This article is about the character from Tangled. For the Once Upon a Time character, see Gothel.
- “Instead of sharing the sun's gift, this woman, Mother Gothel, hoarded its healing power and used it to keep herself young for hundreds of years. And all she had to do was sing a special song.”
- ―Flynn Rider's narration during the prologue[src]
Mother Gothel is the main antagonist of Disney's 2010 animated feature film Tangled. She is a vain and selfish woman who had retained her youth for hundreds of years through the healing properties of a magic golden flower. When its powers were unintentionally transferred to the hair of the newborn princess Rapunzel, Gothel kidnapped the baby and locked her in a secluded tower, where she hoarded Rapunzel's healing magic. Since then, Gothel has posed as the princess' loving, albeit overprotective mother to keep her under control, pretending to protect Rapunzel from the cruelty of the outside world.
She is based on Dame Gothel from the 1812 fairy tale Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm.
Quick Answers
How did Mother Gothel retain her youth for hundreds of years?
What was Mother Gothel's relationship with Rapunzel in Disney's Tangled?
How did Mother Gothel control Rapunzel in the tower?
What happened to the magic, golden flower's powers?
Why did Mother Gothel kidnap Rapunzel in the movie 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 to live forever, 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.
Throughout the story of Tangled, 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' 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 and enjoys it, 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 favorite 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 just to manipulate her. 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 fatally stab 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."
According to Tangled: The Series, Gothel was also negligent to her biological daughter Cassandra, presumably having been an unintended result of a love affair with an unknown man. At least since Cassandra was four, Gothel often treated her as a glorified maid by forcing her to do all household chores in their cottage by herself, while Gothel spent all her time looking at herself in her mirrors and talking about the compliments she got by men, which further demonstrates her vanity to the point of laziness and apathy. Gothel would leave Cassandra 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 even called her own daughter a pest in private, and finally abandoning Cassandra to escape with the baby princess, not caring about what would happen to her afterwards.
Physical appearance[]
Gothel as an old lady (left side) and Gothel as a young woman (right side).
Using the Golden Flower age-reversing powers, Mother Gothel's youthful appearance is that of a tall, beautiful, slender but voluptuous middle-aged woman with pale-ivory skin, large pale gray eyes, and shoulder-length, curly raven-black hair. To enhance her beauty, she wears makeup that consists of light blush, bronze eyeshadow and glossy lipstick.
Her attire is that of a silky, low-cut, foot-length, gold-trimmed carmine-red Renaissance-era dress with a faintly dappled-pattern, elbow-length sleeves with extended hems, and a belt-sash with a golden buckle. She also wore small, golden pointed earrings, and medium-heeled burgundy boots with carmine laces. Whenever she leaves the tower, she brings a dark green hooded cloak, especially to hide her face when the hair's power is low.
Without the healing effects, Gothel's true age and appearance is that of a very elderly woman, with her skin being heavily sagging and covered in wrinkles and marks, her hair being colored in white and light gray, her nails being thinner and frailer, and her face having several bumps and markings. In her very first scene, she wore a dark blue dress and a red cloak with a yellow lining.
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 gray, 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 gray 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.
Appearances[]
Tangled[]
Mother Gothel as an old woman kidnapping Rapunzel from her parents.
As an elderly woman near the end of her life, Mother Gothel becomes the sole witness of a drop of sunlight falling to Earth, creating a magic golden flower whose healing power allows Gothel to restore her youth and beauty. Determined to keep herself young and beautiful forever, Gothel selfishly hoards the power of the flower while keeping it a secret from the rest of the world. As the centuries pass, a kingdom prospers nearby, and when its queen falls terminally ill during pregnancy, the entire land tries to find the legendary flower to save her. With Gothel being unable to hide it this time, the royal guards find the flower and bring it to the castle, where it is used to heal the queen, who gives birth to a daughter named Rapunzel. Soon after, Gothel sneaks into the castle in the middle of the night and discovers that the healing abilities of the flower were inherited by the newborn princess' hair, but when Gothel cuts off a strand, it loses its magic and turns brown. Desperate, Gothel kidnaps Rapunzel and isolates her in a tower hidden deep in a forest far away from the rest of the kingdom, raising the princess as her own daughter and teaching her the healing incantation. To ensure she keeps her new "magic flower" hidden, Gothel refuses to let Rapunzel out of the tower, lying and telling her that the outside world is a dangerous place where selfish people would try to hurt her and steal her hair to use its power for themselves, while ironically, using the princess for her own desperate need to remain young.
