Mother Gothel from Tangled and Evil Queen from Snow White could be the same character due to many similarities

• The theory suggests that Gothel’s story starts before both movies, connecting the two timelines through shared locations and character details.
• While Disney has never confirmed this theory, the similarities in attire, appearance, and symbols between Gothel and the Evil Queen make the idea seem plausible.

While Disney movies have featured many classic villains, one theory holds that two of them, Mother Gothel from Tangled and the Evil Queen from Snow White, might be the same character. Released in 2010, Tangled tells the story of Rapunzel, a princess with magical hair that heals and grants youthfulness to people. Gothel kept Rapunzel locked up in a tower to use her ability. Although Gothel pretended to be Rapunzel’s mother for years, Rapunzel eventually learned the truth. This led to a confrontation in which Rapunzel’s hair was cut, causing Gothel to rapidly age and fall to her death.

Since Tangled premiered, viewers have noticed similarities between Gothel and Snow White‘s Evil Queen. Released in 1937, Snow White was Disney’s first animated feature. It tells the story of an Evil Queen who grows jealous of her stepdaughter’s beauty and tries to kill her. After her first attempt fails, the Evil Queen disguises herself as an old hag and gives Snow White a poisoned apple. Although Snow White eats the apple, the Evil Queen ultimately fails in her scheme and eventually falls to her death off a cliff. Some think that’s not the end of the Evil Queen’s story.

Why Tangled’s Gothel Could Be Snow White’s Evil Queen

Some Disney fans argue that Gothel and the Evil Queen are the same person. The idea is that Gothel’s story actually begins before the events of both Tangled and Snow White.

According to this theory (via Reddit), Gothel’s story starts with her finding the flower from Tangled that eventually gives Rapunzel’s hair its power, and using it to stay young. Later, she marries a widowed king, Snow White’s father, to gain power, leading to the events of Snow White.

As the movie does not show the Evil Queen’s body, the theory speculates that Gothel used magic to fake her death after her failure to kill Snow White. She then continues to use the magical, longevity-granting flower without hindrance until Rapunzel’s parents need it generations later, resulting in the events of Tangled and Gothel’s actual death. Evidence for this theory includes similarities between the locations of the two films and the characters themselves.

While the kingdom in Snow White is unnamed, its location and architecture suggest that it may be Corona from Tangled. Disney already confirmed that Tangled takes place in Germany during the 1780s. More specifically, the palace’s onion-domed spires were only popular in Bavaria, a region in southern Germany.

Snow White occurred in southern Germany as well, though taking place much earlier in the 1500s. This would line up with the timeline for Gothel’s life and explain why the castles looked different in Snow White and Tangled. Onion-dome spires were not built in Germany until after the 1500s, but the castle could have been modified later, a common practice with medieval castles over centuries. Other architectural similarities include the aqueduct-style bridges that connect the castles to the mainland and the matching styles of The Snuggly Duckling pub in Tangled and the dwarves’ cottage in Snow White.

In addition to their deaths, the Disney Princess movie villains share similarities in their attire, appearance, and symbols. In Tangled, Gothel’s clothing was specifically designed to make her look older than the citizens of Corona. She wears a bliaut, which is a dress with long, drooping sleeves and a belt with long ties. This style of dress was popular from the 1100s to 1300s, suggesting that Gothel was born during that era. Although the bliaut would have been outdated even by the time Snow White happened, the Evil Queen wore this dress as well.

Physical similarities between Gothel and the Evil Queen include their dark hair and high-arched eyebrows when young, and crooked noses, bony hands, and hunched postures when old. The two were also often shown with symbols from the other’s movies. For example, there is a poison apple painted on a banister in Rapunzel’s tower in Tangled. There are also suns in two spots near the Evil Queen: on her throne and near her magic mirror. If the Evil Queen lived in Corona, it would make sense for her castle to include sun imagery.

While Disney has never confirmed that Mother Gothel is the Evil Queen, the characters’ locations and similarities make the theory seem plausible.

It Is Unlikely Gothel And The Evil Queen Are The Same Character

Disney fans are known for developing fascinating theories to tie the studio’s animated movies together. One suggests that The Little Mermaid’s absent mother is one of the mermaids present in the lagoon in Peter Pan. Another suggests that Ariel swims around the same wreckage of the ship that Frozen’s protagonists lost their parents on. Most of the time, no one connected to the Disney animated movies officially confirms theories such as these, but that doesn’t stop fans from theorizing.

While Disney isn’t known for making their new projects sequels to their classics (unless there are direct-to-video sequels focused on the same characters), what they do instead is take inspiration from their own back catalog. It’s common practice for Disney artists and writers to create nods in modern movies to the classics or include Easter eggs for those who love the movies to recognize. The most common Easter egg is the “hidden Mickey,” an object shaped like the head and ears of Mickey Mouse, but it isn’t the only one.

What Disney artists like to do is hide characters in plain sight. This includes Beauty and the Beast’s Belle walking down the street in The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Tangled’s Rapunzel and Eugene attending Elsa’s coronation in Frozen. Those, however, are obvious character appearances. Other hidden Easter eggs include Mulan’s poster being on the wall of Lilo’s bedroom in Lilo & Stitch. These are nods that fans can pick up the first time through a movie instead of having to know the history of the region in which it takes place or what clothing is era-appropriate.

What’s far more likely is that the writers and artists behind Tangled drew inspiration from Snow White’s villain. Snow White’s Evil Queen is often thought of as one of the most evil because her entire motivation is her own vanity. That motivation appears to drive Gothel as well (along with her fear of mortality). Disney has done this before, though usually in live-action, like all the nods Enchanted has to previous Disney movies. Tangled’s Gothel likely owes her existence to the Evil Queen in Snow White, but not because they are the same person.

Source: https://screenrant.com/tangled-mother-gothel-snow-white-evil-queen-same-person/#:~:text=Summary,shared%20locations%20and%20character%20details.