#basically saying their relationship is what GOTHEL and rapunzel’s relationship was? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

slashingdisneypasta · 1 year ago

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Hm... You know, you often compare yandere Wheezy to Mother Gothel. What if the situation between him and Y/N was something similarly to Mother Gothel and Rapunzel too?

Like maybe you two have known each other your whole lives. Or at least it feels like it (depending on when you guys met. Like high school or childhood or something). So it just felt natural to you when eventually you guys moved in together. It felt like a normal relationship had blossomed between you two. Granted, it was pretty lonely since everyone you get to know seems to leave one way or another... But you got your Wheezy. And he's got you. People say that as long as you have each other, it should be enough.

(And perhaps your Flynn Rider- perhaps a certain green weasel 👀- comes along when Wheezy isn't around for some reason. You get to hang out with somebody that isn't your boyfriend. And you realize how much of this you missed... And a lot more about your relationship.)

!! I cant believe this has taken me so long to respond to 😅😅 Especially since I am minorly obsessed with Gothel-YanWheezy semblance! XD I think I probably saw it during Placement but cuz of everything that was going on I just kindof... flew over it. I'm sorry, here have waffle 🧇

I- love- this! Wheezy keeping you for himself?? Wheezy manipulating his childhood friend into being his girlfriend- live-in fiancé- then wife?!! And Greasy being Y/N's secret flirty friend!???? So terrible and wholesome !

I know this isn't what you were talking about, but I couldn't help myself. Here's basically that scene at the end of Tangled when Rapunzel/Y/N tells Gothel/Wheezy that she'll stay, and be good, and never ever try to escape... so long as she's allowed to save Flynn/Greasy.

Yandere!Wheezy Weasel x Reader x Greasy Weasel || Drabble

*this Wheezy kinda gives off the same vibes as Otis in this specific gif, so... 😅

Plot: ->

"No! I wont stop. For every minute of the rest of my life, I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you! ... But if you let me save him,.. I will go with you. I'll never run, I'll never try to escape. Just let me heal him, and you and I will be together. Forever, just like you want."

Warnings: Greasy has gunshot wounds in his abdomen, gets his fingers crushed, and gets ash in his eyes. Wheezy puts you down and is, yaknow, a monster- Also it's unedited right now.

"Y/N, c'mon." The tone in Wheezy's voice is calm as ever, relaxed, even bored; But the way his teeth are grit despite not having a smoke in his mouth right now and how his knuckles are white gripping the rope wrapped tightly around his strong fist gives him clean away. His eyes flash behind a wall of smoke, down at you- and Greasy. On the ground. "Time to finish up, here. Timeta go. He's not goin' anywhere."

Tears are overflowing in your eyes, on the ground by Greasy- He's still sitting up but he's bleeding out fast, the bullet holes in his stomach turning his green suit a deep red. Almost black. He clutches the wound and glares up at Wheezy, but his eyes soften when they turn down to you again; Noticing you crying over him. "Mi amore... wipe yo- " As soon as Greasy attempts to reach over and comfort you, Wheezy steps lazily on his hand creeping along the ground. Not only does he step down but he slowly crushes the bones before your wide, horrified eyes. Its a small sign of uncharacteristic spitefulness, viciousness that is so unlike him, a side of him you swear you swear you swear you didn't know about. You swear. You want Greasy to know that! You desperately try to tell him that, with your eyes, because Wheezy would surely hurt him worse if you said them outload. "... its okay." He continues, voice cracking through the unimaginable pain. He's somehow still as off-puttingly charming as ever and it makes you wish you weren't so hopelessly blind about Wheezy even harder. God!-

If you had been aware, caught the red flags, noticed everything that Wheezy must have been doing all this time- even just one thing- then you never would have brought Greasy into this, never would have befriended him, never would've ever responded to his dumb cheap flattery. You would have pushed right by him that day you met and he would've felt the sting of rejection but that would have been it. Neither of you would have fallen in as ill-fated love as you have, he wouldn't be bleeding now, he wouldn't die- "Y/N, get up."

... Sniffling, you shake your head. "No, I- Ah!" As soon as you shook your head, Wheezy had rolled his eyes up and yanked at the rope- which is tied to your wrists behind your back.

"Gettin' on my nerves, doll... move your ass."

"No, Wheezy, he'll- " Finally turning and looking at your- at Wheezy, you flash a defiant glare. Theirs a desperate tone in your voice and you wonder why you still think he'll listen. He's not your Wheezy anymore. He's someone else entirely. Why are you still begging him?? "He'll die!" Because you dont have a choice. Greasy will die here.

"Yeah... kinda the point." After heaving a smoky sigh, and not even seeming to notice Greasy's glower up at him (Or not caring), Wheezy flicks the flat of his cap up his forehead and picks a loose smoke out from behind his ear; sticking it between his teeth and searching for his lighter in his pockets. "Sweetheart I think maybe you're not gettin' this." Finding the lighter, Wheezy carefully lights his cigarette; the end glowing, now. "That's alright, I guess," He thinks outloud, giving a tiny and half asses shrug as he folds the smoke and his hand back into his pant pocket. "'ts better if yer dumb."

"I- I'm no- "

"Yeah, y'kinda are." He huffs out a sigh, and dirty, stinky smoke flies out the corners of his mouth. You know he's referring to all those years he played you, and it shuts you up. Maye he's right...

God-

"No. No no no, Y/N, you are no- you are not dumb. Listen to me- ah," Struggling and grimacing, Greasy drags himself with his good hand a few inches closer to you. Then he uses that hand to squeeze his bullet wounds - which, now that you're looking at him again through the tears, have really done a number on him. The bags under his eyes are disgustingly deep... its makes your guts ache. He's going to die here and its all your fault, - and his useless, broken hand to reach for you once again. He never learns!- "You're very intelligent. Don't listen to him, listen to me. Its going to be o- " You're just wondering, wide eyed, how he can still be comforting you right now when Wheezy kicks his hand away, causing Greasy to growl and squeeze his eyes shut, forcing the pain away.

"... Damn. Grease, you really are fucken something. How many times have I toldya over the years just ta keep your hands ta yerself?? If you'd listened to me, we wouldn't be here."

Breathing through the pain, making his voice steady somehow, Greasy cracks his eyes open; Glancing upwards to Wheezy with a disgusting feral look in his eyes. "Mark my words, fumador... I am going to ruin you, for this."

Looking immeasurably bored, shoulders dropped and eyes half-hooded as he takes his smoke out between two of his fingers and blows out a cloud of grey, Wheezy shakes his head. "Ehhh, somehow I doubt it... "

Wheezy looks thoughtful for a moment at his cig, before shrugging like why not? and - without looking at either of you, - taps some hot, dusty ash directly into Greasy's eyes off the end before flicking the rest away to the ground. Greasy hisses and lets go of his abdomen in order to wipe the bloody heels of his hands into eyes to get the burning hot ash out of his eyes as hurriedly get a tissue from your pocket and go to help him, but-

"Uh uh uh," Wheezy wraps the rope a few more times around his hand and his wrist and forces you up onto your feet, digging his fingers into the back of waist band and holding you still. "Come on, lets go."

"No!" The rope around your waist digs through your shirt into your skin and the rope winding up your forearms rub but you fight- try not to move- not to leave- but now that you're on your legs its harder to stay still. Wheezy's tall, and his limbs are long and sinewy and like rock, and so far he hasn't even tried to use that against you.

"Fightin' it's just gonna make it worse, (Nickname). And whether ya believe it or not, I do not get my kicks outta this." Just behind you, you feel him shrug again; against your back. "Jus' not my idea of a Saturday night, I guess. I will hurt ya if y'make me, though."

"Let me- "

"Are you gonna ask me to let ya go??" He sounds genuinely disappointed, groaning, like he's watching a soap and his favourite character did something ill-advised that he disapproves of. He's acting like he's on a job Smartass forced him into! Like he's only half here- have on the back porch smoking a couple packs. Like ruining your life and killing his best friend is just shit that he's 'gotta do'. "C'mon, doll, you're better then tha- "

"Let me save him."

This gives Wheezy pause. You're not facing him so you turn, wanting to see how he's taking that and why he's so silent, catching him looking cold and vicious again. Those blue eyes have never looked icier, and his jaw is set tight, and he has never seemed taller. Right now he's like 30 story skyscraper. You feel so small... until- "Nope."

He tries again to walk off with you but you glance at Greasy, head bowed against the ground and the puddle of his own blood around him, just trying to focus on breathing slowly, and your heart sinks. You know you can't leave him like that. You absolutely can't. You love hi-

Mm. Setting a determined look on your face, you grab Wheezy- yanking back to you by his vest and holding on tight. You need him to look at you, you need him to pay attention. You need him to listen to you.

Once last time. One last time, Wheezy... please, please...

Once, at some point, he must have really loved you in that soft way that you're supposed to love people- where you want them to be happy and want you back- and he has to have a little bit of that left. You have to believe that he does, at least. Because that is the part you need to hear you, right now.

"If you don't let me save him I will be trying to get away from you for the rest of our lives. You will never catch a break. You will never rest. Because the moment you do, I will be out the window trying to get back... to him... " Tightening your grip even more on his vest as Wheezy looks unimpressed, you go on; vanquished and gone of all your fight, all but a little bit. Enough to save Greasy. "... But if you do let me... "

"Nn... Y/N, no- "

When you don't go on, scared of what you're about to say and horrified at Greasy's state, Wheezy narrows his eyes at you to spur you to go on again. Taking a deep breath, you look away from Greasy and give Wheezy a quiet, sincere nod; brushing your foreheads together you're so close. "-If you let me heal him, then we can go together, and I will not try to escape. I will never, ever, leave you... We can fall in love again. I can do that! I will do it." You nod again, assuring you and him. Tears gather in your eyes but they just prove you're telling the truth, so you let them go. "You can have everything you want, we can go wherever you want, I'll be whoever you me to be...

Just let me heal him."

You search his eyes for a full minute, waiting for him to respond. Your tears fall down your cheeks and he watches them go and drip down off your chin onto the collar of your shirt, thinking... until his gaze nudges upwards to your eyes again; chewing something in the back of his mouth. "Fall back in love with me, huh? Y'can do that?"

Sniffling, you carefully nod. "Yes." Or something like love. Something disgusting, but similar. He wont be able to tell the difference.

Wheezy's icy, slate-grey eyes scrutinise you up so close, and you hold your breath- and you hold him, because he's holding all the cards and that's all you can do.

#you'll notice that wheezy chucks out a cigerette he only just started in this 😂😂#there is your true sign that he is 'different' here XD #Wheezy Weasel #Wheezy Weasel x Reader #Greasy Weasel #Greasy Weasel x Reader #Disney Villains #Drabble #Disney Villains x Reader #Yandere

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my-blind-album · 2 years ago

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Mamma Mia! - Sophie Sheridan x Fem!Reader

Fem x Fem Materlist (in the process of creation)

Pairing; Sophie x BestFriend!Fem!Reader

Warning(s); none

Summary; It's girls' night. Sophie and her best friends are going out to celebrate her engagement to her boyfriend, Sky Rymand, but during the whole night Sophie's thoughts are occupied by something else...

Lovers or Twin Flames?

Everyone knows about the terms lovers and twin flames.

A lover is basically someone who you're in a romantic relationship with and who loves and cares deeply for you. Now you see twin flames are just like that, someone who's connected to you in a way that they are like your literal twin or the other half of you.

We all have lovers and twin flames but the problem is simply trying to identify who's who.

In most cases we misinterpret our twin flames as our lovers and vice versa.

For example, my neighbour, Sarah, has a husband who's her lover. His name is Jeffery and her best friend is Bridgette who is her twin flame. But what Sarah doesn't know is that Bridgette is actually meant to be her lover and Jeffery is more of her twin flame. Not trying to say that I'm a love expect, cause I'm not, but if you pay close attention to Sarah's interactions between Bridgette and Jeffery you'd clearly see that Bridgette is the one for her.

