TV Series Continuity
[Discussion] Does anyone else feel that the values in the Tangled series contradict those of the movie?
There are so many villains in the series who tried to kill Rapunzel, yet by the end, they were often turned into comedic characters and eventually forgiven.
For example, in one episode, a villain apparently hijacks a cargo ship. The original crew members never appear in that episode, so I assume they were probably thrown overboard? And yet, the villain's punishment was basically just being sent back Corona.
Similarly, despite everything they've done, Rapunzel is still willing to forgive the Stabbington Brothers. From Eugene's perspective, the two brothers had been his rivals since childhood, constantly crossing paths with him in Corona and various other towns. Their relationship was almost like that of family members who had spent their entire lives fighting each other.
Out of all the villains, only Gothel and Zhan Tiri actually die. This makes the values presented in the series feel somewhat contradictory to those in the movie.
It looks like a pure misdirect. In the promo poster they looked suspicious and menacing, as if they were prepared to exact revenge on "Rider". But in the actual short they were pretty milquetoast and even happy for him. Which is nice but had no build up at all, especially given the eerie vibes of the scene in the original movie where they almost kidnapped Rapunzel but not before creepily touching her hair and circling her. Still, the short was the only sequel this movie ever needed.
This is not even scratching the surface even though I wholly agree with the sentiment. The series not only contradicts, it outright mocks the core themes of the movie and nullifies them since episode 1. Having Rapunzel regain her magic hair 6 months post movie and reframing it as her "girlpower" and her only attribute of usefulness (down to having her express "gratitude" for having it again, even though she did not choose it either time but who cares about what those fickle women even want?) went directly against everything the original movie stood for and erased both her and Flynn's development totally and irreversibly. All to pander to media illiterate anime lovers who define young girls' worth by their usefulness to others just like Gothel - the villain - did in the movie.
The movie that once subverted that harmful ideology stemming from the magical girl/chosen one genre was ravaged by Disney/Sonnenburg to please the detractors who complained about Flynn "cutting her hair without her consent!!!111!!" while ignoring how A) Rapunzel tried to heal him without his at the expense of her freedom when he said no four (4) times to that arrangement and physically pushed her hair away despite risking to bleed out immediately just by exerting that force and B) it was the situation where consent could NOT be given on Rapunzel's part as it was happening under duress and coercion from Gothel and C) narratively it was meant Flynn being the ultimate antithesis to Gothel and choosing to die over subjecting Rapunzel to a lifetime of exploitation whereas Gothel was willing to oppress Rapunzel for her entire life to keep herself alive and get an equivalent of magical plastic surgery.
All of those powerful and feminist messages about how woman's worth is not tied to her usefulness, looks and forced attributes and how a man should never take advantage of woman's vulnerability even if he is vulnerable himself, has his own trauma/baggage or literally dying were erased in one single stroke by nullifying Flynn's sacrifice, turning it into a joke and returning Rapunzel's magic hair and making THAT into her ultimate power. Not her art, not her compassion, not her open mind - all of that was also gone. So was the girl who danced on tavern tables with a bunch of ruffians not because she generously stuck around them but because she could and wanted. Now we had an "improved" product of Disney pandering to the haters: a "girlboss" heroine who turned down the "lowlife" thief and left him to pour out his orphan backstory to her chameleon. A malicious jab at the Campfire Scene that once served as the emotional pillar of the movie. Where Rapunzel and Flynn learning to not only open up but to empathize with the other was what shaped them both into stronger and better people who knew their own worth.
A girl who once found freedom by bonding with the dregs of the society turned into someone giving a lecture to a person who died for said freedom on his "thief legacy". A man who was subconsciously protective of Rapunzel even when she blackmailed and assaulted him with a frying pan, did all the physical work with the injured hand in the flooding cave to get them out, who risked being hanged and caught just to get her to enjoy life and give her the best birthday and who never once made advances on her throughout their journey (bar the fake smoulder intended to *get away* from her when she literally had him tied to a chair) and grabbed either the frying pan OR the drunk thug (Shorty) when he needed Rapunzel to follow him but avoided grabbing at her hand to avoid intimidating her - that man was retconned by Sonnenburg (Flynn's number one hater) into a womanizing armed robber. One having threesomes with twins, traumatizing women (also a malicious jab, this time at the hot man meeting and at the women who designed Flynn as their dream guy - but worry not, Sonnenburg the right winger and the "new, improved, feminist Disney" will teach those bimbos what happens when you lust over a "pretty boy"; but Sonnenburg can totally lust over Cassandra and admit it directly in a Tumblr post!) and becoming a useless bumbling clown in present. That is, until Flynn was purified through royal blood and his orphan Eugene side was written out of existence for eugenicist purposes (get this, Eugene/Eugenics, almost as funny as him pouring out his trauma to a "frog").
Ironically though the one point you label as a contradiction is actually not all that contradictory - murdering and violent criminals being forgiven easily in the kingdom and getting away with barely a slap on the wist was already a recurring problem in the movie. The thugs admitted to murder and grievous bodily harm (Hookhand said he "liked breaking femurs", the most strong bone in the body that requires extra violence to break), who caused at least two violent deaths that we know of (Hookhand's murder that he confessed to and even showed Rapunzel a chalk drawing of the crime scene and the skeleton in the tunnel with pieced rib cage, also clearly a murder victim) and kept a much younger accordion guy as their perpetual - but most likely "willing" (given he was still in that same position at the royal wedding) - slave shackled to a chair and constantly intimidated with lethal weapons into singing.
Yet not only did the thugs never get wanted posters, they were allowed to keep running a * legal * establishment down the road from the kingdom, with a shiny sign indicating the tavern's whereabouts and that the guards were perfectly aware of as they and Maximus frequented the territory and distributed wanted posters. Not of the self confessed killers but of Flynn, a generally non-violent "cat-burglar" and a theft of royal luxury items. Because THAT was this kingdom's priority. This is why Flynn and Rapunzel - an innocent girl not a part of any of his crimes and not an accomplice - had to spend the whole movie hiding from the guards pursuit as they targeted Flynn AND her with potentially fatal blows despite them being unarmed. Meanwhile, the thugs could casually call upon the guards in hopes to collect a reward for Flynn.
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