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meechatuck · 1 year

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More Hector stuff, are you even surprised?

So this is a HectorxReader fic. I’ve had the idea for literally over a year now and have never had the motivation to write it...until I read a ScroogexReader fic. Yes I am on the Netflix Scrooge is a GILF train, no shame. (His VA is dreamboat Luke Evans.)

Anyways, I laugh that this was supposed to be a cutesy fic and not too long. It ended up being a little over 4k words and on the NSFW side (nothing explicit, but very suggestive!). Yet when I try and make something NSFW it turns into cutesy fluff. I see an unfortunate pattern emerging.

So here you are. A HectorxReader fic. Never written one of these before and I think I managed to make it gender neutral. I guess let me know! I would rate it as mature as it’s pretty suggestive and there's sexual tension, and some hot kissing. I do plan on posting this to my AO3 eventually.

Hector x Reader Fic: Measuring Up

4K words

Rated: Mature for suggestive sexual situations, sexual tension, making out.

As one of the head tailor’s children, you are expected to help out with any and all matters of dressing the King & Brotherhood of the Dark Kingdom, even getting the lost measurements of the dubious, but attractive Hector.

____________________________________________________

Your nerves were shot. You couldn’t believe that your father was having you do this, but secretly you had dreamt of this. Since moving to the Dark Kingdom you had wondered what the people here would be like, especially the members of the Brotherhood. They were legendary.

Quirin was a tank of a man. Stout, strong, and, surprisingly, one of the sweetest people you had ever met in your life. His fierceness came out when training with the guards and other Brotherhood members, which was easily seen, but outside of that you had seen him help the locals with their gardens and discuss different planting strategies with the farmers (who knew that was even a thing!). The best was seeing his love for his quirky son Varian. He was a giant softie under that stoic exterior.

Adira. Oh Adira. She was a gorgeous and deadly woman. And she knew it. You couldn’t even count the number of times she had thrown her opponents across the training ring. The only thing that outmatched that woman’s strength was her confidence in herself. Adira could level any opponent, even Quirin and King Edmund, and come out with hardly a scratch on herself.

They were both amazing warriors, but one member of the Brotherhood had caught your eye. And dammit he always seemed to be right there, in the corner of your periphery. And if he wasn’t there, he was in your thoughts. The wild gleam in his green eyes looking right at you. His swaggered gait, surely from years of injuries and fighting.

“Don’t forget to write down the measurements! And don’t lose them!” your father called out as you made your way to the stairs.

“Got it!” you answered, realizing that you were going to his quarters. Hector.

In the last few days, there were preparations being made for a certain Brotherhood ceremony that was a tradition since its creation. Their usual ceremonial outfits had long since degraded into nothing but rags, due to sitting around here in the castle for twenty-five years. Your father was the head tailor for King Edmund, who requested your father to make new outfits. Everything had been straightforward and going smoothly, until it was discovered that Hector’s measurements had been lost.

You had seen your father lose his temper before, but this caused him to have a conniption fit. Luckily, you hadn’t been the one to take the measurements. You knew how and had done it plenty of times, but your father had entrusted it to your older and very single sister, who had no idea where the paper had gone. In the heat of their discussion, you were there in the room, sorting and cutting fabric when he suggested that you get the measurements. At first, you smugly accepted, seeing the furious look on your sister’s face made it all worthwhile. But now, as you ascended the stairs to the floor where Hector’s room was, you suddenly felt ill.

It crossed your mind to go back and see if someone else could do it, but giving your sister that satisfaction was out of the question. You had to do this. Not only to prove that you could be trusted with things like this, but you had been dying to talk to Hector alone for weeks. It wasn’t like he didn’t know who you were, but there hadn’t been many times to have much personal discussions. Or any kind of a discussion other than small talk and fixing clothing. He was gone from the castle a great deal; hunting, training, gathering intel, taking out rogue bandit groups, other things like that. Several times when he came to have something of his patched you would leap up and get to him first. Those conversations were quick, but oh so enjoyable. The only unfortunate thing was that a family member was usually around, so you would keep any flirting to a minimum to avoid being found out and teased.

But this was your golden opportunity. Your shining moment. You would have uninterrupted time alone with him in his quarters.

Your stomach churned uncomfortably and you swallowed down an inkling of heaving. You could do this. It was just flirting. You’d done it before. Whether or not it had been successful was another question, but still! You could do this! It was your one and only shot to show him your professional tailoring skills as well as show him your interest.

Suddenly his door was in front of you. Trying to control your uneven breathing, you adjusted the small bag of supplies in your hands and knocked firmly on the door. The seconds it took to finally open felt like centuries.

The door opened, revealing his piercing green eyes, “Uh you’re the tailor’s kid right?” He tapped the door for a moment in thought, “Y/n?”

“Y-yeah,” you stuttered and bit your bottom lip, trying to keep yourself calm. “I’m here to get your measurements again, they were lost somehow. I apologize if it is an inconvenient time. I can come back tomorrow morning if that suits you better.”

“Nah, now’s fine,” Hector waved, opening the door more. “Come in.” You stepped into his room and he closed the door behind you. “I needa change right?”

You glanced him up and down and nodded, “Yes that would be best. Something more form fitting will allow me to get more accurate measurements.”

“Alright,” he drawled and walked to the other side of the room. “Do ya mind turnin’ ‘round?”

Your quizzical look rapidly changed to embarrassment as he started to tug the tunic he was wearing up and off his body. “My apologies!” You spun around, hoping he hadn’t seen the heat creeping into your cheeks.

After an awkward wait, he told you he was ready. You turned to see him standing in front of his fireplace in a black, form fitted jumpsuit of sorts. All the saliva in your mouth seemed to dry up as you looked him over. You tried to tell yourself it was for tailor purposes, but the way your eyes lingered over his form said otherwise.

“Uh yes, let’s get started!” You stated stepping over to him. The bag you brought was carefully emptied onto the small side table in front of him. You unrolled your tape measure and laid it across the back of your neck and let the ends dangle down by your hips. You placed your small sewing book and a stick of graphite on the table and flipped the book to a blank page. Turning to face him, you took a deep breath preparing yourself. Measuring someone for their clothing was routine for you and you were going to try your damndest to keep it that way. You wouldn’t let your mind get carried away, even though it had in the past in your daydreams.

You started at the neck line, asking him to stand in his normal stance. You closed the space between the two of you, getting close enough to wrap the tape measure around his neck.

“Feels a lil dangerous with ya doin’ that,” he playfully commented. You raised your gaze to his, seeing him looking right at you.

You tried to focus on getting enough air into your lungs so you could reply, “I uh, can see why you’d think that.” A short laugh followed your statement as your brain scrambled for what to say next. “But you don’t have much to worry about with me, I’m only dangerous with scissors.” You felt your face heat at your ridiculous reply.

Hector chuckled and you felt your blush spread to your neck. Trying to recover, you focused on your tape measure, making sure that it was sitting in the right places before tightening it slightly. The dim lighting from the fireplace illuminated him from behind, making the markings on the tape almost impossible to decipher. Moving your face just inches from the tape measure, you could finally read it when you realized your face was also inches from his neck. The gentle rise and fall of his chest seemed to quicken and you swiftly stepped back. “Got it, 13 1/2 inches.”

After the measurement was written down, you moved to the next one: the chest. Hector stood close to the fireplace, close enough that circling around him would cause him to need to move. You knew it was best if he stood still, to ensure the tape stayed level. “I need to measure the chest next,” your words came out a little shakier than you wanted. “I’ll have you hold your arms up a bit so I can get the tape around you.”

Hector obeyed and you reached both arms behind him to exchange the tape between your hands. His woodsy scent filled your nose as you stood close to him. You hesitated to pull back, basking in the warmth that radiated off him. Or was it from the fire? If you encircled your arms you could pull him close in a tight embrace. The thought caused you to stiffen and jerk back, the tape almost slipping from your grip. You thought you saw a smirk play on his lips, but kept your gaze down at your tape measure, the only thing grounding you. Your fingertips brushed his chest. He wasn’t well-muscled like Quirin or Adira, but perfectly toned beneath your light touch. It was one of the things you admired about him. He favored the speed of attack over brute force. A certain memory surfaced, one of him showing off his acrobatic abilities when training some of the recruits. The way he could move his body and flip through the air. That mischievous smirk on his face.

“I ain’t a tailor or nuthin’,” Hector’s drawl pulled you from your thoughts. Your eyes found his hooded-and possibly sultry?-gaze. “But that might be a bit tight there.”

You saw that the tape was indenting into his skin, “Oh, yes. S-sorry.” You loosened it and leveled the tape back out, one of your hands pressing it down as subtly as possible. He swayed forward and your hand was feeling his firm pectoral. The heat in your face and neck traveled down into your gut, making your mind run wild.

“No problem.”

Your brain barely processed the numbers on the tape measure and you recorded them in the book. “Next is your sleeve measurement-” you paused, worried that you were annoying him with your narration of the process. “Sorry, you probably don’t need to hear me explain every detail of what I’m doing to you.”

He leaned in, his face close enough you could see a faint scar near his upper lip. You had never noticed it before. “I don’ mind it.” His eyes flicked to your lips, then back to your eyes. “I don’ mind it at all.”

You swore his eyes seemed to burn with some kind of desire, but your mind asked how that could be. Another part of you worried that you were just imagining it. You managed to squeak out an okay before asking him to turn around. You gently pressed the end of the tape at the middle of his back, between his shoulders, and pulled it to the curve of his shoulder. Your first and second finger held it in place, then pulled the rest of the tape measure down to his wrist. You wrapped your middle finger and thumb around the tape, securing it, as you lifted his arm up to see the number. Mentally noting it, you could have sworn you felt his pulse and that it was at a racing speed. As you wrote down the measurement, you started to wonder if this was a bad idea. You were so distracted and he seemed to be acting strangely. There was no way that he was interested in you like that, you had to be making him uncomfortable. But then why did his eyes look so alluring? Or was that just how his eyes were?

Taking a deep calming breath, you decided to get through this as quickly as possible. For both your sakes.

You breezed through the next few measurements. Waist? Check. Width of the hips? Check. Waist to hips? Check. Thigh, knee, calf, and ankle? Check.

As you wrote the last few down, you realized the next few minutes might be your undoing. Crotch measurements and inseam. You decided, for your own mental sanity, to have him help you with the crotch measurements.

“Please hold this here,” you instructed, holding the end of the tape on his stomach at his waist. You squatted down and exchanged the tape at his knees, nowhere near his crotch. Bringing it up from behind, you brought it up to his waist line. The tape measure fell in the front and Hector managed to snatch it before it hit the ground.

“Ah shit,” Hector mumbled.

“It’s fine,” you offered. “Just put it back at the waistline.”

“Where?”

You held the tape in place on his back and moved to stand at his side. “Right here,” you explained, faintly touching the spot.

“Kay.” His smooth voice suddenly took on an enticing tone. You realized his arm was brushing against your chest. Then, his hand rested over yours. “Like that?” The air was almost sickly warm, humid. You could feel his exhaled breath on your cheek.

“Y-yeah.”

Hector moved, enough that you weren’t touching, but he was still so tantalizingly close. Wading through the fog in your brain, you remembered that you were taking measurements. Your movements were sluggish, getting back behind him to see what number the tape was at. You released the tape measure once you had the number, two could play at this game. As you stepped in front of him, your hand brushed his hip and down below his navel.

“Thanks for the help,” you breathed with a smile and grasped the tape measure. As you slowly turned, you let your hand brush back over his lower abdomen, and recorded the measurement.

Straightening your posture and turning back to face him, you saw he was looking away and covering his mouth. A streak of apprehension went through you. “This is the last measurement, then I can leave.”

“The leg one?”

“Uh yes,” You answered, noticing his averted eyes.

“Kay.”

You proceed carefully, unsure if you had been to forward with the flirtatious touching just moments ago. But if it was too much wouldn’t he say so? Hector was not someone to hold back from speaking his mind. As your knees touched the floor, you glanced at the current inseam of his outfit and bit your lip. It was a very fitted outfit and, of course, it was at your eye level. The tailor part of your brain finally wriggled forward, “Do you have a preference on where your inseam meets?”

Hector took a moment to answer, almost like he was distracted, “What?”

Grimacing, you tried to think of the best way to reword the question. Straightforward was best, but not the most tactful. “Where would you like the crotch of your pants to be? Usually it isn’t as tight as your uh current clothing.”

You were grateful to at least be down below him, so he couldn’t see you blushing furiously. He was quiet for a time, making you worry about this whole encounter and think that your father should have come himself. If this all was completely unwanted, what would Hector say to others about your family and how they raised you?

“I dunno. Whatever ya think would be best. Yer the tailor right?” he finally broke the silence.

“The inseam is usually an inch or so below where it is now,” you explained,then started running the tape measure up his leg. Halfway up, you realized that your hand was practically stroking his leg, but you had to hold enough pressure to keep the tape in place. You felt him shiver at your touch and tried to focus, hoping it was a good expression of his current state.

Looking over the tape to ensure it was properly placed, you mentally noted the number and pulled your hands from him. You let out a small sigh of relief, finally finished with this task that should not have been this difficult. As you moved to stand, your gaze went up to find Hector staring at you, freezing you to that spot. His green irises were hardly visible, his pupils dilated wide with some kind of animalistic lust. It made your insides twist pleasurably. Heat bloomed from deep down, as you realized the debauchery of your current position.

On your knees.

Looking up at him.

Your face at the perfect height that if you were to lean forward…

You didn’t let yourself finish that thought.

You just continued to stare back at him, your gazes locked together. You could see his chest begin to rise and fall faster, his cheeks and the bridge of his nose ruddy in color. A part of you was screaming to break eye contact, telling you this was too much. Then, there was that other part of you, telling you to keep that eye contact and to act out the fantasy you were sure he was thinking of.

A hand gently caressed your cheek, startling you, but not breaking your gaze. Hector’s mouth opened into a crooked smile, showing off his sharp canine. “Ya look good down there.”

Your prudish half won out.

Quickly rolling back onto the balls of your feet, you stood tall and felt dizzy. The blood rushing throughout your body thundered in your ears.. Hector's eyes softened, but you turned around before you could see anything else. You wrote down the measurement that you could barely remember and took several deep breaths.

"O-okay, that should be everything I need," you announced, your back still to him. "I hope I haven't inconvenienced you." Your shaky hands started gathering the things on the small table, placing them into your bag.

"Trust me, ya didn't," Hector's voice was steady and firm. Light footsteps came from behind and you could sense he was standing right behind you. "'Sides, I think ya missed a measurement."

