[OOC: Application]
Series: Tangled
Series' Medium: Movie
Character: Rapunzel
Age: 18
Sex/Gender: Female
Canon Role: Disney protagonist who is longing for *~*~MOOOOOOORE~*~*
"Real" Name: Amanda Blumenthal
History:
As far as Rapunzel knew up until very recently, she was born to a woman named Gothel, who raised her alone in a hidden, doorless tower for eighteen years, never once letting her set foot outside. One might expect a person to be resentful at being brought up this way, but Rapunzel believed her mother chose this for her out of love and a genuine desire to protect her. After all, according to her mother, the world was a harsh place populated with sharp-toothed ruffians, fierce animals, and rampant disease, among a myriad of other horrible things. She understood her mother not wanting her to be exposed to that kind of danger. Not only that, but Rapunzel had been born with a very special gift - magic hair that glowed when she sang. More specifically, when she sang a specific song taught to her by Mother Gothel, her hair gained healing qualities strong enough to reverse injury and aging (see Abilities for details). A gift like that would be highly sought-after, making Rapunzel a target for the worst of mankind - all the more reason to keep her hidden away. So, for years, Rapunzel used her gift to help keep her mother young, staying in the tower with the occasional questions, but few complaints. She had fuzzy recollections of a sun-shaped design in her earliest memories, but often those memories were relegated to her unconscious mind, only expressing themselves through vague shapes in her artwork.
Warranted or not, life in a tower was not exactly sweet. Rapunzel was forced to fill her days with endless strings of tasks and activities, anything she could think of to overcome boredom and restlessness. She read, did chores, exercised, cooked, baked, played games, did crafts, played music, took care of her reams and reams of magic hair, and painted on the walls from top to bottom. Unbeknownst to her mother, she also befriended a local chameleon, whom she called Pascal. The little lizard was her only outlet for conversation beyond Mother Gothel, whom Rapunzel loved, but also felt she couldn't share everything with.
The most nagging of these secrets in her mind was the annual appearance of floating lights in the sky. She charted stars in an attempt to discern what the lights were, but found that while the stars were constant, the floating lights only appeared on her birthday. This bothered her something fierce; she got the feeling that somehow, those lights were meant for her, but she couldn't figure out anything beyond that. Year after year, she felt the urge to leave her tower and see the lights in person. Every year, though, she balked, remembering her mother's warnings and opting to stay inside where she was safe.
On the cusp of her eighteenth year, however, Rapunzel couldn't stand doing nothing anymore. She was becoming an adult, she figured; surely her mother would agree to take her out to see the lights for the occasion? Just this once? On the day before her birthday, she psyched herself up to talk to her mother and painted a new picture on her wall to illustrate what she wanted. When she finally asked, however, she was met with yet another dramatic speech about the dangers of the world, and a stern warning to never ask about leaving the tower again. Disappointed, Rapunzel accepted this, but still wondered what she could do to see the lights.
Coincidentally, later that day, Rapunzel was met with a new opportunity. On the run with a stolen crown in hand, a man called Flynn Rider stumbled across the hidden tower and scaled it to avoid his pursuers. Understandably freaked out, Rapunzel knocked the man out with a frying pan to the back of the head, and with some effort, she managed to stuff his unconscious body into her closet. She was very impressed with herself and became certain that her mother would be too. When her mother returned, however, she was shot down harshly before she could say anything about the man in the closet. Her mother wasn't ever going to let her leave the tower, and that was that.
After that, Rapunzel slowly began to hatch a plan. Instead of asking about the lights again, she asked Mother Gothel for new paints made from shells that would take three days to get. This gave her enough time alone to drag her captive out of the closet and demand to know who he was and what he wanted with her hair. As it turned out, Flynn wanted absolutely nothing to do with her hair. Surprised and intrigued, Rapunzel figured that if he didn't want her hair, then maybe she could trust him to escort her to see the floating lights (which Flynn informed her were actually lanterns released for the kingdom's lost princess). She made a deal with him: if he took her to see the lights and got her back home safely afterward, she would return the crown, which she had hidden after studying it earlier. Reluctantly, Flynn accepted, and Rapunzel followed him down from the tower.
At first, Rapunzel was overjoyed to finally be outside. The further away they got, however, she began to suffer drastic mood swings and guilt trips in between her happier moments. As Flynn pointed out, betraying her mother's trust like this would probably break her heart and crush her soul. Rapunzel was tempted to turn around and go straight back home, but ultimately, she knew she had to see the lights by any means necessary.
Flynn, eager to get out of his deal, however, wanted to find other ways of making Rapunzel give up on her road trip. He ended up taking her to a tavern filled with the very sorts of ruffians and barbarians Mother Gothel had warned about, and told Rapunzel that if she couldn't handle this "five-star joint," then she didn't stand a chance anywhere. Flynn's plan backfired, however, when the men in the tavern recognized him from a wanted poster and started fighting over him. Rapunzel pleaded with the men and told them that she needed Flynn to help her achieve her dream of seeing the lanterns. One by one, the men started to admit that they all had dreams of their own. The tide quickly turned in Rapunzel's favour, gaining her a tavern full of new friends.
Not a moment too soon, for at that point, Flynn's previous pursuers barged in looking for him. The ruffians helped Rapunzel and Flynn make a getaway through a secret passage, but it wasn't long before a determined palace horse, Maximus, sniffed them out and led the guards to give chase again. The lot of them ended up near a dam, and following a very strange action sequence, Rapunzel and Flynn ended up inside a blocked-off cave filling quickly with water. The two were seemingly faced with death, and Rapunzel lamented ever having left her tower. Flynn revealed then that his real name was Eugene Fitzherbert, saying that someone might as well know. In return, Rapunzel revealed that her hair glowed when she sang - which reminded her that she could use the glow to light the cavern and aid their escape. By the light of her hair, the two found some loose stones and clawed their way out.
Later that night, Rapunzel showed off her hair's healing abilities on an injury to Eugene's hand. After he left to get firewood, however, Rapunzel was confronted by her mother, who had been following them. After a refusal to return to her tower and an insistence that Eugene liked her, Gothel gave Rapunzel a satchel with the crown, telling her to give it to Eugene and see him leave her in an instant. Rapunzel stowed the bag for the time being, and Gothel left.
The next morning, the pair was found by Maximus, and before he could drag Eugene off to prison, Rapunzel calmed him down and convinced him to let her keep her escort for at least the next twenty-four hours. One extremely shaky man-horse truce later, and they finally arrived in the city. Rapunzel and Eugene spent the day enjoying the festivities together, and by that night, the two were feeling much closer than either had expected. They rode out onto the lake in a gondola for the best view of the lanterns, and it was everything Rapunzel had dreamed it would be - even more with Eugene there to share it with her.
At that point, she pulled the satchel out and gave it to him as a sign of trust. The two almost shared a kiss, but were interrupted by Eugene's sudden and unexplained need to row back to shore and "take care of something." He took the satchel in hand and left, claiming he would be right back. Rapunzel waited with Pascal, but instead of Eugene returning to her, it was his twin partners in thievery, the Stabbington Brothers. They pointed out a boat sailing back to the mainland with their partner on it, and claimed that he had traded them Rapunzel for the crown. Rapunzel ran, but didn't get far before she was rescued by none other than her mother, who knocked out the brothers. Heartbroken over Eugene's betrayal, Rapunzel went back to her mother's open arms and returned home with her.
Back in the tower, however, Rapunzel came to a realization. Comparing a flag from the festival to the artwork on her walls, she realized that the sun design matched the shapes there, and she recalled two figures in her vague memory - a king and queen. She (gasp!) was the lost princess. Eighteen years ago, Gothel had stolen Rapunzel from her crib for the power in her hair (originally gained from a golden flower Gothel had been using for hundreds of years, until it was found and given to the queen during her pregnancy). Rapunzel confronted Gothel and refused to let her use her hair ever again. In retaliation, Gothel confirmed that not only had she set up Eugene's "betrayal," but he was to be hanged for his crimes. She then bound and gagged Rapunzel in preparation to take her to a place where she would never be found again.
