To @zonerobotnik: Merry Christmas, @zonerobotnik!!!!! I'm still praying to the Lord (Pardon my religious language, I'm Christian, so I really hope that doesn't bother you.) that your financial situation will get better very soon and that you get a much better house as well, and may Jesus bless you and your entire family with safety, happiness and love on this truly special day. And also, I have another, and this time different, ask about Monty! (So sorry if that sounds insensitive.): I still can't quite understand why yet, but there's just something about seeing Uncle Monty smile at Rapunzel in the episode "Rapunzel's Return" that just makes me feel all warm, fuzzy and tingly inside. And also, if you look very closely when he does, the feather sticking out from his hat perks up too! Awww. One of my short theories about this is that since Rapunzel is Monty's sworn nemesis, (and I don't mean that in a harmful manner) the chances of him ever offering the Princess herself a genuinely friendly smile are about as likely as the posters ever getting Eugene's nose right on them, (light reference to the movie) and he is usually very warm and friendly to everyone else in the kingdom, so maybe it's just seeing a usually rather grumpy character smile a sweet (no pun intended) smile for a change that really begins to melt your heart. And I know this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous, but for some reason, I find really funny to imagine Uncle Monty kind of bragging like an evil villain (hilarious, hammy and over-the-top evil laugh, dramatic hand rubbing, evil gloating and all) about being Rapunzel's biggest hater and arch-nemesis and how he gets away with it so easily when nobody is around to buy his candy. Yeah, I'm not really quite sure why I thought of that either. But overall, I just really find his smile so adorable and sweet (And also, have you noticed that his mustache sort of looked different then how it normally did when he smiled at Rapunzel? Not that I mind of course. In fact, I actually find it very cute.) and I genuinely sometimes wish people/fans would give this moment more attention and love and recognize this softer, sweeter and kinder side of Uncle Monty more often. And once again, Merry Christmas, praying that you eventually get your financial situation fixed, and may Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit continue to kindly bless you and all of the people that you love and care about. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁☃️☃️☃️☃️☃️🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🥛🥛🥛🥛🥛✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
(I love this picture so much. ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️)
I don't think Monty ever even made ANY mention to how he felt about Rapunzel, much less bragging about it, except to her face. He booed her the first time in a huge crowd, where no one could pick him out. Passing on the street, in a noisy carriage, no one could know that he's talking about her specifically. Except for to "Misty", Monty hardly ever showed anyone his dislike for her. And Rapunzel only ever brought up her feelings for him when he was put in front of her, or when she crushed him in that food diorama. In fact, aside from Rapunzel blatantly booing him in public, in full view, obvious to everyone including her father, no one knows that they have a problem and it is, at most, one-sided on Rapunzel's part and she just doesn't like the candymaker for some reason and he responded in kind.
Yes, it is a nice scene, but there are other scenes of Monty smiling.
(On that note, speaking of nice smiles, look at Varian's here.)
It's just a bit monotonous to only focus on that one smile. Especially since in the first and third one, he is relaxed and smiling at Rapunzel, excited about a fight well-won or a fight soon-to-come. It may not be the "Aww, thanks for caring about me!" smile of a man that has been long under a brutal oppression (which he feared Rapunzel would do to him), but he does have some very nice smiles. The fact that he dropped the smile right after wasn't a "I'm pretending not to like you", because I checked the episode and right before that, he did this:
He is genuinely happy to see her, the light in the darkness, as soon as she steps down the stairs. He then was sulking as she started to hug people
because he thought that she didn't like him. So, when she DID express that she missed him and was happy to see him, he was shocked
He then looked in emotional pain
and turned his attention to Xavier saying "We stay hidden" as he started to tell Rapunzel what happened in her absence.
So, no, there actually was no pretending to dislike her after smiling, that was him sulking beforehand. From that point on, he was focused on the task ahead, resistance, preparing to fight back - which made the Saporians take drastic measures and cause infighting between Varian and the Saporians, who up until then hadn't resorted to killing anyone. With Varian's help, they most likely had a bloodless takeover, and then Rapunzel came back and threw a monkey-wrench into the whole thing. After that, they had a few bumps but were allies, if not friends, throughout season 3. On her mural wall, she painted him like this,
when in Season 1 all she had was this.
So, yeah, it's wonderful that they started to be friends after she got back, but I like the smiles he gives when he's not feeling relief and joy for the first time in months and is shocked and relieved that she actually cared about him more.
I hope she and Monty become best friends and she brings her kids to see him every day.