★ bex ★

i see a lot of hate from people about how short Eugene cuts Rapunzel’s hair & i just wanna talk about how the haters are missing the point

the hair cut is supposed to be a juxtaposition!! her hair throughout the entire movie is supposed to be a symbol!! when we first meet grown up Rapunzel, her hair is long & all over the place, thrown across the tower in a way that it’s hard to keep track of places where there’s NOT hair. this is a symbol of the tower being the only place Rapunzel understands how to be herself. the tower is her comfort zone, she feels free to “let loose” so to speak - even though she desperately wants to leave. the tower is all she knows. at this point, her hair also is a symbol of her just being stuck. the only time she’s seen as useful is when her hair is being put to use (i.e. making Mother Gothel young again, or pulling Gothel up with her hair).

fast foward to the escape from the guards & Maximus. suddenly Punzie’s hair is useful for more than just serving her mother!! she uses it to help Flynn escape, it helps them when they get stuck in the cave, & it heals Flynn’s hand!! she’s finally seen! but she’s still cautious. multiple times in the duration of these scenes, and in the scene when they finally make it into the kingdom, she’s holding onto her hair like it’s her life line. she’s no longer in her comfort zone (aka the tower) and it’s a little bit harder for her to just “let loose” again, for a lack of a better term.

but then Eugene comes up with the FANTASTIC idea to get her hair braided by some of the townsgirls, and suddenly Punzie is no longer being defined by the usefulness of her hair! she’s an artist, she brings people together, she dances with new people she’s never met before - she’s the one that Eugene falls in love with. THIS version of Rapunzel is the one that Eugene falls for, not the one who had to prove herself worthy by using her hair’s magical powers/super cool tricks she can do with it. unlike Mother Gothel, Eugene sees her.

cut to the scene where Gothel drags her back to the tower. she undoes the braid, takes out the flowers, and suddenly Rapunzel is being reduced back to “the girl with magic hair”. she’s a servant - nay, a slave - again.

fast forward once again to the scene OP describes above: the hair cut. yes, partially the hair cut is due to the fact that Eugene is literally dying on the floor, so you know, a perfect cut was nothing to be expected anyways, but it’s just another extension of the symbolism. it’s the second part of an amazing juxtaposition. no longer is her hair long & blonde, the way Gothel wants/needs it to be. it’s short & brunette, the way Rapunzel needs it to be, bc now she’s FREE, she’s no longer a slave! she’s grown up, & has seen the world & has fallen in love and the hair cut is literally her cutting ties with the past that enslaved her for her entire life.

that’s why this scene is so fuckin awesome. that’s why the hair cut is more than just to please an small portion of the audience’s aesthetic.

you PERFECTLY explained 

a) why I love the scene when the little girls braid up her hair. in addition to being so pretty and practical, it FREES her. She can be herself! She can dance and twirl and explore and invite others to do the same without being weighed down in a way she has not been able to. For the first time, it truly isn’t about her hair.

and 

b) why I’ve always loved when Eugene says “did I ever tell you I have a thing for brunettes?” 

I’ve always loved it but I never thought of it as more than a light-hearted joke and sweet moment of him being a goofball and it iS but also. It’s important. Bc. Haircuts are dramatic, they just are, and hers is about as dramatic as it gets. She’s been tied to her hair for so long, she has seen it as the most valuable thing about her (because that’s how she was treated), and even independent of all her magic it is beautiful and striking and he’s just right away, like. “I don’t care. I’ve never cared about your hair. I like YOU.” and so she never has to go through this period of mourning for it or feel like she isn’t lovable because she’s lost her “one beauty”. Because he never saw her that way or treated her that way and right away, in the most lighthearted way imaginable, he reminds her of that.

Also you’re so right!!!! the haircut is such a beautiful dramatic marking of her newfound freedom but also of crossing over into adulthood. It’s irrevocable and dramatic for that reason--she will never look the same again--and he’s right there for her the whole time. First to free her from it, from the chain that it had become, to help her fully cross over into womanhood and then to love her on the other side of it the same way he always has!!!!!!! with no difference!!!!!!

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.