Your nerves were already a mess and that statement made it worse. You knew how distracted you had been, but to be so distracted that he could notice that you missed something? You must look absolutely pathetic to him.

Wrapping your tape measure back around your neck, you turned, facing him, "What did I-" You didn't get a chance to finish.

Several things happened in a short period of time, once you had turned to face him. Hector's face was in a smug smirk, his eyes trained on your tape measure. He grabbed it together in one hand, just below your collarbone, and used it to tug you towards him.

Your lips collided together in a rough and desperate kiss. Before you could process that this was really happening, your mouth acted for you, melding into his. A strong hand gripped your lower back, holding you against his lean form. It wasn't needed, there was nothing that could pull you away from him right now. Your hands made their way up to the sides of his face. One holding his cheek and the other snaking into his hair.

Hector groaned softly, emboldening your tongue to slowly and sensually swipe across his bottom lip. A growl vibrated through his lips and your tongue pulled back, only for his teeth to rake across your upper lip. To your embarrassment, a whimper escaped, causing his bite to lessen and then let go altogether.

Your eyes locked with one another, puffing breathes the only thing between you. Hector looked guarded now, unsure of how to proceed. You helped him decide, pressing your lips back onto his, your tongue searching for his. He gladly let you explore.

The door to his room swung open loudly. A familiar, feminine voice called out, "Okay, I'm done babysitting your children Hec-" Adira stopped mid-word, seeing you two intertwined together. Even the bear cats stopped and stared for a moment, unsure who this new person was.

There was an audible noise when you pulled away from Hector, who acted like Adira walking in wasn't a reason to stop. You looked away, fidgeting with your tape measure, hoping the heat in your face wasn't visible to either of them.

"Perfect timing as always," Hector muttered. “Thanks.”

"Ah, well here are your children back Hector." The teasing lilt in Adira's voice was palpable. "Let me know if you need me to take them on a walk again so can-what was it again? Rest up?"

"Thank you Adira. That'll be all,” he growled.

"Alright! Don't get too worked up now, that's their job," Adira nodded her head in your direction. Before Hector could throw another threat, she let out a quick laugh and closed the door.

"Finally," he grumbled and grasped your face, pulling you into a tender kiss. It only lasted a few moments, before he rested his forehead on yours, kissing the bridge of your nose. “Been wantin’ to do that for awhile now.”

“Really?”

“Course, why’d you think I went to your family to fix my clothes?” Hector asked sincerely, a blush spreading on his cheeks. “Been patchin’ my own clothes since I went to the Great Tree.” Your heart was fluttering in your chest at his confession. He fingered the tape measure around your neck, reminding you why you came here in the first place.

You let out a disappointed groan, "I probably should be going. My father needs these measurements as soon as possible."

"Yer probably right," Hector mumbled, brushing the side of your face. "I'll just have ta have you measure me for more clothes or sumthin'." You gave him a genuine smile and nodded. He cocked a brow at you, "Ya can even measure both my wrists. Together. An above my head." Heat stirred deep inside you at the picture that conjured in your mind. "If ya ever feel like it." Hector added on, kissing your cheek with a smirk.

As he pulled away you caught his lips again, this kiss much less chaste than the last. His hands cupped your face and you felt your tape measure slip from your shoulders. Ignoring it, you kissed for several more minutes, swallowing each other's soft moans and gasps. His hands ran down to your shoulder, then your side, continuing down to your hips where he grasped you roughly.

Hector broke the kiss, resting his cheek on yours, his voice strained, "Ya better go. Don't wanna worry your family."

The thought crossed your mind that your family wasn't actually his main concern. Nonetheless, you knew he was right. If you were gone too long, your father would send your sister to find you. And you really didn't want that.

"You're right," you sighed, wishing you could stay longer. You knelt down to grab your tape measure when something caught your eye. A piece of paper, crumpled into a ball, laying by the fireplace. A part of it was burnt. You grabbed it to toss it into the flames when you caught a glimpse of the familiar handwriting. Standing with the paper in hand, you opened it up and read what was on it. Your amused gaze lifted and met Hector's, his eyes wide.

"This is the paper my sister recorded your measurements on," you stated, playfully tilting your head. "How did it end up there?"

As you watched Hector avert his eyes and rub the back of his neck, something nudged your legs. You looked down to see his bear cats sniffing at you.

"Well…ya know," he stalled, looking all around the room. You soon realized he was trying not to babble.

You crumpled the paper back into a ball and tossed it into the fire. “There’s easier ways to get me alone you know. I’d really prefer the ones that don’t involve almost giving my father a heart attack.”

Hector looked from the fireplace to you and smiled. He pulled you into his arms quietly chuckling, “And where’s the fun in that?” You both came together for one last gentle kiss before leaving, but you’d be back again. And soon.

#tts hector #hector x reader #tangled the series #hector tangled the series #NSFW-ish #suggestive #tts brotherhood #glad i finally got this written #only took another characterxreader fic for me to FINALLY do it!#pretty happy with it though tbh #love me a sneaky Hector

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stellarcat52 · 3 years

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So... I finally got around to starting Tangled the series, and now I’m crying because of a song.

#I you respond please no spoilers!!#Varian’s VA is amazing #I think Varian finally realized that people don’t respect him as much as he deserves #and now he’s realized that he won’t get what he wants by asking for it.#tts #tangled the series #VARIAN #MY BOI

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fandom-will-be-my-fall · 4 years

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Varian’s little “oh, come on” when the realization hits that he has to climb that high up to the black rock is... a complete and utter mood

#varian #I love his VA's voice #he puts so much emotion in his lines like................amazing

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rachelbethhines · 3 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - Short Cuts

So the reviews for Rapunzel’s Return are taking longer then expected and due to real life complications I’ve now fallen behind in my intended schedule. So in order to catch up, I’ll be doing a series of rapid-fire mini reviews of all the official shorts that the series released in addition to the usual reviews.

Summary: Ten shorts were released throughout the three seasons of the show detailing Rapunzel’s misadventures in Corona.

Check Mate

Pascal tries to get Max to play chess with him, but the horse is too busy with guard duty to play. Pascal’s antics wind up causing a fire and Max must save him.

This short, plus the later Unicorn-y short, and the episode Pascal’s Story pretty much confirms that chess is pascal’s favorite game. Shame that’s the only idiosyncrasy that the series gives besides being the conscious of the group that sometimes gives the other characters guilty looks.

I said it before and I’ll say again, the animal sidekicks in the franchise don’t have enough personality to carry whole episodes by themselves, but shorts like this are ok and where things like this should have stayed.

Prison Bake

Attila recounts how he used his baking skills to break his fellow pub thugs out of prison back before they met Rapunzel.

This just raises so many questions. Why were they arrested? What was their punishment besides jail? Why weren’t they just re-arrested later after escaping? If they were all wanted criminals before meeting Raps then why did they try to call the guards during the movie to collect the reward money on Eugene’s head? Do we really think “crack-down on crime” Frederic would pardon them before Rapunzel’s return? How do we know they weren’t just framed given how shitty Corona’s legal system is?

Like I just need a tiny bit more context show. Two to three minutes isn’t really long enough to set up conflicts. These shorts should have been more like five or six minutes really.

Also Ludwig the Castle Cook is also just wasted. They built a model for him and hired a VA and everything and all he does is appear in this one short and nothing else. Like I think he makes a non-speaking cameo in The Alchemist Returns or something, but that’s it. It’s a clear mismanagement of resources.

Make Me Smile

Rapunzel tries unsuccessfully to make Old Lady Crowley smile, but it’s not until she holds an honest conversation with the woman does she find a solution.

This is best short out of the bunch, and not just cause it stars the great Pat Carol either.

This is how Rapunzel should have been handled in the main series proper. Which is why I screen-grabbed this whole convo. It’s perfect.

Rapunzel spent 18 years lock in a tower. Of course she doesn’t understand different perspectives from her own cause her development has been stunted. She’s compassionate but lacks empathy. So she has a hard time connecting with others, but once she slows down an actually takes the time to listen to people she is capable of learning.

We needed more of this; just on a larger scale. Have Raps make mistakes, have people be annoyed with her or right angry when she messes up, and then have her learn.

Why the series thought it was a good idea to have everyone kiss her royal arse instead while she dug in her heels and consendinly took charge of everything even while still screwing up, I’ll never know.

Hare Peace

Feldspar asks Rapunzel to take care of his “precious”. Rapunzel thinks he means a pet rabbit, and is run ragged trying to keep up with it, but it turns out he was talking about his prized cabbage instead.

These shorts overall work a lot better than the main show. They know what they are and don’t try to be anything else. Therefore they deliver what is promised competently. They’re nothing amazing nor groundbreaking and in truth I wouldn’t want a whole series of them, but I get the feeling this is what the head executives at Disney were expecting when they signed off on the show and not whatever mess the main series turned out to be.

Night Bite

Rapunzel, Eugene, and the animals are out camping for the night and Max gets irritated by all the bugs.

What doesn’t work so well is the placement of some of the shorts. This particular short aired during season two and indeed that would make sense given that they are camping out here. Which why would they do that if they were still in Corona...

Yet some of the later shorts, which also aired during season two, clearly do take place in Corona debunking that theory. Just some context would be nice show, that’s all.

Also this short is meh.. not bad, not, good, just there.

Hiccup Fever

Rapunzel gets the hiccups and everyone in Corona seems to have advice on how to get rid of them, but only Eugene has the solution.

I’d argue that this is the funniest of the shorts. I legit laughed out loud at some points which is rare.

However it does sadly prove on thing.

Rapunzel was always a shit girlfriend, even before season three.

Being a douche to your boyfriend isn’t funny show.

Snowball

Rapunzel and Pascal plan to have some fun in the snow and things go awry.

So where and when is this exactly?

Unlike the other shorts, the context and setting for this one is paramount to whether or not Rapunzel is a simply lazy or a an outright dick.

For you see, Rapunzel had never been outside in the show before Queen for a Day. Ergo, this can only take place during the latter half of season one or during season two.

Now season two makes a lot of sense. They’re at some cabin in the woods that was never mentioned are seen on screen before and this did air during season two anyways. If that is the case then Raps just avoiding her planned road trip like always.

However, the last short and the next two also aired during season two and all of those do take place in Corona during season one and even the wiki states that they were all meant to take place during season one in original concept.

Yet if that is the case then Rapunzel is ignoring Varian right now and playing around in the thing that almost killed him...

Oh and that still doesn’t explain where this cabin is. Is it the mountain retreat that the King and Queen were going to spend their anniversary at?

What’s really mind boggling though is that they made this short in order to reuse the character models from Queen for a Day in order to save money, but then went and built this whole set that’s never seen outside of this short.

Like seriously who was on charge of the budget decisions in the series?

Hairdon't

Rapunzel offers to cut Eugene’s hair but then messes it up. She spends all day trying to stop Eugene from seeing his new do, but turns out the hairstyle becomes a hit with the Corona townspeople.

Rapunzel seriously lucked out here and it borderlines on the main series style levels of BS. She asks Eugene not to get upset before he sees what she’s done and, guess what, he is rightly upset.

Honestly the series needed to let Eugene get angry at Rapunzel for stuff. That’s what happens in relationships, you will make your partner mad at times and that’s ok. It’s all about how both of you handle that.

We never get to see how Eugene and Rapunzel would handle a real ordinary conflict and not just magic/ex girlfriend shenanigans that don't end with them putting off talking about it.

Even their best episodes in season two still are over conflicts that don’t have any immediate impact on their lives and are mostly hypotheticals to them, like kids or how other people should approach dating. And of course by season three Eugene is just reduced to a doormat.

Unicorn-y

Rapunzel tries to help Vladimir find his missing prized unicorn figurine in this spoof of old detective movies. Turns out Max and Pascal had found it and were using it to play chess.

Ok, first off, Eugene has the patience of a saint and deserves so much better than Raps and her bullcrap here. Same goes for Lance who is tied up as well during this scene.

But also this is another short that needed to be more than three mins long. The “mystery” is over before it even starts and the film noir parody only barely has time register in the viewer’s mind and then it’s over with.

Shorty’s Theme Song Takeover!

The last of the shorts aired after the show had ended as part of the Disney Channel’s on going promotional gimmick “Theme Song Takeover!”

Shorty finds Rapunzel’s journal and sings his own version of the show’s theme song, “Wind in my Beard”.

It’s ok.

All of Disney’s animated shows for the 2019/2020 line up has done one and some are funnier than than this and others not so. The Shorty one is pretty middle ground but what makes it work is that Rapunzel is completely oblivious to what’s going on and only Shorty, always the anomaly of the series, can perceive the fourth wall. Thus proving he was never really human.

As for placement, we know it’s season three cause of Rapunzel’s dress and they’re mostly likely inside the Snuggly Duckling right now. So just slot it in wherever you see fit.

Conclusion

That’s it for the shorts. The rest of Rapunzel’s Return should be up later this week and then hopefully I’ll be all caught up in time to cover the next episode next week.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzles tangled adventure #short cuts #anti-rapunzel #anti-tangled

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fletchphoenix · 4 years

Text

The Sins Of Your Past Affect Our Future

HERE IT IS! Boy howdy this one is long but I think it’s my favourite thing I’ve written so far. I love it to bits! Okay, thank you for all your support and onwards with the chapter!

Word Count : 6175

TW : Strong Language

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As Corona came into sight, Varian, Yong and Nuru got more and more excited and Hugo felt more and more dread grow in his stomach. This was it - their last trial and the last time they’d truly be a team. After this, they’d all part ways and never see each other again. Except..none of them would’ve completed their goals. Well, other than him. Donella’s deadline was tomorrow and he’d have to say goodbye to the bonds he’d built. His bond with Yong, where he’d show him different alchemical techniques purely to one-up Varian each time, a smug grin on his features at Yong’s amazement and Varian frustration. His bond with Nuru as they’d bicker and insult each other, but still silently (begrudgingly in Nuru’s case) agree to protect the other two if anything went sour. And his bond with Varian which...was difficult to describe.

He didn’t get what it was about the other boy. Whether it was his looks, his personality or something like that...he couldn’t stop himself from doing the one thing that Donella warned him not to do. He got attached VERY quickly, wanting nothing more than to gain the other’s affection in some way. Yet here they were. Two years later with no luck or success whatsoever in making Varian like him. He didn’t get it! He was handsome, funny and smart! How the hell could Varian NOT be interested? It frustrated him to no end - nights spent on watch wondering what the hell was the other’s deal. Initially he would’ve assumed the boy was straight, but..after finding out about his borderline obsession with Flynn Rider, he could just tell he wasn’t.

