#i was like bitch are you mother gotheling that baby

[grayintogreen]

Is this anything?

[tangledbea]

Among the other Disney villains, which one do you think Mother Gothel would get along with the best? (If, in fact, she actually gets along with anyone at all considering her narcissistic character.) I've seen fan art of her with Judge Claude Frollo because of their similarities (kidnapped/adopted baby locked up in a tower and all that), but someone else pointed out that Frollo's self-righteous sense of morality would condemn her as a witch.

I agree with the person who said he'd condemn her as a witch. She uses magic to stay eternally young. He thought Esmeralda was a witch for stage magic. The end. (Besides, who actually bonds over being cruel to children?)

Narcissism doesn't inherently make someone incapable of getting along with other people. It might make them obnoxious to be around for long periods of time, but that doesn't mean they aren't capable of being pleasant.

The thing with Gothel is, she's not magical, herself. She can use magic, but she doesn't have magic. So she might feel out of her league palling around with the likes of Ursula and Jafar, both of whom would lack the patience to deal with her. She's also witty. Whether she's cracking split-second jokes at someone else's expense or coming up with plans a, b, and c lightning fast, the woman is smart. I don't think she'd get along with the more austere villains like Lady Tremaine or Grimhilde (or, again, Jafar). The villains who might actually enjoy her company are those with minions she can belittle: Hades, Scar, Madam Medusa. In fact, let's look at Madam Medusa!

She's an ordinary human, vain, quick to insult people in a tone that sounds sweet ("Adopted? Who would want a homely little girl like you?")... I can see her and Gothel getting together for monthly coffee catch ups, just to bitch about their lives and talk skin care tips. Gothel is vain, but she's not like Grimhilde, who doesn't want anyone else to be more beautiful than she is. No, she just wants herself to be beautiful, and if other people are, too, good for them. And, for that matter, I think she'd get along pretty well with Cruella. The three of them can pal around, talk fashion and beauty standards, complain about the people they've got under their thumb (Snoops, Jasper and Horace, Rapunzel or even the Stabbingtons ("Good help is so hard to find, these days.")), snidely belittle the people walking by, loudly say that they really must do this more often, then not see each other again for another month, all the while muttering under their breath about how insufferable the other two are.

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

Do you have any favorite Descendants headcanons?

Yes! This is absolutely a permission to share an absurd amount of them, right? (Say yes, please-)

Anyway. Canon is a suggestion and so is Rise timeline.

Uma and Harry have been married pretty much since Ben's coronation. They... Kind of got drunk along with every other Isle kid and decided to get married, as you do. It's legal. They don't remember a thing.

Neither does Harriet. CJ however knows and is just waiting for the best opportunity to tell her brother. The Lost Revenge crew also knows, mostly, but just assume that the Captain and first mate also know. Which would make sense.

The mother of the Hook siblings was a siren (that bloodthirsty type that lures sailors to their deaths) and Captain Hook was completely in love with her. He was also completely blind to all of her murder attempts.

As a result, the Hook kids think that murder is a love language. Like, yeah. Mama tries to kill papa from time to time. That happens. It works for them.

They are having fun.

As is Ursula. She watches Hook family drama (tm) as a telenovela and used to take baby Uma with her. This might or might not be how Uma and Harry met.

None of the Isle kids knows how death works. This would be because Hades decided that Isle kids and their still-alive siblings are too much headache to deal with, especially while on vacation, when technically, the Underworld is a problem of his younger brothers.

CJ Hook treats the Underworld like a bus station. Hades has resigned about when she was ten and now lets her take the Cerberus for a walk from time to time.

The Isle kids regularly try to make s'mores over Hades' hair. The only one who ever got Hades to cooperate was Anthony Tremaine, while looking after his baby cousins, who really wanted the s'mores. That would be because he actually asked. (And Hades felt his suffering on a deep personal level. Younger siblings.)

The Tremaines have the only neutral territory on the Isle. You see, if you fight by the Tremaines, you'll get kicked out of the hair salon and you won't get your hair done. This threat works because the Isle kids are vain as fuck.

Anthony Tremaine/Harriet Hook/Ginny Gothel. Mutually destructive threesome.

Audrey Rose and Anthony Tremaine are vibing. They bonded over fashion, their horrible grandmothers, and Auradon's disaster finances.

Audrey is generally vibing with the pirates, as she deserves.

Aro ace Audrey Rose.

Freddie and Celia Facilier and Marya Rasputin are basically half-demons from a different end of the spectrum.

Freddie can walk absolutely quietly even with all the gold trinkets CJ gives her.

Uma and Freddie wore ninety percent of the Isle gold at some point or another. The last ten percent is still locked in EQ's vault and the Isle kids are very much trying to break in.

Uma just. Feeds people to the sharks. That's a thing that happens. She also doesn't necessarily bother to kill her hostages before that. (Harry very much supports this. He might drag some hostages to her, too. Murder is a love language and all that.)

Claudine Frollo was adopted by the Hook siblings and is a part of the Lost Revenge crew. She is a bitter bitch and I love her.

She is also wholeheartedly convinced that the Lost Revenge is a cult, and she is right.

The de Vil cousins couldn't give less of a fuck to the rivarly between Uma and Mal.

Evie has already mentally killed Cruella in about forty six different ways. She is counting.

De Vils, Hearts and Hooks argue over who wears red the best. They can and will kill over it, but that's fine. Death is a social construct.

Fairy Godmother sealed off Jane's magic.

On the Isle, Mal misses the concept of wings, freedom, something that she has never had.

Evie has social anxiety due to ten years spent alone with her mother.

Mal can be controlled by a laser pointer. As can CJ. And Harry. Yzla and Zevon. Marya Rasputin. Begrudging Uma and Harriet. Technically, Claudine Frollo, who will start praying and backing off and will never touch the surface with the laser dot again. De Vils and Faciliers know this and they are having a blast. (Carlos will just shine a laser pointer away from him when he wants to work on his trinkets and it works.)

Alice accidentally fell down the rabbit hole on the Isle and consequently kidnapped a kid. That kid happened to be a twin sister of CJ Hook. (Alice and Ally's ages don't match. This works ✨)

There is a reason why there are three schools on the Isle. The reason is: „You could never pay me enough to deal with more than one sibling at time, now fuck off.“

If I remember anything else, I'll add?

[lolotheparagon]

Youre post about stella helluva boss i really liked it. If Vivziepop want stella to be both villain and abuser she need to do a better job

Like ok we gonna have female villain both abuser and villain ok but what we have is just one dimensional villain who written to be abusive in order to justified and make stolas look good. Beside her being terrible villain, her portrayal as abuser is problematic her line said "I like tormenting you." No real life abuser would said something like that. They make her like she's abusive from birth which another problem. When it's come to abuser do not ever write them as someone who's pure evil and emotionless monster. Disney villain can be over the top yet their portrayal of abuser come much more accurate hell even some of the female character in helluva boss like loona, verosika, barbie they are far much more accurate portrayal of abuser than stella did. Yet interestingly enough in the fandom fans hated stella very much then what about the hate for verosika, loona, barbie they actually done far worse than stella did.

Judge frollo he's a villain and abuser complex too

Lady tremaine and mother gothel their motivation is not really strong or complex however they still manage to be terrifying both as villain and abuser

So i watch the kdrama the glory and let me tell you something. Park Yeon Jin the main villain and the bully is stella character could have been if being handle by the right people

So glory plot is about a woman name Moon Dong Eun planning revenge against her high school bullies. When she report the bullies she's being victim blamed, psyhically assaulted, the bullying left psyhical and mental scar on her. Since the bullies most come from rich family the school doesn't do anything to punish them

If you interested go watch it on netflix they have part 1 and part 2

Tw this k drama contain bullying, SA, domestic violence,

Abusers are bullies. They both the same mentality and both love to have power over people to make themselves feel better about themselves. To say you should never characterise them as pure evil or emotionless is not only stupid but horribly wrong. Some of the best villains who are abusers like Lady Tremaine or Mother Gothel are cartoonishly evil. They are horrible people with no sympathetic attributes whatsoever. And that’s why we remember them so much. They are all childishly pathetic which is why Stella is like this.

It’s not Stella being portrayed as cartoonishly evil abusive spouse that’s the problem, it’s the fact she’s only like that just to push the narrative of Stolas being this precious baby who didn’t do anything wrong in his life and had to deal with an abusive wife for years all because of keeping up the illusion of a happy family. If Stolas had his pilot personality or if Stella was a villain unrelated to Stolas, that would be fine. But she’s literally used as a vector to make Stolas look much better than he actually is. Stolas has not only been a neglectful dad to Octavia but has also participated in an unhealthy SA-riddled power imbalance relationship with a lower class commoner for the sake of finding a sexual outlet.

Vivzie clearly loves Stolas, she’s put so much focus on him being a depressed millennial dad instead of the sneering, domineering demon we saw in the pilot (Btw we don’t even SEE pilot Stella’s personality, all we see is a cameo of her looking shocked at Blitz for falling out of the bedroom) so she can push the Stolitz ship to be endgame, so her and her audience can forget the sexually coercive and power imbalance both Blitz and Stolas have in the first place so they can simp away guilt free.

Stella herself being this entitled evil bitch is fine, the fact she was only characterised this way to make Stolas look good is not. And she doesn’t even get to be that menacing anyway cos every time she tries to be threatening is either diffused for comedic effect or have someone else be in control and make her the pawn like with Andreaphelus. The only time I thought she was genuinely threatening was the balcony scene in the Circus episode. But even then, it’s quickly negated by an off-screen divorce.

She’s just not a very well-written villain or a character for that matter.

[toxic-mothers-tourney]

Toxic propaganda: Mother Gothel (Tangled)

This bitch is so toxic that she got an entire CinemaTherapy episode dedicated to her gaslighting

Locked her in a tower for 18 years to use her hair for skincare benefits (eternal youth)

she's bad enough in the movie. and then the sequel series makes her EVEN WORSE

Insists she's keeping Rapunzel locked in one room for her own protection, raises her to be terrified of the outside world and to trust no one but Gothel, yells when Rapunzel asks for anything she's not supposed to want and then immediately guilt-trips her with "great, now I'm the bad guy," etc etc.

I think she is the toxic mother prototype model that, she's the first one that came to mind for me

She locked her adoptive daughter in a tower for 18 years and gaslit her into believing the world is a cruel and awful place. Her abuse has canonically left Rapunzel with PTSD. She also used her biological daughter as a servant and forced her to compete with Rapunzel for her love. Her daughter's childhood trauma led to her blocking out those memories and resulted in major trauma when the memories were restored.

First of all, her 'daughter' is just a child she kidnapped. She then proceeded to lock Rapunzel in a tower for eighteen years while gaslighting her to the extreme

she’s super manipulative and gaslights rapunzel

Kidnapped a baby for her magic healing hair. Kept her isolated in a tower deep in the woods and convinced her that the outside world is fucked up and evil and will instakill her. Pretty bad.

Manipulative, abusive, and neglectful, kidnapped a princess and abandoned her biological daughter to pretend to be the princess’ mother, stabbed her “daughter’s” love interest to keep her enslaved, was part of a cult

um LOCKED HER IN A TOWER HER WHOLE LIFE

She is the worst - selfish, manipulative, literally stole a baby in the middle of the night

Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. Child-stealer, manipulator, and attempted murderer. What more could you ask for in the worst mother figure of all time?

