#lost legends: the rise of flynn rider

[whiskyarts]

any thoughts about eugene/lance and the stabbingtons (and maybe stalyan?) when they were younger…….ur stabbingtons content intetests me im curious about how you’d interpret that dynamic….i would also just LOVE to see how u draw lance im so desperate for content of him and i think hed look so good in ur style 😭

Oh my god I'm so totally normal about them ALL. So sorry if this reply is really long lmao

I'll be honest, I Did Not Give A Shit about the Stabbingtons as anything more than a plot device to make Eugene's life harder until a friend said "Sideburns Stabbington trans" and that perfectly lines up with my philosophy that "the only people with sideburns are transmascs and JSchlatt" (/j) which made me actually think about them more, lol. THEN, I read the Lost Legends book, The Rise of Flynn Rider and y'all it was all over for me after that. The Stabbingtons are carnies that worked at The Baron's circus, and like, my love for anything clown, circus, and carnival related grabbed my by the fuckin throat and there was no coming back from that one sjsskssk

So most of my HCs about the group come from that book specifically, which takes place when Eugene is 12 (almost 13) years old! Lance is the same age, and the Stabbies are "a little bit older".

Without going into a synopsis of the whole book and trying to stay on topic, Lance and Eugene met the Stabbingtons after joining The Baron's traveling circus. They also met Stalyan during that time, and Eugene specifically described her as "the only girl he'd ever met who wore pants" lol

And with that, here's some HCs lol

Despite Lance and Eugene being super close, I don't think they were all ever friends, moreso just working for the same people and working together when it was convenient outside of that. (ie, they all worked for The Baron at some point, but in the movie Eugene works with the Stabbies outside of that)

Sometime in their teen years, the guys all tried stuff together, like, "experimenting" with their sexualities for lack of a better term. Horny teens, lol.

Lance and Eugene dated for a while at some point, but eventually realized they weren't really into each other romantically or sexually, and would rather just be friends!

The Stabbingtons are 100% the type of guys that would do some gay shit, then call Eugene or Lance a slur for doing the exact same thing (wow, they're gay AND homophobic! /j)

Stalyan and Eugene dated on and off for YEARS like that one prep/jock couple from highschool that you never know when they're together or not because one of them will talk about marriage while the other says they're "taking a break"

I'm too eepy to be more coherent and this post is already so long but I have so many thoughts about The Rise of Flynn Rider, and the Stabbingtons specifically dskjfhdjksf like how the book straight up tells us how Eugene's mom died, and gives us small stuff that I'm latching onto so hard like where Lance got the name Lance Strongbow, and part of why Patchy doesn't talk, and that he likes the color green dfgdfgf

(also i prommy i'll draw lance just for u)

[qualitymoonsuit]

Today is my 34th birthday. Here are the books I got: Star Wars; The High Republic: Beware the Nameless, by Zoraida Cordova; Celestial Monsters, by Aiden Thomas; Lost in the Never Woods, by Aiden Thomas; Pahua and the Dragon's Secret, by Lori M. Lee; Wren Martin Ruins it all, by Amanda DeWitt; Lost Legends: The Rise of Flynn Rider, by Jen Calonita; Lost Legends: Diamond in the Rough, by Jen Calonita; Lost Legends: The Fixer Upper, by Jen Calonita; Goosebumps: House of Shivers: Night of the Living Mummy, by R.L. Stine; Stinetinglers 3, by R.L. Stine; Shark Night, by R.L. Stine; Sunderworld, Volume 1: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry, by Ransom Riggs; The Godhead Complex, by James Dashner; Slow Dance, by Rainbow Rowell and The Pairing, by Casey McQuiston

[silverhart-makes-art]

Here's my take on Vedis from 'The Rise of Flynn Rider'.

This was quite a challenge - coming up with something totally unique yet still feeling like the Brotherhood. I was tinkering with stuff even after I finished the coloring. I knew going in he had to be large, muscled, and blue eyed, with the Brotherhood tattoo on his bicep, as per the description in the book. After some experimenting I decided on giving him a beard, deep-set eyes, a pear shape, and to incorporate a lot of circles. I figure using circles would set him apart from the rest of the Brotherhood, which are a lot of squares, teardrop and triangle shapes.

