History Fridge / Tangled

* Rapunzel is shorter than almost every other character in the film, barring children and characters short for comedic purposes, despite being almost 18. It's easy to pass this off as a classic case of TeensAreShort, or even, perhaps, that Rapunzel's a late bloomer. However, considering that she's spent her entire childhood and adolescence in a single tower, considerably far away from any settlement, and her supplies of food, drink and suchlike being entirely dependent on one emotionally abusive woman, it's not that outrageous to say that Rapunzel has suffered from stunted growth.

* Rapunzel's tears seem to retain some healing/rejuvenating power if they're cried for the pain/loss of someone she truly loves. Thank ''God'' that Mother Gothel was already dead by the time ''that'' little tidbit of information [[IncrediblyLamePun came to light]]. Imagine the swiftness and brutality with which things would have descended into crapsack horror if she'd survived to see it.

* Rapunzel's bare feet [[DoesNotLikeShoes might not be a personal preference.]] Gothel's so determined that Rapunzel never leave that she's never ''given'' her any shoes, because shoes would imply she might someday walk outside.

** Hmmm... Are you guys saying that keeping your pretty, magical, "virginal" hair but watching the guy who sacrificed his life for you die and then being imprisoned for the rest of your life by your abusive mother... is somehow '''''better''''' than losing your pretty, magical, "virginal" hair by the hand of someone who loves you enough to die for you, but being ultimately free to pursue your own destiny and get away from the person who mentally abused you for years? Reducing one of the most poignant {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s in the last years of Animated Films to rape and "loss of agency" (read: "WhatMeasureIsANonBadass") is not just out of place, but '''[[UnfortunateImplications offensive]]'''.

* Eugene cuts Rapunzel's hair before she can heal him, killing Mother Gothel in the process. Now, it may seemed stupid he didn't just wait until after he was healed, but think about it. He didn't know WHY Gothel needed the hair, he just knew she did. For all he knew, cutting the hair would've not affected her at all and Rapunzel would be bound to her promise. So with the information Eugene had, the only logical move was cut the hair before he was healed.

* She make a star chart 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.

* Freeze frame just when Eugene cuts Rapunzel's hair]. Directly above and behind his head is a heart--and Rapunzel probably painted it.

->''"And, at last, I see the light..."''

* 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 unconditional love and caring. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Without even knowing she's the lost princess, Rapunzel finally understands and wishes for that love and warmth]].

*** What about [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} a baby who is associated with the color gold being kidnapped in the night, learning of their true heritage 18 years later, and eventually having their supernatural abilities drained, but still finding a way to bring their loved one back from the dead?]] You know, at this point, we could do a whole JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarStories page on this movie alone.

** Don't forget, ''Eugene'' deserves some agency in this situation too. He's the one whose life is at stake, and he's the one whose terminal condition is, in effect, being exploited by Gothel to '''cheat''' Rapunzel of her lifelong capacity for choice. The only way he can ''restore'' Rapunzel's agency is to demonstrate equal free will and self-sacrifice, by releasing her from a "choice" that was really no choice at all.

* During ''Mother Knows Best'' Gothel tells Rapunzel that the world is "Dark and selfish and cruel", then Gothel puts Rapunzel in front of a mirror to pinpoint all her unpleasant traits, saying "On your own, you won't survive!" And then when Rapunzel confronts Gothel after [[spoiler:realizing she is the lost princess,]] she pushes Gothel onto the mirror, causing it to break. This could be a metaphor for Rapunzel realizing that she ''can'' survive on her own and that the world is ''not'' the dark one Gothel described. Or, in her own words:

*** Gothel saying that Rapunzel is not able to survive on her own is ironic. [[spoiler: Without Rapunzel, Gothel would pass away or wither of old age, as shown when Rapunzel's long hair was cut off by Flynn/Eugene]].

** Towards the end, when Rapunzel finally realizes [[spoiler:she's the lost princess, she confronts Gothel and tells her she's never letting her use her magical hair again. At that moment, Gothel's mirror breaks reflecting how [[VillainousBreakdown her mind is shattered]] by Rapunzel's unforeseen rebellion.]]
* 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.]]

* Eugene really did get both of his dreams, except for the alone part. During "I've Got a Dream," he sings that he wants to be "on an island that I own, tanned and rested and alone, surrounded by enormous piles of money." [[spoiler: Rapunzel's parents' castle is on an island, and their kingdom certainly doesn't seem that poor.]]
** Also, in regards to the part about living somewhere sunny, [[spoiler:the entire kingdom has a sun motif. Also, he marries Rapunzel, who is constantly compared to and represented by the sun.]]