She abandoned her own daughter to raise the child she kidnapped for her magic hair. Treated them both terribly while she had them, made them feel they had to earn her love by being good and obeying her. Emotional abuse galore. The manipulation, gaslighting, insults framed as "jokes", etc. Cass doesn't remember much for most of the series cause she was so young when Gothel abandoned her, but Rapunzel has awful nightmares about her and you can clearly see the trauma from how she was raised in her behavior.

obligated to submit her she's sooooo fun to analyze. she doesn't actually love her daughter like a person, but as a treasure to be hoarded

Kidnapped a princess because she wanted to be a milf :/

Gaslighter supreme, literally chained up her own daughter and murdered her love interest in front of her

I mean....gestures to all of her Especially when you watch the series...god she's just awful 😅 Obviously there's all the movie issues, which if you haven't seen it's basically just gaslighting....oh and kidnapping ¯\(ツ)/¯ She pretends to love Rapunzel, so Gothel can continue to use Rapunzel's powers to make herself young. She keeps Rapunzel terrified of the outside, and keeps her confidence low by constantly telling her she's incompetent and ugly. There's some other verbal abuse as well. You find out in the series that she has a young daughter (trying to be spoiler free) before she goes and kidnaps Rapunzel, who she again pretends to love but basically abandons and forces to take care of herself and the house (she's like...3), then she just leaves the daughter behind with barely a 2nd thought. And that daughter gets to watch Gothel abandon her 😄 Mother of the year!

[kana-muchi-midori]

Post Benimido ending au hcs???👀

yayyyyyyyyyyy

TW: CSA, abuse, pregnancy, and childbirth

• So I’ve actually thought about how BeniMido would work if Benietsu is supposedly against Midori getting SA’d and I came up with this:

What if Benietsu was fine with Midori getting raped the whole time but was only pretending not to be to manipulate Midori into her trust so she can finally reveal her true self once Midori is in her grasp and abuse and rape her to her cold heart’s content? Most likely not in canon but that sure is the case in this AU.

• I imagine they have a very toxic and dark variant of an almost mother-daughter type relationship. So like imagine Rapunzel and Mother Gothel with sexual undertones added.

• Speaking of Mother Gothel, Benietsu did also isolate Midori from the outside world and wouldn’t let her attend a school. She would go on about how “the outside world is so dangerous” and that it’s Midori’s fault that she had gotten into the whole mess in the first place, since she trusted a complete stranger who turned out to be shitty like Mr. Arashi.

• Though a huge dick, Benietsu is nowhere near as intense and extreme with her abuse as Muchisute is. She definitely has more “kindness” (and keep in mind I use that word very loosely) then Muchisute ever will.

• Speaking of Muchisute, Benietsu would often threaten to send Midori to Muchisute’s whenever she misbehaved, since she was married to Akaza who was friends with Muchisute. She never really did though, knowing how ruthless Muchisute can be.

• When Midori’s Stockholm syndrome began, she had a habit where she would wait for Benietsu to fall asleep, then snuggle her. Benietsu always assumed Midori would roll over to her side when she slept. Well, one day Beni woke up to Midori snuggling her and was… very shooketh to say the least.

• One time she got really mad at Midori bc reasons. Like foaming at the mouth livid, so she grabbed Midori, screamed at her, and then rammed her head against the wall, causing Midori to pass out. Benietsu nearly shat her pants in horror when she saw Midori not breathing, but she turned out to be fine (well, not dead at least). Poor Middy got a really bad concussion for a few months.

• Beni really regretted her decision, since Midori then avoided her afterwards. So, she pulled a Midori and was the one snuggling her this time as she slept. Midori eventually went back to swooning over Beni because… she lonely :(

One about when Midori had my OCs Spotty Beni had Yara.

• While Beni was less harsh on Midori throughout her pregnancy, she wasn’t very… nice to Midori as she… gave birth.

“Oh you’re experiencing contractions? If you think that hurts like a bitch just wait until you actually start to give birth.”

“Push, you little shit! Don’t you want this to be over already?!”

“LESS CRYING MORE PUSHING!”

Like damn bitch you deadass gonna say that shit to a literal MIDDLE SCHOOLER giving birth?! Like bro how would you feel if Akaza talked to u like that as you were giving birth to that baby u murdered with him when u were a youngin?! Okay in my HC Akaza was low-key kind of a jerk when she was giving birth at that time but not to the extent Beni was jfc christ woman!

• Midori tried to help comfort Beni when she was birthing Yara but… that did not end well.

[frecklystars]

Hi Keri! Idk if you are a disney fan at all but if so I recommend the game disney dreamlight Valley. Everyone is so kind to you and your friend right off the bat (other than mother gothel, who’s a massive bitch all the time FUCK her) and the main plotline is literally about how hard it is to grow up, the “villain” ending up being just your younger self that the world was so cruel to. I was not expecting a silly game made by disney to make me so emotional, but there were some moments that reminded me of how bad my depression was in the past that everyone in The Valley helps you overcome. I don’t want to spoil too much, but there is a part where you kind of have to go back in time to see why/how things happened and Minnie tells you something like “I’ve noticed you’re not quite yourself right now so I just wanted to remind you you’re loved I love you” and oh boy did that hit like a truck (in a good way!) There was also a multiplayer update recently that lets you visit your friends villages with a code! Again, idk if you’re a fan of disney at all, but dreamlight valley has quickly become one of my favorite “do nothing” games, and it really was so so comforting to me to have my fave characters since I was a small girl tell me they care about me.

I hope you have a wonderful day with lots of Ken kisses! 💕

hi sweetheart!!! 💖💖💖

thank you so much for the game recommendation!!! I absolutely love disney movies and I would probably benefit a lot from getting to interact with my favorite characters and hearing them cheer me on to get better. reading this, the fuckin "you're not quite yourself right now" line ALSO hit me like a truck, god damn

I unfortunately don't have any game consoles because i'm broke asf and I didn't grow up w/ video games, so I don't really know where to start on which consoles I'd buy. to uh, to play games. my PC is also sputtering its final breaths, I haven't risked downloading anything new at all into this baby since 2019.

I'd love to save money to buy myself a nintendo switch, I hear those are fun, and disney dreamlight valley is probably the first game I'd purchase, I've heard a lot of good things about it!

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Hmmm while I do admit that the show didn't really handle Varian or Cassandra very well I'd honestly say they did a lot better with Varian than Cassandra, actually having him face consequences and earn a redemption while Cass just put all of Corona in danger by her own actions then threw a pity party for herself and somehow that makes her redeemable. But anyway, I totally do see plenty of issues with Varian's arc too cause its not perfect (just better than Cass's IMO). But the thing is, Lily seemed to basically have the same attitude with Varian as she did Hunter "fuck white boys for being sad". And like say what you want about Varian but Lily was literally begging for a 14 year old to rot in prison for the rest of his life and Varian should lose his dad forever cause he deserves to suffer. Like geez its fine if you don't like Varian or his arc but literally begging for a 14 year old to suffer for the rest of his life and his only family should stay dead forever cause he deserves to suffer. What the hell?

Honestly, I think my problems with how they did Varian VS how they did Cassandra lays in while Varian has consequences at the very least, its just how they handled him going evil briefly that was the problem....Cassandra's has the problem of blaming Rapunzel for Mother Gothel kidnapping her. Like uh, Cassandra DOES know Gothel was a abusive bitch to Rapunzel, right? And that baby Rapunzel was literally asleep before Gothel kidnapped her, right? Like, it just reeks off iffy writing. And they just kinda rush her redemption as a result after flip-flopping constantly with her and by the end, they kind of just send her travelling to explain her absence from the wedding. And this is kind of ignoring me groaning at them for going with the obvious Gothel child theory. Like, I love fan theories a-lot, but Gothel one was just meh and then them confirming it just kind of led to again, the obvious problem with Cassandra getting mad at Rapunzel about something Gothel chose to do just cause she was that obsessed with the flower.

But yeah, I do see what you mean with Lily. Lily honestly never has a good criticism beyond....I don't know, he's a edgy white boy? Like, I recall actually watching her reaction to the episode and its just....the only 'joke' she had was....how edgy the show will get. Like....this again, falls into Lily being allergic to anything with lore/plot. You take any step into dark stuff??? Edgy now. Didn't know plot/lore counted as edgy, but oh well. But when it came to Varian, its so weird cause like, just a reaction or so prior....she actually questioned if Rapunzel had checked in on Varian, aka a concern I saw at the time from others. But then you kind of cut to her just....now flat out hating Varian and dubbing him a edgy white boy.

But like, Lily wishing that on a fourteen year old isn't a surprise. Remember, Hunter is sixteen and is a child that up until the end of Hollow Mind, was stuck in an abusive situation and has now obviously fled it. But Lily actively not only wanted him to die CONSTANTLY when watching Any Sport In A Storm, she also actively cheered when Hunter's abuser, Belos, 'killed' him in Hollow Mind and then actually got upset when he was revealed to be alive and despite Hunter fleeing in a panic attack....she actually said good and told Hunter to stay out of the story. Like...she wouldn't be saying ANY of this if Hunter and Varian were either girls or weren't white, but because they are white and male, she actively does this shit and then considers anything she says as actual criticisms. Like okay, Lily, have fun acting like you can call out Hunter when your grown ass star wars oc is killing people cause violence fetish and is throwing temper tantrums whenever someone insults her slave trader mom.

[frick6101719]

Kanej Tangled AU

Earlier this month I saw this art and while nothing about it is explicitly Tangled-inspired you can't tell that to my au-obsessed brain it won't work. You may also blame @rivkah94

Consider:

Tante Heleen as Mother Gothel, an evil bitch who has been keeping herself young for centuries via a magic flower

But also getting people to pay her to take THEM to the flower to stay young/be healed

Inej's mother takes the flower to heal her when she gets sick during pregnancy

Inej is born with silvery-white hair that glows if you say a special incantation

Heleen tries to cut her hair to keep herself young and keep making money, ends up kidnapping baby Inej when she realises this won't work

Keeps her locked up in a tower, where it's just the two of them (plus every person who pays Heleen the right amount to get to use Inej's power to stay young and healthy)

Inej grows up feeling like more of a commodity than a girl--everyone only cares about her for what she (and her hair) can give to them, and they use her and then leave, without ever seeming to care about her.

When Tante Heleen is around Inej reads and cooks and cleans and does other non-threatening tasks, but when Heleen is gone from the Tower she practices her gymnastics and knife-throwing. She enjoys the knife-throwing (she read about it in a book once and thought it sounded so cool) but she doesn't think she's very good at it. Then again, they're only kitchen knives.

Every year the King and Queen hold a festival of lights, honouring the Saints in hopes They will return their baby girl to them. It involves lanterns of different colours, representing the different Saints and thus prayers for different things.

Inej grows up seeing these lights, and Heleen has always told her it's a festival for the Saints, which makes Inej really want to go see them (she doesn't know it's also her birthday)

Meanwhile, Kaz is a famous and very wanted thief. He was raised in an orphanage outside the captial city with his brother, but it was ravaged by plague when he was nine, his brother died, they thought he was dead and didn't check as well as they should have and sent his body with the others to be burned at sea, you know the drill

Pekka Rollins is the rich asshole who owned the orphanage and packed the kids in there like sardines and didn't take any preventative measures to stop the spread, so many more kids died than should have

Kaz knows this, has a bone to pick

He joins Haskell's little crime family, stealing shit, earns quite a reputation for himself, all with the goal of taking everything from Rollins

Steals shit from Rollins all the time, obviously

Steals a DeKappel from him, in fact

But he does this without Haskell's permission, and this is a problem. Haskell decides Kaz is getting too powerful/independent in the gang; he might be making a move on Haskell's role as the head of this organization, and decides he needs dealt with

Orders two of his henchmen to go on Kaz's next job (stealing the lost princess's crown) and betray him, alerting the guards to their presence. Kaz barely gets away with his life, and winds up at the tower

Climbs up, sneaks in, thinks no one is home until there's a steak knife stuck out of his shoulder and a small Suli girl with silver hair who appeared out of nowhere (spoiler: she was in the rafters)

She was aiming for his throat, but again: steak knife

She's getting ready to stick him again when Kaz is like "I have a job offer for you"

**Confused silence**

After much explaining and negotiating they reach an agreement: Inej is going to help Kaz bring Rollins down in exchange for Kaz taking Inej from the Tower (using his connections to get her on a ship away from Kerch)

He's lying though he didn't tell her he's on the outs with his gang and everybody is after him right now

At some point he buys Inej real throwing knives and after getting used to them Inej is like, really good

He probably gets them for her after they get cornered by some of the various people who want Kaz dead at an inn (owned by Nina and Matthias) and Kaz realises they BOTH should be armed

Also he should probably teach her how to pick locks and shit. If they're doing this heist together, she should know that.

