Rapunzel

Rapunzel
Biographical information
Real name	Rapunzel
Aliases	Okiku "Punz" (by Joel Crow)
Status	Alive
Species	Human (Fable)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Hair seller Witch's apprentice (formerly)
Family information
Relatives	Frau Totenkinder † (adoptive mother) Twin daughters Unnamed birth mother
Appearances
First issue	Fables: The Last Castle
Last issue	Fables #106 — "Downfall: Chapter Five of Super—Team"
Original source	Titular character of "Rapunzel," and Okiku from Japanese folklore

“	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 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter One: Big in Japan"

Rapunzel, also known as Okiku, is a Fable who lives in Fabletown in New York City. She debuts in Fables: The Last Castle. Rapunzel 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

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. 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.

Rapunzel and her former lover, Tomoko

The Hidden Kingdom

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.

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.

Okiku rising from the well

Escape from the Homelands

After the Adversary attacked, Rapunzel fled to Fabletown in the mundane world, in the early nineteenth century: She was part of the group of Fables who were part of the last stand in the old territory, and could be seen with her arm around an unknown man as Colonel Bearskin briefed the last survivors aboat the last boat out.

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. 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.

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

Life continues

Rapunzel trying out for the superhero team

Rapunzel is later present at the annual "mini" Remembrance Day for those who died in the battle at the Last Castle.

When Fabletown is under threat from Mister Dark, Rapunzel auditions for Pinocchio's superhero squad. He suggests a clever title for her name; "Hair Raiser" but spelled like "Hair Razor." She agrees with the idea. He poses the question if she could use her long tresses to handle objects, but Rapunzel says it is impossible and ponders why he would think such a thing. She then accuses him of using the costume fittings as an excuse to repeatedly watch her take off her clothes.

Personality and traits

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 Crow. 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. 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.

Original source

Rapunzel is primarily based on the titular character of the fairy tale of the same name.

She is also based on Okiku from Japanese folklore. Okiku was a servant girl who lost a precious plate, died a terrible death, and reappeared as a vengeful yokai ghost. The most famous version of her story is called Banchō Sarayashiki, "The Dish Mansion at Banchō."

Etymology

The name "Rapunzel," derived from the fairy tale of the same name, refers to the rapunzel plant. In a similar vein, the name "Okiku," which translates to chrysanthemum, is likewise inspired by botanical elements.

Trivia

In Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Frau Totenkinder apparently said she would be in the tower for the rest of her days.