Mother Gothel
antagonist · human
Takes a child in payment for a handful of lettuce, and then raises her carefully and kindly for twelve years.
What they are like
- Kind
- 4/10
- Brave
- 6/10
- Clever
- 9/10
- Honest
- 3/10
- Curious
- 5/10
- Patient
- 10/10
How we meet them
Standing in the middle of her own garden at night, waiting, entirely unsurprised. She has clearly done this before.
Personality
The most uncomfortable villain in the collection, because she is genuinely fond of Rapunzel and genuinely good to her. Her cruelty is the tower, and she never once frames it as cruelty.
What they want
Never stated, and the story is better for it. She wanted a child and she got one on terms nobody should have agreed to.
How they change
Loses the girl the moment somebody tells her there is an outside, and does the one thing that guarantees she never gets her back.
How they speak
Warmly, most of the time. Her most frightening moment is not shouting: she sits on the edge of the bed and asks quiet questions until she has the whole answer.
How the story treats them
The story refuses to make her a monster. She brushed Rapunzel's hair every night for twelve years and meant it, and put her in a tower, and both of those are true.
One surprising thing
She never locks Rapunzel in. There is no lock and no door. The tower works because Rapunzel has no idea she should want to leave.
If they were real today
She would be the relative everyone describes as devoted, in a tone you cannot quite read.
Things they say
- “You can take as much as you like. Truly.”
- “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.”
Key moments
Waiting in the garden
She is standing in the middle of the garden the second time he climbs the wall, entirely unsurprised, with the offer already prepared.
“You can take as much as you like. Truly.”
Twelve years of brushing her hair
She feeds her, teaches her to read, brushes her hair every night and tells her she is clever, and means all of it. Then she puts her in a tower.
She sat down on the edge of the bed
She does not shout. She asks one level question after another until she has the entire story out of a girl who has never learned to lie.
Who they know
Rapunzelfamily
Twelve years of genuine kindness, in a tower with no door.
Rapunzel's Fatherenemy
A handful of lettuce for a child, agreed to in a garden at night.
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