Rewatching Tangled (2010) after having seen TtS all the way through is WILD. Bc the ending/epilogue section is happening, and Eugene says, “she led her kingdom with all the wisdom and grace that her parents did before her.” Which sounds all well & good until you realize that THAT IS A REALLY LOW BAR considering that Fred’s reign included:
- Eugene being sentenced TO HANG for various acts of theft (including stealing the princess’ crown).
- Dealing with the black rocks by basically going “maybe if we ignore them they’ll go away.”
-After promising to get him help, he throws Varian, a 14-year-old, who has a lot of animosity towards the kingdom and its rulers, in the same prison cell as Andrew, a full-grown adult, who wants to overthrow the kingdom. BECAUSE THAT’S A FOOLPROOF WAY TO DECREASE THE KID’S ANIMOSITY. NO WAY THAT COULD GO WRONG.
- Later, his kingdom is overthrown by a 15-year-old (I don’t know about the other Saporians, but Andrew was clearly not the brains of that operation so....)
- I vaguely remember some backstory in which Fred chose to put his family over his subjects. Which is... not exactly a great quality in a ruler...??
I’m sure Rapunzel was a great queen. I’m just saying that, in terms of being a great ruler, it wouldn’t exactly be hard to surpass Fred.