In the midst of preparations, however, Gothel heard a man on horseback approaching. Below was Eugene, escaped from prison with help from Maximus. Tricking him into thinking Rapunzel was alone in the tower, Gothel threw down Rapunzel's hair to him, only to stab him in the gut once he reached the top. Rapunzel pleaded to heal Eugene in exchange for doing whatever Gothel wanted of her. Agreeing, Gothel chained Eugene to a post and let Rapunzel go to him. She leaned over him, ready to use her power. Eugene reached to pull her closer...
And at this point, suddenly everything goes black. Following this, Rapunzel wakes up in Landel's Institute.
Canon Point:
I will be taking Rapunzel from just after Flynn/Eugene is stabbed, and about one second before he was about to slice off her hair with a shard of glass. For one thing, I would like to take Rapunzel with her hair intact, as I think it will provide an interesting ability and challenge for her in Landel's. Secondly, I want to take her from after she is witness to a violent act like stabbing, which will give her something to take some of the shock off of future violence in the Institute (see: Justification). Thirdly, if she's taken from this point, she will probably assume (at first, at least) that the Institute is the place Mother Gothel meant when saying she was going somewhere no one would ever find her (see: Scope/Psychology). Lastly, I want to give Rapunzel some uncertainty in her memory. Was she able to heal Eugene, or is he dead now? What was that little movement she saw before her memory blanked out? I want her to have some hope of getting back to him, but also give her some nice juicy despair at the prospect of his likely death (again, see: Scope/Psychology).
Personality:
Frankly, it's a miracle that Rapunzel is not more of a mess as a human being, given the kind of parenting she has been subject to. Mother Gothel has teased her and frightened her with tales about the world and its dangers for years now, not to mention forced her to stay in one small space with no door since almost the day she was born. Though the two do appear to share a genuine mother-daughter connection (before the climax of the movie, anyway), it's clear that Gothel hasn't exactly been the most warm or caring parent in the world. It's enough to make a strong argument for the "nature" side in the eternal "nature vs. nurture" debate, because somehow, against all odds, Rapunzel has grown up into a kind, spunky, sunshine-y girl who loves animals, arts and crafts, books, puzzles, hazelnut soup, and singing, among other things. She's exceedingly curious about anything and everything new, as to be expected from a girl with limited experiences. She gets excited easily, a trait she recognizes as potentially annoying, but doesn't always hold back on, all the same. She has a good sense of humour - though, not always a particularly sharp wit. She gets a good sarcastic quip in every now and then, but she will still sometimes miss jokes or takes things seriously when she shouldn't. Still, a positive attitude overall.
When she is finally exposed to people, she finds that she has a natural way with them in spite of her upbringing. She is able to bring an entire pub full of malicious thugs around to her point of view through sheer force of sincerity alone, and is a hit with the townspeople when she makes it to the lantern festival. She's mildly touchy-feely with those she perceives as "good people" (e.g.: gave the hook-handed thug a kiss on the cheek as a thank you; started up a big dance circle in town and gladly danced throughout the day with multiple strangers), and whom she designates as a "good person" is a bit more liberal now that she's begun to open up her worldview and see how wrong Gothel was. She's very keen to learn how to love other people, too, especially Eugene. As well, if she has a knack with people, she has an even bigger knack with animals. This is seen not only in her friendship with Pascal, but also in her quick subduing and befriending of Maximus, a horse that had, up until then, been a laser-focused instrument of death pointed right at Flynn Rider.
A more expected result of eighteen years locked in a tower: Rapunzel has developed an obsessive need to fill dead time with productive activity. Just one or a few activities won't cut it for her, either. Thanks to the lack of variety in her previous surroundings, Rapunzel has always been compelled to make up for it with variety in what she does with herself. She feels driven to teach herself anything that has the potential to alleviate the ever-present threats of boredom and loneliness, be it a new art form, a game, a story, a piece of geography, a dance, a song, or anything else. Another thing that spawned from her need to change up her surroundings has been her creative side, which she lets flow through, again, multiple artistic outlets (see: Non-otherworldly Abilities). Her main outlet, though, is painting. The girl has so many dreams and ideas buzzing around in her brain that she can't keep them locked up, and so she lets them out through her paintbrush, covering every viable canvas she can find with colourful, stylized murals.
Speaking of "dreams," no description of Rapunzel would be complete without that word. It could be said that, in essence, Rapunzel has only ever had two things in her life: her mother, and her dreams. Her biggest dream for years had been to see the floating lights. So obsessed with that dream was she that she even taught herself to chart stars from scratch in an attempt to learn more about the nature of the lights. The only thing that kept her from chasing her dream up until recently was fear of the outside world (more on that later) and a fear of losing the one dream-come-true she has always had - her hair. Along with knowing that its magic is an insanely powerful gift that needed to be protected, her hair has been such a big part of her being that it's almost like a friend - a mostly limp, non-sentient friend, but with such a presence that it felt like a friend nonetheless. Regardless, though, her dream was too strong to be kept down forever, and once Rapunzel set herself on achieving it, she didn't back down, even when temptation and fear tried to sway her. Now that she has achieved that dream, she hopes that her new dream - being with Eugene and meeting her real parents - is still possible.
On a brief related note: Rapunzel is, in general, a person who will stick to her guns once she has decided something. She may waver back and forth for a while (sometimes in hilariously melodramatic fashion, as teenagers are wont to do), but ultimately, she will remain on whatever path she determined was the right one to begin with. This goes for both herself and others, particularly with promises. She tells Flynn/Eugene flat-out that when she makes a promise, she never, ever breaks it. This comes up again later when she promises Gothel that she will go with her in exchange for healing Flynn/Eugene.
In any case, there are still plenty of ways in which Rapunzel's upbringing has had a more overtly negative effect on her. Likely by direct design on Gothel's part, she is almost a poster child for naivety. What she knows of the outside world, she mainly "knows" from Gothel's stories and the few generic books she's been allowed. If she hadn't escaped her tower, she would still be under the impression that all men are sharp-toothed ruffians who would only use her for her gifts and then leave her for dead once they've their fill (ahem, on a related note: it is very likely that Rapunzel has never had any version of "the talk"; she knows what kissing is, and that's probably it). Leaving the tower for such a short time hasn't done nearly enough to cure her of that naivety, either. She may have learned a lot in the few days she spent outside her tower, but she is still mostly the same person as always, just overwhelmed by a flood of new information and emotions. As summed up by Gothel, she is still "sloppy, under-dressed, immature, clumsy, […] gullible, naive, ditzy, and a bit, well, hmm, vague." That description may not be entirely charitable, for Rapunzel is not quite as sloppy or ditzy as Gothel makes her out to be; but it does still stand that she doesn't bother much with footwear, and she has been known to accidentally hit herself in the head with frying pans when she's not careful. "Gullible" is a hugely accurate word to use, either way. Rapunzel may be initially careful not to trust strangers, but it doesn't take much for a person to convince her that they are telling the truth or that their intentions are pure. Flynn was right to point out that it's generally a horrible idea to trust a wanted thief right off the bat, even though it did work out for her in this case. Also, she believed Mother Gothel's lies for eighteen years, if that tells you anything.
On the "nurture" end of the spectrum, Rapunzel did pick up at least a few of her mother's negative traits. She hides things and lies sometimes when she feels the ends justify doing so, and she can be a bit manipulative, though in a less malicious way than Gothel. This can be seen when she bowls Maximus over with affection and praise, then guilt-trips him into helping her and Flynn/Eugene by pointing out that it's her birthday. More overtly, she also took advantage of her mother's need to keep her contented, convincing her to take an unnecessary three-day trip in order to get her out of the tower. She is also instinctively violent in certain situations, reacting with automatic skull bashings/threats of skull bashings when scared or insulted.
Rapunzel's self-esteem is not always the greatest, either. Following her time outside and the revelation of Gothel's true intentions, this has been alleviated a lot, but she is still prone to thinking less of herself in moments of weakness. She has an instinct to blame herself when things go wrong, too, whether that's true or not. This is seen when she is trapped with Flynn in the cave and blames herself entirely for the situation despite it being Flynn's pursuers that forced them into that place. This instinct probably stems from Gothel's constantly undermining Rapunzel's good qualities in favour of reminding her of everything wrong with her. As well, she is ready to throw her own happiness in the garbage if it means making someone else happy, be it Gothel (pre-betrayal), Flynn/Eugene (i.e.: her offer to submit to Gothel's demands in exchange for healing him), or someone else close to her. Again, less of this at the canon point I'm taking her from, but still there to a degree.