For Dark Kingdom Vedis, I incorporated a lot of the Dark Kingdom style - fur, belts, leather, facial hair, dark hair worn long. I made him a longbowman, as I feel like a ranged warrior would round out the group nicely. And I just find the idea of a big, hulking guy forgoing sword and axe, to riddle his enemies with arrows quite amusing. For some reason I pictured him as a few years older than the Brotherhood we meet in the series. I really wanted to give Brotherhood Vedis a slightly shady look. Like maybe there's a reason we never saw him with the rest of the Brotherhood. I mean, would you trust a man who trains captive animals for a ring of criminals? He also just blabbed to the Baron about the moonstone, the thing that he swore to defend, even at the risk of being controlled by the Mind Trap. Gotta love the idea of a shady Vedis who betrays the Brotherhood, and runs off to join a circus. Unfortunately the final pose came out stiff, but I'm blaming that on my sore shoulder.

The Vedis Eugene meets in the book I designed to be more world weary. Still a bit shady, but the book describes his voice as deep, yet soft, so I leaned into that with the pose. He's discarded every scrap of his old life: cut his hair shorter, forgone the fur and leather. He sports a brand new scar which I'm sure has a great story behind it. I kept his attire simple - perhaps trying to avoid too much attention for some reason. He's a bit more grizzled, and with more of a slouch, and a bit more kindness around his eyes. I read into him being very regretful over the Dark Kingdom, but it seems to me the wound goes a bit deeper than losing one's home. It's pure speculation, but again ties into my idea that he did not leave the Dark Kingdom on good terms, and is sorry for it.

Just the idea of Vedis - a knight fallen from grace, who winds up joining the circus with a criminal ringmaster and his gang of thugs - I would pay money for that story! That's such a good concept for a character. And pairing him up with a couple of kids like Eugene and Lance - what an absolutely fun adventure that would've been! Where is my story of a grumpy knight-turned-circus-conman taking two orphan would-be thieves under his wing as they try to discover the secrets of his shady past? Like I want to see twenty chapters of Vedis loudly complaining about these two kids, and then at the very end when the Baron tries to kill the annoying pipsqueaks, Vedis takes a stand, and finally does the right thing in his life, and reveals that he has all this knightly training and can actually give the Baron a real run for his money while Eugene and Lance set up the Biggest Con of the Century (and also manage to save Vedis, and he won’t say it, but he’s secretly very proud). I'm sorry, Vedis. You deserve your own story, bud.

@pennumbra’s Vedis design is also amazing, and I kind of wish I could have borrowed some elements from it. The sketch for Brotherhood Vedis looks especially cool.

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Ahhhhh they both came today!!!

It's weird tho because the flynn rider book says it's a proof copy that's not actually for sale, so.... Either way, excited to get reading!

[top-blondie]

Not to put all my eggs in one basket but the author of Eugene’s story really saw the crumbs we got in TTS and went:

[phillipdiffy]

12 year old Flynn found the tower and could've saved Rapunzel years earlier agdgajakak

[tangledbea]

Lost Legends: The Rise of Flynn Rider (Disney's Lost Legends) Hardcover – September 21, 2021

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Bonus Marathon - Introduction

By popular demand, I'll be conducting a "bonus" marathon of selected spin off material connected to the show and movie. Now this is not everything, obviously, but I'll be touching upon some of the highlights and doing brief reviews of some of the more out there things.

This will be a far shorter review series, both in terms of the amount of stuff I'll be covering and the length of the reviews themselves.

It'll also be a far less salt filled review series as well. I'll be discovering most of this material for the first time and just giving my general thoughts and impressions. I'll also be sharing a few surprise 'gifts' for the fandom at large as we go along.

Now here is the working list so far, and can be subject to change.