To give a better example without sounding like a nosy neighbour- my boyfriend and I. My boyfriend who is now my fiancé, Sky, is the perfect guy for me.

He loves to explore the town with me, he'd give me advice whenever I'm going through a tough time, he supports me no matter what and not to mention that our chemistry is unbreakable and certainly undeniable.

He's my Eugene Fitzherbert and his Rapunzel, it's the perfect match. Don't get me wrong, my mother is definitely not Mother Gothel, no! She's more of Rapunzel's biological mother- kind, loving, supporting and always willing to listen to her daughter's needs and wants. Although she might be the best mother a daughter could ask for, she's also a bit tough whenever I'd want to know something about my father, the man I never got to meet ever since I was born.

But enough about that, let's talk about my twin flame- Y/n Hallow. My best friend of many years, she's always been by my side whenever things weren't right and when they weren't horribly wrong, like that one time I asked my mother if my biological father could walk me down the aisle on my wedding day but instead us settling it like two adults we broke into a huge argument, yet Y/n was there to defend me, hold me in my room as the tears cast down my face. She sang to me a sweet melody to calm me down and even cuddled me that night while brushing on hair whispering to me sweet words that I will never forget.

"I'm here for you,"

"Don't worry, everything will be alright,"

"And if they're not then it's okay, life has it's ups and downs, and it's okay to be upset if things don't go according to plan,"

"But don't make it a habit to let one bad thing make you upset for the rest of your living days,"

"Life has other amazing opportunities for you,"

"And remember what I told you in the fifth grade when that kid, Marcus, bullied you? I told you that 'I will always be there to kick ass when things go wrong, cause I love you and I always will,".

I have to admit, Y/n has always been the one to make me happy when not happy. She'd never judge me too- which is why I'd always go to her first before anyone else. Sometimes I'd have imageries in my head of her being my lover instead of my twin flame and the more I think about it- the more I doubt Sky and I's relationship.

"Do you think this dress makes me look fat?". Ali says to me as she rotates in her tight, short and sparkly dress. "Yes and maybe." A gasp brings me out of my thoughts and I turn my head to see Ali looking at me with a flabbergasted expression. "Really?! Should I look for something else? But the stores already closed by now! Do you think I'll be able to lose weight in less than 30 minutes?!" "What?" "SOPHIE!" "What? What did I do?" Ali drops onto my bed, whining. A confused Lisa walks into the room looking between Ali and I and I just shrug my shoulders not understanding what happened. Lisa rolls her eyes before walking up to Ali and telling her that they're about to leave and she has to get ready. After a few sniffles, Ali gets up and leaves to go to the bathroom not before she gave a dirty look and I just shrug my face still being lost.

"Why haven't you gotten dressed yet?" Lisa says to me and I look down to see that I'm still dressed in my pyjamas. "Whoops, my bad, I didn't realise." "Well hurry up the party starts in less than 25 minutes." "Cool, oh is Y/n here yet?" "No, why? Do you need something from her? I can see if I can get it for you if you'd like." "No! no- I mean no thanks it's fine, just wanted to know whether or not she has arrived yet." "Alright then, see at the party," Lisa waves to me before leaving and I wave back with a false smile and once the door closes my 'smile' drops.

It's been ten minutes and now there's only fifteen minutes left till the party starts. Brushing my teeth, I wash my face afterwards and dry it with my face cloth. The sound of my bedroom door opening catches my attention. "Hey Sop, just wanted to se if you were done showering and I got your dress for you!". "Thanks mom, your a life saver! Could you help me put it on?" "Sure thing, sweetie, I'll be right back." "Alright mom!". Opening my bathroom door, I spot my dress onto of my bed. After applying some lotion and deodorant, I start doing my makeup till the sound of a knock on my door catches me off guard and a line appears on the side on my cheek. "Damnit, who is it?" I try rubbing off the red with my hand but it only gets worse. "Y/n! Could I come in, by any chance?".

Shit.

"Um, sure." The door opens behind me and closes afterwards. My eyes meet that of Y/n's and my eyes sooner begin to flatter on her body, she looked marvellous. Her hair was neatly done and so was her makeup, although her face looked as if she barely had anything on her face due to the natural look she'd done. She was wearing a beautiful blue pants suit with a matching blazer and from the looks of it- she wasn't wearing anything underneath the blazer.

My eyes go back to her eyes and her face expression gone blank. "Yeah, I know my cheeks all red, my hand jumped when you knocked and I messed up my makeup." "Huh?" "My cheek is red, isn't that why you're all frozen by my door." "That's not the reason but I'll try and help with your makeup fiasco." A my eyebrows quirk in confusion but I shrug off the feeling anyway as Y/n makes her way towards me, pulling up a chair next to me.

"My bad, I didn't mean to frighten you." She says, getting a wipe from her pocket and she gently places her fingers underneath my chin making me face her direction as she wipes the red from my cheek. "It's alright, why did you freeze while you stood by the door?" Her face turns red and I couldn't tell whether it was just her makeup or she was flustered. "Well, doesn't everybody freeze whenever they unexpected walk in on someone bathing or changing to be exact. "What do you mean?" Her eyes flatter onto my body and I follow her gaze to see that I was completely naked. Now it was my turn as well to be flustered as the warmth of cheeks catches Y/n's attention. "How much lipstick spread onto your cheeks, don't mind it, it's just blush."

My heart was throbbing in ways I couldn't explain, Y/n's close proximity to me and I fully unclothed body plus her bare chest which was barely even covering her breasts were driving insane. "Sophie, are you alright? Your body temperature feels like it's increasing." "What? Yeah I'm totally fine." "Are you sure? Don't forget that this is your party and you can cancel it if you'd like." The adrenaline in my veins were a clear sign that I'm not okay. I don't whether this feeling is pure lust or what but without a single thought about my next move, my lips move forward closing the gap between our lips and the feeling felt so natural once she reciprocated.

---

Authors Note

One of my closest friends introduced me Mamma Mia cause it was their favourite musical (followed by hamilton) and I don't know whether it's because I love Amanda Seyfried or what but I just felt some stuff for her character so the moment my hands got onto my laptop and my mind I was filled different ideas, there was no going back.

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fancylala4 · 1 year ago

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Why Rapunzel should have cut her own hair in Tangled

Though out the movie Tangled, Rapunzel has been shown to be out of control of her own life as Gothel has been in control of everything in rapunzel’s life. One of the many aspects of her life that were out of her control was her hair. As the movie tells us, Rapunzel needed to keep her hair long because of the magical power within the hair. Once the hair is cut, the power is gone forever. We also have been shown that rapunzel views this as a gift that should always be protected, and also a burden because everyone wants to abuse it (or so she has been told). It would have been great if the writers had her cut off her own hair because she found out the truth about gothel’s intentions and shown that rapunzel had broken free of her control. Even though she relied on her hair for many years to be able to do things, rapunzel realized that it was for her own good, and she would finally be free. Instead of this, we have Flynn making the decision for her!

Flynn cutting her hair WITHOUT her consent was counterproductive to her own story. “Gothel deciding what was best for her without her consent was wrong, but Flynn doing it was ok because he actually loved her!” Yeah, that’s bs. Even if that wasn’t the writer’s intention to make it seem like that, it does come off like that. Also, the fact that he basically tricked her, so he can cut her hair, was wrong and sends a bad message to kids. Plus Rapunzel relied on her hair for many things, and it was all taken away from her without her consent. This implication could have been avoided if Rapunzel had cut her own hair. It also would have been a better end to her own story as she finally had a say into something that defined her own life.

It ruined rapunzel’s character arc in favor of Flynn’s. Flynn cut her hair off without her consent because it shows he changed, and he’s willing to die for rapunzel because he fell in love her in 3 days. How many times have we seen in a movie where a girl character gets their own arc in the story ruined because the writers needed to focus on the boy’s character arc instead? This is supposed to be rapunzel movie, but the writers made Flynn the protagonist instead because of some sexist marketing reasons. Even the climax of the movie heavily focused on Flynn and gothel. It should have focused on rapunzel and gothel as this is what the movie is about, the abusive relationship. But they reduced rapunzel to a damsel just to prop up Flynn. Hell, the people that defend Flynn cutting her hair without the consent focuses on his story arc, not rapunzel! “HE thought Rapunzel shouldn’t be defined by her hair!”, “HE loved her for her and not the hair.”, and “HE needed to complete his story arc!” As you can see from these comments, they make her seem like a damsel that couldn’t save herself. It just proves my point about this whole issue. This is supposed to be rapunzel’s movie. It’s also supposed to be a feminist take on the fairy tale. However, the movie sacrifices rapunzel’s character and choices just so Flynn can be the hero. Maybe in the live action Disney can fix it. But I won’t hold my breath.

#mine #anti tangled #tangled criticism #tangled critical #long post #anti disney #disney criticism #disney critical

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winns-stuff · 2 years ago

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LO RANT:

Y’all this is reason number 7238 of why I do not understand why Demeter gets so much hate and why I will never take anyone who bashed her seriously. Let me tell you why before I get into anything cause this shit is absolutely ridiculous.

Before we do anything we need to discuss what criminalized Demeter in the first place which is the intervention thing. First off, she went down to the mortal realm in hopes of talking to her mother to try and come to an understanding with her and while this would’ve been an amazing time for them to talk about things and mend their bond, you know give the audience at least a speck of what the original myth was about, but instead Rachel took this as an opportunity to immediately demonize Demeter even though Hades had criminal acts against him with his parenting. He quite literally made Thanatos work and abused him verbally (possibly even physically since he’s so comfortable putting his hands on him and near him as well) but no one ever brings that up since they’ve had one conversation with each other where Hades blamed everything he inflicted on Thanatos for centuries probably on Thanatos himself since he can’t possibly be responsible.

Anyways, let me remind those who don’t know that this was a piss-poor attempt to absolutely ruin Demeter’s character since none of it made sense in the long run. Mainly because prior to this event Demeter went to go and take Persephone home after they “rebuilt” the Underworld and in this chapter apparently Persephone had balls because she stood up against her mother and put her foot down, which is pretty in character because before the intervention she literally had no problem with going off on her mom and even going as far as yelling at her. People try to equate their relationship to that of Mother Gothel and Rapunzel and it just doesn’t work with them at all, Gothel did not care about Rapunzel and only made sure she was even alive for her hair since it was the only thing keeping her alive. I suppose you could say that since Demeter’s source of happiness is Persephone that they have a similarity there but it’s kind of a weird statement since Demeter adores Persephone because that’s her daughter, if she hated her people would think she’s a bad mother and plus mothers are supposed to love their children unconditionally that’s literally the backbone of motherly instincts and such. Next one would be about Gothel and Demeter keeping both Persephone and Rapunzel inside of the tower away from others, this is also pretty weird since Demeter never isolated Persephone and she was always surrounded by the very nymphs that she claims to care for a lot, Demeter’s goal was never to hide her it was to protect her and obviously she would try and keep a close eye on her when an underaged Persephone gets tricked into kissing Ares on her land out of her sight, like Demeter didn’t just decide that it was time to randomly keep nymphs around her that very situation of her young daughter being preyed on by someone older made her do that. Unlike Gothel who literally made Rapunzel socially inadequate because she kept her away from EVERYONE she never even got the chance to touch grass let alone talk to someone that wasn’t her, they’re not the same in the slightest. Nothing about their comparison makes sense.