* Flynn's real name being [[spoiler: Eugene]]. It's a little thing, but the name ''does'' mean "Born to Royalty" or "Royal". Who's to say that he wasn't intentionally named so by the filmmakers? It's possible he was named thus to suggest that he is Rapunzel's "prince in disguise".

** As of ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Eugene was born Horace, the long-lost Prince of the Dark Kingdom. He was hidden away in an orphanage, unaware of his heritage. The people who renamed him Eugene might have known his real identity.]]

* [=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. Apparently the healings are permanent while youth restorings, while temporary, can be revoked.

** My guess would be that since healing is a natural process, de-aging is... obviously not. So when the flower's magic just speeds up a natural process, you only need it once, whereas if it does something unnatural, it'll need repeating again and again. This doesn't really explain why [[spoiler: Flynn's resurrection works]], though.

*** 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 resuscitate 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.]]

* [[spoiler: When you see the Stabbington Brothers spy on Flynn/Eugene and Rapunzel, they are carrying a green lantern. It's not theirs - it's Mother Gothel's, and because they're working for her now that they have it..]]

* The OpeningNarration has Flynn saying [[spoiler: "This is the story of how I died"]] and indeed this does happen in a way. [[spoiler: "Flynn Rider" dies, but the man he actually is, Eugene Fitzherbert, lives instead.]]
** That, and the fact that [[spoiler:Eugene actually, physically died before Rapunzel's magic tears came into effect. He wasn't ''almost'' dead or passed out when she sang the incantation. He really ''was'' dead]].

** This troper's mother offered her own more mundane explanation. Not to say that the one above is wrong, but my mother reminded me that this is based on the 18th century. Back then, queens tended to marry in their teen years, sometimes even earlier to men much older than they. The king and queen might have had an ArrangedMarriage that became a [[HappilyMarried good one]], and the queen had Rapunzel between 16-18 years old while he was closer to 30. Hence, after 18 years, the Queen still looks quite young because she may be in just her mid 30s, while he might be approaching his fifties. Many women may look the same, especially if they have HairstyleInertia like the Queen does, from their late teens to their thirties.

** There's also the fact that [[spoiler: he goes by Eugene rather than Flynn now]], so maybe he introduced himself as such to the King and Queen.
*** If he introduced himself as [[spoiler: Eugene]] wouldn't everyone recognize 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.

* [[spoiler: Eugene cuts Rapunzel's hair before she can heal him, killing Mother Gothel in the process. Now, it may seemed stupid he didn't just wait until after he was healed, but think about it. He didn't know WHY Gothel needed the hair, he just knew she did. For all he knew, cutting the hair would've not affected her at all and Rapunzel would be bound to her promise. So with the information Eugene had, the only logical move was cut the hair before he was healed.]]
** Also take into account that Flynn[[spoiler:/Eugene]] was a very selfish human being when Rapunzel first met him (his greatest dream was to ''be completely alone''). Over the course of their journey together, [[spoiler:Eugene learns to care for her more than he cares for himself, and that kind of love throws all logic out the window where your own well-being is concerned. So when Rapunzel was facing a future of slavery to Gothel's vanity, his life was the last thing on his mind and her survival was all that mattered]].
*** 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 the chance to fight her, and anyway, he wasn't exactly in a condition to think that straight at the time.)]]
** I just figured he was thinking logically. [[spoiler: Rapunzel had promised that after she had healed Eugene, she would go with Mother Gothel with no resistance. Rapunzel was very clear that she never beaks her promises (which is the only reason Gothel agreed to allow the healing). This means that as soon as Eugene was healed, Rapunzel was to be taken away somewhere "no one would find her ever again". As Eugene was chained up, he probably knew that he may not have been able to reach her hair as soon as he was healed, and that this was his best (and most likely only) chance to cut her hair. True that he did not know how this would affect Gothel, but he did know that her hair was the reason Gothel kept her captive, and thus would lose interest in keeping Rapunzel locked away should her hair be removed. Either way, he knew this was probably his last chance to gain Rapunzel her freedom, by Gothel's choice or by her death.]]
* Rapunzel [[spoiler:losing her magic is nicely foreshadowed, and not just by the cut lock either]]. Mother Gothel tells Rapunzel how the world is dark, selfish, and cruel, and "if it finds even the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys it." She's talking about Rapunzel's [[spoiler:disappointment in Flynn and the loss of her sunny demeanor]], but think about it: while Rapunzel is metaphorically referred to as "flower," she's also metaphorically "the sun," [[spoiler:or more specifically, her powers are, since that's where they came from. The outside world really does find a piece of the sun, and destroys it... part of it anyway.]] [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy But not because it's dark, selfish, and cruel]].
** I realized 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).

