I think "Set Yourself Free" is underrated. I always see it at the bottom of every TTS song tier list and that's just a crime.

(It is simple in every way but that what makes it beautiful. The lyrics and the melody are really uplifting in a way that after listening to it I always feel more confident in myself and in a way reassured that everything is going to be alright and that I'll get through any difficulty.)

I really like "Set Yourself Free"! It's nowhere near the bottom of my personal faves! It's a very important message, and one I was so happy to see Rapunzel learn.

New Tangled music video compilation from the Disney Channel. All the songs from the series are here, in order, with the time stamp for each song:

00:00 Life After Happily Ever After

04:36 Wind In My Hair

06:40 Life After Happily Ever After (Reprise)

08:13 Baby Rapunzel Healing Incantation

08:46 Listen Up Song

11:32 I’ve Got This

14:02 Let Me Make You Proud

16:02 Let Me Make You Proud (Reprise)

16:59 Set Yourself Free

19:10 Ready As I’ll Ever Be

21:27 Next Stop Anywhere

24:51 If I Could Take That Moment Back

26:53 Next Stop Anywhere (Reprise)

27:59 The View from Up Here

30:08 Buddy Song

32:30 Reverse/Decay Incantation

33:48 Waiting in the Wings

36:14 Livin’ the Dream

38:27 With You By My Side

40:38 Everything I Thought I Ever Knew

42:56 Waiting In The Wings (Reprise)

44:06 Crossing The Line

46:43 Stronger Than Ever Before

48:48 You're Bigger Than That

50:52 The Girl Who Has Everything

53:25 The Girl Who Has Everything (Reprise)

54:21 Black-Rock Incantation

55:32 Nothing Left to Lose

58:55 Sun Drop/Hope Incantation

59:28 Through It All

1:01:03 I'd Give Anything

1:02:35 Final Healing Incantation

1:03:14 Life After Happily Ever After

You'll notice a couple of things. First the "Friendship Song" sung at the end of Pascal's Story is not included because it was not sung by any of the characters in-story. Neither is "More of Me" by Natasha Bedingfield as it was sung over the credits. Also, the "Black-Rock Incantation," "Sun Drop/Hope Incantation" (so those are the official names now), and "Final Healing Incantation" weren't sung by Cassandra and Rapunzel, just recited, so they aren't really songs, but they're included anyway. What they did omit was "Hook Foot's Ballad" which comes after "The View From Up Here". I wonder if Disney accidentally missed this and will reload the video with this included.

It's just over an hour long, perfect music for say, the treadmill or during a long drive!

Writing advice...

... About military things from a soldier

Pt. 2 / ?: Women and relationships in the military

You wanna write a story with a militaristic setting, like CoD or R6S? You wanna create a female OC, self insert or character, but you don't know where to start, if women are even allowed in the military?

Well, lucky for you or not I know what that feels like and I've also got the combat / real life experience to help ya out!

Feel free to hop in my askbox or dm's and ask questions. I'll gladly elaborate and do my best to answer in full and plenty.

Disclaimer: My experiences and knowledge are mostly based on the German military, the Bundeswehr. They may differ from those of other countries.

Happy writing y'all! :)

Are women allowed in the military?

The answer seems obvious: Yes. Most militaries around the world do allow women to enlist. Some, however, do not allow women to join the special forces, such as the SAS, for example.

Certain branches report a higher number of female soldiers than others. The US army air force and sanitation in the German military are two examples I can think of.

Some countries do allow women to enlist but forbid them from partaking in "action", such as North Korea, Sweden, Norway, Bolivia and some more.

What about misogyny by male soldiers?

In my six years of active duty I've learnt that sexism rarely occurs, but when it does, it's straight forward and nasty. Most men don't care about your gender. They treat you like you're one of them, and oftentimes even forget about the fact that you're a woman. The few times I was talked down to for my gender was blatant and hateful though; but even then, some of these opinions didn't come from within the military, but from civilians. (Cue the old granpa who saw me travelling back home in uniform and just had to tell me that women belong in the kitchen, how in the good old days women were still women yadda yadda. Yeah, I had the same look about on my face like you now.)

Appearance is important!

As is in any military. I can't speak for them though, but in my experience, light and natural make up is allowed. Nail polish and lipstick are a hard no though, albeit the latter may be allowed for special occassions. If there's one thing my comrades have taught me it's that most men in the military got no clue about make up, so you'll probs get away with more than you'd think.