But away from that and back to the episode, once again Persephone stands up to her mother and basically speaks for Hades while he stands there in creepy protest of Persephone returning home which I don’t even know why she wouldn’t want that since she had to deal with traumatic things happening to her both in the Underworld and Olympus, the only time I feel like she’s had good memories (except the AOW of course) was in the mortal realm. Anyways, Hades was absolutely furious at even the word “home” coming from Demeter’s mouth which makes me feel like if anything he’d be the one having an intervention for Persephone to convince her to never leave let’s be real. Not only that but Demeter didn’t yell or force Persephone to do anything, yes they argued but they always bump heads like this and even afterwards Demeter just left it wasn’t like she took Persephone with her or anything she just left peacefully. Not much about this interaction screams emotionally abusive mother or at least to me it doesn’t, there should’ve been much bigger signs if so because I feel more like this is just a rebellious teen vs mom conversation yet nothing too serious other than a disagreement. So knowing all of this the intervention shit did not make sense at all, nothing about it was in character for the both of them and their dynamic never showed them like this. It’s so insane how people really nodded their heads and believed that this was how they always were when it wasn’t, in that scene Persephone couldn’t even defend herself or speak up instead she broke down and cried which is understandable for the situation but it makes no sense since we’ve seen their previous reactions be completely opposite of what we’re shown now. I know people don’t like thinking critically but y’all couldn’t have actually thought this made sense, it was probably a lot of excuses and convincing made I’m sure.

Anyhow onto the main topic I know I’ve been stalling, many people got mad at Demeter for trying to dress Persephone in white clothing like she’s always worn which she isn’t wrong that woman willingly dresses in white all the time there’s quite literally no other color in her wardrobe except for that. But everyone took this as very abusive and manipulative which I would’ve agreed with if they had the same energy towards every other character in this story who also forced Persephone to wear white… But I don’t see any commotion for that. For example everyone applauded Hera for forcing Persephone to wear a dress she picked out herself on her damn wedding day and they completely forgot how genuinely messed up it is with the context of the story. Not only did this woman insist on giving Persephone a grand coronation despite her pleas for a simple one, she completely shamed Persephone for even thinking about dressing herself for once and made her put on a dress that she picked out herself not even caring about if Persephone wanted to wear it on the most special day of her life essentially according to her. But let’s not forget literally YESTERDAY because we know LO doesn’t do time skips Hades referred to her pet name in front of her which he’s probably used during his cheating montage with her for CENTURIES, why would Persephone even accept the idea of Hera dressing when she knows about their history together. I genuinely felt like throughout the wedding it was Hera actually being married to Hades and not Persephone because it seemed like each and every word Hades said to Persephone she took it for herself which isn’t really that shocking since Hera has literally been living vicariously through Persephone and making her follow the path that she’s probably wanted for herself.

I seriously do not understand why everyone accuses Demeter for doing that when they praise Hera who literally did everything in her power to get her niece together with her ex- fling, and it seems like it maximized to a thousand when he put up boundaries. The whole situation is very disgusting and creepy.

#lo critical #anti lore olympus #anti lo #lo demeter #lo hades #lo persephone #lo hera

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inamindfarfaraway · 3 years ago

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The cut (but not out of my heart!) lyrics of “Crossing the Line” are here!

[…Well, I'm not being patient anymore]

I'm crossing the line

So get out of my way

'Cause I'm not gonna play by your rules

It's my time to shine

I don't need your okay

And I'm done being one of the fools

I'm crossing that line

There are lines that I've been waiting in forever

There are lines I've always felt I had to toe

Some were blurry, some unseen

Some I've had to learn to read between

So many boundaries, far more than you know

But the line you think connects us both together

That's a line that I'm not falling for again

'Cause this time my eyes are open wide

I've been trapped by lines you never had to live in

You were never really on my side

So I'm doing what I should have way back when

[I'm crossing the line…]

Damn time constraints just took a whole chunk out of the middle of the song. I understand that it would have been very long with this left in, though. I love this a lot. My favourite things are the amount of wordplay on different definitions of the word ‘line’; Cass explicitly telling Rapunzel - and by extension, the audience who’ve only ever seen her from Rapunzel’s perspective - that she doesn’t/we don’t know just how trapped and stifled she’s been and felt, so we can’t judge her; and the intended first chorus, which has “It’s my time to shine” instead of “I’m taking what’s mine”. The former lyric is only focused on Cass finally being respected, successful and happy, while the latter comes across to me as much more actively aggressive and vindictive, as she’s now set on “taking” away other people’s success and happiness to that end. And then the intended second chorus has more overtly villainous and destructive lyrics like “If I’m burning a bridge, let it burn!”. So the complete song subtly kinda mirrors Cass’s downward spiral over most of Season Three from ‘I’m gonna end a friendship that’s turned toxic and unequal and make myself that ex-friend’s equal’ to ‘THE KINGDOM WILL FALL! ALL YOU LOVE WILL PERISH!’. At least that’s how I read it.

Are you aware of the extended version of “Crossing the Line?” Technically it’s the full version, but for the actual episode they had to cut out a section for time. These lyrics add a lot in my opinion and I consider this song the ‘real’ one, even if as far as I can find Eden Espinosa hasn’t sung the cut lyrics.

I am aware of that, but I can’t really remember the additional lyrics. Could you send them to me please?

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rachelbethhines · 3 years ago

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Tangled Salt Marathon - Plus Est En Vous Part 3

We did it y’all! We’ve finally made it to the end! This isn’t the last review for the marathon but it is the finale episode of the series. And if I’ve planned things out right, it’s also the anniversary of the series' end and this particular episode. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate.

Summary: As Zhan Tiri attacks the rest of Corona with the combined power of the Sundrop and Moonstone; Rapunzel and Cassandra must finally set their differences aside and work together to defeat her.

This Is A Downgrade

This is not a terrible design, per say, but it’s so less appealing than the black void of nothingness that was hinted at all series long.

This a much bolder, sharper, and crisper design. It stands out and is menacing. Giving Zhan Tiri more definition and rounded features weakens that impact.

Also, why did they bother hiring a new voice actor just for her adult/daemon form? She barely sounds any different.

Just Because A Character Says Something Doesn’t Make It True

Maybe Movie Rapunzel was all about making dreams come true, but Show Rapunzel couldn’t give two shits about what other people want unless it benefits herself somehow.

She neve cared about Cassandra’s dreams, despite being in a position to help her. She doesn’t even give a crap about Varian receiving basic needs, let along what he may actually desire out of life. And any villain who doesn’t bend the knee to her, like Lady Caine or The Saporians, is fresh out of luck, because Rapunzel doesn’t care enough to even ask them what they want nor offer them help.

I bring this up because such hypocrisy undermines the tension of the scene. I’m less likely to care about Rapunzel getting flatten to a pulp if the show reminds me before hand that she’s actually a horrible protagonist who has failed to learn anything.

Since When?

If Rapunzel, or any other character for that matter, had been granted an ounce of competence this season Zhan Tiri wouldn’t even be a threat right now. Rapunzel herself has had numerous chances to take the goat-girl out of commission and didn’t. Heck, she wouldn’t have even had to use her powers to do it. She could have tied ZT up with rope and arrested her then and there in the Spire.

This Doesn’t Explain Anything!!!

Yes, Cassandra’s biggest flaw is her selfish ego, but that has nothing to do with her being Gothel’s daughter. She’s egotistical because Chris thought for some ungoddly reason that would make her relatable. Because Chris has an inability to understand that not everyone is him, ironically because of his own ego.

In universe, you could associate Cassandra’s need for constant validation with Gothel’s previous abandonment if you wanted to, but that still wouldn’t explain why she’s willing to throw away her relationships, career, morals, and common sense for it. Especially when she kept achieving that desired validation every other episode during the previous seasons anyways.

Said flaw also has nothing to do with any comeuppance here. She didn’t lose because she got cocky. She lost because of lazy writing that made her weakness ‘little girls jumping on top of her’ for no stated reason.

Then there’s the matter of Gothel’s biggest flaw being her control issues, not her ego. Sure, she’s confident in how she looks in the movie and the show flanderizes this into outright vanity, but it’s her pathological need to manipulate and control Rapunzel, born from her own fear of death, that motivates her through out the film.

Nor was it her ‘ego’ that ‘felled’ her. She underestimated that a thief would perform a selfless sacrifice to save his beloved, because Gothel never understood what real love was; only possession and control. Rapunzel was an object that she prized dearly, but she didn’t really love her; not the way a parent should.

And finally, Zhan Tiri had nothing to do with Gothel’s demise. That was all on Eugene and Pascal. Zhan Tiri didn’t do shit. If the show is trying to imply that Zhan Tiri was manipulating Gothel all movie long, and perhaps even before that as a disciple, then the series is doing a bad job of it.

This is suppose to be the ‘pay off’ of the disciples plot, and it’s such a piss poor reveal that I wonder why the show even bothered to include that particular subplot at all. I still don’t know why any of the disciples followed Zhan Tiri, nor what their relationship to Demanitus was. I don’t know how their story is suppose to connect back to the current conflict. I don’t know the mechanics of the magic system for the world, nor why the Sundrop and Moonstone is so special. And I don’t know how Zhan Tiri is suppose to retroactively fit into the original film.

As I said before, none of this dialogue makes sense in context, and the Gothel subplot should have been dropped from the get go if this was all they were going to do with it.

This Moment Isn’t Earned

There’s absolutely no reason for anyone here to be shouting Rapunzel’s name. Them risking their lives for what is now a worthless hunk of rock populated by nothing but ruins is already very stupid, but at least you could claim that they have an emotional attachment to what was once their home. But Rapunzel?

Rapunzel isn’t Corona itself, nor has she done anything to protect it. Quite the opposite in fact. Corona, and by extension it’s citizenry, are being placed in danger directly due to her own selfishness and incompetence.

And going beyond even that, there’s not a single person here who Rapunzel hasn’t screwed over in some manner individually. Let alone even apologize for doing so.

She went back in time and brainwashed her own boyfriend, rather than admit she was wrong in an argument. And then proceeded to brow beat him into submission for the rest of the season into doing what she wants.

She bullied her own parents and denied them agency over their own lives, because she didn’t want to deal with them getting a divorce. A decision that was never her business.

She completely fucked over Varian’s life; endangering both him and his father, all because she didn’t want to face responsibility for her choices and deal with the emotional fallout from them.

She betrayed both Adira’s and Edmund’s trust in her when she failed to stop Cassandra from stealing the moonstone... something they both warned her about. She also still refuses to confront her bestie over it even now.

She failed to do anything to protect the Brotherhood once Cassandra and Zhan Tiri stole the mindtrap. Therefore the Dark Kingdom characters all got doubly screwed over. Including Lance who cares about both Adira and Eugene.

She had plenty of time to warn the populace about the daemon that was planning on attacking their home and did nothing; Worse than nothing, she actively encouraged them to ignore it just so she could have some fun.

She abandoned Red and Angry, two orphans, multiple times and then shouldered their emotional trauma onto each other rather act like a goddamn adult. Only to gaslight them both into thinking she was ‘helping them to come closer to each other’ or some such bullshit.

She lied to Monty and to this day they still fight over it, yet I’m suppose to believe that he cares about her sorry ass?

The only people who she may have not screwed over is the Pub Thugs; but her relationship with the Pub Thugs was established during the movie before the series degraded her character. She still is placing them in danger in this episode though.

This Isn’t An Apology

Remember way, way back when I wrote The Secret of the Sun Drop review? Remember how I tore apart King Frederic’s non-apology? Remember when I ripped Rapunzel a new one for her lame ass ‘reconciliation’ with Varian during Rapunzel’s Return? Remember?

Because this scene is the worst of both of those.

Let’s start here.

Cassandra isn’t even trying to apologize here. She’s just throwing a pity party.

A sincere apology isn’t about you. It’s about your victims. It’s about who you’ve hurt and how you want to fix things with them. All Cassandra is doing here is spiraling into self deprecation mode because her self-esteem took a hit when she lost to Zhan Tiri.

Now her feeling depressed, isn’t the issue here. She’s valid to feel this way. The problem is that it’s just not enough to make up for what she did. But just like with King Frederic’s ‘confession’ in season one, both Rapunzel and the audience are now primed to coddle her because she ‘feels bad’, and that’s not an actual redemption.

Now This An Actual Breakdown; And It’s Still Not An Excuse

Cassandra stans love to pull out the ‘she’s a having an mental breakdown; you just don’t understand!’ as an excuse for her actions, but it’s one that doesn’t hold any water because of this scene.

