Tangled/WMG

Flynn's not an orphan; his parents are Tulio and Chel from The Road to El Dorado.

Just look at the kid; he takes after his dad, right down to romantic and sexual tension with a green-eyed, fairly innocent blonde.

• Miguel? Innocent?
  • He would be if he'd been locked in a tower most of his life; as it is, he's still got the sweet disposition.
• Just because they're his parents doesn't mean he's not an orphan. Tulio and Chel were just dead.
• Maybe's Chel was dead (from smallpox unknowningly given to her from Tulio and Miguel), and Tulio had been in jail and unable to raise his son.

Flynn is Tulio and Miguel's child...

Exhibit A

• He's a descendent of both of them, but not in that way. Tulio and Chell had a daughter; Miguel met another woman... somewhere in that wilderness, and had a son with her. Their kids hooked up. The child of that line is a direct ancestor to Flynn.

Flynn is the son of Tulio with Miguel's sister.

This exchange from The Road to El Dorado takes on a whole new meaning now.

"You fight like my sister!" Miguel "I fought your sister. That's a compliment." Tulio

• • Even more with when it was translated to...

"I fought your sister, and I used my best sword!"

Flynn's just the bastard son of Tulio and some other girl.

Flynn had to get "The Smolder" from somewhere!

• The Smolder? Direct descendant of The Face!
• ...OH MY GOD!

Rapunzel is descended from Miguel.

At some point, Miguel seduced a married queen, and the resulting child is Rapunzel's ancestor.

Maximus is Altivo's descendant.

Overly smart horse who acts like a dog, ho!

• Altivo means "supreme" and Maximus means "greatest".
• They look really really similar.

Flynn is the illegitimate son of a king of an adjacent kingdom several leagues away from Rapunzel's.

This Wild Mass Guess(ing) was inspired by the description for Heroic Bastard on the main title page.

Flynn's real name is Greek for "Born to Royalty," but he is raised in an orphanage.

The film never suggests that he is a prince, although who knows with Flynn Rider!

• "Fitzhurbert" means bastard son of Hurbert, right? Well, what about that King in Sleeping Beauty? Philip's father? His name was Hurbert!
• Wow, so Eugene is related to Philip? He's Philip's bastard brother, so that would mean...
  • Also remember that Phillip's mother is nowhere in Sleeping Beauty. Flynn's mother may have been a consort of the court.
• Philip's father is King Hubert, not Herburt.

The movie's name change was because of Flynn

The filmmakers realized that Flynn could just as easily be considered the main character as Rapunzel. He's the one who is given most of the significant growth and development, and most of the good lines. He is also the story's narrator.

Why name the movie after the Princess when it could as easily be considered Flynn's story? So they re-named the film to be more ambiguous about the character focus.

• This is true, according to Word of God–the movie is about the two getting "tangled" with each other, not just about one or the other. (In some overseas markets, it's known as "The Princess and the Thief".)
• The name change was also to be more gender-neutral. It's possible the filmakers thought that naming the film after either Rapunzel or Flynn might alienate either young boys or young girls, which is why the name is what it is. Much of the early marketing focused on Flynn, but it's still a Disney Princess movie.

Zeppelins!

Two points are important here

• The kingdom has clearly stumbled upon the secret to lighter-than-air flight with those floating lanterns.
  • Sky Lanterns were invented in the 3rd century BC. The kingdom of Corona must have appropriated them from China.
• There's a map of the world in one scene showing that this takes place on Earth. But the kingdom in the movie doesn't exist. Therefore, this is an Alternate Timeline.

• Given the presence of lighter than air travel and alternate history, it's inevitable that Rapunzel and Flynn will conquer Europe with a fleet of flying war zepplins.

Rapunzel and her family are descendants of Belle and The Beast aka "Adam" of Beauty and the Beast.

Belle and Rapunzel are both brunettes. While Rapunzel is usually seen as blonde, that golden hair was magic; the brown hair was under the magic from the beginning. And there are hints of green in Belle's eyes.

Also, the castle of Rapunzel's parents is similar in design of The Beast's enchanted castle in Beauty and The Beast.

Word of God set Tangled in 1780. In Real Life, Belle and Adam would be at least grandparents by then. Maybe Rapunzel's mother married into the Kingdom of Corona.

• Small amount of Generation Xerox, there: they were both destined to sing I Want Songs as dandelion seeds fluttered about their heads!
• It's confirmed that Belle and Rapunzel are natural brunettes. Perhaps Rapunzel's biological mother was Belle's granddaughter. Brown hair is dominant; green eyes are recessive. Thus, Rapunzel may be related to Belle in some way..
• From the looks of it, those clothes look like early to mid-1700s, while Belle's dress looks kind of late 1700s (then again, I'm not entirely sure), is it possible they could be ancestors?
  • That makes sense! Just compare the Prince's nose and bridge here to Flynn's in this Wanted poster- the resemblance is uncanny!

Mother Gothel is a pseudonym for the evil queen in Snow White.

She's been alive for hundreds of years. Obviously, she turned into an old woman, survived the fall from the cliff, but it was the same cliff where the flower was (if you look closely at the beginning of the movie, you'll see a large, spherical rock just like the one that was supposed to have crushed her), and that was how she survived! With a magical flower to worry about, she didn't need to worry about Snow White's beauty, hence the happy ending.

