Like most Disney movies, Tangled has a happy ending where good triumphs over evil, but Mother Gothel’s fate creates a major plot hole for the animated classic. At the end of Tangled, Rapunzel transforms from a young woman without any agency into a brave heroine who can finally live life on her terms, and this symbolic act is embodied by defiantly cutting the long locks that Mother Gothel had been using to keep herself young. At the same time, Rapunzel’s act of transgression also meant she lost the healing powers that she’d used to help so many people in the kingdom after her escape from Mother Gothel’s tower.
While it has all the hallmarks of a typical animated Disney fairytale, the ending of Tangled makes no sense by presenting certain challenges in terms of continuity, particularly concerning the inherent logic behind its use of magic. Mother Gothel is an underrated villain, but her fate introduces certain questions that can’t be ignored, and when probed further, affect the entire narrative when taken as a whole. Even with its plot holes, Disney made Tangled different from the Rapunzel fairytale, so it isn’t quite as predictable, even going so far as to find ways to subvert expectations and turn certain stereotypes and tropes on their head.
Tangled’s Ending Undoes Mother Gothel’s Anti-Aging (But There’s A Magic Plot Hole)
The Anti-Aging Should Extend To More Characters
Rapunzel’s hair is magical and healing, but it’s also what has kept Mother Gothel young and beautiful for so many years, so when she gets a haircut she breaks Mother Gothel’s anti-aging spell. Without Rapunzel’s magic hair, the villain turns into an old crone that she and Flynn can eventually defeat. This doesn’t seem to affect all the people Rapunzel healed during her many adventures, who should have technically faced similar fates as Mother Gothel. Rapunzel healed Flynn, for instance, but he didn’t suffer anti-aging due to being in contact with her hair, creating a magic plot hole in the film that could have been explained better.
Tangled
An adaptation of the fairytale of Rapunzel, Disney’s Tangled follows the long-haired princess as she journeys to discover her real identity. Kidnapped as a child by the evil Mother Gothel in order to exploit the healing properties of her magical hair, Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) has lived her whole life isolated in a tower. A chance encounter with a smooth-talking fugitive called Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) sees Rapunzel venture out into the dangerous world to find the kingdom of Corona and unlock the secrets of her past.
- Release Date
- November 24, 2010
- Director
- Byron Howard , Nathan Greno
- Cast
- Donna Murphy , Ron Perlman , Mandy Moore , Brad Garrett , Jeffrey Tambor , Zachary Levi
- Runtime
- 100 minutes
- Writers
- Dan Fogelman
- Studio(s)
- Disney
One of the ways to make magic in fantasy movies the most effective is to adhere to the internal logic of the story’s world-building. By playing fast and loose with the magic associated with Rapunzel’s hair, it makes what should have been an exciting, dramatic ending much more confusing. Suppose a little more rhyme or reason was given to the way magic worked in Tangled; in that case, the stakes might even have been higher by the time it arrived at its rousing conclusion, with fans worrying about whether Rapunzel cutting her hair had unknowingly doomed a large section of the population along with Mother Gothel.
Mother Gothel’s Fate Makes The Disney Movie’s Ending Way Darker
Rapunzel May Be Responsible For Mass Killings
After fans see what happens to Mother Gothel, it’s easy to extrapolate what could be happening to everyone that Rapunzel helped along the way with her hair, making Tangled’s ending particularly dark for a Disney movie. If everyone started to suffer the same anti-aging fate as Mother Gothel, then Rapunzel would be responsible for mass homicide even if she wasn’t aware. This changes the perspective on the act of her claiming her freedom and turns it into a brutal trial by fire, proposing that there is no happiness achievable without suffering great pain, and indicating the price of liberty demands a meaningful sacrifice to be pursued at all.
Tangled’s Mother Gothel Could Have Won If Not For 2 Big Mistakes
Mother Gothel from Tangled was among the most wicked and despicable of Disney villains, but she lost her fight because of two foolish mistakes.
Similar to the parable in the short story “Button, Button” written by Richard Matheson in 1970 (which was previously adapted for an episode of The Twilight Zone) in which a random individual is presented with a button that if pressed will grant them their greatest desire while simultaneously killing someone they don’t know, it presents a powerful allegory exploring themes of free will and choice juxtaposed against fate and destiny. Rapunzel couldn’t know what would happen to everyone she helped because she was unaware of how Mother Gothel used her hair, and the movie’s ending would probably have been quite different if she had been presented with that knowledge earlier.
Anti-Aging & Healing May Work Differently In Tangled
One May Be A Continuous Process While The Other Is One And Done
Given the fact that Flynn survived without suffering the effects of rapidly aging, there’s a strong case for magic taking different forms in Tangled and Rapunzel’s hair not working the same way would mean that the end isn’t as dark as it appears. The film doesn’t explore this fact, but considering anti-aging is presented as a continuous process that requires repeated magic and Mother Gothel making scheduled trips to Rapunzel’s tour, and healing is a one-and-done affair, it could mean that everyone Rapunzel is healed couldn’t possibly be affected in the same way that Mother Gothel was, and are safe and stable even after she’s destroyed.
According to History Collection, the original Rapunzel story was written by an Italian writer named Giambattista Basile in 1600 and involved Rapunzel being sold as a baby to an ogre, eventually being locked in its tower where she was forced to give away her firstborn. In the better-known Grimm Brothers fairytale from 1857, she gets seduced by the first man she’s ever seen and bears him a child, but he eventually goes blind and wanders aimlessly in a forest while she gives birth alone. While the lovers do one day reunite, their happy ending is tarnished by the fact that he can never see his children.
The real Rapunzel’s story was most likely based on Saint Barbara who, known for her incredible beauty, was locked away in a tower by a cruel father who never wanted her to marry. Saint Barbara was eventually beheaded by her father, but became a martyr and symbol of immortal beauty and resilience in the face of adversity. Considering how dark these versions were, Disney already chose to detour severely from the source material with Tangled, making the Mother Gothel plot hole a minor source of darkness.
