#nigel tangled

And then showed up in season 3 firing sleep powder in barrels with a trebuchet at Rapunzel after disrespecting a very direct order

NIGEL: Unfortunately, you cannot fit screaming into your schedule, you’ll have to internalize-

RAPUNZEL: *stares into his soul*

NIGEL:

I actually remembered Nigel’s fear from Be Very Afraid, 1 because ive watched it many times, and 2 because it seemed especially odd to me. It wasn’t some silly, fear-ified version of his job like it was for most people. It was really strange and random, but also much more realistic and concrete. But at the time I laughed at it being just random.

Now, not only do I love them for putting it in an earlier episode for foreshadowing, i love how it shows how Tangled isn’t afraid to explore its side characters. Nigel isn’t a character who is essential to the plot, they didn’t have to give him an interesting backstory, even for one episode. But something so simple as a couple lines of backstory can add so much to a character. I feel like I like and understand Nigel so much more after just that little piece of backstory.

Like it even makes more sense of his strong opinions in QfaD. Back then, I knew he was just doing his job, but also, as a Varian fan, thought he was rather unsympathetic towards Varian. Now I understand it wasn’t only tied to his job, he’s actually watched a village get destroyed because of one person’s unwillingness to listen to reason: himself. Because he was sympathetic before, and it cost him his village. He isn’t going to let Rapunzel endanger a whole kingdom for the sake of one boy, like he did back then.

I feel like Varian, living in a very peaceful Equestria with only stories has no idea what his family can be like and kind of downplays it in his head because like for example

On the one hand you have Varian’s nerdy, studious, slightly neurotic, friendship oriented aunt who gets excited about reorganizing her library so referencing takes .0006 seconds less time

On the other is what that aunt is capable of when it’s really necessary that Varian has never seen because it wasn’t necessary

Enemies should be glad Twilight doesn’t have access to all alicorn magic at all times

But even her usual level is probably enough to make some people incredibly nervous

And this isn’t even mentioning Flurry Heart who…