She has a great many fears thanks to Gothel, even getting jumpy enough at times to leap away in terror at the sound of a mighty bunny rabbit approaching from the bushes. However, she is making leaps and bounds of progress in standing up to all those fears and coming into her own as an independent woman. After proving to herself that she could handle herself against a potential threat in the form of Flynn, she went on to confront ruffians, palace guards, great heights, potential drowning, and eventually Gothel, with each new encounter building another layer of strength and determination to break free of her mother's influence. She still has a ways to go yet, but as of right now, she's done more to shape herself into a strong, capable person in two days than some people do in their entire lives.
Appearance:
Rapunzel is a little on the short side (I would guess about 5'4") and has a slight build. She is Caucasian and has very large green eyes with short, thick eyelashes. Her nose is small and her face delicate-looking, with a bit of an overbite and a smattering of very faint freckles across the bridge of her nose. The outfit she wears in canon is an ankle-length, puffy-sleeved purple dress with pale pink highlights and a lavender corset. She eschews footwear of any kind when she can, having grown used to going barefoot inside her tower. And I think that's about alllllll...
No, no, of course, the elephant in the room is the hair - all seventy feet of it. It's blond, resistant to breakage, slightly wavy, thicker near her body and thinner as it goes on, and it glows when she sings. It ought to weigh about sixty to eighty pounds at its length and be impossible to keep clean, but it doesn't and it isn't because... magic, probably. In any case, during the daytime at Landel's, the hair will only reach the back of her knees. At night, her hair will grow back out to not its original length, but long enough to give her a hard time, maybe to about thirty-five feet (about as much as is seen here).
This difficulty will be my main justification for allowing the length. While her hair does provide her with an advantage over other patients in that she can use it like a built-in rope or grappling hook, it will also prove incredibly awkward, forcing Rapunzel to either carry it around in her arms or drag it behind her with the danger of it being stepped on or caught in things, including the mouths and/or claws of monsters. The advantages and disadvantages should hopefully cancel each other out.
Also of note: it's not usually visible, but buried under a heap of blond hair near the base of her scalp is one short, solitary lock of brown hair left from the time Mother Gothel attempted to cut a piece off. Her eyebrows are also brown.
Original Powers:
Rapunzel's hair possesses all the same magical qualities of the golden flower that preceded it, including:
In addition to the healing, the flower's magic has also made Rapunzel's hair partially prehensile, but only in the last foot or two. Several times in the movie, Rapunzel is able to use the end of her hair like a grappling hook, catching it around things securely enough to swing from or pull by. As well, in the first scene after the prologue, Rapunzel is shown reaching a lock of hair behind Pascal and picking him up with it. Again, though, only that small portion of her hair seems to have that capability; the rest of it cannot move without her lifting, pulling, or throwing it.
The flower's magic also most likely helps with keeping Rapunzel's hair light (not eighty pounds like it would be in reality), clean, and free from splits and knots. This ability is not explicitly stated in canon, but come on: how else could her hair stay in the kind of condition it's in throughout the movie? If the magic does help make her hair lighter, it may make things lifted/grabbed by it lighter, too. This would explain how Rapunzel can so easily lift a full-grown person seventy feet into the air with those stick-figure arms of hers. If it doesn't, then at the very least, Rapunzel is ridiculously strong for her body type.
The magic almost certainly affects the speed of Rapunzel's hair growth. She was born with a full head of hair, and in only eighteen years, it grew to about seventy feet in length. Doing the math, seventy feet divided by eighteen years divided by three-hundred-sixty-five days equals about 0.128 inches of hair growth per day, or about 3.8 inches per month. That's almost eight times as fast as the average rate (about 0.0167 inches per day/0.5 inches per month). That's way too big a spike for her magic not to be involved.
Lastly, it isn't just Rapunzel's hair that contains magic from the golden flower. If the healing incantation is sung when Rapunzel cries, her tears bestow their healing on whoever they touch. If Rapunzel's emotions are strong enough, her tears become supercharged to such a degree that they can not only heal injuries, but actually bring back the recently dead. Impressive blooms of light and energy are produced when Rapunzel revives Flynn/Eugene in this way, and he is restored to complete health in mere moments.
Completely unrelated to the hair thing, it appears she might have the ability to understand and talk to animals. When wondering about whether or not Flynn is trustworthy, she speaks to Pascal, and her responses seem to indicate an actual conversation as opposed to talking to herself ("I know I need someone to take me." "Chitterchitter" "I think he's telling the truth too." "Chitterchittersqueak." "He doesn't have fangs." "Chitterchitter!" "Well what choice do I have?") However, it could also be interpreted that, as a rule, at least some species of animals in this universe are close to human intelligence, understand human speech naturally, and can be expressive enough to get their intentions across through expressions and body language alone. Thus, this could be less an ability of Rapunzel's and more related to how this universe works. It's hard to say. For the purposes of being concrete, I'm going to say that the latter is true, but that Rapunzel also has an innate intuition regarding what animals are feeling/trying to express.
Modified Powers at Landel's:
As stated in the Appearance section, Rapunzel's hair will only reach to the back of her knees during the day. It will still be blond, but it will not respond to the healing incantation in any way, and all other extra qualities granted by the flower will be nerfed. And I do mean "all" - Rapunzel will have to suffer knots and split-ends just like the rest of us now (poor baby).
At night, however, her hair will become its old luscious self, growing back out to about thirty-five feet in length and regaining its power on a limited scale. Its prehensility will be retained, but only for grappling-hook-type tasks - no more actively picking up objects. It will also be more prone to failure, with about 1/3 attempts to grapple missing their mark (I will use a random number generator to determine hits/misses). As well, despite being about half its original length, it will feel somewhat heavier - still much lighter than it would be in our real world, but there will be noticeably more pull on her scalp and it will take more effort to carry/throw/manipulate/etc.
Any use of abilities activated by the healing incantation will be more limited in scope and will drain energy from Rapunzel rapidly. The easiest will be small injuries, like the cut on Flynn's hand in the movie. These can be healed completely, albeit with a longer wait time than in canon (about five to ten minutes as opposed to five to ten seconds); performing a small healing will make Rapunzel feel lightheaded and woozy for at least five rounds; she can perform three small healings per night before feeling the need to lie down and/or pass out.
Medium injuries, such as larger cuts/lacerations, dislocated/broken bones, and non-fatal stab/bullet wounds, will only be about 80% healed, the time required to heal a significant part of the injury will be about twenty minutes, and Rapunzel will be lightheaded/woozy/drained for the rest of the night after the healing. If she tries to keep pushing past her limit, she will start to feel nauseous, then eventually faint.
Severe and potentially fatal injuries will be the toughest to deal with. Some, such as severed limbs, she simply will not be able to deal with at all. Reattaching that much tissue at once will be too much stress for her both mentally and power-wise. For injuries that she can deal with, such as impalements or sever burns, Rapunzel will still only be able to go for twenty minutes maximum before she reaches her limit. If the patient is fading fast, that won't be nearly fast enough to save them from death. If the patient can hold on longer, she can heal them to the point where their injuries won't be fatal anymore; however, the healing won't be very complete. Wounds will be prone to re-opening at the slightest wrong move, burns will still sting like hell, and shattered bones will simply be upgraded to broken ones, still requiring traditional dressing to heal the rest of the way. If a patient wants their severe injury completely taken care of by her, they will need at least two or three nights of treatment.
Canon is not clear about whether Rapunzel might be able to heal old injuries/scars. I presume that she would be able to, but in Landel's, I'm going to say she will not have that ability. The oldest injuries she will be able to treat will be one-week-old ones.
Reversal of aging will be completely nerfed, considering all the other powers she will be retaining.
Healing of minor diseases such as colds will be subject to effects somewhere between small and medium injuries. About fifteen minutes will be required to clear most of the disease from the target's body, but a residual symptom or two will be present for at least one day more (e.g.: if she's healing a cold, then the person may be cured of their sneezing, coughing, and general feeling of crappiness, but they'll still have a sore throat and/or stuffy nose). Rapunzel will feel woozy for about half the night following this. Healing of strong or chronic illnesses will be nerfed. Rapunzel can try, but she will only be draining herself and giving nothing to the patient.
