#zone rambles

It's a small line in a big musical number, but it's the cause of a bit of a debate in the Tangled fandom. In the scene, visually, when he says "Your Highness" the camera focuses on Queen Arianna looking concerned. But, I think it's pretty clear that he's not talking to her, but to Rapunzel. First of all, Varian is a rather respectful child, and wouldn't deliberately insult the Queen by calling her "Your Highness", especially when she has not, personally, done him any wrong. She is only there as bait, which he assured her himself, for Rapunzel. So, why would he be calling her "Your Highness"? Let's examine the rest of his verse in the song "Ready As I'll Ever Be": ["Believe me, I know, I've sunk pretty low. But, whatever I've done, you deserved."] The "you" in this song is someone that has done him a personal wrong, which is either Rapunzel or King Frederic. We can assume, since he refers to King Frederic as "Your Majesty" later that he's not talking about him here. He also called Queen Arianna, "Your Majesty" when he was reassuring her of her role in this fight in their earlier conversation. Therefore, we can assume that this "you" is about Rapunzel. Arianna tries to interject here with "Varian..." and he, while being firm about it, tells her to be "quiet". Not in a "I'm talking to you, so shut up" way but more of a "you're distracting me, be quiet" way. She's chained up, she's where he needs her to be, he has no reason to address her from this point on - and he doesn't. His gaze is also always turned in the direction of the castle when he's thinking about the object of his ire, not towards Queen Arianna. ["I'm the bad guy, that's fine, it's no fault of mine and some justice, at last, will be served."] The person he is addressing here knows that he was driven to this by their actions, that if things had been different, he wouldn't BE the "bad guy". Once again, that would be Rapunzel or King Frederic, and we already determined that he would not call King Frederic "Highness". Arianna did nothing to Varian to warrant this course of action. She didn't even know about what had happened to Quirin, and possibly not even the rocks, so she was lied to as much as everyone else by both her daughter and husband. Varian means her no ill-will and doesn't wish justice against her personally. I wonder if she even knew that Varian was a threat before he kidnapped her. ["Please, listen!"] Queen Arianna attempts to talk to him again, but he's in the zone, he's completely ignoring her now and not letting her distract him. She is a prop in the play and his focus is solely on Rapunzel. ["Now, it's time to time to step up, or it's time to back down, and there's only one answer for me."] Varian is cornered, isolated, and abandoned by the friend he thought he had, who he has been trying so many ways to get through to her and now he knows that, even IF he were to give up now, there was nothing but bars for him. Hell, if we think about the masked men, that was ALWAYS his fate from the moment his father was trapped in amber. His only chance at freedom is to keep fighting and win here, because Rapunzel wasn't going to help him, OR his father, willingly. So, as he stated earlier, "this is my only remaining recourse". ["And I'll stand up and fight, 'cause I know that I'm right. And I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready - ready as I'll ever be"] Rapunzel brought in the rocks that he has been fighting, and her bringing him into the fight at all is what made the King target him. The kingdom is suffering and he's the only one that's doing anything about it, even if right now all he cares about is saving his father from an uncertain fate. Rapunzel's connection to the rocks is the only thing that can affect the amber, he's so certain of it, and Rapunzel is the one that truly hurt him, led him on and used him, and he's ready to take down her power - and use her power to save his father. So, in the end, "Your Highness" was always Rapunzel, from beginning to end. Even when he's pissed off, he still speaks to the royal family with respect.

Gonna be honest I never even heard of some of the people dropping rants before this, so I can't help but think they're riding on his name to get attention.

Back in 2010-2011, I went to a vocational school and was put into a dorm situation. I had been homeschooled most of my life due to the school district being unreliable and I never went to college, so this was my only real experience with being surrounded by a bunch of stranger alone. I was on the other side of the state from my family, and the school had the right to prevent me from going home if they wanted to. I went into a dorm, and at first it was okay. I had a longtime friend there with me. But, then another dorm opened up, she got moved over, and I was put in a new room, with a new room leader. I arrived at the school with all my pretty long skirts and even an apron and bonnet that I wore t keep the sun off my face because I burn easily. I covered myself up, you couldn't see much of my skin. I had other clothes, of course, but that was what I arrived in. And I often wore pretty long skirts and covered up my arms with long sleeves, even in summer. But that didn't stop them from looking. I ran into my fair share of perverted men, and got dumped by a guy I dated because I wouldn't sleep with him, but I had been told my whole life that men were dangerous. Men were dangerous, women were safe. The women were not safe. Over my time there, I would endure lewd comments, suggestive gestures, and my room leader decided that she would set it up and lie to the dorm leader that I hadn't been showering every day, so that I would have to take showers every day, supervised by my room leader who would sign off for me. she watched me dress, she made comments, she would lock my things in her locker and then disappear on me if I dared to leave anything out visible, even though her things were visible. I begged several times to move to the other dorm, I was told to just work it out. I was coerced into wearing a skimpy dress for a Valentine's Day dance, too short, sleeveless, and also high heels that were too high for my liking. The women helped me dress. They put makeup on me, they put clothes on me, they touched me all over, and I went along with it because I thought women were safe. It was just a game. "Wolves will be wolves", yes, but these wolves were women and they saw me as a helpless little lamb. Any friends I made were moved or graduated, I was isolated in my own home surrounded by perverts. The room leader kept up her antics, watching me, commenting on me, preying on me. I tried to avoid being in my room as little as possible. I felt more comfortable surrounded by men in the recreation hall playing video games and making art than I did surrounded by women that should've been my safe space. The only time they pretended to be my safe space was when my boyfriend broke up with me when I found him kissing another girl. But it was a farce. A little play. A game. My room leader's actions and the school doing nothing to help me, to stop the bullies, to stop the harassment, drove me into an emotional breakdown. Instead of trying to help me, they punished me, told me I couldn't go home as planned for that weekend. I had another emotional breakdown, I saw white, I lashed out blindly screaming and crying. They sent me home for good. Instead of helping me, they sent me away. Told me to pack my things and get out. I am still healing. I still can't get dressed in front of my husband without him having to avoid making comments or touching me. I still can't take a shower with anyone in the room with me. I still remember their faces, those women, even if I have forgotten pretty much all the guys. Because the guys were never preying on me as much as the women were. They took advantage of my trust and the idea that women were safe and if you're in trouble then rely on the women around you, but who do I rely on when the women around me are the ones putting me in danger?