Editorial: Will We Ever See Tangled on Once Upon A Time? I Think So (Once Upon A Time)

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The last two seasons of Once Upon A Time have been quite surprising with which films from the Disney canon they've chosen to mine for material. Season 3 ended with the shocking but pleasantly surprising revelation that Frozen's Elsa would be coming to Storybrooke. 

Then, Season 4 followed that with the introduction of Brave's Merida on OUAT.

I think the most surprising thing about that is that Brave is technically a Pixar film rather than a Disney one. But that didn't stop them. 

The most surprising thing though about seeing Brave and Frozen become part of the canon of OUAT is that they are some of the most recent Disney/Pixar films to be released. Frozen came out in 2013 and Brave in 2012. Prior to Season 4, the most recent Disney film to be referenced on OUAT was Mulan and that came out in 1998. The point is that despite how good Brave and Frozen are, they have yet to reach the level of Disney classic as most of the films referenced on OUAT so far have. 

However, there is one fairly recent Disney animated film that was as or possibly more popular than either Frozen or Brave that as of yet hasn't really made its way to OUAT.   

That film is Tangled. 

I admit Tangled is one of my favorites of Disney's recent animated films. Also, despite how controversial such sentiments may be, I actually think it is overall better than Frozen.

Captain America. He's always right.

I admit though that Frozen's songs are much better than those in Tangled, but that is all I will admit.

Anywho, as a Tangled fan and a OUAT fan, I would love nothing more than to see Tangled become a part of OUAT. And I believe it is a very strong possibility that we will be seeing Tangled on OUAT quite soon. 

First off, look at the order of it. Season 4 started with the Frozen arc, and Frozen was released in 2013. The first arc of Season 5 features Brave, and Brave was released in 2012. Tangled was released in 2010. It's like they're featuring these films in backwards chronological order. That means they have to do Tangled next, maybe as soon as the second arc of Season 5 at least in some capacity. Of course, that is my least serious reason. The more serious ones are coming up. 

Secondly, it has been confirmed by the joint creators of Frozen and Tangled that they take place in the same continuity. Logically, this means if Frozen is part of OUAT, than Tangled must also be part of OUAT. We just haven't seen it yet. I think most of us are familiar with the moment in Frozen where you can see Eugene and Rapunzel from Tangled. 

Frozen's Makers have even further admitted that Anna and Elsa's parents were lost at sea on their way to Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding featured in the Tangled short "Tangled Ever After."

If you're a naysayer, they you may say nay and point out that Grand Pabbie said in OUAT's Season 4 premiere "A Tale of Two Sisters" that Anna and Elsa's parents said they were on a diplomatic mission to the Northern Isles, but they really went to Misthaven aka the Enchanted Forest. 

It can't be true then in OUAT that they were going to Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding. Besides the kingdom is in Tangled is called "Corona" on the Disney Wiki. 

Firstly, who's to say attending the wedding of foreign nation's princess wouldn't count as a "diplomatic mission." Secondly, who's to say "Northern Isles" isn't what they call Corona in Arendelle? They already call the Enchanted Forest "Misthaven." Plus, look at Corona.

It's capital city is on an island. What if the landmass its connected to by that bridge is also an island? Then, Corona would consist of "isles." I say, it's totally possible that it was actually meant that Anna and Elsa's parents were supposedly on their way to Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding. It's just vague enough to work. 

Next, there have already been some subtle clues pointing in the direction of possibly seeing Tangled on OUAT in the future. OUAT has often alluded in the past to things we would end up seeing in the future. Season 2 first introduced elements of Peter Pan, and then we finally saw Peter Pan in Season 3. Season 4 introduced elements of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" short from Fantasia, and after The Sorcerer's true identity was revealed in the finale, we finally saw him in Season 5. I think these kinds of subtle hints have also been done in Season 4 for Tangled. 

In the Season 4 episode "Poor Unfortunate Soul," Emma and the gang break into Mr. Gold's cabin to free August. Mary Margaret ends up sneaking up and knocking out Cruella De Vil with none other than a frying pan!

Ah yes, the frying pan. Rapunzel's weapon of choice. 

Why of all things did Mary Margaret sneak up and hit Cruella over the head with a frying pan? That's one of Rapunzel's moves. Could this be an indication that Snow White at one point met Rapunzel and possibly learned that from her? She did follow this action up with a comment about her time as a bandit. It could totally be possible that in her time as a bandit Snow ran into Rapunzel and very likely Eugene and had some kind of adventure. It would be almost like how David happened to meet Anna long before he became Prince Charming. 

An even bigger clue can be found in the Season 4 finale "Operation Mongoose." In the alternate universe Isaac has created in his storybook Heroes and Villains, Emma ends up being imprisoned in a tower by her mother the evil Queen Snow White. 

This is the exact same thing that happens to Rapunzel in Tangled. 

Not only that, but the costume Emma wears after Henry and Hook break her out of the tower is very similar to that worn by Tangled's Flynn Rider. 