• Hmmm, that actually makes sense! I could so see the evil queen getting distracted like that now that she has something else that makes her more beautiful than Snow White.
  • So she waited it out for a couple short decades before returning to the spotlight in a slightly different role? Nice choice.
• This is my personal canon now.
• It also makes sense for other reasons, if one thinks about it. If they're the same person, Gothel wouldn't need to take out Snow White because time would do it for her. Snow White kept her mortality while Gothel didn't, she'd grow old and lose her beauty while she kept restoring her own and she'd outlive Snow White as well. It also puts an intresting spin on Gothel's kidnapping of Rapunzel if you think about it. After the King and Queen died, Gothel could come forwards with the 'missing princess' and regain the power she once had as a queen through Rapunzel. After all, Gothel could claim that she found Rapunzel after she was kidnapped and hid it from her because she didn't know who her real family is and didn't want to hurt her. So this is actually a quite effective theory that works on many levels.
  • If this is true, it's very possible that Rapunzel is thus a descendant of Snow White, since Snow married a prince and presumably became queen. That could be one reason for her emotional abuse.

Rapunzel used her healing powers on Flynn while he was unconscious.

Thus explaining how he was able to survive that "stuffed into the closet" montage and three concussions without brain damage or a broken neck.

• • Or Flynn DID his head hard and it wasn't healed by Rapunzel - but as they say, slaps on the backhead increase thinking abilities. Maybe all these hits set some cogs and screws right - right enough so the Character Development triggered by Rapunzel could kick in.

The magic is still in Rapunzel, even though her hair is gone.

Her hair was only one possible source. The reason her tears didn't power the magic before was because she wasn't singing then - when she healed Flynn, she'd just finished singing the song. If she removed her tear ducts, the magic would still need to get out, so it would transfer to the next most available body part.

• The hair was never the source of her power, only the most obvious manifestation of it.
• Or perhaps, when channeled through the hair the magic was easier to use but less potent- sing a song and you can heal light wounds or temporarily restore youth- but when channeled through her tears it is strong enough to restore life but requires The Power of Love to activate.
• Damn, you beat me to it.
• OTOH, the resurrection sequence does have something of a note of finality about it. It's more powerful and more elaborate than any previous invocation of the flower's magic (it brought someone back from the dead rather than just heal, after all), it recapitulated the flower's history, growing from a droplet of fluid, sprouting into a plant, flowering, then dissolving, finally disappearing into fading light. It certainly could be interpreted as the last manifestation of the magic on this earth, before returning to the sunlight from whence it came.
• Then again, if the magic channels itself into the nearest outlet, couldn't Rapunzel sing the song and then like... lick people? Because if it worked through her tears, it should work through her spit. AND, since the spit would be separated from her right away and still work (like the tear did) then in theory she could sell bottles of magical healing spit. Or like... other bodily fluids. Because hair is just excreted waste product... ok this is getting a little gross... MAGICAL POOP
• Borrowing from tropers on the Just Bugs Me page, I'm inclined to think that the teardrop was the very same liquid drop of sunlight that fell from the heavens to create the magic flower. Filtered through a human (or botanical) medium, its power is limited: healing wounds, curing illness, temporarily reversing age. In its raw form, however, it's capable of bringing people Back From the Dead. Unfortunately, this means you can only use it once. Although the idea of Rapunzel singing and then licking people with glowing saliva is hilarious.

The story takes place in Andalasia

The king and queen are Edward and Nancy.

• This is officially my personal canon.
• Jerry Beck once said, "You know those scenes in the first 10 minutes from Enchanted? Those are this film!"

Whenever the healing magic is administered in liquid form, the recipient is given the healing power.

Originally, a drop of sunlight fell onto a flower, creating the healing power. Later, the broth made from the flower was fed to the pregnant queen, and Rapunzel became the vessel for the healing power. Which leads me to...

Eugene now has Rapunzel's healing powers.

Whether he took them entirely, or they just share the power now, I'm not sure. But Rapunzel's teardrop was bursting with the sunlight magic, and Flynn absorbed it the way the flower did in the beginning. And maybe it was just the bright lights, but his hair looked very blond for a moment while he was healing... maybe it will start growing in blond.

Rapunzel's hair doesn't grow once cut.

Or very, very slowly, which is way that one snippet of brown hair she has is not the same length as the rest of her hair, and Rapunzel is going to have really short brown hair for the rest of her life, until it greys.

• Isn't that canon?

Instead of Rapunzel being related indirectly to Belle and Prince Adam of Beauty and The Beast, Eugene is.

The conclusions are fairly easy to draw in this case, Eugene has Brown Eyes (which really aren't that far off from Hazel Eyes) and he kind of looks like Belle in a masculine type of way, and he has her yearning for adventure and a pure heart beneath his persona of Flynn Rider. Maybe his father Herbert is a dissolute grandson or son of Princess Belle and Prince Adam, to keep this WMG intertwined with the Heroic Bastard instance on the main title page.

Rapunzel is immortal.

The healing powers of her tears are vastly more potent than that of her hair, and so by reason her tear glands alone would provide constant rejuvination and an impressive healing factor even if none of her other bodily fluids or tissues have said properties. Consider if you will how little trouble she has running barefoot all day their first time she set food outside of the tower.