“Hello? Earth to Hugo?” Varian called, waving his hand in front of the blonde’s face before finally getting his attention. Hugo flinched back in embarrassment and shook his head, trying to erase any thoughts of the other boy from his mind..for now. “Hey you alright? You were zoning out there for a second.”

“I’m fine.” Hugo replied, a bit more aggressively than he’d intended. Shit, he didn’t mean to be that rude to him at this moment in time, he was just...distracted. By things and feelings he didn’t want to feel, because they would hurt him more in the long run and hurt Varian if he acted on them. At first he really wouldn’t have cared and would have just used Varian, taken what he wanted and turned on him almost immediately, but..he just didn’t think he could do that to the younger man. Two years was a long time to spend around someone, and when that someone was as charismatic and intelligent as Varian, it was hard to NOT fall in love with him.

“Alright you guys!” Varian declared, standing on a bridge with Ruddiger chittering excitedly from his perch on his right shoulder and Prometheus’ reins in hand, “Welcome to Corona, my kingdom.” And with that, him, Nuru and Yong broke into a sprint across the brick bridge, Hugo letting a small chuckle pass through his lips as he watched before following along contently.

As he passed through the stone archway at the end of the bridge, moss and ivy tangling together up the sides, he could see the hustle and bustle of town. So many people he could steal from, though..he snuck a glance at Varian, Nuru raising her eyebrow in his direction in disapproval as if she could read his thoughts. He neglected his former thoughts. He was a changed man! Besides, Varian wouldn’t want him to get kicked out of his home kingdom before they had the chance to complete the trials as a team. Speaking of their team, the other three all began to regroup in the city centre beside a small fountain, Yong taking a seat on the brick wall surrounding it beside Nuru and Varian as Hugo stood before them.

“Okay so, tonight is the lantern festival and..before we complete the trial, I kinda want you all to see it. Just as a nice goodbye before we all go our separate ways. Y'know? But first, we’ve got to meet Xavier to ask about the Demanitus device and some other things.” Varian explained, his voice sounding slightly saddened as he mentioned the idea of their makeshift found family disbanding. Hugo wanted to comfort him, but Yong already beat him to it.

“What do you want to do when we open the library?” Yong asked, a smile on his face as he leant forward and met Varian’s eyes. “I know that I want to make something that doesn’t explode. Something to make my family know I’ve changed!” He declared as he put his hands on his hips in a very Varian-esque way.

“I know that I’m going to find a way to stop the comet, or at least mitigate the effects of the meteor showers. Just, find a way to help my people. How about you, Varian?” Nuru tilted her head to the side, smiling reassuringly and resting a hand on Varian’s knee. Jealousy began to rise in Hugo, before he shook his head and bit the inside of his lip. No. None of that. Nuru was happy with Amber and Varian was very clearly not into women or Nuru at all.

“I just want to finish my mother’s work. I want to be able to know that she didn’t die out of nowhere and that she can rest easy knowing everything was done.” Varian’s tone seemed sad, his eyes focused on the cobbled streets of Corona. “How about you, Hugo?”

Hugo paused. He..really hadn’t thought about it. He was supposed to just go back to his normal life of stealing and conning people before returning to Donella, but now he wasn’t so sure that was what he wanted. “That’s personal, goggles.” He simply replied. “Now, who’s this Xavier you were talking about?”

“Oh! Right!” Varian responded quickly, seemingly brushing off Hugo’s admittedly cryptic response. “Xavier’s the town’s blacksmith. Really nice guy, but very...very knowledgeable about legends and all that. Tends to go on and on about them. He’s interesting though! Just..talks a lot.” He shrugged and led them down the winding streets, the gang following close behind. Hugo watched as Varian walked with a slight skip in his step - probably the joy of being back in his hometown as opposed to how beaten down he was after leaving Galcrest after the earth trial. He can’t say he understood the feeling of having to leave your family behind - having never had one, but he could see family meant a lot to Varian and to have that ripped away from him..it must’ve hurt.

After what seemed like twenty minutes of walking, they arrived outside of a blacksmith’s shack, the man inside whistling a little tune before turning and his face lighting up at the sight of Varian. “Varian, my boy! It’s so good to see you!” he called before pulling the boy into a tight embrace, his eyes shut with his elation at the man’s presence very clear. Hugo couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle, alerting the man to the odd trio waiting at the entrance. “Oh, and you must be his friends he met on the way.” Xavier’s kind eyes looked Hugo up and down, a knowing smirk making its way onto his face before continuing, setting an uneasy feeling in Hugo’s stomach. Why was he smiling at him like that?

“Yeah, these are Nuru, Yong and Hugo.” Varian spoke nonchalantly, looking at Hugo with a strange look he couldn’t quite place to one emotion. Xavier gave a little ‘ah’ accompanied by a knowing nod and walking towards a small, glossy bookcase. By the looks of it, it was covered in books about old legends such as the cheating willows (very obscure, in Hugo’s opinion, and Varian seemed to groan at the sight of the title as though he’d remembered a difficult memory.) and quickly, Xavier pulled out a scroll of parchment paper and unraveled it on the table. The teens gathered around the table and looked down at the schematics in front of them revealing a machine of some sorts. Upon closer inspection, he could see how the various parts of the totems fit together in intricate ways to make the machine. Hugo took a second to glance up at Varian, the younger man deeply focused on the paper in front of him, and an affectionate smile drifted onto his face, however it left before anyone could call him out for it and especially before Varian could realise he was staring. Not that he was anyway. Totally not.

“Thank you, Xavier. This is perfect!” Varian called, gathering the blueprints in his arms and heading back towards the street. Before Hugo could follow suit, a warm hand settled on his shoulder and turned him around.

“So you’re Hugo, hmm?” Xavier said with a smile, raising an eyebrow. “Varian has sent the princess many letters discussing you. More so than about the rest of your friends. It seems you’ve made a strong impression on him.” Shit. Did Varian know what he was planning to do? He knew the other was probably suspicious at first, but after the countless nights they’d spent by the campfire and the almost intimate moments they’d shared...he couldn’t still feel that way right? Hugo thought he’d integrated himself into their group pretty well, hell, even Nuru trusted him, so..why wouldn’t Varian? “All I will say is..I can tell a thief when I see one. And I can also see you’re conflicted. You may know what you want, but is it really what you need?” The blacksmith stated, encapsulating Hugo’s confused expression with a soft smile.

“Hugo, you coming?” Varian asked, breaking Hugo away from his thoughts and prompting him to follow along after the others quietly. What the hell did he mean? Did..did he know? How could the old man know? Why was he being so cryptic about it as well? Is what he wants what he needs? Well, he wants money and you definitely need that, so what the hell was he talking about? Conflicted? Was it that obvious? Ugh. It was all hurting his head far too much. All of it was so...confusing. “Okay guys,” Varian beamed, turning with a large smile on his face. One that made Hugo’s cheeks heat up and Nuru grin smugly at him. “So, we have time to celebrate the lantern festival! Where do you want to go first?” Varian declared, clasping his hands together with a wide grin.

“The dancing!” Yong yelled, grasping Varian and Hugo’s hands and pulling them along with Nuru in tow. “I saw it earlier and I thought it would be fun!” As they were pulled along the streets, Hugo swore he saw a red flush on Varian’s cheeks, though he pushed it aside in favour of dodging the Coronan citizens that flooded the streets. Upon reaching the market space, Yong pulled away, causing Varian to trip. Hugo, ever the agile one, lunged and pulled the other man flush against his chest to help prevent his fall.

“Are you alright?” he asked, though Varian gave him no response, setting an intense stare that locked their eyes together before nodding and hastily looking away.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” The other muttered, straightening his shirt and dusting off his waistcoat before moving away from Hugo, much to his disappointment. Happy couples spun and swayed around them to the rhythm of the music, Varian glancing around and biting the inside of his cheek. “WE stick out like a sore thumb, don’t we?”

“How about we blend in, then?” Hugo questioned, bowing and holding his hand out. “Varian Ruddiger, would you bless me with the privilege of sharing a dance?” He pushed his glasses up with his free hand, fully expecting Varian to reject him and his advances as he’d done oh so many times. Much to his surprise, Varian’s gloved hand slipped into Hugo’s with the ghost of a smile on his face as he did so, their eyes meeting once again. “Wow. Okay then.” Hugo whispered under his breath, pulling Varian closer to him and shifting a hand to his waist as the other’s moved onto his shoulder and, once in the proper posture, they began to join in with the dance around them.

They spun and swayed and laughed as they glided around the street, Hugo picking Varian up and spinning him around in the air before setting him down in a fit of giggles and smiles and, before they knew it, it was nightfall. “Hey, come with me.” Varian whispered, slowly pulling Hugo away to a desolate, brick bridge after purchasing two lanterns from a vendor. They both took a seat, their feet grazing the water as they sat in a comfortable silence together before Varian broke it. “I used to come here a lot after my redemption. It was hard to admit people had forgiven me when I couldn’t even forgive myself, even though they assured me every day I was forgiven. It was the one place I had that no one knew where I could sit with Ruddiger and relax. I wanted to bring you here, because..you mean a lot to me, Hugo. You’ve become so important to me over such a small amount of time and I trust you more than anything else. You know what I mean?”

“I’m starting to.” Hugo responded, eyes fixed on the boy beside him as the lanterns, previously in their hands, floated into the sky. They joined the mass of them already in the sky, though theirs twirled in their own, secretive rhythm. Hugo silently brushed his fingers against Varian’s before slipping his hand into the other’s, enjoying the small moment of intimacy between the two after he’d spent the past two years chasing after him and relentlessly flirting..it was nice to know his feelings were reciprocated. Guilt began to settle in his stomach over what he was about to do to the boy beside him but..a few more hours of pretending never hurt anyone, right?

“Guys?” They heard Yong yell, their hands pulling away from each other’s and moving from their comfortable position on the bridge as they looked away from the almost perfect scene they’d created together in what felt like their own little bubble away from the rest of the world. Just them without a care in the world. Varian cleared his throat, the hand that previously held Hugo’s rubbing the back of his neck before he began to speak.

“I guess we should get back to them. It..has been a while.” he commented before turning on his heel and heading away from Hugo before he could give an answer. Oh well, there was always next time-oh wait. No there wasn’t. Hugo bit his lip at the thought before shaking his head and jogging to catch up with the others. No. He wasn’t gonna think like that. Not right now when he was so so close to finishing his mission. He couldn’t let himself think he was wrong and feel something.

They kept heading along the lit paths of Corona towards the castle, a purple blur tackling Varian in a tight hug on the floor. The other three couldn’t help but snort with laughter as Varian writhed to get out of the bone crushing hug he was forced to endure. “Varian! Oh my god it's been far too long! How’s my little brother doing?” She gasped at the sight of the others, “OH MY SUNDROP! See! I told you you’d make friends along the way! It’s a pleasure to meet you all!” she exclaimed, finally relenting in her tight hug and standing, also allowing Varian to follow suit. “Hi, I’m princess Rapunzel!”

“Rapunzel, this is Yong, Nuru and..Hugo.” Varian paused before saying Hugo’s name, a smile wide on Rapunzel’s face as the blonde’s name was uttered. Did...did they all know something he didn’t? Everyone had been giving him creepy smiles all day! Rapunzel, who was now babbling about something or the other, pulled Varian along and gestured for the gang to follow along. All he really picked up on was some guy called Eugene was asleep because of guard duty or something like that, he really didn’t care. All he wanted was to get a good night’s sleep.

After being redirected to their rooms, Hugo immediately flopped onto the king sized bed in front of him, stretching out across it with a wide grin. Now this..this was what he wanted. There was...an abundance of green items for a kingdom that had all other rooms decorated in purple and gold. Maybe Varian had written to them about their favourite colours? He supposed Nuru would love it here, being as purple was her favourite colour. He felt himself slowly slipping into the realm of slumber before a knock sounded at the door. “Bleugh..come in!” he yelled out, rubbing his hand over his face and propping himself up on his elbows, putting his glasses on before seeing Varian enter through the large doors in his pyjamas. That...certainly wasn’t who he was expecting. “Oh, hey hairstripe.” he mumbled, an eyebrow raised in confusion, “What’s up?”

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” the raven haired boy blurted out, before quickly resigning on himself. “I’m sorry-it’s dumb and I should uh-I should go. Sorry to bother you, Hugh.” He began, turning to rush out of the doors before Hugo leaped over the end of his bed and grabbed his wrist in a vice-like grip.

“I-no Varian, it’s fine. You can sleep with me!” he almost yelled, essentially pulling the boy back over and closer to his chest. His face flushed as he realised the potential implications of his actions and words. “Oh god no that’s not what I meant.” he awkwardly stuttered out. Stuttering? Really? THIS was the level he was at with his crush on the other boy? Wow. Totally suave and seductive of him, wasn’t it? Varian, however, ignored this, letting out a small snort of laughter before shuffling away and sitting on the bed twisting and rubbing the silk, emerald sheets between his delicate fingers. “So, hairstripe. What’s wrong?” Hugo asked, moving to lay back beside the younger man, who promptly laid beside him and rested his head on his chest. The blonde felt his face flush as the man’s fingers, previously rubbing the sheets, moved to trace small shapes over his chest.

“Y’know when you said you didn’t know what you wanted to do after all this is over? I..kinda hoped you’d stay here. With me. In Corona. I think we work well as a team together and...I really want you to join me with my royal duties. We could open the library together and teach people the merits of alchemy. I just..don’t want to do it alone. I don’t want you to be alone.” Varian admitted, keeping his focus on Hugo’s pyjama shirt and the little intricate details sewn into the fabric. Hugo glanced down at the other, smiling sadly and absentmindedly playing with his hair carefully, strands weaving in between his digits.

“Y’know...I will. I wouldn’t mind being able to stay with the infamous ‘Varian Ruddiger, the royal alchemist of Corona’. It certainly sounds like a good lifetime. I mean, being able to one-up you for the rest of my life? Sounds perfect.” he chucked, Varian joining him in his little serenade of laughter as he curled up closer against his chest. “Yeah, I’ll stay, Varian.” He whispered as the boy fell asleep on his chest. “I’ll stay for you.” he gently brushed the raven haired boy’s fringe aside and placed a kiss to his forehead, setting his glasses aside and letting himself slip into a comfortable sleep.

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At the noise of Yong yelling ‘Wake Up’ outside of his door, Hugo groaned and opened his eyes, unable to move with a weight on his chest. He glanced down to see Varian stirring as well. Oh yeah, Varian slept with him. As in..shared a bed together in a completely platonic and friendly way. He really needed to work on his wording, didn’t he? “Alright hairstripe, c’mon. Time to get up.” He grumbled as he pushed himself, with a surprising amount of effort needed, to his feet and put on his glasses that were resting on a table beside his larger than necessary bed. Varian followed suit with much frustration, the man absolutely hating mornings to no end.