Rapunzel's tears can still bring back the recently dead, but only if: 1) she cares an extreme amount about the victim personally (no strangers, no acquaintances, and no decently good friends - BFFs and lovers only), 2) the tears reach the corpse within one minute of death. Any longer than that and they are a lost cause. Considering that Rapunzel would not yet know of this ability, she will not actively try using it, either, lowering the chances for success on this front even further.
Last point: whether or not Rapunzel was able to communicate with animals before, she won't be able to now. End of story.
Non-otherworldly Abilities:
With eighteen years to do nothing but exhaust every possible avenue for entertainment available within a single space, Rapunzel has tried her hand at a great many solitary (and solitary-plus-a-chameleon) activities in her time. She runs through a long list of her hobbies and talents in the song "When Will My Life Begin?", and while not all of them surpass the norm, she has at least some ability in all of the following: speed reading, playing guitar, knitting, cooking, puzzle making, dart throwing, baking, dancing, chess, and ventriloquy. Also, after doing the healing incantation on most days for eighteen years, she has developed a lovely singing voice, and managed to mostly suppress that hint of a lisp that she has, too.
Her major talents all lie in the realm of arts and crafts; she is shown engaging very competently in paper mache, pottery, and candle-making, and her two biggest areas of expertise are sewing (she almost certainly made her signature purple dress herself, given that it's covered in those subconscious sunburst symbols of hers) and painting. Aside from dreaming of the outside world, one might guess that painting is Rapunzel's next-biggest obsession in life. Murals cover literally every wall in her tower, with childish early works near the bottom and sophisticated, stylized works closer to the top. Judging from the timeframe of "When Will My Life Begin?" and the time she spends doing a mural on the ground at the festival, she has gotten crazy fast at producing good works as well. The only thing she might be able to do faster might be cleaning. (Sweeping, polishing, waxing, laundry, and re-sweeping, all in the span of fifteen minutes? Jeebus.)
For not getting out much, Rapunzel is in pretty decent physical condition as well. Even if we count out the whole lifting Mother Gothel thing, which could be attributed to hair powers, the girl is quick to work out escape and fight plans throughout the movie, and has the physical know-how to follow through on said plans (e.g.: doesn't hesitate to swing across a ravine on her hair during the quarry scene, then grabs Flynn with her hair and swings him back over to her straight after). Part of this is probably her being comfortable enough with her hair and knowledgeable enough about how it behaves that she knows exactly how to have it help her, even in unfamiliar situations.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Spending eighteen straight years from infancy onward inside only one space and with only one point of human contact does things to a person, to say the least. The most entrenched thing is a heavy dependency on the point of human contact, despite undesirable qualities in whomever that may be. For Rapunzel, though Mother Gothel teased her and frightened her with tales of the world and its dangers all throughout her life, she could never help loving the old woman. After all, she was her mother; as Gothel often pointed out, she was the one who bathed, changed, and nursed Rapunzel from infancy, sang her lullabies to put her to sleep, shared dinners and hair brushing/healing sessions with her, indulged her creative pursuits, and, of course, protected her from any and all danger. For all the things that rubbed her the wrong way about Gothel, the two of them were family, and each was all the other had. She knew for years that no matter what might happen, she could always go back to her mother's arms and seek comfort.
Now that Rapunzel is aware that Gothel was never related to her by blood, things are very different. She is devastated and outraged, as is to be expected of someone who has just found out that their entire life up to this point has been based on lies and manipulation. She could have had a kingdom and two wonderful parents to love her and nurture her this whole time, and Gothel stole that away from her out of pure selfishness. And now, as far as she can tell, Gothel has dumped her in a faraway prison, never to see Eugene again or meet her real parents, and she has probably done something to make Rapunzel forget whatever happened between her attempt to heal Eugene and her arrival in Landel's. For these and so many other reasons, she outright detests Gothel now... And yet, one can't spend eighteen years with someone, honestly loving them, and then just cut them off all in one go like one might cut off hair. I feel that despite everything that's been revealed to her, Rapunzel is still going to be very torn about the whole issue. She is going to feel mostly hatred toward Gothel and want to get back to Eugene, of course, but it's still going to be very strange for her not to have a mother around anymore. There isn't going to be anyone to run to when things get bad, no one to tuck her in at night, no one to tell her everything will be all right.
Because of this, I believe that she is going to end up gravitating towards people who might serve as substitutes for Gothel. She isn't going to want anyone who makes fun of her or belittles her into the ground, but she is going to want some kind of warm, motherly presence she can go to when the going gets rough. She will still want to be her own woman and do things for herself, but she only just left her tower two days ago. She isn't going to be able to leave all her hang-ups behind cold turkey without some serious mental repercussions. Who knows? Maybe if she can't find anyone who fills that motherly niche for her, I can play with that as well, building up her independence but also more coldness as she looks back bitterly on the memory of her mother with no one new to support her.
At the very least, she will want to make a lot more friends to make up for the near-total lack of human contact she has had in her life up to this point. She got a taste of being surrounded by joyous, friendly people at the Snuggly Duckling pub, and again when taking part in the festivities in the kingdom capital. The more people she meets and gets to know, the better. It will feed into her endless curiosity about not only her world, but also others, as she finds out about the whole alternate universe thing.
As for actual activity at Landel's: she's going to be dying to escape, for sure. She isn't keen to have gotten out of one prison only to find it swapped for another, even if this one is bigger and has more people in it. The only thing that will make her unsure will be the gap in her memory. If she did heal Eugene and this is the place Gothel has sent her as part of their deal, then what's to stop Gothel from going out and killing Eugene again if Rapunzel tries to escape? Or, if she didn't heal Eugene and the Institute really is unrelated to Gothel, did he die from his wound? If he did die, well... then what? Eugene was her new dream after the achievement of her old one. If Eugene isn't around anymore, then what use is there in continuing to dream? Thus, she really, really hopes he made it. She isn't sure she wants to find out what happened, but she knows she has to. In any case, I think she will see others trying to escape night after night and ultimately end up helping their efforts, but that won't stop her from worrying about the consequences of doing so.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Rapunzel may be naive and full of fear about the unknown, but she is a surprisingly strong girl for all that she has going against her. It takes a lot of courage to step out into the world when all you know about it is that it is supposedly filled with sharp-toothed manbeasts, deadly forces of nature, dangerous animals and bugs, plagues, and other, even more horrible things. She may have seen now that not all of her fears are founded in reality, but she has still been confronted by a lot of real danger since setting off with Flynn/Eugene. After an initial panic in the face of the pub thugs, she started wailing on them with her frying pan and demanding they give her back her guy, despite the danger that posed. Then she managed to work out a creative solution for getting their attention (i.e.: using her hair to snap a thick branch down on one of their heads) and confronted them, urging them to find their humanity. She could have gotten her head sliced off right then and there, but she stood her ground and didn't run in spite of how scared she was.
She is also a pretty darn impressive action girl in the making. As described in the abilities sections, she knows her hair well enough to use it in all sorts of creative ways, and isn't afraid to use it to help her swing across deep chasms and such. Jumping down from her tower probably helped her with heights in particular; once she knew she could handle that, other heights became less of a problem. Aside from heights and hair, though, she also has a good arm with a frying pan, and could probably do some pretty decent things with a sword or other weapons if somebody taught her. Her reflexes and self-defence instincts are very quick.
As well, she has been witness to one major shocking act of violence/potential death just before her arrival in the institute. Her reaction to it was panic at first, but then a very strong, defiant stand against her mother for it, followed by a self-sacrificing offer made in complete seriousness. She did not break down in the face of the violence, and was prepared to do what she could to heal it and prevent it from happening again. Overall, a surprisingly mature, selfless response.
