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This article focuses on the second iteration of Lady Tremaine and Rapunzel.
For her Seattle persona, see Victoria Belfrey.
For the first iteration of Lady Tremaine, see Lady Tremaine (The Price of Gold).
For the first iteration of Rapunzel, see Rapunzel (The Tower).
For the fairytale, see "Rapunzel (Fairytale)".


Remember... For my family, I'll always find a way.

—Rapunzel to Marcus, Anastasia and Drizella src

Rapunzel Tremaine, better known as Lady Tremaine, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the first episode of the seventh season. She is portrayed by starring cast member Gabrielle Anwar, and guest star Meegan Warner. She is the original counterpart of Victoria Belfrey.

Rapunzel Tremaine is based on the Stepmother from the fairytale, "Cinderella", and on the character of the same name from the Disney film, Cinderella. She is also based on the titular character from the fairytale "Rapunzel", and on the character of the same name from the Disney film Tangled.

History

After Fourth Curse

In the New Enchanted Forest, Rapunzel has two daughters, Drizella and Anastasia, with her husband Marcus Tremaine. During a lean season, while Marcus is sick and the children are extremely hungry, Rapunzel travels to Gothel's Garden to find some radishes to feed her family. Gothel catches her and agrees to heal her husband and keep their children healthy if she gives her something in return. Out of desperation, Rapunzel agrees to "anything", prompting Gothel to use magic to lock her up in a tower, thereby exchanging her freedom for her family's safety. ("One Little Tear")

After being imprisoned for six years, Rapunzel uses her long hair to her benefit by cutting it off and strapping it to a hook so she can scale down the tower to escape. She succeeds in doing so, and then returns home, guided by floating lanterns which were lit by her daughter, Anastasia, who has continued to hope after all these years that her mother will see them and come back to her family. However, Rapunzel finds out that her husband has remarried to Cecelia and adopted her daughter, Ella. Despite the complicated circumstances, Rapunzel is allowed to stay at the manor, working as a servant, where she can see her daughters. While Anastasia shows unwavering devotion for her, it upsets Rapunzel that Drizella is distant with her, though Marcus assures her that given time, Drizella will come to love her as she was very little when Rapunzel disappeared. Marcus then returns Rapunzel's old cloak, which he kept in all the years she was gone. When asked by Rapunzel, Marcus admits he still loves her but he is committed to Cecelia and Ella. Distraught, Rapunzel is left alone before Gothel reappears and tempts Rapunzel with a mushroom to curse Cecelia and make her disappear. At first, Rapunzel rejects this offer as she claims she would never hurt an innocent. During Drizella's birthday party, Rapunzel serves the guests as Cecelia tries to persuade her not to work on her daughter's birthday. She tells Marcus about Drizella's lukewarm response to her gift and expresses how much she feels like an outcast around her own family. After seeing Drizella's favoritism towards Cecelia, she gets increasingly jealous and poisons Cecelia's drink, causing the woman to flee to New Wonderland. Her husband chases after her but, after one year,[1] he eventually gives up after assuming she no longer loves him and returns to Rapunzel. ("One Little Tear")

At a later point, Rapunzel and Marcus watch Anastasia, Drizella, and Ella build a snowman on a frozen pond during a wintery day. Marcus, recognizing how much Rapunzel has sacrificed for their family, vows to do the same for her. The pair become engrossed with each other and nearly share a kiss, not noticing anything amiss, until Anastasia and Ella both fall into the water when the ice cracks beneath them. Rapunzel watches on in horror, clutching hands with Drizella, as Marcus jumps into the water to save the girls, however, he rescues Ella since he could only grab one of the girls. Eventually, Anastasia's body is recovered but she is already dead. Unable to let go of her beloved daughter, whom she believes had the purest heart, Rapunzel gains help from Gothel to preserve Anastasia so that she still has one breath left in her body, with hopes of reviving her one day. It is then that Gothel reveals the mushroom was a ploy to gauge if Rapunzel was pure enough to become the Guardian, but as she is not, she considers that someone else of Rapunzel's bloodline, perhaps Anastasia, is. Upon learning Gothel intends to put her daughter in the tower, Rapunzel turns the tables on the witch by using her own magic to lock her in the prison. ("One Little Tear")

Unable to forgive Marcus for saving Ella over Anastasia, Rapunzel - now known as Lady Tremaine - eventually conspires with a prince to have Marcus killed. After her husband's death, Tremaine has Ella installed in their home as a maid, where she gains the nickname "Cinderella". ("Hyperion Heights," "The Garden of Forking Paths")

On the night of a royal ball, Tremaine kidnaps Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and uses her to show Drizella what it means to have power. Drizella grows excitable when she sees her mother possess the fairy's wand and asks to use it, however, Tremaine warns her to never rely on magic as power since it can be taken from her. Instead, Tremaine asserts that fear is the true power because it lasts forever. She proves this by loftily testing out the wand on the fairy, who turns into a pile of dust. Tremaine then asks her daughter to remind Cinderella to clean up the mess if she returns. During the ball, she looks on from the sidelines as Drizella partakes in a waltz. At some point in the evening, the prince, who is the same one who aided Tremaine with murdering Cinderella's father, rejects Drizella as a potential consort. This causes Tremaine to set her sights on pairing her daughter with the prince's brother Prince Gregor, who likes Drizella. Tremaine, knowing Cinderella intends to kill the prince for murdering her father, believes this will aid in her plans for Drizella. When Cinderella finds herself incapable of finishing the job, Tremaine delivers a fatal stab to the prince before alerting the guards that her stepdaughter has murdered him, however, Cinderella manages to escape with Henry's help. ("Hyperion Heights," "Wake Up Call")

