why would he still do the exact same things if he had actually received help? he might still be trying to free Quirin, and he would probably still make some reckless decisions, but what reason would he have to go about it the way he does in the show? he does not do everything he did just because he is a reckless teenager who was always destined to snap. there is a difference between recklessness and desperation đ
that argument treats his behavior like it exists in a vacuum. being impulsive does not mean someone will inevitably arrive at kidnapping, blackmail, and revenge. prolonged stress and social rejection are two key factors in why he did everything he does. support is not some irrelevant detail here, it is one of the things that could have interrupted him escalating to this point
and before Varian even resorts to any of that, he tries asking normally. Rapunzel promises that they will figure out the rocks together. when Quirin is being encased, Varian goes directly to her, explains that his father is in danger, tells her that she is the only person who can help, and repeatedly begs her to come with him. he is not calmly told that someone will help later. the guards drag him away while he is panicking and screaming that his dad needs help. Rapunzel tells them not to hurt him, but she does not stop them from doing what is practically an attempt on his life (throwing him into a deadly blizzard)
also, saying that he âlost his dad and blamed Rapunzel so he would not have to admit it was his faultâ is way too reductive. yes, Varian feels guilty, and by the finale that guilt has turned into denial and displaced blame. Rapunzel did not cause the accident that trapped Quirin. but that also does not mean her choices and Coronaâs treatment of Varian had absolutely no effect on what happened afterward
more than one thing can be true at once. Varian can be responsible for the experiment going wrong while also being a frightened fourteen-year-old who was abandoned during the resulting emergency. his guilt does not magically erase the fact that Rapunzel promised to help, watched him get dragged away, and never went to check whether he was actually okay.
(her dad told her he handled it. but after, like, the second time that he lies to her she should probably realize that he isn't to be trusted at face value)
Quirin is not even simply dead. he is trapped in the middle of Varian's home and might still be able to be saved, meaning Varian cannot grieve or accept the loss. he is left staring at a potentially solvable problem every day with no adult helping him solve it
on top of that, his desperation for an immediate solution makes even more sense when you consider what his situation actually looks like. he is completely alone. his only parent is trapped right in front of him, and he Needs him. people in the village are spreading rumors about him and random men are breaking into his home over the graphtyc, harassing him, and possibly even hurting him because of it. any child in that situation would want their parent. Quirin is the only person who wouldn't hurt him like this.
on top of everything else, he likely blames himself for what happened. there is no one around to reassure him that it was not his fault, no adult to help him process it. instead of being comforted, he has to try to convince himself that it is not his fault, which just feeds into his instability. this need to fix this mistake.
Varian never insists that Rapunzel should have abandoned the entire kingdom for him. when they reunite, he tells her that she had to save Corona and did what she had to do, but that she can help him now. that means he was still capable of understanding her position and accepting an explanation. what he wanted at that point was not revenge. he wanted her help, and Rapunzel's behavior was making it increasingly clear as they progressed through the episode that he could never have simply asked for it, considering she seemed to barely extend any concern towards Quirin or Varian's situation and only seemed worried about Corona đ
(it still baffles me how they didn't say a single thing about Varian after seeing his dad's corpse suspended in amber???? helloooo your friend is an orphaaann? oh okay no one cares i guess)
he also was not simply becoming paranoid in isolation. his warning says that people are watching and will do anything to stop Rapunzel from retrieving the graphtyc. those masked men later turn out to be members of the royal guard who were secretly ordered by Frederic to seize the scroll. whether or not the show tells us exactly when Varian first encountered them, his warning is proven correct. Varian would have had to have interacted with the guards/masked men at least once. How else would he know that the graphtyc is what they wanted, and that they do "ANYTHING" to get it?
then there is the scene with the Sundrop. Varian outright explains his reasoning. he begged Rapunzel and Corona for help, everyone turned their backs on him, and now he believes âit has to be this way.â this establishes that his methods developed in response to believing every legitimate option had failed. he is not doing this for the love of the game!!
when Rapunzel tells him that they can still fix everything together and promises to help, he pauses and visibly begins to reconsider. after months of isolation, fear, guilt, and escalating bad decisions, she is still almost able to reach him with ONE genuine offer of help
what breaks that moment? the guards arrive, and Eugene immediately shouts for them to get Varian. from Varianâs perspective, this is almost the exact situation that traumatized him before: he begs Rapunzel to help, guards come to drag him away, and she does not prevent it. of course he assumes her promise will disappear the second he is in custody. he has already been taught that if the guards drag him away, she isn't going to stop them.
the fact that he was so close to listening after everything he had already done is probably the clearest evidence that none of it was inevitable. how much easier would it have been to reach him earlier, before the isolation, the public hostility, the guards, the theft, and the belief that nobody would ever help him?
and using his age against him honestly supports the opposite conclusion. yes, teenagers can be impulsive and make terrible decisions. that is exactly why the adults around a distressed teenager are supposed to intervene. you know? maybe stop the situation from escalating? you cannot argue that Varian was too young and emotionally immature to make sensible choices while also arguing that support from responsible adults would have made no difference whatsoever
Varian is effectively an orphan at this point. Rapunzel could have given him shelter in the castle until they inevitably met Adira and were led to the Dark Kingdom. that would have given him both safety and the exact answer he had been searching for. once he knew there was a real path toward freeing Quirin, he would have had no reason to resort to everything he does later
baratheonpilled
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
ellievsbear
