For the character thing, Eugene ofc 😌💕
Sexuality Headcanon: To me, he’s probably bi or pan, with a preference for women.
Gender Headcanon: I see him as someone who identifies as male but isn’t afraid to be gender nonconforming- I fully believe in dress-wearing Eugene supremacy and think he deserves the chance to try on heels and paint his nails and whatever other fun shenanigans he’s gotten up to through the course of his crazy life :)
A ship I have with said character: like I said for Rapunzel, I ship those two adorable dorks together with all my heart
A BROTP I have with said character: Lance and Eugene! Love how much they’re both there for each other and clearly care even if their relationship is full of banter at times (I also continue to stan Team Awesome, just figured I’d highlight another one I love here)
A NOTP I have with said character: Honestly what I hate most with him is the suggestion that he still pines for Stalyan and wishes Rapunzel was more like her, or trying to spin her criticism of him as legitimate when he was a teenager being coerced into a marriage with someone who treated him in ways that definitely looked abusive onscreen, so probably them.
A random headcanon: I’m kinda obsessed with the idea that post-season, after the castle/city has been fixed and things have settled a bit, Eugene goes to the Dark Kingdom to check on his dad’s efforts and help out a bit, and they get the chance to bond more and maybe that’s the first time Edmund begins to open up more about Eugene’s mom and it’s very soft.
(Bonus from a conversation my friend and I had today- for some reason Eugene and Rapunzel’s kid takes a shining to Dabney, and has it as their personal bear comforter instead of a usual baby blanket, and Eugene humors the kid but will absolutely never admit how many times it’s badly startled him when he sneaks in for a late goodnight kiss.)
General Opinion over said character: Um, I love him and he deserves the world. That’s it. That’s my opinion.
...jk, so, Eugene’s one of my favorite characters, period. As much as people talk about the hot man meeting and I agree that he’s very aesthetically pleasing, that’s honestly one of the lowest reasons in the list. I think one of the first things that stood out to me was actually his personality. Like when he first complained about the poster, I genuinely thought he was distressed about the fact that he was on one, so the joke actually got me. And like... the entire way he interacts with Rapunzel in the beginning, from “it’s in that pot isn’t it” to pointing out her conflicting emotions to “stay calm, it can probably sense fear” to his utter confusion about why these thugs who were about to kill him had now broken into musical number to “let’s just assume everyone here wants to kill me” and being ridiculously proud of his stunt with the frying pan to trying not to freak out about hair to finally feeling comfortable enough to open up a little about his backstory.... like wow. I’m absolutely going off rn but these are all iconic things that have lived in my brain rent free since 2010. And we slowly get to see his mask get pulled back and shatter, slowly get to see him respond well to receiving compassion for the first time in his life. The movie culminates in him being so self -sacrificing, and then it could’ve ended with him getting the castle and his dream and being loved for the person he really is.
But it doesn’t? In fact, we see fairly early on in the series that now that he’s here, he’s trying to spread that to others- whether that’s in being there for the kids he claims he’s not good with, or searching for ways he can contribute something to castle life because he doesn’t want to just be a freeloader- he doesn’t just stop there. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t think the series did his character and feelings justice in many ways, but the times that it did? Peak content. He doesn’t just sit on these lessons he’s learned - he applies them to other people- like Lance, when he tries to steer him down the wrong path, or his father. But he’s also not afraid to speak his mind or stand his ground when there’s good reason for him to not budge. He values life, a lot- even In people who’ve tried to kill him, like when he pulls Edmund back from the edge in Destinys Collide, or going back for the Stabbingtons. (Which is probably because he knows what dying is like in a way no one else can.) At the same time, he’s always so ready to close his eyes and accept it when he’s in those sorts of positions- almost like he knows he’s on borrowed time and just expects that to run out some day. He still seems so surprised when he’s shown love and affection, he’s so deeply committed to Rapunzel that he doesn’t let a misunderstanding like what happened in BEA put any sort of distance between them- if anything, it pulls him closer as he commits to being patient. He STILL has some of the most iconic moments in the series - I could gesture to most anything he does in the finale to support that. But like he does in BVA, he’s also more than ready to recognize his friends’ strengths and push them into the limelight.
This is getting super long so I should probably force myself to stop or else it’ll never end but yeah. Yeah, my opinion is that I love him, and he’s good, and deserves all the love and support and affection he gets, and I appreciate how patient and understanding he is of his friends even when sometimes they don’t even give him the time of day, and I’m grateful they gave him an existential crisis as ripe as the one he explored in DC because he had more than enough reason to have one, and how much he grows into his place and relationships . He deserves many hugs. 💜
Thanks for the ask! Feel free to send more my way!