They barely escape the inn with their lives, and Kaz gets injured. Inej reveals the magic hair

"You mean you could have healed the knife wound in my shoulder this whole time??"

They both wonder if she could heal his bad leg. Neither brings it up

Anyway, then you've got your classic running-around shenanigans, cutesy days spent in Ketterdam (Inej wants to go to the Festival of Lights once before she leaves this place)

Cutesy but also angsty

I mean Kaz tells her it's about the lost princess's birthday and he's always been good at math...

They're planning their break-in to Rollins's place when Heleen finds her (she's found Haskell, it's a trap) tells Inej that Kaz isn't going to help her get out of here--he has no power to get her a ship, because he has no connections, no friends, no allies.

Sure enough, Kaz and all his stuff is gone from their little camp when Inej goes back

Little does she know though, Kaz has been ambushed by the Dregs and taken back to Haskell for what I'm sure will be a perfectly civil conversation. There will be a mediator probably. No one will get hurt.

Inej goes back with Heleen, and even she isn't sure how willing she is or isn't. I mean where else is she going to go? What else is her life?

The few Dregs who are still loyal to Kaz (featuring Jesper and Wylan) help him escape by turning the gang against Haskell (after a legendary beatdown, naturally)

Kaz goes back for Inej, having found out by now that she's been taken back by Heleen

Unfortunately, Heleen was counting on Kaz coming back, and while Kaz wasn't expecting to just walk in and get his girl, he wasn't expecting Heleen to have reached a deal with Pekka Rollins that he would help her and Inej out of the country in exchange for Kaz Brekker

He's already beat up. Pekka's there with a few henchmen. Things are not looking good

Fortunately, Inej has managed to pick her cuffs, and now the fight's more fair

What exactly happens here is a little fuzzy, but it might very well end with Rollins, Kaz, and Inej the last ones standing. Only Rollins has Inej, and Kaz is dying on the floor.

Inej makes Pekka a deal: Kaz's life for her. She'll go with him, keep him young and healthy forever (and rich, if he wants to sell what she can give) if he lets her heal Kaz.

She trades her freedom for Kaz's life. Kaz trades it right back, cutting her hair.

Rollins laughs, and laughs, and laughs. Right until Inej's knife sinks into his throat.

"You were my new dream"

"And you were mine"

But it's okay don't worry everybody they're going to be okay--Inej's hair may be black now, but SHE'S still magic and she saves him

There's probably no passionate kiss but maybe there's some super tender forehead touching and hand-holding and TEARS

And they go back to Ketterdam and Inej gets to finally meet her parents and have a family who LOVES her

And a thief/crime boss who loves her too 🖤

[caroldantops]

ok rlly random but i thought i’d ask, how do you feel about mother gothel from tangled?! i can’t help but think of her as a dark character, and keeping you against your will, “trust me pet” is literally in her song asdfghjkll like she’s got rapunzel chained at the end she was written for those with dark mommy kinks

i’m sorry for this

see now. you came for my life with this. why did you just come for my entire life. mother gothel has been a repressed crush since the sacred year 2011 when i was but a 12 year old baby dyke going to the movies to see the cute little rapunzel disney film tangled and then this bitch appeared and i was like "huh. why do i think she's so neat. maybe i really just like the hit song from the tangled 2011 soundtrack 'mother knows best' and also 'mother knows best (reprise)'. maybe i just think villains are cool. maybe i dont have repressed issues that will only blossom further as i reach adulthood."

but no. i would like her to kidnap me and ruin my life and pussy. that's all.

[intothewickedwood]

Once Upon A Time Rewatch: 7x11 Secret Garden

Wahoo! Zelena and Robin centric!

I still feel so lucky that we got the chance to see Zelena with a grown up Robin. I always thought I’d only see it in fanfiction so I’m so happy with what we got! 

Robin, honey, what the hell are you doing?

After seeing this episode’s trailer I was so sure Robin was going to be a witch. Heck, even before that I assumed so because of her mum. I started calling Curious Archer ‘Curious Witch’ before this episode aired and before they had a ship name. I still call them that because in my heart she is always a witch and gets her powers back post 7x22 and her and Alice live their best witchy lives together.

Robin is so her mother’s daughter.

Zelena and Regina have definitely been using magic to stay young because they do not look 18 years older than they did in s6. I guess Zelena must have used a potion or it’s the magical gene or something.

Hook looking at the baby thinking about Alice. That hurts!

I wonder how Zelena knows mother Gothel at this point in time. Or maybe she just knows the spell summons someone with that name.

Anastasia doesn’t wanna go with you, Gothel. She just wants to eat her cereal!

Wait, I don’t remember Victoria being tied up like that in the last episode. Did Iby do it?

Poor Anastasia. She just wanted her mum back and to think it cost her the life of her father and other mother. She couldn’t have predicted the evil acts Tremaine would commit.

Every time Gothel says that she’s someone’s mother now I wanna be sick. You’re the worst mother in history! 

You don’t understand how much I love Zelena being a mother. 

Zelena was gonna straight up beat the crap out of Gothel in the hospital. Honestly, go for it, girl! 

“That dirty hippie witch bitch.”

Yes, Regina, what the hell were you thinking giving Robin Cora’s spellbook?! Don’t you remember it leading you down a dark path and being the cause of your magic addiction? I mean, you could argue that people born with magic aren’t as susceptible to magic addiction as it’s a part of who they are, but still!

Regina: “She’s young. We all experimented.” Bisexual Regina confirmed! 

Oh okay, Zelena doesn’t know Gothel personally at this point.

Team in-laws hear we go!

I wonder why Rumple tells Rogers that Eloise was seduced and indoctrinated by the cult even though she’s always been the leader of it. I suppose he had to make the story believable to Rogers.

Victoria: “Unfortunately I have a daughter I actually care about.” Holy cow that’s cold.

Imagine if Victoria threw that shoe and it rebounded and hit her in the face lol.

Hook trying to find the door lol.

Robin you’re making a huge mistake! Give your mother a chance! 

Ugh. Poor Zelena’s heartbroken.

Tremaine, seriously. Since when did kids have to earn their parents love omg. She was a kid! I don’t know if she’s worse than Regina in that respects because this is her own daughter she’s built a vendetta against and tries to kill. I mean she didn’t slaughter villages as far as we know but still.

Okay, ouch, the lanterns were Drizella’s idea all along. She did care for her mother. She just didn’t know how to react because she was a kid. When a parent’s not been in your life for a long time it’s hard to build that relationship and know how to act. They could have benefitted from family therapy.

Wtf do you mean “what do you think of our new home?” Gothel, you weirdo kidnapper?!

Anastasia really freaking loves cereal.

It’s probably got drugs in it.

Are the flashbacks of this episode meant to be a metaphor for a parent initially not accepting their kid’s sexuality? I mean with Regina’s “experimented” line and Zelena saying she didn’t allow her daughter to find herself.

Okay, that line about Zelena’s father preventing her from finding herself hit hard. I forgot he wouldn’t allow her to use magic. It makes sense that she’d want her daughter to be wary of it. She grew up being punished for it but at least she recognises her mistake and wants to make things right.

And she feels powerless without her magic.

This interaction between Zelena and Wish Hook is making me tear up!

Is that the same arrow Robin stole from Zelena in Oz. That one always hit it’s mark too, didn’t it? Probably not but nice callback.

Robin, do not step in that circle!

For the love of fried chicken!

As soon as Leota said “And die!” why didn’t Robin jump the hell out of that circle?!

I always forget that Gothel straight up tried to kill Robin.

Zelena loves her baby so much! This hurts me!!

Aww and Robin admits she loves her mum so much. I’mma cry!

Aww Zelena’s going to support Robin no matter what. She is absolutely doing her best.

“Because I was desperate to save my own (daughter). Surely, you of all people would understand that. You cast a curse just to save your son. And yet, you are absolved. Regina, Evil Queen does a dark think for a good reason, and everyone forgave you.” Victoria has a point. What is the difference between her doing everything to bring Anastasia back and Regina casting a curse to save her son? What makes one evil and the other good? Is it that Regina is nice but not good or is it that they are both good, but Tremaine is not nice?

Victoria: “I brought this to save Lucy’s life. I’ve always loved that little girl.” I’d love to believe it but her actions would say otherwise. It looks like she brought the amulet to save Lucy just to appease Anastasia.

A villain having the ability to hypnotise/mind control was such a cool idea. I’m surprised they didn’t use that ability earlier. I wish they’d used it more often, especially with Gothel.

Zelena is Beyonce. Amazing.

That was so sweet of Robin. She knew how much magic meant to her mum.

But yeah she gets her magic back. I cannot be convinced otherwise. Robin having magic is just important to me. I always thought it would happen. I’m attached to that headcanon now.

Ivy, just step out of your shoes and run off! I think the magic is only gluing her shoes to the ground.

That looks so painful. That’s me during my time of the month.

Victoria’s having a moment of internal conflict. I wonder if she would have saved Ivy if she hadn’t known the lanterns were her idea.

Wow. She sacrificed herself. 

She didn’t even get to finish saying “I love you” to Drizella.

Lucy’s okay!

I love the sisters just chilling out together, going on wild adventures for an amulet and almost getting themselves shot by Lady Tremaine. It’s all chill with these two.

Rogers: “Are you okay.” Ivy: “I don’t know.” The way Ivy says that. Like, you don’t know how she will react next. She’s followed her mum’s every order for the majority of her life and now she has no one. She has no sense of self. You don’t know what she’ll do but it will probably be self-destructive.

[tangledbea]

Hello! i just read your post and corresponding theory about why Gothel died and how the flower took the magic back from her. it was super interesting and well thought out, and it made me wonder a couple of things i hope to get your perspective on:

what would’ve happened if gothel didn’t die after rapunzel’s hair was cut and eugene was brought back to life?

if gothel had been successful in cutting a lock of baby rapunzel’s hair (and it retained its healing properties), do you think she would’ve ever allowed herself to die, and do you think she ever would have become a problem in the kingdom?

and lastly, if rapunzel COULD revive Gothel after her death, do you think she would have?

Hi! I've had to sit on this a couple days and ponder my responses, because, unlike the ask that inspired this one, I haven't had a prepared answer to the questions for years.

what would’ve happened if gothel didn’t die after rapunzel’s hair was cut and eugene was brought back to life?

I'm going to assume, for the sake of my own argument, that she still ages. Maybe not all the way to death, but she wouldn't be in the prime of her life anymore. I'm thinking the age she was when she discovered the flower.

Going by this assumption, she wouldn't have the physical strength she did in her prime, though I'm sure she'd have her dagger ready to do Eugene in again. After all, in her mind, he ruined everything, and she's not above shanking a bitch out of petty revenge. However, she wouldn't be as strong, or as fast, and as angry as Rapunzel was when she realized she'd been kidnapped by Gothel

I don't think she'd just let Gothel stab him again. Remember in the series when she hit dream Gothel with the frying pan and said she'd always wanted to do that? Well, I don't think it was literally always. I think it was ever since she discovered that Gothel had kidnapped her and that her entire life had been a lie. So now would be the perfect opportunity to give into that urge and save Eugene's life a second time. With Gothel knocked out, they could truss her up and take her down to Max, who would not only help bring the Lost Princess home, he'd help bring in the witch who kidnapped her in the first place.

if gothel had been successful in cutting a lock of baby rapunzel’s hair (and it retained its healing properties), do you think she would’ve ever allowed herself to die, and do you think she ever would have become a problem in the kingdom?