As Henry is surrounded in the forest by the royal guards, Tremaine arrives to question him about Cinderella's whereabouts and agrees to let him go if he hands over her stepdaughter's glass slipper. Henry states he hid it somewhere else before pulling out a bottle and using it to call for help from his family. Despite Tremaine's demand that he be stopped, Henry's summons is already sent out by the time the guards draw their swords on him. Later, Tremaine keeps Henry as a captive in Cinderella's old room, taunting him about how this is the closest he will get to her. She tasks Drizella with forcing Henry into revealing where the glass slipper is hidden and then killing him. Drizella stutters, expressing concern about why that is necessary, although Tremaine snaps at her for questioning her and simply tells her to do it. ("A Pirate's Life")

Later on, Tremaine discovers Henry has the Heart of the Truest Believer and that he would be the perfect candidate to sacrifice for Anastasia's revival. At some time after Cinderella joins the Resistance who are trying to end her stepmother's tyranny, Tremaine moves the coffin housing Anastasia's body into the manor, along with large amounts of magic and weapons from the king's vault as if she is preparing for battle. The Resistance finds out about all of this, and after Cinderella finds out about the coffin, she sneaks off to confront Tremaine about it. Cinderella, realizing Tremaine is not done making her pay for her daughter's death, asks her to get it over with and to not hurt her friends. Tremaine admits she still needs something from her before her revenge goes full circle, and then makes her look into the coffin. Cinderella is surprised to see Anastasia's body is perfectly preserved, which Tremaine explains is necessary until Cinderella gives her Henry's heart to bring back her stepsister. Cinderella refuses, but Tremaine enchants her hand with a heart-ripping ability and warns her to follow orders or everyone in the Resistance will die. Despite this harsh ultimatum, the enchantment on Cinderella is luckily later undone by Regina. ("The Garden of Forking Paths")

With Tremaine unable to get Henry's heart, she sets her sights on sacrificing Drizella's instead once she has belief in her heart. Drizella, who is tired of doing things in the hopes of winning her mother's approval, seeks magic by a broken tower in order to be free of her, however, she ends up learning how to use her own magic under Regina's instruction, causing her heart to be full of belief. Regina catches on to Tremaine's machinations and spies on her as she uses the Fairy Godmother's wand to give herself the power to rip out a heart. Tremaine then practices this new ability on Anastasia's body by extracting her heart before putting it back into her. Realizing her mother intends to take her heart for Anastasia and will never come to love her, Drizella gets help from her Prince Gregor to kill Tremaine. However, as Gregor prepares to end Tremaine, Regina freezes him and tries to talk Drizella out of her plan, but instead, Drizella kills Gregor to darken her own heart. Tremaine reacts with disdain towards Drizella's elation over rendering her heart useless to her, while her daughter vows to cast the Dark Curse and make every aspect of her life a living hell of pain and suffering. ("Wake Up Call")

In an effort to stop Drizella from casting the curse, Tremaine eventually comes to aid the heroes by providing a drop of her blood so they can set a trap for her daughter with blood magic. Drizella unknowingly walks into it, but before she turns completely into stone, she vows to be back in eight years to enact the curse. ("The Eighth Witch")

Eight years later, after Drizella has been freed by Gothel and her coven of witches, Tremaine arrives to a summoning altar, where Drizella is preparing for the curse. She warns her daughter of the dangers of trusting Gothel, who is only using her for her own gain. Ignoring this advice, Drizella instead reveals her mother to be cursed to believe she herself cast the curse in an effort to regain Anastasia and when that happens, she intends to rip her precious daughter away from her. She then prevents Tremaine from speaking any further by magically knocking her unconscious. Soon after when Drizella coerces Regina into casting the curse to save Henry's life, Tremaine is swept away by the curse to Hyperion Heights along with everyone else. ("The Eighth Witch")



For events occurring after the casting of the fifth curse, see Victoria Belfrey.

Magical Abilities

Limited Abilities

  • Blood Magic - Use of one's own or another's blood for various and more powerful spells.
  • Shapeshifting - Ability to petrify anyone who is from a certain bloodline who enters a specific area or rune.
  • Age Manipulation - Ability to accelerate or reverse the aging process or a pregnancy.
  • Heart-ripping - Ability to rip someone's heart out in order to control/kill them, among other purposes.

Family

Unknown
 
 
 
Cecelia
 
 
Marcus Tremaine
 
 
 
Rapunzel Tremaine
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cinderella
 
 
 
Henry MillsAnastasiaDrizella
 
 
 
 
 
 
Lucy

Notes:

  • Solid lines denote blood relationships
  • Dashed lines denote marriage relationships that result in offspring
  • † denotes the deceased

Trivia

Etymology

Character Notes

Production Notes

  • The casting announcement for her younger self states that she "will find herself magically trapped in a tower by an evil sorceress. Feisty and full of pluck, she will do whatever it takes to break this spell and make the sorceress who imprisoned her pay for those crimes".[2]
  • At the San Diego Comic-Con 2017, Gabrielle Anwar described Lady Tremaine as "very unpleasant", stating that she had not "yet found much of her redeeming qualities to her". She added that she is "notoriously outrageous", and thought "she resents just about everything, everybody".[3]
  • The two actresses who play Anastasia's mother pronounce her name differently. Meegan Warner, who plays young Rapunzel, pronounces Anastasia's name with a long A sound in the third syllable, while Gabrielle Anwar, who plays adult Rapunzel, pronounces it with a short O sound in the third syllable.

Disney

Appearances

See also

References

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