1. Tangled (Novelization)

2. Villians: Mother Knows Best (Novel/E-book)

3. Before Ever After (Novelization)

4. The Lost Lagoon (Novel)

5. Adventure is Calling (Comic Collection)

6. Tales of Rapunzel - Secrets Unlocked (Novelization)

7. Let Down Your Hair (Comic Collection)

8. Tales of Rapunzel - Opposites Attract (Novelization)

9. Hair-Raising Adventures (Comic Collection)

10. Lost Legends: The Rise of Flynn Rider (Novel/Audiobook)

11. Hair & Now (Comic Collection)

12. Queen for a Day (Novelization)

13. Rapunzel's Guide to All Things Creative and Fun (Activity book)

14. Tales of Rapunzel - Friends and Enemies (Novelization)

15. Friendship Mix-Up (Graphic Novel)

16. The Way of the Willow (Novelization/Audiobook)

17. How To Write A Story (Graphic Novel)

18. The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth (Novelization/Audiobook)

19. Inside the Journal (Shorts)

20. Mixed Up Moods (Novelization/Audiobook)

21. Tales of Rapunzel - Search for the Sundrop (Novelization)

22. My First Year As A Princess (Journal Recreation)

23. Secrect of the Sundrop (The Unofficial Novelization)

24. Art and Adventures (Coloring Book)

25. The Vanishing Village (novel)

26. The Official Tangled Art Book (and the unofficial series art book, if I can)

27. Rapunzel's Royal Wedding: Best Wedding Day Ever (Novelization/E-book)

28. Varian and the Seven Kingdoms (Outline & Pitch)

29. Twisted Tales - What Once Was Mine (Novel/Audiobook)

30. The Unofficial Tangled Cook Book (Recipe Collection)

Now this is subject to change, I may add or delete things as I go along, but this is the working list for now.

Think I'm missing something? Add a comment.

In the meantime I'll be hosting a streaming marathon over on the discord every Thursday day night at 9PM EST while the review marathon is going so fill free to check that out as well.

[starlightmeadowbloom]

Catalina in the Bad Guys AU

Disneyfriend - Catalina from The Bad Guys: The Black Diamond of the Legendary Wolf

I was following your prescription but most of the time I had to improvise since you didn’t specify in which position a bow (I had to put them at end of those plaits since I can’t imagine a big bow on her head like Minnie unless its headband with a small bow, after all, she is 12 not 6, sorry Eloise reference) or which side is a wristband, or red ribbon or badge, but considering she is right-handed then most of those things would on the left side while the badge would be on the right side. It’s something that I noticed (fun fact did you noticed that Wolf is actually ambidextrous, mostly left-handed?). Anyway, this is a rough sketch, if there is something I should fix, then tell me and I will redraw it, but if you are okay with it, then I’ll recolor it and send it to you on Tumblr. What do you think for now?

Here is the colored version just as you wanted. The only I changed about her was, that I gave her Lance’s earring (I found this ideal after reading Lost Legends: The Rise of Flynn Rider) as something important to her like Kiera’s leaf necklace since it belonged to two people close to her heart. Hope you don’t mind😅 Good luck in the next chapter. Can’t wait to see it.😉

💖🥰💖

This was drawn by Disneyfriend and I don’t know what to say, I was so shock and happy at the same time, this actually took my breath away and I so happy.

It was submitted by Disneyfriend who is an anon, wherever you are thank you so much. please color it in since this is actually so perfect that it doesn’t need to be redrawn for while.

and

I just find that Disneyfriend is the friend who gave me those fantastic ideas for my bad guys au story and I can’t believe that they made this again for me with colour this time.

Disneyfirend, you are the best. If you have time, maybe you should have your own Tumblr, Instagram, and DevianArt, and show everyone your work of wonder.

[erazonpo3]

Lost Legends

Okay so I read Lost Legends: The Rise of Flynn Rider and general thoughts? It was cute and fun, and I have gripes here and there but I can still recommend it. I don't want to compare it to WOWM because it's like apples and oranges but Lost Legends wins points for me by actually acknowledging the TTS storyline and characters, even though it's kinda brief and not quite as... entertaining.

