Character Info/App
[series]: Disney’s Tangled
[character]: Rapunzel
[character history / background]:
- http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Rapunzel
- http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Tangled
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangled
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Rapunzel_%28Disney%29
[character abilities]:
Rapunzel’s most noticeable feature is her hair, which is both a great strength to her, as well as a weakness and a hindrance, due to its sheer length and weight.
Her hair, 70 feet of golden locks, posses magical powers. When a special song is sung, the hair glows and has the power to heal any illness or injury…however, if the hair is cut, it loses its power, and those who rely on the power of the hair to survive suffer the rapid effects of losing that magical connection. This is why Rapunzel’s hair is so long, and it is the reason she has spent her life in isolation: her power is precious and desirable, and it must be protected. At least, this is what she has been taught.
In addition to its magical powers, Rapunzel is able to use her hair for a number of other purposes, including using it as a rope, a ladder, a pulley, and a swing. It may get in the way sometimes, but it really is quite useful when one is in a tight spot.
Besides her hair and its powers, Rapunzel has a number of other skills acquired during her 18 years of life, all of which she taught herself in an effort to fight off boredom. These skills include, but aren’t limited to: knitting, playing guitar, cooking, weaving, dancing, painting, writing poetry, making pottery, making candles, baton twirling, papier-mache, glassblowing, astronomy, and making ships in bottles. When one lives alone, one must pick up many skills to fight off insanity. Her favorite of her many hobbies and skills is painting, which allows her to truly express herself and travel to new and exciting places, if only for a little while. Every inch of her tower walls are covered in paintings made over the years, paintings of everything from the forest Rapunzel can see from her window to the stars in the sky, and the constellations she can see from her tower. Rapunzel, through her paintings, shows a keen eye for detail and a creative, active mind that expresses itself through many outlets.
Finally, there is the frying pan. Rapunzel’s weapon of choice is a cast iron frying pan, her favorite cooking utensil from home, which she is able to wield with surprising efficiency, fighting off armed guards and home invaders with it. Her effectiveness with the frying pan, and how it is able to fight off swords and professionally trained swordsmen, prompts her travelling companion, Flynn Rider, to state that he wants one of his own, seeing it as a more effective and useful weapon.
[character personality]:
It’s difficult to pinpoint one word to really describe Rapunzel’s personality, but two words really do the job: naivety and joy.
For 18 years, Rapunzel has lived a life of isolation and lonliness. Her only human contact has been with her ‘mother’, who has spent those 18 years telling Rapunzel about the many dangers of the outside world, as well as passive aggressively teasing and belittling her so she has no confidence. As a result of this, the world outside of her tower is a bit of a paradox to Rapunzel; she wants so badly to go there and experience so many things…but she’s also afraid to do so. Her fear of the unknown that lurks outside, as well as her fear of disappointing her mother, has kept her inside.
But now, at 18, she feels old enough to go out and experience all those things, to face her fears and grow up a little.
Her mother may say many things, but she really is naive. The world is a wonderful place in her eyes, filled with wonderful things and wonderful people. All those stories her mother told her to scare her, while they are still there in her mind picking at her, seem farther away now that she’s older.
She judges books by their covers. If somebody looks scary, they probably are…but once you prove you’re not going to hurt her or try to steal her magic hair, she’ll warm up to you, and her sunny, optimistic and innocent personality makes it easy for her to make friends.
But with everything being new to her, she’s also easily led on and tricked, and will get into trouble. In fact, Rapunzel really is a magnet for danger and excitement. She’s constantly teetering back and forth between joy and sorrow, fear and curiosity, excitement and a desire to go back home and just hide from the world again. 18 years of isolation, followed by a sudden burst of freedom, really rocks ones view of everything, so, for now, Rapunzel is just trying to rebuild her views on everything and figure out how she feels about all the new things. Overall, it’s pretty good, but she’s still wary of what’s to come.
To Rapunzel, everything is new in the world. The most mundane of experiences are exciting, new adventures to her. Coming from a life of isolation and loneliness, every little thing about the outside world fills her with happiness and fear. But she’s ready to take it on, and learn the life lessons that come from experience. And if she has her way, she’ll be experiencing a lot.
Nailing down one specific personality for Rapunzel is tough. Her first time out of the tower, she spent the first 10 minutes of her newfound freedom in a breakdown, flipping rapidly back and forth between joy, fear, and sorrow. Hurting her mother hurts her, but she desired her freedom so badly that she took that risk, and as a result, had a minor breakdown. Things are a bit more stable now, but any major new experience will shake her and throw her off balance, filling her with extreme emotions on both ends of the emotional scale. Give her time, and she’ll settle back down into her bubble of naive joy and curiousity.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Just as Rapunzel is arriving in the kingdom with Flynn and Maximus. Naturally, they don’t come with her, and she becomes quite confused and upset. And she’ll be dressed rather inappropriately for the winter weather, having arrived from the middle of the summer in her world. Wearing no shoes.