There is no way this is unintentional. 

I say this is evidence means we will see Tangled at some point on OUAT.

However, I admit there is one possible reason we may not actually see Tangled. 

Technically, Rapunzel and her story has already been featured on OUAT way back in the Season 2 episode "The Tower."

However, this Rapunzel is nothing like the Rapunzel we know and love from Tangled for one very big reason. She lacked Rapunzel's spunk and sass. 

That is the only really important way she's different from Tangled's Rapunzel, and nothing else. 

Also, this Rapunzel's story is heavily altered from both the original "Rapunzel" fairy tale and Tangled. Charming slightly takes on the role of Flynn Rider and the prince from the original tale, and the witch ends up being a figment of her imagination. 

Despite this though, there are a number of ways to get around this episode and just feature Tangled. 

The first is the easiest. The writers could simply just ignore it. It's not like they haven't played fast and loose with OUAT's canon before. In Season 1, you can actually see a hat that look very similar to The Sorcerer's Hat in Rumplestiltskin's possession in the Season 1 episode "Skin Deep."

It isn't even established until Season 4 that Rumpelstiltskin has never possessed the Hat. 

There have also been an innumerable number of things that were brought up or established in Season 1 that now halfway through Season 5 have yet to be touched upon again. 

This though is a lazy solution. There are much better ways to get around the problem episode "The Tower" without breaking the canon so much. 

For one thing, OUAT has already established that there are often two different versions of the same character running around the Enchanted Forest. The best example is Sleeping Beauty. It is firmly established in the Season 4 episode "Enter the Dragon" that Aurora and Sleepy Beauty are two different people. This is merely intimated in previous episodes. Sleeping Beauty is actually Briar Rose, who is Aurora's mother. Of course, Briar Rose is the name the fairies raise Aurora under in the film Sleeping Beauty. It's also the name of the Grimm Brothers' version of "Sleeping Beauty." On top of all that, Charles Perrault's French version of "Sleeping Beauty" has her have a daughter named L'Aurore, which is just French for Aurora. See how they weaved it all together. 

The Frozen arc also feature two different versions of the Snow Queen. There's of course Elsa, the Snow Queen of Frozen, and her aunt Ingrid, who is closer to the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Anderson's original fairy tale "The Snow Queen." Ursula appears in the early part of the Season 4's Queens of Darkness arc, but in the episode "Poor Unfortunate Soul," it's stated that this Ursula was named after a goddess of old, presumably the same goddess mentioned in the Season 3 episode "Ariel." There could be a whole other Ursula out there! The point is this can be done with Rapunzel. Something interesting to note is that the Rapunzel from the episode "The Tower" mentions having an older brother who's deceased. From what I understand, in the musical and film Into the Woods, the Baker is Rapunzel's older brother. It could be that the Rapunzel in "The Tower" is a fast and loose version of the Rapunzel from Into the Woods, and the Tangled version of Rapunzel can still show up at some point in the future. 

One problem with this though is wouldn't it seem odd if there are two completely unrelated people named Rapunzel in the Enchanted Forest. How common can a name like Rapunzel be? I mean, Rapunzel could actually be a common name in the Enchanted Forest, or it might not. There is a way around this too though. 

The name of the Rapunzel in "The Tower" wouldn't actually be Rapunzel. How do I figure that? Well, the Frozen arc establishes that the events of Frozen took place sometime before those of the primary Enchanted Forest flashback storyline. The events of Tangled happened before those of Frozen. That means that if Tangled is a part of OUAT, then it must have taken place before the events of the Frozen flashbacks in Season 4. The Rapunzel in "The Tower" says she's been trapped there more years than she can count, so that fits. I figure in preparing to become queen of her kingdom after her brother's death, her royal parents sent her to attend various royal events. Among these could have been Rapunzel's wedding in "Tangled Ever After" or Elsa's coronation in Frozen. It is at either of these events that "The Tower" Rapunzel met the Tangled Rapunzel and learned her story. (It has already been established that Rapunzel was at Elsa's coronation.) When "The Tower" Rapunzel found herself in a rather similar predicament as Tangled Rapunzel, she gave David the name "Rapunzel" for fear of giving her actual name lest he actually meant her harm. It makes sense. That Rapunzel was quite fearful.

In these ways, we could still have the Rapunzel we know and love from Tangled as well as her true love Eugene on Once Upon A Time without disregarding that a Rapunzel appeared in the Season 2 episode "The Tower." I think later this season or the beginning of the next possible season would be a great time to see Tangled introduced on Once Upon A Time just as Frozen and Brave were before it. An animated series based on Tangled is supposed to air on the Disney Channel in 2017. It would be a great way to remind everyone out there that Tangled is still a thing. 

What do you all think of the possibility of seeing Tangled introduced on Once Upon A Time? Is it almost a certainty or a remote possibility? 

God bless you all. And God bless America.