken neck until he did the research and discovered that it takes 675 pounds of hair pulling to break someone’s neck, he calculated that to rip all of Rapunzel’s hair out you would need to have three-and-a-half tonnes of force, and the force needed to tear apart all the hairs on a persons head (which is actually half the strength of steel) is twelve tonnes, so in other words, it is blatantly obvious that a scalp can support the weight of an adult human (after all that’s why it’s common to see circus performers suspend themselves with their hair to do aerial tricks). Mattpatt states that having the full weight of an adult human, without any support (including the windowsill as he notes), isn’t going to feel comfortable, but it isn’t going to harm her either.

** But FridgeBrilliance: She also told Gothel she'd never let her use the hair ever again. She only said she'd stay with Gothel, not heal her. She might well have been envisioning dealing with imprisonment for a few more months as she watched Gothel wither away. When Gothel died, Rapunzel would cremate her (if necessary), put the ashes in a piece of jewellery and wear it for the rest of her life, fulfilling the "forever" part of the promise.

* OK if Eugene means born of royalty and Fitz-blank means bastard son of blank then let's really hope that Rapunzel's father is not called King Herbert. The hair colour does match the royal family though.

** In a way, even Gothel's own lantern symbolizes she has some small form of affection for Rapunzel. But its [[SicklyGreenGlow green coloration]] represents (A) how warped her said-affection is, (B) that she only has love for herself and (C) she only "loves" Rapunzel on her own abusive terms.

*** If you notice too, when it goes dark, Rapunzel is quickly able to light some Candles, but Mother Gothel puts them out behind her! It is showing that Rapunzel is more than capable of looking after herself, but it's Mother Gothel, who is intentionally sabotaging Rapunzel's efforts!?

** The kingdom is called Corona. In 2020, just imagine.

* Rapunzel's tears can cure death. Rapunzel is constantly in internal contact with her own bodily fluids. Let's hope the "cure death" thing works a finite number of times, cos [[WhoWantsToLiveForever otherwise...]]
** Eugene was dead for less than a minute, chances of Rapunzel's tear bringing him back to life were the highest and highly possible.
** Also, as noted a couple points up, she still has to be singing for her tears (and presumably other bodily fluids) to activate their curing power. Which she's going to have a hard time doing if she's dead.
*** So outside of any assumptions that her hair/bodily fluids work the same way that the flower did, we know that Gothel had to use the hair to stay young while Rapunzel was growing up, and there definitely would have been a period where Rapunzel couldn't yet sing/speak (as a very small child). Unless Gothel was okay with aging while she was waiting around for Rapunzel to be able to sing well enough for it to work, ''Gothel'' was singing the song to make the magic work, meaning that it doesn't have to be Rapunzel. Assuming her other bodily fluids (like the tear) retain magic even though her hair didn't, she could stay young/alive/healthy as long as she wanted to (and probably keep Eugene the same way) until she/them both were ready to die.

** Not everywhere has 18 for the age of consent, a case of SoCalization.

* Big nose's Dream is to find love and while Flynn isn't looking for that, he is also frequently portrayed with a gag nose via the Wanted poster gag and both manage to find love.

* This is the first Franchise/DisneyPrincess film that tells you magic is not the key to happiness, since Flynn ultimately decided that the power from the sun was what was causing all the problems. ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' also told this, but did not exclude magic completely.

* Disney/{{Tangled}} incorporates elements of all the classic Franchise/DisneyPrincess films that came before it. [[Disney/SleepingBeauty Princess taken from her parents in infancy and raised in secret.]] [[Disney/SnowWhite The villain is a Vain Sorceress who appears both as a beautiful young woman and an old crone.]] [[Disney/{{Cinderella}} The villain also has a abusive, quasi-parental relationship with the heroine.]] [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} Meanwhile, the love interest is a lovable rogue of low origin on the run from the law,]] [[Disney/TheLittleMermaid who shares an Almost Kiss with the heroine during a starry evening while on a rowboat.]]
** What about [[Disney/{{Pocahontas}} the villain's greedy, self-righteous nature and the heroine's decision to go with unconventional love and follow her heart?]] And, very obviously, [[Disney/{{Mulan}} the female lead getting a dramatic haircut and fighting to prove she is more than what her family (in her case Gothel) thinks of her?]]
** [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Lots and lots of hair]].

*** Also not a ''Princess'' movie, but it also has [[Disney/TheHunchBackOfNotreDame the villian raising the hero as their own child, forbidding them to go outside under the claim that the world is a cruel, dangerous place.]]

*** You mean, like a [[Disney/{{Frozen}} charming prince who's actually a manipulative bastard?]]

** It wouldn't be the first [[Disney/TheLionKing Disney movie]] that had a(n implied) brother and sister hook up.

** He could be the son of a noble. Actually, by the end of the 18th century it wasn't uncommon for boys (legitimate or not) to be named Fitz-whatever, even as a first name. [[Literature/PrideAndPrejudice]] has ''Fitzwilliam'' Darcy in the very late 18th/very early 19th century, and he's just from a rich family.

* When first seeing "I see the Light", it's easy to think it's just a song about Rapunzel finally fulfilling her dream of seeing the floating lights. But it becomes Fridge-Heartwarming once the meaning of it is brought to light: This is also a song about Rapunzel seeing what ''real'' love is. Each of those floating lanterns represents a subject of the kingdom who misses the lost princess, and wish for her safe return. She's feeling second-hand what it's like to feel that magnitude of love and caring. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Without even knowing she's the lost princess, Rapunzel finally understands and wishes for that love and warmth]].

* This troper has been feeling it and she knows other people with a similar upbringing can feel it too. Every song in the movie is an EarWorm. But most especially "Mother Knows Best". If you've been raised in a similar fashion to Rapunzel, and knowing what Gothel's true intentions were, it is awfully disturbing to have this song playing in your head over and over and over again...
** On the bright side, the children watching it can realize that they are being emotionally abused, and that what the parents are doing is wrong, and break the cycle.
*** Eventually, yes. When this troper watched it, she had a sense that there was something wrong with the dynamics between her and her parents, but she still hadn't come to a point where she could call it abusive. Someone who was abused won't hear "Mother Knows Best" and realize that Gothel is abusive and so are their parents, because that song so perfectly illustrates the reality of emotional abuse. It's constant put-downs and ridicule disguised as love, and it can take survivors far longer than Rapunzel took to realize that the love is nothing more than a disguise. In the meantime, "Mother Knows Best" will most likely be disturbing for them on a level they can't quite articulate. And it will be in their heads, for hours and hours, the same way their parents' criticism sticks with them.

*** If he introduced himself as [[spoiler: Eugene]] wouldn't everyone recognise his face? No, because every. Single. Wanted poster. got his nose wrong. Surely [[spoiler: Eugene]] would have looked very similar to Flynn Rider, but Flynn Rider has a totally different nose.

** Not only that, Flynn has two lanterns, one representing how he's come to love her, and the other representing how he helped her learn to love herself.