People have been talking about Disney's quirky characters and why they don't work and while I agree, STOP PUTTING RAPUNZEL IN WITH THE GROUP OF CHARACTERS THAT DO NOT WORK.
She does. Fundamentally, Rapunzel is a quirky Disney character that works. For one simple reason: She's not quirky for the sake of being quirky.
Rapunzel is "quirky" because she has lived her entire life isolated in a tower, her only company being her 'mother' and Pascal. She has zero life experience. She has no friends. She knows nothing. Her being "quirky" is a direct result of never living in civilization and thus not knowing the social norms (ex. wearing shoes) something that we percieve as making someone 'quirky'
This "quirkiness" is used to show how she is naive to the world, and the movie does an amazing job playing into this while also showing that she's not just a 'quirky' naive little girl, she's also really bloody smart and competent when it comes to hitting people with a frying pan.
Her character is built on even more in the animated series -- Tangled Before Ever After -- She's still super 'quirky' and I will admit in a few episodes it's WAY too 'quirky' for my taste, but that's not her main character trait. After season 1 you don't see her as that one 'quirky' character, because that's not who she is. Unlike recent characters whose main personality trait is being different, that's not Rapunzel.
Current 'quirky' Disney characters do not work because that is their main character trait. Rapunzel is quirky, however that is not who she is. Please, for the love of god, stop lumping her in with 'quirk'y characters you dislike just because she is (most likely) the reason Disney went in this direction with newer characters.
With love,
Someone whose favourite Disney princess is Rapunzel
Also this is a 2am rant post after seeing a thumbnail of a youtube video complaining about quirky Disney characters, so if I misspelled stuff or got info wrong sue me.