* There are some people who complain that, in reality, the King and Queen are ''selfish'' for destroying the flower whereas [=MG=] is so much better because she just has to sing to it, but, what if that was ''why'' Rapunzel was born with the golden hair in the first place. Not literally, because literally this is the truth, but in a sense, the movie is all about second chances. [=MG=] is selfish and hides the flower away, so she loses her chance to have the flower. The Queen destroyed the flower out of ignorance rather than malice, so she and the king were given a second chance with raising it, and using it for good by way of Rapunzel. [=MG=] took the child as a second chance for keeping the flower, and she abused her second chance too. In the end, [[spoiler: Flynn/Eugene]] is given a second chance at life, [[spoiler: the King and Queen are given a second chance at raising a daughter]], the thugs are given a second chance with their lives... It's all about the second chance, and not wasting it!

* Came across a comment about fairy tales on the {{Fridge/Literature}} page: the reason most fairy tales have pain or near-death is because love is about facing your biggest fears. [[spoiler: Eugene takes on the persona of Flynn Rider to escape his past and to actually ''live'' a life more exciting than being nothing. He's not afraid to stand out, in fact he wants people to notice him; the only reason he's upset by the Wanted posters is because they keep getting his nose wrong. As he spends more time with Rapunzel, though, he's okay with melting into the background and allowing her to shine.[[note]] Although this might also be because of her actually containing the sun.[[/note]] Cutting off Rapunzel's hair and allowing himself to die - in fact becoming nothing - is how he faces this fear, giving himself over to love.]]

So the movie can be read like this: Naive, sheltered adult child of a domineering parent steps out of her carefully constructed and constricted world and sees the real world. The parent [[spoiler: sees her happiness and becomes enraged because the parent's self-worth depends on having an obedient, pliant child. The parent tricks the child into cutting the connections she is forming with the outside world and gets her to return home, but the child cannot unsee what has been seen. Now the power games are no longer even thinly concealed. The adult child asserts her adulthood--note how tall and fierce Rapunzel looks as she turns to walk out of the tower--and the parent pounces. However, the friends the adult child has made outside aren't fooled by the parent's lies and refuse to give up on her. The parent summons up all of the mental conditioning that has been imposed on the child. The friends from outside will be destroyed utterly if the child does not give in! However, the threats the parent utters only make sense to people who have been raised in that system of belief and the friend from outside who comes to the house denies the system utterly. The child then discovers that the power that she thought came from the system she is tangled up in really comes from inside her. The parent loses all power over the child and also loses whatever he/she was getting out of dominating the child. When we next see the adult child, she is really adult, confident, wise, and capable, and surrounded by people who really love her.]]

* Freeze frame just when Eugene [[spoiler: cuts Rapunzel's hair]]. Directly above and behind his head is a heart--and Rapunzel probably painted it.

* When [[spoiler: Rapunzel's hair is cut]], the Queen doesn't 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 Rapunzel's hair is still wet. [[spoiler: And when he is healed at the end, its from her ''tears'']]

* The healing power of the flower, and then Rapunzel's hair, comes from a ''single drop'' of the Sun that fell to Earth. [[spoiler:Once Rapunzel's hair is destroyed, a ''single drop'' falls from her eye onto Flynn's face. That's not a tear, that's the original drop, performing one last act of healing!]]

*** The whole [[spoiler: bringing dying lover back from from fatal stab wound with a single tear and ThePowerOfLove, complete with dramatic music and swirls of light effects]].

** However, note that when she's talking to Flynn about[[spoiler: how her hair doesn't regrow when it's cut]], she shows him [[spoiler: the lock of her hair that was cut when she was baby, when Mother Gothel thought she could just cut the hair and take it with her.]] She's showing him this when she's 17, meaning that hair didn't grow a single inch during 17 years of her life. It's not a matter of her wanting to keep it short or not, she has no choice. When she cuts her hair, it just does NOT grow back.

* At first, Rapunzel and Flynn use their FryingPanOfDoom while those who oppose them, including the palace guards, use bladed weapons. [[spoiler:In the end, the palace guards switch to frying pans.]]

* It constantly bugged on how Mother Gothel was able [[spoiler: knock out the much bigger Stabbington Brothers and overpower Rapunzel, who has shown incredible strength. Then, I remember something: Gothel would always climb the tower when she returned home and was regularly de-aged with Rapunzel's powers. Combine the climbing she did and getting healed everyday gets an added strength boost.]]
** That still doesn't explain how she [[spoiler:overpowered Rapunzel, who hauled a middle-aged woman up and down the tower frequently, got exercise from the housework she did, has the healing power within her, and is in contact with her hair when she uses it and is presumably healed then.]]
*** Presumably by surprise. We never see how she [[spoiler:overpowers Rapunzel; for all we know Gothel struck her in the back of the head and tied her up while she was down.]]

