How are Fredric and Rapunzel narcissistic?
So for this case, I’m going off the fact that narcissism is defined by an inflated sense of self-importance and a consequent lack of empathy for others, and that if Rapunzel and Frederic aren’t full-on narcissists all the time, they do at least have qualities, traits and habits typical of narcissists. We get more examples for Rapunzel than Frederic only because we see more of Rapunzel throughout the series than we do of Frederic, but I’ll include them both.
1) They almost never properly apologize - most of their “apologies” are ways to try and pedal blame on others and/or feel sorry for and make excuses for themselves.
The one time Frederic makes an attempt at an apology, he wallows over and feels sorry himself. How he feels, how he felt when he made those decisions. He doesn’t acknowledge how his actions hurt other people, he’s more focused on making excuses. He doesn’t feel sorry for the people who suffer as a consequence. Even at the balcony, he’s not remotely sorry for Varian. He’s just upset that his wife got caught up in the consequences he himself should have faced. I’ll talk more about this issue of blame with Frederic in later points.
For now, I’ll settle with : Rapunzel’s reconciliations with Cassandra are not apologies.
In S1 and S2, Cass’ life gets threatened more than once because of Rapunzel’s choices. Repeatedly. But instead of ever apologizing to Cass for those instances (except in Freebird), Rapunzel makes “deals” or half-hearted attempts at sympathy instead of acknowledging what she did wrong.
“I get it” doesn’t equate to “I’m sorry” or “I’ll try to do better.”
Frederic’s reconciliation with Eugene has no apology either. Frederic doesn’t apologize for ignoring Eugene’s advice, making things more difficult for both of them on the mission and making him feel diminutive.
It’s still an okay reconciliation, but Frederic doesn’t acknowledge how Eugene felt when he constantly either ignored him, blamed him for their trouble, or caused trouble himself. he just says, “Well...I do respect you anyways.” Trying to indicate the problem wasn’t Frederic himself being....well, full of himself. It was apparently Eugene “not knowing how much Frederic actually respected him” even though...Frederic’s “respect” for Eugene runs thin most of the time.
2) He and Rapunzel don’t acknowledge the power they have when they make decisions and focus more on feeling sorry for themselves when that decision has consequences than putting themselves in the perspectives of people they hurt in the process and owning up to their decisions.
There’s a difference between saying “I didn’t/don’t have a choice” and “I had to/have to make this choice”, but Rapunzel and Frederic continue to act like victims instead of taking this responsibility.
These two are one and the same sometimes.
As leaders, you do need to acknowledge the choices you have/had, however limited. It’s fine if you didn’t have any other viable choice - but that’s not the wording here. It wasn’t “I didn’t have any other choice”, it’s just “I don’t have a choice.” Where...as the most powerful people in the show, they literally always do.
Also, in all 3 of these shots, Raps and Frederic are focused on themselves. Justifying themselves, making themselves feel better. Rapunzel isn’t approaching Cass about the pain she accidentally caused her or the trauma Cass must have - she’s more offended that Cass seems to be implicitly blaming her. And Frederic isn’t thinking about how he’s traumatizing Rapunzel or how this sentence will affect Attila’s life, he’s playing the victim card so people don’t call out the fact that he is a ruler who is entirely in charge of the law and sentences, and that if he’s making a decision, he’s making this out of his own will, and quite literally won’t be opposed by anyone unless, by some miracle, Attila isn’t guilty or Rapunzel manages to escape (which...both of those things happen) .
Also, Frederic repeatedly tries to justify himself by painting himself in a positive or sympathetic light. Constantly. Instead of just admitting he did wrong and saying he’s sorry or that he could have done better.
The reason I’m pointing this out is because Rapunzel’s “admissions” or “apologies” will follow this similar format throughout the show. Frederic’s and Rapunzel’s justifications tend to follow the pattern of “I”, “me”, “myself”, “but you”. And almost no “I’m sorry” or “I won’t do it again.”
3) They victim-blame others.
This one will apply more to Rapunzel than Frederic only because we don’t see enough of Frederic. A narcissist, whether passive or aggressive, will try to find a way to pin partial or complete blame on others, implicitly or directly, because they can’t stomach any blame or admission of their faults. Rapunzel does this repeatedly.
Even when Frederic starts admitting fault, Rapunzel victim-blames for him.
5) They are willing to take excessive, unneeded control over specific situations and manipulate them/risk possibly hurting the people involved if it will get them what they want.