The exact rules however depend on your unit and what you do. Back when I was in sanitation I'd be working a pretty standard 9 to 5. Worked in the medbay and treated patients, kept the medical archive in order, pretty normal stuff. My superior allowed us to wear small ear studs. When I got deployed to another base I was almost lynched for wearing them. Really depends on the ones in charge.

As for hairstyles: Most units are fine with anything as long as your hair is up and out of your face. Now, we didn't have to use gel to keep stray hairs at bay. It wasn't that strict. Just don't use any flashy hair accessories and hair ties that match your hair colour. Oh, and your hair must be a) one colour and b) a naturally occuring one. The length doesn't matter as long as you're not Rapunzel. If your hairstyle is anything other than a pixie cut, you will have to wear a hair net under your combat helmet.

Do men and women stay in seperate dorms?

Seperate rooms? Yeah. Seperate dorms? Nope.

Sometimes you'd have couples who shared a dorm room. It's a whole process that your superior has to give his ok to, but I honestly wouldn't recommend it. Dorm rooms aren't exactly big. You need privacy? Well, that's too bad.

If you're lucky enough you get to have a room for yourself. Depending on what branch / base you're in, the rooms will be more or less furnished. Back when I worked at the ministry of foreign affairs, my room was pretty luxurious for milutary standards: TV, fridge, sofa, bed, desk w chair, a closet and a bathroom next door. That's definitely not the standard though. We usually had to buy and bring our own stuff, like blankets, fridge, decorations, whatever you'd need to make that cold room somewhat comfy. (Wifi is also not a given. Gotta get your own connection running.)

Flings, relationships, cheating spouses... How common is it really?

They do happen, though not as often as you'd think.

It's more common to hear rumors about who has smth going with who and these rumors can get BAD. As in reputation and career ruining bad. At that point there's gonna be an order from higher up to stop talking about these rumors and punishment can be quite strict. (Speaking of rumors...Hate to say it, but the more women a unit had, the worse talking behind others backs was.)

One thing that I always found particularly disgusting were relationships between higher ups and recruits. Yes, they happen. No, they're not allowed. These things are like open secrets. If found out and proven to exist, the superiors will be held accountable by military law. Outside of basic training it may be frowned upon if a superior were to enter any kind of relation with someone of lower rank, thought not outright punishable.

As for cheating... Well, I haven't enountered any cheating myself, nor heard of it (yet). Not saying that it doesn't happen, but at least over here in Germany it's rare. It's highly frowned upon and will open you up to rumors and... Not so nice treatment by comrades. Cheating on a spouse is punishable by military law. A soldier found guilty may be demoted in rank, suffer financial losses or even get dishonourably discharged.

I’m curious about your honest thoughts on Oscar Pine and the position the narrative has set him in. [14 year old gets infected with an immortal parasite and he believes it’s going to eat him. Eat his brain, his personality, his free will. And Replace Him.] Your analysis of Salem and Oscar’s interaction in the whale was fascinating and I’m dying to know if you have further or more overarching analysis on Oscar. Kid can’t catch a break from the horrors but seems to be the turning point to reject the status quo and CHOOSE DIFFERENTLY re working with Salem against the gods. THE GAME WAS RIGGED FROM THE START, REJECT THE PREMISE

this posts about ruby as much as oscar but i here's the main screed from when the 'the little prince' allusion got confirmed. also i think a lot about the mirrored ways salem and ozma treat cinder and oscar a lot

like any of the mains it's helpful to examine his roles in the core allusions to get a sense for where rwby is going with him ->

he's the little prince (a story about a child's journey into adulthood wherein transcendence-through-death is used to symbolize the experience of growing up without losing yourself; rwby literalizes this theme as ascension in v9. ozpin is the pilot, who is spiritually dead and cynical until his relationship with the prince revitalizes him, and then he has to let the prince go)

he's jack pumpkinhead (tip's "son," who spends much of the story fretting about decay and his own mortality because his head, a pumpkin, is going to rot; notably for rwby's purposes, jack is not wrong to worry, but he's saved from this fate by canning his head to preserve it)

he (along with cinder) is symbolically if not literally one of rapunzel's twins—note the congruence here with the prince's relation to the pilot [surrogate father/son] and jack's relation to tippetarius [creator/creation]. thus his (and cinder's) role in the maiden-in-tower layer of the narrative is to bring ozlem back together, probably in vacuo if the desert/wasteland thing holds.