And before I go into the in-depth spoiler review I'll jot down a few thoughts here: there's a lot to be said about tie-in media and 'canon', but where I think it becomes contentious is where two pieces contradict each other, and whether those contradictions necessitate a canonical hierarchy or cancel something out completely. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because while LL borrows TTS lore it also contradicts it? which is. ironic.

but i'll get into that. Spoilers ahead

Basic Summary of The Plot

Our story starts at the Dark Kingdom, with a short prologue. It's all stuff we already know from the series: King Edmund tries to grab the moonstone, his wife dies, Eugene gets sent away for his own safety. What's funny is that Ms Queen still doesn't get a name, but her Lady in Waiting/Handmaiden gets a name (Maeve), and it's Maeve who really drops the ball on dropping Eugene off at an orphanage instead of raising him as Prince Horace. Go girl give us nothing

And from here the LL timeline begins, as Eugene and Arnie are now twelve year olds (I think?) in an orphanage in Corona. Which is the first contradiction to 'canon' but shelve that thought for now. Eugene and Arnie are good little boys but they're getting too old to keep hanging around and the orphanage needs money for the evil Tax Man, so they decide they'll go off into the world and send some money back when they're rich off their famous adventuring. What happens instead is that The Baron's circus rolls into town (yes that Baron) and Eugene and Arnie decide to try their luck signing up for that gig.

To prove themselves to the Baron, Flynn and Lance have to perform a hazing ritual a heist. The heist is literally just to buy a key from the Weasel but it plays out as this huge dramatic thing with a guard chase which is eternally funny to me because two kids walk into a bar, buy a key and then leave, and it's treated like fucking ocean's eleven. The Stabbingtons try to betray them (those guys are here too) but Flynn and Lance outsmart them, beginning a rivalry for the ages. Also, the pub thugs are all part of the Baron's circus crew. Don't think about it too much.

Anyway, as this has all been going down, Eugene is really interested in getting to talk to this guy with a tattoo of (what we as the audience know is) the brotherhood symbol, which Eugene recognises from the note left with him as a baby. He wants to talk to this dude in the hopes he'll get a clue about who his parents are, but this dude keeps eluding him. He also hasn't had a chance to tell Lance about this yet, so when Lance finds out about it he assumes Eugene only tried to rope him into the circus so he could find his parents and ditch him. Cue an ongoing silent treatment.

Eugene eventually does talk to this guy and he learns that the Brotherhood symbol is from the Dark Kingdom but the Dark Kingdom is gone so he shouldn't bother looking for it. Bummer. And now the Baron is planning a huge heist of the reward money for the Lost Princess' return, and Eugene is getting cold feet. He's been okay with a little bit of thievery so far but this feels like too much for him, and he's not okay with pulling it off but Lance still won't talk to him.

As the plan unfolds, Lance and Eugene reconcile and then they work together to betray the Baron and return the stolen treasure that they stole back to the King and Queen. They get caught by the Baron, escape, then get caught by the guards, but it's okay because they're presented to the King and Queen and when Eugene explains that they felt really sorry about it and promise not to do it again they're let go. And so the story ends on a high note.

My Thots™

Okay so here are the thoughts

Canon Compliance?

The obvious takeaway here is that this story offers you a beautiful pie in the form of the characters you know and love and the established lore, then shoves the pie in your face with things like "Eugene already knows the Dark Kingdom and the Moonstone exist but he never brings this up" and "Eugene betrays the Baron in a very significant way but somehow they'll make up and he and Stalyan will get engaged". Which means that if the integrity of the series is important to you, you'll probably just mentally cross out Eugene knowing about the Brohood/DK/Moonstone.

And imo that's fine! My own approach to this story is a kind of general 'if it works it works, if it doesn't I'll leave it' thing to work my own headcanons around. Because there's a lot of fun things to pluck from, like a new ex-Brotherhood member and other characters that could pop up from Eugene's past and other worldbuilding details.

The Story

The story was pretty short and obviously very tailored towards a younger audience, but it still felt kind of... slow? Mostly because nothing particularly exciting is happening until the big heist and even that feels pretty underwhelming. And of course I don't expect a story like this to be particularly complex and can appreciate its simplicity, but I felt like if it had been longer there could have been more twists to keep things interesting.

For example, the Baron is set up as a character not unlike Gothel, who lavishes praise upon the boys and goes on about how they're 'family' but is obviously just manipulating them and would throw them to the wolves in a heartbeat. Eugene underestimates just how criminal the Baron is, but at no point in the story does the doubt we have in the Baron's sincerity ever amount to anything- Eugene only turns against him because he has a morality crisis, which I'll get to in a minute.

