I was rewatching one of my favourite films last night – certainly my favourite “classic” Disney film. It’s charming, clever, slapstick, nuanced, emotional, and well-told. It may be the most quick-witted Disney film since Aladdin, the best-realised since Beauty and the Beast, and features a villain both wholly relateable and utterly despicable, the most so in Disney since….well, perhaps since ever.
Seriously, Mother Gothel is a genius character. But she’s not why I’m here today. Nor am I here to sing the praises of Tangled. Well, I am and I will, but in a slightly more specific way than rambling about how much I love Maximus. On my rewatch yesterday, I got to thinking about the ending of the film specifically. For those who can’t remember the ending of Tangled, or who have not seen it…..go watch it, you dweebs, you’ll be better people for it. But if that doesn’t convince you, here’s a quick recap:
Rapunzel has been lured back to the tower by Gothel, only for the former to realise the latter has deceived her. Gothel, however, has no intention of giving Rapunzel (and her magical healing hair) up, chaining her to the wall. At this point Flynn returns to the tower, realising that Rapunzel is in grave danger….however, as he enters once more, Gothel ambushes him and stabs him in the back, a clearly fatal wound.
At this point, Gothel begins to drag Rapunzel away, knowing that her secret tower is now compromised and determined to find a new hiding place…..however, Rapunzel fiercely resists, before offering Gothel a deal: Allow Rapunzel to heal Flynn’s wound, and she will go with Gothel willingly, and stay with her forever.
Now, Gothel and Flynn both know Rapunzel’s character well – for her, an oath such as this is a serious thing, and she will not break it. As such, Gothel allows it, but as Rapunzel talks to Flynn, he attempts to dissuade her, telling her he’d rather die than see her willingly give up her newfound freedom. When his pleas fail, and Rapunzel begins to prepare to heal him, Flynn cuts her hair off, removing its magical powers and making Rapunzel useless to Gothel.
Gothel dies, as does Flynn…..well, ok, fine. It’s a Disney film, of course he doesn’t actually die. Rather, Rapunzel weeps over his body, and one of her tears restores him to life. Happy endings, fireworks, weddings and a generally joyful montage occurs, the end, etc. However, I was struck on this rewatch by a fairly simple fact – namely, I don’t mind the fact that Flynn doesn’t really die. The old “oh no they’re dead……oh wait not really” is a classic kid’s film trope, and one which is often eye-rollingly obvious for anyone over 10. Nonetheless, I find the ending of Tangled to be satisfying, and don’t think it relies on emotional manipulation or upon cheap and consequence-free tragedy to get there – and to understand the difference between Tangled’s ending and the ending of a thousand other kid’s movies, who else should we turn to but JRR Tolkien?
Now, Tolkien’s obviously best known today as a novelist and world builder, but to reduce his legacy to this is frankly demeaning. Tolkien was a linguist, a historian, and a critical analyst of story-telling and mythmaking, and it is his thoughts on the latter that are especially relevant to us right now. In the 1947 essay On Fairy Stories, Tolkien outlined and defined a critical component of many such fairy stories, which he named the “eucatastrophe”.
But the “consolation” of fairy-tales has another aspect than the imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires. Far more important is the Consolation of the Happy Ending. Almost I would venture to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have it. At least I would say that Tragedy is the true form of Drama, its highest function; but the opposite is true of Fairy-story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite—I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function.
The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.” In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
On Fairy Stories, by J.R.R. Tolkien
In other words, the eucatastrophe is a happy ending that occurs despite the seeming inevitability of tragedy and failure. In this way, it can be seen that a “deus ex machina” is (almost always) a type of eucatastrophe….yet not all eucatastrophes are deus ex machinas.
This can easily be seen all around us in storytelling – the endings of innumerable fairy stories and tales for children and adults, of many of Tolkien’s works, of both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, of Avengers: Endgame, are all eucatastrophic. The latter two are especially worth our attention for a moment, for in them, the eucatastrophe is achieved only at a price – Darth Vader is redeemed by his son and saves Luke in turn, only to lose his life in the process, while Iron Man is able to thwart Thanos’ genocidal plans at the cost of his own life. In both these cases, the eucatastrophe is earned, both within the story’s logic and from a narrative perspective. We have seen Vader’s growing bond with and respect for Luke, and his own sadness at his failures (“It is too late for me” tells us more about this character’s feelings than an entire prequel, which is frankly impressive), and from the perspective of the viewer, Luke’s victory has been earned by both his martial defeat of Vader and his moral triumph over the Emperor. In other words, the moment Luke casts his lightsaber aside and says,
No, I’ll never turn to the dark side. You’ve failed your Highness. I’m a Jedi, like my father before me.
