#ksjkdfjs this is also def the 'i really hope this isn't coming across as character bash-y' section of the story JKLSDFJKLSDJF

[bestworstcase]

I was reading the newest chapter and I think Rapunzel sees Moira as a threat because she's like the only one to challenge her (and not relent) and because she sees her as turning Cassandra away from her.

yeah!

vbhjdfdsf thank you for sending this because a) yes and b) calibrating this was actually one of the two things that made this chapter SUCH a struggle [the other thing was the first scene with cass and moira whew i went through like 10 drafts of that] so it’s good to hear that that all landed the way i wanted it to.

but like

im gonna ramble under a cut rip i hope you like to read

you know the bit in KAQOH where rapunzel is like. [clearly projecting her mixed-up feelings about cass onto her parents] “if the king and queen fall apart, other couples will follow their lead, and soon all of coronan society will crumble. and you know what they say: as goes corona, SO GOES THE WORLD. do you want that to happen, lance? DO YOU?” and then kicks over her easel?

emotionally speaking that’s sorta where rapunzel is in moonless air rn, except more because she is a) only six months and change out of the tower and b) still in the thick of the actual problem vs being miles and miles away and projecting her feelings onto other, smaller problems.

which is to say...

- rapunzel grows up in total isolation and her only human contact until she is eighteen is with a viciously emotionally abusive woman whose sole interest in her was tending to the sundrop. she is trained to be a people-pleasing doormat whose only acceptable feeling is “happy and ready to ask how high when gothel says jump!” 

- upon escaping this situation rapunzel had a grand total of, like, three days of being a relatively normal person before she got whiplashed into this position of enormous social power; as a princess whose return is/was considered nothing short of miraculous, she became entirely surrounded by people who adored her without question and were invested to an unusual degree in pleasing her.

she then begins the long process of learning that the way gothel treated her was exceptionally abnormal and cruel, but... what she doesn’t grasp, because how could she when she has no frame of reference, is that her experiences as a princess are equally as abnormal. 

meaning... rapunzel learns gradually that it is okay for her to feel what she feels even if she’s discontented/unhappy/upset/mad, which is correct. but because she is a princess she is surrounded by people who are, by and large, just going to cater to her whims unless directed otherwise by her father. this does not equip her to figure out what a normal, equitable interpersonal relationship looks like at all.

this is why she screws up on boundaries so much both in benighted and now in moonless air, but it’s also the reason she is struggling SO MUCH with navigating this delicate sort of detente she has with cassandra now. like, prior to this point the sum total of her experience in interpersonal conflicts are: 1) the spat she and eugene had after his botched proposal [when eugene was clearly in the wrong, and came to her to apologize, which fixed everything], 2) cass blowing up at her after unification day [which came a little bit from rapunzel stomping on her boundaries but mostly from cass wrongly taking out her anger with herself on rapunzel, and which again was fixed by cass coming to rapunzel to apologize], and 3) monty being curt with her at the goodwill festival [not resolved, but also overshadowed by all the chaos that happened immediately after]. 

so... based on her own life experience, rapunzel effectively only has two models for how interpersonal conflicts go: either 1) the other party is an evil manipulative liar whom rapunzel needs to stand up to [like gothel] or 2) the other party made a mistake and it’s on them to apologize/come talk things out [like eugene and cass in benighted]

and her current issue with cass... for a lot of reasons does not fit into either of those models. and it’s all wrapped up in this OTHER thing where cass is telling her corona sort of sucks and her father did this horrible thing and the people who attacked rapunzel/injured her/brainwashed her have a valid point, actually.

so rapunzel flounders around trying to figure all this stuff out and she is ABSOLUTELY NOT EQUIPPED TO DO THAT because exactly zero of her past experience with navigating conflict has any relevancy to her current situation... and the only person she feels able to turn to for advice is eugene, who is himself totally disconnected from the issue and also, where saporians and the separatists are concerned, emphatically does not know what he’s talking about. 

and on top of that, bubbling under the surface is the lingering side effects from sugracha digging into rapunzel’s brain and stirring vigorously, namely: she broke some mental boundaries that rapunzel built for herself and that is allowing certain feelings (such as anger) to bubble up to the surface more easily. [similar to how zhan tiri crawling around in cassandra’s brain knocked a couple early childhood memories loose]

and then!!! to make matters worse!!! rapunzel’s love for cass is the hook sugracha hung all the magical manipulation on. so rapunzel is coming down from the high of this magic-induced obsession with cassandra and that is mixing with her real love for cass in fun new ways which is to say rapunzel is nursing a hell of a crush on cassandra rn, right at a time when she and cass are having a rocky time of it and cass is getting closer to this other woman who is blatantly flirting with cass and goes out of her way to be nasty to rapunzel and seems to have suddenly supplanted rapunzel as cassandra’s best friend. so rapunzel feels very threatened by moira and does not have the experience/emotional intelligence to identify that a lot of that stems from romantic jealousy so she’s trying to find an explanation that makes these feelings “rational” and like, makes sense of her Inexplicable Desire to pry cass away from moira with a crowbar sljkdflkjsdf.

and as if that wasn’t enough rapunzel is now surrounded by people who have zero reason whatsoever to give a damn about her personal baggage and very little incentive to be patient with her while she flails around making a mess because she has no idea what to do... and all of these people like cass, are friends with cass, would take cassandra’s side over rapunzel’s in a heartbeat. so there’s this goodbye and goodwill vibe too where rapunzel is feeling this surge of resentment because she doesn’t. know how to handle not being liked in general. 

which all puts rapunzel on this slip-n-slide down the path of least resistance, which is: dig in heels and jam the square peg of the current situation into the round hole of her past experience and try her best to make it fit and then work from there. this creates a) a strong incentive to find a narrative where cassandra is somehow misguided/a victim in all this and b) a likewise strong incentive to view moira as a gothel-like figure, i.e. an enemy to be overcome.

so rapunzel’s brain rn is like [fork in garbage disposal noises] 24/7 and that is why this section of the story is very much her lowest point. she hasn’t quite bottomed out yet but it’s gonna happen in the next like, two or three chapters. and then she’s got a hell of a hole to dig herself out of. she is trying so hard but she is being asked to fly when she has barely learned to crawl so RIP