Mother Gothel

## Emily

### Goals:

* To remain beautiful and young forever with powers of Rapunzel's hair (succeeded but failed)
* To keep Rapunzel at any means (succeeded)

### Type of Villain:

Abusive Immortality-Seeker

**Emily**

**Emily Gothel** is a *very* vain woman who was, prior to Tangled, the only person who knew of the magic flower that could reverse her aging. When the flower is taken from her and ingested by the queen, Gothel instead kidnaps the queen's daughter, who had the essence of the flower, and raises her as her own. Eighteen years later, Gothel is content with keeping Rapunzel as her personal Fountain of Youth, which is forced to change once Rapunzel decides she wants to see the outside world. She played straight in the sense of getting her hands dirty, unlike the witch in the original Rapunzel fairy-tale; inverted in the sense of not being a witch. She lives to take care of Rapunzel, but only to use her to stay young, and keeps her locked up.

Gothel appears to be a loving, though overprotective (and emotionally abusive), mother towards Rapunzel. Even though it shows she's selfish and cares more for Rapunzel's hair and its power than the girl herself, it's only in the end, when Rapunzel discovers she'd kidnapped her as an infant, that Gothel's true nature comes about and she's revealed to be willing to do absolutely anything to keep Rapunzel's power all to herself, even outright murder. She kidnapped Rapunzel when she was a baby, and is the main source of conflict in the film. She pretends to be Rapunzel's loving mother, but in actuality, she was the woman who kidnapped Rapunzel as a baby because her hair was full of magic from the flower used to de-age Gothel that got crushed into medicine for Rapunzel's real mother, the queen. Mother Gothel uses a variety of subtle emotional and psychological abuses to manipulate Rapunzel into staying in the tower. Mother Gothel kept Rapunzel's desire to leave the tower she was living/prisoner in in check for most of her life by a combination of belittling her and telling terrifying tales of the outside.

In this variation, however, Gothel has no interest in protecting Rapunzel's feelings or well-being, and keeping her in the tower is directly related to Gothel's own gain. To her credit, her original plan wasn't to kidnap Rapunzel; she cut off a lock of golden hair to take away and realized, to her shock, that she'd need the girl it belongs to as well.

## **Physical Appearance**

Emily Gothel in the start of the films, she is wearing a black cloak with a hoodie, with grey hair, and a red dress. In the current part of the film, her hair is black, she still wears the black cloak and hoodie with the red dress, captively still being seen with eyebags.

## **Personality and Traits**

While the character from the original fairytale was a witch, Gothel has no magic powers whatsoever, aside from the knowledge about the Magic Flower and how to use it. She constantly acts as if she is the *victim* of Rapunzel's desire for freedom. While she pretends to be a caring and devoted mother, the fact that she calls Rapunzel "flower" and touches her hair whenever she displays "affection" clearly shows what she truly cares about.

Although she did take care of her when growing up and did gain her affection through treats, birthday gifts and pretense of motherly love, she spent eighteen years subtly but viciously abusing Rapunzel, verbally and emotionally, to destroy her self-esteem and make her completely dependent and vulnerable on her.

Despite being older than the kingdom, Mother Gothel proves quite immature and entitled. She wants things to unfold following her design, and gets very angry the second the situation starts escaping her. This shows prominently when her "sweet mother" act quickly slips away as Rapunzel expresses desire to see the outside world. She loves to see herself in the mirror, reveling in her beauty. Although she would rather regain Rapunzel's trust by making it seem she was right, when she fully drops the act, she is not above assaulting and restraining her "daughter", and stabbing her love interest in cold blood. Also, she never keeps her word when striking bargains and betrays her allies as soon as she stops needing them.

Gothel is a highly skilled and intelligent manipulator, able to make Rapunzel fear the outside world, and then by making her believe that her trust in other people was unfounded. She is very good in talking people into agreeing with her, convincing them of what she wants them to believe and lying efficiently. Finally, she displays no fear when confronted with people bigger and more imposing than her, and proves a very temperamental and dangerous fighter with a dagger in hand, though she would rather avoid direct confrontations, instead setting traps and taking foes by surprise.