– is the moment when Luke has won.
Sure, the Emperor proceeds to whack him with evil Force magic, only to be picked up by Vader and tossed into an ornamental bottomless pit….but that isn’t when Luke wins, that’s simply the earned fruits of his victory. This, in turn, is why Return of the Jedi is such an incredibly satisfying ending…..if it had ended with Luke simply butchering the Emperor, that wouldn’t have shown any moral or personal growth on his part. Luke makes the choice to do right and, in turn, is rewarded for it. This, to me, is one way in which the eucatastrophe can be distinct from a deus ex machina – the eucatastophe must be earned in some way by its hero, even if it is not immediately obvious how. (A New Hope, also a eucatastrophe, is rather more obvious – Luke embraces his destiny and is in turn supported by his returning friend Han, allowing victory. The eucatastrophe must be earned, though it is up to the story and the storyteller to determine whether than earning should be clear, direct and logical; or cloak it in some fashion as is often the case with fairy tales.)
So we return to Tangled. Now, the eucatastrophe is a necessary part (as Tolkien outlined) of the fairy-tale as a genre, and thus of many Disney films. What really sets Tangled apart for me, though, is just how clearly earned this happy ending is for both its leads, and in the context of narrative logic. At the beginning of the film, Flynn was a greedy, opportunistic thief with no regard for others….his first defining character moment is when he betrays and abandons the Stabbington Brothers, allowing him to make off with their ill-gotten crown alone (and, in another excellent case of narrative logic, causing a whole host of problems for himself later). Rapunzel, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to leave her tower and see the wide world – though despite this desire, she was still genuinely devoted to her “adoptive” mother. At the beginning, Flynn would never have lifted a finger to help another, while Rapunzel was determined to see the outside world and loved her mother.
By the conclusion, both have changed and helped each other for the better, so that they are both willing to make the “right” choice, despite all the hurt it would cause them personally – Flynn was ready to die in order to guarantee Rapunzel’s freedom, Rapunzel was willing to give up the rest of her new-discovered life in order to serve a woman she rightly hated to heal Flynn’s wound. Incredibly, both these decisions would have been unthinkable 90 minutes earlier in the film to either of these characters, but so strong and focussed is their development that we recognise them both as the same characters….just bettered. Further, both of them are fully willing to make the “right” decision, the selfless decision, despite the fact that both are mutually incompatible – and we are clearly shown that both of them fully commit to their decision. Rapunzel does start to save Flynn, and we know she will hold to her promise to Gothel. Flynn does beg and plead her not to, and when that proves insufficient, takes matters a step further by severing Rapunzel’s hair, ensuring she is no longer useful to Gothel even as he dooms himself. Both characters have fully and utterly committed to their own doom for the sake of the other.
In other words, both characters willingly make a selfless decision, a decision that was once wholly incompatible with their priorities and yet is now believably what matters most to them. Both characters are entirely willing to follow through on that decision. And so, both characters unquestionably earn their happy ending – their eucatastrophe. At that point, following Gothel’s death, the logical ending would be for Flynn to die….from a real-world perspective. We’ve never seen any evidence that Rapunzel’s tears might hold healing powers, and he has taken an action he knows will lead to his death.
And yet.
And yet the fact is that this illogical twist in the narrative doesn’t bother me in the slightest, because it is entirely earned from a narrative perspective. Both characters have made choices that will cost them dearly to help the other, and so both characters have earned their reward, have earned their happiness. It is, as far as I am concerned, nearly a perfect eucatastrophe in every way – in setup, in execution and in its resolution.
So, there you have it. I know there’s a lot of people out there who genuinely enjoy Tangled, but find the ending unnecessarily saccharine – and maybe I can’t change your mind on that. I know for my part, usually the death fake-out doesn’t work for me, and I really wanted to understand why it is satisfying to me in this particular case – and I think I’ve explained it at least to my own satisfaction. Unlike so many cheap near-deaths in children’s films, Tangled grounds the death directly in the choices of the characters. It takes its time to show the consequences and the emotions following these choices, and it then rewards its characters (and the viewer) with well-earned happiness. Ultimately, are the suddenly magic tears a plot hole and/or a deus ex machina? Maybe. But truthfully, I don’t care. No, I’ll go a step further. Not only do I not care, but I truly believe that the ending of the film is the best possible version it could have. Tangled is, for me, a masterclass in the eucatastrophe, in the art of earning its “happily ever after”. It is effective, earned, well-built and well-executed, to a level that I believe no other Disney film has ever achieved. While it is fair to say that, from an in-universe perspective the resolution is never explained, it is well and truly earned from a narrative perspective – and, in a story, that’s really all that matters to me.
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