• Even if you presume said tear was supercharged by The Power of Love, the overall residual effects means that Princess/Queen Rapunzel will tend to heal quickly and age rather slowly.
• Would explain why she looks a lot younger than 18.
• Rapunzel's tears can cure cancer. Thankfully, she's compassionate. Unlike one certain Memetic Badass.
• This is the only way that Mother Gothel could be eternally young and beautiful. Think about it, if Flynn never came, if Rapunzel never made that journey to the kingdom, then she would have stayed in the tower for the rest of her life, presumably. Now, if Rapunzel was mortal, she would grow old and eventually die, and the youth-restoring power of her hair would die with her, as well as Mother Gothel. So, Rapunzel has to be immortal. I mean, the flower survived for hundreds of years...
• Alternately, Rapunzel is immortal until she has a child; then, like the flower's healing magic passed from her mother to her, it'll end up in her child. Hopefully she won't start dying as soon as she had a child...
  • Probably would not be a problem unless she waits until she's chronologically several hundred years old before having said child. (Which as of the end of the movie, doesn't seem that likely).

Eugene's death was a Censor Decoy.

They originally wanted to keep the love interest being blinded in the plot but assumed the Media Watchdogs would find it too graphic. So they changed it to having him stabbed, assuming they would be told that was too graphic, and they could "tone it down" to being blinded. This backfired, and the only thing they were ordered to do was to edit out all the blood that was originally on the knife.

The real reason why Tangled was in CGI. . .

. . . Was so that all of the YouTubers that make animated crossover couples wouldn't be able to pair Rapunzel with Jim Hawkins. Until around Januray 2011, it failed.

• Why Jim Hawkins? I'm mad that I can't ship her with Aladdin.
  • Your wish has been granted.

By the same reasoning they also can't ship Flynn with every Disney Heroine ever. At the same time.

• Because let's face it, he's the sexiest Disney hero ever.
  • That's because he's got all the best parts of Aladdin and Prince Naveen rolled into one, all topped off with facial hair. Unf.
• Pfffft, if that's the case, Disney seriously underestimated YouTubers' crossover Crack Pairing Fan Vid-editing abilities.

The Tangle-Verse is an alternate history of Exalted.

The golden sun from heaven was a Solar Exaltation, but it went astray and landed in a flower. Rapunzel is a Solar, probably a Zenith, judging from her royal background and the fact that she turns everyone to her cause (The thieves, the Horse, the people of the kingdom); Flynn is her Lunar Mate, definitely a Changing Moon caste from his survival and trickery background; and Gothel is a Sidereal Chosen of Secrets, hiding Rapunzel and manipulating everyone into helping her. The musical numbers are just specific expressions of Performance and Socialize in Social Combat. Plus, you know, the whole Sun motif of Rapunzel's kingdom.

• I originally had Flynn/Eugene pegged as a Night Caste, myself. And musical numbers as Social Combat? I gotta try that if I ever get into a game of Exalted...
• "Mother Knows Best" were Gothel's attempts at Villainous Monologue Rant and she was able to cause Rapunzel's faith in Flynn to fail so quickly with Invidious Rumours Campaign (thereby making her an Abyssal Exalt), while "I've Got A Dream" is Rapunzel making use of Husband-Seducing Demon Dance. Rapunzel knowing how to dance jigs and reels as well as not being socially retarded from having only ever met one person and a chameleon in her life can be put down to her Mastery of Small Manners and naturally high Performance. It's perfect!

Eugene writes self-insert Flynn Rider fanfics.

The entire movie was one of them.

• This actually makes sense. We already know that Flynn is an Unreliable Narrator; assuming that he "played with the facts" while retelling the events would explain several of the plot holes and unexplained events in the story.

It's the same goddamn horse.

There's a white horse in Sleeping Beauty. There's a white horse in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. There's a white horse in Mulan. There's a white horse in Tangled. Do they all look familiar? They all have the same design and the same personality. There's an immortal, white horse who spends his time fucking around in fairy tales, and its most recent name is Maximus.

• Actually, if I recall correctly, the horse in Mulan was black and white. Although, it ould still be the same horse, considering they did behave seriously alike.
  • Mulan's horse was black and white. Shang's was white, and actually more serious and important than Mulan's.
• He's an actor under contract at Disney!
  • Well, he has done some work with Dreamworks...
• Sounds like a Miracle to me.
  • Motherfucking Miracles everywhere, man!
• Alternatively, all these horses are descendants of Pegasus.
  • No, all these horses are Pegasus. Hear me out; he's immortal (presumably), so after Hercules died he begins to be hunted by humans for his wings. He goes to the gods and asks them to remove his wings so he can walk safely among mortals. Add some darker mane-dye and Pegasus becomes a regular, imortal horse. That's also the reason he trusted Rapunzel so quickly - he had lived among the gods before, and either knew about the magic drop of sunlight or recognized the power of the gods in the girl.

Maximus is in fact an Assassin.

Hence the white coat and the Le Parkour.

Maximus is Bad Horse.

Starting as the idealistic officer of the law, his naive outlook was abruptly broken when he befriended a thief and allowed him to prosper. In a fit of self-loathing and disillusionment, he swore to devote himself to the cause of evil from that day on.

• In fact, Flynn refers to Maximus as a "bad horse" at one point. He got his supervillain handle from the man who caused his supervillainy.

Maximus is Windstriker.

Windstriker is closer to Miko in personality than originally apparent in OOTS, and after her fall and death, he became more obsessed with justice. Sent to the kingdom in the movie, he singled out Flynn as a proto-Belkar and was determined to nip that problem in the bud. After Flynn/Eugene fell in love with Rapunzel, Windstriker/Maximus realized his mistake and remembered how the rest of the OOTS weren't bad people, even if they weren't paladin-level good, and remembered why Miko fell. It also explains why he's so competent and intelligent; he used to be a paladin's celestial mount!