Cassandra wasn’t having a breakdown before when doing all of that bad stuff; because this is her breaking point! This the point where she reaches rock bottom; because it’s the story’s climax.

People like to conveniently forget that Cassandra has been running around with the moonstone while listening to Zhan Tiri for over a year now; possibly going on two years given the timeline fiasco. She’s had more than enough chances to come to her senses, and people dealing with actual mental illness don’t have ‘breakdowns’ that last for years.

Real relapses are just that, relapses. They fluctuate. You have good days, bad days, middling days; and sometimes you crack and do stupid shit that you regret afterwards, but that's only sometimes. Your body can’t physically maintain that high emotional state 24/7 for a year’s worth of time. It’s just can’t. Sooner or later you will snap out of it and come back down to earth. And then you might relapse again later, especially if you don't deal with the issue, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have the same reaction exactly the same way over the exact same issue later.

Cassandra was fully in control of herself when she decided to steal, threaten, kidnap, drug, abuse, imprison, bully, assault, murder, and brainwash people. She just didn’t give a shit, and her crying now doesn’t solve anything. Low self-esteem isn’t an excuse for being a jerk and neither is mental illness.

Compare the above to this scene.

youtube

Once again, Bojack Horseman gets right what most series nowadays get wrong, and I’m not even an actual fan of this show. (I’m not one for satire usually) But dang has it not earned my respect.

Being Vague About Cassandra’s Pervious Actions Here Doesn’t Erase Them From The Audience's Minds

Let’s review the list again shall we.

Stole a priceless and world endangering artifact

Victim blamed a woman for being kidnapped as a baby

Attacked her own father

Publicly threatened to destroy a kingdom if she didn’t get what she wanted

Assaulted a minor

Kidnapped a minor

Drugged a minor while unconscious

Used coercion tactics on a minor in order to gain intel

Violently abused said minor while in her custody

Imprisoned said minor, possibly retraumatizing him

Assaulted her former friends

Threatened to murder someone in front of their spouse

Attempted to murder her best friend on no less than three occasions

Assaulted, kidnaped, and attempted to murder an innocent woman just to blackmail said best friend

Stole another priceless and deadly artifact

Brainwashed four innocent people and forced them to fight their friends and family

A least two instances of identity theft

Attacked a crowd of innocent people simply for daring to defend themselves from her

Destroyed an entire kingdom, displacing hundreds of people from their homes, and mostly likely causing several injures and probably even killing a few people while at.

And we still don’t know what the fuck she did to Faith and the Keeper to get them out of her way.

And let me make something very clear, I’m not shaming the character for being a villain and doing bad things. I’m shaming the series for trying to gaslight its own audience by suddenly pretending like these things didn’t happen.

Admitting Fault Isn’t Enough. You Have To Take Actual Responsibility For Your Actions

The biggest complaint people have with Cassandra’s arc is the lack of true consequences. And keep in mind, consequences doesn’t automatically mean ’punishment’. It just means you need to deal with shit.

I don’t need Rapunzel refusing to forgive her or having her vindictively thrown in jail (though I wouldn’t blame the series if they went that route) but I do need to see Cassandra putting in the actual work that’s needed to make amends. Stuff that’s directly related to fixing what she broke.

Have her do community service. Give her over to the Brotherhood to deal with according to their laws, whatever those maybe. Have her placed on trail and let the people decide her fate. Maybe pay for property damage. Or heck a simple shunning from those she’s hurt. She can make up with Rapunzel, sure, but that doesn’t mean she can win over everybody’s forgiveness.

The Show Has A Real Problem With Nepotism and Hypocrisy

And yeah, we can’t talk about Cassandra’s lack of consequences with out talking about Varian’s, Caine’s, and just about every other villain's arc in the show as well.

Varian was given overly harsh and abusive punishment for daring to fight back against relentless abuse from his oppressors. And even after being released from that and being brought back into the royals good graces again, for no other reason that to stroke Rapunzel’s ego, he still took flak for his actions by the populace at large for over a year.

And you can’t claim that Rapunzel learned from Varian not to do that with Cass when you still have Lady Caine and The Saporian arcs unresolved. Caine, a woman who was orphaned herself by the royals oppression of the poor, is still banished on that slave labor island. The Saporians, a race of displaced people left homeless by the royals for generations, are currently locked up in the dungeon bellow them right now.... and I very much doubt that Cassandra and Zhan Tiri has been brothering to even feed them while in charge.

Once again, the series is trying to gaslight the audience into thinking that Rapunzel is this kind and forgiving induvial for not holding Cassandra to account but the reality is, she’s just doesn't care about anyone who isn’t Cass. And her obsession with her ‘best friend’ is due to her own validation issues and not out of any real concern for Cassandra’s well being either.

This Line Doesn’t Make Sense In Context

Who’s this ‘everyone’? What did they think of you? What time frame are we even talking about here?

Cassandra’s villain arc doesn’t work because it was never set up properly. We have no idea what the wider populace actually thought about Cassandra. We’re never shown any real instances where she’s mistreated by anyone, other than Gothel, whom she didn’t even remember. The only time people turn on her is after she goes villain and starts threating them, and that’s her own damn fault.

This Is Manipulative

I mean it is more of the same ‘using self deprecation to deflect from real criticism’ tactics as above; but it’s also manipulating the audience with a wish fulfillment fantasy.

I’m sorry, but Tangled the Series is lying to you. No one is going to come along and pat you on the head for being an asshole and say ‘There, there, It’s alright. Don't feel bad. You’re perfect just the way you are, flaws and all, and you need never change.’

Bullshit.

Relationships are a two way street. You both have to put in the work for bettering yourself. Otherwise you’ll either wind up alone, or trapped in a toxic relationship where one person gives and gives while other does nothing but takes.

This is my biggest issue with enemies to lovers within fandom, because 90% of the time it’s used as an excuse by the fans to never examine their own failings. They just want someone to validate them; not an actual loving relationship where you both have to compromise and work together.

Unconditional love doesn’t mean putting up with your constant bullshit and forgiveness doesn’t mean ignoring the problem. It means being open and willing to listen and to change, and that requires both of you putting in effort.

Saying Sorry To Rapunzel Isn’t A Redemption

I’ll give Cassandra this. At least she verbally says ‘sorry’ to someone. That’s more than what either Frederic or Rapunzel does. But it’s still not enough.

Steps that we’re still missing here are; verbal acknowledgement of how she precisely hurt Rapunzel, informing Rapunzel of how her behavior will change and how she means to make amends, and follow through on that promise.

What we have here is half of an apology. This might have still worked had we had time to see the other steps later, but we never do.

And of course this is all assuming Cassandra is being sincere here. What assurances do we have as the audience that Cassandra is being truthful? She has a past record of lying and manipulation, of making promises only to brake them later when it benefits her, and apologizing for this same offense over and over again.

Cassandra is a vindictive and petty person, and she’s like that to everyone. Who’s to say she won’t start shit again later? How has she learned her lesson here, when she didn’t learn it three seasons ago in Challenge of the Brave? What’s actually different this time, other than the higher stakes? Especially since the inciting incident for this apology is her losing; not her coming to the realization that what she was doing was harming others.

Rapunzel Can’t Forgive Cassandra On Everybody Else’s Behalf

If Rapunzel wants to accept this halfway apology because it makes her feel better, than fine. That’s on her. But she can not forgive Cassandra in place of anybody else.

Cass hurt more than just Rapunzel. She has a whole host of people to beg forgiveness from and we never even see her put in the effort. And for many of those people she has even graver offenses to make up for. Yet, watch as the show treats this as the conclusion to her arc, because the show only cares about Rapunzel’s feelings and no one else’s.

I said it before and I’ll say it again; the series has out grown both Rapunzel and Cassandra. They are not the two most important people in the story anymore because their conflict has the lowest stakes. I can’t give a shit that they’re friends again when there are people outside fighting for their very lives.... and they’re only in danger because of these two bitches!

What’s The Point Of The Yellow Rocks?

All they do is is the exact same thing that the black rocks have been doing since the series started. At least the red rocks did something new, as little sense as that plot point made, but these are just a recolor and nothing special.

Which leads to the bigger question of; What is the point of the Sun Drop then?

Why did Zhan Tiri have to go through such convoluted methods to steal Rapunzel’s powers if she never uses them? The yellow rocks are the same as the black rocks. The only incantation she uses is the Decay, which should be the moonstone’s power to begin with. You could argue that having both stones allows her to grow into a daemon, but why does she even need a monster form if she could have done all of this with just the moonstone anyways?

Ugh! It’s all so pointless!

That’s the main problem here. There’s no logical reason for the conflicts to play out as they do on screen. The ‘payoffs’ just wind up undermining everything that’s come before till you no longer give crap.

Sure, I could theorize all day long and fill in the blanks myself, but I shouldn’t have to. That’s the job of the writers and they failed!

This Is Gay Bait

Yeeeaaaah, that’s not how ‘best friends’ talk to each other. That’s not even how sisters talk to one another. You might tell you’re bestie that you love them or hype them up when they feeling down, but no one just tells their BFF about the moment they fell in love with them like its a long held confession. Heck, I don’t even remember the moment I and my best friend became friends because it happened so gradually and was so long ago.

The entirely of Cassandra’s and Rapunzel’s relationship is written, not as sisters rediscovering one another, like with Anna and Elsa or Gamora and Nebula, but as star-crossed friends to enemies to lovers/soulmates deal. As if it was a diet Catradora or Reylo.

Keep in mind, I’m not criticizing any of the ships here. Enemies/rivals to lovers may not be my deal, but I understand why it’s such a popular trope and if you ship Casspunzel then more power to you.

What I’m criticizing is the obviously contradictory and manipulative writing that’s designed to appeal to a certain demographic in order to exploit them without ever giving them any real representation. And it’s not the ‘big bad corporation’ or ‘capitalism’ to blame here, but the personal shittiness of the shows writers.

They knew better than to do this. They knew this was a mid-queal with a predetermined outcome for the romantic relationships. They are the ones that choose to make Rapunzel and Cassandra ‘sisters’. And they still put this in here, and quite frankly if you are queer, you should be fucking pissed at being screwed over like this; not trying to start pointless ship wars.

Empty Validation Doesn’t Solve Anything!

Okay, so we’re still in clear ‘gay bait’ territory and having Rapunzel simp after her abuser that just tried to murder her only minutes ago is also gross, because an ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t magically erase that, but there’s an even larger problem with this scene....

This doesn’t resolve the conflict!

Nothing is being addressed here. Cassandra’s validation issues are deeper than just needing to hear a simple compliment. Epically such a vague meaningless one, like ‘I think you’re pretty’ and ‘You’re special just because’. It’s hollow and worthless.

This doesn’t tackle the actual issues with their relationship. It doesn’t acknowledge why they fell apart to begin with. It completely side steps what either girl has done wrong and therefore fails at being any sort of satisfying conclusion.

Also, Rapunzel conveniently avoids actual consequences by saying something ‘nice’ and ignoring the real problem, yet again, so she never, ever learns anything.

It’s also just pure cringe. Even ignoring the whole ‘they’re sisters’ subplot, this scene doesn’t even work as a romantic confession because nothing about it is real. It’s so fucking generic and could have been said by any two characters in any piece of media. Slap this on any toxic het couple in any bland romcom and you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s not from there. They don’t even bother explaining, let along showing, what it was that made Cassandra laugh. It’s so vague and uninteresting.

To put it simply, the scene doesn’t work because nothing about it feels natural to the characters. It’s just as forced as the ‘break up’ that came before it.

Also, This Scene Just Looks Flat Out Ugly

I don’t know what the hell happened to the art direction in season three, but ugh!

Why do they look like fucking bobble heads? Why is Cass’s outfit that fugugly shade of brownish gray? Why is this scene awash with such atrocious lighting? Why is the background both too busy and crowded while simultaneously being too simple and flat?

