#interpersonal communication

For this assignment, I chose to watch an episode of Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, a sequel series to the 2010 Disney film Tangled. The specific episode I am watching is from season three of the series, and is titled “Return of the King.” I chose this episode because it is my favorite of the entire show, and I feel that it covers some interesting themes in relation to interpersonal communication and relationships as a whole. This series is set after the events of the film Tangled, and follows Princess Rapunzel on many adventures as she learns how to be a royal, while also uncovering mysteries that threaten both her, her friends, and her kingdom. She is joined by her chameleon Pascal, a horse named Maximus, her new friend Cassandra, and her boyfriend Eugene, who was formerly a thief going by the name Flynn Rider. At the end of season two, it is revealed that Eugene is not in fact an orphan, but that his father still lives, and is the king of the Dark Kingdom, which the group have been trying to reach for the entirety of the second season. In this second episode of season three, King Edmund -- Eugene’s father -- has come to Rapunzel’s kingdom to reconnect with his long-lost son. But unfortunately, Eugene’s former partners-in-crime, the Stabbington Brothers, have returned and are out for revenge.

Anger - A big emotional theme in this episode is anger, as it is exhibited by both Eugene and the Stabbington Brothers. Anger is described as “a feeling of extreme displeasure, usually brought about by interference with our needs or desires,” (Barwick-Snell, 2024, p. 234). For Eugene, the anger he displays towards his father, Edmund, multiple times throughout the episode is heavily entwined with the hurt Eugene feels for being abandoned as a baby, leading to resentment, which is “a combination of the emotions and actions and thought patterns resulting from our unresolved anger at an injustice,” (Barwick-Snell, 2024, p. 234). The line that best represents this feeling of resentment comes early in the episode, after Edmund reappears and bestows a family heirloom on Eugene. While he contemplates this gift, Rapunzel checks in on him, and he states that “he abandoned me as a child, and he didn’t even try to stay in touch with me,” (Shipp & Pignotti, 2019, 04:41). Clearly, the resentment towards his father is evident in his words and tone, and this feeling continues throughout the episode. The Stabbington Brothers also show both anger and resentment in the episode, directed towards Eugene, for his past actions against them which are shown in the movie and earlier episodes of the series.

Loneliness - Another emotional theme that is explored in this episode is loneliness, and what a sense of extreme loneliness can lead us to do. Over the past 24 years, King Edmund has been isolated from all other people while he was protecting the Moonstone -- a powerful crystal that has now been stolen -- and as such, his social skills have degraded overall, and he feels incredibly lonely. Barwick-Snell (2024) states that the feeling of loneliness often “occurs when a person has fewer interpersonal relationships than desired,” (p. 20), and while Edmund does have a crow companion named Hamuel, he is missing that human connection. His sense of loneliness is stated outright by Rapunzel -- “He’s lonely,” (Shipp & Pignotti, 2019, 04:52), and we can see further indicators of it throughout the episode, as he tries to connect with Eugene, who is largely unreceptive to his attempts at building a relationship. He also weaponizes his loneliness often, by lying and making up a fake crime to get Eugene to spend time with him.

Erikson’s seventh stage: Generativity versus Self-Absorption - One thing that quickly stood out to me about Edmund’s actions throughout the episode, is that he is clearly in the seventh of Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. This stage is usually seen in those ages forty to sixty-five, which Edmund falls under, and has the individual either “concerned about the development and welfare of others,” or their “life loses its meaning and [they] feel bitter, dreary, unfulfilled, and stagnant… preoccupied with the self, personal needs, and interests,” (Barwick-Snell, 2024, p. 97). As I would say that Edmund fully exited the sixth stage with isolation as his main trait, he is approaching the seventh stage in a more extreme way. He tries to connect with his son Eugene by giving him a family heirloom, and by going on this adventure together to retrieve said heirloom after it is stolen, which reads to me as generativity. On the other hand, his focus on only his own needs and trying to achieve a sense of fulfillment makes his efforts to try and build a connection with Eugene feel hollow, and Eugene is uninterested in a relationship. When it is revealed that Edmund himself “stole” the heirloom, we see him try to explain his reasoning in a very self-absorbed way -- “I wanted to be part of your life, [Eugene]. And I thought a father and son trip might-” (Shipp & Pignotti, 2019, 15:24). And while it is coming from a place of wanting to build a relationship, Edmund is only thinking about how it will benefit him, without regard for Eugene’s feelings. In the end, the heirloom gets destroyed, but Edmund makes a new one with Eugene’s tastes in mind, showing a lean back towards generativity.

Selective listening - Working in tandem with Erikson’s seventh stage, we see Edmund practice a lot of selective listening, which Barwick-Snell (2024) describes as “hearing only certain parts of the conversation,” (p. 338). While going on this adventure together, Edmund will often make random comments about what they are doing or how he is feeling -- his previous isolation means he doesn’t really keep his internal thoughts to himself -- and when Eugene responds, Edmund often only keys in on one of the things Eugene has said, or responds in a way that is in opposition to what was said. One of the biggest examples of this is what is supposed to be a running joke throughout the episode; early on, it is revealed that Eugene’s birth name was actually Horace, and this is the name that Edmund consistently uses during their adventure, even when Eugene corrects him each time. Near the end of the episode, when they are in mortal danger, Edmund finally refers to him as “Eugene,” (Shipp & Pignotti, 2019, 20:08), and as the episode ends, Edmund seems to have begun the work of becoming less of a selective listener, which is further displayed in later episodes.

Personal self-image - While it is only briefly touched upon in this episode, the character of Eugene is a great example of how one can change their personal self-image, or “the part of the self that includes physical, behavioral, and psychological characteristics that establish uniqueness… [and it] includes past teachings about yourself,” (Barwick-Snell, 2019, p. 123). When we first meet Eugene in the film Tangled, he is a thief going by the name Flynn Rider who only cares about himself; then, throughout the film, we see him begin to accept what he sees as his real self, an orphan named Eugene Fitzherbert. The changes to his personal self-image continue onward in the series, and he seems to feel secure with himself when they reach the Dark Kingdom. But then he meets Edmund, his father and a king, and now everything he thought he knew about himself has changed. In this episode, we can see him trying to hold on to the previous version of his personal self-image that he had established and felt comfortable in, especially in his disinterest to build any sort of relationship with his newly-discovered father. At the end of the episode, he is able to begin building a relationship with his father while still being true to himself, and not letting the title of ‘Prince of the Dark Kingdom’ change who he is; even Edmund can see this, as he says “I guess my son believes in second chances,” (Shipp & Pignotti, 2019, 20:46).

When deciding what to watch for this assignment, this specific episode was one of the first to come to mind, as it covers communication and relationships in a really interesting way, since the dynamic between Eugene and Edmund is so new, even though they are blood-related. There were many more theories and concepts I noted as being displayed in the episode, but I believe the five I picked are the most important and well-shown in the episode, especially without all the additional context of having watched the whole series and the movie prior. I think this show did a really great job of showing all kinds of different relationships and ways of communicating throughout its sixty episode run, especially because so many of the characters come from different life circumstances, and many of them have experienced various forms of trauma, which is explored as well. It doesn’t always hit the mark in terms of messaging, but when your episodes are only twenty-two minutes long and more geared towards children, that can often happen. Regardless, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for this show, and how both it and the franchise of Tangled as a whole benefitted my own interpersonal relationships, and made me who I am today.

References

Barwick-Snell, K. (2024). Becoming aware. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.