* During the "Mother Knows Best" number, Gothel puts on an elaborate show to demonstrate the horrors of the outside world, and is clearly bullying Rapunzel around the room to undermine her confidence from just inside the cover of darkness. But check out Gothel when she's actually visible: she's always doing or holding something that ''shows'' she's the one doing the creepy things, but Rapunzel is never in place to see her do it, or is too distracted. Gothel has been manufacturing all the things worth fearing in Rapunzel's world from the beginning [[spoiler: even the Stabbington Brothers]] in order to ''keep'' her afraid.
* And speaking of "Mother Knows Best": Gothel starts the song by shutting out all the light from the tower, and constantly snuffs out the candles Rapunzel lights for herself in the complete darkness, only to end up in a staircase of candles and the only circle of light in the room. She's literally stealing Rapunzel's spotlight for herself. [[spoiler: And of course we know why she wants to keep the Princess of the Sun Kingdom in the dark.]]

* In a FreezeFrameBonus shot, one of the thugs is shown to have a tattoo of a cupcake (and two swords) on his arm. [[spoiler:Later we find out he dreams to become a baker, and especially his cupcakes are "divine"]].

* Most people born with blonde hair end up as brunettes in adulthood as the blonde hair grows out. [[spoiler:Rapunzel's hair turns brown when it is cut. She's finally, properly reached adulthood.]]

* Eugene telling Rapunzel he has a thing for brunettes is the culmination of his opposition to Gothel. For Rapunzel's whole life, Gothel deliberately put her down and only cared for her because it was tangential to her blonde MagicHair. Then comes Eugene, who openly freaks out in front of magic and likes brunettes -- firmly establishing he couldn't care ''less'' about ThePowerOfTheSun, actually falling in love with the magic's bearer ''in spite of it''. From the beginning, he was interested in Rapunzel for ''herself'', this quirky, enthusiastic, lovely young woman, and as such, [[spoiler:her losing the thing that made her so valued by Gothel]] has no impact on his feelings for her.

* It's a good thing Rapunzel was desperate enough to try and sing the song even after [[spoiler: Eugene cut her hair. She had no idea her tears contained the same healing power, and if she hadn't used the song to express something that had finally been hers to lose, Eugene would have stayed dead]]. It was nothing more than an accident, really. That would have put quite a damper on her [[spoiler: family reunion]], not to mention the rest of her life, because she would have felt responsible.

** Also, maybe she believed that Gothel lied about the hair losing its magic when it turns brown. Considering that she [[spoiler:knew how much Gothel had lied to her, why should that information be true?]]

** Adding onto that, Gothel is always the one to initiate physical contact between her and Rapunzel. Even when Rapunzel has just been [[spoiler:"abandoned" by Flynn and chased by two strange men,]] she waits for Gothel to open her arms before running to hug her. In the beginning, after Rapunzel does the singing ritual, she invades Gothel's space by leaning on her chair, you can see Gothel push her away. This is a very subtle sign that Gothel is always the one calling the shots.

*** But, wait. If Pascal was receiving the same age-treatment as Mother Gothel, and [[spoiler: Mother Gothel turned to dust when Rapunzel's hair was cut--]]... Oh god, Pascal! Luckily that didn't happen to him, but that also josses the above theory.

* Combining two things here: Rapunzel's hair symbolizing her virginity and complaints I've seen that [[spoiler: Flynn's cutting of her hair at the end robs her of agency]]. Putting the two together... does that mean the ending could be read as [[spoiler: a rape scene]]?