Breakfast went far faster than they’d realised and soon enough they were trekking down the underground tunnels of the castle to where they had to build the Demanitus device. And, of course, the all too familiar feeling of guilt began to make Hugo feel nauseous the further they went. He didn’t want to do this anymore. All he wanted was to live the life him and Varian dreamt up last night together in the guest room. He wanted to watch Nuru become the magnificent queen she was destined to be. He wanted to watch Yong succeed in making his family proud - though he was sure he already had. He didn’t want to go back to the sad, sad life he was living before. But he was too late. In that moment, everything the old man had said fit together perfectly - like a puzzle that only had one piece remaining and he’d finally solved it.

He needed Varian.

Hugo’s feet faltered in the tunnels as the other three assembled the machine, Hugo watching them intently. No. He didn’t want to leave everything they’d built together. Every intimate and affectionate moment they shared alone, like the lanterns, the dancing and the night before. He wasn’t ready for any of this to stop. With a start, the three moved back to join him and the machine jumpstarted, a sickly blue swirling to signify it’s entrance that blew their hair around wildly. Everything was going swimmingly, until broken laughter echoed through the room and Donella revealed herself, the light from the portal lighting up her face.

“Well done, Hugo. You really have made me proud! Now, how about all of you step back and let me and my son do what we were always meant to do.” She declared, holding an alchemical solution in her hand, “Hugo, over here. Now.”

“So, you’re working with her then?”

Varian’s voice didn’t shake once, his glare cold, even though it burned straight through Hugo like a hot poker. It was uncomfortable - a calm and collected look on his face, though Hugo could tell there was murderous intent behind those azure eyes that were fixed on him. He didn’t even register the angered looks of Nuru and Yong or the feeling of Donella’s rough hands resting on his shoulders - all he could see or focus on was the man in front of him.

“Why of course he was! The plan was always to betray you. Why else would he return the totem to you after stealing it so efficiently? We knew you’d be a problem as Ulla’s son. I’d honestly thought all her research had died with her in that wretched place, but no. One part of her still remained. So I told him to stay with all of you until you had all the totems, so it would be easier for us to get in. And it worked!” She laughed once again, doubling over with a wide smile and crossing her arms over her stomach.

“Varian I’m sorry.” he whispered, his voice seeming too weak to even belong to him. He couldn’t believe how vulnerable he’d made himself only the night before with his boy. All the walls he’d built up over the past twenty one years had crumbled at his feet in this one moment, Varian’s face contorting in disgust as he turned away from Hugo. Hugo could swear he felt his heart physically shatter in his chest as he watched the other stare at the entrance to the library and step even closer. His hair blew wildly the closer he stepped towards it. “Varian please, I didn’t know!-” he cried desperately.

“I’m going in. Don’t be here when I get back.” he yelled, running through and entering the library. As soon as he could, Hugo ran to try and enter, his body merely colliding with the now-locked entrance of the portal, a magical seal put on it. Pain reverberated through his body, him ignoring it as he kept fruitlessly slamming his body against the entrance to no avail. No. No no no this was NOT how it was meant to happen! They were a team and were meant to do this together! Well- he supposed Nuru, Varian and Yong were the team now, since Hugo’s initial less than sweet intentions had been revealed, but..judging by how they were standing beside him with their arms folded and Donella trapped in one of Varian’s goo solutions..they felt just as betrayed.

“Guys.” Hugo stuttered as he slowly backed away. “Look, I know you two hate me-”

“Hate is an understatement.” Nuru began, her tone bitter and dripping with hatred, “You used us. You hurt all of us and now, because of your momentous fuck up, Varian has trapped himself in the library with NO WAY of getting to him because you couldn’t swallow your pride for one second! You’re so-god, you’re worse than Donella!” her voice progressed into a yell, shoving a finger into his chest as Yong stood back in shock at the outburst. “You’re evil, Hugo! Absolutely evil! So just leave!”

“Listen to me, Nuru!” Hugo declared, stepping forward as he looked down at the hurt girl in front of him, “I know I fucked up and I was wrong, but I swear to you I was going to turn on Donella! I love Varian more than anything else in this life and I am going in there to apologise whether you like it or not, because he is the one thing I know for certain I can’t live without! I regret everything I’ve done and I need to go to him! I’ll get out of your hair and Yong’s but please for the love of god, set your biases aside and understand that I love him and need to go to him now! Please!” he yelled, brushing away tears that he hadn’t even realised were running down his cheeks before turning and continuing his relentless pounding against the door.

By some miracle, the lock on the library broke down and Hugo, unluckily, fell straight to the floor with a loud ‘oof’. The pain, however, wasn’t his main concern as he forced himself to his feet and began sprinting across the marble floor and passing the endlessly tall bookshelves. They towered over him and formed a mini labyrinth as he tried to track down Varian and find his way to where he could be. He desperately needed to apologise to the boy. His footsteps only grew faster as the screaming and sobbing started, providing him with an indicator of the direction he needed to go and a deep pit of dread and guilt that developed in his stomach as it grew louder and louder. This was all his fault.

Hugo turned a corner, met with the sight of Varian on his knees. His fingers pulled at his hair as his eyes glowed a sickly neon green, tears trailing down from his eyes with his waistcoat open as he shook. A transparent woman stood behind him, a maniacal grin on her face as she inflicted pain upon the man on the floor. “Let him go!” Hugo yelled, sprinting over and breathing heavily as he desperately tried to get to Varian to try and help him.

“Oh hello there!” Varian’s lips moved, though a woman’s voice came out as Varian’s fist swung and connected with Hugo’s right cheek, knocking him aside and his glasses falling off his face to the marble floor with the right lens cracking. “Pleasure to meet you! I’m Ulla!” her voice was far too chirpy for what she was doing, manipulating Varian’s body to stand over him.

“Varian! Varian listen to me! Please, you need to fight her! We need you! I need you!” He yelled, trying to get through to the other man as Ulla controlled Varian’s body, moving a boot to step on Hugo’s chest. His air was getting far too restricted, the pressure on his chest hurting as Ulla kept pressing down more and more. He started to lose consciousness, his vision blacking out as he struggled to get air. It hurt so much. “Varian, please! Come back to me! I love you!” he cried out before his vision went completely black.

When he came to, he found his glasses placed on his face and his head in Varian’s lap, staring up at the tear-stained face of the man in question. “Hugo.” His voice rasped as he pulled him into a hug, Hugo’s ribs burning as Varian gave him a bone crushing hug. “You came back-oh my god you came back-”

“I’m so sorry, Varian.” Hugo croaked as his hand moved to the back of Varian’s head, playing with the strands of his coal hair. His eyes shut as he held the other man close on the library floor. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t-I’m an absolute idiot.” he apologised profusely as Varian tried to shush him.

“Hugo. Hugh, I forgive you.” The blue eyed man shuffled back and cupped Hugo’s cheek with his hand, a tearful smile on his face. “I love you too.” He said, voice soft with affection, as he leaned forwards and their lips joined in a dainty yet exhausted first kiss, bruises and cuts covering their faces and body. Neither cared though, content to be with each other once again after everything they’d just been through. Hugo shuffled away from the kiss, wincing at the pain in his ribs from Ulla’s relentless attack. “Shit, you’re hurt. C’mon. We should get back to the others.” Varian muttered to himself, moving to his feet and helping Hugo up who swung an arm around his shoulders. The pair stumbled, their limbs aching with pain as they approached the portal to the library. Glancing at each other one last time, Hugo gave Varian a kiss on the cheek and they walked through with gentle smiles on their face.

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Three months later and he, Varian and Donella had found a way to officially open the library’s doors for good permanently. Three months later and he and Varian had been declared the official librarians, now teaching students interested in alchemy about the art. Three months later and Nuru had found a way to mitigate the effects of the meteor and Yong had become a prodigy in his own right back in Koto. Three months later and Corona was having a large ball in celebration of the library’s opening. Three months later and Hugo still felt guilt gnawing away at him each and every time he looked at his partner.

He didn’t deserve any of this. All the joy and newfound family and immediate forgiveness from everyone around him. He was a bad person - he’d hurt Nuru and Yong. He’d hurt Varian, so how did they all forgive him so quickly? Over the past few months, he’d only come to one conclusion: they were all faking it. They were all faking that he was forgiven so they could all stab him in the back later. He supposed he deserved it, if he was being honest, for everything they’d let him get away with, with almost no consequences for his actions. He had everything he wanted in life, but he didn’t deserve it whatsoever. He didn’t deserve his loving boyfriend.

Hugo sighed as he leant against the wall, watching everyone celebrate the occasion, yet he couldn’t be happy for them. Varian glanced over at him, a saddened smile on his face as he walked over to Hugo. “Hey babe, how about we get outta here and go to bed? It’s pretty late and I know you hate nobles as much as I do.” He called out over the music in the room, Hugo nodding in agreement before their fingers intertwined and they exited the large ballroom to head to their bedroom.

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“You know we all hate you, right?” Nuru’s voice echoed in his head as he glanced down at her, fury in her voice as she kept edging closer to him. “You’re a monster for everything you did. You don’t deserve anything you have.” “She’s right and you know it.” Yong said from behind him. They were both ganging up on him now. Suffocating him and cornering him. “You hurt all of us, what makes you think we’ve even forgiven you?”

“Guys, wait-” Hugo pleaded, his back hitting a figure behind him. Hugo turned to see Varian glaring up at him. “Varian are you okay?” he whispered, reaching his hand out before it was slapped away by the man in front of him.

“You really think I actually love a monster like you? You’re disgusting. You thought you could play me like everyone else in your sad little life to hurt me more than you already have. You don’t even deserve the oxygen you breathe.” Varian snapped.

“Varian-” Hugo choked out between tears, feeling the other rest his hands on his chest and shove him back roughly. He felt himself falling deeper and deeper into the dark abyss around him, with no way of reaching the trio that were already leaving him for dead. “Varian! VARIAN!” he screamed out.

“Varian!” Hugo called out breathily as he sat bolt upright in bed, his chest heaving and eyes searching round frantically for the other male. Luckily, he found his target fast asleep behind him, his warmth providing him with some comfort among his distress. Hugo slowly laid back and turned away from Varian onto his side, staring at the wall in the darkness as he let himself drift off deep into thought.

Of course Varian would find it hard to forgive him - he was finding it hard to forgive himself for hurting the man next to him and he wasn’t sure if he ever would. After all, it had only been three months since their showdown in the library and he’d convinced himself that Varian only said he loved him as some kind of messed up thank you. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the wall, turning on his side in their small bed before arms snaked around his waist and a gentle kiss was placed to the base of his neck, courtesy of the subject of his thoughts.

“I can hear the cogs in your head turning...what’s wrong, sweetheart?” his boyfriend whispered, his lips ghosting over the nape of his neck with every word he spoke from those beautiful, rosy lips. Slender fingers traced little circles on his hip to calm him, the warm figure behind him whispering sweet nothings. “If it’s about what happened three months ago..”

“Yeah it is, Varian. How? How could you love someone like me after all the things I’ve done?” Hugo pushed himself up into a sitting position, his eyes refusing to meet the other’s face out of fear for what he’d see. Disgust? Hatred? Pity? Whatever it was, he didn’t want to see it. He didn’t deserve his sympathy. “I took advantage of you, Varian, after you’d been hurt so much..I was so...blind to what I needed that I didn’t even- god, I’m an idiot!” he pulled at his hair as tears threatened to flow down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry. You deserve so much better than a mess like me.”

“Hugh, darling. I…” Varian let out a small sigh and sat up, taking his freckled hands and wrapping them around Hugo’s wrists gently. He lowered his hands to stop their assault on his hair, the pair locking eyes. “You heard the stories about the lost princess, right? And about the dashing rogue who saved her? Well, they went to see the lanterns and..apparently that’s when they fell in love. I never understood it before. They’d call each other their new dreams and that they were meant to be together and could tell in that moment. Well, I didn’t understand it until I met you, Hugo. I..wanted to share that moment alone with you before the trials, because..well, you are my new dream. I don’t...I could never hate you, Hugo. Even after your betrayal, you still came back and were the one to save me. We’ve both done some terrible, terrible things, but here we are. We bounced back. I know it’s hard to forgive yourself after something like that, but I forgive you. And for the record, I wouldn’t want anyone other than you. I love you, Hugo.”

“I...I love you too, goggles.” he whispered before he laid back down and pulled his boyfriend closer and into a tighter hug than before, peppering kisses along his face, relenting as he slowly drifted back to sleep in a comforting embrace with Varian’s warmth and weight in his arms.

#varigo #varian and the seven kingdoms #varian x hugo #varian tangled #tangled varian #hugo tangled #tangled hugo #alchemy boyfriends

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stuffyflowers · 3 years

Text

Top 5 comfort characters

I was tagged by @crazy-fangurl1 to give my 5 biggest comfort characters so here it is I guess? I’ve never really thought about comfort characters before so I had to think a bit for this one. I was gonna add pictures but tumblr mobile is trash so nope. Anyway, putting this under a cut, cuz it’s long-ish

5. Susie (Deltarune)

Susie grew on me more every time I replayed this game and now she’s probably my favourite! I love how she grows from being a bully to an axe-wielding badass who’s super protective of her friends (mostly lancer). She’s also in general just super cool and pretty funny too.

4. Princess Carolyn (Bojack Horseman)

Bojack has so many amazing characters but PC just sticks out for me. Yes, she is basically gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss: the character, but I love her nonetheless. She’s witty, extremely entertaining to watch, and she always lands on her feet. The new client and Ruthie are some of my favourite episodes to rewatch because of her alone. I was very pleased to see her get a happy ending.

3. Ena (ENA)

If you haven’t seen ENA, I highly recommend it! It’s a web series on YouTube, so far it has 3 instalments(soon 4). It makes almost no sense, but the characters, music, and general aesthetic of it compel me. Ena as a character especially! She has such an amazing design, and both of her VAs are phenomenal! I also relate to sad Ena an almost concerning amount.

2. Hunter (The Owl House)

Hunter is such a great character! He’s only been in like 4 episodes and he’s already my favourite! He appears threatening at first, but the more we see of him the more you realise he’s just a kid stuck in a rlly bad situation (not saying that excuses everything he does).If he doesn’t get a redemption arc I will probably cry. (Also pls just let him infodump abt wild magic I’m begging you).

1. Varian (Tangled the Series)

I can’t describe how much I love this character aaaaaaaa. He’s just such a lovable character even when he’s committing crimes asjhdjdnbss. His villain arc was my favourite part of the entire series, easily, and even though I have problems with how he was written in s3 it was still comforting to know he was redeemed. He also has the best songs in the series don’t @ me.

