Talk:Mother Gothel/@comment-32667350-20190712121916/@comment-37856678-20190804210742

In some versions of Rapunzel she is, or is at least capable of doing magic (Like in Barbie as Rapunzel in which a curse meant to keep Rapunzel locked in her tower forever backfires on her, but she did utter that curse herself), but not in Tangled. It's clear from the start that Mother Gothel is just an ordinairy human, artifically kept young and alive by the power of the flower, and later by Rapunzel's hair. That magic power solely came from the magic flower, Gothel herself seems not to have any magic abilities of her own.

How she knew the song you have to sing to activate the flower's power, is never explained. How Rapunzel herself knew the song is als never explained, but it's safe to assume Gothel taught it to her.

Now Tangled is loosely based on a story by the Grimm brothers, and in the Grimm version Gothel is described as 'the witch'. One should keep in mind though that Rapunzel having extremely long hairm being locked up in a tower, and using that hair to allow Gothel to enter and leave the tower, is one of the few things Tangled has in common with the Grimm story. Also note that the Grimm brothers never wrote any stories on their own, but only collected stories, adepted them for (back then) modern standards and bundled them.