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The past is a dead dog. You need to leave it in the gutter with the wet leaves and used condoms and trash.
~ Rapunzel in Fairest 8: Big in Japan.

Rapunzel, also known as Okiku, is a Fable who lives in Fabletown in New York City. She is the adopted daughter of Frau Totenkinder, but has since become estranged from her mother. Her constantly growing hair forces her to have three haircuts a day, and she is under the most restrictive conditions to prevent any mundanes from noticing.

History

Early Life

Fairest 10 Rapunzel Disowned

Rapunzel is banished from the tower.

According to Rapunzel, in order to get through the winter, her birth mother sold her, for a handful of gold and Rapunzel leaves, to be a witch's apprentice. Frau Totenkinder cursed Rapunzel's hair to grow at an accelerated rate and kept her locked in a tower. When Rapunzel was a teenager, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother showed a prince the way to the tower she was kept in, mainly to spite Frau Totenkinder.[1] Rapunzel and the Prince had a passionate love affair which resulted in Rapunzel's pregnancy. When Totenkinder found out, she disowned Rapunzel.

After being thrown out by Totenkinder, Rapunzel tried to find her lost lover. Unbeknownst to her, Cinderella's fairy godmother forbade the prince to contact Rapunzel again, as the godmother had "plans for her." No one would take the homeless Rapunzel in, because of her past as Totenkinder's ward. Left alone, Rapunzel was forced to deliver her babies on her own and would have died if an unknown woman had not assisted with the birth. During the labor process, the woman gave Rapunzel a drugged apple and stole Rapunzel's twin daughters away after telling Rapunzel her children had died. Assuming it was Frau Totenkinder who kidnapped her children, Rapunzel tried to confront her adoptive mother when she regained her strength. But the tower was gone, along with Frau Totenkinder. Rapunzel spent centuries looking for her daughters across a hundred worlds. She went to great lengths to find them, soon becoming a warrior and even killing a Minotaur, but never managed to locate her children.

The Hidden Kingdom

Fairest 9 Lovers

Rapunzel and her former lover, Tomoko

Eventually, she gave up trying to find the children, and sailed off the edge of the world in a ship, planning to die. Instead, she washed up on the shore of the Hidden Kingdom; a Fable Homeland populated by people and creatures of Japanese mythology and culture. There, she became a member of the Emperor's court, and had a romance with a female Kitsune named Tomoko.

Fairest 11 Okiku

Okiku rising from the well.

It is also revealed that Rapunzel is Okiku from the famous Japanese ghost story; while spending time at the Emperor's court, she took Okiku as her new name. The shogun had Rapunzel's lover banished, along with many other Yokai. He confiscated the Kitsune's foxfire — her soul, which she kept outside her body. The shogun, Ryogan, kept the foxfire in a safe locked with a sliding puzzle. When Rapunzel tried to get the foxfire back for Tomoko, she discovered that she was unable to solve the puzzle slide, and broke a plate in anger. The shogun caught her trying to break her into the safe, beat her up and threw her limp form down a well. Rapunzel was unable to climb out the well, and ate her own hair in order to survive. She coughed up hundreds of bezoars, knots of her own hair forming in her gut. They talked to her with spiny mouths. Rapunzel knotted several of them into her hair, which gave her the purchase she needed to climb out. She escaped from the well, and killed the shogun and his men. Rapunzel walked away, not wanting to look back to see what the bezoars did to the Celestial City. Unfortunately, Rapunzel's disappearance and the lies told by the cursed ghost of Mayumi, led Tomoko to believe Rapunzel had betrayed her.

Escape from the Homelands

After the Adversary attacked, Rapunzel fled to Fabletown in the mundane world.[2] Due to her fast-growing hair, she is forced to live under the strictest mundy-contact conditions while in Fabletown, to prevent any of them from noticing the fast growth.[3] Joel of the Crow Brothers gives her three haircuts each day, at eight in the morning, four P.M. and at midnight. The hair is sold to make wigs, using the guise of her hair coming from many girls. However, she cannot live the lifestyle her income provides, since she cannot go out among the mundies for more than two or three hours at a time, and she cannot stay in a single place for more than 45 minutes. Her shopping trips must be confined to no more than twenty minutes per store, and she cannot visit the same store twice in three weeks. The same principle applies to almost every mundy business, with few exceptions; meaning that she cannot dine in any fine mundy restaurants, only in eateries with quick food service. She is allowed to watch movies at mundy cinemas because it's dark there, but she cannot talk to anyone.[4]