Rapunzel in Cass v. Eugene. She had no right to interfere with her friends’ squabbles and yet she goes to great lengths to deceive and possibly traumatize them just because she herself doesn’t like to hear disagreement and equates friendship with unconditional agreement. And she enforces that on her more experienced friends because it’s either her way or no way. (I say possibly traumatize because Eugene was imprisoned in the OG movie before being hauled to be hanged...I don’t think he would just forget that).
Rapunzel in Rapunzel’s Enemy. This episode was entirely dedicated to Rapunzel “making” someone like her and going so far as to disguise herself so she can figure out why. This was actually treated like a good character flaw and addressed the way it should have. It’s a shame the show goes back on it and regresses her character.
And...this is a really small one that might have been unintentional but...Rapunzel in Beyond Corona’s Walls. She was either willing or ignorant to hurting a lot of people by touching those black rocks, using an unfair advantage instead of just fighting this out with her hair and friends like she normally would.
Now...onto Frederic. There aren’t that many screenshots for this but I’ll try.
Sending soldiers to hound Varian and steal the scroll while ensuring Varian can’t get help.
Planning to send more enforcements to threaten Varian’s life instead of handling the situation logically or with plan that involves treating his orphaned subject like a human being. He’s more intent on “making Varian pay”, not on “handling the situation”. If he had cared about “handling the situation”, he wouldn’t have made it worse just because he believed he knew what was best.
Confining Rapunzel - first within Corona’s walls and then in her own room, going so far as to put literal bars on her window.
Plus the whole thing with Frederic constantly sending in his soldiers to follow Rapunzel around, chase her in the streets, guard her door, etc. He may have been doing this because he was worried about her and wanted to protect her, but it should still be noted that he is controlling and abusive without knowing it, and he is only content if he has abnormal amounts of control over other people and their lives. Another strong characteristic of a narcissist.
ALSO, Frederic’s first resort is punishment. Punishment if things don’t go his way, punishment if people dare to disobey him or encourage disobedience. He doesn’t talk to people, he doesn’t take time to think of his decisions rationally, he doesn’t show mercy unless it’s out of some sense of duty or guilt. If someone displeases him or makes him angry, or gets him riled up because they disobeyed him, he takes instant and brutal measures.
He locked up a tailor in a stockade. He decided to send Cass to a convent and effectively kick her out of her own home. He sentenced Attila and many other prisoners to a prison barge that would have taken them to a colony where they could be worked to death. He cuts down Rapunzel’s connection to ensure she can’t escape his abuse or disobey him ever again - by ignoring Arianna and Eugene, sending away Cass, and threatening Varian with more military abuse.
6) Needy for attention and easily jealous or petty when they can’t get it.
Again, this one applies more to Rapunzel than Frederic simply because of screen time and the fact that I can’t think too much of Frederic moments. The first examples for Rapunzel that come to mind for this are Goodbye and Goodwill, as well as Rapunzel’s Enemy.
7) Believing they know best and everyone else “just has to deal with it.” I would say this issue of Frederic’s gets kinda resolved in In Like Flynn, but not really...he still constantly parrots that he knows best and is making the right decisions afterwards. Same with Rapunzel.
They make solo decisions that end up making things difficult for themselves and others. The only difference is that Frederic kinda gets called out for it - Rapunzel gets rewarded for it. Even the show’s attempts to paint Rapunzel in the wrong don’t work - she gets her friendships handed to her despite having almost no respect for her friends.
Rapunzel abandons her subjects and low-key deceives them when they were all depending on her to lead them out of this situation. She robs them of the chance to take a part in the change they want to create and doesn’t even tell them that she went in alone - this wasn’t to protect them but out of her own personal (flawed) judgment that things would be “easier” if she did it alone (the real reason was that she was pretty strung up on Cass).
These things also apply to personal situations that aren’t leadership dilemmas too.
In Beginnings, Raps publicly humiliates Cass by accident and doesn’t properly apologize for it. And again - this accident happened because she refused to listen to Cass when she told her to take the competition seriously and because she decided her wish to “have fun” was more important.
When the time to apologize comes, Rapunzel still doesn’t do it. She makes some acknowledgement of how she might have been pushing too hard, but then Raps mopes about how things are so hard for her and continues to ignore Cass’ wishes.
There are probably more examples for the general “Frederic and Rapunzel both have narcissistic traits/habits” but these are the glaring ones that come to mind. Apologies for the long post. :)