However, her chameleon, Pascal, is coming with her. He’s her constant silent companion, usually hiding by blending into his environment…and despite his size, he’s quite protective of Rapunzel.
[journal post]:
[Video]
[There is a young woman wandering around, lost and confused in the snow. Her long blonde hair trails behind her, an obstacle for people walking around her, who trip and step on it as she wanders in a dazed state.]
Aah-oh, excuse me-hey!!
[Something yanks on her hair and she falls backwards into the snow, where she sits for a minute as she quickly gathers up her hair into her arms. As she gets up, she continues looking around, becoming more and more scared and upset.]
Eugene…? Eugene, Maximus?
[The realization that she’s alone seems to be hitting her now as she starts looking around frantically.]
They can’t be gone…no, they were right behind me, I saw them…I heard them, they were right here! Eugene can’t have left…Maximus wouldn’t let him…no, Mother can’t be right about this, no, no…
…wait, where’s…
Pascal? PASCAL!!
[The young woman drops her hair and falls to her knees, digging frantically through the snow. Later, she’ll be overjoyed over having experienced snow for the first time, but right now, her chameleon companion is missing, and she needs him now more than ever.]
Pascal, don’t hide, this isn’t funny…I don’t know where Eugene and Maximus are, and they were right here…and the city looks completely different now…and it’s snowing, and Pascal, please come out from wherever you are…
[After a minute of digging, she finds her friend, who is sitting on a little black communication device, looking cold, blue, and just as confused as the young woman who picks him up and hugs him tight.]
Pascal!! Oh, thank goodness, I thought I’d lost you too…they were right behind us, weren’t they…?
[The chameleon turns green, his normal color, and nods, causing her to look relieved. So they didn’t abandon her, something else just happened. Pascal then points to the black box he had been sitting on, and the woman, Rapunzel, looks at it curiously before picking it up and poking at it.]
Oooh, what’s this…?
[third person / log sample]:
Her mother had said no.
She had said no, in that way that left no room for arguments… she had tried to convince her mother that yes, she would be okay outside, just for one day. They would be together, what could go wrong…?
But her mother had said no. Her mother had said no and told her to never ask her to leave again. Then her mother had said she loved her, said goodbye, and gone back out (and if Rapunzel didn’t know any better, she’d say it was her mother’s way of taunting her.)
Now Rapunzel was alone with her chameleon and her thoughts. Right now, though, Pascal was still hiding. So really, it was just her again, thinking about what her mother said, and about what she wanted.
Rapunzel knew, deep down, her mother was right.
Her mother really did know best, after all…every day, her mother went out and faced the dark, dangerous world that she protected, and she came back just fine. Her mother knew that if Rapunzel went out, the world would destroy her…
…and yet…
Part of her wanted that chance. She had been alive for 18 years, and the closest she had ever gotten to going outside was sitting on her windowsill. All the stories her mother told her, about thugs and monsters and diseases…they might be true, but they couldn’t apply to every single person out there…could they? How could she ever know if she never went outside?
It was just so frustrating. Mother always said she couldn’t take care of herself, but she’d never given her the chance to try! If she could just prove to her mother that, at 18, she could protect herself and her hair from bad people who would want to hurt her, maybe she could go outside…
But it was just wishful thinking. It was a cycle of longing and regret: wanting to go outside required proving herself, but proving herself required going outside. It could never happen. She should just be happy for what she had. But what she wanted, it wasn’t big or expensive…why should she feel bad about it?
All she’d wanted was to see the lights, though. What could be dangerous about them, and if they were dangerous, why did her mother keep insisting they were just stars? If they were dangerous, her mother would have told Rapunzel all about them, and scared the curiosity out of her.
She sighed, frustrated, going to the window to look at the trees outside. Maybe looking would make her feel better, at least until she could forget or think of a new plan.
I know those trees. I know their scientific names, their regular names, their biology…I even gave them nicknames. But I don’t know what it’s like to climb them, or feel their leaves or their bark…I really don’t know anything about the world.
She sighed again, looking at the clouds. She didn’t know what rain felt like on her skin. She didn’t know how to swim. She didn’t know how to do a lot of things. Her mother was right, in that sense. She didn’t know anything about the outside world. She was safe inside. Mother knew best, after all.
Inside, she was alive and safe. And usually, she was happy, when she wasn’t being curious or lonely.
Staring out the window at the world she had never really known, though, Rapunzel just wondered if there would ever come a time when she would be able to start living.
I’ve got my mother’s love…I shouldn’t ask for more…I’ve got so many things I should be thankful for. Perhaps it is better that I stay in here. But…when will my life begin…
Rapunzel closed her eyes. The sun was too bright now. She turned away from the window, closing the curtains. The wind felt cold, the view was too taunting.
She had chores to do. Mother would be back later, and she’d be hungry and tired. Better to focus on the things she had, than the things she didn’t.
It was just easier that way.