*** [[spoiler: Well the new medical term for the woman's hymen is "corona" which literally translates as "crown"]].

** Hmmm... Are you guys saying that keeping your pretty, magical, "virginal" hair but [[spoiler: watching the guy who sacrificed his life for you die and then being imprisoned for the rest of your life by your abusive mother]]... is somehow '''''better''''' than losing your pretty, magical, "virginal" hair [[spoiler: by the hand of someone who loves you enough to die for you]], but being ultimately free to pursue your own destiny and get away from the person who mentally abused you for years? Reducing one of the most poignant [[spoiler: {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s]] in the last years of Animated Films to rape and "loss of agency" (read: "WhatMeasureIsANonBadass") is not just out of place, but '''[[UnfortunateImplications offensive]]'''.
*** Rapunzel was free anyway, she proves that throughout the whole movie, and choosing [[spoiler: to resign herself to her old life in exchange for healing him]] was still ''her'' decision, made willingly and in full knowledge of what she'd be giving up to do it, and then [[spoiler: taking away all at once the person she was trying to save, the means by which she meant to save him, ''and'' the fate she chose in exchange]]. Reducing the concept of agency to being badass is equally offensive, I think, if not more so: agency is about having a hand in determining one's own fate, something that many female characters are deprived of in order to facilitate the progress of a male-centered story or character arc. And yes, actually, it does happen here; that scene is the culmination of ''Eugene's'' development, not Rapunzel's, and it does so at the cost of a decision she willingly and knowingly made. It may have been wrong-headed, but that's part of what agency means: being both able to act, and in a position to take responsibility for those actions.

** 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.]] [[spoiler: In ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'', he is revealed to be the long-lost Prince of the Dark Kingdom.]]

* The original story had the evil witch take the baby after her father took the witch's plants. [[spoiler: This happened in the movie, too. When Mother Gothel had her flower taken from her by the Kingdom, she stole Rapunzel as revenge.]]

* "[[spoiler: This is the story of how I died]]." [[Series/DoctorWho How many]] [[Literature/{{Twilight}} viewers]] do you think took that seriously?

** Flynn was wanted dead or alive and he seemed to be infamous, so it's not too unlikely that the King at least wouldn't mind his execution. The fact that Flynn [[spoiler:was the reason they got to see their daughter again]] probably played a major role in why Rapunzel's parents accepted him so quickly.

** [[spoiler: [[IGaveMyWord Rapunzel's promise to Mother Gothel]] that she would never run away]] becomes a lot creepier when you realize that even if Flynn managed to find her again or if Gothel did let her guard down, ''she would make no effort to leave.'' Despite knowing how wonderful the outside world is and the man she loves is somewhere in the world, she would remain locked up for the rest of her life, never attempting to leave again. And considering how Rapunzel would live for a considerably long time and Gothel would essentially become immortal, Rapunzel would never be free from her promise.

* Evil or not, Gothel was still Rapunzel's mother figure. Rapunzel [[spoiler: sees the only mother she has ever known fall out a window and disintegrate into dust.]] That's going to come back and haunt her.

* In the end, [[spoiler: Eugene cuts Rapunzel's hair. If NoImmortalInertia weren't in effect (or were just a little bit slower), Gothel wouldn't have died pretty much instantly. Now remember that her hair was only reason Gothel cared about Rapunzel at all. With the hair gone, Gothel would probably have killed Rapunzel as revenge for escaping the tower.]]

*** (This item is HilariousInHindsight in 2020-2022, especially with the kingdom being named ''Corona''!)

** Though it is unlikely tha Gothel wouldn't allow her a pet. Unless it's a parrot that could fly to civilization and say "Awwwkk stay in the tower, do as I say!" there really is no threat to her at all. Especially the fact that Gothel encourages Rapunzel to stay happy, she wouldn't want her to be bored (Or else she'd be too depressed to sing, which is why she constantly brings her stuff to do) so if anything she probably would encourage a pet.

*** It could also be either symbolic of Gothel's selfishness: she doesn't want to risk sharing Rapunzel's affection with anyone else, not even a pet, in order to keep Rapunzel ''completely'' dependent on her for everything (thus making it easier to manipulate her by threatening to withhold love)

** Though this troper doesn't see why Gothel wouldn't allow her a pet. Unless it's a parrot that could fly to civilization and say "Awwwkk stay in the tower, do as I say!" there really is no threat to her at all. Especially the fact that Gothel encourages Rapunzel to stay happy, she wouldn't want her to be bored (Or else she'd be too depressed to sing, which is why she constantly brings her stuff to do) so if anything she probably would encourage a pet.

*** This troper assumed that either a) it's symbolic of Gothel's selfishness: she doesn't want to risk sharing Rapunzel's affection with anyone else, not even a pet, in order to keep Rapunzel ''completely'' dependent on her for everything (thus making it easier to manipulate her by threatening to withhold love), or b) Gothel's stressed their need to keep hidden and secret to the point that even an animal from the outside breaks the rules.
*** It seems unlikely that Gothel wouldn't notice the pet; it's not uncommon for abusers to allow their victim to think they're in control when they really aren't, if it enables the victim to continue giving them what they want or if it allows them to more easily control the victim. It's possible Gothel knew about the pet but didn't say anything because it was of no concern to her, it kept Rapunzel happy and singing, and she didn't have a reason at that time to punish her.

*** [[BaldOfAwesome Don't make sweeping generalizations about your own gender either.]]

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