She instead abducts Rapunzel and raises her as her own in a secret tower. More. I think that in the end she is scared that the world will be just as cruel to Rapunzel as it was to her. The character is voiced by actress and singer Donna Murphy in her voice acting debut; Murphy auditioned for the role spontaneously upon learning from her agent that Disney was auditioning actresses for the film's villainous role. I’m pretty sure a person who kidnaps someone wants to cut off their connection to the real world as much as possible but Gothel brings those books for Rapunzel so she could learn more!! Where my Rapunzel stans at? Mother Gothel is mysterious, manipulative and a heinous villain. Finally, let’s look at Rapunzel herself. You don't get that closure, which is so realistic. Lemme know what you guys think. 7% … Mother also did nice things for her, like making her favorite hazelnut soup and going on a 3 day journey to get the shells she wanted. But near the middle of the movie, as Rapunzel is telling Flynn about her hair's magical powers, she shows him that same strand and it hasn't grown an inch since she was a baby. The official 'Tangled Junior Novel' (issued by Disney Press) specifically recounts how Mother Gothel learned the "Healing Incantation": One day, an old woman named Mother Gothel was singing softly to herself during one of her walks along a craggy hillside. She's certainly aging despite regularly singing so there's no major reason to imagine that the other powers would also work on her. Gothel collects parsnips for Rapunzel in order to make her favorite food, hazelnut soup, for her birthday treat. Well the point of Mother Gothel telling Rapunzel she loves her all the time is to show the audience that the only thing Gothel REALLY cares about is her magical hair. However, Gothel ultimately chose her own survival over Rapunzel’s happiness whilst maintaining that all of the bad things she did were for Rapunzel’s own good – and by the end, I think she genuinely believed that. Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure is good but it's definitely aimed at a much younger audience. But other than that, Mother Gothel didn’t restrict her from doing anything else. After Rapunzel had returned the crown that she had been using as incentive for Eugene to help her get to town, Eugene had been on his way to return it when Gothel and her goons set on him and framed him, making it look like he was abandoning Rapunzel. Even though what Rapunzel was saying to Gothel to sneak out of the tower, Gothel still tried to make her birthday a special day for her. Rapunzel's hair was not cut and Gothel was taken prisoner. If she truly loved her, she wouldn't tell her lies or be harsh to her, as she did during "Mother Knows Best" and the reprise, and when she screamed "You are not leaving this tower EVER". The 2010 reworking of the classic Rapunzel fairytale is a well loved addition to my daughter’s DVD collection and it’s definitely one of the more watchable ones – in fact, it’s just straight up enjoyable. During our most recent viewing, I said to my husband that I find Mother Gothel a really interesting character and I find myself asking the same question each time – did she truly love Rapunzel? Well, obviously Gothel!! It helps that Donna Murphy’s vocal performance is superb – sweetness and light one moment, dripping with sarcasm the next: Rapunzel: How did you find me? She makes sure Rapunzel has a happy birthday. In all honesty Gothel did everything a typical not "ideal" mom would do for their daughter. Fanpop poll Results: Do you think Mother Gothel really did pag-ibig Rapunzel? 60 fans picked: A little bit, but it's mostly her vanity and the hair's power 48%: No, she only loved herself and the hair's power 45%: Yes, although she did it initally for vanity, she does have love for Rapunzel. 1 Answer. Gothel’s own experiences of the world appear to have left her jaded and resentful “The world is dark, and selfish, and cruel. In this one, I will try to explain why I believe that despite what most people may think, Mother Gothel is indeed capable of feeling love. If it finds even the tiniest bit of sunlight, it destroys it.” She is bitter about how her youth and health declined, she is angry that her magical flower was taken by the kingdom and she is envious of Rapunzel’s authentic youth and beauty. Ten years ago, Walt Disney Animation was in crisis. Gothel raised Rapunzel to be the kind and adventurous girl she is today. But Gothel let her own selfish desires leech away any love she may have had. Anyways, let’s find out if it’s true or not!! The wife, experiencing the cravings associated with the arrival of her long-awaited pregnancy, notices a rapunzel plant (or, in most translated-to-English versions of the story, rampion), growing in the garden and longs for it, desperate to the point of death. Season 2 She is seen in another dream-turned-nightmare made by another of Zhan Tiri's ghostly disciples in " Rapunzeltopia ". Within the main canon of films and novelisations there's no indication that she can heal herself. 