<- so a purely intertextual reading suggests pretty strongly that oscar is on a track to being liberated from ozma in the course of the ozlem reconciliation and probably facilitated by ruby on the grounds that she is 1. the protagonist, and 2. the snake.

also we are definitely supposed to understand the "merge" as something that really would destroy oscar if allowed to complete and the contingent of this fandom that keeps reassuring each other that it's Fine Actually are unserious and fooling themselves. the kid actively preferred to continue being tortured than risk accelerating this process by using magic to escape—it is not a coming-of-age metaphor, lmao.

moving away from the intertextual layer, and sort of in the vein of the second post i linked, on oscar's quasi-familial relationship with ozma, i think about this a lot:

esp in light of what i talked about in this post regarding when the ozlem daughters disappear from ozma's side of the story. ozma loses track of his girls as soon as he attacks salem, and the girls die—her "we finally had freedom"/"why do you keep. coming. back."—ozma tells oscar he's sorry for leaving and oscar retorts "i'm not upset that you left, i'm upset that you came back." the stuffed dog symbolizing the deaths of his daughters and the stuffed dog symbolizing the child he's erasing in service of the god for whom he sacrificed his family. there's… some interesting implications knotted around this being the imagery that accompanies ozma thinking the problem is that he left versus oscar wishing he hadn't come back.

(see also, the fanon presumption that salem is furious with ozma because he left her versus salem herself expressing her rage as "why do you keep coming back"—as always rwby is not subtle AND YET)

anyway. the point being that i think the narrative is quietly interrogating ozma's role and culpability in the deaths of his daughters through oscar, who is also a quasi-child of his that he is killing—and while the curse itself is not ozma's fault, his treatment of oscar and insistent resignation to the inevitability of oscar's death is within his power to change, and of course i think ozma's apostasy is a prerequisite for him to be freed from oscar and vice versa. and the insidious combination of the merge itself and ozma's constant "our souls are becoming one" reminders is wearing oscar down. so there's a lot to chew on.

my most controversial opinion about him is that he is in far more danger than cinder is, vis a vis their relationships with their respective sides of the divorce

his stuff with ironwood in V7 also plays against penny's stuff with winter in a fascinating way because in essence he and ironwood are having the same debate that penny is having with winter and in the end ironwood and winter turn in opposite directions; winter throws herself between cinder and penny+fria rather than try to take the winter maiden for herself while ironwood shoots oscar over a ledge rather than listen to oscar's pleas to back off from using the winter maiden to open the vault.

and then in V8 penny is drawn into being a repetition of ozma's original tragedy—the noble hero brought low by a virus and killed—in juxtaposition to oscar surviving by choosing to become more like ozpin (using magic to blow up the whale) but in a context where that sacrifice was perhaps unnecessary (salem chose to let them go). the penny grief arc is already leading toward empathy for salem (see: ozlem parallels with ruby all over V9) and i think oscar's and ozma's witnessing of that will be… interesting, because one of the obstacles to the ozlem reconciliation is that ozma really does not understand how deeply salem grieved for him the first time she lost him.

hrgddhk it's difficult to talk about solely oscar because he is a load-bearing pillar in the story and that means his character is interlocked very closely with a lot of other character arcs—maybe more so than any other main character tbh.

Finished season 1 of Tangled the series and here's a list of the songs I'd say are from worst to best:

Listen up - Look. It's good but WHAT DO YOU WANT US TO LISTEN UP ABOUT?! WHAT IS IT????? It really frustrating because I was waiting for her song but we got nothing but Ruth telling us to listen up, a bit about her backstory and that's it. Nothing about the song. Lemme guess, that was the whole point wasn't it?

I've got this - It's not bad just not a favourite of mine.

Set yourself free - I like it but it's too short!

More of me - Haven't fully listened to it because Disney+ just auto plays the next episode and I'm not fast enough to stop it so I miss hearing this song.

Life after happily ever after - I like this one. It's good but not great

Let me make you proud - Varian's song about his dad is beautiful! I cried when listening to it

Let me make you proud reprise - It broke my heart listening to this and seeing Varian become a villain.

Wind in my hair - So wonderful. This is the perfect Rapunzel centred song and it feels like it belongs in the movie.

Wind in my hair reprise - just as good as the original but the change regarding the mystery of the black crystals makes it in my option more exciting to listen to

Friendship song - It's all about Rapunzel and Pascal! It's cute and I love it.

Ready as I'll ever be - My all time favourite!!!!!! I forever will love this song. And it's all because Varian just wanted to be heard, Cassandra wanted to show how she's much of a royal guard like the others and Rapunzel on how she just wants her home, friends and family to be saved. 100000/10. Best song now into season 2!

