Dreamwalking

anyway, so since water is essentially made up of a gazillion little hexagons, it tends to gather into larger hexagons as it shapes together. this is not visible unless the water is in a solid form, aka ice. when the water is split, it tends to crack around the established hexagons. that bottle rocket exploded in the PERFECT place to show this phenomenon and its geeking me out.

We’ve all seen that Gothel makes Rapunzel come to her for hugs, but today I realized it goes deeper than that. Gothel doesn’t want Rapunzel showing physical affection unless she has been given specific permission. Opening her arms is that unspoken permission.

For example, towards the beginning, when she’s reminding Gothel that it’s her birthday tomorrow, she grabs her arm in exuberance. Gothel is put out and then pries Rapunzel’s hands off her arm, all the while pretending she doesn’t remember (or care) that her birthday - something Rapunzel is extremely excited about - is fast approaching.

She also uses Rapunzel’s need for physical affection, deliberately taunting and “teaching” her with it by pretending to offer it, then taking it away immediately.

The first bazzilionty times I saw this movie, I always assumed Rapunzel was relieved to see Gothel towards the end of Mother Knows Best just because she was scared.

But now I realize it’s not only because she’s scared, but because Gothel is now giving Rapunzel permission to seek the creature comfort of physical contact that she so desperately needs after the gamut of fear she’s run.

Eugene, on the other hand, starts showing physical affection as soon as he starts feeling any affection for Rapunzel at all. He uses it as a comfort. Yet Rapunzel keeps her hands to herself.

It continues when he gives her the little flag, touching the small of her back in an affectionate way. But her hands (and attention) are full at this moment.

In fact, the first time she realizes she’s touching him, and he’s touching her, and there’s affection and enjoyment buzzing between them, she’s the first to pull away.

She’s alarmed at first, then apologetic and sheepish. Sorry I was touching you, Eugene. And he politely takes a step back, tuned in to her discomfort and giving her a little more space.

But that is why the moment on the boat is so important, and why Rapunzel has the reaction she does.

Rapunzel’s line here is in reference to giving Eugene the satchel with the crown back, in which she says “I should have given it to you before, but I was just scared. And the thing is… I’m not scared anymore. You know what I mean?”. And to understand her fear about returning the satchel back, it’s important to remember that she only has the satchel because Gothel threw it at her feet and effectively told her that giving him the satchel meant that he would abandon her. The satchel is, in some ways, a symbolic message of “reasons Flynn can run” [and I use ‘flynn’ here intentionally].

For Eugene, that satchel and the treasure within it is a signal of the life he had been living. The impression that Eugene has been on his own for quite some time and has dedicated his life to the accumulation of wealth as a means of safety and security is suggested to readers during the campfire scene (”[Flynnigan Rider] had enough money that he could do anything he wanted to do. He could go anywhere he wanted to go. And-and-and for a kid, with nothing… I… I don’t know, it just seemed like the better option”). I think much of Eugene’s life has been spent in fear perhaps to the point that he hasn’t known, for quite some time, what it’s like to not have that fear. Because he turned to a life of thievery and crime out of fear of not having enough to get by, and that turned his life into one constantly on the run out of fear of being caught. Eugene hasn’t known, for basically his entire life, what it means to find safety and security even though he’s devoted so much of his life trying to find it. 

And the crown is worth a lot. I don’t think it was hyperbole when the Stabbington Brothers told him “we do this job, you can buy your own castle” when talking about stealing the crown. But by the time Rapunzel gives him that option again… Eugene has learned what it could mean to not be living in a life of constant fear. He’s gotten a glimpse of what it might mean to find safety and security with another person (Rapunzel), and I think he realizes just how much he craves that. 

And I think that becomes clear in his response in the boat to Rapunzel’s comment about not being afraid. Because he pushes the satchel down in favor of looking at Rapunzel’s face:

And then says, “I’m starting to.” 

Because you don’t unlearn a lifetime of habits and deeply-ingrained motivation of fear overnight, but he is starting to. Later in the film, when Eugene says “you were my new dream”, that is only a confession of what was already admitted right here in this moment. Eugene quite literally pushes away his lifetime of learned habits because Rapunzel has helped show him, even in the little time they’ve had together, what it might be like to not be so afraid all the time. 

I made a stupid meme while reading the book.