Gothel was not an ambitious woman. She wasn't out to cause trouble, she was out to stay young forever. If the lock of hair had retained its healing properties, the only thing that would make Gothel "cause trouble" is if the magic inherent in it eventually ran out, which circles back to the other part of this question: do I think she'd allow herself to die? No. No, I don't. Not dying is her #1 goal, and since she's managed to keep herself alive for hundreds if not thousands of years, I don't see why she'd stop now!

and lastly, if rapunzel COULD revive Gothel after her death, do you think she would have?

Yes, absolutely. She was angry at her, grew afraid of her, but she didn't want her to die. You can tell by the way she reached for her as she stumbled out the window.

Besides, if there's one thing Rapunzel never got because of Gothel's death, it was closure. Why did she do it, did she ever actually love her at all, even a little, etc. Gothel's death had to have Rapunzel feeling very confused with her feelings. She hates Gothel now, and fears her, but she also still loves her, because Gothel was her mother. That doesn't just go away. And I feel like that's the sort of thing Rapunzel wouldn't feel like she could confide in anyone, because it doesn't make any sense to her, so why would anyone else understand? She would be alone with the questions and the conflicting feelings.

So yes, I think Rapunzel would have brought her back to life if she could have. But I don't think she would have brought her back to life and then let her go on her merry way. See the last bit of my answer to the first question.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Slashers / Horror Villains as: Animated (Children’s) Movie Villain Songs

+ A Nightmare Before Christmas 

First of all, its mostly Disney. Second of all, I hope you know that this was a struggle for me. 

Also, note, Bubba will be the only Leatherface in this post and Billy and Stu will be the only Ghostfaces. There is Norma Bates though, so sort of a consolation. 

