Mother Gothel Tangled Disney Villain

Mother Gothel is the key antagonist of the Disney animated film Tangled, voiced by Donna Murphy.

She is an older woman, a bad guy, deceptively wicked, and selfish. She remains youthful for many years, using the healing power of a magical golden flower.

When the flower’s power is transferred to the baby Rapunzel, Mother Gothel takes over Rapunzel’s life as the overprotective stepmom. Rapunzel’s stepmom hides her away in a secluded tower for safekeeping and to harness the power of the lost princess’s hair. 

Mother Gothel Highlight Video

The real name of Mother Gothel is Madame Gothel. In most of her appearances, she is selfish, manipulative, and vain. She portrays some nurturing, motherly qualities; however, they are usually pretenses to control Rapunzel.

Mother Gothel’s Personality

Gothel is considered lazy because she neglects her daughter, Cassandra, and works as a family maid. She uses Cassandra to take on all the chores in their house alone as she wastes her time bragging about compliments she received from men and admiring herself in front of her magic mirrors. She only cares about herself and her youthful appearance. 

Cassandra’s birth father is unknown. Her real mother doesn’t bother to stay with her during the day and leaves her in their home all alone to track down the magical power.

She often gives Cassandra gifts to keep her away. She shows very little if any, motherly love to her at all. Later in the film, she demonstrates motherly love to Rapunzel to get what she wants, but she doesn’t respect the young woman to whom she is supposed to show love. 

Gothel is well known for her controlling nature. She shows this side of her personality when she is getting her way. She will always make fun of others and gloat to avoid any meddling.

Additionally, she even resorts to violence whenever she cannot get things under her control. She is also known to manipulate others. However, Rapunzel discovered this manipulation tactic and knew to watch for it.

Mother Gothel’s Physical Appearance

With the flower power’s effect, Gothel has a youthful appearance and a curvy figure. She is a tall and slender woman. She has long, curly black hair, which is the opposite of Rapunzel’s straight blonde hair. Her thick, black curly hair falls on her shoulders, and three curls hang on her forehead.

Her skin is smooth and flawless and looks very attractive, a youthful look. Better still, she has two large eyes with the eyelids having brown eye shadow. She has a pale skin tone, which is warmed by her dusted cheeks.

Without the flower power, she looks like an older woman without good looks. She has sagging skin that is covered with wrinkles all over. Her arms, face, hands, and other body parts show signs of old age. Her hair has some curls but lacks full volume and is thinning out.

Her hair color is a combination of white and silver strands. Like most older adults, she is shown with some blood veins on her arms that are easily visible. She wears a black dress because black colors help hide her poor figure’s shape.

Mother Gothel’s Relationships

Mother Gothel has had many relationships. She has had relationships with Pitch, Red Death, and Mor’du. In the film Tangled, she even makes alliances with other bad guys, such as the Stabbington Brothers.

Pitch

Mother Gothel has many conversations with Pitch since he is the only human in the group. They conspired together to find ways of destroying Rapunzel, Jack, Merida, and Hiccup. They do not entirely trust each other, which can lead to their downfall.

Gothel has come to fear age, and Pitch sees it as the weirdest fear he has ever encountered. They have some misunderstandings but remain firm allies.

Red Death

Red Death is well known for outstanding strength, immersive destruction, aggressiveness, and more. Because of his mischievous traits, Gothel feels happy to be together on the same team as Red Death.

Mor’du

Gothel meets with Mor’du when they engage in battles. She calls him some weird names, which he does not like. Sometimes, he tries to attack her because of the name-calling, but Pitch defends her because they all need each other to get rid of the Big Four.

Mother Gothel’s Achievements

Though Gothel remains one of the most underrated Disney female villains, she has a few surprising achievements.

She has retained her youthful appearance for an extremely long time through the healing properties of the Golden Flower, likely hundreds of years. 

She is well known for keeping Rapunzel hidden from the royal guards in a locked tower for over 16 years so that she could easily access the healing powers of her golden hair.