Gothel singing "Mother Knows Best".
Nearly eighteen years later, Rapunzel has grown into an adult, and 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 release to remember their lost daughter), and wants to find out what they are. On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she works up the courage to finally ask Gothel for permission to see the lights in person. Fearing that she may be losing control over her "flower", Gothel reminds Rapunzel of how dangerous the outside world is and uses subtle jabs to undermine her self-esteem and confidence, before firmly ordering her never to ask to leave the tower again; heartbroken, Rapunzel accepts. When Gothel briefly leaves the tower, it is invaded by a wanted thief Flynn Rider, whom Rapunzel manages to knock unconscious and hide in the closet. Upon Gothel's return, Rapunzel pushes her with requests to leave the tower (hoping to to show her Flynn as proof that she can handle herself in the outside world), to which Gothel angrily declares that she will never leave the tower. Rejected, Rapunzel comes up with a plan to send Gothel away and changes the subject to focus on her oncoming birthday, asking Gothel for a new paint as a gift, which will require a three-day journey. Confident that Rapunzel is safe, the initially hesitant Gothel agrees.
Gothel making a deal with the Stabbington Brothers.
While on her way, Gothel encounters a riderless palace horse and fearfully assumes that the royal guards may have found the whereabouts of Rapunzel. She rushes back to the tower, where she discovers that Rapunzel is missing; instead, Gothel finds a satchel with Rapunzel's crown from the kingdom and a wanted poster of Flynn. Realizing that he is somehow involved in Rapunzel's disappearance, Gothel takes a dagger and sets out after Flynn, intending to kill him and reclaim her "flower." She soon finds Flynn and Rapunzel in the Snuggly Duckling tavern, overhearing Rapunzel singing about how happy she is now that she has left the tower. When the royal guards arrive at the tavern to arrest Flynn, Gothel spies him and Rapunzel escaping through a hidden tunnel and threatens one of the thugs with the dagger to find out where it leads. While waiting for Rapunzel and Eugene at the tunnel exit, Gothel comes across the Stabbington Brothers, who are out to get back at Flynn for betraying them and retrieve the crown they stole together. Using this to her advantage, Gothel gives them the crown and manipulates the Stabbingtons into joining her as accomplices in exchange for a bigger treasure (namely Rapunzel's hair) and revenge on Flynn.
Gothel trying to manipulate Rapunzel into going back to the tower.
That night, Gothel finds Rapunzel by a campfire in the woods and confronts her while Flynn goes to get firewood. Gothel reveals that she deducted that Rapunzel had tricked her to leave the tower while she would be away, before trying to take Rapunzel back home. Rapunzel refuses to return to the tower and admits that she has some affection for Flynn, who she believes reciprocates her feelings, but Gothel insists that the only reason Flynn is with her is to get the crown back. Gothel gives Rapunzel the crown and orders her to give it to him as a test of his loyalty, leaving just before Flynn returns. Although Rapunzel stands her ground, Gothel's words are enough to bring doubt into her mind, successfully sparking the plot of the latter. The next evening, while watching the lanterns at the bay, Rapunzel gives Flynn the crown to show that she trusts him; Flynn notices the Stabbington Brothers on the shore and tells Rapunzel to wait while he goes to talk to them. Flynn tries to return the crown to the brothers, but they reveal that they are more interested in Rapunzel now (after learning about the power of her hair from Gothel). The brothers then confront Rapunzel and tell her that Flynn left with the crown, pointing at him sailing away on a boat. Before they can capture Rapunzel, Gothel betrays the brothers and stages a rescue by knocking them out. She leads the heartbroken Rapunzel back to the tower, while Flynn (who was actually knocked out and tied to the boat's mast) is caught by the guards.