There are links to videos on YouTube ^^

~~~

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher / Ghostface: Playing With the Big Boy’s Now (Hotep and Huy, Prince of Egypt) 

Well... they’re part of the ‘big boys’, now! They are part of the Slashers group that, uh, ‘inspired them’. Imagine instead of Egyptian Gods, they’re chanting Slasher names. 

[HUY] Pick up your silly twig, boy [HOTEP & HUY] You're playing with the big boys now! Ha ha ha ha!

[EGYPTIAN PRIESTS] By the power of Ra Mut, Nut, Khnum, Ptah Sobek, Sekhmet, Sokar, Selket Anubis, Anukis Hemsut, Tefnut, Meshkent, Mafdet... 

Chop Top and Nubbins + Bubba Sawyer / Leatherface: Kidnap Mr Sandy Claws (Lock, Shock and Barrel, Nightmare Before Christmas) 

I mean... they aren't Drayton’s minions, but they are like this XD 

I say that we take a cannon, aim it at his door And then knock three times And when he answers Sandy Claws will be no more

Yes you're so stupid, think now If we blow him up to smithereens We may lose some pieces And then Jack will beat us black and green

Kidnap the Sandy Claws Tie him in a bag

Chucky / Charles Lee Ray: In The Dark Of The Night (Rasputin, Anastasia)

Mystical man? Check! ‘Betrayal’ (As far as he sees it)? Check. Made them pay? Check; I think Nica, Sarah and all the other families he destroys throughout the franchise can attest to that. And ‘One little girl got away’? Well Andy isn’t a girl, but yeah. Check. 

I was once the most mystical man in all Russia When the royals betrayed me they mad a mistake My curse made each of them pay But one little girl got away Little Anya, beware Rasputin's awake

Drayton Sawyer: Don’t Fall In Love (Forte, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas) 

Its such a crochety, unessessarily rude way of describing relationships to someone! I mean, I understand completely and resonate deeply with the desire to be alone and not be responsible for anyone else, but- come on! Beast doesn't share your view! Let it go! 

Its just like Drayton’s reaction to Bubba having a crush. Super cool video too! 

As soon as your heart rules your head Your life is not your own It's hell when someone's always there It's bliss to be alone

And love of any kind is bad A dog, a child, a cat They take up so much precious time Now, where's the sense in that?

Freddy Krueger: No More Mr Nice Guy (Rothbart, Swan Princess) 

A man with an uncomfortable relationship with the main female character pretending to be normal and not homicidal for a while before unlocking more power and letting there inner bad guy loose and taking great pleasure in it? Sounds familiar. They also have a similar vocabulary- except of course Rothbart is rated G. 

I'll become that nasty, naughty, dirty, spiteful Wicked, wayward, way-delightful Bad guy I was born to be

Lyin' loathesome, never-tender Indiscreet repeat offender No more Mr Nice Guy That's not me 

Inkubus: The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind (Professor Rattigan, The Greatest Mouse Detective)

‘Inkubus’ is literally a movie about him listing all his crimes over the centuries and messing with the police force because he has a bone to pick with a detective. Sounds pretty similar to me! Listen to the song! ^^

Now comes the real tour de force Tricky and wicked, of course! My earlier crimes were fine for their times But now that I'm at it again An even grimmer plot has been simmering In my great criminal brain! 

Jason Voorhees: Despicable Me (About Gru, Despicable Me) 

I... this is all I could think of!! But the more I listen to it and read the lyrics... it f i t s Jason so well! XD Please just let this slide; I know Gru isn't really a villain but he is at the start!! Let me have this. 

Why ask why? Better yet "Why not?" Why are you marking x on that spot? Why use a blow torch isn't that hot? Why use a chainsaw? Is that all you got? Why do you like seeing people in shock? But my question to you is "Why not?" Why go to the bank and stand in line Just use a freeze gun it saves me time. I'm havin' a bad, bad day It's about time that I get my way Steam rollin' whatever I see, Huh, despicable me I'm havin' a bad, bad day If you take it personal that's okay Watch, this is so fun to see Huh, despicable me

Jennifer Check: Trust In Me (Kaa, The Jungle Book) 

She’s a succubus demon. Tempting boys into a safe-feeling, docile state so she she can strike is her thing. 

Will cease to resist Just relax Be at rest Like a bird In a nest

Trust in me Just in me Shut your eyes And trust in me

Mayor Buckman and Granny Boone: Savages (Governor Ratcliffe and the Colonizer’s parts, Pocahontas) 

Obviously, because of the (Inaccurate) historical relevance of both movies (Different time’s, same terrible prejudice,) and also because there is definitely a very cult-ish feel about both Governor Ratcliffe’s song and Buckman’s leadership. How easily they’re able to gather support from their people for the most horrible reasons. How horrifying it is to audiences and historians. 

They're only good when dead They're vermin, as I said And worse

They're savages! Savages!

Barely even human

Savages! Savages!

Drive them from our shore! They're not like you and me Which means they must be evil We must sound the drums of war!

Michael Myers: The Gospel Truth II (Muses about Hades, Hercules)

In a Disney movie, Michael would have others sing his song about him as he goes about his silent, determined walking XD 

If there's one God you don't want to get steamed up It's Hades 'Cause he had an evil plan He ran the underworld But thought the dead were dull and uncouth He was as mean as he was ruthless And that's the gospel truth He had a plan to shake things up And that's the gospel truth

Midnight Man: Oogie Boogie’s Song (Oogie Boogie, Nightmare Before Christmas)

A song about a “Gamblin’ Boogie Man” is perfect for the Midnight Man! He and Oogie could be pals. 

Woah! The sound of rollin' dice To me is music in the air 'Cause I'm a gamblin' Boogie Man Although I don't play fair It's much more fun, I must confess When lives are on the line Not mine, of course, but yours, old boy Now that'd be just fine

Norma Bates: Mother Knows Best Reprise (Mother Gothel, Tangled)

Norma is soooooo so so so unbelievably manipulative towards Norman (And Dylan. It just works better on Norman) and this song absolutely presents that. She can go from sweet, loving mother to spiteful, heinous bitch in two seconds if Norman or Dylan don't do what or react the way she wants them to. 

Likes you? Please, Rapunzel, that's demented

This is why you never should have left! Dear, this whole romance that you've invented, Just proves you're too naive to be here Why would he like you? Come on now, really! Look at you, you think that he's impressed? Don't be a dummy Come with mummy

Pamela Voorhees: My Lullaby (Zira, The Lion King 2)

In a opposite approach to a villainous mother to Norma, we have Pam, who was heartbroken by the camp councillors letting her son die and vowed to get revenge. She didn't know she was teaching Jason to be the Crystal Lake killer like Zira did, but she did, and the whole song does have her kind of feel to it also. 

Sleep, my little Kovu Let your dreams take wing One day when you're big and strong You will be a kingI've been exiled, persecuted Left alone with no defense When I think of what that brute did I get a little tense But I dream a dream so pretty That I don't feel so depressed 'Cause it soothes my inner kitty And it helps me get some rest

Patrick Bateman: Cruella De Vil (Arthur, 101 Dalmations) 

Never before was there a song that described audiences reaction to watching Patrick living in his daily life and hearing his thoughts better then this one. 

Cruella De Vil Cruella De Vil If she doesn't scare you No evil thing will To see her is to Take a sudden chill Cruella, Cruella De Vil

The curl of her lips The ice in her stare All innocent children Had better beware She's like a spider waiting For the kill Look out for Cruella De Vil

Pennywise (Both): You’re Only Second Rate (Jafar, Return of Jafar)

Mostly for the video and Jafar’s energy in this scene actually XD So many transformations, so many tasteless puns! I was going to give this to Freddy but its the closest thing to Penny I could think of. 

Go ahead and zap me with the big surprise Snap me in a trap, cut me down to size I'll make a great escape It's just a piece of cake You're only second rate You know your hocus-pocus isn't tough enough And your mumbo-jumbo doesn't measure up Let me pontificate upon your sorry state You're only second rate

Sheriff Hoyt / Charlie Hewitt: Hellfire (Judge Claude Frollo, Hunchback of Notre Dame) 

A nasty filthy man who think’s he’s in the right despite being the biggest creep and monster ever? Mhm. 

*Note: I honestly didn't notice the deformed baby, Quasimodo/Thomas link until the day after I wrote this. Don't know how I feel about it. I mean, Hoyt is actually nice, in his way, to Thomas so the connection isn't totally there but onwards:

Beata Maria You know I am a righteous man Of my virtue I am justly proud

Beata Maria You know I'm so much purer than The common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd 

End of Post! 🌼

(Bonus’ under the cut) 

I did think of other connections which I obviously didnt landed on but still have merit! Here! 

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher: ‘Gaston’ was considered, but that would have just been a joke XD I don’t think Stu is quite as obsessed with Billy as LeFou is with Gaston. 

Chucky: Friends on the Other Side. Obviously! That link was actually what inspired me to make this post. In The Dark of Night fits to a T though. 

Freddy Krueger: You’re Only Second Rate! Ah, its perfectttt. But No More Mr Nice Guy fits better. If I ever do a Slashers as Disney Villains post, he’ll be Jafar for sure. Or Hades. Or Scar. Or Oogie. Probably Hades. You know what? Without the gore and blood and explicit sexual references, Freddy could be a Disney Villain himself. Its not like Disney hasn't towed the line before with perverted villains. >_> (Jafar and Frollo) 

Jason and Pamela Voorhees: Mother Knows Best! Of course. 

Jennifer Check: Love is For Peasants (Barbie Island Princess) Because Jennifer thinks like this: 

Men? <<< Literally anything else. 

Patrick Bateman: How Can I Refuse? (From Barbie Princess and the Pauper) XD If Patrick were a kids movie villain, he would totally join the ranks of corrupted usurpers pretending to be trustworthy royal advisory staff. Also ‘Let It Die’, that little interruption part of another song that O’Hare sings in the Lorax and ‘How Bad Can I be?’. 

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Rapunzel’s Return Part 1

We’ve finally made to season three and the entire reason why I made this review series. This season features some of the worst writing I have ever witnessed in a television program. And this season kicks off with the third worst episode of the whole series. Rapunzel’s Return is the iceberg that sinks this show and manages to assassinate everyone’s character.

 Everyone’s.  

Summary: Inside the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow (as seen off screen in "Rapunzeltopia"), Cassandra is greeted by the Enchanted Girl, a spirit who reveals that Cassandra is the biological daughter of the late Mother Gothel, who abandoned her on the night she kidnapped infant Rapunzel. Enraged that Rapunzel has been (unknowingly) overshadowing her for the entirety of her life, and that she will always be unfairly overlooked, Cassandra snatches the Moonstone Opal, absorbs it, and declared Rapunzel's destiny as her own. She manages to escape from the group and cuts all ties with them, with Rapunzel unable to wrap her head around the entire situation. The group returns to Corona and find that it has been taken over by Varian, who has aligned himself with Andrew and the Separatists of Saporia to erase the King and Queen's memories and enslave Corona's citizens.

Plot Hole Number One: Why Would Cassandra Just Blindly Follow A Ghost While Trapped Inside a Haunted House? 

Outside of that one snarky remark, Cassandra never stops to question the literal ghost who is bossing her around. The ghost she met in a creepy haunted house. A haunted house that she was already suspicious of before ever going in and that has tried to kill her and her friends many times now. 

Cassandra, the most distrusting and cautious of of individuals in the show thus far, just suddenly decides to leave her brain behind from this point forward for no given reason whatsoever. 

If you have to dumb down your main character and have them behave OOC in order to get your plot rolling along, then you haven’t a good plot. 

Plot Hole Number Two: Cassandra Sees for Herself How Awful Gothel Was to Her Here, So Why Would She Obsess Over the Woman? 

Forgetting for a moment that Cass very well knows that Gothel treated her best friend like shit and tried to murder her other friend, Eugene, as evidenced by Quest for Varian; Cassandra can see for herself right here that Gothel is a crap person who never treated her right. 

I mean there’s denial, and then there’s flat out stupidity. Cass being hurt by the this reveal is one thing. Cass believing that Gothel really loved her and blaming everyone else for her death is totally another and not based in any kind of sensible logic.     

Plot Hole Number Three: Why Would Gothel Even Have a Child to Begin With? 

Look, I’ll accept that the flower can deage Gothel enough for her to get laid and bare a kid, but that only brings up the question of why she would keep said kid? 

She kept Rapunzel cause she needed her powers in order to stay alive, but Cass? What reason would she want to have Cassandra around? A baby can’t do chores for you and it's a hell of a lot of work to raise one. Plus the show repeatedly tells us over and over again that Gothel doesn’t really love her or even likes having her daugther around so... yeah, what is the point of this? Why didn’t she just drop Cass off at an orphanage to begin with?  

You can’t make this type of reveal and have it go against the what we fundamentally know about the characters without explaining why they would partake in such actions.  

This is Manipulative Writing 

But of course the real reason why this flashback and “twist” exists is just to manipulate the audience into feeling sorry for Cass. It’s not here to actually enhance the story, further the characters, nor answer any mysteries in any real way. That’s why it’s such a poor plot point. 

It’s setting up the viewers to have a bias so that they’ll more readily forgive Cassandra for her irreprehensible actions later. In short, it’s the same bullshit that the writers pulled for Frederic back in season one. Only it makes even less narrative sense here because this ‘tragic backstory’ is so divorced from later events in the story. 

It’s also flat out lazy because all it’s doing it slapping Rapunzel’s backstory onto Cass instead of letting Cassandra be her own character with her own battles and character development to have. 

And before you say, “well that’s the point”, then let me tell you it’s a stupid point. One that makes zero sense for the character and is insulting to the audience’s intelligence.    

Plot Hole Number Four: Why Didn’t Gothel Just Stay Hidden Till the Soldiers Left? 

Hell, why did Gothel even come back here? We already established that she doesn’t really care about Cass and it’s a plot point that’ll only be further reiterated as the season goes on, so why? Why would Gothel behave like this? How does this help her in her goal? Gothel’s suppose to be smart remember? 

Plot Hole Number Five: How Does Any of This Logically Help Zhan Tiri? 

So Zhan Tiri is the blue ghost girl and while the series tries to keep it a secret reveal for later, it’s pretty obvious from the get go, so I’ll just be calling the character by her name. 

Anyways, Zhan Tiri’s plan is to show Cassandra her past, in order to make Cass angry enough to steal the moonstone and fight Rapunzel, so that the two powers fighting each other will then release her from her interdimensional prison. 

Now ignoring how literally none of that was set up nor previously established, and ignoring that Zhan Tiri’s disciples were trying previously to stop the sundrop and her friends from getting to the moonstone, thereby undermining their master’s plan; just how exactly is any of this suppose to work? 

Why would showing Cassandra how her mother was a shitty person somehow make Cass angry at Rapunzel, angry enough to try and kill her even, and somehow keep her angry for months on end, in order to fulfill this clearly illogical action that holds no personal benefit to herself?    

