[ SECRET POST #2284 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2284 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 015 secrets from Secret Submission Post #326.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - random porn ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

12. http://i.imgur.com/jnwzRuR.jpg

[morieris]

Now that I think about it, while kidnapping is pretty damn bad, I wonder exactly what she did in the past to protect the flower. Certainly someone else had stumbled upon it before.

[greenvelvetcake]

I'd like to know more about Gothel and how she found the flower. How did she know what it did? How did she know the song, did she just make it up? How did the guards know it would save Rapunzel's mother?

[(Anonymous)]

It's shown in the movie that she originally had it hidden under a basket made to look like a bush. The night it was discovered by the knights or whatever, she was too hasty putting it back and accidentally knocked it away as she ran. I just assumed it was too far out of the way for anybody else to have stumbled upon it by accident before.

[visp]

Yup, people will do some crazy things to survive. I suppose I can understand her actions.

[childings.livejournal.com]

Uh but kidnapping someone else's child, lying to them and telling them you're their mother and then depriving them of their freedom? You would do all that, just so you wouldn't have to die?

[(Anonymous)]

I think most people would do more to avoid death than they're willing to admit to themselves. I can say "Oh, I would never (insert bad thing here) to get (insert good thing here)" but when you're actually given that choice, you'd be surprised how flexible people's morals become. People do bad things for rewards not nearly as good as eternal youth.

[(Anonymous)]

I know I would. :/

And yes, I know it makes me a bad person, but honestly I'd do anything short of maybe murder to avoid death.

[(Anonymous)]

Hell no, I'd just abduct her and keep her locked up. Forget the web of lies, that shit is unconscionable.

Er, wait, did she have to be happy or something for it to work? I can't remember this movie.

[illiadandoddity]

I've thought the same thing sometimes, OP. The movie played it like she was only keeping herself young for vanity's sake, but... in the flashback where we see her find the flower for the first time, she was already pretty old. I guess I see wanting to escape death as a little more important a motive to Gothel than just wanting to be pretty.

[cassandraoftroy]

Well, at least you're not trying to convince anyone that she wasn't a horrible, abusive mother, so points to you for that!

And I get it. The notion of death has terrified us since before the dawn of the human species. I like to think that I wouldn't resort to the kind of measures that Gothel did in pursuit of extending her life and youth, but how many people are ever really put into the position to make that decision for real?

[(Anonymous)]

This. Everything you said.

The number of people who defend Gothel as "not that bad" makes me weep, because I think they might have parents who did this kind of "you annoy me SO MUCH, I'll pretend it was a joke I just made" parenting.

[writerserenyty]

Definitely; I mean, I've seen enough people going "I don't know, Gothel was a perfectly good mother." At least OP knows themselves, and death is a perfectly normal thing to freak us out.

[intrigueing]

The kidnapping and fear of dying I could sympathize with. It's the abuse that I couldn't stomach. If she really cared about Rapunzel and realized that she wanted to leave and was unhappy, she could've confessed to Rapunzel that she would die without Rapunzel's hair and they could've worked something out. Rapunzel wouldn't let her mother die. But no, she didn't even try. It didn't seem like it was even a tradeoff between abuse and dying for her, the hair was just her excuse for being abusive.

[(Anonymous)]

You realize what you suggested is *also abuse*. That level of emotional manipulation is very abusive in and of itself.

[(Anonymous)]

This. It's pretty bad that after 16 years she wouldn't even let Rapunzel out of the tower whatsoever and didn't seem to be remorseful at all about it. While I can understand her fear and where she was coming from, you'd think she'd have some misgivings about keeping her 'daughter' prisoner. Then again I guess she never saw Rapunzel as a daughter, only as an object that was her's to keep.

[inkmage]

Or she could've gone to the King and Queen while Rapunzel was still a baby, leaving her out of it entirely, and said, "Here's the deal, that flower was keeping me alive and now it's gone because of you two. It's great that you're still alive, but, um, help me out here please?"

Not in so many words, but you get the picture.

She could have become a nanny, or a babysitter, or a courtesan, or quite a lot of things that would have given her access to Rapunzel like once a month at least (don't remember how often she had to do the singing thing - my headcanon suggests more frequently as her life was extended). But instead she chose kidnapping and emotional abuse.

[(Anonymous)]

Well--people all have a dark side. Villainous characters are meant to represent that.

[quantumreality]

Eh. I'm probably in a different life-headspace than you, OP, but I'm at that age where being conscious of your own mortality and necessary impermanence isn't so dreadful. Sure, it sucks to know that in 50 or so years I won't be around anymore, but it's just what it is.

EDIT: The best inversions of the immortality trope I've seen involve exploring the ramifications of just what the definition of "immortality" actually is.

a. What if you kept aging?
b. What if even physical destruction of your body couldn't stop your life?

[deadtree]

idk I don't think it has anything to do with age-- my younger brother has ALWAYS been absolutely horrified of the aging process and has feared death forever; I'm significantly older but am more like you.

[elephantinegrace]

And what about when you live long enough that not only have the people you grown up with died, but everyone who remembers them have died, too? Do you have healing abilities, too, or is that ship that just capsized with you in it going to leave you in pain until people decide to dig you out (if they decide to dig you out and not just leave the ship there as a memorial)? What about when the rest of the world starts noticing that you're not dying; what would they do to study you knowing they can't kill you no matter what they do?

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, the thing that bothered me the most was that she kept the Rapunzel in the same damn kingdom ruled by her parents all that time. Would it have been so hard to move to a new kingdom? yknow, one where she wouldn't be seeing those lanterns in the sky every night making her want to go see them in person?

[inkdust]

Lately I've been more afraid of aging than of death. There's nothing to be afraid of after I'm dead.

[darkmanifest]

Hm, yeah. I don't really sympathize with her, because lol way to overdo it, lady, but I also don't underestimate what youthful immortality would be worth to me if it was ever presented to me.

[netbug009]

I don't think "sympathizing" is the right word though? Doesn't that include justifying? I mean, yeah lots of people want to live forever, but IDK.