This is suppose to be some heartfelt and tender moment but the colors are too harsh and the framing too uninspired to pull that sort emotion out of the scene. The lighting should have been either soft yellow, or cold black, with Rapunzel being the warm center... not this.

Who the fuck directed this scene?

You now what? Fuck it! Rapunzel should have had a yellow dress for season three if you were going this route. And Cassandra’s depowered suit should have been a darker gray/black or flat white/light gray to contrast with her. And get rid of that blasted red lighting! Make it blue, or green!

This Fight Is Boring Because It Refuses To Let The Characters Shine

It’s hard to convey with just screen shots alone, but the entire fight with Zhan Tiri is just the characters failing, one by one, to get a meaningful hit on the daemon as she just shrugs away their attacks.

Narratively speaking, the idea behind showcasing the battle this way is to build up Zhan Tiri as a credible threat while giving the side characters a final ‘hurrah’ before closing out the series. Unfortunately, the scene winds up being underwhelming and lacking in tension because it doesn’t effectively utilize the characters.

There’s no punch the air moments for the audience to cheer on. There’s nothing shocking here to fill us with dread and make us wonder fearfully what will happen to our favs. Then there’s the awful attempts at humor and bland dialogue that robs the story of any gravitas.

Yet worse of all is that seeing characters that should be good fighters and formidable opponents not doing the things that we know they are capable of.

I, of course, signaled out Varian’s scene here, but you can pick anybody.

The Pub Thugs know how to fight. They're wanted criminals who took on the royal guards to save their friend. Yet they’re ineffective comedic relief. Red and Ruddiger are freaken mutant monsters capable of rendering a person in two and they do nothing. Angry just... throws rocks, I guess. The Brotherhood does nothing despite being the best fighters here. I don’t even see Lance, and of course poor Cap has disappeared into the void for most of the season. The only guards here are Stan and Pete who are the worst at their jobs, ect and so on.

Ironically, Varian and Eugene are the ones to make it out of this mess of a scene the best, by shear force of personality, but both still have been clearly nerfed by the plot.

Meanwhile, Zhan Tiri is still as lame as ever because the series just will not let her shut up! She’s a big bad daemon now! Why does she need to taunt? Why not just let her be this unstoppable force of nature who doesn’t need to overcompensate by protesting too much bout how she’s really going to destroy them all, no really... Any moment now...

Why Isn’t This Sung?

It’s the bloody climax! We’ve been building up to this scene since The Great Tree! Since Queen For A Day even! Why isn’t the decay incantation sung here like it was the last two times we saw it?

Not singing the incantations in the finale, when they should have the most plot importance, saps them of any tension the same way the hurt incantation saps the characters of their lives. It weakens the impact of the incantations narrative conclusions and undermines their previous set ups.

Why Was This Cut?

https://kritterart.tumblr.com/post/611697079303192576

The original scene had Varian and Quirin reaching out to each other as they ‘died’ and, for reasons that I can’t even begin to fathom, it was cut and we just got a shot of Varian alone.

Why?

Just, why?

You can’t claim it was for time because the shots are roughly the same length and because you wasted three fucking minutes on the damn monkey scene earlier! You also can’t claim it was for narrative efficiency or because it made the scene read stronger either. To do so would just be stupid.

So that leaves us with only three options.

Censors

Budget

Chris is a dick

Some of the writers have gone on record saying that everyone was suppose to die this episode and have Rapunzel bring them back to life, only for the censors to step in and refuse to let them do that. Except... everyone dies this episode and is brought back by Rapunzel anyways.

Nothing narratively was actually removed and, to be frank, Chris was on his way out the door by this point. I very much doubted he gave a fuck what the higher ups said. Moreover, the censors never stepped in to stop Varian, a minor, from going through much, much worse in this show, so as to why they would object to him being held by his father for comfort during a the climax of the story is beyond me.

Then there’s budget reasons. It costs more to animated two characters onscreen as opposed to one. Except... its the fucking finale and the showrunners already wasted three goddamn minutes on stupid monkeys!!! Don’t tell me they didn’t have the money to animate this!!!

That leaves us just with option three. Now it’s no secret at this point that Chris Sonnenberg is an asshole to the fans of this show, particularly Varian fans. The drama has been immortalized on the internet forever and I won’t rehash it here again. There’s also the rumors hanging around the animation grapevine that he wasn’t that great of a boss, and we know for a fact that there was a mass resignation of crew members, most of whom were women, during the middle of production. We also know that he hasn’t been hired back for anything, by any studio, which lends credence to the rumors.

However, I don’t know Chris personally. I’ve never met the man nor talked to him and I have very little desire to ever do so. I can’t say what he would or wouldn't do just to be petty, but boy does cutting this scene just feel like a final ‘fuck you’ to the fanbase that carried this show.

This Is An Ass Pull

First off, Cassandra didn’t give a crap about Rapunzel’s well being when she took the stone. They had the setup for that to be her motivation, but then backtracked on it when it came to the actual reveal. Trying to double back now in order to retroactively pretend that what Cass did was actually a good thing is pure BS at this point. Especially when her supposed goal was to murder Rapunzel for the past half of a season anyways.

But of course this exchange is here because it’s really setup/justification for how they’ll wind up defeating Zhan Tiri later. It’s more poorly laid out exposition that requires you remembering a bunch of other poorly laid expositions from season two; the dullest of seasons, so you probably don’t remember it. And it’s all undermined later anyways because Rapunzel bypasses any all consequences due to plot armor.

Not to mention that we still don’t get any explanation for what the two plot McGuffins are or how they work, so there’s no reason to believe that this is what would happen anyways. We don’t even know why they have to be reunited. I mean, we’re having to take the characters at their word and they don’t have the experience or knowledge to back those words up, so it’s a set up that’s already been sabotaged by the narrative.

This Isn’t A Satisfying Payoff Because The Focus Is Wrong

What the fuck does Cassandra have to do with Rapunzel’s journal?

That was a gift to Rapunzel from her mother. Those words of advice were for her, not Cass. A woman who has next to zero connection to Adrianna and hasn’t been involved in the journal plot at all, because why the fuck would she be?

I thought this was suppose to be ‘Rapunzel’s show’ Chris? I thought Rapunzel was suppose to be the one who has an actual arc and learns shit. Why would she, in her darkest hour, give the personal advice that was meant to encourage her to someone else? Especially when that character has already come through their emotional low point and been comforted by her in the previous scene.

There is no narrative reason to focus on Cassandra here. We’ve already resolved her validation issues, as gay baity and full of bullshit as that was. The only reason to keep harping on this still is to proclaim that Cassandra is real the focus of the story.

It’s here to make her the protagonist instead of Rapunzel!

Geez... No wonder Chris got fired. You had one fucking job. Make a spin off about Rapunzel, and you blew it.

BULLSHIT

This doesn’t make any sense!!!!

At this point the series is not only asking me to ignore natural human behavior, but to ignore basic physics as well. How did that tiny shard manage to stay lodged onto her suit after being blown away, flung around, and hit by magical sunbeams for half a season? Especially, when she can so easily remove it with her fingers here. Is it made of Velcro?

How!?

Cass has it on her person right now and it’s not doing shit for her other than to sparkle. What do you plan on doing with it? Why do you think this is enough power to defeat a fucking daemon!?

Also ‘destiny’ still doesn’t mean anything. Neither of these two bitches have a destiny to fulfill. All of what is happing right now is either circumstantial, like being born with powers, or a direct consequence of their own failings, like the daemon being let lose.

Furthermore, this adds nothing to Cassandra’s arc because her motivations and goals were so clearly fucked over and mangled up for the past season and a half leading to this point. This can’t been seen as her relinquishing control and rectifying her past mistakes because we never found what this ‘destiny’ she’s been chasing after was nor what it meant to her.

Also why does this work!? How does it work!?

Why would the moonstone's powers manifest as Rapunzel’s glowy hair powers again? She’s not the sundrop anymore. That power is gone. She should logically have new powers that manifest differently without the influence of that previous power. Of course, that’s even assuming that touching the thing would give her powers at all, considering how Cass was wearing it this entire time and it didn’t work for her.

Why Won’t The Series Just Let Cassandra Be Cassandra?

Yeah, all through out this final episode the writers constantly have Cassandra steal Eugene’s lines and even straight up scenes from the Tangled movie.

I’ll get into why this so insulting to fans of the original later, but for now lets focus on why this diminishes Cassandra’s character specifically.

The Cassandra from season one and season two of the show, had like an actual unique purpose within the narrative and was a character in her own right with her own personality. She may have been clunkily intergraded into the cast, and in S2 denied any meaningful interactions with anyone other than Rapunzel, but she still was allowed to just exist as herself.

Then season three happens and suddenly Cassandra isn’t good enough for Chris. She can’t just be her own person anymore. Instead Chris has to force her to occupy everyone else’s stories as well instead of just giving her her own arc.

It isn’t enough for Cassandra to be the Captain’s beloved adopted daughter, now she has to steal Rapunzel’s backstory and be Gothel’s secret child who was also abused for no reason.

It’s not enough for Cassandra to have her own motivations for stealing the moonstone. She’s just evil because she’s now related to Gothel and she must now mimic the mother that she’s barely known for most of her life, cause reasons....

It isn’t enough that Cassandra is Rapunzel’s best friend. She now has to be Rapunzel’s star-crossed lover as well and up spur Eugene’s place as the most important person in Rapunzel’s life, despite the series also wanting to make them sisters.

It’s not enough for Cassandra to have a mind and will of her own and must therefore blindly follow another even bigger bad for zero stated reasons and must now ape Varian’s plans when scheming evilly.

Cassandra can’t have a goal nor purpose of her own outside of Rapunzel now. She must be after the protagonist's ‘destiny’ because deep down the creator wishes that she was the star of the show a not the character from a movie that he didn’t create and can therefore claim no ownership of.

Chris desperately wants to be recognized for creating an original character like Cassandra, but Cassandra just simply isn’t ‘original’. She’s not allowed to be original. Because Chris Sonnenburg has no faith in his creation. He doesn’t see Cassandra as an individual character but an extension of himself and his own ‘cleverness’. And his need to wedge her into everything is a reflection of how he feels like he needs to control everything and be made the center of attention even when what’s going on has nothing to do with him.

Why Should Rapunzel Care About This Explanation?

She has even less context for Zhan Tiri’s feud with Demanitus than we do. These lines mean nothing to her. Therefore they mean nothing to the audience. There’s no emotional investment for this conflict. So it remains uninteresting to till the last.

This Fight Is Also Boring

There’s nothing new here. Rapunzel is just hitting the monster the same way she hits everything in this show. She’s been reduced to a generic action heroine and anything that originally made her clever, funny, or relatable in the movie is gone.

There’s no tension either as Rapunzel’s reaction to finding everyone she knows dying is hardily a concern to her. Yes, she responds to it happening, but the pacing is so off and the mood whiplash from the fight so quick that it barely registers in the audiences’ minds.

Meanwhile Zhan Tiri is as unimpressive and obnoxious as ever. She doesn’t even get the benefit of being indestructible as she did before, because we gotta show Raps and Cass being mega awesome super heroes, because ‘girl power’ or something...

This Is So Lame

Oh let me count the ways in which this is stupid.

Way to go series, you made your main villain even more unthreatening then before. All that pervious build up during the last fight was wasted.

Speaking of the last fight, why couldn’t anybody else get a hit on her? A vial of toxic chemicals to the face launched at rocket speed has far more impact than a bonk on the back of the head. I don’t like the term ‘Mary Sue’ because it’s lost all meaning over the years, but Cassandra sure does fit a lot of the over powered tropes often associated with the term.

Rather than making Cassandra seem cool, this scene has the opposite effect because it has nothing to do with her as a person. This isn’t particularly clever, lots of other characters have used frying pans in the franchise and she’s never been one them really, and also it’s a stupid frying pan. It’s a joke, that’s the point! Both Zhan Tiri and Cassandra are made into a joke so the end result is just cringey to watch.

