The Forest of Nonsense

I mean, what did she do during the day? What did she do about money? Did she have hobbies? What about friends? She must talk to people in order to buy food and other supplies, so why couldn’t she have gotten to know some of them? Was there some man or woman in the Kingdom who noticed that she stopped turning up one day and was sad when they never found out what happened to her?

To me it seems that Mother Gothel made one huge mistake when raising Rapunzel: telling her that she was her real mother.

Picture the scene. Gothel is walking through the forest one day when she hears the sound of a baby crying. She investigates, and finds a vicious pack of wolves tearing into a young couple and about to start on the poor, defenceless baby. She bravely risks her own life to save the child and, assuming that the deceased couple were her parents, decides to raise her as her own as an act of kindness.

All Mother Gothel had to do was tell Rapunzel this story as she was growing up. This would mean that when (if ever) Rapunzel found out who she really was Gothel would have long since established that the ‘real’ kidnappers died years ago. She could have then feigned complete ignorance to the fact that Rapunzel was the lost Princess, and even escorted her willingly back to the palace. Presuming that the King and Queen believed her story (given how quick they were to accept Rapunzel at the end, I doubt they’d be too hard to convince, especially with Rapunzel confirming that Gothel took care of her all those years), she would have been seen as a hero rather than a villain, and presumably allowed to continue using the flower power. Heck, she might have even been made a Duchess or something for ‘saving’ her.

That’s what I’d have done.

And yes, I do massively over think these things.