Gothel being confronted by Rapunzel.
The next day, 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 gaslighting no longer affects Rapunzel. Angered that Gothel has lied and imprisoned her for 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 mouth.
Mother Gothel shows her old age.
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 stop 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, but not before putting Flynn in chains to prevent him from following her and Rapunzel. However, Flynn, who would rather die than let Rapunzel suffer (and eventually die) from Gothel's slavery, uses the opportunity to cut off all of Rapunzel's hair with a shard of glass at once, 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[]
Gothel's mural in 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.
Tangled: The Series[]
Mother Gothel in 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 ruffians 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. During this state, 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!"
Gothel with her biological daughter, Cassandra
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 own daughter for Rapunzel when Cassandra 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 betray Rapunzel by taking the Moonstone Opal before Rapunzel does, believing that Rapunzel has robbed Cassandra of her mother and her destiny.
A memory of Gothel with Cassandra
In order to prevent Cassandra from making amends with Rapunzel in "A Tale of Two Sisters", Zhan Tiri lies about the princess' knowing that Gothel did in fact love Cassandra before sending her to their old cottage home for her plan to work, along with creating rumors 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 Cassandra against Rapunzel once more. Unknown to them both, another shard of the mirror, which had been flung away, contains the rest of that moment, in which Gothel calls Cassandra a "lousy little pest" and has used 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", after snatching the Moonstone Opal from Cassandra (who depowers back to normal), Zhan Tiri demoralizes and taunts Cassandra by telling her how she was felled by her own ego, just like Gothel, before imprisoning both her and Rapunzel. 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.
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.
In Once Upon a Studio, Gothel is waiting impatiently with Donald Duck, Humphrey the Bear, J. Audubon Woodlore, Terk, and Carl the Robot as Flash takes his sweet time heading for the elevator. After he makes it, Baymax squeezes in, to Donald's annoyance. She joins in the picture along with the rest of Disney characters.
Printed media[]
Ghost of Christmas Past[]
Mother Gothel appeared in illustrated flashbacks in the Christmas-centered story taking place after the events of the film. It's revealed Mother Gothel spent every Christmas season telling scary stories and using the holiday as a way of keeping Rapunzel from the world outside the tower. According to Rapunzel, she would sing and chant eerie "Christmas tunes" nonstop and told tales of Nicholas, a mythical man who (as the tale goes) would creep into the rooms of children on Christmas Eve to kidnap them. The traumatic stories would continue through Rapunzel's teenage years and stayed with the princess even after leaving the tower, as the story focuses on Eugene attempting to subdue Rapunzel's hatred for the holiday by showing her a real Christmas.
Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch[]
Mother Gothel is the central character in the fifth novel in the Disney Villains series by Serena Valentino. She lived in the Dead Woods with her two sisters Hazel and Primrose, and her mother Manea. She also has a history with The Odd Sisters.
Video games[]
Disney Magic Kingdoms[]
Mother Gothel appears in the mobile app game and was released with the Sleeping Beauty Update on May 6, 2016.
Kingdom Hearts III[]
Gothel appears in the third installment of the Kingdom Hearts series, as an antagonist in her homeworld "Kingdom of Corona". Her role is largely the same as it was in the film with a few minor changes; upon returning to the tower to look for Rapunzel and eventually finding the satchel with the crown and Flynn's poster, Organization XIII member Marluxia appears and offers to help return Rapunzel to Gothel, causing her eyes to glow pink.