Rapunzel's kingdom is right next door to Stormhold.

Diplomatic relations are really really easy, because it took the respective princess and queen about five minutes to make friends over the shared experience of being chased around by an old witch who needed them to restore her youth. Apparently it's just a thing in that part of the world.

Mother Gothel had another motive for keeping Rapunzel in the tower: love.

In her hundreds of years of life, not only did she try to use the flower to stay beautiful, but she also fell in love many times and tried to be her best for the suitors, but they all dumped her like that! *snap!* Not only that, but her long life guaranteed her to out-live some of them! She kept up an optimistic attitude for decades until it became apparent that no man in history would ever truly love her, and so, by the time the power was transferred to Rapunzel, looks were the only thing important to her, and she held onto the power as long as possible. This also explains how she was so quick to distrust Flynn.

This is why he's here! Don't let him deceive you! Give it to him, watch! You'll see! Trust me my dear! That's how fast he'll leave you! I won't say I told you so!

• Hmm... fascinating Alternative Character Interpretation for Gothel, it's very logical and within the context of the film, it makes a lot of sense. It also adds another new nuance to Gothel and Rapunzel's relationship: Gothel never wanted her to leave the tower - to meet a man - because she fears that her "adopted" daughter might find someone like Flynn/Eugene and have her heart broken like Gothel's might have been.
  • OK, here is where I disagree with the whole "Gothel twuwy wuvs Rapunzel!" interpretation and why It Just Bugs Me : Take everything Gothel did, kidnapping, psychologically torturing Rapunzel, keeping her locked up in a tower for 18 years and using her body for her own personal gain, making her fear every human who wasn't her and telling her if she leaves they both will die. If Gothel was a MAN would this alternate interpretation even EXIST?
  • Sadly, yes.
  • That's a really great idea, and in general I agree, except you're assuming that a male Goethel would be sexually abusive and not making her sing to activate her magic hair, just because he'd be male, so way to call the kettle black, pot. Men are entirely capable of being emotionally abusive without also being rapists, y'know.
    • While that statement is made of total win, The reason for that interpretation is very different.
    • Says you.
  • Also, consider the situation where both Gothel and Rapunzel were male characters. One can easily imagine this particular interpretation existing in that case.
  • Nope, but it does raise another Alternate Character Interpretation that I was hoping nobody would bring up... By the way, Rapunzel's deal about how we'll be together forever, just like you want, if you let me save him, invokes the Scarpia Ultimatum. Thus, killing Flynn was a Xanatos Gambit by Gothel to get Rapunzel to do such a thing because dragging her around the world in chains for eternity would have been very tedious, but at the very least Flyn wouldn't be around to make it worse.
    • You mean it was a Batman Gambit, as she died and Flynn survived, it made Gothel look like a fool.
• I think Gothel does love Rapunzel, but it's not motherly love (though Gothel may have deluded herself into thinking it is). It's the same kind of detached love a spoiled child (or adult) might show a family pet. She wants Rapunzel to be happy, but only under Gothel's terms, and at Gothel's convenience.
  • She actually calls Rapunzel "pet" in her villain song. And all those things in the tower she's presumably given Rapunzel over the years to keep her occupied (the paints, books, etc)? That's enrichment - like brightly colored hamster balls, for example - which people give to caged pets.
  • The three books Rapunzel gets to read (over and over) are about botany, geology, and cooking. Things that can be broken down into small, easily controlled bits--a potted plant, a pretty rock, some new ingredients--and doled out to Rapunzel as Gothel sees fit. She has apparently rotated other books in and out of the lineup, because Rapunzel knows enough astronomy to have charted the tiny slice of sky visible from her tower and enough mathematics to have named her animal friend Pascal. Again, things that can be doled out in small measure without ever letting Rapunzel leave the tower. Enrichment.
• The very fact that Gothel kept Rapunzel in the tower for eighteen years rather than reconsidering her actions and returning her to her rightful family suggests that if Gothel did love Rapunzel (and let's face it, considering the emotional abuse Gothel piled onto Rapunzel on top of this, that's a pretty big 'if'), then it's a very unhealthy, controlling and selfish form of love. Let's not forget that whether Gothel loved Rapunzel or not, she wasn't Rapunzel's mother and so had no right either to keep her or expect her affections in return; certainly, the manner in which she expressed said 'love' certainly doesn't excuse or redeem her actions. Love isn't always a good or healthy thing.
  • Everything that you say is absolutely right, but, you say that Gothel "wasn't Rapunzel's mother and so had no right" to Rapunzel's custody or affections. Please allow me to introduce you to Happily Adopted. It happens. Just not in this movie.
    • Absolutely true, but where did anything in the above comment suggest that adoptive mothers have less right to be considered mothers than birth mothers, as you seem to be implying? If I'd had said 'Gothel is not Rapunzel's birth mother' or something similar you'd have a point, but I didn't say anything like that. I didn't even mention adoption, and the fact is that adoption's got nothing to do with this; Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel. She's not Rapunzel's (rightful) mother under any circumstances, birth, adoptive or otherwise, and so has no right at all to consider herself or expect Rapunzel to treat her as such. Adoption, happy or otherwise, has nothing to do with any of this.

On the day of the lanterns there is amnesty to everyone inside the cities' bounds...

...As long as they don't try to pull anything during the festival itself. Hence why a known thief could stroll through the town without any worries. From dawn until the lanterns are down floating away he cannot be arrested unless he tried to steal/kill/rape etc. during the day itself. Granted there are probably some rules concerning people who hurt other people (kill/attack/rape etc.) but a "mere" thief would have no worries until the lanterns were gone.

