Mother Gothel

**Mother Gothel** is the main antagonist of the 2010 film Tangled.

## Background

### Personality

Gothel presents herself with a theatrical flair, often flaunting her beauty and curvy appearance with much enthusiasm and dramatics. This ties into the fact that she is a phenomenal actress, a dangerous manipulator, and is very intelligent, while it also indicates that in her actual lifetime before discovering the flower, she was indeed an actual stage actress and performer before she retired due to her aging. Aside from the magic golden flower Gothel selfishly uses to prolong her life, and her life alone, she lacks magical attributes, relying solely on her intellect to achieve her ambitions. She is also very possessive and selfish, evidenced by the fact that she had been hoarding the magical flower for hundreds of years all to herself, which could have instead been a gift to share with other ailing beings of the world. Aside from manipulating Rapunzel herself, she also manipulated the Stabbington Brothers by seemingly giving them the chance of getting revenge on Flynn Rider as well as Rapunzel's gift to make themselves rich, only to betray them without keeping the latter half of her promise as she no longer needed them.

Gothel was a lazy mother, as evidenced by her treating her four-year-old daughter, Cassandra, as a maid by forcing her to do all household chores in their cottage by herself while Gothel spent all her time looking at herself at her magic mirrors and talking about the compliments she got by men, which also demonstrates her vanity.

Gothel was also negligent to her biological daughter Cassandra, presumably having to be an unintended result of an affair with an unknown man. Gothel often left her alone in their cottage to restore her youth with the flower and gave her gifts only to keep her away from her, rather than by motherly affection, much like she later does with Rapunzel, and finally abandoning Cassandra to escape with the baby princess, not caring about what would happen to her afterwards.

Throughout the story, Gothel's goal is to keep Rapunzel in a hidden tower forever in order to take advantage of the healing powers within the lost princess's hair. To do so, she cleverly poses as a kind, yet overprotective mother figure, that simply hopes to keep her daughter away from the outside world which, according to her, is filled with people who would abuse Rapunzel's power (which makes her somewhat hypocritical since she is one of those people who is doing just that). However, she is still extremely abusive despite her caring façade; she constantly insults Rapunzel, purposely lowers her self-esteem, avoids familial contact with the princess, and riles up her anxiety with warnings of exaggerated dangers she could run into if she'd ever leave, all for her own selfish gain. Gothel is also known to victimize herself, blaming Rapunzel for any sort of conflict or unfortunate event that befalls their lives and relationship, be it an argument or even someone's death.

Despite all of this, Gothel has several methods of furthering Rapunzel's dependence and loyalty to her; these include making her favourite meals, gifting her with paint and other luxuries to keep her occupied within the tower, and most notably, posing as Rapunzel's only protector in a vicious and unforgiving world. However, this is all for a deeply selfish reason and comes at the expense of Rapunzel's happiness and dreams of experiencing life outside the confines of her tower. The illustrations even state she implanted scary and corrupted views of Christmas in the girl.

Gothel's burning desire to retain her youth for all eternity has notably driven the woman to complete madness, to the point where she was more than willing to force Rapunzel into slavery for the rest of her years when she figured out the truth of their relationship. Not only that, she was also driven to a murderous state, evidenced by her immediate decision to kill Flynn Rider, upon deducing he somehow led to Rapunzel's eventual leave from the tower.

Though this could be attributed to her wishing for Rapunzel never to leave her, Gothel seems to be a misanthrope and has true hatred for people because they took away the magic flower, she wanted all to herself, even though it could help the sickness of others. She even advises Rapunzel to hate people, saying; "the world is dark, and selfish, and cruel. If it finds even the tiniest bit of sunlight, it destroys it".

