Mother Gothel Might Actually Be Another Disney Villain

in Movies & TV

mother gothel looking in mirror

Credit: Disney

From the moment Disney fans met Tangled’s Mother Gothel in 2010, she made a huge impression. From her hazelnut soup recipe to her penchant for kidnapping children from their unsuspecting royal parents, Mother Gothel is a woman of many talents.

mother gothel
Credit: Disney

Related: Disney CEO Confirms More ‘Tangled’ Coming to Disney Parks

As it turns out, some Disney fans think that Mother Gothel might also have another nefarious skill — identity theft (sort of).

One Reddit user, going by the name HermioneGranger3141, shared an incredibly detailed theory that Mother Gothel and the Evil Queen from Walt Disney’s 1937 classic animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, are one and the same person.

rapunzel balancing pies on her head in tangled
Credit: Disney

Here, we take a look at the fan theory that the woman who kept Rapunzel locked in a tower for her entire childhood might have also tried to ruin the life of another young Disney Princess — the M.O. certainly fits.

The lengthy Reddit post begins by establishing several reasons that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could have viably taken place in Rapunzel’s kingdom of Corona. This was done with painstaking detail:

-The palace has onion-dome style spires. -The palace and surrounding village is located on a small island that’s fairly close to the mainland. -Disney has told us it’s intended to be located somewhere in Germany, and that the movie is set during the 1780’s.

Even though this doesn’t seem like a ton of information, it’s enough to determine the location of the kingdom. The palace’s architecture tells us it’s somewhere in or near Bavaria, the only region of Germany where onion-dome spires were popular. Thanks to the lack of many large lakes in this region, we’re left with only one feasible possibility: Lindau Island in Lake Constance, located on the Southern border of Germany near Bavaria.

corona kingdom in disney tangled
Credit: Disney

Related: Fans Want More ‘Tangled’ at Disneyland, Disney World

The theory continued, further laying the foundation for the connection between the two Disney films that released over 70 years apart:

Moving on to the second requirement: establishing the location and time period of Snow White. This one’s pretty easy: thanks to lots of other Disney-obsessed theorists, it’s been determined that the movie took place during the early 1500s, in– you guessed it– Southern Germany.

The third requirement– establishing the age of Mother Gothel– was definitely the most difficult to satisfy. However, research eventually turned up the bliaut, a medieval style of dress that perfectly matches Mother Gothel’s.

It is also worth noting that the deep burgundy color of Mother Gothel’s dress is not dissimilar to the red accents on the Evil Queen’s gown in Snow White.

evil queen snow white
Credit: Disney

Related: Discover the Evil Queen’s Backstory in This FREE Disney Book!

The theory then provides a theoretical timeline for when the events of both films took place in Mother Gothel — or, the Evil Queen’s — life:

Circa 1300: Gothel is born in Southern Germany.

Circa 1385: The drop of sun falls to the earth on the coast of Lake Constance. Gothel discovers the flower; although she keeps it secret, vague rumors begin to spread. This lines up with the real-world timeline of Abraham of Worms’ supposed discovery of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Circa 1520: Gothel rises to power by marrying the widowed king of a small kingdom in Southern Germany (Snow White’s father). The events of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs occur. Gothel fakes her own death and flees, only returning to use the power of the golden flower when she absolutely needs to.

Circa 1780: The events of Tangled occur. Gothel dies (or, possibly, fakes her own death a second time in the same manner as before).

mother gothel old hag
Credit: Disney

Finally, the Redditor explained precisely why it makes sense for Mother Gothel and the Evil Queen to actually be a single person. They do, admittedly, have alarming similar personalities — and Mother Gothel strongly resembles Snow White’s Old Hag when she finally ages at the end of Tangled:

-They share an obsession with beauty.

-They look extremely similar in youth and old age (when young: high arched eyebrows, dark hair, and a severe face; when old: crooked nose, beady green eyes, and a hunched stature).

-They both wear a bliaut style dress– this is very significant, because in the time period of both movies, that style would already have been outdated by hundreds of years.

-They’re both extremely jealous of the youth and good looks of their adoptive daughters.

-They both turn into old hags.

They have the same/similar daggers.

poison apple recipe snow white 1937
Credit: Disney

Related: WATCH: Ducks Sing Oddly Amazing ‘Tangled’ Cover!

The Reddit theory also showcases additional — hard to disregard — reasons why Tangled and Snow White might actually share the same villain:

-There’s a poison apple painted on the banister in Rapunzel’s tower in Tangled, along with a bunch of other instances of apples being shown with Gothel.

-They’re both master manipulators– the Evil Queen pretends to be a kind and caring mother until she no longer has to, and Gothel… pretends to be a kind and caring mother until she no longer has to.

-Gothel knows her way around Corona’s castle a little too well for someone who’s never been inside it before, as shown by the ease with which she is able to break in and literally steal the King and Queen’s daughter out from under their noses. Perhaps it’s because she once lived there.

-When Gothel broke into the castle, the door opened seemingly of its own volition. This always struck me as odd, because it implies that Gothel can turn invisible. There are a few more instances of this in the rest of the movie– she disappears with a flourish of her cloak twice, and performs all sorts of seemingly impossible feats in Mother Knows Best. And what do the dwarfs say about the Evil Queen? That she can turn invisible.

Even more reasons can be seen if you read the full Disney movie fan theory. This writer is almost convinced thanks to the extensive research put into this Disney fan theory.

shorty in tangled
Credit: Disney

Related: Tom Holland Won’t Play Flynn Rider in Live-Action ‘Tangled’ Film

The kicker? The Snuggly Duckling’s Shorty looks an awful lot like a dwarf descendent.

What do you think? Are Mother Gothel and Queen Hildegarde actually one person?

 

in Movies & TV

View Comments (2)