Some time afterward, while tracking Rapunzel down, she finds Sora, Donald, and Goofy walking around in the swamp and remarking on Marluxia, whom they had just met. Gothel watches for a few moments before dismissing the conversation as unimportant but becomes interested when Sora calls out for Rapunzel and Flynn. With her best impression of a concerned and loving mother, Gothel presents herself and asks if they knew where she was. Donald and Goofy admit that they lost her and Sora offers to look together with Gothel. At this, her demeanor grows cold and she dismisses their help as useless, vowing to find her alone and departs.
Much later, Gothel "strikes down" a pair of Marluxia's Reaper Nobodies that were going after Rapunzel before persuading her back to the tower. Rapunzel soon realizes her origins and that Gothel had been using her. Seeing that Rapunzel was no longer susceptible to her, Gothel resolves to more drastic measures, as darkness emanates from her. Flynn goes to Rapunzel's rescue, but once he enters the tower, Gothel stabs him. Rapunzel promises to stay with Gothel forever if she's allowed to heal him. Gothel bitterly relents, chaining Flynn to prevent him from following them once he's healed. The only other noteworthy change is that after Rapunzel's hair is cut by Flynn, and Gothel ages into dust after falling out of the tower window, Marluxia observes from a distance, stating that she had given in to darkness and they couldn't allow her near Rapunzel's pure heart anymore. He subsequently turns her remains into a tree-like Heartless called the Grim Guardianess, which he leaves Sora, Donald, and Goofy to fight and destroy.
Disney Dreamlight Valley[]
Mother Gothel appears in the game as a resident of Dreamlight Valley. She lives in the Giant Willow located in the Glade of Trust. She was cursed by the Valley's Old Ruler and trapped inside for using dark magic. She explains that she was making a curse that would keep someone locked away "safe and sound." However, when the Player opens the door, her dark magic is unleashed on the whole Village. To fix it, the Player has to restore the Orb of Trust and have Ursula cast the spell to allow the Player to get the Orb, as she is the only one who can do it. The Player then has Kristoff sacrifice his memories to make the spell work. After restoring the Orb of Trust to its Pillar and breaking the curse, the Player talks to Gothel.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode[]
Mother Gothel appears in the game as a playable Damage-Healing team hero, she can summon the Stabbington brothers and heal herself and steal energy from enemies with her passive-aggressive insults, she has a friendship with Ursula and Disgust. Gothel also has friendship campaign with Chernabog.
Disney Parks[]
Mother Gothel in the Tangled musical aboard the Disney Magic.
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.
In 2022, Gothel was among the villains available for meet-and-greets during Oogie Boogie Bash, debuting alongside Madam Mim, Ernesto de la Cruz, and Bruno Madrigal.
Walt Disney World[]
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 centering 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.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- According to the makers of Tangled, Mother Gothel's dress is inspired by the fashion of the Renaissance, 400 years older than the rest of the sets and costume in the film, which were instead inspired by the 1780s. This is meant to emphasize Gothel's immense age. Interestingly, when Rapunzel's hair is cut off and she experiences the centuries of ageing she'd avoided within seconds, all that's left behind is her cloak, implying her dress was just as old and she had been using Rapunzel's hair magic to keep it together.
- In addition, the directors of the film stated that Mother Gothel is designed to be the opposite of Rapunzel, thus explaining her curly black hair, dull gray eyes, and dark red dress; the opposite of Rapunzel's straight gold (really brown) hair, bright green eyes, and light purple dress.
- Apart from the opening narration where her name is only mentioned in that scene, Mother Gothel is never referred to or addressed by her name throughout the rest of the film.
- In the film's junior novelization, it is implied that Gothel initially broke into the royal castle after Rapunzel was born to kill her in revenge for King Frederic and Queen Arianna taking away the Sundrop Flower, but reconsidered upon realizing that Rapunzel's hair may have retained the healing power of the flower.
- When Disney premiered Tangled on Disney Channel, Mother Gothel's cleavage was censored, even though it wasn't fully shown too much.
- In Sofia the First, Mother Gothel is alluded to in the episode "The Curse of Princess Ivy", being compared to the eponymous villain by Rapunzel. Though her name was not mentioned, Rapunzel referred to her as an "evil woman pretending to be her mother".