• A good theory, although it's worth noting that Flynn did take the trouble throughout the day to make sure no guards noticed him.
  • He probably doesn't know about the amnesty thing and was taking risks.

Upon the return of his daughter, the King issued a general pardon to criminals in the kingdom.

Related to the above; this explains why a convicted criminal who was sentenced to be executed gets the chance to woo the King's daughter and the (for all their Hidden Depths presumably) criminal patrons of the Snuggly Duckling get the chance to pursue their dreams of becoming concert pianists and falling in love and... being mimes, and generally are allowed to mingle with the rest of the kingdom afterwards; their respective slates were wiped clean. Upon being given a second chance to have a daughter and a family, the King was inspired to generally pay it forward and offer a second chance to those who needed one (with, presumably, a few particularly serious or heinous exceptions being excluded from the general amnesty).

The "sunlight drop" is actually the blood of a deity (not necessarily a solar one).

In classical mythology, the blood of the gods was a golden liquid with similar properties to the ones depicted. Ence, probably a god got killed or something at the beginning and one of the drops fell on a random flower.

The "sunlight drop" was actually the fisic representation of a gift of Pelor.

And was aimed from the skies for make a queen feel better and create an encarnation of Pelor himself

As far as light magic goes, the one depicted is quite weak.

Yellow is actually quite low on the light spectrum; the drop in the movie would most likely be crap when compared to a blue or violet sunlight drop, which are higher on the light spectrum (blue fire is hotter than yellow fire, after all).

Borrowing from the above Troper's WMG, other colors would have stronger or weaker powers.

Since yellow light can bring the dead back to life properly, red light would only sort of do this. Ergo, zombies.

Also Borrowing from the above troper, there are other Sun Flowers around the kingdom.

It's just that no one recognises them because the sun is yellow, so a flower from the sun could only be yellow. Not so. On the day the yellow sun drop fell, many other drops of sun fell too, far enough apart to not be noticed, in all different colours. Now they grow all around the place, hidden in plain sight. OR the drops could have landed on other plants, making Sun Trees and Sun Patches of Grass. Awesome if the drop that hit grass was green, because then no one would be able to find it.

== Eugene Fitzherbert=Ezio Auditore ==. Ezio got tired of sneaking up behind guys and ramming hidden blades through their throats and decided to go on a vacation to another kingdom. So he dropped his Italian accent and got a different name. You can tell who he is because A) He has significant Le Parkour skills B) He is a Loveable Rogue and a womanizer C) Even in this movie, he still has to fight or avoid guards who wear red D) When he and Rapunzel make it to the kingdom, he actually tears down a poster to reduce his NOTORIETY. Presumably, most of the people in that kingdom could actually read, which explains the lack of heralds that would need to be bribed. Also, he didn't feel like shanking officials and dropping their remains into haystacks or wells.

• • Alternatively, Eugene could be one of Ezio's many, many, MANY bastard sons he's produced due to a life of sexual promiscuity.

-While not necessarily BEING Ezio, Flynn's design is most likely based on him. According to the special features on the DVD, the animators hosted a "hot man meeting" to finalize Flynn's character design around the time production began, and invited several female employees to give input. Now, a room full of nerdy, female Disney employees basically dictated how Flynn would look. I wonder what game had just been released and they were probably all playing at the time? Assassin's Creed II. This is based on an estimate that animation began in 2009, however the full production fits within the time frames of Assassin's Creed I and Prince of Persia, both featuring protagonists that Flynn shares a plethora of characteristics with. If it weren't for Ubisoft and their fangirls, we wouldn't have the current Flynn Rider!

Related to the above theory that the magic's still in Rapunzel...

Just because her hair doesn't light up, her tears did heal him a damn sight better than the hair probably could had. This means that the power which was there from birth is internal. Her blood could probably heal people too! Now, before anyone thinks "oooh tasty vampire snack" remember that the flower is the embodiment of solar magic. Her blood would probably taste divine but be as lethal to vamps.

• • Whedon got it wrong.

"Flynn Rider" is that world's equivalent to "The Dread Pirate Roberts".

The name is a legacy name, going down through the generations. Unlike the DPR's name, though, "Flynn Rider" isn't necessarily given to people, it just has a habit of being picked up. Granted, there was a real Flynn Rider once upon a time, but that was a long time ago- long enough that the collected stories of all the Flynn Riders are legends and stories.

On this note, further wmging is required, and thus I posit that Eugene's real father was one of the men who picked up the Flynn Rider persona. Using this persona, he seduced a woman, and she bore his son without telling him about it, instead placing the son in an orphanage, and donating a copy of a Flynn Rider book to said orphanage so her son would be able to read about "his" father when he grew up. Because it was 'his' book of sorts, Eugene grew up reading it, and when it was time to reinvent himself, he inadvertently named himself after his father.

Flynn is the Prince of Persia.

Transported to the future after messing with the dagger a few too many times. Because seriously, look at that resemblance! And the climbing!

• • He certainly has the sarcasm down.

Alternatively, Flynn is Nathan Drake's ancestor.

For much the same reasons.

Rapunzel's hair doesn't lose its healing power when cut.

It just stops glowing. Nobody ever tried to use the healing power with her cut hair, at least not while singing the whole song; note that Gothel stops singing as soon as the hair changes colour.