Lovers reunited

Centuries later, in the mundy world, Rapunzel and Joel Crow venture with Jack Horner to Japan, where the Japanese Fables have started a new life after the Adversary's invasion. Rapunzel gets caught in a war between Tomoko's group and the other Japanese Fables, but eventually manages to help her former lover and the other Japanese Fables find their way back to their homeland via a magical portal. Frau Totenkinder reveals to Joel Crow that she knows who took Rapunzel's children, and that this person is an enemy of Totenkinder, who would use Rapunzel to bring her and all of Fabletown down. This is why the twins were stolen, and why she can't tell Rapunzel. She persuades Joel to give Rapunzel a memory potion that will make her forget about her daughters, Tomoko and The Hidden Kingdom. Thus, why she appears to have no ill will and possibly her friendship with Joel may have been affected as they are not seen interacting as much.

Fables 103 Rapunzel

Rapunzel trying out for the superhero team.

To date, the series ended with her not having her memory back or ever finding her twins, and their status remained unknown.

Rapunzel was later seen auditioning for Pinocchio's superhero squad. He suggested a clever title for her name; "Hair Raiser" but spelled like "Hair Razor." She agreed with the idea. He posed the question if she could use her long tresses to handle objects, but Rapunzel said it was impossible and pondered why he would think such a thing. She then accused him of using the costume fittings as an excuse to repeatedly watch her take off her clothes.[5]

Personality

Rapunzel is a driven person, who still hopes to find her daughters one day. She's friendly, although she tends to stick to herself, her closest friend being Joel. Rapunzel is also bisexual.

Physical Appearance

Rapunzel is a beautiful young woman with blond hair that continually grows.

Powers and Abilities

  • Immortality: As a Fable, Rapunzel is immortal and extremely difficult to kill. A Fable's durability is allegedly dependent on how well known they and their story is to the mundies.
  • Rapid Hair Growth: Rapunzel's hair continually grows — not a feature of the original fable — forcing her to have it cut three times a day. The witch who cursed her with ever-growing hair was Frau Totenkinder.[6] Her hair grows at a rate of four inches an hour; extreme emotion can accelerate her hair's growing rate. There is a magical hair clip that can slow down this growth and give her some control over the sentient bezoars that can weave into and animate her hair.

Weaknesses

Rapunzel has the conventional weaknesses of any common Fable.

Equipment

  • Antique Hair-clip: An enchanted hair clip enchanted to slow down the rapid hair growing curse placed on Rapunzel.

Trivia

References

See also

Fables
Series FablesFairestJack of FablesFables: The Wolf Among UsEverafter: From the Pages of Fables
Specials 1001 Nights of SnowfallPeter & Max: A Fables NovelCinderella: From Fabletown with LoveCinderella: Fables Are ForeverThe Unwritten FablesThe LiteralsFables: Werewolves of the HeartlandFairest: In All The LandBatman Vs. Bigby! A Wolf In Gotham
Characters Bigby WolfSnow WhiteRose RedPrince CharmingBeautyBeastBoy BlueFlycatcherKing ColeFrau TotenkinderGeppettoThe Snow QueenNorth WindJack Horner
Video Games The Wolf Among UsThe Wolf Among Us: Season 2
Fabletown
Governing Body King ColeSnow White (formerly)Prince Charming (formerly)Beauty Ichabod Crane (formerly)
Inhabitants Beast Bigby Wolf (formerly)Trusty JohnGrimbleBufkinCinderellaMowgliHobbesPinocchioBriar RoseDoctor SwineheartRapunzelKayEdmond DantèsCrispin CordwainerThrushbeardThe HuntsmanFairy WitchFrau TotenkinderOzmaFairy WitchMorgan le Fay
Places Grand Green Florist/Chateau D'if Fencing Academy • Edward Bear's Candies • Ford LaundryNod's Books • Lewis' Antiques • I Am The Eggman Diner • The Yellowbrick Roadhouse • Webb 'n' Muffet Market • Woodland ApartmentsGlass Slipper Shoe Store • Branstock Tavern • Stone Soup
Unique Items Magic Mirror
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