This bit here makes me wonder if Set Yourself Free is a song that can be applied to Cassandra as well as Rapunzel. Cause it seems like Rapunzel’s actually looking at Cassandra here instead of herself as she sings “You know that you are strong.”

Chapter 59! @gyubby99

Warning: contains suggestive content

"But I don't understand. How are you here?" Elsa asked as she and Rapunzel sat across from one another. Jack sat next to Elsa, he was now fully clothed and fairly frustrated. But he was also a bit confused. Rapunzel could see him. "Well you know about my magic hair and the flower and what made me magical," Rapunzel stated. Elsa nodded. "Well when Eugene cut my hair, I guess my magic never really went away, and like you know, my magic kept gothel young for thousands of years. It wasn't surprising when I didn't age past 30," Rapunzel explained. "I see... so I was like it was still there, just not as a direct line, and because the magic is inside of you, it kept you young as it did for gothel?" Elsa asked, trying to understand. "Something like that yeah," rapunzel replied. "Okay but.. after all these years why are you here now? And how can you see me?" Jack asked. "Well I was visiting my family. They think I'm a distant cousin. And while I was walking one night I saw you and Elsa fighting a battle of some sort. And I believe in you, Jack, because Elsa told me about you, and I knew that you couldn't have been made up," rapunzel explained. Jack couldn't sit still. Elsa took notice and put her hand on his knee to signal for him to stop. He did. Jack huffed and Elsa knew he was acting this way because if their earlier activities. "Is Anna still with us?" Rapunzel asked. "No. She died long ago," Elsa replied. Rapunzel looked down in disappointment. "Jack and I would love it if you could come to our wedding," Elsa started. Rapunzel perked up. "When is it?" She asked. "We're not set on an exact day, but we'll contact you to let you know. Feel free to bring your family," Elsa replied. "Oh I will! Anyways. Speaking of my family, I should probably go. We could hang out tomorrow if you'd like," rapunzel stated as she got up and walked to the door. "That would be fantastic! Text me when!" Elsa replied. "I will. Bye!" Rapunzel shouted as she walked out of the room. Elsa closed the door behind her. "Now where were we?" Jack asked as he hugged Elsa from behind. Elsa giggled. "You're lucky Olaf and Bruni didn't wake up," Elsa stated before turning to face Jack. Jack rolled his eyes before he started to kiss Elsa again. Elsa smirked a bit as she bit at Jack's lower lip. Jack obliged as he opened his mouth. Elsa locked their lips together and the two began to move back to elsa's room. When they got in and closed and locked the door, Jack pinned Elsa to the wall. "Hoodie. Off now please." Elsa ordered. Jack nodded and took his hoodie off before going back to kissing Elsa against the wall. Elsa stepped forward and Jack fell on the bed. Elsa smirked as she hovered over him, pinning his hands above his head and kissing him hard. "Elsa," Jack muttered. "What is it love?" Elsa asked as she began to kiss down Jack's neck. "This was not where we left off," Jack complained because of how the roles reversed. "It was about to be," Elsa replied as she nipped at his neck. Jack tugged at elsas shirt. "Off. Please." He begged. "Only because you asked so nicely," Elsa stated before taking her t-shirt off and throwing it somewhere in the room. Elsa leaned back down to kiss Jack, but was met with him pushing her off gently so he was hovering over her this time. "Jack..." elsa scorned. "You brought it upon yourself snowflake," Jack replied before he pinned her arms above her head. "Someone's feisty," Elsa teased. "Careful there. You know I could break you," Jack flirted. Elsa turned them over and pinned Jack down. She got incredibly close to his ear. "I'd like to see you try," Elsa whispered into his ear with low eyelids and a smirk. "Jesus," Jack muttered as he panted. "What's wrong?" Elsa asked. "Nothing... it's ironic but you're just so hot," Jack replied with a small smile. Elsa giggled before leaning down to kiss him passionately.

An hour or more later Elsa and Jack layed in bed. Jack drew shapes on Elsa's bare hip as they cuddled. "Now that was fun," Jack muttered. "It'd better be. We haven't done that in 300 years," Elsa replied. "And yet you're still so great at it," Jack stated with a smirk. Elsa blushed and giggled. "Thanks frosty," she replied. A few moments passed. "Hey els?" Jack asked. "Yes, love?" "If rapunzel is alive, do you think maybe other people are too?" Jack asked again. "On now you want serious talk?" Elsa mocked with a smirk. "Oh c'mon you can't blame me for wanting to finish what we had just started! But we finished! So now we can talk about it!" Jack exclaimed. "Okay okay. Do I think maybe other loved ones survived? It's completely possible. I just.. don't know who," Elsa replied. There was a rhythmic knock on the door. "Elsa? Jack? What's happening in there? Why's the door locked?" Olaf asked from the other side of the door. "Uh... I'll explain later! What do you need?" Elsa asked. "Bruni is hungry but I think his food ran our cause I can't find anymore!" Olaf replied. "Okay give us a second!" Elsa shouted. "I guess it's time to get up now," elsa stated as she moved to get up and to get dressed. Jack wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back down. "But it's cold without you!" Jack complained. "Jack. You're an ice mage." Elsa muttered with a smile as she got up. Jack sighed and made his way to get up as well.