Series' Medium: Movie
Character: Rapunzel
Age: 18
Sex/Gender: Female
Canon Role: Disney protagonist who is longing for *~*~MOOOOOOORE~*~*
"Real" Name: Amanda Blumenthal
History:
As far as Rapunzel knew up until very recently, she was born to a woman named Gothel, who raised her alone in a hidden, doorless tower for eighteen years, never once letting her set foot outside. One might expect a person to be resentful at being brought up this way, but Rapunzel believed her mother chose this for her out of love and a genuine desire to protect her. After all, according to her mother, the world was a harsh place populated with sharp-toothed ruffians, fierce animals, and rampant disease, among a myriad of other horrible things. She understood her mother not wanting her to be exposed to that kind of danger. Not only that, but Rapunzel had been born with a very special gift - magic hair that glowed when she sang. More specifically, when she sang a specific song taught to her by Mother Gothel, her hair gained healing qualities strong enough to reverse injury and aging (see Abilities for details). A gift like that would be highly sought-after, making Rapunzel a target for the worst of mankind - all the more reason to keep her hidden away. So, for years, Rapunzel used her gift to help keep her mother young, staying in the tower with the occasional questions, but few complaints. She had fuzzy recollections of a sun-shaped design in her earliest memories, but often those memories were relegated to her unconscious mind, only expressing themselves through vague shapes in her artwork.
Warranted or not, life in a tower was not exactly sweet. Rapunzel was forced to fill her days with endless strings of tasks and activities, anything she could think of to overcome boredom and restlessness. She read, did chores, exercised, cooked, baked, played games, did crafts, played music, took care of her reams and reams of magic hair, and painted on the walls from top to bottom. Unbeknownst to her mother, she also befriended a local chameleon, whom she called Pascal. The little lizard was her only outlet for conversation beyond Mother Gothel, whom Rapunzel loved, but also felt she couldn't share everything with.
The most nagging of these secrets in her mind was the annual appearance of floating lights in the sky. She charted stars in an attempt to discern what the lights were, but found that while the stars were constant, the floating lights only appeared on her birthday. This bothered her something fierce; she got the feeling that somehow, those lights were meant for her, but she couldn't figure out anything beyond that. Year after year, she felt the urge to leave her tower and see the lights in person. Every year, though, she balked, remembering her mother's warnings and opting to stay inside where she was safe.
On the cusp of her eighteenth year, however, Rapunzel couldn't stand doing nothing anymore. She was becoming an adult, she figured; surely her mother would agree to take her out to see the lights for the occasion? Just this once? On the day before her birthday, she psyched herself up to talk to her mother and painted a new picture on her wall to illustrate what she wanted. When she finally asked, however, she was met with yet another dramatic speech about the dangers of the world, and a stern warning to never ask about leaving the tower again. Disappointed, Rapunzel accepted this, but still wondered what she could do to see the lights.
Coincidentally, later that day, Rapunzel was met with a new opportunity. On the run with a stolen crown in hand, a man called Flynn Rider stumbled across the hidden tower and scaled it to avoid his pursuers. Understandably freaked out, Rapunzel knocked the man out with a frying pan to the back of the head, and with some effort, she managed to stuff his unconscious body into her closet. She was very impressed with herself and became certain that her mother would be too. When her mother returned, however, she was shot down harshly before she could say anything about the man in the closet. Her mother wasn't ever going to let her leave the tower, and that was that.
After that, Rapunzel slowly began to hatch a plan. Instead of asking about the lights again, she asked Mother Gothel for new paints made from shells that would take three days to get. This gave her enough time alone to drag her captive out of the closet and demand to know who he was and what he wanted with her hair. As it turned out, Flynn wanted absolutely nothing to do with her hair. Surprised and intrigued, Rapunzel figured that if he didn't want her hair, then maybe she could trust him to escort her to see the floating lights (which Flynn informed her were actually lanterns released for the kingdom's lost princess). She made a deal with him: if he took her to see the lights and got her back home safely afterward, she would return the crown, which she had hidden after studying it earlier. Reluctantly, Flynn accepted, and Rapunzel followed him down from the tower.
At first, Rapunzel was overjoyed to finally be outside. The further away they got, however, she began to suffer drastic mood swings and guilt trips in between her happier moments. As Flynn pointed out, betraying her mother's trust like this would probably break her heart and crush her soul. Rapunzel was tempted to turn around and go straight back home, but ultimately, she knew she had to see the lights by any means necessary.
Flynn, eager to get out of his deal, however, wanted to find other ways of making Rapunzel give up on her road trip. He ended up taking her to a tavern filled with the very sorts of ruffians and barbarians Mother Gothel had warned about, and told Rapunzel that if she couldn't handle this "five-star joint," then she didn't stand a chance anywhere. Flynn's plan backfired, however, when the men in the tavern recognized him from a wanted poster and started fighting over him. Rapunzel pleaded with the men and told them that she needed Flynn to help her achieve her dream of seeing the lanterns. One by one, the men started to admit that they all had dreams of their own. The tide quickly turned in Rapunzel's favour, gaining her a tavern full of new friends.
Not a moment too soon, for at that point, Flynn's previous pursuers barged in looking for him. The ruffians helped Rapunzel and Flynn make a getaway through a secret passage, but it wasn't long before a determined palace horse, Maximus, sniffed them out and led the guards to give chase again. The lot of them ended up near a dam, and following a very strange action sequence, Rapunzel and Flynn ended up inside a blocked-off cave filling quickly with water. The two were seemingly faced with death, and Rapunzel lamented ever having left her tower. Flynn revealed then that his real name was Eugene Fitzherbert, saying that someone might as well know. In return, Rapunzel revealed that her hair glowed when she sang - which reminded her that she could use the glow to light the cavern and aid their escape. By the light of her hair, the two found some loose stones and clawed their way out.
Later that night, Rapunzel showed off her hair's healing abilities on an injury to Eugene's hand. After he left to get firewood, however, Rapunzel was confronted by her mother, who had been following them. After a refusal to return to her tower and an insistence that Eugene liked her, Gothel gave Rapunzel a satchel with the crown, telling her to give it to Eugene and see him leave her in an instant. Rapunzel stowed the bag for the time being, and Gothel left.
The next morning, the pair was found by Maximus, and before he could drag Eugene off to prison, Rapunzel calmed him down and convinced him to let her keep her escort for at least the next twenty-four hours. One extremely shaky man-horse truce later, and they finally arrived in the city. Rapunzel and Eugene spent the day enjoying the festivities together, and by that night, the two were feeling much closer than either had expected. They rode out onto the lake in a gondola for the best view of the lanterns, and it was everything Rapunzel had dreamed it would be - even more with Eugene there to share it with her.
At that point, she pulled the satchel out and gave it to him as a sign of trust. The two almost shared a kiss, but were interrupted by Eugene's sudden and unexplained need to row back to shore and "take care of something." He took the satchel in hand and left, claiming he would be right back. Rapunzel waited with Pascal, but instead of Eugene returning to her, it was his twin partners in thievery, the Stabbington Brothers. They pointed out a boat sailing back to the mainland with their partner on it, and claimed that he had traded them Rapunzel for the crown. Rapunzel ran, but didn't get far before she was rescued by none other than her mother, who knocked out the brothers. Heartbroken over Eugene's betrayal, Rapunzel went back to her mother's open arms and returned home with her.
Back in the tower, however, Rapunzel came to a realization. Comparing a flag from the festival to the artwork on her walls, she realized that the sun design matched the shapes there, and she recalled two figures in her vague memory - a king and queen. She (gasp!) was the lost princess. Eighteen years ago, Gothel had stolen Rapunzel from her crib for the power in her hair (originally gained from a golden flower Gothel had been using for hundreds of years, until it was found and given to the queen during her pregnancy). Rapunzel confronted Gothel and refused to let her use her hair ever again. In retaliation, Gothel confirmed that not only had she set up Eugene's "betrayal," but he was to be hanged for his crimes. She then bound and gagged Rapunzel in preparation to take her to a place where she would never be found again.
In the midst of preparations, however, Gothel heard a man on horseback approaching. Below was Eugene, escaped from prison with help from Maximus. Tricking him into thinking Rapunzel was alone in the tower, Gothel threw down Rapunzel's hair to him, only to stab him in the gut once he reached the top. Rapunzel pleaded to heal Eugene in exchange for doing whatever Gothel wanted of her. Agreeing, Gothel chained Eugene to a post and let Rapunzel go to him. She leaned over him, ready to use her power. Eugene reached to pull her closer...
