|
| “ | I've taken care of you since you were a baby and this is how you thank me? | „ |
| ~ Gothel to Rapunzel. |
| “ | After all I've done, after all I've given you this is how you repay me? By sneaking off. | „ |
| ~ Gothel threatening Rapunzel. |
| “ | I'm the one who's going to teach you not to meddle with my plans! | „ |
| ~ Gothel to Stefan. |
| “ | She would've been my daughter if you had married me! I simply took what was mine. | „ |
| ~ Gothel to Wilhelm. |
| “ | Tower, Tower, do your part. Never release your prisoner with your lying heart. Note as these words are spoken, This fearsome spell can never be broken! | „ |
| ~ Gothel uses her powers to make the barrier on the tower. |
Madame Gothel, also simply known as Gothel, is the main antagonist from the 2002 direct-to-DVD animated Barbie film, Barbie as Rapunzel. She’s a witch who kidnapped Rapunzel as an infant and forced her to work as a scullery maid within her mansion while keeping her imprisoned and orchestrating a war between the kingdoms of King Frederick and King Wilhelm.
Gothel was voiced by Anjelica Huston, who portrayed the Grand High Witch in the 1990 film The Witches.
Background[]
Physical Appearance[]
Gothel is an elderly woman with gray hair pulled into a bun, a long angular eyes, green eyes, light brown eyeshadow and magenta lipstick. Her outfits mostly consist red and dark green colors.
Personality[]
Gothel comes off as hypocritical, claiming that she hates liars but is not above dishonesty herself. She is also selfish, bossy, capricious, petty, dismissive, and ungrateful.
Powers and abilities[]
Gothel is strongly skilled in dark magic where she was able to create a magic wall to keep her mansion invisible so no one would find her or Rapunzel. She was able to cast enchantments and absorb her magic when it was redirected back to her, such as when Prince Stefan used a mirror to redirect a blast from Gothel, only for her to catch it. Gothel was able to cast lightning which she could use to kill her enemies.
Role in the film[]
Prior to when the events in the film take place, Gothel was madly in love with King Wilhelm, but he did not reciprocate her feelings as he only saw her as a good friend and nothing more. He later married another woman who became his Queen and gave birth to Rapunzel. Feeling spurned and jealous of Wilhelm scorning her for another woman, Gothel felt it was only right she took what was hers and kidnapped Rapunzel some time after her first birthday, whisking her away to her mansion deep in the woods and casting a magic wall to keep it hidden, while stationing the large dragon Hugo to guard it from would-be visitors. Rapunzel's disappearance left Wilhelm and his wife devastated, but their love for their daughter remained strong and unbreakable. It was also during this time that Gothel also put up the lie that it was the neighboring King Frederick who kidnapped Rapunzel, enraging Wilhelm to declare war against Frederick, leading to a feud between the two kingdoms that left people on both sides demoralized by the fighting, especially family and friends who lived separated from each other in the two kingdoms.
16 years later, Rapunzel has grown into a beautiful young woman under Gothel's protection and the lie that her parents abandoned her when she was a baby and left her on Gothel's doorstep. She has befriended Hugo's daughter Penelope and the rabbit Hobie, who is always terrified of being a meal for Gothel's pet Otto. One day, as Rapunzel is getting Gothel her meal, she unintentionally finds the cellar where Gothel keeps all her mementos of her love for Wilhelm, despite being dumped by him, where Rapunzel finds a silver hairbrush with an engraving on it from her mom and dad, who indicate they loved her deeply. She soon finds the tunnel leads to King Frederick's kingdom, where she encounters his son, Prince Stefan, after rescuing one of Stefan's younger sisters from a trap set up by King Wilhelm. After she is forced to hurry back to Gothel before she finds out she's missing, Gothel becomes suspicious of where Rapunzel went and who she met. When Rapunzel honestly tells her she doesn't know Stefan's name as she never asked him for it, Gothel believes she's lying and punishes her by transforming her room of the mansion into a tall tower, stations Hugo outside to supervise her, and destroys all her paintings and paint equipment, leaving Rapunzel heartbroken.
Nevertheless, while Rapunzel sleeps, the hairbrush is magically transformed into a paintbrush, which she finds in the morning, and how it has magical powers to paint whatever she wants. Using it to create a portal back to Frederick's kingdom, Rapunzel meets with Stefan again, this time to take the paintbrush to a silversmith, who notes that it was made by his brother in Wilhelm's kingdom, showing Stefan how badly the feud is affecting the people in both kingdoms. After Rapunzel has to leave again out of fear from Penelope of her father being punished for Rapunzel's disappearance, Rapunzel paints a portal back to her tower, thus protecting Hugo, but also is invited by Stefan to an upcoming ball in his kingdom, which she accepts. Back in her tower, Rapunzel begins painting herself in beautiful outfits to wear for the ball, until settling on a sparkling purple and pink gown to wear. Unfortunately, Otto noticed all the magic coming from Rapunzel's tower and notified Gothel, who confronts Rapunzel and wonders what she's up to.