1 Background 1.1 Layout 2 Appearance 3 Appearances 3.1 Season One 3.2 Season Two 3.3 Season Three 4 About the Tower 4.1 Season One 4.2 Season Two 4.3 Season Three Rapunzel's Tower is hidden in a large rock … And that is why I believe Rapunzel is a tale of true true love. It doesn't make much sense. Madame Gothel, better known as Mother Gothel or also simply known as Gothel, is the overall secondary antagonist of Disney's Tangled animated franchise. She is described as being a girl with dark frizzy hair with piercing grey eyes, like her mother. So, Gothel kidnapped the princess and imprisoned her in a cosy tower for 18 years. So who did? But, for the majority of the time that Rapunzel spent in the tower (disregarding what happened at the end of Tangled, where Gothel kinda goes, it can be argued, insane out of desperation), Gothel tried (or at least kept a pretense of trying) to keep Rapunzel happy. Once she gets out of the tower, you see her interactions with other people and you see how caring she is to other people around her, so clearly Mother Gothel wasn’t that bad. How do you think she stands apart from other Disney villains? Her garden is described as the envy of all others, constantly healthy with many vegetables and flowers in perfect bloom. Because once he cut her hair, he'd just go back to being injured, because when her hair is cut what she has used with it is undone which is exactly how Mother Gothel gets old … Nor did he let selfishness destroy his love like everyone else in Rapunzel’s life. And when Rapunzel asks for new paint, which takes 3 days to journey to the place to get them mind you, Gothel agrees and actually goes out to fetch them for her!! [Rapunzel shoves past Gothel in disgust] ... And this guy, well he eventually found true love. Rapunzel would eventually come to discover the difference between the two, however, as Frederic's actions were out of love, whereas Gothel's were out of selfishness. For somebody who has been up a tower for 18 years – Rapunzel is very well adjusted.The reading and the chess suggest intelligence, the painting and the paper mache demonstrate a strong creative streak and the fact that she’s kind to her ‘pet’ Pascal implies that she has learned caring behaviour. I honestly feel she definitely deserves a spot on the classic Disney villains list. I think it was obviously a completely dysfunctional, accidental and Lima Syndrome-esque kind of love, but it still set her apart from the classic Disney Villain format making her a scene stealer of character and giving the film an unexpected emotional depth. Did mother Gothel actually love Rapunzel? When her prized rapunzel plant (or, in most translated-to-English versions of the story, rampion) is stolen by the man to feed his pregnant wife, Dame Gothel captures him the second time and accuses him of theft. Did Mother Gothel love Rapunzel? Rapunzel is one of the heroines, the wife of Eugene Fitzherbert and mother of Ruby. The man begs for mercy, and she agrees to be l… One night, her husband breaks into the garden to get some for her. This ties into the fact that she is a phenomenal actress, dangerous manipulator, and is very intelligent, while it also indicates that in her actual life-time before discovering the flower, she was indeed an actual stage actress and performer before she retired to due to her aging. I mean, I guess it was Rapunzel’s dream to look at the stars for her birthday and Mother Gothel didn’t do that because... well obviously. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. 