- The fact that Mother Gothel only cares about the power of Rapunzel's hair, and not Rapunzel herself, is demonstrated in almost every scene in which she appears with her.
- By referring to Rapunzel as 'Flower', rather than her name.
- By always stroking or checking her hair every time they embrace.
- By immediately removing Rapunzel's braid when they return to the tower so that she can use it at the expense of making life more difficult for Rapunzel (the braid allowed Rapunzel to move more freely, for having such long hair might have hindered her movement).
- Vanity is a recurring theme around Gothel, as shown by her constantly checking and admiring her reflection in the mirror which she later breaks. This vanity is ultimately her downfall in more ways than one; breaking a mirror is thought to bring bad luck (typically for 7 years); when Flynn uses a shard of the mirror to cut Rapunzel's hair and Gothel is beheld the sight of her aging in the broken mirror, this causes her to fall to her death when she isn't looking where she's going, as she hides her face in her cloak and Pascal trips her with the cut hair.
- In the Grimms' fairy tale on which Tangled is based, she is called Dame Gothel ("Frau Gothel") instead of Mother Gothel ("Mutter Gothel"). ("Gothel" is, in fact, not a personal name at all, but an old-fashioned occupational word meaning "nurse" or "foster mother," which the Grimms added to increase the old-time German atmosphere of the story.) She owns a beautiful garden next to the home of Rapunzel's parents, who are just ordinary people instead of royalty.
- In the Grimms' first version (1812) she is called a "fairy" ("Fee"), as she had been in the Grimms' source for the tale, but in subsequent versions (1819-1857) she is called a "sorceress" ("Zauberin"). When Rapunzel's mother becomes pregnant, she longs for the herb Rapunzel ("rampion" or "bellflower") that grows in Gothel's garden, becoming ill and telling her husband that she will die if she never has a taste, so Rapunzel's father makes two attempts to sneak into the garden to get the herb for his wife. On his second attempt Gothel catches him, but she agrees to let him takes the herb if he promises to give her their baby. He agrees and soon after their daughter is born, the sorceress takes her away and raises her as her own, naming her "Rapunzel" after the herb that was stolen from her garden.
- When Rapunzel is twelve she locks her in the tall tower in the forest and visits her every day with food, climbing the tower by Rapunzel's long hair. Later in the story, she finds out that Rapunzel has been seeing a man behind her back. (In the 1812 version, this occurs when Rapunzel lets slip that she is pregnant by asking why her clothes have become so tight around the middle; however, the Grimms' later bowdlerized versions say that Rapunzel unthinkingly asks why Gothel takes longer to climb up to the tower than the prince.) Outraged, the sorceress cuts off Rapunzel's hair and banishes her to a faraway wilderness to fend for herself.
- When the Prince arrives, she hangs Rapunzel's hair on a hook and tosses it down for the Prince to climb. She then tells him that Rapunzel is gone, and he will never see her again before causing him to fall out of the window into brambles that scratch his eyes and blind him. Fortunately, Rapunzel and the healed Prince are reunited and live happily ever after. She is never seen again after this, but some versions say that she stayed trapped in the tower and died of a lonely bitter heart as the hair fell from it when she pushed out the Prince.
- In the Grimms' source for the story, Friedrich Schulz's Little Romances (Kleine Romane, 1790), the Gothel character is a kindly fairy who encloses Rapunzel in a richly furnished silver tower only because she foresees that some evil threatens the child; after the blind prince finds Rapunzel and their twin children in the wilderness, she finally decides they have suffered enough for their sins and personally transports all four back to the prince's father's kingdom in her flying carriage.
- When the Prince arrives, she hangs Rapunzel's hair on a hook and tosses it down for the Prince to climb. She then tells him that Rapunzel is gone, and he will never see her again before causing him to fall out of the window into brambles that scratch his eyes and blind him. Fortunately, Rapunzel and the healed Prince are reunited and live happily ever after. She is never seen again after this, but some versions say that she stayed trapped in the tower and died of a lonely bitter heart as the hair fell from it when she pushed out the Prince.