When Gothel again demands the name of the boy Rapunzel met, and again Rapunzel honestly says she does not know his name, Gothel destroys her paintbrush, curses the tower with an irreversible spell that is designed to keep its prisoner trapped if they having been lying, chains up Hugo under suspicion of insubordination with helping Rapunzel, and also chops off most of Rapunzel's hair to use as a disguise while she goes to the ball in Frederick's kingdom herself to find the boy and do away with him personally. Once she arrives, it is not long before Gothel lures Stefan away under his belief she's Rapunzel due to using Rapunzel's cut hair as decoy, before revealing herself and attacking him. At the same time, King Wilhelm, fed up with the feud, has launched his own assault on Frederick's castle with his royal guard to end the feud by force. However, when Wilhelm confronts Frederick, Gothel appears to interrupt the fight when Stefan stepped in to protect his father from Wilhelm, and asks Wilhelm why he is feuding with Frederick.
When Wilhelm reveals he wants revenge for his daughter Rapunzel, Frederick denies having kidnapped her, to which Gothel reveals she was the real culprit and that she framed Frederick for it, saying that she was only taking back what she believes is hers after Wilhelm spurned her. Wilhelm, Frederick and Stefan become extremely enraged towards Gothel for what she did, but Gothel is unperturbed by this, swearing to kill them all with her powers. Before Gothel tries to attack, Rapunzel suddenly appears, making a shocked Gothel wonder how she escaped the tower after she cast the spell on it. Nevertheless, as Rapunzel tries to talk Gothel down and ask her to put an end to the fighting and potential bloodshed, Gothel refuses and chases after Rapunzel, who lures her to the portal Rapunzel drew earlier to get back to her tower. After Rapunzel tries one last time to talk Gothel down and is refused, Rapunzel and Penelope lure Gothel and Otto into entering the portal and being sent back to the tower.
Realizing her situation, Gothel tries to undo her spell, but it has no effect thanks to her own words that her fearsome spell can never be broken. When Hugo appears after being freed when Gothel was imprisoned, she demands him to get her out of tower, but Hugo states that he can't do it as Gothel spewed the spell's words herself and that Rapunzel never lied as she didn't knew about Stefan's identity until then, thus she was able to escape the tower with ease. Before Hugo leaves to reunite with Penelope, he bitterly points out that since Gothel had been lying repeatedly for years, she's trapped inside the tower forever. Realizing what a complete hypocrite that she is after hearing her spell's words echo around her, Gothel drops down to the floor in shame, completely upset that she screwed herself up to her inevitable fate.
Being condemned to spend the rest of her life inside the locked tower, Gothel resorts to making Otto miserable by tasking him with the chores that Rapunzel used to do. It can be implied that Gothel eventually died from starvation or age, while Rapunzel is reunited with her parents, allowed to marry Stefan, and peace is brought between Wilhelm and Frederick's kingdoms at long last.
Relationship[]
Allies[]
- King Wilhelm (formerly)
- Rapunzel (formerly)
- Otto
- Hugo (formerly)
Enemies[]
- Rapunzel
- The Queen
- King Frederick
- King Wilhelm
- Prince Stefan
- Hobie
- Penelope
- Baker
- Hugo
- Prince Tommy
- Princess Katrina
- Princess Melody
- Princess Lorena
Trivia[]
- Gothel was the first main antagonist in a Barbie movie to be a female and human.
- In the original fairytale, Gothel didn’t have any magical powers, but was still considered a witch.
- Also, in the original story, Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel after making a deal with her father to allow him give his wife some of her vegetables from her garden in exchange for giving Rapunzel to her. In the Barbie version, Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel out of spite for her father not returning her romantic affections towards him.
- She is not to be confused with Mother Gothel from Disney's Tangled, though both are the main villainesses of their respective movies and were the foster mothers of the heroine of their respective films (Barbie's Rapunzel and Disney's Rapunzel, respectively).
- Gothel is similar to Lady Tremaine from Cinderella. Both characters have gray hair, they own pets that try to eat the main protagonist’s animal friends and they make the main characters do chores.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Barbie as Sleeping Beauty Barbie in the Nutecracker Barbie as Rapunzel Barbie of Swan Lake Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper Barbie Fairytopia/Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia/Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus The Barbie Diaries Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses Barbie as The Island Princess Barbie: Mariposa/Mariopsa and the Fairy Princess Barbie & the Diamond Castle Barbie in A Christmas Carol Barbie presents: Thumbelina Barbie and The Three Musketeers Barbie in A Mermaid Tale Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale Barbie: A Fairy Secret Barbie: Princess Charm School Barbie: The Princess & the Popstar Barbie in the Pink Shoes Barbie & Her Sisters in A Pony Tale Barbie: The Pearl Princess Barbie and the Secret Door Barbie in Princess Power Barbie in Rock 'N Royals Barbie & Her Sisters in A Great Puppy Adventure Barbie: Spy Squad Barbie: Starlight Adventure Barbie: Video Game Hero Barbie: Dolphin Magic Barbie: Princess Adventure Barbie & Chelsea: The Lost Birthday Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures Barbie: It Takes Two Barbie: Mermaid Power Barbie (2023) Barbie: A Touch of Magic | ||