And uhhhh still not tagging anyone cuz I don’t want to annoy ppl 👉👈

#only tagging characters cuz I’m lazy #susie deltarune #princess carolyn #ena #hunter #varian #comfort characters #none of this makes sense it’s basically just me pointing at my favourite characters and going agdhshshdjsjf💖💗💘💝💖

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whitecatindisguise · 4 years

Note

Ok, so here goes. How about a lil mashup? (TTS would be modern, to match the other fandoms) Imagine what would happen if Varian travelled to San Fransokyo for some kind of science expo and meets Hiro and Baymax there. There is a robbery at the Expo and Player asks them for help (he already knows Hiro) as it's V.I.L.E.'s doing but Carmen's on another mission somewhere else. I know it's a bit chaotic but I tried to explain idea as good as I could

Okay, took me a while. It might be different from what you imagined, but that's what you get when you ask your sister dearest to write you a story lmao.

------

“Alchemist to Zero. What’s your status?” The communicator in Hiro’s helmet sounded and the boy rolled his eyes.

“I see the target. They are entering the building. Can’t see the cargo, tho.” He replied. “And what’s with the codenames?”

“Because I think it’s unfair only Player gets to have one.” The person on the other side replied and Hiro rolled his eyes again. So childish.

“Because I have to stay anonymous.” Another voice cut in. “And remember this is only for one job. Normally I’d send Red, but she has her hands full in Seul already.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The previous voice dismissed and Hiro could hear the sizzling of acid. “Anyway, I’m in. Let’s get my stuff back and go already. I have an Expo to win.”

“In your dreams, Va- Alchemist.” Hiro corrected himself quickly. No matter what he said about codenames, he didn’t want to risk anyone hearing their real names. “The prize is mine.”

“You wish!” The other replied and Hiro chuckled.

“Guys, work now, bicker later.” Player called with an exasperated huff. “Besides, if I was there, none of you would even stand a chance.”

Hiro decided to leave it at that, opting to focus on the mission instead. He still had no idea why someone would steal Varian’s chemicals, but it was always better safe than sorry.

The Expo was an international science event, when the scientist from all around the globe met in one place to show their latest inventions and fight for the main prize, the title of Scientist of the Year. What was amazing about the Expo, it allowed both adults and teenagers like him, or Varian, compete alongside.

You never know where the genius is hiding, was the Expo’s motto. He and Varian met on the event few years ago, and became quick friends, despite being rivals in the contest.

Varian didn’t live in San Fransokyo. The boy was German and was extremely intelligent. He spoke several languages, English, French and Italian being only few of them, except for his native German. He was into chemistry the most, but also had a knack for engineering.

They often spoke online, comparing their latest inventions, sharing stories and giving advice to one another.

Player, on the other hand, was a mystery. Hiro never saw the guy, but from what he’d learned, he was only a year or two older than himself, and extremely intelligent too. He was a talented hacker who lived in Ontario, Canada, and preferred to stay at home.

He contacted Hiro on the day of the Expo (how he got his phone number, he had no clue) and told him about the upcoming heist happening at the Expo. Apparently, some group called V.I.L.E. was planning to steal some very dangerous chemicals during the event.

Player explained he’d normally didn’t bother uninvolved people, but the chemicals are supposed to be extremely dangerous in wrong hands, and his usual team was busy somewhere else.

A short talk with Honey Lemon confirmed Player’s info, so Hiro decided to help the boy, if only to stop the criminals from doing something really bad. So, imagine his surprise, when the stolen chemicals turned out to belong to Varian.

The German scientist absolutely refused to let Hiro go after the thieves alone, claiming his knowledge of what exactly the chemicals were and how to best contain them will only help him. Player agreed shortly after and Hiro gave the boy a spare communicator, so they can all communicate with no trouble.

Hiro’s scaled down from the building across the street, where he was positioned, and approached the abandoned warehouse the criminals went in. He pushed himself against the wall, stealing a glance through one of the windows.

There were only two people inside, a blonde woman in a tight suit and mask covering her face, and a man dressed like a mime. Quick conversation with Player revealed their names to be Tigress and Mime Bomb respectively.

The woman held out a hand with a suitcase. A quick glance told Hiro it contained the stolen chemicals, as he noticed the moon emblem on the front, which was the symbol Varian used to mark his property.

Hiro peeked out some more, and noticed the said boy crouching behind one of the crates in the warehouse, observing the two. Varian’s hands twitched and Hiro knew they didn’t have much time.

“Don’t do anything stupid, V.” He whispered into the communicator, which only earned him an annoyed huff. God, this was terrible idea to bring him along.

Varian was extremely possessive over his things. Sure, he let people see them, but if you try to even touch them without his consent...

“Va-Alchemist!” He called out more urgently, hoping to stop the boy from doing anything reckless.

Varian had literally no experience with criminals. Hiro met and fought with his fare share, but the German boy was a complete rookie. If he doesn’t do anything now it’s-

Just then it seemed like Varian’s patience finally reached his limit. He jumped from behind the crates with a battle cry, brandishing some colourful balls in each hand, strangely similar-looking to the ones used by Honey Lemon.

“Crap! Player, I’m going in!” Hiro called out and pushed away from the wall, running to the door.

He heard shouts and some explosions from the inside. He pulled the door open and hoped for the best, bursting inside. His eyes felt on the scene in front of him and stopped, dumbfounded.

“Zero, what’s going on there?” Player called out in his ear, but the boy was too shocked to reply. “Hiro!”

“You... just access my helmet camera and see for yourself.” Hiro sounded tired.

He heard fast typing and then a gasp of surprise, which told him Player finally had a visual. And what visual was that.

Mime Bomb was sprawled out on the floor, stuck in some pink goo, looking confused at the ordeal. Tigress was on the other side of the room, stuck to the wall with the same kind of substance, snarling and shouting in anger at someone crouching on the floor.

That someone was Varian, who frantically worked to open the suitcase, his hands trembling in fear. Finally, the lock clicked open and the boy let out a sigh of relief.

“Nothing is broken. Thank the Sun.” He breathed out and closed the suitcase. He picked it up and stood up, staring at the woman glued to the wall. “What were you thinking, throwing it like that?! Don’t you know if any of those broke it would be a disaster?! We could all die!”

“I wouldn’t have to throw it, if you didn’t attack us!” Tigress snarled back angrily and tried to pull herself free. “Who even are you?”

“I’m the one who made those chemicals, you dumbass!” Varian shouted back, not even noticing Hiro standing in the now-open door. “If you steal something, at least learn what to NOT DO with it!”

“Is Varian just... lecturing her?” Player asked. Hiro could almost see his wide-open eyes threatening to fall out of the eye sockets.

“Yup.” He confirmed, staring blankly at the scene.

“Is he normal?” The Canadian sounded shocked. Hiro shrugged.

“Is any of us?” He replied and earned a sigh and a snort in return. “Are the police coming?”

“Oh, yeah. I gave them an anonymous tip few minutes ago, They should be here soon.” Player finally seemed to shook himself awake. “Better leave before they arrive.”

“Sure. Hey, Alchemist!” He called out, sparing the trapped woman another tirade of insults.

Varian turned around and smiled.

“Hey, Zero. Got my stuff!” He raised the hand with the suitcase and waved with the other. “Easy-peasy.”

“Good, ‘cause the police is going to be here soon.” Hiro could already hear the sirens coming closer. “We gotta go.”

“Oh, right!” Without further stalling, Varian ran up to him and they left the two criminals still stuck by the peculiar goo.

They were already several blocks away, when Player finally deemed it safe enough to stop running.

“By the way.” Hiro turned to panting Varian, who rose his head in question. “What’s with the goo?”

“Oh, that?” Varian grinned, showing his bunny teeth and pulled out a pink ball from his pocket. “It’s my own invention. Sticks to everything it touches. I actually came up with it as a more humane way to get rid of the pests back in Old Corona. But it works just as well at stopping idiots from doing more harm than they already did.”

“Nice.” Hiro nodded. “How long does it take to dissolve?”

“Few hours. That is, unless you have a dissolver at hand, which I have right here.” Varian fished out another ball, this time green and cackled. “Serves them right for stealing from me.”

“Remind me to never get on your bad side.” Hiro laughed and shook his head at his friend. “Are we clear to go back to the Expo now, Player?”

“Sure thing. Thanks for the help, guys.” Player replied.

“Oh yeah! Go Team Genius!” Varian laughed and raised a fist in the air.

“We really have to talk about those codenames.” Hiro let out a tired sigh and Player laughed in his ear.

#tts #carmen sandiego #bh6 #tts/cs/bh6 crossover #varian #player #hiro hamada #team genius

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astrologista · 5 years

Text

so that was An Episode.

SPOILERS SPOILERS MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN S3E1 THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING

i’m sorry but i have to write these down right now before the thoughts go out my mind. i swear to my lord i it’s 4:17am and i’m compromised here we go

where do i even START.

so cass. that was definitely. not what i expected. or what i wanted, really. i feel that this origin is somewhat low-hanging fruit in my opinion just based on the context of how it was explained and cass’s positioning within the narrative. at the same time i completely understand it, and it was executed very well and heartbreakingly. the song was in-cred-i-ble. and tbh i’m glad they got the heck out of the dark kingdom so quickly, because it would have crippled the ep time-wise for them to stay even a few seconds longer.

adira is 100% going after cass now and nothing can change my mind

i imagine edmund will prolly team up with adira

HERE’S THE THING THOUGH HERE’S WHERE I GO OFF

when they showed that emblem of saporia, i honestly freaking thought they were gonna give us the ol’ tee-hee again and that we weren’t going to see any varian in this ep.

well.

i am glad to be wrong. because DAYUM.

varian has a beautiful new outfit. it’s like a steampunk cosplayer with sort of a pirate alchemist motif. it’s really nice. he’s got some thanos gloves and this amazing little bandanna he wears that has a print of an evil looking smile with sharp teeth. very fitting for him.

he also had a goatee which i in my infinite hubris actually thought was like a real goatee that he had somehow grown lol because puberty. but actually he just scribbled it on his face with a marker. that’s such a varian thing a ha. WHY’S HE SO CUTE

so andrew said they were CELLIES OH GOD I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT. if that’s true it means king frederic threw him in gen pop jail. good goin’ fred.

now quite honestly i never thought that varian is the type to team up with other villains. and i was right, because he did have his own plan going and was ready to betray his whole gang as soon as he felt like it. but it does seem like andrew was super playing into varian’s affection-starved side lol and was doing a BAD job of trying to play big brother. like. he tried it lol. and i need to know more about this. i’m hoping to god more will be revealed.

varian named his new compound quirinium. so now no one will ever forget.

but oh wait. actually everyone’s gonna forget. because his plan is to pump out gas to literally make everyone forget everything he’s ever done because he’s got a GUILT COMPLEX THIS CHILD HAS A GUILT COMPLEX THE SIZE OF TEXAS Y’ALL

and i know i missed a bunch of details and i have to go back over it but now i understand. I UNDERSTAND NOW AND I’M SO SAD... the way he was listing off offenses on his fingers it’s like. he must have had a long time to think it over and he’s been rolling each one of those around in his mind for basically months. we need a flashback. give us a flashback.

i’m 99% sure the group of saporians hanging out with andrew are commies and also possibly meth addicts and i don’t think they’re a great influence on varian. not just because they’re villains but because they’re so low-tier he’s beyond them really. i get the sense he could do better.

i really honestly wanted this arc to happen... slower. i wanted there to be more time, more of an organic change, more of everything. but how it turned out, i’m glad. varian is a variable character, and just as quickly as he can turn villainous, so too can he turn to the light, as long as there’s someone there who cares about him. he still don’t give a darn about morality, he just happens to be on the side of good again? yay?

someone needs to cap that scene when they’re in the jail cell and varian is just sitting there looking like a sad, kicked puppy because that shit gave me a Feel.

when lance wiped off that magic marker goatee all of my crops were miraculously watered. oh varian.

and then i watched it again and became sad because he just looks so shocked and then DEPRESSED like “well. there is goes. what’s left of my manhood. gone in an instant. it’s over” also i think he looked a tad scared of lance because. he’s a big guy. who reminds him of his dad

don’t TALK to me about how sad he looked when eugene didn’t trust him oh MY GOD eugene i know this kid almost killed several people... and kidnapped the queen and went berserk... but like. look at him. how can you not trust him. he wants to be trusted. TRUST HIM EUGENE

by the way speaking of TRUST oh my GOD. HE REALLY WANTED THEM TO TRUST HIM AGAIN TO THE POINT WHERE HE WAS WILLING TO ERASE EVERYONE’S MEMORIES. varian. baby. you don’t go around erasing peoples memories to reinstate your social standing in the community. whatchu doin. i think we established that mass mind control is a big no-no

RAPUNZEL COMPLETELY TRUSTED HIM SHE IS PURE. SHE IS PURE.

blah blah some action scene with some cute/funny moments

varian be making BATH BOMBS good god. lush could never. someone get on manufacturing those for purchase.

where the F IS RUDDIGER OH MY GOD

ANDREW WENT IN FOR THE KILL LOL DISNEY. y’know FOR KIDS. but seriously this cements my hatred of andrew/hubert forever and ever. amen. not only is he a d-bag, he also tried to kill a kid. a kid who trusted him to some extent. nice

VARIAN ACTUALLY TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOMETHING. i’m gonna cry. he’s BECOMING A MAN. proud of him.

and THEN i freaked it. because um. YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH.

so i honest to god was NOT prepared for quirin in this episode. i was not at all prepared. i was gearing myself up for that close to or in the finale. but no. no they hit us right in the FACE, friends. they simply did not wait.

yknow i could say i wish they had extended this scene, and i do, because it could have used a little more, but the way it was executed was REAL GOOD like i LIKE liked it. i have 2 think it over a little bit more but quirin’s VA did THE MOST too. he was GOOD you can really hear the emotion in his voice and i’m crying now ha ha

oh yeah btw VARIAN JUST HEARD EXACTLY WHAT HE’S ALWAYS WANTED TO HEAR and that makes me sad in a way because to me, that essentially completes his arc. he will appear in more episodes but his arc is like, done because QUIRIN SAID THE THING! THE THING! AAHHHHHHHH HE SAID THE THIIIIIIING

he said the thing

and also i’m kinda glad that they didn’t wait any longer to yknow. free him. varian’s been jailed for a long time at this point and it’s just not good for him to make him wait any longer. HE NEEDS HIS DAD AAAAAAAAHHH

as an aside, i’m 99.9% sure that that note said WAY more than just “i’m proud of u son” but quirin was NOT up to having that convo in that scene so he just made shit up lol. good ol quirin still lying as usual lol. but this leaves something to be said here because VARIAN STILL DOESN’T KNOW THAT HIS FATHER WAS A FREAKIN GENERAL IN AN ARMY THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY HELLO???? hello.