### Physical Appearance

Without the healing and age-reversing power of the Golden Flower, Mother Gothel is a very elderly woman. Her sagging skin is covered in multiple wrinkles and marks, noticeably on her hands, arms, and face, and she bears many signs of old age. Her thinning hair, while still possessing curls, is dull and has lost its volume, a combination of white and pale grey. Gothel's veins are especially prominent in her hands and wrists, like most elderly people, and she has several bumps and other marks on her face. Her nails are thin and look far from healthy-looking, and her face and body overall do not look full, like younger people. In her very first scene, she wore a dark blue dress and red cloak with a yellow lining.

With the flower's power in effect, Mother Gothel reverts to her youthful appearance. She is rather voluptuous with a curvy figure, and she is a tall, slender woman. Her skin is flawless, smooth, and a shade of very pale ivory. She has large grey eyes, and her eyelids have brown eye shadow. Her cheeks are dusted with blush, probably to warm up her pale skin tone. Her curly, black hair falls past her shoulders and is rather thick and glossy, with three curls hanging over her forehead.

She wears a flattering, outdated, crimson-red Renaissance-era dress with a faintly dappled pattern, gold trim, elbow-length sleeves with extended hems, a hemline that reaches her feet, brown high-heel boots, and a matching belt-like sash with a gold buckle, along with gold, diamond-shaped earrings. Whenever she leaves the tower, she brings a dark green hooded cloak, especially to hide her face when the hair's power is low.

The effects of the magic that keep Mother Gothel young wears off in short time, so she needs to replenish it very often, otherwise, her aging will return, shown when her hair starts turning grey, and she forms dark eye bags and wrinkles. The aging returns daily, it appears - she left the tower on Rapunzel's birthday, with the magic in full effect, based on her entirely youthful look. However, less than a day later, in the "Mother Knows Best (Reprise)", her black hair already possesses grey streaks, and her skin isn't as smooth as before. When Rapunzel's hair is cut off, its healing powers are gone, and when she touches the cut hair, all the centuries rush back into Gothel at once, rendering her to nothing but dust within a minute.

## Film Appearances

### Tangled

As an elderly woman near the end of her life, Mother Gothel is the single witness of a drop of pure sunlight falling to the ground, creating a magical flower with healing abilities. When she sings to it and strokes its petals, she becomes younger and beautiful. Determined to keep herself beautiful and young forever, Gothel selfishly hoards the flower's power while keeping its gift a secret from the rest of the world. Centuries pass, and in that time, a kingdom prospers nearby. Its queen falls deathly ill while pregnant, and the entire kingdom searches for a cure: the fabled magic flower. Upon finding it, the king's guards uproot the plant and use it to create a tea that cures the queen, much to Gothel's dismay. The flower's abilities, meanwhile, are passed onto the Queen's child, Rapunzel. In the dead of night, Mother Gothel breaks into the castle and uses Rapunzel's long golden hair to replenish herself. When she tries to cut some of the hair for herself, however, it turns brown, and the healing powers are destroyed. Desperate, Mother Gothel kidnaps Rapunzel and disappears into the night. She isolates the princess in a tower hidden in a forest far away from the rest of the kingdom and raises her as her own daughter and taught her the healing incantation. To ensure she keeps her new magic flower hidden, Mother Gothel refuses to let Rapunzel go outside, lying and telling her the world is a dangerous place where selfish people would try to hurt her and steal her hair to use her gift for themselves, while ironically, using her for her desperate need to stay young.