See yourself free

WIPs ask game

I was tagged by @cyan-kelpie in this! :D

“ RULES: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.”

Here are my WIP titles (all Good Omens):

Selkie WIP [get hype y’all, it’s gonna take some time but it’s happening]

kinda like being in love

set me free, my honeybee

It’s a Rapunzel AU [don’t get hype for this, I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it...]

When He Sleeps

crow stops az saying love you [why did I title the file this???]

How An Old Woman Befriended a Demon (And An Angel)

angst fic sad times oof

painter crowley

A Lover of the Night [sounds risque - it’s not]

Fan Fiction [yes, this is a fic title]

This is quite a lot, but admittedly, some of these have not been touched in over a year and I don’t even know if/when I’ll get back to some of them...so it goes! I have a separate folder for “Neglected and Abandoned Works,” in which you can find such gems as “God’s Favourite Soulmate AU,” “godzilla dialogue,” and “it’s a bones day.”

(You might think you want to know...but you probably don’t.)

Anyway, I’m supposed to tag 11 people now, but that would require me to know 11 people on tumblr.

@anonymousdandelion, @hasturswig, @ineffablefool, @hope-inthedark, @geometricfractal, @hotcrosspigeon, @mizmak

I tried!! If you’re seeing this, consider yourself one of the untagged 4.

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Disney Princess Faux Eyelash Set NEW 3-Pack.

So look to the horizon       Open up your wings! Fly away to find your destiny--                      And set yourself free!

          Indie, selective, and series divergent Rapunzel of Tangled.                                  Est 2013 and remade in 2023.                          Crossover and OC friendly, mutuals only.

                                   Rules 🔆About 🔆 Verses

h o u ask game!

Ayy thanks!

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

I absolutely love when a TV show can be my source because there's just so much to sift through. I find that I stick with a fandom longer the more there is to fuel my love for it.

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

-Primadonna Like Me by The Struts

This has Eddie Munson written all over it, it's not even funny. Like, that's HIS song.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Steve Harrington (Stranger Things) - I relate to Steve on so many levels, from the need to gain family approval, to sort of losing your sense of self post-school, to craving friendship, etc. He's also just so selfless and caring despite his inner demons and I'm so proud of him for all the growth he's shown since we first met him in S1.

Eric Matthews (Boy Meets World) - Goodness. He's such a selfless goofball who makes everyone laugh. He just loves his friends and family so unconditionally and is so incredibly emotionally intelligent. Even when he gets 'dumbed down' he's still just so smart. I love that he is so unapologetically himself. He's a ray of sunshine.

Rapunzel (Tangled) - Legitimately I have never related to a character more in my entire life, even more specifically in reference to Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. The whole entering the world with a lack of understanding of it, insecurity, and a blind optimism was me leaving catholic school to enter into the real world on my own, and especially me leaving college to go into post-grad life during COVID. The song she sings 'Set Yourself Free' felt like the gentle love letter my brain needed to give myself. The comfort I find in her character arc is unmatched.

            i can’t believe i did this!!!

I love the song ‘set yourself free’ from Tangled the Series. It helped me realize that my whole life I’ve let people mold me into the person they need for their advantage. The song inspires me to push for my freedom and be who I want to be.a month ago

Rapunzel Appreciation Week: Free Spirit 😁🕊

I'm so happy with how this turned out! Set Yourself Free is without a doubt my favorite Rapunzel solo overall because of how empowering and liberating it is! 💪🏽❤ I also loved using some inspiration from Rapunzel's journal for parts of this, especially the bird! (Seeing pages from Rapunzel's journal and any of her art by @taranicoledessine is always a delight!

@gleamful-lanterns @autumn-ravenclaw @fitzherbert-s @mrseugenefitzherbert @eugeneismyqueen

Here’s a couple more:

“Set Yourself Free” verse opening:

“Wind In My Hair” - I’ve got a smile on my face and I’m walking on air!

“The View From Up Here” verse opening