in closing i am so glad varian & quirin showed up for that last song because it looks like they may actually be getting re-integrated into the community and none too surprisingly, it didn’t look like any coronans were going for varian’s throat. because he’s paid his debt to society. he’s good now. he learned that you always win when you are good. or something. idk about how they left this. the end of this ep really feels like the end of s3 except. we still have a whole freaking season ahead of us. and the main lingering plot point other than the king and queen’s memory loss is cassandra. because andrew & co. are jailed, remember?

this episode is full of plot holes some of which will be addressed in this season and some of which we will never receive full disclosure for. i understand why they did it, and fwiw the way this episode was implemented in EXECUTION is VERY satisfying to me and i enjoyed it like a LOT. but at the same time a lot of people are gonna be crying foul about wanting to see a more developed varian arc and cassandra’s origin and what was going on with varian and andrew and uhmygod. this is too much for me to process and it is now 3 minutes to 5am, and i need to get in a 30 minute nap before a full work week. so i have to end it here but i am NOT done talking about this you guys.

i know the storyline for this season was set in advance but something about this episode makes me feel like they made a few adjustments based on things people said? that’s probably not the case but idk i wouldn’t mind if it was.

so in short, 10/10 great episode you guys. it all really happened. tune in tomorrow for more. ahhh

#tangled the series spoilers #tts spoilers #rta spoilers #tangled spoilers #tangled the series #what in the h #i'm beyond it right now. im truly transcendent. what just happened to me

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madisonrooney · 4 years

Text

im not that involved in the tangled fandom but i have some Thoughts on the finale/series overall now that its done so i figured id share. im a little under the weather so sorry if these are kinda scattershot

(spoilers below)

for starters, ive been watching since the beginning and was hype since it was announced. i love tangled the movie, probably in one the higher tiers of my fav disney movies, not to mention it was the first tv show wed gotten based on disney movie since emperors new school 11 years prior.

at first i was skeptical about them giving rapunzel her long hair back. it was pretty clearly just a marketing ploy but it was done pretty well in the pilot which i really liked so i could get behind it.

i thought the first half or so of s1 was really good and really cute. it was just a sweet little slice of life in corona.

i started to get disappointed in the show once queen for a day came around. varian is my fav character (more on him later) and i didnt really like his villain arc. it felt really out of nowhere. not an obvious villain, not a surprise twist villain, just a character that didn’t feel like should’ve been a villain at all. it just didn’t bode well with me.

i also felt that the jump from slice of life show to high stakes, serialized show was far too abrupt. even tho i liked the second half of s2 and all of s3 better (more on that later as well), it still seemed to have an uneven balance of light and heavy plotlines. i dont wanna sound like one of those people who hates filler episodes. filler episodes are good, but need to be done in the right way at the right time, and i feel like this show didn’t do that very well.

speaking solely on the high stakes, i really feel like they were too high for a show of its kind. in a way, i felt it was somewhat disrespectful to the source material. the show isnt canon, and i feel like it made some big changes that effected the story and characters from the movie, which i think is taking a step too far if youre working on a tv show thats made by an entirely different crew than the film (even tho its the same cast). like, eugene’s dad being revealed and being given a backstory, gothel having a daughter, it just felt like too much for me. compare it to, say, the dragons series, which had very high stakes but also fit snugly between the first and second movies, and took great effort so that nothing they did effected the films’ stories. the showrunners on the dragons show were even consultants on the third movie, so they all flow together nicely.

but rapunzel and the great tree reeled me back in and i was much more invested from there forward, main reason being it gave me my favorite trope (that was kind of already there, but even moreso from this point on): a bubbly girl and an angsty girl who are somehow best friends, though they may be at odds sometimes, like during this arc. i became way more invested in cass as a character and rapunzel and cass as friends (or a ship, im fine with either).

my problems with the imbalance and too high stakes didnt go away with the remainder of s2 or with s3 but my investment in cass’ arc (AND THE REDEMPTION OF VARIAN WHICH I WAS HOPING FOR) was enough for me to put my issues with the show at least somewhat aside.

as far as more things i liked about the show:

VARIAN

he is my fav character and has become one of my new fav characters of all time. i have this thing i think ive mentioned before where if i like an actor and like a show he’s in i love the character twice as much as i otherwise would. so having one of my fav broadway actors whos in one of my fav broadway shows play him made him an instant fav. but i also just love how cute and quirky he is.

cass!

like i said, i love cass and grew to love her more through her newest arc. partially for the same reason as with varian with the VA thing. i dont know much about eden espinosa but ik shes played elphaba and i love that they employed so much broadway talent for this show (more on that later). since the show has started, ive gotten into rent, and she was broadways final maureen, so thats cool too. but beyond just that, i love her arc and personality and of COURSE her relationship with rapunzel, that being one of my fav aspects of the show. it fits right in with liv and maddie, riley and maya, trish and jessica, webby and lena, luz and amity (depending on how the rest of the owl house plays out lol) and im HERE FOR IT. also, despite the fact that i wasnt a huge fan of the high stakes, i give the crew a lot of credit for making a main character a villain for an entire season. thats a big step for disney to take that i dont think theyve come anywhere near before and i give them props for that.

the broadway and disney alum cast!

weve got james monroe iglehart, pat carroll, christian borle, gavin creel, laura benanti, jane krakowski, etc. and as a broadway nerd i love that, not to mention that some of these people had worked with alan menken before which is awesome

the fact that they brought back the ENTIRE movie cast PLUS alan menken is amazing. i dont think any other show based on a movie can quite attest to that

so, onto the finale itself

- i was worried varian may go bad again especially given his initial resistance to eugene suggested his dad might go bad but that didn’t happen so yay. i noticed other people mentioning musical call backs but the only one i noticed was let me make you proud and it made me so happy - ALSO VARIAN BEING THE ROYAL ALCHEMIST IM SO PROUD OF MY SON - this being disney, i figured cass getting redeemed was probably inevitable, but i’m still relieved it happened. now i dont have the bad taste left in my mouth jessica jones gave me. and i loved how her redemption went, seeing her so vulnerable and letting herself be that vulnerable in front of rapunzel CRYING INTO HER ARMS LIKE MY HEART. they really made her very broken, it reminded me a lot of maya hart. sometimes disney channels not willing to go that deep but im impressed they did. - i was kinda hoping it would be revealed that gothel wasn’t actually cass’ mom, i remember seeing some people hoping for that, cuz, again, i feel like thats a bit much to change from the movie canon, buuuut that didnt happen. oh well. - I WAS HOPING FOR I LOVE YOUS BETWEEN CASS AND RAPUNZEL AND WE GOT IT AND WE GOT A HUG AND IM ALIVE - lance adopting the kids was adorable - all the movie parallels were *chefs kiss*

everything wrapped up so nicely and im really happy with it as a finale!

that aside, again, i do still have some issues with the show. so im gonna take a moment to shamelessly plug big hero 6 the series bc imo that does the movie to show adaption FLAWLESSLY.

tl;dr: great finale, despite both loving and hating some things about this show, yall should watch big hero 6 the series, im love varian

#tangled the series #rapunzels tangled adventure #tangled

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codynaomiswire · 5 years

Text

TTS/RTA - “Destinies Collide” Initial Reaction

Note: Spoilers and some unpopular opinions ahead.

Ok, so...I’m going to go ahead and be honest right away. Overall...I didn’t actually like this episode very much. Not all of it was bad to me, but I also can’t say that I thought it was very great. Here are some of my general thoughts and opinions on it at this point for those interested:

Things I did like:

- As always, the animation, voice acting, and soundtrack were all really good in this episode. Kudos to the animators, VA’s, sound design team, and music team for all their hard work on it! You all did a great job!

- Special shoutout to Zachary Levi for his vocal work on Eugene’s song!

- Lance figuring out that destroying the statues would stop the ghosts from re-spawning! Such a great moment for him, and he was honestly one of the best things about this whole episode in my opinion. (Also the little acknowledgement between him and Adira was cute, and his complimenting Cass on her bravery when she went to retrieve the gondola from the middle of the gorge was really nice. Was great to see those fleeting but sincere moments of him reaching out to other characters he doesn’t talk to all that often when he’s on screen. It was a nice touch!)

- Adira running around like an old-timey cartoon character to catch Pascal as he was falling. That was cute and funny! xD

Things I didn’t like so much:

- The fact that the episode was stuffed to the gills with plot twists and red herrings. Like a lot of fans, I do love a good mystery, and plot twists when implemented correctly are terrific. But a lot of the twists in this episode felt really forced in my opinion, were too heavily concentrated, and the overall plot felt really rushed and chaotic. Especially when we get such big developments as Eugene finding his long-lost father and Cass going turncoat, I think it would’ve been worth it to spread out those plot elements a bit more and to flesh them out better over the course of more episodes perhaps. Probably would’ve been good on that note to take out some of the other non-plot-related episodes earlier in the season (ex. “Goodbye and Goodwill,” “Curses!,” “The Eye of Pincosta,” etc.), and instead give more time and attention to other plot-related elements that could’ve used it. (It also feels to me like Disney in general has been trying to chuck out a TON of plot twists in their latest works, and that’s starting to get a bit wearing in my opinion. Creators shouldn’t be afraid to use clichés or linear story lines if they happen to work out for the best. Not everything has to be super surprising or edgy in order to be satisfying or captivating to the audience. Don’t force it if it doesn’t work.)

- Eugene being revealed as the Dark Prince. Ok, ok, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t totally dislike this development. I do think it’s good that the series has endeavored to give us more of Eugene’s past, and yes, I do congratulate those fans who figured it out/had the theory before the big reveal. (Way to be observant guys!) But I personally do feel like there are a few problems with this development:

Was it just me, or did Eugene seem surprisingly...unfazed by this latest discovery? I mean, yes, he did have a song about having an identity crisis over it, but even then, I felt like he seemed to get over it pretty quick? I know he’s been increasingly unfazed by all the weirdness of their adventures, but man, this takes the cake on that point. He also didn’t seem to question it for very long (which is kind of odd, especially when Edmund himself is...a bit strange), he didn’t seem the least bit miffed with Edmund about sending him away when he was a baby, or really show much emotion at all over things save for a few words and shifts in expression. I’m sure all this needs time to sink in for him, ok, but still. His reaction wasn’t very realistic to me.

The fact that King Edmund seemed to just send baby Eugene away in the care of his nanny and...that was it. Like, I know the show can’t go into tons of detail on things, but honest to goodness! It looked like King Edmund just sent baby Eugene away into the wide, dangerous world with only his nanny to take care of him and to guard him. Like, there were no other guards with her or a foster father as well or anything! Nope. Just send your kid off into the wide world with minimal security and resources and hope for the best. Way to ensure a secure future for your child Edmund. Way to go! xP

The time spent on this development felt super rushed. I think it would’ve been better if there had been a whole episode dedicated to Eugene’s past as the Dark Prince, and not just have it as a B plot for the season finale. It is supposed to be kind of a big deal, right!? I think it would’ve been worth it to give this development its own episode.

I also find it strange that Edmund identified Eugene as his son simply by looking into his eyes. I mean...sure, I do think I see a resemblance between Edmund and Eugene, so it’s probably right anyway. But I do wish there had been a bit more of an explanation or more evidence for the truth of this theory instead of just, “We have the same eyes.” (Who knows, maybe we’ll get another twist in season 03 where we find that Eugene was not actually Edmund’s child, and he had been mistaken all along. But yeah, at this point, I would not be fazed by that.)

It seems like this development came along in order to bring about some sort of deep conflict for Eugene, but honestly...I don’t feel like it brings a whole lot of conflict at all? I mean, sure, it’s great that he’s come to find that he has a family and whole lineage that he can now learn about, and that’s a big change for Eugene on a personal level. But otherwise it doesn’t really do much to change the trajectory of his life or anything. I mean, if the Dark Kingdom were still a functioning place, I can see where this would present a conflict. Eugene could’ve felt torn between his obligation to rule the Dark Kingdom as its heir, but then his love for Rapunzel would be the opposing pull that could tear his heart in two over the whole thing, and cause more tension between himself and King Edmund who would’ve wanted him to stay to rule, etc. But that’s not really the case. The Dark Kingdom is dead, and everyone has left. So there really is no Dark Kingdom left to rule. So...Eugene can just go ahead and marry Rapunzel and live his dream in Corona anyway. No conflict really.

I also feel like the development does do a detriment to how Eugene’s character was played up in the Tangled feature film. One of the things that Eugene’s character was supposed to do in that movie was put a twist on the original fairytale, where instead of a prince saving Rapunzel from her tower, it was a thief that people assumed was just a good-for-nothing nobody. But he became the hero of the story through his own bravery and self-sacrifice, and not because of any royal blood in him. So yeah, I kind of feel like this development undermines that whole aspect of the original film.

And just a quick personal opinion: I feel like Cassandra being revealed as the Dark Princess would’ve been more compelling than having Eugene as the Dark Prince. Could’ve also been another reason why Cass seized the Moon Stone for herself, if that was the trajectory the writers would’ve taken things in any event. If she was the heir to the kingdom in charge of guarding the thing, it would make sense that she could see it as a kind of birthright for herself or something.

- And thus leading into the biggest one for me...the whole Cassandra plot twist. I know some fans think this is a fantastic plot twist, but I don’t really like it. Here are my reasons as to why:

It feels like a rehash of Varian’s betrayal, but bigger, with a lot less buildup, less reasoning behind it, and fewer sympathetic qualities. Now, I’m sure that something big happened to Cassandra beyond that mystery door in the shell house, and I do kinda hope that we’ll get to see just what exactly happened in season 03. But wow, I gotta say, it’s going to have to be something super compelling in order to excuse this degradation of Cassandra’s character. Especially after Cassandra had so much character development throughout both seasons 01 & 02, this really felt like it came out of nowhere and didn’t make much sense at all. I know there’s a theory that it’s not really Cassandra (that she’s either a clone/doppelgänger or is somehow possessed by some evil entity), and that may be right. Heck, with all the crazy plot twists peppering this series, most anything could be a possibility at this point. (She could be Zhan Tiri’s vessel, or Mother Gother retroactively reincarnated before she fell out of Rapunzel’s tower, or a young Mother Gothel before she time-taveled back to the past or something. Who knows at this point!?) But from what we know right now, it just seems to be a spiteful action with purely selfish motives on her part. (“I’m fulfilling MY destiny!”) We don’t even see her struggle with her decision (unlike Varian, who did have his moments of second-guessing), or show any signs that she’s making it out of interest for others. I mean, yeah, who knows? Maybe we’ll get yet another twist in season 03 where she did do it to protect Rapunzel somehow, and it was necessary for her to be perceived as an awful person in doing it for...some reason? But...sigh. (Especially when her solo song before this point was largely about her wishing she had the glory she felt she deserved...that whole thing just really rubs me the wrong way. Again, don’t get me wrong, I feel like “Waiting in the Wings” sounds amazing, and I would sympathize with some of the lyrics talking about missed opportunities, feeling like you’re meant for something more but not being there yet, etc. But it seemed like Cass was increasingly becoming some sort of glory hound, and nobody admires that or finds that sympathetic. (“Selfishness has never been admired.” ~ C. S. Lewis) At least Varian was trying to save his dad in what he was doing. Yes, he was going about it poorly, and there were some elements of selfishness in it to be sure, but at least he was understandable in his motives. Not excused for sure, but there was at least an explanation that made sense and was beyond “Me me me me me.”)