Eighteen years after Rapunzel's abduction, Mother Gothel is still as manipulative and "overprotective" as ever. Since childhood, Rapunzel has witnessed "floating lights" covering the sky every year on her birthday (really floating lanterns the king and queen set free to remember their lost daughter) and wants to find out what they are. On the wake of her eighteenth birthday, she works up the courage to finally ask Mother Gothel permission to see the lights in person. Fearing that she may be losing control over her flower, Mother Gothel uses subtle jabs, over-the-top guilt trips, and refrains of "Mother Knows Best" to keep Rapunzel from leaving, before firmly, and darkly ordering Rapunzel to never ask to leave the tower, again. Heartbroken, Rapunzel accepts. Subsequently, Mother Gothel leaves the tower once more, and during her absence, their home is invaded by an "on-the-run thief", who Rapunzel manages to knock unconscious and hide in the closet. When Mother Gothel returns, Rapunzel pushes her with requests to leave the tower (hoping to use the unconscious Flynn as proof that she can handle herself in the outside world). Before she is given the chance, however, Mother Gothel angrily yells, "You are not leaving this tower, EVER!". Rejected, Rapunzel changes the subject to focus on her oncoming birthday and asks Mother Gothel for paint made from white seashells as a birthday gift, which will require a three-day journey. Confident that Rapunzel is safe, an initially hesitant Mother Gothel agrees.

While on her way, Mother Gothel is encountered by a palace horse, though without a rider. Upon realizing this, she fearfully assumes the royal guards may have found the whereabouts of Rapunzel and rushes back to the tower. There, she frantically calls for Rapunzel to let down her hair, but no response is given. Mother Gothel quickly uses the secret back passageway to barge her way inside and begins a search throughout the tower. Unfortunately for her, Rapunzel is nowhere to be found. She instead finds a satchel and inside lies Rapunzel's crown from the kingdom. The sight brings a rush of a shock to Mother Gothel before a further investigation reveals a wanted poster with an illustration of the thief Flynn Rider. Mother Gothel deduces Flynn had some involvement with Rapunzel's disappearance, and leaves the tower to kill him, and reclaim her flower—dagger in hand and filled with bloodlust. When Mother Gothel comes across the Snuggly Duckling tavern, however, she overhears Rapunzel singing how happy she is now that she has left the tower. She spies Rapunzel and Flynn escaping through a hidden tunnel when the royal guards arrive and flirts with a Pub Thug before threatening him to find out where it leads.

After following Shorty's instructions to the end of the tunnel, Mother Gothel soon comes across the Stabbington Brothers, who are out to get back at Flynn for betraying them. Using this to her advantage, Gothel gives them the crown but tells them she can offer them an even greater treasure, along with revenge on Flynn. The offer entices them, and they officially join Mother Gothel's side as her accomplices. That night, Gothel finds Rapunzel and reveals herself while Flynn is out getting firewood. She goes for a direct approach in trying to bring Rapunzel back to the tower, but Rapunzel refuses, wanting to continue her journey and admitting she has some affection toward Flynn, believing them to be reciprocated. Mother Gothel insists that Rapunzel is being naïve and the only reason why Flynn is with her is to get the crown back, which she thrusts into Rapunzel's hands and orders her to give it to him as a test of his loyalty to her before vanishing. Though Rapunzel stands her ground, Mother Gothel's words are enough to bring doubt into her mind, successfully sparking her plot.

Mother Gothel's plan is put into action while Flynn and Rapunzel watch the lanterns the next evening. Rapunzel gives Flynn his satchel to show that she trusts him. But before they kiss, Flynn spies the Stabbington Brothers on the opposite shore and tells Rapunzel to wait as he goes to talk to them. Flynn tries to apologize and return the crown to them, but they reveal that they now know about Rapunzel's powers. They find Rapunzel and tell her Flynn left with it and told them about her healing powers. She refuses to believe them until they point out Flynn sailing away on a boat, ignoring her screams. Before they can kidnap Rapunzel, Mother Gothel betrays them to appear she's rescuing her. She leads the heartbroken Rapunzel home, and Flynn, who was knocked out and tied to the boat's mast, is caught by the guards, who prepare to hang him the next morning.

