Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*** In the original fairy tale, Rapunzel lives in the Witch's house until she turns twelve years old, at which point the Witch locks her in the tower. If this was the case in the musical too, then Rapunzel could be twenty-six and the Baker could be between twenty-seven and thirty.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 40 (click to see context) from:
*** He can capture is OWN damsel, thank you!
to:
*** He can capture is his OWN damsel, thank you!
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** Maybe this is referencing the stage production, but in the film, it's said that Jack is sent to the next village "because everyone in ''this'' village knows the cow hasn't given a drop of milk in weeks." It's never said ''how'' the villagers knew this, but it's more likely to be from gossip or something than there being anything visibly wrong with the cow, since if there were issues obvious enough for the entire town to know about them somehow, going to the next village would seem extremely pointless and futile.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*** He can capture is OWN damsel, thank you!
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 48 (click to see context) from:
** And let's be real - the Baker's wife is not a saint. She's a flawed human being who sympathetically wants a child, but does a few mean-spirited things to get her wish. She rips a chunk of Rapunzel's hair, causing her a lot of pain in the process. She tries to outright steal Cinderella's shoes first as well, only using a more diplomatic option when ''that'' doesn't work. So tricking a little boy into trading his cow for beans just goes along with that. Her motivation is she wants a baby, fulfilling the Witch's spell will get her one and anything she does in the service of that can't be bad because it's the only way she'll have a child.
to:
** And let's be real - the Baker's wife is not a saint. She's a flawed human being who sympathetically wants a child, but does a few mean-spirited things to get her wish. She rips a chunk of Rapunzel's hair, causing her a lot of pain in the process. She tries to outright steal Cinderella's shoes first as well, only using a more diplomatic option when ''that'' doesn't work. So tricking a little boy into trading his cow for beans just goes along with that. Her motivation is she wants a baby, fulfilling the Witch's spell will get her one and anything she does in the service of that can't be bad because it's the only way she'll have a child. Adding to this, her KarmicDeath happens later when the giantess --who she unwittingly brought to the land by using beans as bargaining currency -- crushes her by accident but has no remorse, the way the wife had no remorse about scamming a kid.
** DidntThinkThisThrough: the Baker didn't take any coin with him into the woods, only his wraps and he even forgot his scarf. If he had, then he could have paid Jack what Red paid him for the bread; the 2002 Broadway revival has Red paying several coins to them. Before he could barter with Jack or show him the way into the market to be disappointed and counter bargain him --perhaps offering him and his mother free bread every day for the rest of their lives-- his wife jumped the gun and offered magic beans as a price. In fact, in Act Two during the BlameGame this is pointed out that his wife ''chose'' to take the beans.
** DidntThinkThisThrough: the Baker didn't take any coin with him into the woods, only his wraps and he even forgot his scarf. If he had, then he could have paid Jack what Red paid him for the bread; the 2002 Broadway revival has Red paying several coins to them. Before he could barter with Jack or show him the way into the market to be disappointed and counter bargain him --perhaps offering him and his mother free bread every day for the rest of their lives-- his wife jumped the gun and offered magic beans as a price. In fact, in Act Two during the BlameGame this is pointed out that his wife ''chose'' to take the beans.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
** Holdover from the original fairy tale. Call it ThePowerOfLove. Her having magic that comes from the witch's garden would fit in with ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', but of course, the play predates the Disney film and went with the fairy tale's resolution.
to:
** Holdover from the original fairy tale. Call it ThePowerOfLove. Her having magic that comes from the witch's garden would fit in with ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', but of course, the play predates the Disney film and went with the fairy tale's resolution.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** And let's be real - the Baker's wife is not a saint. She's a flawed human being who sympathetically wants a child, but does a few mean-spirited things to get her wish. She rips a chunk of Rapunzel's hair, causing her a lot of pain in the process. She tries to outright steal Cinderella's shoes first as well, only using a more diplomatic option when ''that'' doesn't work. So tricking a little boy into trading his cow for beans just goes along with that. Her motivation is she wants a baby, fulfilling the Witch's spell will get her one and anything she does in the service of that can't be bad because it's the only way she'll have a child.