It’s also strange when Cass’s life was really pretty good before that moment, so what could she have hoped to gain from taking the Moon Stone for herself? She had her friends, a loving father in the Captain, a loving community back in Corona, a steady job, a dream to work towards, etc. It just...makes no sense, and feels more wrong than epic to me as a big reveal. Again, maybe there will be a good explanation for it in the future, but from what we know right now, it just seems to make her character a twist antagonist for the sake of having another one, and it just feels frustrating currently.

The weird transformation sequence when Cass grabbed the Moon Stone. I mean, I can certainly can get behind the glowing white-blue hair and eyes (something that the moon![insert character name here] theorists got right!), but...wow, the crew really went anime trope on this one. Which I’m not totally opposed to. I think anime references are cool. But this one just...felt a bit weird? I mean, I know the Moon Stone is way more extra than the Sun Drop, so sure, perhaps the alterations it makes to someone’s appearance when being infused into them could’ve been a bit more than just a change in hair color. But I think it would’ve made more sense if the armor Cass already had on became a different color or something (btw, RIP knight!Cassandra and armor, you were short-lived and will be missed), but instead it gave her what basically looked like a moon superhero jumpsuit. From a purely aesthetic perspective, it does have a great design, and Cass did look quite striking in it. But even though it looks great on a purely aesthetic level, I also don’t feel like it fits the tenor of the rest of the TTS/RTA aesthetic. I just..feels kind of out of place to me.

On a personal note: I also think it makes more sense for Varian to have been the moon vessel/the one to take the Moon Stone in the series, so this development also honestly had me disappointed in that way. I know, I know, yes, there is a bit of a bias to this opinion, but I also do think that Varian’s character had a TON of evidence to suggest this would’ve been more than plausible for his character, it could’ve tied into his motives to free his father, and he already had deeper connections to the Dark Kingdom than we’ve ever seen of Cass, and it would’ve been a great way to reintroduce him into the series.* And hey, if not Varian, I feel like it would’ve made more sense for Eugene to take the Moon Stone instead of Cassandra, with Eugene being all, “I’m sorry Rapunzel, but I can’t let you do this,” or something like that. I think that would’ve been way more compelling than Cass just doing it because of “destiny,” which she believed she had because of...reasons? Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong, but as it stands right now, I don’t think Cass was the best choice to go turncoat and to become the vessel for the Moon Drop. Or at the very least, they probably should’ve shown some sort of conflict in her over the decision. I know she’s not a very warm character, but pure malice doesn’t seem to fit her either. Just...weird.

*On the topic of Varian, I also have my opinions regarding how he as a character and a lot of the Varian fans have been treated in the aftermath of season 02 (by both other fans and some of the TTS/RTA crew members actually), but I won’t talk about that in this post as it’s not in the actual contents of the episode itself. And while I may get into it more in another post, I don’t feel like getting into that drama right now, especially when things are so fresh off the tail end of the finale. Just wanted to drop this note here though, as it’s another unpopular opinion I have related to this episode and to season 02, and I feel like the fandom and crew members could’ve done better in their responses to Varian’s fans. Just saying.

So...yeah. I guess that’s about it for now for my initial reaction to this episode. You don’t have to agree with me on it, but these are just my own honest thoughts on the topic for anyone interested.

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comesassylostchild · 6 years

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Demanitus/Varian Opal Theory Evidence

So I saw the really interesting theory by @kaycartoons that Demanitus was the original user of the opal and Varian can now use it and that made me want to point out all the interesting things I noticed regarding this theory.

The theory goes like this:

Rapunzel is the sundrop and will have the power to restore balance after the opals magic has spread and become unstable. The rocks are bringing her there to do just that. But while she can touch the opal and restore balance after the opal has become unstable and maybe even destroy the opal she cannot use the opals power as she is the sundrop not the moondrop.

Denanitus is described as an inventor engineer and adventurer but never magical in any way other than the line “Demanitus used magic and science” If he is not magic than it makes sense that Demanitus was in possession of a powerful magical object that being the opal but lets look further into this As stated Demanitus has been described as an inventor, engineer and adventurer but never a wizard or magical in any way. So far no characters other than Rapunzel have been shown to have magical abilities unless they have an object with magical properties like Mother and Father with the teapot or are already a magical being those being spirits like Zhan Tiri or Sugracha or even mermaids. But so far no human has been shown to have magical abilities other than Rapunzel. So that begs the question where Demanitus got the magic to do the things he did. Demanitus probably once used the opals magic to do the amazing things he did.

In Keeper of the spire the group retrieves the 3rd scroll piece and on it is a guy in a hood who is most likely Demanitus. But it also shows where the opal is being kept so he obviously has a connection to the opal. Some people say he just made the chamber but it heavily indicates he is connected to the opal.

Hell the first scroll piece shows the sundrop but the second scroll piece shows not the opal but where its hidden. Probably to keep the information from the characters since they are not supposed to know what lies ahead.

So the sundrop is obviously related to the moondrop. Both exist in a yin and yang situation to keep balance. 100′s of years ago the sun and moon drops fell and balance was in place its possible this was either a result of a comet considering the comet symbol or maybe to defeat Zhan Tiri. So if the moondrop has its own magical abilities maybe even magic that can defeat Zhan Tiri what is is Rapunzel’s role? The moondrop still exists outside of a “host” while the sundrop exists within Rapunzel. It doesn’t make sense that she would also be able to use the opals magic because she is the sundrop not the moondrop. So what would her role be? 19 years ago the sundrop was removed awakening a darkness. About a year before TBEA rocks formed in the sundrops place and in SOTSD the rocks found the sundrop, no longer react to her and are bringing her to the dark kingdom.

Rapunzel’s role is likely to “heal” if you will the opal. But Rapunzel no longer has healing abilities! What if I told you that wasn’t the original purpose of the sundrop. The sun and moondrops we’re created in a yin and yang situation to balance each other but what if the sundrop only existed to do just that and wasn’t actually created to heal the sick and injured but actually existed to “heal” the moondrop humans had just found the sundrop and used it for their own purpose. The sun and moon drops were likely well known legends in the lands but thought to be fairy tales they only searched for the sundrop when they grew desprate. The song was also part of the legend and gothel is just the one to try it out. If Demanitus was in possession of the opal its likely he knew about the flower as well and either knew about it but never tried to find it or just never could find it yet he knew a lot about it including the incantation for it and documented it the song was just believed to be a fairy tale nursery rhyme that Gothel had tried. When Rapunzel touched the rock it reestablished her connection to the moondrop and the sundrop magic within her resurfaced but she can no longer heal and her hair is indestructible. Its possible that the rocks resurfaced the sundrop within her but to its original purpose which is to bring balance between the sun and moondrops and “heal” the opal from its unstable state. The rocks were looking for the sundrop to bring her to the dark kingdom to do just that and now that they found her she can no longer control the rocks. She is the sundrop meant to bring balance and possibly “heal” the opal from its unstable state But she herself is not the moondrop and it doesn’t make sense that she would get the ability to use the opals powers along with the sundrop magic she already has.

And this is where Varian comes in:

Now does this mean Varian has magical powers of his own or is the moondrop like Rapunzel is the sundrop? No.

Its been speculated since QFAD that Varian is a descendant of Demanitus since they are both inventors and scientists and Demanitus was introduced in the same episode that Varian had a major role in and its quite the high possibility with Demanitus and Varians first appearance looking eerily similar.

So it is highly likely Varian is connected to Demanitus and if Demanitus is connected to the opal hi most likely used the opal. But that begs the question if Rapunzel is counterpart of the opal but doesn’t have the power of the moon, Demanitus likely used the moondrop but it still exists as a seprate object and no one can touch it then who would be able to use the opal? Thats right Varian while Rapunzel can “heal” the unstable opal fix the damage it caused and restore balance Varian is the one that can actually use it.

Evidence

Parallels between Varian and Rapunzel:

I’m not not going to go too much into this but Varian and Rapunzel are basically perfect opposites.

one has a bright color palette the other has a dark color palette

one has a high status one has a low status

one is beloved by most the other is an outcast

one is magic the other is science

one is an adult female the other is a young male

one gets a happy ending the other gets a sad ending

However at the very same time they both mirror each other in a lot of ways even in little ways.

Both have freckles and even buck teeth though Rapunzel’s is no where near as prominent as Varian

Both had a growing element in their life Rapunzels spirit/freedom and the rocks in Varians home

Both fathers tried to keep them from the growing elements in their life and ignore it but they underestimated the effect their children had on these things

These parallels and s are totally intentional confirmed by Chris

Varian & Quirin

Quirin knows about the dark kingdom and was a part of it. He also knows about the opal but the extent of his knowledge is unknown but he most likely doesn’t know everything. He is obviously keeping a secret from Varian and is weirdly specific that he doesn’t want Varian near the rocks but why would that be if the rocks didn’t involve Varian somehow. He also looks at the brotherhood symbol on the helmet then to the rocks then to the baby photo of Varian meaning he associates Varian and the rocks together for some reason. There’s also the “You’re not ready” line.

Varian & Rapunzel

Are both opposites and parallels. They need to make up and work together to save the day. However Varian will not be the hero of Rapunzels story just as Rapunzel won’t be the one to fix Varians problems or save the day in his story. Varian will free his father and do his part in helping to save the day.

Varian & Demanitus

Demanitus used magic & science. Where did the magic come from? He is related to the dark kingdom and the opal so probably the opal is the magic he used. After he did the many great things he did with it he established the dark kingdom as a way to protect the opal and chose a royal family to rule and trusted individuals to protect the opal while he continued to protect the land from evil until his death. But he has a VA? Well we will only probably get the story of Demanitus since he is most likely dead since no one has seen his all these years, he’s never done anything since a long time ago and the only known way to remain young is the sundrop which was hoarded by Gothel. Since his passing the opals magic became unstable and when the sundrop was removed the rocks searched for the sundrop eventually finding Rapunzel to bring her to the Dark Kingdom to restore balance and “heal” the opal. Given that Varian is a scientist like Demanitus capable of doing amazing things and since Demanitus was introduced in the same episode Varian had a major role plot wise he is very likely to be a descendent of Demanitus maybe even reincarnation. Varian will probably fill the role of the “new Demanitus” and either do what Demanitus once did or what Demanitus never could. It would also make sense that Demanitus tried to defeat Zhan Tiri with his own science and the opal but eventually he was never defeated for good. Then Varian is able to use science and the opal but also has the sundrop that being Rapunzel and together they can do what Demanitus couldn’t alone.

Varian & The Rocks

Despite the rocks searching for the sundrop that being Rapunzel what’s strange is just how much they took over Varians life and clustered around him despite him seeming to have no connection to them they almost seem attracted to him including when one grows right towards him when he’s told to stay away from them. In both dreams that include Varian he is accompanied by the rocks and even seem to react to him which is again odd if he had no connection to them. Despite being after Rapunzel it's strange how much Varian is surrounded by the rocks. Varian’s home even resembles the dark kingdom with a great number of huge rocks growing outside his home and rocks forming inside his home as well like they did inside the dark kingdom palace. Varian & The Opal If Demanitus used the opals magic but it is shown that no one has been able to touch the opal its likely Rapunzel will be able to touch the opal. While she could heal the unstable magic of the opal and restore balance between the sun and moondrops she is not the moondrop and can’t have the moondrop magic along with the sundrop magic. So Varian now shares the same connection to the opal that Demanitus did and is the one who can use its magic though not having magic powers like Rapunzel, it all comes from the opal he’s just the one who can use it due to his connection to it. You see that the opals magic is unstable and Varian has been reffered to as unstable by Rapunzel. Varian’s Design

Varian less resembles his family and yet strongly resembles the black rocks with the black and blue colorization. The blue streak probably is the physical trait that highlights his connection to the black rocks/opal. Freckles are a rare trait in Corona yet both Rapunzel and Varian have them and the gloves indicate there is more to him. Another little tidbit is that people have speculated that the blue streak is probably nothing when we haven’t really seen any characters that have something like that. Varian has blue eyes and wears a blue shirt yet the blue shirt more closely matches the color of his blue streak rather than his blue eyes. He wears black gloves and boots and a brown apron that matches the brown highlights in his hair. Whether or not his hair is magical in any way its almost like Varian dresses to match his hair which means he does notice the odd blue streak and tried to match it so it is actually something odd that the characters notice not just some meaningless highlight that the audience sees.

Conclusion

Demanitus used magic and science to do the things he did the magic being the opals magic. The sundrop exists to keep peace and balance across the land and protect the moondrop and keep its magic from becoming unstable. Because so far the only known way for anyone to live for 100’s of years was the sundrop and that was being hoarded by Gothel its likely Demanitus is now dead and we will only be told the story of Demanitus or maybe we will see him as a ghost who knows. Demanitus used the opal, has a connection to it that allows him to use its magic that now lies within Varian since the opal still exists as its own object but someone has to be able to use it and while Rapunzel can restore peace and balance and heal its unstable magic she is not the moondrop and can’t use its magic. Only Varian can use the opal since he now shares the same connection to the opal that Demanitus once did.

#tangled the series #tangled #varian #rapunzel #lord demanitus #season 2 #rapunzels tangled adventure

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rachelbethhines · 4 years

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TTS Songs Ranked Worst to Best

Someone asked me to rank my fav and least fav TTS songs a while back, but I’ve since then relistened to the soundtrack and there’s a whole bunch of songs that just forgot about, so here’s a more accurate ranking now that the songs are more fresh in my mind

32 . Life After Happily Ever After (Reprise)

This song is infuriating, because the finale is infuriating. Listening to this song just makes me angry all over again because it reminds me just how unsatisfying the ending to TTS was. I wanted to turn it off at several points. I barely can get through it despite it being so short. It doesn’t help that the soundtrack leaves all the dialogue in there and fails to actually end the song. It just cuts off before the final note.