Back at home, Mother Gothel undoes Rapunzel's braid and reminds her that the world is intolerant of joy and happiness and will destroy any ray of sunshine it finds as the finishing touch of destroying the princess' glimmers of optimism. After she leaves Rapunzel's bedroom to fix dinner, she overhears assorted commotion coming from the room and heads up to check on Rapunzel. Before she can enter, she is confronted by Rapunzel, who has managed to somehow uncover the truth behind her upbringing, confidently announcing her realization that she's the lost princess and that Gothel isn't her real mother. Stunned, she nervously tries to suppress these revelations, but Rapunzel denies her words. With her patience wearing thin, Gothel desperately claims her actions were out of love, but her manipulations no longer affect Rapunzel. Angered Gothel has lied and imprisoned Rapunzel her whole life for her own gain, Rapunzel physically denies the abuse and proclaims Gothel will never again be allowed to use her hair's magic from that moment forward, just as Gothel breaks free only to shatter the mirror. With her mind made, Rapunzel starts to make her leave from the tower, but a now openly sinister Mother Gothel retaliates. Off-screen, Gothel chains Rapunzel to the wall and puts a gag on her face.

Meanwhile, Flynn manages to escape the palace and journeys to rescue Rapunzel. When he arrives at the tower, he is fatally stabbed in the stomach by Mother Gothel. As Flynn starts to die from blood loss, Gothel begins to forcefully drag a shackled Rapunzel out of the tower, with intent on finding a new hideaway where Rapunzel will be forced into slavery. Desperate to save Flynn, Rapunzel vows that she will never keep trying to break free of her and is no longer going to listen but promises to go with Mother Gothel quietly if she is allowed to heal him. Knowing Rapunzel never breaks a promise, Mother Gothel agrees. However, Flynn uses the opportunity to cut off most of Rapunzel's hair with a shard of glass before she can heal him, causing the hair to turn brown and lose its magic, allowing Rapunzel her freedom and Mother Gothel with no more power. With the source of her healing powers gone, a horrified Mother Gothel tries to salvage Rapunzel's hair and rapidly begins to age when doing so. In the midst of her hysteria, she fails to see Pascal pulling the length of Rapunzel's cut hair, which trips Gothel to fall out of the tower window. By the time Gothel's cloak finally hits the ground, only dust remains of her.

### Tangled: Before Ever After

Six months after the events of Tangled, Rapunzel continues to reside in the palace with her real family. At the start of the movie, during the prologue, Gothel is mentioned and makes a cameo appearance in Rapunzel's paintings recounting the events that led to her return as a princess.

Gothel is also alluded to a few times throughout the events that unfold when King Frederic and Queen Arianna discuss why the former is so overprotective of Rapunzel, he mentally flashes back to the night Gothel broke into the castle and kidnapped Rapunzel. Later, during the climax, the antagonistic Lady Caine warns Rapunzel that she has no idea who she's dealing with, to which Rapunzel retorts, "Believe me, I've dealt with much worse," a clear reference to Gothel.

## Television Appearances

### Tangled: The Series

In the episode "What the Hair?!", Gothel appears in a nightmare Rapunzel suffers from one night. After cruelly bragging about her supposed return, Gothel summons the thorn-like rocks that appeared on the night Rapunzel's hair mysteriously returned. Gothel takes notice of the hair and suggests that both she and Rapunzel return to the tower where the latter will be "safe". Rapunzel abruptly wakes from the nightmare, though it prompts her to learn more about her revived hair.

During the latter half of the first season (specifically in "The Alchemist Returns" and "Secret of the Sun Drop") King Frederic had been accused of mistreating Rapunzel in a manner eerily similar to Gothel, as he had been caught lying to Rapunzel and demeaning her by limiting her freedom. Rapunzel would eventually come to discover the difference between the two, however, as Frederic's actions were out of actual love, whereas Gothel's were out of pure selfishness.

Gothel is mentioned in the episode "Rapunzel: Day One" where Rapunzel has lost her memory temporally due to an argument with Cassandra. Due to memory loss, Rapunzel is scared that she had left the tower and that Gothel is looking for her. Rapunzel also mentioned everything that Gothel had told her to watch out for including roughens and the plague. In hopes to restore Rapunzel's memory, Cassandra promises to "take her back to her mom" (Gothel). However, Rapunzel's memory eventually returns, and she and Cassandra make amends.