• Rapunzel did.
  • But... it only didn't work because she sang half the song?
    • She only sung the first two lines of the song when she and Flynn were stuck in that cave, and her hair still lit up.
  • If the hair didn't lose its healing power, why did Gothel crumble to dust?

One of Rapunzel's descendants is Mama Odie.

Because light magic.

• WRONG! The Princess and the Frog happens in 1926, while Tangled takes place in the 1780's according to Word of God.
  • Mama Odie is 100+ years old and could've easily be descended from Rapunzel if the time's the concern.
    • Mama Odie claims to be "a 197 year old blind lady", meaning that she would have been born in 1729.

Rapunzel's healing powers change depending on what part of the song is emphasized.

They either can be used to bring back something lost (like beauty) or heal wounds depending on which line of the song is stressed.

• Note that whenever Gothel sings the song, she doesn't even sing the "heal what has been hurt" bit.
  • And this could also be a possible explanation for what happens to her in the end. She's actually been abusing the flower's powers all those centuries, by using it to extend life rather than heal. Note that Flynn's injured left hand did not reopen after the hair was cut.
    • And the queen didn't die. But, no one sang anything when the queen was healed, she just drank magic flower tea. Does that mean that eating Rapunzel's hair would heal you just as well?

Maximus is descended from/is one of Prince Humperdinck's white horses.

• Think about it.

Maximus deliberately acts like a dog sometimes and a human others, because he wants to excel at everything.

He doesn't just want to outdo the other horses, but the hunting dogs and the soldiers as well. Why did the royal guards not bring hounds to help sniff out Flynn Rider? Because all the hounds had already been put out of a job by Maximus!

The flower was the work of the High Council as was the rest of the movie

• Zeus knew that the queen was going to be sick,so he sent the drop of sunlight and made it turn into a flower,and sent Mother Gothel to take care of it. He just wasn't planning on her becoming greedy and wanting it for herself,so when the queen eventually did get sick and mother Gothel tried to hide the flower from the searchers,the High Council knocked over the bush that was hiding it allowing the search party to find it. Years later they led Flynn/Eugene to the tower,they were the reason Rapunzel remembered everything, how Maximus assembled the thugs from the snuggly duckling and they gave Eugene that last bit of strength to cut off Rapunzel's hair in the climax.
  • Even better: Pascal was Zeus's special agent in that kingdom, sent to Rapunzel at a young age to be her confidant and constant guardian as well as giving the occasional prod to leave the tower. That's why everyone respected him so well, especially Maximus. Zeus's men are well known, and seeing Pascal the stare master calmed him down in his 3rd confrontation with Flynn.

Gothel's relationship to Rapunzel

She actually does love Rapunzel but not in the way that most people would love another. In fact she loves Rapunzel in the same way she loved her flower, as her closest companion. She is shown to pamper and protect the flower as if it was her own daughter, and when it was stolen from her she was devastated. When she learned that they had destroyed her only friend to save the queen she began to despise the kingdom. And she then takes Rapunzel as her new flower, which she loves just as strong. Her motivation during the movie is never to hurt or imprison Rapunzel, but to protect her from those who had destroyed the only other thing she loved. She really does want to keep her safe and away from the evils of the outside world, something she couldn't do for her precious flower.

The King is in fact the Burger King.

Come on, don't tell me I'm the only one who sees the resemblance.

Maximus isn't really a horse.

Maximus is really a human, the reason he's a horse in the movie is just Flynn being an Unreliable Narrator to have a little laugh at Max's expense.

• Wouldn't it make more sense if he was really a dog? Just look at his behavior!

Time passes differently in the Tangled universe.

Most likely, quite possibly six months or so pass in the course of a "day". This explains the use of a Three-Month-Old Newborn and Fourth Date Marriage: The well-paced character and relationship development is reasonable in Tangled's world despite taking place in a day or a couple of days.

• How is this a Fourth Date Marriage? The movie explicitly states they got married YEARS later.
  • In Tangled Ever After it doesn't look like it. Actually, since Rapunzel's hair not only hasn't grown, but they didn't even fixed her haircut, it looks like has passed days, if not hours. After all, Flynn is an Unreliable Narrator, remember?
    • But doesn't her hair just not grow after it's been cut? She had that one tiny lock of brown hair hidden by all the magic blonde hair before Flynn cut it and I remember her saying that it doesn't grow. As for the not fixing it, it doesn't look bad, so maybe she decided it had character or she decided to keep it like that as a reminder for how Flynn saved her or a little bit of both. Also, I know they're royalty, but there's no way they organized and executed such a huge wedding, got the wedding party event-appropriate clothes and got all those guests to show up in just hours. Besides, if I had just gotten back my long-lost daughter, no way in hell would I let her get married to a known thief just hours (or even days) later, much less throw such a lavish wedding.

The entire movie is Flynn reading the storybook of his and Rapunzel's adventure to the current orphans of the orphanage he used to live in.

Rapunzel illustrated their story and helped Flynn with some of the establishing details (like the magic flower in the beginning and Rapunzel seeing the lights as a little girl). Flynn always used to read to the younger kids, after all. His narration (obviously) is geared toward kids, especially the happily ever after ending.

• Rapunzel, who has been, up until that point, holding up her illustrations, finally cuts in at the end.
  • That's adorable, I demand fanart.
• And then they adopt an orphan, given Flynn's past and (possibly) fears that Rapunzel will fall ill while pregnant, as her mother did.
• It also explains this bit at the beginning:

Flynn: [Gravely] This... is the story of how I died. [Sad, frightened and confused looks from the kids] Flynn: ['Hasty backtracking'] Don't worry! It's actually quite a fun story!