- When Rapunzel is twelve she locks her in the tall tower in the forest and visits her every day with food, climbing the tower by Rapunzel's long hair. Later in the story, she finds out that Rapunzel has been seeing a man behind her back. (In the 1812 version, this occurs when Rapunzel lets slip that she is pregnant by asking why her clothes have become so tight around the middle; however, the Grimms' later bowdlerized versions say that Rapunzel unthinkingly asks why Gothel takes longer to climb up to the tower than the prince.) Outraged, the sorceress cuts off Rapunzel's hair and banishes her to a faraway wilderness to fend for herself.
- In the Grimms' first version (1812) she is called a "fairy" ("Fee"), as she had been in the Grimms' source for the tale, but in subsequent versions (1819-1857) she is called a "sorceress" ("Zauberin"). When Rapunzel's mother becomes pregnant, she longs for the herb Rapunzel ("rampion" or "bellflower") that grows in Gothel's garden, becoming ill and telling her husband that she will die if she never has a taste, so Rapunzel's father makes two attempts to sneak into the garden to get the herb for his wife. On his second attempt Gothel catches him, but she agrees to let him takes the herb if he promises to give her their baby. He agrees and soon after their daughter is born, the sorceress takes her away and raises her as her own, naming her "Rapunzel" after the herb that was stolen from her garden.
- Gothel bears similarities to Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, seeing as Frollo attempted to keep Quasimodo inside by claiming the world is a cruel and dark place, while putting on a kind and caring personality to hide his own dark self. However, it should be noted that, while Gothel simply lied to Rapunzel out of her own misanthropy, that the world is cruel and dark, Frollo genuinely believed that the world, aside from himself, was indeed cruel.
- These similarities were acknowledged by Alan Menken (composer/co-songwriter of both Tangled and The Hunchback of Notre Dame).[1]
The silhouette of Gothel (on the far left) among the disciples of Lord Demanitus.
- In Tangled: The Series, it is heavily implied that Gothel was one of the followers of Zhan Tiri (alongside with Sugracha the Eternal and Tromus), who betrayed their original master, Lord Demanitus. Although the idea was never fully elaborated in the series itself, the show's director Chris Sonnenburg confirmed it in an interview.[2]
- In "Lost and Found", when Demanitus tells Rapunzel and Eugene his backstory and about his disciples, there are three silhouettes seen, with two of them obviously being Sugracha and Tromus, while the third one bears a strong resemblance to Gothel. Donna Murphy (Gothel's voice actress) was listed in the credits of that episode as well.
- In "A Tale of Two Sisters", when Cassandra and Rapunzel discover the secret room under Gothel's old cottage, they find her notes on the Sun Drop, the healing incantation and the Moonstone, that appears to be a copy of Demanitus's scroll, indicating Gothel's background as his former pupil. Also, in the same episode, when one of Gothel's chemicals accidentally catches fire, the flames (and chemical itself) have the same sickly green color, that is associated with Zhan Tiri and her followers.
- While Gothel's age is never explicitly stated, it is hinted in the series that she is at least 1,000 years old, as she is depicted as a pupil of Lord Demanitus, who lived 1,000 years prior to the events of the show.
- Gothel's voice actress, Donna Murphy, was born in the Corona neighborhood within Queens, New York City, New York, U.S..
- Gothel's ultimate demise is pretty ironic, since for locking Rapunzel up inside the tower for years just for the healing powers, she herself went outside of it after Pascal trips her with the princess' long cut hair just as she was rapidly aging to death.
See also[]
References[]
External links[]
Mother Gothel on Wikipedia
Mother Gothel on Villains Wiki- Mother Gothel on Kingdom Hearts Wiki
Mother Gothel on Tangled Wiki- Mother Gothel on Disney Heroes: Battle Mode Wiki
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