In "Rapunzeltopia", Rapunzel is thrust into a sleep-like state by Matthews, a subordinate of the evil demon, Zhan Tiri. In during which, she is trapped within her own dream. When Rapunzel tries to break free, Matthews turns her dream into a nightmare in, during which, he forces Rapunzel to relive the day in which she was nearly enslaved by Gothel. Rapunzel uses her imagination to overpower Matthews and ends his stint as Gothel by smacking the latter with a frying pan. Upon doing so, Rapunzel remarks, "I've always wanted to do that!"

It is revealed in "Rapunzel's Return" that Gothel is Cassandra's biological mother. Despite their blood relation, Gothel cared more about maintaining her eternal youth to the point where she abandoned her for Rapunzel when she was only a little girl just to avoid being caught by the Royal Guard, leading to Cassandra's adoption by the Captain of the Guards. This revelation is what drives Cassandra to turn against Rapunzel, believing that she has stolen her mother and her destiny from her.

In order to prevent Cassandra from making amends with Rapunzel in "A Tale of Two Sisters", Zhan Tiri lies about the princess's knowing that Gothel did in fact love Cassandra before sending her to their old cottage home for her plan to work, along with creating rumours of Gothel's ghost haunting the cottage to draw Rapunzel there. As Cassandra looks at the flashback images from Gothel's magic mirror diaries, she begins to realize that her mother never loved her or Rapunzel; however, when she finds a fragment of one shattered mirror (secretly planted by Zhan Tiri in Rapunzel's bag) which shows a moment wherein Gothel had told Cassandra that she loved her and that the music box was proof of it, this vision hardens her against Rapunzel once more. Unknown to them both, another shard of the mirror, which had been flung away, contains the rest of that moment, revealing Gothel calling Cassandra a "lousy little pest" and using the box as a way to keep Cassandra distracted. The two girls' time in the underground tunnel also reveals that Gothel had notes on the Sundrop, its incantation, the Moonstone, and what appears to be a self-made copy of the Demanitus Scroll.

In "Once a Handmaiden...", Cassandra discovers the missing shard and realizes that Rapunzel was telling the truth of Gothel never loving either of them. When Cassandra confronts Zhan Tiri about this, she discovers her mentor's true identity and leaves to make amends with Rapunzel, only to fall for Zhan Tiri's manipulations again by taking over Corona.

In "Plus Est En Vous", Zhan Tiri states that Gothel was failed by her own ego, just like Cassandra. Cassandra then reconciles with Rapunzel and redeems herself by helping Rapunzel defeat Zhan Tiri. After Zhan Tiri's demise, Cassandra comes to terms that although Gothel never loved her and abandoned her for selfish reasons, she has found people who love and care about her, namely her adoptive father and friends, before leaving Corona in search for a new destiny.

### Once Upon a Time

Mother Gothel appears in the series as the main antagonist of Season 7. She is portrayed by Emma Booth. In the series, she is the mother of Alice with Captain Hook from the Wish Realm, as well as the enemy of Rapunzel Tremaine. In this version, she is portrayed as an evil and genocidal witch, who is the leader of a coven of evil witches known as the Coven of the Eight.

Born a Tree Nymph, Gothel was groomed by her mother to take on the responsibility of "mother" in leading her sisters to maintain nature. However, Gothel becomes curious about humanity and befriends a group of humans who see her doing magic and apparently want her to teach them. This is just a ruse though as they actually believe magic to be an abomination and humiliate Gothel before heading to the Tree Nymphs' grove and destroy it, which in turn kills all the Nymphs but Gothel. An enraged Gothel confronts the humans and uses her magic to kill all the humans in the realm except Seraphina, a witch who hid her powers in fear of persecution. With all the magic in their land having been purged, Gothel uses a magic bean to transport Seraphina and herself to the Magical Forest, vowing to return and take vengeance of humanity once they come back.