It’s yet another call back to the film and another instance of trying to make Cassandra into a Eugene rip-off. It doesn’t work because it lacks the context and build up of the pervious line from the movie and comes across as tacky.

This Isn’t Particularly Clever Nor Unique

A satisfying climax is the conclusion of the important elements that you’ve built up over the course of the story. This includes both character resolutions and tying up the various plot points of your narrative.

Tangled the Series lacks a satisfying ending because nothing here was set up enough to be impactful. Zhan Tiri is too lame. The Sundrop and Moonstone are too undefined. No one knows how magic works in this world. Most damaging of all, however, is the lack of character.

Vader turning on Palpatine works because redeeming his father has been Luke’s goal all movie long and desiring a relationship with his dad was a motivating factor for him since his introduction in the first movie.

Dr. Strange tricking the interdimensional monster with time travel, is the conclusion to him finding the time stone and using his greatest strength, his intelligence, to make an eternal sacrifice. Which brings his story arc full circle as he learns to be less selfish while still being uniquely and stubbornly himself.

Even The Black Cauldron, a terrible movie by all accounts, still manages to have a kick ass climax because the villain is destroyed by the very thing he instigated the conflict with by trying to find it. He wanted a world conquering weapon and boy did he get it... right in the face as he disintegrated. Plus Zombies!

Meanwhile, this ending doesn't tell me anything about the characters. The dialogue doesn’t harken back to anything rememberable. Zhan Tiri’s downfall has nothing to do with her own foibles. And the girls’ plan here is rather uninspired and honestly could have been done by anyone with a long enough rope. Rapunzel’s powers were not needed for this, and Cassandra adds nothing special to the proceedings either.

This Moment Lacks Emotional Impact

Rapunzel finally cutting her own hair should be this big, grand, and freeing moment. It should be the capstone to her story arc regarding agency and choice. But it fails to be that moment because the series has forgotten who and what should be the focus of the story.

Rapunzel cuts her hair here because it’s a practical solution to the problem at hand; defeating Zhan Tiri. It’s not a reflection of how she sees herself nor a deliberate decision to regain control over her life. Hell, it’s not even her own idea to do it. Cassandra has to be the one to think of it and hand her (or ‘kick’ in this case) the broken rock.

It also doesn’t ‘read’ well. I only just now noticed while typing this up that Rapunzel can only cut her hair now because of the stupid flickering light effect of her powers going in and out. That’s after watching the episode three times and slowly combing through it to analyze. How many casual watchers missed this on first watch?

This is almost as badly sign posted as the whole ‘Cassandra can only grab the moonstone cause of her burnt hand’ subplot.

The Final Fight Is Shorter Than The Monkey Scene

It’s precisely 30 seconds shorter. I counted. Heck, if you don’t count the shots of the rocks disappearing afterwards, it’s even less than that!

The climatic final battle between the main hero and the main villain is only two and half minutes long.

An hour and half three part finale to a three season, sixty episode show, has a climax of only two and half minutes.

Oh but it’s okay! We had time for monkeys!

Wait. What?

How did Cassandra die here? Both her and Rapunzel were caught in the explosion and Raps doesn’t have her shield powers anymore. It doesn’t make sense for one of them to die but not the other.

Well after combing this episode for screen shots, I and some of the other fans finally figured it out.

It’s really hard to see in the scene itself because of the lighting effects that cover everything, but Cassandra hits her head on the stairs supposedly. Even though she’s no where near those stairs when Rapunzel finds her. But like, it’s the only explanation that’s been offered up so far that makes sense.

Presentation matters. The audience has to be able to see what’s going on in order to follow along if we’re talking about a visual medium like television. Rather than being tragic, the following scene just winds up being confusing because we don’t know for sure how we got to that point.

Cassandra Dying Isn’t A Redemption

As I pointed out during the last review a redemption takes actual effort, and if you want a character to be redeemed through a noble sacrifice then the character has to make an actual sacrifice.

Let’s compare this to another redemption/sacrifice just show how hard this series fails.

Now a lot of people have issues with the new Star Wars trilogy and with Kylo Ren’s arc especially. Some of these criticisms are valid and some of them not so much. However, Ben’s ending here still follows the basic steps of a redemption.

He acknowledges what he did wrong on the bridge. He tries his best to rectify his mistakes, even when he didn’t have to. He could have run away. He could have rejoined the emperor. He could have started another war against Palpatine for his own selfish desires and personal gain. But no, he goes back to fight the monster he helped create knowing that he might die for it. Then when Rey dies, he willingly gives up his own life to save hers.

That’s a redemption. That’s a permeant sacrifice. You could argue that it’s not enough. That he hurt more people then just Rey. You could argue that his relationship with her was toxic. Sure, but you could say the same thing about Darth Vader and Luke, and his noble sacrifice at the end of Return of the Jedi.

As basic as Star Wars is with it’s storytelling; and I do mean the whole of Star Wars, it’s not a particularly complex nor deep franchise as far as the main movies are concerned; it still gets the fundamentals right. Every trilogy has it’s detractors, but they also all have their hardcore fans for a reason.

Tangled on the other hand, can’t even get the basics right. Cassandra can’t even verbally acknowledge what she did wrong. Her fighting Zhan Tiri isn’t some grand and noble gesture meant to make up for her past wrongs, because what other choice does she have? She could coward and hide, or run away, but she wouldn’t make it far when the daemon can kill everything and everyone in her path with just a few spoken words. And of course her dying here isn’t a sacrifice because it’s random. She doesn’t fight knowing or expecting to die; it just happens, and it’s Rapunzel who has to save her.

The series steals Cassandra's agency away from her until the very last. Had she actually knowingly died trying to save everyone first and then had Rapunzel save her; or have Rapunzel die and have Cassandra bring her and everyone else back, only to die afterwards because of it, then you might have had something here. But that’s not what happened and here we are over 60 salt reviews later.

This Is A Rip-Off Of The Movie And It’s Insulting To Everyone

This isn’t a homage or a fun call back to something you love. It’s a shot for shot recreation of the most important scene from the original film only with the showrunner’s precious OC shoved in place of the actual secondary character of the franchise, even as said character continues to die just a mere few feet away!

How fucking egotistical and petty can you get?

And trust me when I say, this is insulting to damn near everyone involved.

It’s insulting to Cass fans because it’s yet another instance of the show robbing her of agency and individuality.

It’s insulting to Casspunzel shippers and queer people watching because it’s yet more gay bait and not actual representation.

It’s insulting to Rapunzel fans because it once again makes her look like a self-absorbed asshole as she still continues to ignore everyone else but her ‘bestie’. Even though everyone else is dying too because of her obsession with being dumped.

And it is majorly insulting to fans of the original movie, Eugene fans, and New Dream shippers. This scene just pisses all over everything you may have hold dear about the original. It stands there and says that your favorite characters and relationships don’t matter. It says that the original messages of love, hope, acceptance, and yes, even redemption, does not matter. Only Chris and his ego matters.

What was originally a moving story about two people willing to change and sacrifice for the other because they accepted one another, and believed in one another, when neither had anyone else to turn to; is reduced to nothing more one man’s vanity project.

Fuck Chris Sonnenberg.

Meanwhile us Varian fans apparently are missing the point of the show, but hey, maybe that because ‘your point’ is fucking stupid Chris.

This The Very Definition Of ‘Plot Armor’

There’s no logical reason for Rapunzel to be able to use the power of the moonstone and sundrop together. We spent two seasons instilling the idea that touching both together would be bad. We even just defeated the main baddie by creating an explosion with the two powers slamming together. But here she is, just able to grab it like it was next to nothing... because, why? She’s ‘special’? ‘The power of love’? She didn’t skip leg day? What is it?

We had such a tightly written and well defined magic system in the movie, one that turned the original fairy tale into something that made sense, but now it’s nothing but contrived mush because of the series.

And of course the plot armor protects Rapunzel from more than just the exploding glowing stone. If I was seriously injured and dying and my fiancé was ignoring me just to save her already dead best friend, who had been trying to murder us all only a few moments ago, well, I would be seriously reconsidering marriage right now.

The only internal reasoning I have for this is that Eugene is in so much pain and so close to death right now himself that he can’t fully hear nor comprehend what Rapunzel is saying/doing here. But of the course the real reason because the writers are full of shit.

That’s all the room I have for the first half of the review on this post. The second half will be attached sometime this week. Happy Tangled Month!

#tangled #anti-tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #anti-cassandra #anti-rapunzel

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inamindfarfaraway · 3 years ago

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I really like how Tangled: The Series uses outfit changes to reflect the main character’s development. WARNING: OVERANALYSIS AHEAD.

Cassandra’s initial outfit (which will go here because Raps and Eugene’s starting clothes are established in the movie) is plain, subdued and practical, setting her apart from the other Coronans and the country’s bright and cheery aesthetics, while also showing her down-to-earth and reliable nature. The dagger on her belt and hidden one in her boot show that she is inclined to violence in her protectiveness of her loved ones, country and ideals and is a capable fighter who likes to be extremely prepared and self-reliant. The most dominant colour being dark red subtly foreshadows her connection to Gothel. But red is also the colour of the royal guards. Her own style is in all respects at odds with her pastel blue, flowing, lacy, demure handmaiden dress, showing us that she really isn't meant for or thriving in her job. Cass the handmaiden is not Cass, but merely a front, a box she’s been forced into.

Rapunzel’s Season Two outfit is sturdier and more practical than her previous more stereotypically ‘princess-y’ dress and has some darker and more muted colours, even outright black. This shows this season’s more adventurous and serious tone and Raps’s personal increase in courage and confidence, and loss of innocence. The flower in her hair is replaced with a bird pin; she’s traded the symbolism of flowers, growth and renewal, from the renewal of her life as and growth into the princess of Corona for that of birds, freedom and daring. This brings to mind the bird imagery in “Set Yourself Free” and the birds that flew past her way back when she first escaped the tower.

Eugene’s Season Two outfit is likewise more… swashbuckling. It’s the vibes, you know what I mean! The shoulder pad indicates that he’ll be doing dangerous, athletic activities, for example. The blue jacket is more similar to his most-of-Season Three one than it is to the old waistcoat. I’ll get to that in a bit, but basically what I say about that applies here but less so and minus the sun stuff. It’s kind of the proto-Season Three jacket.

Cassandra is the only lead not to get any new clothes in the second season opening. Yes, obviously she’s changed a lot since Rapunzel came along (before that her father was the only positive relationship she'd ever had in her whole life, as far as we know), but in some very important ways, especially to her, she remains stagnant: she’s still in service to Rapunzel. Her existence is still legally considered inherently subordinate to Raps’s. She goes on the journey to begin with to protect Rapunzel, after all. Her outfit hasn’t changed because, handmaiden vs 'bodyguard' technicalities and Raps genuinely considering her an equal and friend aside… her role as ‘gal pal side character’ and servant in the heroine’s story is exactly the same, and Cass becomes increasingly attuned to this fact. And she isn’t happy about it.

Cassandra’s armour between “Rapunzel and the Great Tree” and “Destinies Collide” represents her reinforced emotional walls, her desire to protect herself from further harm and betrayal by anyone, but specifically her own friends, and most of all Rapunzel, who has just permanently crippled and traumatized her. She finally gets new clothes, the better part of a season late. Just like Rapunzel gets everything first, while she’s left waiting until she can scavage some armour from a random, forgotten knight, exactly who she wants to avoid being. Cold steel physically cuts her off from human warmth and affection. The deep red cape continues that link to Gothel. I think her new disability is important to this outfit. It’s firmer to limit her withered arm’s movement and provides it with better protection and insulation, possibly acting as an improvised brace, thereby giving us an impression of how painful and inconvenient the injury must be.