I don’t mind Cassandra becoming a villain; I just want it to make sense. 

This does not make sense. 

Not only does it require incredible leaps of logic and Cassandra acting out of character to work, it also depends far to much upon conquincidence and things playing out just in exactly the right way to benefit Zhan Tiri and her poorly laid out plan. 

Would it not have made more sense for this “evil master manipulating worlock” to just, you know, lie? 

Like shouldn’t she be trying to make Gothel look good? Shouldn’t she be trying to make it all seem like Frederic’s fault  (which it mostly is anyways)? If you want Cass to attack Corona and turn against Rapunzel, then why not lie about their involvement or tell some half truth?

Or better yet why not make Gothel and actual complex figure for real? 

Ugh... I got to move on from this point, but believe me, we will be back to this dumbfuckery in later episodes. 

Plot Hole Number Six: You Can’t Just Ignore that Cap Exists and Is the One Who Raised Cassandra for Most of Her Life 

Like I’m sure finding out that you mom was a piece of crap who abandon you hurts, but that doesn’t automatically erase the fact that Cass’s dad was there for her, raised her, and loved her for the majority of her life. I’m not saying that Cap is perfect, but he at least tried to do right by her (and is consequently the best parent in the show) and Cassandra is old enough to recognize that fact. Pretending otherwise is a disservice to everyone. It’s a disservice to the Captain, to Cassandra, to Rapunzel, to Gothel, and to the viewers watching along with this BS. 

Trauma Doesn’t Make You Suddenly Stupid 

Look, I’m not downplaying Cass’s trauma here. She is allowed to feel upset and yes trauma is painful and effects us all in different ways. Also yes, past trauma can carry on through into adulthood and still harm you. 

However that’s not an excuse for hurting others. Cass’s trauma isn’t any less traumatic than any of the other characters’, but neither is it somehow more important than any of theirs. She doesn’t get a free past to step on people just because she was sad once. 

Cassandra is, once again, old enough to know this and more importantly smart enough to realize that what happened in the past, if even true, has nothing to do with what she is currently dealing with right now. 

Like why is she believing any of this? Why is she still listening to the suspicious ghost that she met in a magical house that’s tricked her and her friends numerous times before? Why would finding out her mom was shit make her turn that anger against her best friend? What does any of this have to do with her current struggles with trying to build up her career or staying friends with Raps? 

Remembering past trauma does not make your brain shut off. Even having a mental breakdown or panic attack still does not render you completely senseless and anything done under extreme pressure like that is temporary. You don’t wind up acting bananas constantly for over a year. 

As a woman who suffers from complex-PTSD and is an abuse survivor myself, Cassandra’s story is deeply offensive to me. Not the least of which because it actively dumps her down. 

This Is the Point Where Cassandra’s Character Gets Assassinated 

Like I said in the opening, everyone’s character gets assassinated in this story. Cassandra just happens to be the first to die and it’s right here with this line. 

Not only is this line incredibly cringy and poorly worded, and I have to just feel sorry for the VA here cause there’s no way to make this much stupid sound good, but it’s also completely divorced from what’s going on. 

Cassandra is suppose to be explaining to her friends why she’s stealing the moonstone and her answer is “I’m this dead bitch’s daughter”? Like oookaaay, and that has what to do with it exactly?

Did Gothel have any connection to the moonstone? Does stealing the moonstone somehow bring her back or fulfil her revenge? What does grabbing the moonstone actually gain Cass and what does that have to do with her dead abusive mom? 

The reason why Cass doesn’t work as a villain because she has no goal nor reason for doing what she does. She just lurches from plot point to plot point with no idea of what she is doing nor why she is doing it. 

But watch as the show keeps digging in its heels and keeps insisting that Cassandra’s connection to Gothel is totally a sympathetic motive even as it makes less and less sense every damn time it's brought up. 

What Does Destiny Even Fucking Mean Any More???

What Destiny?!

There is no damn destiny. There is no prophecy to fulfil, no world to save, no consequence for just having everyone sitting on their asses for two whole seasons. And even if there was a destiny to even steal; why would Cass even want it? What does actually she gain from any of this? And how does any of it connect back to Gothel? 

This Should Have Been the Point of Resolution Not the Inciting Incident for Their Break Up

Look no idea is without merit. You can make the stupidest sounding idea engaging if you present it right. 

This was not presented right. 

If Cassandra being Gothel’s daughter was to hold any meaning to the story, then it needed to be what brought her and Raps back together again, not what broke them apart. 

Rapunzel says it right here. Logically this should be common ground for the two of them. There’s no real reason for Cass to direct her anger at Rapunzel over this. 

But this show doesn’t care about logic, reason, or treating it’s audience with intelligence. It’s just flashy bullshit “drama” that pretends to be deep but is really a shallow puddle once you stop to think about it for two seconds.   

Let’s Talk About “Sisters” 

Cass’s face just says it all doesn’t it? 

The creator, Chris, wanted to make a story about two “sisters”, because he has two daughters and he thought that would be inspiring and speak to little girls everywhere. 

It’s a nice sentiment. Shame he’s so utterly incompetent at it. 

There was no build up to them being sisters. Instead all we got was a bunch of meaningless parallels and a very toxic friendship. Even with the Gothel reveal the connection to them being siblings is tenuous at best because there’s no biological relation and more importantly, they weren’t raised together.   

Chris is basically trying to rip off the likes of Frozen or Guardians of the Galaxy here with Raps and Cass’s relationship but it doesn’t work when the two siblings in question didn’t actually grow up together. There’s no reason for Cassandra to project her anger at their abusive parent on to Raps because that parent wasn’t the one to actually raise her. And on top of that, said abuser is dead, and both her and Raps have separate guardians in their lives, so the jealousy angle doesn’t work either.  

And to make it all the more confusing, Chris failed to inform his crew of this brilliant plot twist, so we now have two seasons of gay baiting put in by the storyboard artists hitting that Cass is in love with her “sister”, And because the hardcore Cazzpunzel stans are the only fanbase that hasn’t given Chris the boot, there’s still even more gay baiting to come. 

Why are We Victim Blaming a Baby? 

Seriously, Cass? You are twenty four and have a brain. Why are you blaming someone for being kidnapped as a baby? What kind of sense does this make? 

Worse, there’s plenty of real shit Cass could get angry at Rapunzel over and this is what you go with show? 

If anything Rapunzel should be the one who is pissed here. Cass got to escape and lead a normal life with a loving father all because she got kidnapped as baby. And now said bitch is trying to gaslight her while stealing the very thing she’s been risking her life to grab for a year now. 

No You Haven’t Cass

Once again, you got to live a normal life with a loving Dad. You had plenty of chances to build relationships and further your career for 18 years while Rapunzel was trapped in a dang tower, and Rapunzel returning from said tower didn’t cut you off from anything. In fact Rapunzel being rescued from the tower actually presented more opportunities for you and you spent all of season one climbing up the ranks. 

There’s Nothing In the Show to Back Up This Statement 

Nothing is at stake. There’s no threat here other than Cassandra herself. Cassandra is dranger to the world here not the moonstone. If you wanted it to be the other way around then you should have kept the rocks active during season two. 

So Why Didn’t We Go With the Original Set Up From Season Two? 

As said before, there are real reasons that were set up during season two that could have motivated Cass. 

Rapunzel is irresponsible and can’t be trusted to save the world 

Rapunzel is a shit friend and Cass is better off going her own way and leaving everyone high and dry. 

Cass’s hand was injured by Raps and the moonstone might be able to heal it 

Cass sees the injustice in the class system and wants to fight back against the royals in order to help everyone, not just herself. 

Cass might believe she’s stopping Zhan Tiri and not realize she’s being manipulated by her instead

Or is playing along with Zhan Tiri under the idea that she can stall for time figure out how to stop her. 

Cass wants to play her and use the power of the rocks to save people only for it to go wrong later. 

Possession (which was the original idea in the concept stage) 

Like I said, there were plenty of ways to make this work. In fact some are so dang obvious that you’ll hear Cass fans try to claim that a few of those are what her real motivation was despite the the show clearly going against them later. The “fighting against the class system” is a real popular one despite the fact that Cass herself attacks a bunch of poor people repeatedly and doesn’t seem concerned about anyone but herself.  

But I digress. 

The real reason why we have this bullshit is cause Chris doesn’t want to hold his favs accountable. Rapunzel’s flaws can’t be called out in any meaningful way and Cass gets a convenient scapegoat in Zhan Tiri. 

In short both Cassandra and Rapunzel have their agency stolen away from them by the narrative, while still trying to pretend that they’re “strong independent women”. Even though those two things aren’t compatible at all.  

What Exactly Have You Been Denied Cass? 

Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? 

Lance, Eugene, and Lady Caine were all denied physiological and safety needs while growing up in an orphanage and then later on the streets as a thieves. 

Rapunzel was denied psychological needs while being raised by her abuser. 

Varian was denied everything on that dang list. 

Cassandra tho? 

Trauma or no trauma, Cass was still raised in a safe and loving environment for the majority of her life. She, at best, has been denied “self-fulfillment” needs and even then that’s a stretch cause throughout season one we see her time and time again gaining what it was she wanted. 

Cassandra isn’t anything special. She’s not suffered any more than anybody else in the show and in fact has lived a pretty cushy life when all is said and done, especially when compared to other characters in the show. 

The worst that she has to complain about is working a crappy job for a little while and having a shit mom that she can barely remember. Boo Fucking Hoo. 

Note How Easy It Is For Cass to Control the Rocks Here

The show can’t even keep Cassandra’s powers consistent. Like everything else about the character, Cass’s powers come and go as is convenient for the narrative with little explanation as to why. 

This Song Doesn’t Work Because It was Cut In Half Due to Time 

I’ve talked about the problems with this song before in my songs from TTS ranking list. It’s choppy and consistent. Yet it only feels that way because it was cut down. It’s missing a full other verse, second chorus, and a bridge.  

Which is inexcusable because there’s so much dang filler in this show! 

We could have had time for the full song if they had just cut one of the non-essential episodes and made all of this a full episode on it’s own. Just save the Corona and Varian stuff for later if need be. 

The management of this show is just atrocious.  

Why Wasn’t This the Cliffhanger for Season Two? 

Speaking of making all of the Cassandra stuff it’s own episode... Everything we just seen should have been in season two. 

It’s more connected to what happened last season, it flows better, it would have had more time to breathe, and it would have given us more time in the Dark Kingdom. Given as that this is what season two was building up too, it would have been more satisfying there.  

And if the writers still wanted a cliffhanger to end the season in order to draw crowds then this right here was it. 

So We We Spent A Whole Season Getting Here and We’re Just Going to Leave Now? 

The Dark Kingdom is Wasted!!!!

And because the Dark Kingdom is a bust, the entirety of season two now feels even more pointless. 

Chris said he cut the Dark Kingdom stuff because it didn’t interest him. 

Chris is a fucking fool. 

Ignoring that different people will gravitate towards different things and you need to keep that in mind when writing for mass audiences; you don’t spend valuable time setting things up just to drop them later. 

If you didn’t like that particular plot thread then you needed to just not bring it up to begin with. Once you’ve put it in there you need to commit to it. 

Behold the Only Thing Useful Shorty Does This Whole Season 

There is less Shorty overall this season which is ultimately a good thing, but it does highlight what a stupid decision it was to bring him along to begin with. 

I mean did we really drag him around for a whole season just for this? Couldn’t some other Pub Thung or townsperson have found them? One that could talk. 

Adria Gets Put on a Bus 

Adria doesn’t get assassinated like some of the other characters, but she does get unceremoniously shoved off without any real closure. The character will return later in the season, but brainwashed and without any lines. Which is doubly insulting to the VA who voices her. 

And Here Is Where Lance Gets Assassinated 

Lance is drastically dumbed down in season three. Even more so than in past seasons. You could call it flanderization specifically, more so than assassination, but the effect is the same. Lance’s character is effectively dead from this point onwards. 

Also this should have ended the Lance & Adria ship in the show for good. She flat out rejects him here, but nope. 

Eugene is the Only Person Acting Like a Real Human Being This Episode Thus Far

Edmund spent his whole life protecting the moonstone. He lost everything to it. He was convinced that letting Rapunzel take it would be best only for her to lose it right afterwards. And what does he do?  Immediately become the “comedicly bad dad” in show oversaturated with both comedic foils and poor father figures. 

Meanwhile Eugene is the only one properly responding to what is going on. Don't expect that to last. 

I Thought You Left Cass?

Remember that foreshadowing with Quirin way back in the pilot? 

This is just that, but dumber. 

There’s no reason for Cass to hang around out of sight only to stare menacingly at Rapunzel and company as they leave. It’s just a lazy hook to get viewers to believe that there might be more going on with Cass then what we’ve been told. There’s not.  

So This Map Proves That the Dark Kingdom Is North East of Corona 

Continuity and worldbuilding in this show is utterly garbage, so I’ll latch on to any little scrape of info that we get. 

According to the map shown here, the balloon is heading Southwest back to Corona. That means the Dark Kingdom is Northeast. 

So if Corona is somewhere in Northern mainland Europe that means the Dark Kingdom is either in a Nordic country (Norway,Sweden,Finland, ect) or Russia.   

Meta Jokes About Being a Bad Writer Doesn’t Excuse Bad Writing 

Get use to this. Season three is full of meansprited meta jokes that try to defend against the quite frankly valid criticism that the show has received. Or more specifically the criticism Chris had received. 

Most of season three was written during the hiatus of season two back when Chris was seeing backlash from the fans due to his PR fiasco and that’s not even taking into account the crew walkout after season one. 

Not only is that too late to be writing your final season, but it’s also reflective of how Chris can’t handle critique with grace nor listen to other ideas as jokes like this are in poor taste. 

Everyone Acts Shocked Here but Honestly this Fits King Frederic’s MMO