She has portrayed humor, charisma, and complex acting to get her way, which shows fans and critics she is a talented actress. 

Her character development is believed to be more complex and unique due to her exotic appearance and background. 

Mother Gothel’s On-Screen Appearances

The Disney villain Mother Gothel has appeared on-screen and on stage. Her on-screen appearances have been in Disney movies and TV shows like Tangled, Tangled Before Ever After, and the Tangled TV series as a great villain.

Tangled

As an older woman coming to the end of her precious life, Gothel stands as a solo witness as a blob of sunlight lands on the soil, developing some magical flower that includes healing abilities. After striking its petals while singing, she turns pretty young and beautiful. This Disney film is based on a classic story about eternal youth and Rapunzel’s hair.

Tangled Ever After

Mother Gothel does not appear in the 2012 short movie Tangled Ever After. In the short 6-minute film, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider celebrate their wedding day. But first, Pascal and Maximus must find the wedding rings they accidentally lose in the middle of the ceremony.

Tangled: Before Ever After

Six months after the events of the film Tangled unfold, Rapunzel lives in the palace together with her royal family. At the beginning of the film, she is spoken about (in a cameo appearance) and appears in one of Rapunzel’s paintings, which rekindles the events that made her come back as a princess.

Apart from her brief appearance, Gothel is also mentioned a few times.

As King Frederic and Queen Arianna debate why he is so protective of the young princess, Frederic has a mental flashback of the night Gothel broke into the castle and abducted Rapunzel.

Tangled: The Series – Season 1

In the episode “What the Hair?! “, Gothel appears to Rapunzel in a nightmare. Gothel summons the thorn-like rocks that emerged the night Rapunzel’s hair magically returned.

Gothel notices the hairstyle and advises that she and Rapunzel return to the tower, where Rapunzel would be more secure. Rapunzel suddenly awakens from her nightmare, but the experience inspires her to learn more about her resurrected hair.

Later, Eugene lashes back at King Frederic over his abuse of his daughter in the latter half of the first season (specifically in “The Alchemist Returns” and “Secret of the Sun Drop”). To Eugene, Frederic’s treatment of Rapunzel is no better than Gothel’s treatment. As with Gothel, Frederic has lied and suffocated Rapunzel’s free spirit.

The most uncanny resemblance to Gothel’s act is when King Frederic traps Rapunzel in the castle’s tallest tower for her protection. Rapunzel gradually learns the distinction between the two since Frederic’s acts were motivated by passion, while Gothel’s were motivated by selfishness.

Season 2

In Rapunzeltopia, she appears in another dream-turned-nightmare produced by another of Zhan Tiri’s ghostly disciples.

According to Lord Demanitus’s flashback, she was initially one of his students before she chose to double-cross him to his biggest adversary, Zhan Tiri.

Season 3

Cassandra was surprised enough during her desolate girlhood to take the ancient Moonstone for herself, causing the dark magic to overtake her and bestow ultimate control over her. This discovery of Rapunzel’s ancestry led the tough lady-in-waiting to conclude that Rapunzel’s fate had already been hers.

She then explained to a stunned Rapunzel that she had had enough of being overlooked by Rapunzel.

After months of building up her age and renewed strength with the help of the mysterious ghostly Girl. Cassandra, who continuously led and mentored her, told Princess Rapunzel that they should have another conversation over how Gothel picked the princess over her bloodline, the basis of her inspiration for gaining control on her own.

Rapunzel reminded her that she had been held against her will by Gothel as a child. Already enraged, Cassandra inquired if Rapunzel’s attempt to throw Gothel out a window to her death was only her plan.

Happily Ever After

Gothel is an underrated Walt Disney villain who is often overlooked. In the fairy tale, Tangled, she has a much more significant role with more screen time than many other villains like the Evil Queen in Snow White.

From the magical powers she continues to steal no matter the cost to her expressive acting skills and manipulation, the sinister Gothel is a top 10 Disney villain.

Look at some of our other top Disney Characters, such as Seven Dwarfs, Disney Princesses, Disney Princes, Lady Tremaine, and more animated characters.

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