wait can i know more about gage & rapunzels relationship 🥺
omg ABSOLUTELY tysm for asking <333333
(gonna put this under the cut at a certain point bc it got Long NKDNFKN)
SO. gage has grown up... knowing he was very much The Second Choice. gothel only has (steals in rapunzel's case, and gage wishes in his case, but i'm like 99% sure he's her biological son, to his chagrin) kids to keep them as possessions, so she does keep gage close. but she also always resented gage for not being rapunzel. she thought it'd make her feel better to have another kid, fill the void, but it doesn't, because he doesn't have anything to give her in return. well, besides being something she can keep. so she keeps him, but she lets him know he isn't his sister and he'll never be his sister. she draws up any comparison she can between them - looks, personality, ability, whatever. just to remind him he's less-than, and because he's inherently less valuable, he has a little more slack. he has to leave his tower to attend school, and when gothel leaves on business, he can sneak out and come and go as he pleases (as long as he's back before she is), which is more than rapunzel ever got. sure, he has to find his own way down, but he can still leave. bc (at least to him) his mother cares less. yes, rapunzel was kept, but she was cared about, and gage is freer, but he is hated. so. that's one big fucked-up layer. (and obvs this is gage's twisted mind like. gothel did not love rapunzel but the half-controlling half-uncaring approach she takes with gage really Fucks him up.)
so gage is nothing like his sister. yet at the same time, gage is everything like his sister. of course he thinks about seeing things that aren't on the isle. he's realistic, he's not stupid, he knows it's never gonna happen, he doesn't have any dreams or grand escape plans, but yeah. he thinks about it. especially because of rapunzel. he has her storybook - he stole it from a kid at school and kept it hidden in his room ever since. his mom will kill him if she finds it, but he has to know, and so he knows, and it haunts him. why did she get to get out? why do people care about what happens to her, but not him? why does she get the mother who actually gives a shit, and then gets to marry the prince and ride off in the sunset? does she know about him? does she care? would she come back for him? has she tried? so he envies her, he wants to be her, he resents her, he wants to know her, he misses her, he knows he'll never be like her. all he'll have is the same shitty mom and her shadow to live in, and he'll never be the one to get away or the most-loved or the one with a prince.