31. Hook Foot’s Ballad

Does this even count as a song? Why is it here on the soundtrack but not the Hurt Incantation? Did Menken really waste his talent writing a joke and did the showrunners really waste money and limited resources on this?

30. Friendship Song

Bland, boring, and pointless. It was clearly written as a marketing stunt for the radio disney charts and not as anything to do with the plot of the series. They just throw it up on screen to fill out the running time and don't even let the whole song play through. It’s pitiful.

29. Waiting in the Wings (Reprise)

I didn’t think much of the original song one way or the other, but the reprise is soooo dumb. The plot twist it introduces winds up ruining the whole show and sabotaging both Cassandra’s and Rapunzel’s characters. It’s not even a nice sounding song on it’s own. The kid’s voice is irritating (who I’m sure is doing her best, but really little kids shouldn’t be made to sing professionally as a general rule) and the melody just as bland as the first time it was played. The only reason to like this song is if you’r a mega fan of Cassandra’s or her VA, which I am not. (Note: this is not a criticism of Eden Espinosa, I just don’t happen to follow any of the VAs in this show)

28. Through It All

I like the instrumentals in this song, and that’s about it. Everything about this song is wrong. It doesn’t fit the story, it’s a misuse of the cast and songwriters, it’s a waste of valuable screen time, the melody is dull, and the dang soundtrack had to throw in that lame dialogue about ‘greatest threat ever’ at the beginning. If you want a pump up song in your story then you got to earn it. You can’t just tell us things are bad, you got to show it. A joyful horseback ride and everyone sitting in a bar safe and sound isn’t threatening or depressing enough to warrant a cheering up session. Plus the song itself doesn’t add anything to the overall story.

27. The Girl Who Has Everything

Sometimes I think the writers were willing trying to sabotage themselves. It’s as if they were determined to make the only two main female characters in the show unlikeable bitches in season three. Don’t believe me? The creator Chris has said this song only exists to highlight how much easier Rapunzel has things than Cass and went onto say that Rapunzel was in the wrong during their conflict because ‘she held Cassandra back’. (Oh yeah she totally ‘held back’ the grown woman who left on her own accord, returned on her own accord, and then assaulted and tried to murder a bunch of people for no reason of her own accord.) But this song does succeed in furthering season’s three narrative that Rapunzel is a spoiled selfish brat. Shame the story fails to address this setup and never has Rapunzel learn to be a better person. Rather the narrative bends over backward to tell us how special Rapunzel is without any sense of self awareness and this song falls into that same trap; making it both irritating and pointless.

26. Listen Up

Yeah, I talked about this on my salt marathon, but I just don't like this song very much. The melody is fine but the lyrics are a real miss in my mind. It doesn’t help matters that the song is indeed pointless in the grand scheme of things.

25. Livin’ the Dream

This is much on the same level as Listen Up as it features the same problems. It doesn’t add to the narrative and the lyrics kind of let it down. I placed it higher just because I like the melody a little more.

24. More of Me

This song is a lot like the Friendship Song in that it was created to be an end credit song for the pop charts and you’d be forgiven in forgetting it even exists. However, it at least got to actually play all the way through. I think this song was a real missed opportunity. I honestly believe that it should have been the opening theme song of the show instead of Wind in My Hair. It’s more built to serve such a purpose and it’s a waste of resources not to actually use it. Alternatively, I would have accepted it being reworked into the actual series as a character song. Especially since we’re missing a song in season three due to budget cuts.

23. Wind In My Hair

Speaking of theme songs, I think I would like Wind In My Hair a lot better if i didn’t have to listen to it every episode. On its own it actually has a lot of things going for it; a nice melody, interesting instrumentals, good singing, ect. Unfortunately it’s just over exposed, and none of those elements lend themselves naturally to an intro song for a tv show. In fact the theme song feels really out of place and is edited oddly to fit the shorter intro.

22. Wind In My Hair (Reprise)

Honestly the theme song is mostly comprised of this reprise, but it has the opening instrumentals from the OG song frankensteined onto it. This means that the version that plays before every episode is on fullblast all the time to keep the energy up, but that’s not how the song is suppose to go. The actual reprise that plays in the pilot builds to a crescendo, starting soft and melancolony and getting louder and more hopeful and determined. It sounds a lot better in full because of that. It’s still too overexposed though. Both these songs would probably be higher on the list of not for the theme song version.

21. With You by My Side

This song is fine. It’s nothing special, but it’s not bad either. What knocks it down the list is the fact that Lance isn’t in it, despite Lance being right there. Like don't bother hiring a famous Broadway singer if you’re not going to have him sing! But that speaks more to the poor writing of season two than anything else. This song also doesn’t really add anything to the narrative as, contrary to what the writers intended, it doesn’t actually enhance the emotional impact of Cassandra’s betrayal later in the episode. The song itself is just tacked on and doesn’t take the opportunity to lay down any foreshadowing for that plot point.

20. Next Stop Anywhere

Another perfectly serviable song. It’s not bad but nothing outstanding. It gets the job done. It’s also really ho-hum and the soundtrack keeps all the unneeded dialogue, which is a pet peeve of mine.

19. Waiting In the Wings

Despite it’s hype, I never thought much of Waiting in the Wings. It’s got nice instrumentals and Eden Espinosa gives it her all in the singing department. The problem is it’s too generic. It’s a bare bones basic ass ‘I want song’. Cassandra's movations are weak and unsupported by the narrative, the melody is boring, and it honestly doesn’t add anything to her story. I mean it should, it’s her character solo, but because she’s written so poorly the song just winds up undermining the character in the end. All I’m saying is that, this is not the song from season two that I would have nominated for the Emmys. But it’s still Alan Menken, it’s still nicely performed, and given the rest of the competition for that year, it did deserve to win.

18. If I Could Take That Moment Back

This song is also pretty generic, but it’s less boring than I See the Light, (yeah, I said it, I See the Light is boring) so that’s a win in my book. Ergo this holds the title of the only New Dream duet that I enjoy. But there’s better stuff on this list.

17. Next Stop Anywhere (Reprise)

Well no, I take that back. The reprise of Next Stop Anywhere is also technically a New Dream duet. It’s still not anything amazing, but it works for what it is. Plus, Adria’s opening dialogue in the soundtrack version doesn’t bother me quite as much as some of the other dialogues choices that were kept in.

16. Stronger Than Ever Before

I really enjoyed this song in the moment. It’s catchy and fun, and it finally has Lance doing something rather than ignoring his existence. However it is borderline unnecessary in terms of story placement, and I’m slightly mad at it now that I know that we could have gotten a Rapunzel and Varian duet but it was scrapped for this instead.

15. Crossing the Line

Keeping with the theme of ‘songs I have conflicting emotions about’, we have Crossing the Line. This song is confused. It starts and stops, the melody isn’t clear, the orchestration is playing tug of war with the singers for dominance, and it’s basically Alan Menken and the show’s creators ripping off Frozen. (I guess he’s kicking himself for leaving that particular project?) But it’s interesting. I never heard anything quite like it. It’s memorable even if it doesn’t fully work. It’s got these interesting bits and pieces to it that just never quite comes together as a whole. Some of the lyrics are some of the best Glenn Slater has ever wrote and is far better than the story actually surrounding the song. Yet there’s other lines that are total cringe. Sometimes the song is bold and catchy and gets you all hyped up, and then other times its limp and staggering and feels so awkward to listen to. Yet it’s not boring or generic and so I have to place it higher than the rest of the songs that’s come before. (Also, there’s some amazing orchestral covers out there that really pulls together the various parts really well, just fyi)

14. Nothing Left to Lose

I really don't like this song. I’ve been one of its biggest critics ever since it was leaked by the marketing team earlier this year. And yet... I can’t in good conscience place any lower on this list. All of the problems I have with it are the exact same problems I have with Crossing the Line. It’s confused, the various pieces don't line up, the instrumentals are competing with the vocals, the song’s progression is weird with it’s constant key changes, some of the lyrics are good while others are absolute shit, ect and so forth. It also actively works against the story it's trying to tell. The song wants you to sympathize with Cassandra, but her lines are as shallow as a puddle and makes her look like a sociopath. Especially when she’s physically attacking Varian through out for no reason. Also neither character learns anything from the exchange and it fails to impact the story. By all accounts this is a bad song. But I’m Varian trash. There I said it. You happy? Varian’s parts in the songs are fine, good even, and the song is anything but bland. I would rather listen to a mess then be bored to tears by a competent yet standard four chord pop song.

13. I’d Give Anything

This song is nice to listen to. Story wise it absolutely sucks and shouldn’t have been in the finale at all. But it sounds pleasant. This is one of those songs that could pop up randomly on the radio and I would just think it it a nice sad break up song. I can’t say that about some of the other misplaced songs in the show. This one however, you can very much, absolutely divorce this song from the narrative and it would be fine. Now that’s not good writing, and it’s very much a waste of limited resources, but I’m rating the music here first and story second.

12. Buddy Song

The Buddy Song also absolutely did not need to exist but it also sounds nice. Plus, it makes use of Lance so I’m a little more lenient towards it. I can’t however place it higher since it really is just Alan Menken ripping off Alan Menken. Like, I would not be at all surprised to find out that this was originally a deleted song for Aladdin or something.

11. Bigger Than That

What can I say, Lance just gets good songs. When the show bothers to give them to him. Unfortunately, it’s not the best placed. It kind of interrupts the more important drama of Be Very Afraid, and probably should have been saved for a later episode. Especially since it hinges on a plot point that is contradictory to Lance’s character. We should have gotten a Varian and Rapunzel duet here and given Lance his own episode in the second half of season three. This song could have easily been refitted into being a bonding moment for him and the girls. That would also have filled out the season’s original songs to the usual eight instead of only seven.

10. Life After Happily Ever After

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. The top ten. The best of the best. This song makes the cut for three reasons. 1. It lyrically and musically interesting 2. It does the job of furthering the story and the characters and 3. Eugene’s part is so damn good. Like this song could have easily fell down into the ranks of ‘fine but generic’ if it wasn’t for the bridge with Eugene. That puts it over the top and to my mind makes it better than anything from the OG film. (well almost anything, Mother Knows Best is still great) This is the barometer by which I measure all of the music in the series. Is it better or worse than Life After Happily Ever After? Because this is the level that I equate good musicals with. What keeps on the tenth spot and not higher is the dialogue that still left on the soundtrack and the lack of a Cassandra introduction. That and also the rest of the songs are just flat better.

9. Hurt Incantation

Hurt, Decay, Reverse, whatever you want to call it, this was such a cool fucking concept. One that was utterly wasted by the show. I place this so high because it just sounds awesome! It looks good too, and it offered up so many possibilities from a story perspective. What lets it down is the lack of follow up for it and it’s too short. There’s needed to be another verse. It also should have been on the actual soundtrack instead of Hook Foot’s Ballad. (The Heal Incantation also was sung in What the Hair, but I’m not counting it since it was written for the film)

8. The Girl Who Has Everything (Reprise)

I hate the initial song and the set up that it took to get here, but I love this reprise. It’s perfect. This is what the story needed more of. Rapunzel taking her life into her hands, and her proposing to Eugene would have been the perfect capstone for her arc. In fact I’m angry we didn’t actually get that. There’s absolutely no reason why Rapunzel couldn’t have done so and we could have had her and Eugene engaged during the second half of season three. How much better would have it been if Cassandra threatened their wedding plans and that’s why they couldn’t go through with it until after the series ended? So much more tension that way.

7. I Got This

This is a really good song that actually futhers the characters and the narrative. Moreover it’s refreshing to see the heroine not be perfect and to fail sometimes due to her own inadequacies. It’s just a shame that the series didn’t follow through with this set up, but I appreciate the attempt all the same.

6. Set Yourself Free

This is the only song in the series that’s an actual satisfying pay off for anything. Music wise it’s nothing too special, but in terms of context it just works. We were sorely deprived of such resolutions and songs with actual meaning in the show.

5. View From Up Here

This song is too good for the episode it actually appears in. We needed something like this back in season one to introduce Cassandra with. It also sadly doesn’t fit with the wider narrative after season three. However I shall still appreciate it as a ‘what might have been’ type song.

4. Let Me Make You Proud

The only reason why this song isn’t higher is just overexposure and I’ve no one to blame but myself for that. I’ve listened to this song way too many times. As such it tends to alternate between this, View from Up Here, and the next song on the list. But make no mistake it is glorious. Fantastic instrumentals, set up, and of course amazing vocals.

3. Everything I Ever Thought I Knew

Yes, I know this plot point didn’t lead anywhere, but it works for this song at least. Also Eugene’s VA is a really underrated singer. He sounds nice and he emotes really well. Though I’ll be honest, this jumped up to third place because it was fresh in my mind after listening to the soundtrack before making this list. I’ve always liked the song and I do rate it highly, but it can change places with Let Me Make You Proud and View from Up Here at anytime depending on my mood.

2. Let Me Make You Proud (Reprise)

This song is heartbreaking! Story wise it probably shouldn’t exist because it gives away the twist too soon, but who cares, it’s awesome! Varian’s arc is the most compelling in the show and the only thing that saves TTS from falling into mediocre obscurity; and it’s songs like this that help make the arc stand out even more than it already does.

1. Ready As I’ll Ever Be

I said it before and I’ll say it again; Ready As I’ll Ever Be is the greatest thing Alan Menken has ever written in his entire career! If you know anything about the multiple award winning songwriter then you know that is no faint praise and I do not dole it out lightly. This song is the reason why this show even has a fanbase. People are still getting into the series because of this song. And no matter how many times you listen to it just rocks! It’s complex, layered, moody, and with a fantastic beat and energy. The performances are wonderful and the instrumentation glorious. It belongs in the hollows of Disney’s greatest hits and not regulated to a spin-off tv show that failed to make its money back. I weep for the lost potential that this song and this show had. It hurts to know that so many people will never see this flash of brilliance that has come out of the House of Mouse, will never know the wonderfulness that is Varian. Ah, ‘c'est la vie’, I suppose. Tangled the Series got what it deserved, but it's crew did not. While I can not in all honesty recommend the series in full; I do sincerely urge any Disney fan to check out the songs at the very least. Especially this one. And that’s it. There’s my official ranking of all the songs, and I hope those of you read my Tangled reviews appreciate the hours it took into making this.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #varian #rapunzel #eugene #cassandra #lance #alan menken #Disney #disney music #disney songs

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