Sometime during her life, Gothel becomes known as a famed Mother Nature and details about ways to summon her ends up in a spell book. One night, Gothel catches Rapunzel stealing her magical herbs. In a bid to find the Guardian, she makes a deal with Rapunzel to secure her family's happiness by imprisoning her in a tower, but Rapunzel eventually escapes six years later. Gothel pays her a visit and provided her with a curse via toadstools from New Wonderland. Later, in the brink of death, Rapunzel brings Anastasia to her, where Gothel preserves Anastasia's last breath and threatens to keep Anastasia in her tower, but Rapunzel traps her instead. In order to escape, Gothel has to replace herself with a bloodline of hers, resulting in her deceiving Hook into bearing her child. Speeding up the pregnancy in a day, she gives birth to a baby girl and escapes the tower, leaving the child to replace her as the tower's prisoner. Eventually, she is sent to the Land Without Magic when the Dark Curse is cast.

In Hyperion Heights, Gothel ends up as a prisoner of Victoria Belfrey as Eloise Gardener. She is locked in shackles at Belfrey Tower, at the highest level, away from plain sight. After digging up her deceased daughter's coffin, Victoria brings it to her prison, hoping for her help to resurrect her daughter, but she declines. Days after, Ivy investigates the room with Roni to find dirt on her mother, but Eloise was gone at the time. Ivy later visits the room again, this time revealing that she was the one who asked Eloise to hide while Roni was around, with Eloise aware that Ivy too remembers her past life, much like Victoria. She then creates a potion for Ivy in order to wake up a cursed Roni. Eloise is eventually freed by Detective Rogers and teams up with Ivy to find Anastasia's body. After double-crossing Victoria and Ivy, Gothel plans to use Anastasia to gather together their followers like the ones who helped in the Dark Curse. In order to heal Lucy, Gothel plans to sacrifice Ivy as part of the resurrection amulet's magic only for Victoria to take her place instead. Gothel is eventually double-crossed by Anastasia when the latter makes amends with Ivy and leaves the Coven of the Eight. She eventually indoctrinates Tilly into the coven, planning to use her to cast a spell that will exterminate all of humanity.

Before the spell can be completed, however, the curse is broken when Henry gives true love's kiss to Regina. When Tilly arrives with Weaver, Margot, and Rogers, she stands up to Gothel. Gothel attempts to kill her, but Tilly blocks her attack and strikes Gothel instead. Gothel is unable to stop her transformation into a tree. Tilly sympathizes with her mother and promises to do better than her before creating hyacinth flowers on the roots of her tree.

## Other Appearances

An emoticon version of Mother Gothel appeared in the Tangled entry of the As Told by Emoji short series. As in the film, she becomes a pile of dust after Rapunzel's hair is cut; the dust humorously appears alongside the rest of the cast during the curtain call.

## Disney Parks

### Disneyland Resort

While not appearing in the show itself, Mother Gothel is portrayed by one of the two hosts of the live show version of Tangled at Disneyland's Fantasy Faire area. At Disney California Adventure, Gothel briefly appears in the Oogie Boogie Bash rendition of World of Color.

### Walt Disney World Resort

Mother Gothel's likeness is also featured during Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom.

In 2015, Mother Gothel was added to the finale montage of classic films (during the brief segment centring antagonists) at the end of The Great Movie Ride in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

### Hong Kong Disneyland

Gothel makes a brief appearance during the finale montage projected on the castle in Villains Night Out!. In 2019, Gothel made her theme park debut as one of the villains in Let's Get Wicked, alongside Cruella De Vil, Ursula, Gaston, and Dr. Facilier.

### Disney Cruise Line

Mother Gothel also appears in the live Tangled musical stage show aboard the Disney Magic, marking her first appearance as a character within the Disney vacation chain.