5. It helps that Donna Murphy’s vocal performance is superb – sweetness and light one moment, dripping with sarcasm the next: Rapunzel: How did you find me? ( Log Out /  The Witch The Witch. Letting her heal Flynn showed that, in some way, she still trusted Rapunzel. I think she came to love her, but she loved her hair WAY more. Fun Fact – Cher was the influence for Mother Gothel’s appearance! Honestly, I think she did. She makes a salad out of it and greedily eats it. Gothel also mistreats Rapunzel's animals. ( Log Out /  When it comes to her relationship with Rapunzel, Gothel is practically a textbook case of an emotional abuser. Follow/Fav Did You Ever Love Me, Mother? And her one sliver of love that allowed Rapunzel to go to Flynn still ended in her downfall, turning her to dust and pushing off the end of the tower. Eighteen years before the events of Tangled, Rapunzel's parents, the beloved King and Queen of Corona, were anticipating their firstborn. Without Gothel letting Rapunzel do all of those things, Rapunzel would have grown up to be a very different person indeed. Sure she doesn’t really let Rapunzel to go outside to see the stars that have been her dream, but she does try to make up for crushing her dreams in any way that she can. She not only entertains her daughter by singing to her but she also goes on a journey through months on end just to bring food and water back to the tower. In Return to the Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel, a more detailed description is given. She lets Rapunzel do everything except go outside. Unfortunately, very late in her pregnancy, the Queen fell ill with what would surely result in her death, as well as her child's. She loves to see herself in the mirror, reveling in her beauty. SUBSCRIBE: http://tinyurl.com/hfq9jmv Isaac theorizes on how Mother Gothel hid her tower and Rapunzel from the kingdom of Corona. Did Mother Gothel love Rapunzel? Any attention paid to Rapunzel herself is domineering, abusive, and meant to keep Rapunzel in the tower where no one will find her. The Tangled team decided to upend the traditional Brothers Grimm story by making Rapunzel’s love interest a thief, rather than a prince. I mean, she was only with her parents for a day at most so they never really left an imprint on her personality. Or doesn’t she? As you pointed out, she could have forced Rapunzel to do what she wanted. In fact, she’s the very first character we see on screen. The hand-drawn Princess And The Frog was meant to serve as a glorious return to form, but it underperformed at the box office. Did she turn to dust?\r \r It all goes wrong when Rapunzel turns 18 and does the typically teenagery thing of rebelling hard and falling in love with a bad boy. Like what kind of mother let’s their daughter decorate the inside walls with their own unique painting style? And as for this guy, well I assumed he's happy. Upon learning that the romance between Rapunzel and this guy could ruin his plans, which consisted of promoting a war between the kingdom of Rapunzel's father and the kingdom of the prince, Gothel demanded that Rapunzel speak the boy's name, which the princess really did not knew. But they clung to it tight, they let it blossom. Once Mother Gothel gets over her fury she quickly goes back to her charming self. Welcome to Disney Amino, where Disney fans can unite and where dreams come true! It all goes wrong when Rapunzel turns 18 and does the typically teenagery thing of rebelling hard and falling in love with a bad boy. He's never told me otherwise. This is just to show you all what I think). Gothel could have come to love this child. Here we go: 1. She was forced to give away her first-born child, and she was locked in a tower her entire life. Gothel did not love Rapunzel. (Btw, this is just my opinion. Gothel tries to steal a lock of Rapunzel's hair to use the magic once again, but discovers that cutting the hair renders it powerless. Mother Gothel was the main antagonist of Disney's 2010 computer-animated feature film, Tangled. After Rapunzel had returned the crown that she had been using as incentive for Eugene to help her get to town, Eugene had been on his way to return it when Gothel and her goons set on him and framed him, making it look like he was abandoning Rapunzel. On the night of Rapunzel's kidnapping, Gothel's initial plan was to seek refuge at her cottage, but upon arriving, she found that it was overrun by guardsmen on the hunt for the lost princess. Follow/Fav Did You Ever Love Me, Mother? When it comes to her relationship with Rapunzel, Gothel is practically a textbook case of an emotional abuser. You can't be around someone for 18 years and not grow some sort of bond! Even when she left the tower, she had every intention of going back. By: AsLostAsAliceAsMadAsTheHatter. By contrast, Mother Gothel dominates the story of Tangled from the beginning. Even though Rapunzel was taken as a baby, Gothel could have chosen not to take care of her but she still did and Rapunzel turned out amazing, beautiful, strong, and one of the most beloved Disney Princesses ever. She arrived in the late morning, finding her prince in the old farmhouse, blinded and near death from a push from the tower's height. And even when Gothel tricks Rapunzel back into the tower, she still offers to make her soup to cheer Rapunzel up. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Mother Gothel as Satan. Donna Murphy believed that Gothel did really love Rapunzel in her own way. As long as nothing threatened Rapunzel's hair, she would have loved her always. At the end of the film, you're not sure if Mother Gothel has ever truly cared for Rapunzel, or just what Rapunzel's hair did for her. Once again, selfishness overtook what could have been love, and Rapunzel got caught in the crossfires. Ginny is described as being "dark-haired" in The Isle of the Lost. - Read the results on this poll and other Disney Princess presinto When Mother Gothel tracked her and asked her to come back to the tower with her, she did. Not to mention, Rapunzel being caring, kind, fun, adventurous, trusting, talented, carefree, and more couldn’t have come from nowhere!! Every affectionate gesture is to Rapunzel’s hair, every compliment is immediately taken back, every bad thing she does is deflected to be Rapunzel’s fault. Mother Gothel Mother Gothel. She wants things to unfold following her design and gets very angry the second the situation starts escaping her. Mother Gothel is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 50th animated feature film Tangled (2010). Mother Gothel is the main antagonist of Disney's 2010 animated feature film, Tangled. Gothel is willing to take a three day trip to procure a special type of paint made of white shells for Rapunzel’s birthday. I do believe Mother Gothel loved Rapunzel . So in answer to my original question, I’m going to say that yes – I think that Gothel grew to love Rapunzel. Rapunzel never even came close to abandoning Mother Gothel. Her positive attention and affection are completely focused on Rapunzel's hair (kisses her hair only, calls her "Flower," etc.). Anyways, that’s all for now!! As revealed in "Rapunzel's Return", Cassandra is the biological daughter of Mother Gothel, though she was severely neglected and was often left to fend for herself in their cottage while Gothel went about her daily business. Rapunzel's Parents as God. As did most of the apples. You don't get that closure, which is so realistic. Analysis, Disney, Drama, Dramatic Arts, Fairytale, Film, Film Essay, Flynn Rider, Kids Films, Love, Mother, Mother Gothel, Musical, Rapunzel, Review, Tangled, Theatre, I have seen Disney’s Tangled more times than I would care to admit. No, the prince and Rapunzel had to work and suffer for their love. In this version, Rapunzel is sold to an ogre when she was a baby, all because her mother stole some parsley from a garden. Never saw a blog i was so agreeing with ! Evidence to suggest that Gothel did in fact love Rapunzel –. Or was it just her being a very WICKED manipulator? I only bathed and changed and nursed you’ – Mother Knows Best. Her positive attention and affection are completely focused on Rapunzel's hair (kisses her hair only, calls her "Flower," etc.). Here's why it feels timelier than ever as COVID restrictions are reimposed. Gothel did not love Rapunzel. Although she would rather regain Rapun… Work Cited. I’m going to preface this article by saying that I love Tangled, and I love Disney.Tangled is one of the bridges that connects Old Disney to New Disney; it keeps the joy and magic of older Disney films while bringing in new styles and stories that are most enjoyable to younger generations. Obviously nobody should keep their daughter isolated forever, and this was still a bad story of kidnapping and selfishness, but Gothel wouldn’t have done any of those things I mentioned if she didn’t at least care for the child. Rapunzel's hair was not cut and Gothel was taken prisoner. The world is dark and selfish and cruel. 2. She was just living her life looking L’oreal fresh until the flower was harvested to heal the sick and pregnant Queen of Corona. She wears a soiled red dress with tattered golden piping in … Now, I love me some Mother Gothel. What Gothel loved was Rapunzel’s hair. Change ), There is the undeniable fact that Rapunzel has been. Conclusion. Gothel definitely falls on the more nuanced end of that spectrum. I guess it’s true that love really does vanquish the evil side, no matter what kind of love that it is.