Misc. Thoughts

Okay so one thing I thought was really cute was that each chapter has a little 'quote' from a Flynnigan Rider book, and I wrote them all down so if you've read this far and want me to post those separately lemme know. Anyway I just thought it was a very cute touch.

An honourable mention goes to every time Stalyan shows up, she doesn't really do anything in the story yet still is somehow the only character holding the brain cell. Rapunzel gets an indirect cameo by Lance and Eugene stumbling upon her tower and going "Whoa that's Crazy. Anyway. " which is amazing, and Cassandra even gets a little mention by the Captain! And to answer the question nobody asked, there's a chameleon running around Corona because she's an escapee from the circus, and Pascal's mom's name is Amélie!

Characters - okay really just Eugene

Eugene/Flynn is the title character of the book and we get the story exclusively from his POV, so there isn't a lot to say about Lance. On the one hand while I can acknowledge that this is a story about Flynn, not Lance, there's a few choices that feel like a missed opportunity at best given that this book really was an opportunity to explore Lance's character in a way the series never really does.

And it feels extra egregious when the plot demands conflict between Eugene and Lance, because while the emotion between them is engaging when it's happening, at other times it just feels like a convenient way to shove Lance offscreen again. (As a side note, as contrived as the conflict is these are also two twelve year old boys so. Can't blame em too much).

Also, Eugene coming up with the name "Lance Strongbow" on Lance's behalf while he's unconscious is one of those backstory things I'm not going to be acknowledging, thank you.

The Robin Hood Dilemma

Something I touched on after reading What Once Was Mine is that Eugene's characterisation prior to the movie isn't something writers seem to really like... dealing with. And it kind of makes sense that the author received a lot of characterisation notes from Chris Sonnenburg, because little Flynn does feel very similar to the Eugene we know; only the Eugene we know is an adult man who has since grown out of his Flynn Rider persona. But the Flynn Rider persona he needed to grow out of isn't something that ought to be cast aside entirely!! Stop being cowards!!

Taking a step back, the whole premise of the book is kind of a paradox- because Eugene needs to become Flynn Rider before he can learn to embrace his authentic self, but Flynn Rider isn't hero material, he isn't a good guy, he's not the right protagonist for a story for kids. So what we get isn't Flynn Rider, it's really just Eugene trying on a new name. That works for the beginning of the story, because he is just Eugene trying on a new name, but he doesn't grow into it.

At the beginning of the story, Eugene is an orphan in a poor but still functional orphanage run by a kind old lady, and he is surrounded by nice little boys. Eugene is motivated to leave and get a job by a desire to send funds back to the orphanage, and when he joins the Baron's circus he's taken aback to learn he's among thieves. Here's where I thought: okay, this might get interesting. We might be getting a G-rated 'angel falls from heaven' story about Eugene being morally corrupted by the Baron, of learning that the world outside is tough and he needs to look out for himself first and foremost-

but no. The Baron shares his plan to steal the reward money for the Lost Princess, because all the people he's surrounded himself with are already criminals who don't give a shit, but Eugene thinks that this is going too far! What about that poor lost princess who people need an incentive to search for? (he's like, projecting about his own parent issues which is fair, but still). And so the story ends with Eugene turning on the Baron to return the money to the "right" people (aka the king and queen of a kingdom?? okay) but he takes a single golden egg for himself so he can send it to the orphanage.

Which is all sweet and nice but. He still has to become Flynn Rider, asshole extraordinaire. He still has to lose his morals to the point where he'd take an inexperienced young woman to a pub that he, in this book, recognises is a dangerous place in the hopes that he can ditch her. He still has to go and become a wanted thief and rejoin the Baron and then ditch Stalyan on their wedding night.

The reason I'm going on about this so much is that the appeal of Eugene to me is that he is this good guy who wants to be a better person for the people he loves, but that means recognising that he has behaviour he needs to change, and his development is meaningful for that. Watering him down to a righteous Robin Hood hero does him a disservice.

The Real Villain Was Capitalism All Along

I will not elaborate nor should I

[mycove-art]

Have you heard of this book?

Lance is mentioned! Could it be that Disney is starting to take the series into account? *blink* *varian and the 7K* *blink*

[brandonjg227]

a long time ago in a galaxy far far away….