This is the same guy who prosecuted poor people for eighteen years with his crack down on crime, and thrented the life an orphaned teen. Is anybody really surprised by this? 

I Thought Your Real Name was Hubert? 

I guess he just prefers the name Andrew. I don’t know. But what do know is that “the devil is in the details” is a thing my animation teacher in college use to say repeatedly, and no one working on this show seems capable of remembering or keeping up with details. 

Why Are There Only Five Saporains? 

Saporia was set up as an entire race of people who’d been displaced from their homeland for generations. They’ve been living as nomads for centuries according to season two.  Why are there only five of them in this episode? 

How did they overthrow a kingdom with only five people? How do they maintain hold of it with only five? How do they expect to further their bloodline and culture with only only five of them?  

Why did we waste money on a bunch of one off villians that we sent packing in season two and not built more Saporian models instead? 

Like you could have had the core five here, as like leaders, and then imply that there are more of them with background citizens and guards ect. 

NO!!!

WE DO NOT IMPLY THAT A 15 YEAR OLD BOY WAS LOCKED IN A JAIL CELL WITH A GROWN MAN FOR NEARLY A YEAR!!!!!

I.... What?!

Who the fuck thought this was a good idea to put in a children’s show?

Did no one behind the scenes stop to think, “Hun, maybe we shouldn’t suggest that a teenager was trapped inside a small enclosed space with no way out twenty for hours a day with an adult who attempted to murder his girlfriend when lying to her stopped working. Perhaps someone might get the wrong impression.”? 

Like I hate censors as much as the next person, but editors work in the business for a reason, and that reason is to pull the artists aside sometimes and go “Hey, that shit don't fly with normal folk.” 

What’s worse is I don’t think the writers were even trying to be shocking and edgy here. I just think they were careless. They needed a quick exposition dumb to explain how Varian and Andrew know each other, and didn’t think through the implications of that line nor considered how Varian’s age changes the context of his situation. 

Which is beyond inexcusable because it’s so damn lazy! 

You wouldn’t need rushed exposition had you actually took the time to set up this plot point back in season two. Heck, you wouldn’t have needed to even set this plot point up had you not cut Varian’s original story out at the last minute. Finally, you should care enough about your characters to at least take their age into consideration when writing their development. 

There’s also the fact that it makes most of the ‘heroes’ look like assholes. 

We’ve seen these dungeons several times throughout the show. We know of their poor conditions. There’s little light, the food is slop, there’s no way to stay clean or use the restroom, prisons are never let out for exercise, ect. Like these are medieval style dungeons that are considered inhumane my modern audiences.  

Just because the show tries to play off the horribleness of it for laughs doesn’t mean the audience is going to find it funny that they traumatized a fifthteen year old with it.... again! 

Moreover Frederic had promised last time we saw him that he would give Varian help. He idea of ‘helping” Varian is supposedly to throw him into a nasty jail cell with a violent criminal? WTF? And there’s no indication that he tried anything to save Quirin either.

Not to mention that none of the mains act surprised by this revelation, nor comment about how awful Varian’s treatment is. As usual for them. 

It’s just sicking and most of the atempts to explain away this line by the fans have been super pathetic. 

“Frederic was giving him therapy while in jail” - there’s nothing to indicate therapy exists in this world and even if this were true it would be undermined by stupidly throwing him in a cell with Andrew. 

“It’s not literal, Varian was in a separate cell” - once again there’s nothing to back this up and even if that were the case it’s not that much better because it’s still a dungeon cell with zero privacy and Varian would still be close enough to Andrew to talk to him thus invading his personal space to some degree or other. 

“Well he tried to help but Varian wasn’t cooperative” -  still not an excuse and there’s nothing on screen to back up this headcanon. 

“It’s someone else’s fault.” - Who’s? Frederic is in charge of everything. The buck stops with him. If a guard did this without his knowledge then that means Frederic neglected his duties and his promise anyways. 

“Well maybe it’s true, but Varian did a bad thing and teens who do really bad things get sent to prison in the real world too” - Not an argument. Teens aren’t typically jailed with adults and the conditions for modern jails are at least somewhat better than those in Corona. Plus kids being sent to jail in any form is major topic of controversy in today's time. I’ve already covered why trying teens as adults is a vile abuse of power in the real world; I shouldn’t have to mention that the current government throwing children in cages is a bad thing as well! 

“Well that’s just part of the time period” - Doesn’t make it right, and sadly it’s not something in the distant past either. It’s currently happening right now in the US. It was happening when this episode and season was being written. The writers unthinkingly threw in a very real thing that affects hundreds of thousands of children and didn’t bother to follow up on it or comment about how wrong it is. 

There’s just no excuse for the way Frederic and Rapunzel treat Varian in this show. There’s just not, and some of y’all really need to stop trying to do so cause it means you’re inadvertently condoning real life abuses of power. 

You can like a character and except that they’ve done wrong. That’s a thing that you can do, you know. 

Let’s Talk about Character Design 

For the most part the art direction in the show is top notch. It really is the best looking animated show on tv today, and the character design is usually of this same quality. But they really dropped the ball with Varian’s design here. 

The structural bones of it isn’t bad. Taken on it’s own it would be fine, but good character design is supposed to give context and enhance the story and this doesn’t do that. 

We’ve haven’t seen Varian in a year, but instead of visually showcasing the passage of time by having him physically age we just get season one’s design but in bargain bin hot topic clothes and a drawn on barcode. 

Even the color palette is wrong. 

Varian’s is suppose to feature blues and earthy browns to go with his eyes and hair but instead we get bright reds, neon chimballs, and sharp contrasts with blacks and whites that just clashes with his base colors. 

And what does any of this tell the audience? How does it add to the story? What can we glean from his new design about what transpired in the last year?  

Nothing. 

At best it just reinforces that villian Varian is a try hard edge lord, but we already knew that. We would have known it even without the villain arc cause he’s a teenager. Not that he looks it. The boy is supposed to be either 16 or soon to be 16 and he still looks fucking 12.

What’s more they spent money on this. They made not one, but two new models with two new outfits, but they couldn’t be arsed just to make him a little taller? And no, he’s not actually any taller in season three. He was always Rapunzel’s height regardless of animation errors and squash and stretch techniques.  

It’s a waste. Just like nearly everything in season three. 

This Is Such a Cop-out

Speaking of things being a waste. Wiping Frederic’s and Arianna’s memories is taking the cowards way out. It’s them escaping any sort of meaningful consequence for their past actions and robs them of the chance to grow and develop as characters. All cause Chris didn’t want to deal with people pointing out the bullshit his self insert caused. 

Well guess what, I’m still pointing out Frederic’s BS, only now I’m extra angry cause I was robbed of a genuine character arc, so fuck you! 

Was Varian Actually Needed for This Plot?

No really. What does Varian even do here? The wand of oblivium is Saporian magic and they could and apparently did wipe the king’s and queen’s memories without Varian’s mindwipe concoction. That alone apparently gives them the power to run the kingdom.  

All Varian does is give them some alchemy based weapons and a bomb he accidentally invents. Both are things that the Saporians could have made themselves given how they know apothecary according to Rapunzel Day One.   

I’m currently in the middle of writing an AU fanfiction where Varian winds up in another world before the events of this episode, and let me tell you it is incredibly easy to write him out of the majority of season three without changing the plot much. 

Given how Varian is meant to be a main character this season, that’s not a good thing. 

So How Come None Of the “Heroes” Give a Shit?

Like I said above, none of the protagonists show the least bit of concern for what Varian is going through. Even though ignoring his needs is precisely what lead to this mess in the first place. It not only makes them look heartless, but it also makes them look plain stupid as well. 

Why is it so hard to just even pretend to care about the fact he’s been orphaned? Half of them are orphans themselves for fucks sake!  

Varian’s Not the One in Charge Here Rapunzel 

I know Varian is the bigger threat and has more of a personal connection to Raps, but it’s pretty clear that Andrew is the mastermind behind this coup. What good does shouting at Varian do? What makes Rapunzel think that any of the Saporians would listen to him even if he did change his mind? What makes her think ordering Varian around after she helped ruin his life would get him to change his mind. Like, my gosh is Rapunzel dumb! 

Why Are We Victim Blaming a Child Soldier?

That’s what he is at this point. He’s a weapons specialist for a rival kingdom fighting for control of the government. A government that has abused its own people leading to such an uprising. 

A teenager may not be as blameless as a baby but it's still beyond callous and cruel to blame kids and young teens who join extremist groups in war torn lands out of desperation.  

Is This Suppose to Be the Inciting Incident for Varian’s Redemption, Cause If So, That Makes No Sense  

This look of regret is the only indication that Varian is questioning where he stands before his redemption in part two. Except there he points out that he’s been thinking about it for while now, even before Raps showed up. Only there’s nothing to suggest why Varian would suddenly change his view point and motives. So the audience is still in the dark about his thought process even with this “hint” and I use that word loosely. 

Conclusion 

So that’s the end of part one. I hope to have part two up before the week is out. 

[artificialqueens]

Rapunzel, Rapunzel! (Nicky x Jaida) - Crystalis

A/N: Hi y'all! I'm back! If y'all don't remember me, it's because I changed my name! So, this is a crack fic! This idea came out while me and @chaoticnachokitten were chatting lmao. So there's absolutely any sense and it's kinda short! But I hope y'all like it! Also no beta, so it might have some mistakes here.

Chapter summary: Nicky is Rapunzel, but different from the movies, she is NOT a helpless little princess.

TW: swears ( a.k.a bad language I think that's the name.)

When her mom wasn't home, she was planning on a way to get out of that stupid tower, that ... till she heard someone start screaming her name. She looked through the window to see a tall, ginger girl looking at her.

" Rapunzel!!!" She said, kinda annoyed.

" Bitch, my name ain't shit, I'm Nicolette! And who the fuck are you?!" She snapped back making the other girl gag.

" You ungrateful whore! You know what, I don't care anymore, my name is Gigi Goode and I'm not just Goode I'm incredible!! I'm not going to save a girl so ignorant like you!" She said, annoyed and Nicky could just roll her eyes.

" You can save me if you want to, babygirl. " Her neighbor, a tan, short girl, with a gorgeous smile, blonde and curly hair, called Crystal, said.

" I appreciate your concern, beautiful girl! I'll save you! You can jump, I'll catch you!" The redhead smiled, happily.

" Are you sure about that? Cause you don't seem to be that strong, Chérie. " Nicky said while giggling.

" Oh fuck off, bitch. Come here, El debarge!" The girl said, while Nicky tried not to laugh at that.

The blonde girl jumped, falling into Gigi's surprisingly strong arms.

" My hero!! Can we share fruit snacks??" The blonde girl said, smiling happily.

" Of course, baby." Gigi said kissing the other's forehead.

" Hold on, bitches!! I'm Jaida Essence Hall and I'm here to save you from this horrible tower!" A black girl with short blue hair said, confident. Appearing from basically nowhere.

" First, where the hell did you came from?! And I already said I don't need your help! Salope!" Nicky said, starting to get really annoyed with those girls.

" That's none of your business, Oui Oui Baguette. Now listen, I don't know what the hell this means, but you're coming with me or I'll kick your ass, bitch!" She said making Nicky mad but then she suddenly accepted her help.

"Fine! But I'm still the prettier!" She said, jumping into Jaidas very strong arms.

" I- Prettier? Don't you mean Prettiest?" Gigi said, confused.

" No one talked to you, Barbie!" Nicky poutted.

" But- YOU ARE THE BLONDE-" She screamed before getting interrupted by a old woman.

" What the hell is happening here?! Nicolette!" Gothel appeared getting really mad about what was happening.

" Listen here , you salope! You are not my real mom and you will never be!" Nicky says, being proud of herself.

" What?! Of course I am ur mother, you will listen to me!!"

" I am her real mother you bitch!! My name is Jackie cox and you can't fit me in a box!!" A very mad brunette woman said, screaming. Also coming from nowhere.

" Where are they coming from?!" Nicky squeeze, confused.

" Oop" Gothel said, and then Jackie started beating her ass up with her glasses.

"Guys, guys please let's talk. " A blonde short pale woman said, very worried.

" Jan, my love, I love you but no."

" LISTEN HERE YOU WHORES!" Jaida screams getting really mad. Making everyone look at her.

" What?!" Jackie said, impatient.

" LOOK OVER THERE!" She pointed to the three, and then she ran away with Nicky in her arms.

"Where?" Everyone spoke confused till they noticed that bitch ran away with the future princess.

" GIVE MY CHILD BACK, RIGHT NOW!" Jan screamed in a full face crack.

And then, Jaida and Nicky got married and had 6 sheeps.

[hobbitkiller]

She-Ra, Supergirl, and Tangled: A Tale of Three Female Relationships: Part 2

*SPOILER WARNING FOR SHE-RA, SUPERGIRL, AND TANGLED: THE SERIES*

For those of you just tuning in, I’m taking a deep dive into 3 female relationships in 3 of my favorite tv shows that all turned into toxic messes at some point. The point of this series of posts is to exam these relationships, where things went wrong, whether there’s a chance for redemption, and what conclusions, if any, we can draw from these relationships about media’s representation of female characters and female relationships.

Oh, and shipping, ‘cause this is tumblr after all...

So, in Part 1 I gave a summary of the female relationships in question in these three shows (Adora and Catra, Kara and Lena, Rapunzel and Cassandra). I also summarized how these relationships began and when they started to go wrong. If you already know that stuff because you love these shows too, you don’t necessarily have to go back and read it, but doing so is always encouraged.

In this installment, I will be exploring 3 themes related to the festering resentment within these relationships: Mother Knows Best, Chosen Ones, and Itty Bitty Boxes. Follow the jump to get started!

PART III: MOTHER KNOWS BEST

I’ve heard a few people claim that Mother Gothel is not a top tier Disney villain. She doesn’t have the following that characters like Scar or Maleficent have. However, at the same time, I’ve heard many people saying something along the lines of “This is my mother.” There’s something uncomfortably familiar about Mother Gothel in Tangled. I recognized the same putdowns and microaggressions that I used to get from my stepmom in Gothel’s targeted jabs at Rapunzel’s confidence throughout the movie...all done with a smile and “It’s for your own good” attitude.