Similar to the above, but Flynn is relating the story to his and Rapunzel's own kids

Essentially, this is the Disney Princess equivalent of How I Met Your Mother.

Rapunzel's children will all be blondies.

Perhaps not with magical blonde hair, because power becomes less and less as it is distilled, but even still, maybe they could I dunno, heal the fireflies they accidentally squish. then when they get haircuts they become brunettes just like their mother. This also means that-

The magic of the flower is infused in Rapunzel's DNA.

Think about it! She was unborn at the time her mother drank the tea made form the flower, So it could have latched on to her not quite formed DNA; kinda like spiderman, but with Rule Of Disney.

The Barbie version of Rapunzel influenced Tangled.

I am not trying to troll, or promote Barbie, but there are quite a few similarities with both film versions.

• Rapunzel is portrayed as a painter in both versions, and it even serves as a plot point in both films.
• The costumes. In both films, the heroine generally wears a simple pink frock, and later replaces it with a regal lavender dress. Flynn's costume also resembles the prince's outfit in the Barbie version.
• Both films have a reptile for a sidekick (chameleon/dragon)
• Both films have Rapunzel be a princess by birth; she is a peasant girl in the traditional story.
• Both films are produced in 3-D animation.
  • Hmmm, good points! And all very interesting too, because I've been wanting to put on the Shoutouts page for Tangled that an artistic Rapunzel is reminiscent of the Barbie version, since it was commented about on IMDB at the forums. And those similarities are quite obvious when you think about it. Barbie and Disney, who knew, right? ^^
  • I support this WMG. Also: both are blonde and get haircuts by the end of the movie, and there's a snarky white mammal who helps Rapunzel (rabbit & horse). Plus the importance of honesty and keeping promises are critical to the movies' climaxes.

The Sun is Rapunzel's Second Father,

First we must assume that the drop of the Sun came to earth on purpose, primarily because otherwise it means that there are solar tears flying all over the place, and with so many going around all sorts of weird stuff would happen. Like flowers on Mars. But I digress.

Second, if it was on purpose, then there has to be a reason it was sent, which implies that the Sun actually is a conscious being(not too far out in a Disney movie). Furthermore this implies that the Sun cares about what happens on the earth. When Rapunzel is born, she essentially has a second daddy!

This leads us onwards to...

• This is a good theory, but one drop falling un-purposefully doesn't mean that more than one drop would necessarily fall. The amount of drops has nothing to do with the purpose (or lack thereof) behind them, so there is no need to mention the possible amount of drops.
  • There are lots of solar tears flying all over the place. It's just that most of them hit Mercury and Venus rather than the Earth. And most of the ones that reach Terra fall into the sea.

The Sun is a Physical God.

Comparing the size differential between the sun and the drop of sun, the sun has the power to resurrect quintillions of humans without ever running dry. Furthermore, the presence of physical gods like this implies a far vaster universe than what was shown in the Tangled universe. One thing that springs to mind, for example, is the sickness of Rapunzel's mother. In a normal disney movie it might just be coincidence, but in a world where physical gods battle over the earth? I think not! It's clearly a plot by the Sun's polar opposite, the anthropomorphic personification of the Void, which also tends to represent sickness. Oddly enough this sickness attempted to strike when she was pregnant, and we all know that pregnant women have contractual plot immunity, so she couldn't have died until her daughter was born, meaning...

Rapunzel was meant to be the Anti-Christ.

Clearly the Void intended her mother to die, and the powers of sickness and despair to be transferred to her harmless daughter. How would YOU grow up if your hair had the ability to kill anything it touched? Plus the whole 'corrupted by evil' thing. In addition, the King quickly would have fallen into despair, since its shown that only the queen keeps him from it in the movie. Eventually the now evil father and daughter duo would go to war and invade the world.

BUT!

Rapunzel's Hair was a single move in the Sun's ancient Xanatos Gambit to save the world.

A long time ago, the Void must have convinced or tricked the Sun into only using tiny forces to influence the world. Therefore, the Sun was what ended up dragging Flynn and Rapunzel together, culminating in the loss of her hair and the ultimate loss of her possibly evil influence. Either that or the Sun just enjoys its little games.

Either way, with Rapunzel out of the picture, they're free to start up another game, either in this kingdom or somewhere else. The cycle will repeat again...

Maximus is a Companion.

A completely white horse of human intelligence, defending his kingdom against those he considers a threat, and capable of physical feats that no ordinary horse could possibly accomplish. The only thing that dissuades him from his unrelenting pursuit is a idealistic, pure-of-heart young person who Maximus decides is worthy of his help. (Note that it is not unheard of for a Companion to pretend to be a horse in order to accomplish a goal--Kantor did just that to get to his intended Chosen--so Maximus's working as a guard's horse at the beginning was just him biding his time until he could accomplish his goals.)

The question is: did Maximus Choose Rapunzel, Flynn, or is he still waiting for another Chosen? He became "tame" for Rapunzel, but it was Flynn that he was pursuing the entire movie, and Flynn who he directly came to rescue when both were in trouble. Regardless of which one he Chose, this would help explain how Rapunzel was so readily accepted as the lost princess and how Flynn's crimes were completely forgotten--a Companion vouching for them would go a long way.

The Queen knew Rapunzel was still alive all along.