All of that applies tenfold to Cass’s black rock armour. It is literally indestructible, the way her toxic coping mechanisms are intended to make her, but that only highlights her emotional vulnerability in contrast. The blue right gauntlet draws attention to her formerly crippled arm, a sharp reminder of the pain that drove her to this point. Her skin turns ashen, implying that though the Moonstone cures her arm, it is (unsurprisingly for a power of death and decay) causing biological damage to parallel its toll on her mental health. Her theme colour besides black abruptly switches from red to blue, its near opposite. Her dark hair and eyes that connoted how grounded, sincere and trustworthy she was are turned a naturally impossible luminous blue, more intense than her handmaiden dress’s pale blue. Her villainy is unnatural and wrong for her as her suppression then was, but far worse for herself and everyone else. (“Waiting in the Wings”, which spells out Cass’s insecurities that lead to her defection, occurs in a dark shadowy setting lit with blue moonlight, an early glimpse of Moonstone Cass’s black and blue colour scheme.)

Rapunzel’s Season Three outfit has elements brought back from her old dresses, like the puffy upper sleeves of the Season One princess dress and layered skirt combo with the front parting from Season Two, but it’s more elegant and refined than both of them. In a word, it’s regal. The colour gold is present for the first time in the cuffs, belt buckle and embrodered sun, connoting power and success and nicely complementing her purple. And of course, it matches her blonde hair that glows gold when she uses the Sundrop's magic, which she truly masters from now on. This look befits at first her role of acting queen, and throughout the season her development into a true leader to her people, increased responsibility and general maturity. The sun symbol’s placement on her chest mirrors Cass’s Moonstone, contributing to the parallels between them that this season is brimming with. It also foreshadows the solid Sundrop’s manifestation there in “Plus Est En Vous”.

Eugene’s pre-promotion Season Three outfit is similarly more mature and he proudly wears the crest of the land he used to be an outlaw in on his shoulders, a display of commitment to Corona’s people and wellbeing and his own belonging there. Despite now knowing himself to be the heir to the Dark Kingdom, his home is and always will be Corona. That’s a significant step forward after his identity crisis in “Destinies Collide”. The knee pads are a continuation of his last outfit’s shoulder pad. There being two pads this time contributes to the outfit’s symmetry and adds to the professional feel. Like Cass used to, he wears a dagger, illustrating his defensive role in his relationships and to his country (maybe royal guard foreshadowing?).

Eugene’s promotion to the captain of the guard brings his character arc full circle. The broken, lonely man who cared only for himself and mocked justice clad in cool blue has become a happy, loving and loved man who fights for justice and the greater good clad in warm red. Again, there’s the Coronan sun.

Cassandra’s ranger outfit combines various aspects of all her previous outfits to show the unification of her fractured personality and acceptance of all her past experiences and actions, the good with the bad: the overall structure highly reminiscent of her original independent outfit, right down to the belt with a small blue pouch on one side; her maid's veil tied around her arm; a cape with an asymmetrical oval clasp like in the original armour; a specialized glove on her withered arm like in the black rock armour, perhaps representing her making peace with and accommodating for her disability; and Varian’s cassandrium crystal necklace to remind her of her friends in Corona. The primary colour is green, the true opposite of both Gothel and that miserable, bitter handmaiden’s red, the colour of the growth and life Cass is leaving to engage in. Green is what she wore when she was a tenderhearted little girl, that very shade in fact. She may not be able to restore her innocence, but she can still see the world through new, more caring eyes. This is Cass.

#tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #tts #rta #tts analysis #rta analysis #tts rapunzel #rta rapunzel #tts eugene #rta eugene #tts cassandra #rta cassandra

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ariel-seagull-wings · 3 years ago

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IMAGINE... THAT THE BIG FIVE FAIRY TALE PRINCESSES WERE YOUR MOTHERS

@themousefromfantasyland @softlytowardthesun @princesssarisa @faintingheroine @the-blue-fairie @amalthea9

Briar Rose

She slept for a hundred years, wich resulted in her wanting little rest and becoming very hiperactive. She wants to intensely live everything that life and the world has to offer, and will take you, her child, to enjoy those experiences with her. Everytime she gets a new hobby, you will share that hobby with her. Everytime she travels to a new place, you will go with her. Everytime she tastes new food, she calls you to taste it with here. Sometimes you will get tyred, and will not always be able to follow her rythim. But one thing is for sure: when you are able to follow, its always fun and exciting. You will never get bored with her around.

Beauty

While happy to become your mother, she was very afrayed: what if she accidentally hurted you when cutting your nails? what if she fought with you and becamed an autoritarian parent? what if you didn't liked her? When you were born, she suffered a period of depression. But, with support of her husband, father and siblings, she started to recover, learning to put less pressure over herself to be a "perfect parent" and naturally built her own sense of parenthood, based on a friendship that shares each other's fears and vulnerabilities. The way she talks to you is a mixture between a psychologist and a philosopher, always asking your opinion about existential questions.

Cinderella

She will adore you with all her hearth. For her, you are the most beautifull and precious child in the world. She will play with you, tell you wonderfull stories, fill you with gifts, encourage you to make friends, basically giving you everything that she didn't get from her family. Sometimes, she will need some time for herself, and also call you out when you make something wrong, but she will always let clear that she loves you unconditionally, wanting nothing in exchange, and that she is proud of who you are.

Rapunzel

The thing that Rapunzel values the most as a parent is teaching you to be a free and autonomus person. She is honest in telling you that she will not always be around to protect you, and that sometimes the world and social relationships with people will hurt you, so she will prepare you to go out in the world. She will teach you how to hunt, collect and prepare your food, how to know wich plants are healing medicine and wich plants are poisonous, how to make your clothes, how to cast threads of wild animals away with noise and smell, etc. She also urges you to, when having an opinion, even one she disagrees with, you must find suport in strong logical argument, and stand firm by it, never to be afrayed of saying what you believe. Her children must never grow dominated by fear, like she grewed up under Mother Gothel's control. They will have a better childhood than she had.

Snow White

Having to live as a fugitive in the wilderness and having survived several assassination atempts at a young age, Snow White is very protective of you as a parent. She has to always to know where you are, with whom you are, what are you doing, if you are feeling a fever, if you are breathing when you sleep, if you ate well, etc. She will run to feed you, call you back if she thinks you are doing something dangerous and get hurt, and give lots and lots of recomendations to the Dwarfs, when they babysit you, with she lets them do reluctantly. Eventually there will be conflict, and you will tell her to calm down and let you make some mistakes in life to be able to grow up, and she slowly she will understand your arguments.

#fairy tales #headcanons #princesses x reader #reader imagine #fantasy #folklore #literature

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bestworstcase · 3 years ago

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i think what’s so interesting wrt the cassandra-rapunzel communication problem—& part of what’s frustrating about the wider fandom acting like it’s in any way cassandra’s fault that rapunzel deliberately ignores the things she says and the very clear boundaries she consistently tries to lay down—is that like

it’s not rapunzel’s fault

but i do think it’s something she does deliberately, not out of malice but because that behavior is something gothel trained her to do, by playing nasty little mind games and gaslighting the fuck out of rapunzel for eighteen years and cultivating the relationship we see in tangled wherein rapunzel is made responsible for managing gothel’s feelings and divining the true meaning behind everything she said and being punished with sly verbal abuse whenever she failed. and like, that’s the only communication model rapunzel has.

(even the situation with eugene kind of reinforced that, i think; not because eugene is in any way like gothel but because the person he initially presented himself as, flynn rider, turned out to be a façade rapunzel needed to see through in order to get to know the real eugene, which…is not that different from the interpersonal model rapunzel learned from gothel, really. people have a mask that they show you and it’s your job to ignore it and look past it and see the real face underneath, or else…bad things)

(also rapunzel gets tossed into serious princessing within WEEKS of leaving the tower so i am sure like the majority of people she interacted with at this point being POLITICIANS didn’t help, lmao)

and then she meets cassandra and. beginnings establishes that the first thing rapunzel is drawn to about cass is that cass doesn’t have a façade; cass is blunt and honest and real—(which is a perception that, tangentially, i think also contributes to rapunzel’s ongoing blindness to the social and class disparities between herself and cass, bc despite cass saying so Out Loud, Many Times, until the very end of the show raps never does quite grasp that cass has a job to do and does in fact maintain and desire a level of professionalism and separation btwn her job and her personal life in spite of her straightforward demeanor)—anyway, the point being, i think rapunzel DOES have a genuine social knack buried under all the layers of trauma and awful conditioning she got from gothel, because she’s able to identify instinctively right from the start that cassandra Isn’t Like the two-faced people rapunzel is surrounded by. which like, i’m not using two-faced as a value judgment here, just—rapunzel is surrounded by politicians and diplomats and servants and courtiers and one freshly-reformed charismatic thief and all of these people very fluently speak a social language that rapunzel doesn’t, one which requires them to play certain roles that might be wildly disconnected from their true selves, and rapunzel herself isn’t equipped to parse the distinction between that and what gothel was. so: she sees cass, who plays the game just enough to stay out of trouble but also openly chafes against it, and immediately is drawn to her because cass barely plays and openly resents the game.

so like, rapunzel knows that cass is Different From Other People and yet—even knowing that she doesn’t and honestly probably can’t just take things cass says at face value, because taking anything anyone says at face value goes against everything she’s ever been taught about how people work, and she likely legitimately cannot fathom that when cass Very Clearly says things like “we are not friends” she just… means them. & then ofc beginnings involves cass pursuing a career opportunity that would take her out of corona and rapunzel finding out and feeling personally betrayed and doubting her own instinct, which…again i think probably just reinforced this conditioning

and the end result is rapunzel through no fault of her own ends up in this WEIRD zone where she recognizes that cass is a basically honest person who doesn’t hold back much on her opinions but also rapunzel doesn’t trust that and maybe doesn’t trust her own perceptions enough to fully accept that when cass says no to something it’s okay to take her at her word—all exacerbated by the fact that cassandra at the end of the day can’t enforce boundaries with rapunzel except by expressing frustration when they’re violated, bc she’s rapunzel’s servant. so like, genuine consequences of transgressing cass’s stated boundaries aren’t even possible—it’s not like cass can remove herself from the situation! so how is raps supposed to learn better? she can’t.

but there is that deliberateness to it, because a) rapunzel has this instinctive perception of cassandra’s straightforward nature and b) cassandra herself nine times out of ten says in plain terms exactly what she wants and often why, and while it isn’t rapunzels fault that she has this fuckton of baggage ignoring what cass says in favor of trying to divine her ‘true’ feelings IS a choice that she makes, out of anxiety and self-doubt and just flat out not having ever learned any other way to treat people

& i mean i talk to death the subject of cassunzel fanon stripping cass of agency and making the uwu poor friendless repressed sad useless idiot lesbian rapunzel needs to rEsCuE and bRiNg OuT oF hEr ShELL but it’s like. not quite as but almost as frustrating how framing rapunzel as like, basically cassandras emotional support animal and also someone totally blameless and totally ignorant in her treatment of cass takes away rapunzels agency and intelligence too. (this girl grew up isolated in a tower with no one to talk to but her abuser and a chameleon and she fucking taught herself physics and astronomy and how to cook and bake and make music and paint, and you expect me to believe that in two years she never once even thought “hmm cass told me not to do this, but…”? like first all that’s not the defense of rapunzel you think it is because that level of ignorance legitimately makes people dangerous, and second of all it’s just literally not true like, in BEA/WTH rapunzel understands perfectly well that cass doesn’t want her to share cassandra’s secret with eugene and after multiple conversations on the subject decides to do it anyway! in UR she literally says out loud on two separate occasions that she knows cass doesn’t want her to pry and proceeds to do it anyway! These Are Choices She Is Making)—& i just

like the girl is anywhere from six months to three years out of a horrible isolated abusive lifelong situation depending on what part of the show you’re looking at and yeah of course her choices are shaped by her trauma but—god, they’re still HER CHOICES. and i guess i just don’t understand the appeal in watering down the agency rapunzel has in making those choices and the complexity of why, because rapunzel isn’t an idiot and she does know that cass really doesn’t want her to do things sometimes and there are times when she very openly displays discomfort or hesitation about transgressing those boundaries but does it anyway because doing what she feels like doing—to soothe her own anxiety or guilt or curiosity or whatever!—just… feels better in the moment than trying to be respectful of cassandra’s personal space. like, it’s not her fault she’s like this but if she wanted to change she absolutely could? cassandra in a lot of ways is the ideal person to learn about boundaries from because she’s the kind of person who says exactly what she means 95% of the time and if raps were to like, make a genuine effort to tackle things im positive cass would’ve been more than willing to help raps figure out some strategies for managing that anxiety—even as it is cass despite her frustration with constantly being trampled over showed rapunzel a lot of patience and understanding!! this could so easily have been something they collaborated on together and became even closer through, but… it would have been uncomfortable and rapunzel isn’t good at discomfort! she deals with it by shoving it down and pretending everything is fine even when she knows it isn’t!