Added DiffLines:
** And re: the pregnancy possibly happening after the curse...that is actually plausible enough. The curse is lifted the day after Rapunzel is banished, and it generally takes as long as six days for the sperm and egg to do their thing.
Added DiffLines:
** She was desperate and had maybe talked herself into believing that Jack might meet some idiot who couldn't tell the difference. Since the Baker's Wife knew instantly that the cow was worthless otherwise, it seems the narrative doesn't favor Jack's mother.
Added DiffLines:
** Maybe Rapunzel spent the first few years of her life somewhere else, and was later locked in the tower when the Witch became overprotective. Let's say for the sake of argument that she was first locked in the tower when she was five. Add fourteen to that and that makes her nineteen or twenty, so the Baker could be twenty-four or twenty-five. He could be YoungerThanTheyLook due to his poor upbringing or genes. I know a seventeen-year-old who looks like he's thirty.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[folder:How old is the Baker?]]
* The Baker clearly has no memory of Rapunzel, or his mother's second pregnancy, or anything of his parents at all, implying that the backstory went down when he was four years old, likely even younger. (You forget a lot from that age, but probably not the presence of a baby sister.) Later, Rapunzel says she was locked in a tower for fourteen years, and it's very clear that the tower is the only home she's ever known. So this would make the Baker... eighteen or nineteen, at the outside? Ah, WritersCannotDoMath, you strike again...
[[/folder]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[folder: Jack's mother pulling off the scam for a cow]]
* If Jack's mother knew that their cow Milky would be rejected by anyone in their village because they knew Milky was infested with parasites and has visibly huge sore wounds, what made her so sure someone else simply outside the village would take Milky for 5 pounds?
[[/folder]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*** Little Red ''doesn't'' buy the food. In the show, there's nothing to say she hands over any money (and most productions even have the scene PlayedForLaughs with her taking as many things as she can carry and running out at the end without paying), and in the film the Baker explicitly calls her a thief. They're a bakery in a small village - their shop and living space is in the exact same (fairly small) building; it's highly doubtful they're a hugely profitable business so they wouldn't necessarily have had an awful lot of spare money themselves (remember, they were doing all this to have a baby; that means they're definitely going to need money once the quest is complete). And then there's the fact that they've got a ''very'' strict time-limit and the Witch orders them to "go to the wood" once she's disclosed the items - hence, all four items are somewhere in the woods and the likelihood of them having to ''buy'' the items as opposed to just finding them would probably seem fairly slim given that information.
Added DiffLines:
*** Maybe that's exactly why the Witch would lift the curse on her. Rapunzel clearly wasn't going anywhere and the Witch figured that no one knew where she was so there wasn't a danger of her getting pregnant...so why bother to keep her cursed to prevent something that (as far as the Witch was concerned) would never happen anyway? The other thing to consider is that the Witch tells the Baker that the nature of the curse was that "[his] family tree would always be a barren one". It's entirely possible the curse only ever applied to the male members of the family (the Baker and his father) since technically ''they're'' the only ones who could carry on the family tree (i.e. the family name).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** They do, however, have money. The very first scene shows Little Red Riding Hood buying not only their last loaf of bread, but also a whole basketful of sweets. And surely other people must have been buying from them throughout the day for Red to have bought the "last" loaf. When the Witch told them they would need to get a cow, a cloak, a slipper, and some hair, why didn't they gather up every coin they had in case they needed to purchase the items?
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
edit a mistake
Changed line(s) 53 (click to see context) from:
*** Bythat same logic, lets not forget that if Rapunzel has chidren they wouldn't be part of the Baker family, the would be part of the Royal family
to:
*** Bythat By that same logic, lets not forget that if Rapunzel has chidren they wouldn't be part of the Baker family, the would be part of the Royal family