Star Wars The Phantom Menace Recast Meme

:https://www.deviantart.com/yu-gi-ohv35/art/Star-Wars-Episode-I-The-Phantom-Menace-Recast-754252003

welcome to the first star wars prequel film the phantom menace now let’s meet our players 😊

Qui-Gon Jinn- Flynn Rider (Tangled)

Obi-Wan Kenobi- Samurai Jack

Darth Maul- Aku (Samurai Jack)

Jar Jar Binks- Michelangelo (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Padme Amidala- Amity Blight (The Owl House)

Anakin Skywalker- Zuko (Avatar The Last Airbender)

Boss Nass- Splinter (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Watto- The Grinch (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

R2-D2- Rover (Planet 51)

C-3PO- Project 77 (Next Gen)

Captain Panaka- Sweet (Atlantis The Lost Empire)

Palpatine / Darth Sidious- Fire Lord Ozai (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Yoda- Master Oogway (Kung Fu Panda)

Mace Windu- Kale (Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas)

Shmi Skywalker- Ursa (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Nute Gunray- Green Goblin (Spider-man 1994)

well that’s about it hope you enjoy and may the force be with you.

[qualitymoonsuit]

Birthday Presents.

I just opened my birthday presents. The 1st present I got was Star Wars: The High Republic: Beware the Nameless, by Zoraida Cordova. The 2nd present I got was Celestial Monsters, by Aiden Thomas. The 3rd present I got was Lost in the Never Woods, by Aiden Thomas. The 4th present I got was Pahua and the Dragon's Secret, by Lori M. Lee. The 5th present I got was Wren Martin Ruins it All, by Amanda DeWitt. The 6th present I got was Lost Legends: The Rise of Flynn Rider, by Jen Calonita. The 7th present I got was Lost Legends: Diamond in the Rough, by Jen Calonita. The 8th present I got was Lost Legends: The Fixer Upper, by Jen Calonita. The 9th present I got was Goosebumps: House of Shivers: Night of the Living Mummy, by R.L. Stine. The 10th present I got was Stinetinglers 3, by R.L. Stine. The 11th present I got was Shark Night, by R.L. Stine. The 12th present I got was Sunderworld, Volume 1: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry. The 13th present I got was The Godhead Complex, by James Dashner. The 14th present I got was Slow Dance, by Rainbow Rowell. The 15h present I got was The Pairing, by Casey McQuiston. The 16th and final present I got was candy.

[silverhart-makes-art]

I finished ‘The Rise of Flynn Rider’ last night. Had a really good time with it; it was like reading a wild episode of the series.Thoughts are below, but be warned of potential spoilers.

So many cameos of characters from the series that we know and love - Edmund, Eugene’s mother, the Baron, Stalyan (I love Stalyan more and more with every appearance, but especially sassy little Stalyan here), Captain, Maximus, Anthony the Weasel, the Stabbingtons, Hook Hand and Hook Foot, Ulf, Vlad, Big Nose, Attila, Shorty (I think?), the rest of the Pub thugs, the Tower randomly drops in, Pascal's mother (Pascal's mother?!), a new Brotherhood member we knew nothing about (what?!), the king and queen show up, Baron actually stole from the Spire Vault, which is impressive, Vardaros is mentioned, Cap randomly mentions Cassandra at one point. Just a wild cameo-fest. Pretty much every chapter had me going 'oh, I know that thing, that's from the series!' And with the exception of the Baron, Lance, and the Stabbingtons, none of these cameos really amount to much in the story. But they sure are a lot of fun. I appreciated them, even if some of them made no sense. It's just pure fandom fun.

Also something interesting to note, both in this book and 'What Once Was Mine' the kingdom is always just called 'the kingdom'. It's never referred to as Corona, or the Kingdom of Corona. I'm curious if recent events had something to do with that. It does make the reading a bit awkward in places, especially here where there is mention of the Dark Kingdom and the Seven Kingdoms, but Rapunzel's kingdom is just 'the kingdom', never capitalized or named or anything.

Spoilers ahead, but I was honestly surprised Vedis didn't turn out to be Quirin. Quirin coming to Corona with a circus is an amusing thought, and I don't see how it would mess up continuity any more than it already was in the book. But it is hilarious to me that pretty much everyone and their mother gets a mention in this book except for Varian. Too bad Varian, you weren't tall enough to be in this book.