And at this point, suddenly everything goes black. Following this, Rapunzel wakes up in Landel's Institute.
Canon Point:
I will be taking Rapunzel from just after Flynn/Eugene is stabbed, and about one second before he was about to slice off her hair with a shard of glass. For one thing, I would like to take Rapunzel with her hair intact, as I think it will provide an interesting ability and challenge for her in Landel's. Secondly, I want to take her from after she is witness to a violent act like stabbing, which will give her something to take some of the shock off of future violence in the Institute (see: Justification). Thirdly, if she's taken from this point, she will probably assume (at first, at least) that the Institute is the place Mother Gothel meant when saying she was going somewhere no one would ever find her (see: Scope/Psychology). Lastly, I want to give Rapunzel some uncertainty in her memory. Was she able to heal Eugene, or is he dead now? What was that little movement she saw before her memory blanked out? I want her to have some hope of getting back to him, but also give her some nice juicy despair at the prospect of his likely death (again, see: Scope/Psychology).
Personality:
Frankly, it's a miracle that Rapunzel is not more of a mess as a human being, given the kind of parenting she has been subject to. Mother Gothel has teased her and frightened her with tales about the world and its dangers for years now, not to mention forced her to stay in one small space with no door since almost the day she was born. Though the two do appear to share a genuine mother-daughter connection (before the climax of the movie, anyway), it's clear that Gothel hasn't exactly been the most warm or caring parent in the world. It's enough to make a strong argument for the "nature" side in the eternal "nature vs. nurture" debate, because somehow, against all odds, Rapunzel has grown up into a kind, spunky, sunshine-y girl who loves animals, arts and crafts, books, puzzles, hazelnut soup, and singing, among other things. She's exceedingly curious about anything and everything new, as to be expected from a girl with limited experiences. She gets excited easily, a trait she recognizes as potentially annoying, but doesn't always hold back on, all the same. She has a good sense of humour - though, not always a particularly sharp wit. She gets a good sarcastic quip in every now and then, but she will still sometimes miss jokes or takes things seriously when she shouldn't. Still, a positive attitude overall.
When she is finally exposed to people, she finds that she has a natural way with them in spite of her upbringing. She is able to bring an entire pub full of malicious thugs around to her point of view through sheer force of sincerity alone, and is a hit with the townspeople when she makes it to the lantern festival. She's mildly touchy-feely with those she perceives as "good people" (e.g.: gave the hook-handed thug a kiss on the cheek as a thank you; started up a big dance circle in town and gladly danced throughout the day with multiple strangers), and whom she designates as a "good person" is a bit more liberal now that she's begun to open up her worldview and see how wrong Gothel was. She's very keen to learn how to love other people, too, especially Eugene. As well, if she has a knack with people, she has an even bigger knack with animals. This is seen not only in her friendship with Pascal, but also in her quick subduing and befriending of Maximus, a horse that had, up until then, been a laser-focused instrument of death pointed right at Flynn Rider.
A more expected result of eighteen years locked in a tower: Rapunzel has developed an obsessive need to fill dead time with productive activity. Just one or a few activities won't cut it for her, either. Thanks to the lack of variety in her previous surroundings, Rapunzel has always been compelled to make up for it with variety in what she does with herself. She feels driven to teach herself anything that has the potential to alleviate the ever-present threats of boredom and loneliness, be it a new art form, a game, a story, a piece of geography, a dance, a song, or anything else. Another thing that spawned from her need to change up her surroundings has been her creative side, which she lets flow through, again, multiple artistic outlets (see: Non-otherworldly Abilities). Her main outlet, though, is painting. The girl has so many dreams and ideas buzzing around in her brain that she can't keep them locked up, and so she lets them out through her paintbrush, covering every viable canvas she can find with colourful, stylized murals.
Speaking of "dreams," no description of Rapunzel would be complete without that word. It could be said that, in essence, Rapunzel has only ever had two things in her life: her mother, and her dreams. Her biggest dream for years had been to see the floating lights. So obsessed with that dream was she that she even taught herself to chart stars from scratch in an attempt to learn more about the nature of the lights. The only thing that kept her from chasing her dream up until recently was fear of the outside world (more on that later) and a fear of losing the one dream-come-true she has always had - her hair. Along with knowing that its magic is an insanely powerful gift that needed to be protected, her hair has been such a big part of her being that it's almost like a friend - a mostly limp, non-sentient friend, but with such a presence that it felt like a friend nonetheless. Regardless, though, her dream was too strong to be kept down forever, and once Rapunzel set herself on achieving it, she didn't back down, even when temptation and fear tried to sway her. Now that she has achieved that dream, she hopes that her new dream - being with Eugene and meeting her real parents - is still possible.
On a brief related note: Rapunzel is, in general, a person who will stick to her guns once she has decided something. She may waver back and forth for a while (sometimes in hilariously melodramatic fashion, as teenagers are wont to do), but ultimately, she will remain on whatever path she determined was the right one to begin with. This goes for both herself and others, particularly with promises. She tells Flynn/Eugene flat-out that when she makes a promise, she never, ever breaks it. This comes up again later when she promises Gothel that she will go with her in exchange for healing Flynn/Eugene.
In any case, there are still plenty of ways in which Rapunzel's upbringing has had a more overtly negative effect on her. Likely by direct design on Gothel's part, she is almost a poster child for naivety. What she knows of the outside world, she mainly "knows" from Gothel's stories and the few generic books she's been allowed. If she hadn't escaped her tower, she would still be under the impression that all men are sharp-toothed ruffians who would only use her for her gifts and then leave her for dead once they've their fill (ahem, on a related note: it is very likely that Rapunzel has never had any version of "the talk"; she knows what kissing is, and that's probably it). Leaving the tower for such a short time hasn't done nearly enough to cure her of that naivety, either. She may have learned a lot in the few days she spent outside her tower, but she is still mostly the same person as always, just overwhelmed by a flood of new information and emotions. As summed up by Gothel, she is still "sloppy, under-dressed, immature, clumsy, […] gullible, naive, ditzy, and a bit, well, hmm, vague." That description may not be entirely charitable, for Rapunzel is not quite as sloppy or ditzy as Gothel makes her out to be; but it does still stand that she doesn't bother much with footwear, and she has been known to accidentally hit herself in the head with frying pans when she's not careful. "Gullible" is a hugely accurate word to use, either way. Rapunzel may be initially careful not to trust strangers, but it doesn't take much for a person to convince her that they are telling the truth or that their intentions are pure. Flynn was right to point out that it's generally a horrible idea to trust a wanted thief right off the bat, even though it did work out for her in this case. Also, she believed Mother Gothel's lies for eighteen years, if that tells you anything.
On the "nurture" end of the spectrum, Rapunzel did pick up at least a few of her mother's negative traits. She hides things and lies sometimes when she feels the ends justify doing so, and she can be a bit manipulative, though in a less malicious way than Gothel. This can be seen when she bowls Maximus over with affection and praise, then guilt-trips him into helping her and Flynn/Eugene by pointing out that it's her birthday. More overtly, she also took advantage of her mother's need to keep her contented, convincing her to take an unnecessary three-day trip in order to get her out of the tower. She is also instinctively violent in certain situations, reacting with automatic skull bashings/threats of skull bashings when scared or insulted.
Rapunzel's self-esteem is not always the greatest, either. Following her time outside and the revelation of Gothel's true intentions, this has been alleviated a lot, but she is still prone to thinking less of herself in moments of weakness. She has an instinct to blame herself when things go wrong, too, whether that's true or not. This is seen when she is trapped with Flynn in the cave and blames herself entirely for the situation despite it being Flynn's pursuers that forced them into that place. This instinct probably stems from Gothel's constantly undermining Rapunzel's good qualities in favour of reminding her of everything wrong with her. As well, she is ready to throw her own happiness in the garbage if it means making someone else happy, be it Gothel (pre-betrayal), Flynn/Eugene (i.e.: her offer to submit to Gothel's demands in exchange for healing him), or someone else close to her. Again, less of this at the canon point I'm taking her from, but still there to a degree.