& like

that’s good that’s a good thing characters having agency in their fuckups and making choices that they know aren’t right bc it happens to feel better is good—all of this is why rapunzel is such a neat character and a huge part of why tts was so great, bc it took the very rosy fantasy of rapunzel as this sweet ball of sunshine virtually untouched by the horrors of her upbringing besides her endearing naïveté and threw that out the fucking window to treat her like an actual goddamn person instead, one who does try her best but still makes mistakes and also sometimes just flat out makes shitty selfish decisions, bc trauma is messy and recovering from abuse is hard and people can be complicated and contradictory and more than just one thing, and—just, god, why would you want to take that away from her by treating every bad choice she makes as something fundamentally outside of her control?

#i am just thinking tonight abt how much i love that tts rapunzel was allowed to be FUCKED UP #like? even within the restrictions of disney princess #she feels so complex and REAL #how profoundly amazing is it that we’ve got a disney princess #who deliberately makes choices she knows to be wrong over and over bc it’s too hard to grapple with her monumentous pile of baggage #and then has that blow up spectacularly in her face when the friend(s) she harms lash out at her #and you pick apart these choices and there’s just layers and layers of overlapping reasons underneath #all of them understandable and logical based on her past and present circumstances?#s3 executive meddling nonsense aside. the emotional realism! is good!

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tangledbea · 2 years ago

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I just heard Gothel’s deleted some “After all I’ve done for you” and is a fantastic song.

It reminds me a lot of “Stay with me” from into the woods and this version of Gothel seemed to be intentes to really be Rapunzel’s mother and it almost seemed as if she genuinely cared for her? Or at least genuinely believed she was protecting her from the outside world.

From my own personal experience it hits a little too close to home and it’s basically the amalgamation of what an unhealthy mother says when they are angry at their child:

“Who was the one that held you? When the thunder refuse to subside”

“Who build you a home? A wonderful home. That others would live in with pride”

“And do you ever go hungry? No, I don’t think that you do”

“How can you be so ungrateful? After all I’ve done for you?”

“And I loved you and I held you my whole life my only concern”

These are things that I’ve heard and experienced myself and even though the character is still extremely abusive in this version the song paints her as more three-dimensional and human because it’s a much more realistic deception of what emotional abuse and overbearing parents actually looks like.

I like it more than the songs we got in the movie, it’s so much raw, real and emotional but perhaps that was the reason they decided to cut it the first place.

Well, depending upon which earlier version this is from, she could just as easily have stolen her and lied about their relationship, just like she did in the version they eventually made. Remember, earlier version of the story (especially the one with Bastion) were darker stories than Tangled turned out to be.

I'm sorry you had to deal with emotional abuse like this. I'm glad for your sake that you're able to recognize it. It doesn't make it hurt less, but it makes you more aware, and more able to seek help.

#Tangled #Mother Gothel #Songs #All That I've Done For You #Answered

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rusty-clock · 3 years ago

Text

Rapunzel is not responsible for Cassandra's villain arc

Hello and welcome back to "Rusty avoids studying" talks!

In my last post I talked about how I don't think Rapunzel is not responsible for Varian's villain arc. Lets move on and talk about how she is also not the one to blame (or least not only one to blame) in Cassandra's villain arc

Lets start with the show's point of view.

Just like with Varian, the show gives Cassandra a motive to hate Rapunzel but uses something that can't be held against her. With Varian it was her not coming with him to Old Corona during the storm which is understandable reason enough but she can't really be blamed for that.

With Cassandra the reason was that Gothel abandoned her as a baby and chose Rapunzel instead (she also blames Eugene for, you know, unaliving her)

Well, that's obviously something that can't be held against Rapunzel. She was a baby who was taken from her home, how can she be accused for that? And I can't see her thinking as an adult "ah yes, I definitely wanted to be kidnapped from my parents and be raised by my abusive kidnapper for eighteen years". So, yet again the show makes villains dumb by making them hate Rapunzel for something she has no control over. Rapunzel just is not allowed to make mistakes (but lets save that for another rant)

Now lets go to the real reasons why Cassandra should turn against Rapunzel

Since they met, Rapunzel and Cassandra's relationship has been twisted. Cassandra did not want to be friends with Rapunzel and instead of respecting her wishes, Rapunzel used her power as a royal to force Cassandra hang out with her, manipulated her and guilt-tripped her. When Cassandra admitted she only wanted to go to the Contest of Crowns because she could get a place in Ingvarrian army, Rapunzel should have finally understand that maybe they just weren't fit to be friends. She had right to feel hurt for that slight manipulation but then again, she basically forced Cassandra to join that competition and humiliated her in front of nobles from all seven kingdoms. She lost the moral high ground after that.

During season one, Cassandra falls more and more under Rapunzel's command. She has her own dream to become a guard but still stays in Corona even though her father is very reluctant to give her any guard assignments. At this point Cassandra is around 22-23. That's a good age to leave home and get new experiences instead of staying home with a parent who somehow still seems to see her as a child. Cassandra probably would have left if not feeling like she is somehow responsible for Rapunzel, who in turn has no responsibility of anything whatsoever, especially if it means she has to face consequences for her own actions.

Then, in season two, Rapunzel's problems come into plain sight.

In this picture Rapunzel is expressing frustration for Cassandra not wanting to talk about what happened which would be fair except that their talks have never ended well for Cassandra.

When Rapunzel says "we need to talk about this" she actually means "I want to tell you how mad I am because you are mad at me and I'm actually right and you are wrong so you should feel guilty for being mad at me." It's never "I did a wrong thing" but always "I did a wrong thing, BUT".

So yes, not surprising that Cass doesn't want to talk.

Then this grand talk about destiny.

I don't personally think that this whole Gothel thing had very much to do with Cassandra taking the Moonstone. If she and Rapunzel had a good friendship where they respected each other, I doubt it would have make much difference. They both had probably been horrified how Gothel treated Cassandra and Cass has completely right to be angry to Cap for not telling her about her mom but that's it.

However, the fact that Cassandra is Gothel's daughter probably was the last straw which broke the camel's back. And what's more, finally Cassandra had someone on her side: Zhan Tiri.

You that feeling when somebody is unpolite or treats you badly and you say something about that to your friend and they are horrified? Like perhaps you thought before that maybe it wasn't that bad, maybe they just have a bad day or you did say something wrong but your friends reaction confirms that yes, somebody actually treated you badly.

That's what happens to Cassandra.

Since Rapunzel came back everyone have been on her side: Eugene, the king and queen, everyone Cass has ever known, even her own father. Nobody has told her that "hey, the way she treats you is actually bad, she should stop". The only person who saw something else than lady-in-waiting in Cassandra was driven away by Rapunzel's jealousy and guilt-tripping.

So when Cass takes the Moonstone I don't think it had much to do with the stone itself or that vague thought about destiny or that Gothel thing. It was just because Cassandra was tired of playing a part in Rapunzel's show (quite ironic actually, considering she is literally a side character in Rapunzel's show).

The whole situation is like Rapunzel is a girl who moved to the neighborhood and adults coddle her and scold other children when they are mean to her, not being able to see how she treats her so called "friends". And then one day, Cassandra steals a main role in school play which was of course meant for Rapunzel. Everyone is shocked because they did not see what was boiling underneath.

...Okay, that went a bit sidetracked. Lets get back to the show.

In conclusion: Cassandra did not take the Moonstone because of this stupid "you stole my mom" thing. She took the Moonstone because she was angry how Rapunzel had treated her for almost two years now and finally had someone on her side.

So why I don't think Rapunzel is not responsible for Cassandra's villain arc?

Varian and Cassandra's villain arcs are often compared because they are both Rapunzel's friends turned into villains (which tells a lot about Rapunzel's friendship skills) but the biggest difference between them is that Varian is a child. Cass is an adult.

However, that doesn't mean her father should have not kept an eye on the situation.

The Captain (whose lack for name keeps frustrating me) already knew his daughter was unhappy as a maid. Nobody knows why Cassandra really become Rapunzel's lady-in-waiting (there had other girls close to her age: Faith, for example) but Cap should have thought hard if being princess' lady in-waiting was really something that made his daughter happy, especially when he knew she didn't like to work as a maid.

Then there were Frederic and Arianna.

They are Rapunzel's parents. And even though it was probably very hard for them to adjust the idea that their baby was all grown up when they first met her, they still had responsibility to watch and correct her behavior when it was inappropriate. She is the princess and the way she behaves represents the whole kingdom. Her being rude to foreign nobles means Corona is rude to foreign nobles. Etiquette can actually be important.

I won't even start to talk about Frederic because unfortunately he is abusive as well. No amount of "love" can justice locking his grown-up daughter to the tower. But Arianna, as the one parent who had more than one brain cell in her head, should have seen sooner how unhappy Cass was and how Rapunzel thought friends were made. Or, better yet, because both of them were blinded (quite understandably) because the love for their daughter, they should have given Rapunzel a governess or older lady-in-waiting. Someone who had power over her and who she had to listen to.

The fourth person to blame was of course Gothel.

She was the person who left Cass all alone (though it could be argued that she did see the guards with Cass so she didn't, you know, leave her completely on her own) and she is the person who abused and hurt Rapunzel for years. But what she also did, was to teach Rapunzel that if you really love somebody, you can tease them and walk over them and they should not say anything because that's ungrateful. She also taught her that if you don't constantly fight tooth and nail for your freedom somebody takes it away with clever manipulation.

So, because of lack of supervising in Cass' and Rapunzel's friendship three things happen:

One: Rapunzel is living her fairytale coming true. Everyone thinks she is amazing, how is that not a good thing! And because she has never had anyone to compare herself, she believes it

Two: Rapunzel still lives in this fantasy she had in the tower. And because she is a princess, people are afraid to break said fantasy and she doesn't really learn much about real life

Three: when somebody implies that they don't like Rapunzel, she gets terrified because being disliked used to mean being abandoned by the only person she had in her life. So she does everything in her power to make them like her again (see how much effort she puts just to make one grumpy shopkeeper to like her or how hard she tries to make Cass her friend even though she is clearly reluctant)

Because of these reasons I can't completely keep Rapunzel responsible for Cassandra's villain arc. She played a part, sure, but the real blame falls to people who should have supervised her and kept an eye on her. People usually develop a lot socially in their first eighteen years and the only thing she had was an abusive mother, a couple of books and a chameleon. Then she was thrusted into a life where she was loved and cherished by everyone and given power over somebody she wanted to be her friend. It's not really a miracle that ended badly.

In the end we need to address the fifth person responsible of Cassandra's downfall: Cassandra herself.

Her taking the Moonstone was just as justified as Rapunzel's, Sundrop or not. It was still an article in the foreign kingdom which got stolen, no matter who took it. But then, after taking it, Cassandra hurt several people even though she finally had a chance to leave Rapunzel completely behind and "find her own destiny" like she said. In that time she needed to face consequences.

Then again, there has been lots of talk about Moonstone corrupting people but I'm not going there now. Hope you enjoyed my rant!

#tangled #rustyrants #tts cassandra #analysis #rapunzel #moon cassandra

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