This book sets up a lot of stuff that just... never comes to fruition. I like seeing Edmund and his wife getting a bit of backstory there, but there isn't enough there to justify it. There’s not even enough to really add to fandom speculation or headcanon, and the story doesn’t do anything with it. Edmund never comes up again, and eventually the whole Dark Kingdom plot is kind of dropped. It makes sense in the story to drop it, but then there’s no need to establish Edmund and all this Dark Kingdom lore in the first place. It would be stronger if the prologue were cut, and the reader had to discover the mystery along with Eugene. It feels like there should be a payoff, but the payoff comes years later and in another story called 'Tangled the Series'. They find Rapunzel's tower, and proceed to do nothing with it. The Brotherhood is mentioned, and is almost set up as this big interesting thing, and that goes nowhere. If I wasn't familiar with the series I think this book would be very frustrating to read (On that note, I would be so curious to hear the thoughts of someone who read this book and hadn't seen the series). But the absence of Lance Archer as a character is, I think, the most disappointing thing, since everything else is wrapped up in the movie and the series. Lance Archer is constantly referred to in this book, from the very beginning, up until the end, but the actual character makes no appearance. Having little Eugene and Arnie meet a childhood hero and either be inspired or discover they’re not as heroic as they thought, would’ve been really interesting and would’ve tied into the themes very nicely. Also the big twist could be that Lance Archer is actually a Lady-thief, or Lady Caine’s father, or something else fun like that.

It's not a well structured story, but like with 'What Once Was Mine' the characters are really what stands out most. The main theme of making your own family, is more or less solid. The beats it goes through are pretty formulaic, and some of the plot points are a bit convoluted, but Eugene and Arnie are very cute and I enjoyed reading about them. Also the fact that it is such an easy read makes me pretty forgiving of it's flaws. I read through it in about half a day. It's like the book equivalent of popcorn - it's just fun to munch on.

Also love the weird logic that an orphanage has to receive money from the kingdom in order to pay taxes back to said kingdom. But the same taxes get stolen on the way by a Robin Hood-esque Lance Archer who gives it back to the orphanage. It's the most convoluted tax program I've ever heard of. I'm not criticizing it, because it's clearly working - the money eventually gets to the orphanage. But wow, I've never been more curious about fictional taxes then I was reading this book. It's kind of hilarious that for all it's talk of cracking down on crime, Corona would cease to function without do-gooder criminals. All just a part of the kingdom's unique charm, I guess!

As a last note, this book also made me really interested in the Flynnigan Rider books. Like I know they don’t actually exist, but I wish they did. Every time I read or hear about them, I just want to get my hands on them. They sound right up my alley - swashbuckling adventures, just two friends against the world, fighting off bad guys, rescuing horses, swinging from ropes. Those are my kind of stories. Can someone please write the Flynnigan Rider book series into existence? Thank you.

[i-found-you-justine-time]

Speaking if Eugene do you know there's gonna a book about his childhood adventures? I thinks it's called Lost Legends: The Rise of Flynn Rider(+ also there's upcoming some Twisted where Rapunzel instead Sundrop healing power she has Moonstone hurting power, and her are silver instead of golden, but I think I rather want the Lost Legends though)

Actually I found out about the Eugene book because I was looking around for mentions of Flynn Rider. It's very exciting. I'm sure i'll be very cute. Makes me wish Disney would let us have a novelization of the seven kingdoms. I did not know about the Rapunzel thing. It sounds dark.

[nightmare-grass]

I know the show has been over for a long time but I hope the Tangled fandom will take my humble offering of my idea for a rewrite of Tangled the Series.

- The sun and moon shouldn’t be competing forces, they should be the two elements that keep the world balanced. The earth itself should be the third, more antagonistic element that the sun’s warm light and the moon’s cooling tidal forces bring into balance

- The black rocks are from the earth’s core, demons all come from the earth, there’s a lot of evil people on the earth, and so in my version of Tangled, the Earth is the element of the main villain.