Generally, mothers have a bond with their children like no other kind. It's how they know their children as well as they do. In this case, Rapunzel and the Queen didn't have a great deal of time to bond and know each other outside of the womb, but the link is still there in some small little form. This is why the Queen was able to keep hold of her hope that Rapunzel would eventually come back, she knew deep down her daughter was out there somewhere.

Pascal and Maximus both used to be human.

They both have very high levels of intelligence for animals. Maximus seems to listen mostly to Pascal, if you look, you can see that he backs off from Flynn when Pascal catches him, and when Pascal makes the same gesture as Rapunzel. Finally, Mother Gothel doesn't know about Pascal, so he couldn't have been a gift from her. Corona appears to be in a climate similiar to Germany. WHERE DID RAPUNZEL MANAGE TO GET A CHAMELEON?!

• In the Snuggly Duckling, we see a man cooking a pot of chameleons, and in the beginning, we see a chameleon on the mobile above Rapunzel's crib, implying that chameleons could be common in the area.

Maximus is a Shinigami.

And if he doesn't have a constant supply of apples he twists himself into a pretzel.

Flynn used to be a hairdresser.

How else was he able to cut Rapunzel's hair into such a perfect bob using just a shard of mirror? Alternately, he discovered his natural ability after this event, and decided to open his own salon.

Rapunzel's hair will never grey.

The bit of short, brown hair is still just as brown as the rest of her hair turns. Since it doesn't grow, it won't start growing out low- and no-melanin strands. Since it doesn't seem to fade, she won't turn grey.

Orihime is Rapunzel's long lost twin.

Long hair? Check. Naivety? Check. Healing powers? Check; Rapunzel's powers are the same as Orihime's reality rejection powers, judging by the healing song's lyrics ("Change the fates' design / Bring back what once was mine").

Rapunzel's tears aren't magic.

...her eyelashes are. When she cried, the tear ran through her eyelashes, which, of course, are made of HAIR, and that's where her healing magic came from. All her hair is magic, not just her head hair. Yes, even... 'that' hair

• Even 'that' hair, you say? Does it also mean that her menstrual blood and piss also become magic in "process"? Also, why do I even think about that?

Flynn is somehow related to Jack Harkness.

...it's a WMG.

Rapunzel's hair will grow back without the magic in her hair.

Hair doesn't stop growing in real life and I distinctly remember that she never said that it wouldn't grow back just that once it's cut it loses its magic.

Max is somehow related to Princess Celestia.

It would explain his awesomeness. He's just under the guise of a normal horse. He has magical powers, but he hasn't used them (on-screen) yet because he hasn't needed to.

• Now how did we get My Litle Pony involved in this guess?
  • WMG, of course.
• A horse jumping from a rooftop to the ground and not breaking all four legs isn't magic?

The tiny unicorn in the prison is a deliberate Shout-Out to Blade Runner.

• Blade Runner: protagonist finds tiny origami unicorn and realizes that this changes everything.
• Tangled: protagonist finds tiny ceramic unicorn and realizes that this changes everything.

Flynn is a descendant of Chuck Bartowski.

• Given the fact that they're both played by the same guy, and seems that Flynn's got some of Chuck's familiar mannerisms down, it's a likelihood that the Bartowski lineage has some sort of notoriety in it.
  • But Chuck's in the present day. Surely, it's the other way around.

Forte and Mother Gothel were lovers.

• Forte is a Manipulative Bastard and maybe before the spell was put on the Beast's castle, Gothel visited there and gave Forte some pointers on psychological manipulation.

The magic works like a drug, becoming less effective and more addictive with each use.

• When Mother Gothel first used the healing flower, she probably got an entire lifetime of life out of it. Of course, being so vain, she probably used it again the moment she saw a gray hair or a wrinkle, wasting all those extra years she would have gotten before needing to use it again. She kept using it over and over for centuries, developing more and more of a tolerance to it (and dependence on it) until by the point of the movie, she can only go a couple hours before she ages from her 20's to her 50's. Gothel is so dependent on the magic just to continue existing that when cut off from it, she rapidly ages into dust. Flynn however, who has only used it once before (for the injured hand), probably gets a whole lifetime when his life is restored, and isn't dependent on it afterwards (still being able to sustain his own life normally).

Mother Gothel took a page out of Frollo's pagebook.

• Remorselessly stole a child from right under their parents' noses and kept them locked up in a tower all the way until adulthood as well as abusing them emotionally? Yup.

Before their engagement could be announced officially Eugene had to do social service to all the people he robbed.

• He is a country-wide known thief. Even if the king would pardon him, the citizens of Corona probably would be not too happy to know their recently returned princess will marry the thief who robbed them. So, to calm them Flynn will have to work. And not only as a symbolic gesture - he will do social service. To any person he ever stole from. After THIS is done the people hopefully made up their mind to him marrying the princess he himself saved.

Rapunzel is a Doll.

• She was taken from her parents in her mid-teens, wiped, and given memories only of Gothel, her handler. At the same time her hair was genetically modified for medicinal purposes; Gothel saw the possibilities and kidnapped her. Their repeated exchange - 'I love you very much/ I love you more/ I love you most' - is the trust bond exchange set up between dolls and handlers. Through the film her original persona is reemerging in fits and starts, enabling her to rebel against Gothel and become her own person again.

Pascal was not Rapunzel's first pet.

• At some point in her childhood, she had a bird or squirrel or something, and Gothel found out and either killed it or just made it leave the tower. That's why Rapunzel was so determined not to let Gothel see Pascal.