She has a great many fears thanks to Gothel, even getting jumpy enough at times to leap away in terror at the sound of a mighty bunny rabbit approaching from the bushes. However, she is making leaps and bounds of progress in standing up to all those fears and coming into her own as an independent woman. After proving to herself that she could handle herself against a potential threat in the form of Flynn, she went on to confront ruffians, palace guards, great heights, potential drowning, and eventually Gothel, with each new encounter building another layer of strength and determination to break free of her mother's influence. She still has a ways to go yet, but as of right now, she's done more to shape herself into a strong, capable person in two days than some people do in their entire lives.
Appearance:
Rapunzel is a little on the short side (I would guess about 5'4") and has a slight build. She is Caucasian and has very large green eyes with short, thick eyelashes. Her nose is small and her face delicate-looking, with a bit of an overbite and a smattering of very faint freckles across the bridge of her nose. The outfit she wears in canon is an ankle-length, puffy-sleeved purple dress with pale pink highlights and a lavender corset. She eschews footwear of any kind when she can, having grown used to going barefoot inside her tower. And I think that's about alllllll...
No, no, of course, the elephant in the room is the hair - all seventy feet of it. It's blond, resistant to breakage, slightly wavy, thicker near her body and thinner as it goes on, and it glows when she sings. It ought to weigh about sixty to eighty pounds at its length and be impossible to keep clean, but it doesn't and it isn't because... magic, probably. In any case, during the daytime at Landel's, the hair will only reach the back of her knees. At night, her hair will grow back out to not its original length, but long enough to give her a hard time, maybe to about thirty-five feet (about as much as is seen here).
This difficulty will be my main justification for allowing the length. While her hair does provide her with an advantage over other patients in that she can use it like a built-in rope or grappling hook, it will also prove incredibly awkward, forcing Rapunzel to either carry it around in her arms or drag it behind her with the danger of it being stepped on or caught in things, including the mouths and/or claws of monsters. The advantages and disadvantages should hopefully cancel each other out.
Also of note: it's not usually visible, but buried under a heap of blond hair near the base of her scalp is one short, solitary lock of brown hair left from the time Mother Gothel attempted to cut a piece off. Her eyebrows are also brown.
Original Powers:
Rapunzel's hair possesses all the same magical qualities of the golden flower that preceded it, including:
- Permanent healing of injuries, up to and including potentially fatal ones, such as stab wounds to the gut.
- Permanent curing of illnesses such as the unnamed fatal condition that threatened the queen during her pregnancy.
- Temporary reversal of aging. Judging by Mother Gothel in the movie, this reversal seems to work for about a day before it begins to wear off. It isn't clear how long it would take for a person to fully return to their real age, but by the second day Gothel is without Rapunzel, it looks as though some lines and patches of grey hair are already starting to reappear. Thus, I would wager that it takes about a four or five days for a person to return to their normally aged state.
In addition to the healing, the flower's magic has also made Rapunzel's hair partially prehensile, but only in the last foot or two. Several times in the movie, Rapunzel is able to use the end of her hair like a grappling hook, catching it around things securely enough to swing from or pull by. As well, in the first scene after the prologue, Rapunzel is shown reaching a lock of hair behind Pascal and picking him up with it. Again, though, only that small portion of her hair seems to have that capability; the rest of it cannot move without her lifting, pulling, or throwing it.
The flower's magic also most likely helps with keeping Rapunzel's hair light (not eighty pounds like it would be in reality), clean, and free from splits and knots. This ability is not explicitly stated in canon, but come on: how else could her hair stay in the kind of condition it's in throughout the movie? If the magic does help make her hair lighter, it may make things lifted/grabbed by it lighter, too. This would explain how Rapunzel can so easily lift a full-grown person seventy feet into the air with those stick-figure arms of hers. If it doesn't, then at the very least, Rapunzel is ridiculously strong for her body type.
The magic almost certainly affects the speed of Rapunzel's hair growth. She was born with a full head of hair, and in only eighteen years, it grew to about seventy feet in length. Doing the math, seventy feet divided by eighteen years divided by three-hundred-sixty-five days equals about 0.128 inches of hair growth per day, or about 3.8 inches per month. That's almost eight times as fast as the average rate (about 0.0167 inches per day/0.5 inches per month). That's way too big a spike for her magic not to be involved.
Lastly, it isn't just Rapunzel's hair that contains magic from the golden flower. If the healing incantation is sung when Rapunzel cries, her tears bestow their healing on whoever they touch. If Rapunzel's emotions are strong enough, her tears become supercharged to such a degree that they can not only heal injuries, but actually bring back the recently dead. Impressive blooms of light and energy are produced when Rapunzel revives Flynn/Eugene in this way, and he is restored to complete health in mere moments.
Completely unrelated to the hair thing, it appears she might have the ability to understand and talk to animals. When wondering about whether or not Flynn is trustworthy, she speaks to Pascal, and her responses seem to indicate an actual conversation as opposed to talking to herself ("I know I need someone to take me." "Chitterchitter" "I think he's telling the truth too." "Chitterchittersqueak." "He doesn't have fangs." "Chitterchitter!" "Well what choice do I have?") However, it could also be interpreted that, as a rule, at least some species of animals in this universe are close to human intelligence, understand human speech naturally, and can be expressive enough to get their intentions across through expressions and body language alone. Thus, this could be less an ability of Rapunzel's and more related to how this universe works. It's hard to say. For the purposes of being concrete, I'm going to say that the latter is true, but that Rapunzel also has an innate intuition regarding what animals are feeling/trying to express.
Modified Powers at Landel's:
As stated in the Appearance section, Rapunzel's hair will only reach to the back of her knees during the day. It will still be blond, but it will not respond to the healing incantation in any way, and all other extra qualities granted by the flower will be nerfed. And I do mean "all" - Rapunzel will have to suffer knots and split-ends just like the rest of us now (poor baby).
At night, however, her hair will become its old luscious self, growing back out to about thirty-five feet in length and regaining its power on a limited scale. Its prehensility will be retained, but only for grappling-hook-type tasks - no more actively picking up objects. It will also be more prone to failure, with about 1/3 attempts to grapple missing their mark (I will use a random number generator to determine hits/misses). As well, despite being about half its original length, it will feel somewhat heavier - still much lighter than it would be in our real world, but there will be noticeably more pull on her scalp and it will take more effort to carry/throw/manipulate/etc.
Any use of abilities activated by the healing incantation will be more limited in scope and will drain energy from Rapunzel rapidly. The easiest will be small injuries, like the cut on Flynn's hand in the movie. These can be healed completely, albeit with a longer wait time than in canon (about five to ten minutes as opposed to five to ten seconds); performing a small healing will make Rapunzel feel lightheaded and woozy for at least five rounds; she can perform three small healings per night before feeling the need to lie down and/or pass out.
Medium injuries, such as larger cuts/lacerations, dislocated/broken bones, and non-fatal stab/bullet wounds, will only be about 80% healed, the time required to heal a significant part of the injury will be about twenty minutes, and Rapunzel will be lightheaded/woozy/drained for the rest of the night after the healing. If she tries to keep pushing past her limit, she will start to feel nauseous, then eventually faint.
Severe and potentially fatal injuries will be the toughest to deal with. Some, such as severed limbs, she simply will not be able to deal with at all. Reattaching that much tissue at once will be too much stress for her both mentally and power-wise. For injuries that she can deal with, such as impalements or sever burns, Rapunzel will still only be able to go for twenty minutes maximum before she reaches her limit. If the patient is fading fast, that won't be nearly fast enough to save them from death. If the patient can hold on longer, she can heal them to the point where their injuries won't be fatal anymore; however, the healing won't be very complete. Wounds will be prone to re-opening at the slightest wrong move, burns will still sting like hell, and shattered bones will simply be upgraded to broken ones, still requiring traditional dressing to heal the rest of the way. If a patient wants their severe injury completely taken care of by her, they will need at least two or three nights of treatment.
Canon is not clear about whether Rapunzel might be able to heal old injuries/scars. I presume that she would be able to, but in Landel's, I'm going to say she will not have that ability. The oldest injuries she will be able to treat will be one-week-old ones.
Reversal of aging will be completely nerfed, considering all the other powers she will be retaining.
