Okay, I think I'm finally ready to talk about Varian's Villain arc and how much I hated his "redemption arc."
First: why the hell did the show make Varian take all of the responsibility for what happened during the end of season 1 when he quite literally was a 14/15 year old that had his entire world upended and destroyed? And was then left abandoned to stew in it for what is implied to be the course of a few months? Like this kid was probably waiting for Rapunzel, Cass, or Eugene just ANYONE to come check on him at some point. It is literally stated that he had to avoid people because SOMEONE (probably fucking Nigel or Frederic) spread rumors that he attacked the princess.
He had his angry song when he returned from being thrown back into A LITERAL DEADLY BLIZZARD after WALKING THROUGH THE ENTIRE THING AND HAVING TO DO IT AGAIN he could've DIED WTF— And then he waited. He had a right to be pissed, but if someone had showed up at least once before he snuck that letter to Rapunzel— I doubt things would've turned out as bad.
And let me reiterate: he could not, even if he had wanted to, ask for help because people thought he had hurt Rapunzel. Imagine his food situation. Imagine him trying to find one person to find support from but being stopped because of something he didn't even do.
And lets not forget the Masked Guards that were skulking around his house trying to find the graphtic! At least without them around, he would have been able to get out of the house that had become his father's tomb, get supplies and fresh air! But with them there, I doubt he could leave. The king sent them there to suppress all knowledge of the black rocks, that being the graphtic and Varian himself who had been studying them. They confined him to his own home, probably harassed him about the graphtic's location until he was able to sneakily send it to Rapunzel in the letter. This kid had no choice but to face his father's frozen body everyday for so many weeks, with no real human contact, while working tirelessly to find a way to free him (we all saw the state of his lab when the trio was there.)
I think this kid was pushed to the freaking brink. I think his mind was actually messed up from all of that— heaven knows anyone else would be. I genuinely do not blame him for being as furious at the kingdom as he was. He was not in a place to make logical decisions, his mind was definitely pushed to instability.
By the time the drill failed and the royal family was hugging infront of him while he was crying over what was practically his father's corpse— of course he fucking lost it. What a tone-deaf, awful thing to do that pushed him over the edge into insanity. Varian was definitely not in his right mind when he was piloting the automaton.
Then what does everyone do once they subdue him? Throw him in jail with a terrorist and forget about him for an entire YEAR. No talk, no checking in, no acknowledgement— nothing. They leave this kid (that they hurt until he lashed out) to rot in prison and take responsibility for EVERYONE ELSE'S MISTAKES AND HARMFUL ACTIONS.
YES Rapunzel Cass and Eugene had a right to be angry and not trust Varian after everything, but everyone seemed to forget THEY HURT HIM HORRIBLY FIRST. But because Varian reacted, everyone makes it seem like that suddenly absolves the ADULTS faults but not the KID they fucked over. Instead, they just make it seem like he was bad from the start. Like he wasn't psychologically tortured for weeks on end.
And THEN. When Varian is helping the Saporians, feeling so unlovable and guilty that the only thing he can think of that will stop the adults from hurting him more is to erase their memories so he can finally find some community (the Saporiansused him they don't really count,) and Varian and Rapunzel finally have a conversation— Varian is the only one that kind of apologizes. He was practically forced to take responsibility, especially after everyone in his life kept telling him it was all his fault.
And then? He's practically swept under the rug. No one ever apologizes to this kid, or comforts him, his pain is practically erased— especially when his father is freed. It's never addressed again, except for a joke about Cass being a bigger threat.
And while nothing left to lose is an awesome song, I HATE that it frames Varian and Cass as the same. They are NOT. Varian's entire arc is about him being pushed to the edge, sacrificing his own wellbeing to help his father and seek vengeance for that, Cass's motives are STRICTLY selfish. And I'm not saying that makes her a bad villain! But it is a disservice to the story to insinuate Varian's fall from grace as some sort of tantrum.
Varian was a child that was failed by EVERY ADULT IN HIS LIFE then forced to accept responsibility for the things THEY did to him. And the narrative is just like WELP. Guess it's all FINE AND DANDY NOW THAT THE KID HAS ACCEPTED HIS PLACE AS A DOORMAT ALCHEMIST. It's like they tried to erase him so all of the focus would be on Cass. "Be Afraid" was just not enough to adress everything.
Was it Rapunzel, Cass, and Eugene's responsibility to look after Varian at all times? No! But they considered him a friend— the problem is, you don't do what they did to friends. No matter how you look at it, they were bad friends, end of story.
Fuck that kingdom man. Varian should've started a Revolution. Guillotines for everyone.