A lot of media focuses on the relationship between fathers and sons. Mothers in Disney have historically been silent or dead. (Except Perdita. That bitch was awesome). 

This, of course, makes it interesting that 5/6 of these characters have verbally (and in some cases physically) abusive, manipulative mother figures. And for Adora and Catra and Rapunzel and Cassandra, that mother figure is the same.

Here are our three abusive mothers:

Shadow Weaver who raised Adora and Catra:

Lillian Luthor who is Lena Luthor’s adoptive mother (and played by the absolute joy to watch that is Brenda Strong):

And, of course, Mother Gothel who kidnapped and raised Rapunzel for most of her life and is the SPOILER biological mother of Cassandra:

There are, of course, good mothers sprinkled in. Rapunzel’s biological mother, Queen Arianna is great once she actually gets lines in the TV show. Lena’s birth mother was also, by all accounts, a very kind and loving person. Kara has two moms, and while both have flaws, both are inherently good people (particularly Eliza Danvers, her adoptive mother).

However, in spite of the presence of some positive examples of motherhood, the relationships between all three of these pairs is heavily influenced by the three narcissistic women above.

All three of these women are dishonest, withhold affection only to give it away as a special treat, and actively manipulate their children. Yet, at the same time, the children can’t help but seek approval. Adora and Catra both feared and desperately sought approval and affection from Shadow Weaver. Lena tries to cut ties with her family, but keeps being drawn back in when Lillian admits pride at her accomplishments or that she does, in fact, care about her. Rapunzel sought affection from Gothel growing up because she was her one human contact, and, when Cassandra learned the truth of who her mother was, Cassandra desperately wanted some validation that the mother who abandoned her loved her on some level.

These mother/daughter relationships scarred 5/6 of our characters (Kara has her own hangups about her mother, but not on the deeply psychologically scarred level as the other five.) 

Adora is mockingly called paranoid by Shadow Weaver for understandably thinking the woman who lied to and manipulated her her entire life was up to something. Catra pushes everyone in her life away emotionally for fear of being hurt (only to create a self-fulfilling prophecy when they leave due to her behavior). Lena is constantly scared of being “betrayed” and manipulated. When she’s hurt by Supergirl asking Lena’s boyfriend to snoop on her, she says it was “something my mother would do.” When she and Kara first became friends, Lena was reluctant to do so because of the trust issues from her family (Lex Luthor is obviously also a manipulative, abusive jerk). Even Rapunzel, the embodiment of sunshine, has lingering trust issues. In the Season Three episode “Beginnings” she explains to Eugene that one of the reasons she likes Cassandra is because Rapunzel spent 18 years with someone who lied to her, whereas Cassandra was forthright and said what she was thinking.

Cassandra’s mother issues are a little more complicated. When she was four, Gothel abandoned her in order to kidnap Rapunzel and Cass was adopted by the captain of the guard. Cassandra has deeply repressed this memory by the time we meet her when she’s 22/23. Then, she’s given a glimpse of what life was like with Gothel:

Early in the series, Cass talks about how her father instilled in her the value of “earning my keep.” It’s clear here, though, that love as a transactional relationship had been instilled in Cassandra early in life: “And when it (love/affection) came, it came with strings.” 

This transactional view of relationships is something shared by all 5 members of our “bad moms” squad on at least some level. Adora constantly feels the need to fix things and be useful to her friends. Catra thinks if she just wins enough or is good enough, maybe Shadow Weaver will finally love her. Lena’s approach to relationships largely revolves around buying things for them and trying to unilaterally solve their problems for them without their input. Rapunzel has to go through an entire episode to learn that you can’t buy friendship through doing nice things, and that she doesn’t have to. Cass ties her self-worth deeply to her usefulness to others. They all struggle to find internal validation at times.

The other way mothers play a part in the downfalls of these relationships is the element of competitiveness. This is an issue with Adora and Catra and Rapunzel and Cassandra. As previously stated, both of these couples share a mother figure. And, in both of these couples, there is a deep resentment on the part of the non-golden haired child toward the other. Shadow Weaver did not hide that Adora was her favorite. She frequently praised Adora while berating and abusing Catra even when both had done equally well. Even when Adora abandoned Shadow Weaver and Catra for the rebellion, SW was more concerned with getting Adora back than appreciating the loyalty and accomplishments of Catra. 

Mother Gothel literally gave up Cassandra to take Rapunzel.

Both Catra and Cassandra feel completely overshadowed by the blonde in their lives, and part of them can’t help but think that, if only Adora or Rapunzel were out of the way, or had never existed, maybe they would have been chosen as the favored one.

This, of course, brings us to our next topic:

PART IV: CHOSEN ONES

I’ve never been a big fan of Ron Weasley. I didn’t read the Harry Potter books until I was in my twenties (yes, compared to many of my readers, I’m old), and I think this lead to me being less charmed by his humor or bullying of Hermione than I otherwise might have been. I found his temper aggravating and he is just...the worst...in the sixth book. Like, he purposely starts dating someone to punish Hermione who had already asked him to Slughorn’s party because Ginny pointed out that Hermione had probably kissed the guy she was dating TWO YEARS AGO. No, seriously, read that book again. That’s what happened. Then the seventh book happens and it turns out Dumbledore KNEW Ron was going to ditch the team at some point...

That being said, as I sat down to write this novel-length meta, I found myself thinking about what it’s like to be the support team for the “chosen one.” In the seventh book, Ron could have stayed at home with his pureblood family. He would still be in some danger due to their involvement with the Order of the Phoenix, but it would have been a lot safer than traveling around with “Undesirable No 1.″ Yet, because he loves Harry, he chooses to go on this mission. 

In the three pieces of media we’re discussing, 2/3 have literal chosen ones--characters with specific destinies of supernatural origin: Adora and Rapunzel. Kara also largely fits into the trope as someone sent to earth from afar to “save us.” As I somewhat jokingly said in the first part, all three of these pieces of media feature a blond super-powered person who needs to save the world.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be the best friend or “sister” of the person who’s “burdened with glorious purpose”?

On the one hand, it’s constant fear over that person’s safety and wellbeing. On the other, there’s a bit that can’t help but feel resentful. Imagine having a friend that overshadows every accomplishment you’ve ever had seemingly by virtue of just who they are.

Now, of course we know that it’s no easy road being a chosen one. There’s a lot you have to sacrifice, and it usually involves injury, near death, and a boatload of trauma. And the support teams know this. For some, it’s never an issue. But for others...

In She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Adora, to Catra, always had the presence in her life of a chosen one, even before she got the sword and became She-Ra. Shadow Weaver had sensed something powerful about Adora when she was a baby, and thus treated her as the “Golden Child” to Catra’s “Scapegoat.” 

This idea of the “Golden Child (GC)” versus the “Scapegoat (SG)” rolls a bit into this issue with “chosen ones.” In toxic, narcissistic families, parents often hold up one child as the great one while the other is the one to blame for their problems. Think Olga and Helga in Hey Arnold! (Is that reference too dated for some of you guys? Man, I’m old. Also, I remember finally being old enough to realize Helga’s mom was an alcoholic and it blew my mind.) This also usually entails encouraging a level of competitiveness between the siblings.

In some ways, it’s like a “chosen one” is the whole world’s golden child. Anyone who researches this dynamic knows it’s abusive to both the GC and the SG, which is clearly displayed in She-Ra when Adora is stressed by the pressure of expectations and the knowledge that her mistakes will most likely be taken out on Catra. That doesn’t change the fact that Catra resents the positive attention (the adoration if you will) Adora gets--that, no matter what Catra achieves, it will be nothing compared to Adora.  This resentment is a big part of what fuels the escalation of their personal conflict leading to one of the saddest pieces of animation since Fry’s dog died sad and alone on Futurama. In the Season 1 episode “Promise.” (This is, by far, the best episode of the series), Catra airs all of her feelings she’d been repressing about what it felt like living in Adora’s shadow--how it made her feel like a “side kick,” something Adora never consciously tried to do and is shocked to discover.

Cassandra on Tangled:The Series has similar feelings about her role in Rapunzel’s life. Not only is her best friend the one with the magic hair and great destiny, but she is also her boss and monarch. Aside from the two songs I included in my last post, “Waiting in the Wings” and “Crossing the Line,” this conflict is best demonstrated early in Season One in the episode “Challenge of the Brave.”

Cass didn’t suffer abuse in quite the same way Catra did (though Gothel was the worst mom for her first 4 years), but she does feel disrespected and overshadowed by Rapunzel even before learning about Gothel. In “Crossing the Line”--a song many likened to “Let it Go” when they first heard it, Cassandra lays out these feelings further:

There’s a line between the winners and the losers.

There’s a line between the chosen and the rest.

And I’ve done the best I could,

but i’ve always known just where we stood.

Me here with the luckless.

You there with the blessed.

Now, when this song first came out, there were negative reactions from some fans. How could Cassandra call someone who had been kidnapped and locked in a tower with the neglectful and verbally abusive Gothel for 18 years “blessed”? But, from Cassandra’s perspective, Rapunzel still gets everything, power, respect, etc., purely because she was born a princess while Cass has worked incredibly hard her entire life to achieve one goal, becoming a guard, and is constantly denied.

With Lena and Kara in Supergirl, the resentment, again, is mostly between Lena and Supergirl for most of their relationship. Multiple times during the show’s run, Lena has expressed concern about human’s relative helplessness in the face of aliens like Supergirl who have power. This is why Lena sees some of her shadier actions such as making Kryptonite or trying to give humans super powers as justified. She doesn’t go to the extreme levels of hatred that her brother Lex does, but that distrust in those who are naturally more powerful runs throughout the family as does the resentment that aliens have seemingly usurped the leadership role among humanity that should have belonged to the Luthors.

What makes this interesting is that, in most of her relationships, Lena, as a billionaire, is the more privileged and powerful one. This is really best demonstrated in her relationship with James Olsen, whom she orders around as his boss while buying him expensive gifts and going behind his back to fix his legal problems. And for much of their relationship, this is how Lena sees her relationship with Kara. It’s not a manipulative or cruel thing. Lena just sees Kara as her adorkable reporter friend who is hapless in the face of danger.

Then, all of these preconceived notions come crashing down when Lena learns that Kara is Supergirl. Suddenly, she learns that her hapless friend was actually playing her the whole time--that she was stringing Lena along and pretending to be only human. 

Lena’s resentment may not be as explicit in this case as Catra’s or Cassandra’s, but it is layered within all of the emotions Lena Luthor is pretending not to have.

This, of course, leads us to our final subject for today.

PART V: “ITTY BITTY BOXES”

I’ve mentioned a few times throughout this novel-length meta the word “repressed.” Catra, Lena, and Cassandra are not good at expressing their emotions in a healthy manner. Much of this can be blamed on the aforementioned mother figures and the trust and intimacy issues that having narcissistic, abusive parents can lead to. 

Narcissistic parents often place the burden of maintaining the emotional wellbeing of the family on the children. It is your job as the child to make sure they don’t get upset. It is you who has to keep the cool head and maintain the facade of positivity. Parents like Shadow Weaver, Lillian Luther, and Mother Gothel do not see it as their responsibility to help their children regulate emotion or address it. To them, “negative emotions” are character flaws.

Of course, anyone who’s watched Inside Out knows that emotions aren’t inherently good or bad and feeling, addressing, and understanding them are vital to good mental health.

Too bad Inside Out wasn’t there for Catra, Lena, or Cassandra growing up.

Instead, each of these characters has learned to bottle up and hide emotions like sadness, fear, hurt, and true, deep anger. Lena even outlines her approach to such feelings when helping Brainy, an alien who is basically like an organic computer, solve a problem:

I was not the only person that was reminded of this gem after that scene:

Putting emotions away in an imaginary box is a real technique for keeping yourself from becoming overwhelmed in a situation where you need to focus. However, “forgetting the box existed” is not the appropriate use of the boxes. They need to be opened, and the feelings addressed. 

Catra is interesting, because in some ways she’s very vocal about her frustration and anger. Yet, that surface level frustration manifests in yelling at her friends and subordinates over their job performance or just being a general jerk. It’s not an expression of her true, deep feelings. Catra doesn’t let anyone see the deep levels of hurt she feels when Shadow Weaver manipulates her to join Adora. Instead, she just almost destroys the world...as you do. Season 4 in particular features a Catra who is more mean to her friends than ever before, yet she is still repressing so much of her true feelings to the point of mental and emotional collapse.

Cassandra also struggles to express her feelings, particularly to Rapunzel. Part of it might be because Rapunzel is her princess, and it’s not Cassandra’s place, but it’s also something she struggles with in general:

The above line occurs in an episode where Rapunzel knows Cassandra is mad at her and keeps pushing her to share her feelings. As we can see, Cass is not a big fan of that. Even though they talk at the end of the episode, it’s clear that there are still some hurt feelings on Cassandra’s side that she doesn’t express until she has electric blue hair and is singing a rock ballad about “Crossing the Line.” This is also fascinating because, as previously stated, one of the reasons Rapunzel likes Cassandra is her honesty. But, like with Catra, Cassandra can be honest about surface level annoyances, but intensely represses anything deeper.

All three of these characters let their emotions fester until they become deadly infections that poison their relationships, not just with their best friends, but with everyone. Many of these relationships could have been diverted from their dark paths if there had been more honest and open communication both between the characters and internally. If Lena acknowledged the real reasons why she was hurt when learning Kara was Supergirl, if Catra had been honest about feeling overshadowed and pitied by Adora, if Cassandra had expressed the pain she was feeling in her relationship with Rapunzel, things could have been different. Instead, those feelings have turned toxic.

NEXT TIME IN THE NEVER-ENDING ANALYSIS:

Blond Bulldozers 

I Don’t Care (I ship it)

Just going to do 2, because 3 subjects were a bit much.

Hope to see you there.