Healing of minor diseases such as colds will be subject to effects somewhere between small and medium injuries. About fifteen minutes will be required to clear most of the disease from the target's body, but a residual symptom or two will be present for at least one day more (e.g.: if she's healing a cold, then the person may be cured of their sneezing, coughing, and general feeling of crappiness, but they'll still have a sore throat and/or stuffy nose). Rapunzel will feel woozy for about half the night following this. Healing of strong or chronic illnesses will be nerfed. Rapunzel can try, but she will only be draining herself and giving nothing to the patient.
Rapunzel's tears can still bring back the recently dead, but only if: 1) she cares an extreme amount about the victim personally (no strangers, no acquaintances, and no decently good friends - BFFs and lovers only), 2) the tears reach the corpse within one minute of death. Any longer than that and they are a lost cause. Considering that Rapunzel would not yet know of this ability, she will not actively try using it, either, lowering the chances for success on this front even further.
Last point: whether or not Rapunzel was able to communicate with animals before, she won't be able to now. End of story.
Non-otherworldly Abilities:
With eighteen years to do nothing but exhaust every possible avenue for entertainment available within a single space, Rapunzel has tried her hand at a great many solitary (and solitary-plus-a-chameleon) activities in her time. She runs through a long list of her hobbies and talents in the song "When Will My Life Begin?", and while not all of them surpass the norm, she has at least some ability in all of the following: speed reading, playing guitar, knitting, cooking, puzzle making, dart throwing, baking, dancing, chess, and ventriloquy. Also, after doing the healing incantation on most days for eighteen years, she has developed a lovely singing voice, and managed to mostly suppress that hint of a lisp that she has, too.
Her major talents all lie in the realm of arts and crafts; she is shown engaging very competently in paper mache, pottery, and candle-making, and her two biggest areas of expertise are sewing (she almost certainly made her signature purple dress herself, given that it's covered in those subconscious sunburst symbols of hers) and painting. Aside from dreaming of the outside world, one might guess that painting is Rapunzel's next-biggest obsession in life. Murals cover literally every wall in her tower, with childish early works near the bottom and sophisticated, stylized works closer to the top. Judging from the timeframe of "When Will My Life Begin?" and the time she spends doing a mural on the ground at the festival, she has gotten crazy fast at producing good works as well. The only thing she might be able to do faster might be cleaning. (Sweeping, polishing, waxing, laundry, and re-sweeping, all in the span of fifteen minutes? Jeebus.)
For not getting out much, Rapunzel is in pretty decent physical condition as well. Even if we count out the whole lifting Mother Gothel thing, which could be attributed to hair powers, the girl is quick to work out escape and fight plans throughout the movie, and has the physical know-how to follow through on said plans (e.g.: doesn't hesitate to swing across a ravine on her hair during the quarry scene, then grabs Flynn with her hair and swings him back over to her straight after). Part of this is probably her being comfortable enough with her hair and knowledgeable enough about how it behaves that she knows exactly how to have it help her, even in unfamiliar situations.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Spending eighteen straight years from infancy onward inside only one space and with only one point of human contact does things to a person, to say the least. The most entrenched thing is a heavy dependency on the point of human contact, despite undesirable qualities in whomever that may be. For Rapunzel, though Mother Gothel teased her and frightened her with tales of the world and its dangers all throughout her life, she could never help loving the old woman. After all, she was her mother; as Gothel often pointed out, she was the one who bathed, changed, and nursed Rapunzel from infancy, sang her lullabies to put her to sleep, shared dinners and hair brushing/healing sessions with her, indulged her creative pursuits, and, of course, protected her from any and all danger. For all the things that rubbed her the wrong way about Gothel, the two of them were family, and each was all the other had. She knew for years that no matter what might happen, she could always go back to her mother's arms and seek comfort.
Now that Rapunzel is aware that Gothel was never related to her by blood, things are very different. She is devastated and outraged, as is to be expected of someone who has just found out that their entire life up to this point has been based on lies and manipulation. She could have had a kingdom and two wonderful parents to love her and nurture her this whole time, and Gothel stole that away from her out of pure selfishness. And now, as far as she can tell, Gothel has dumped her in a faraway prison, never to see Eugene again or meet her real parents, and she has probably done something to make Rapunzel forget whatever happened between her attempt to heal Eugene and her arrival in Landel's. For these and so many other reasons, she outright detests Gothel now... And yet, one can't spend eighteen years with someone, honestly loving them, and then just cut them off all in one go like one might cut off hair. I feel that despite everything that's been revealed to her, Rapunzel is still going to be very torn about the whole issue. She is going to feel mostly hatred toward Gothel and want to get back to Eugene, of course, but it's still going to be very strange for her not to have a mother around anymore. There isn't going to be anyone to run to when things get bad, no one to tuck her in at night, no one to tell her everything will be all right.
Because of this, I believe that she is going to end up gravitating towards people who might serve as substitutes for Gothel. She isn't going to want anyone who makes fun of her or belittles her into the ground, but she is going to want some kind of warm, motherly presence she can go to when the going gets rough. She will still want to be her own woman and do things for herself, but she only just left her tower two days ago. She isn't going to be able to leave all her hang-ups behind cold turkey without some serious mental repercussions. Who knows? Maybe if she can't find anyone who fills that motherly niche for her, I can play with that as well, building up her independence but also more coldness as she looks back bitterly on the memory of her mother with no one new to support her.
At the very least, she will want to make a lot more friends to make up for the near-total lack of human contact she has had in her life up to this point. She got a taste of being surrounded by joyous, friendly people at the Snuggly Duckling pub, and again when taking part in the festivities in the kingdom capital. The more people she meets and gets to know, the better. It will feed into her endless curiosity about not only her world, but also others, as she finds out about the whole alternate universe thing.
As for actual activity at Landel's: she's going to be dying to escape, for sure. She isn't keen to have gotten out of one prison only to find it swapped for another, even if this one is bigger and has more people in it. The only thing that will make her unsure will be the gap in her memory. If she did heal Eugene and this is the place Gothel has sent her as part of their deal, then what's to stop Gothel from going out and killing Eugene again if Rapunzel tries to escape? Or, if she didn't heal Eugene and the Institute really is unrelated to Gothel, did he die from his wound? If he did die, well... then what? Eugene was her new dream after the achievement of her old one. If Eugene isn't around anymore, then what use is there in continuing to dream? Thus, she really, really hopes he made it. She isn't sure she wants to find out what happened, but she knows she has to. In any case, I think she will see others trying to escape night after night and ultimately end up helping their efforts, but that won't stop her from worrying about the consequences of doing so.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Rapunzel may be naive and full of fear about the unknown, but she is a surprisingly strong girl for all that she has going against her. It takes a lot of courage to step out into the world when all you know about it is that it is supposedly filled with sharp-toothed manbeasts, deadly forces of nature, dangerous animals and bugs, plagues, and other, even more horrible things. She may have seen now that not all of her fears are founded in reality, but she has still been confronted by a lot of real danger since setting off with Flynn/Eugene. After an initial panic in the face of the pub thugs, she started wailing on them with her frying pan and demanding they give her back her guy, despite the danger that posed. Then she managed to work out a creative solution for getting their attention (i.e.: using her hair to snap a thick branch down on one of their heads) and confronted them, urging them to find their humanity. She could have gotten her head sliced off right then and there, but she stood her ground and didn't run in spite of how scared she was.
She is also a pretty darn impressive action girl in the making. As described in the abilities sections, she knows her hair well enough to use it in all sorts of creative ways, and isn't afraid to use it to help her swing across deep chasms and such. Jumping down from her tower probably helped her with heights in particular; once she knew she could handle that, other heights became less of a problem. Aside from heights and hair, though, she also has a good arm with a frying pan, and could probably do some pretty decent things with a sword or other weapons if somebody taught her. Her reflexes and self-defence instincts are very quick.
As well, she has been witness to one major shocking act of violence/potential death just before her arrival in the institute. Her reaction to it was panic at first, but then a very strong, defiant stand against her mother for it, followed by a self-sacrificing offer made in complete seriousness. She did not break down in the face of the violence, and was prepared to do what she could to heal it and prevent it from happening again. Overall, a surprisingly mature, selfless response.