She just regained her real parents, but there are some surprisingly sinister secrets and choices by her father, the king, that she must reckon with-and her foil character, Varian, must do the same with his father One of the show’s strengths is that, through her newly opened eyes, we discover all is not as it seems in the kingdom of Corona. The whole show is literally Rapunzel’s gap year, and she pays the price by getting her big long hair back (no spoilers, it’s complicated).
RTA is, at its core, a show about adventure and Rapunzel struggling with the reality of being the lost princess, but having spent her entire life in a tower, wanting to take some time to see the world first. I would even argue that their relationship serves as a good model for kids (or really anyone) of what healthy and supportive romance, especially for those recovering from abuse, looks like, too. In a show about a strong Disney Princess, Eugene’s healthy and supportive masculinity not only contributes to a refreshing (and adorable) couple dynamic, but he serves as a great role model for young boys. I’m always one to roll my eyes at excessive amounts of heterosexual romance onscreen, but Eugene and Rapunzel are like those friends that have been together forever and just click.Įugene has a lot more life experience than Rapunzel and could easily scoff at her naiveté, but he finds joy in helping her discover even the smallest, most obvious thing, and continuously talks out her trauma and gives her the space she needs. We’re often told that when a man and a woman exist in a film, they must fall in love, or the whole film shows us how they swept each other off their feet, but rarely in a fairytale do we see how they actually love and support each other each and every day. Instead, RTA flips deftly back and forth between Eugene struggling with his own new challenges, while wholeheartedly supporting Rapunzel through her own. Many times during the first season, he grapples with his place in her life and his career, another very uniquely millennial experience, that if they were going for the simple happily ever after for kids, they could have easily just glossed over. Eugene is a literal ex-con starting an entirely new life with no friends except his girlfriend, and big expectations to fill with her family. This isn’t to say that Eugene, Rapunzel’s boyfriend, isn’t also her best friend, and the show does some amazing things with their relationship. A Disney princess and her “prince” get to have friends that aren’t each other? As I said, this show has it all. The show even takes this emphasis on healthy adult friendships a step further when one of Eugene’s close friends from back in his thieving days, Lance, becomes a part of the gang. Their stories aren’t your usual kids show lessons about friendship, either-they fight onscreen, and talk about boundaries. Rapunzel has to work at her relationship with Cassandra, and learn what having a close friend that didn’t rescue her from a tower or live with her as an animal sidekick means.
Outside of the easy proximity of friendships made in high school, or at work, or in college, making Adult Friends is hard. While I could wax poetic about Cass’ sheer gay energy (and Cassunzel shipping), this is one of the most Millennial™ parts of the show. She has her own stuff going on and is the polar opposite of Rapunzel in personality, so their friendship is a lesson for Rapunzel, who is so used to charming everyone she meets, about making friends as an adult. RTA immediately addresses this by creating Rapunzel’s lady-in-waiting, Cassandra, daughter of the captain of the guard and badass Sword Lesbian.
I won’t get into too many spoilers, but one of the biggest complaints about any princess story is that she doesn’t have any female friends.