- The Sun heals and brings life to the planet, the Moon soothes and covers the world in oceans, and so the Earth is kept from unleashing it’s primordial fury

- In ancient times, when the Earth was newly formed, after a bunch of natural disasters, a drop of sunlight fell from the heavens and created a golden flower, the Sundrop Lily. At the same time, far away, a chunk of the moon fell to the earth, and inside that space rock was the Moonstone. Overtime, people settled the areas and kingdoms grew around the two cosmic elements. The objects faded into legend.

- When the Sundrop Lily is taken from its hill, the earth sends its spires to guard the Moonstone

- Without its equal, the Moonstone’s power destabilized, causing sea levels to rise in the kingdom that was built around it. Quickly, the Dark Kingdom became unsafe for its citizens, and everyone left except for the king, queen, and the king’s most trusted agents. He even sent away his 8 year old son, who suffered head trauma during the trip to the next kingdom over and lost all memories of his childhood. He grew up in various orphanages and became a thief, taking on the name of his favorite character, Flynn Rider. Meanwhile, the queen of the Dark Kingdom died due to illness caused by stress, and the king slowly went mad in his self-imposed isolation.

- When the Sundrop’s connection to Rapunzel is severed at the end of Tangled, the spires cover the shrine to the former growing place of the Sundrop Lily

- When Rapunzel touches the spires, they summon what little essence is left in the soil and in Rapunzel and that summons her long golden hair back, but the rocks imbue her with some of their own defensive power (indestructibility, magical shielding, concussive blasts of light)

- The Sundrop and Moonstone would overpower and burn up anyone who tried to use their power in tandem, so they were never meant to be joined

- Zhan Tiri spent her mortal lifespan gathering power through dark rituals and necromancy, and when she died she became the most powerful demon in the world. This power is what makes her believe that she alone should wield the cosmic forces of the Sundrop and Moonstone.

- Let’s keep the plot line of Varian turning to more dark paths in his quest to understand the black rocks, the Sundrop, and the cosmic forces as they pertain to science, but after Varian’s big villainous moment instead of imprisoning him they take him on the road trip to the moonstone, as a sort of rehabilitation

- The adventuring party will consist of Rapunzel, Eugene, Cass, Varian, and Lance, none of the dumbasses from the Snuggly Duckling, they just were so unnecessary

- The black rocks lead Rapunzel and co. to the Moonstone because their power is being wielded by Zhan Tiri and her demon horde, and they want to use the cosmic forces to destroy everything

- Zhan Tiri still manipulates Cassandra into taking the Moonstone, but instead of the moon spirit disguise, she takes on the form of Mother Gothel. Cass is smart but she’s got serious abandonment issues thanks to Gothel, and Zhan Tiri fully exploits this. Also, Gothel was a follower of Zhan Tiri, so the demon knows all of Gothel’s habits, mannerisms, and secrets.

- Cass takes the Moonstone and gets control over water. She can also conjure storms by controlling the water in the air.

- When Cass gets the Moonstone and goes off on her own, she takes on a more Pirate-y role and has a castle of sunken ships in the middle of the ocean

- The Decay incantation is the incantation of the earth, since everything would die without the sun or moon. It’s just in the earth’s nature to die.

- The Decay incantation is designed to block the power of the Sun and Moon (e.g. if Rapunzel is using it, the incantation will block out her Sundrop powers, turning her hair and eyes black)

- There are two incantations for each cosmic force. One incantation is for surface level powers (Sun/healing and Moon/storms and tides) and the other is for the full power of each cosmic element (Sun/light and Moon/darkness)

- Sun’s color is yellow, Moon’s color is blue, and Earth’s color is red, so the tint on the black rocks is red, as if there’s magma trapped inside, and anyone using the Sun and Moon elements together gets a green aura immediately around them while around the edges it still looks yellow and blue

- Incantations will be called the Decay (Earth), Healing (Sun), Storm (Moon), Dawn (Sun Full Power), and Shadow (Moon Full Power) incantations

- In the end, the powers of the Sun and Moon will be harnessed by Rapunzel to fix everything and released. When they are released, they turn back into the Sundrop seed and the Moonstone, and Rapunzel plants the seed back where the original flower was. The Moonstone, in turn, is placed back in the Dark Kingdom. This restores balance and peace to the Earth.