Rapunzel

Rapunzel (ラプンツェル, Rapuntseru) was the 12th strongest Knight of the Chess Pieces and the older sister of Girom.

Appearance[]

Rapunzel was a homely looking woman with her hair styled into a cone shape. Her outfit was red with white accents on her shoulders. She also wore two red arm bands on her right arm. One at her bicep and the other on her for arm. When she undid her hair from the cone shape it was wild and expansive.

Personality[]

Although she was one of the weakest Knights, Rapunzel was arrogant, riotous, and, despite being quite far from most vision of beauty herself, always boasted of hers and looked down upon others', earning her the dislike of many Knights. Possibly her only redeeming quality is that she loves her little brother Girom.

As seen from her battle against Dorothy, despite her arrogant and boastful personality, Rapunzel was shown to possess the necessary experience and tactical abilities of an experienced fighter and was able to back up her position as a Knight in a tactical level. This was seen where she showcased sufficient combat experience to know the weakness to wind manipulators, maximize the strengths and weaknesses of her ÄRMs, and to be instinctive and perceptive enough to detect when her subordinates are lying to her and sense the clear difference in power between Alviss and Mr. Hook.

Etymology[]

Rapunzel is named after and based on after a fairy tale princess who was locked in a tower and had extraordinary long hair.

History[]

As a child, Rapunzel was once apart of a happy family. However, after their father died, her mother drastically changed. She physically abused Rapunzel and her younger brother Girom and denied her children food. One day, they no longer could endure any more suffering by her hands, so the two siblings snuck into her room and chopped her to death with an axe while she was sleeping. Afterwards, the two matricides ran away.

Second Great MÄR-Heaven War[]

She was present as Phantom's revival. In the campaign of the 2nd War Games, Rapunzel was responsible for the capture of Reginlief Castle. A few days after the war began, while her legion occupied the recently conquered Reginlief Castle, Rapunzel discovered her younger brother outside soaking wet and in pain. Girom informs her of his defeat by Ginta in Vestry, and the two sought revenge against him in the upcoming War Games.

War Games[]

Rapunzel was seen with the rest of the Knights after the third round. She persuaded Phantom to let her and Girom fight in the fourth round, despite other Knights also desiring to go next. Her arrogant dismissal of the stronger Knights came across as a challenge to Halloween, but Ash and Peta acknowledged her stubbornness and Phantom granted her request. Rapunzel then wandered outside the castle and informed her brother their request was approved.

Round 4[]

When Rapunzel insults each member of Team MÄR on their appearance, Aqua replies by saying that Alviss and Nanashi were cute. Rapunzel then angrily slaps Aqua, before asking if she found them to be prettier than herself. Aqua assures Rapunzel that she is more beautiful, and the latter reminds her team that she has sensitive feelings about her appearance.

While watching the first match, Rapunzel warns Mr. Hook that punishment awaits him should he lose against Alviss. After he loses, she backs up the threat by having Mr. Hook gamble for his life with a game of "Rock-Paper-Scissors". The end result of their game is Rapunzel throwing scissors and Mr. Hook throwing paper. Mr. Hook loses, and Rapunzel kills Mr. Hook on the spot by slicing his neck (completely decapitating him in the manga), and his body sinks into the ice afterwards. She maniacally laughs at his death before immediately becoming irritated when Ginta and Dorothy called her an "old hag" when they yelled at her. The rest of Team MÄR criticized her appearance and lack of mannerisms further, causing her eyes to bloodshot with rage. Girom physically held her back from charging at the opposing team, promising her the best spot in the battle lineup. Rapunzel screamed she wouldn't be satisfied until both Ginta and Dorothy were dead.

Kollekio steps forward to go next and assures Rapunzel that he would kill one of Team MÄR, tossing one of his playing cards to her. However, Kollekio fails on his promise when he is defeated by Jack, so Rapunzel plays the same game with him. Kollekio throws scissors but Rapunzel throws rock and she decapitates Kollekio without a second of hesitation.

Dorothy volunteers to go next and invites Rapunzel to be her opponent, referring to her as an "old hag" again. Rapunzel aggravatingly stated she was only 29 years old, but Dorothy joked that she must be lying about her age since it didn't reflect her appearance. Girom stops his sister once more from attempting physical assault on Dorothy, insisting that she was far more beautiful than the witch. Rapunzel blushes at her brother's flattery, and steps back for Avrute to fight the witch. However, Dorothy defeats him effortlessly and almost instantaneously. Absolutely furious with Avrute's instant loss, Rapunzel takes off his head and comments it isn't worth playing "Rock-Paper-Scissors" with him.

Despite seemingly being victorious in the match against Aqua, Nanashi pretended to be down and insisted that the match be declared a "draw" in an effort to save Aqua's life. Rapunzel, however, is angry that the enemy sympathized her, and plays "Rock-Paper-Scissors" with Aqua for her life. Aqua wins by beating Rapunzel's "Paper" with "Scissors", but is immediately impaled by Girom, who declared that he had "Rock" with his fist, and had used Iced Earth from his fist to create an ice sword that he used to stab her. Whist not shown, it was possible Rapunzel organized for Girom to kill Aqua instead should she herself lose the game. Aqua weakly apologized to Nanashi as she fell to the ground and died. Enraged by the cruelty of Rapunzel and Girom, Ginta violently attacks Girom, initiating the next match.

After Ginta defeated Girom, Rapunzel became enraged and demanded that he fight her. Ginta accepted her challenge, only for Dorothy to step in due to him being a bit worn out. Due to being the one with the most energy and magic power left, Dorothy substituted in for Ginta as Rapunzel's opponent, taunting her by calling her an "old hag" again.

As the fight begins Rapunzel says she's go nice and easy to start things off. Rapunzel then activates her Nature ÄRM, Ice Spikes, which causes a series of spikes to emerge from the ground and head towards Dorothy but she easily jumps to avoid them. Dorothy says that she's being underestimated and such an attack wouldn't even work against Jack. Rapunzel responds that she is beautiful and Dorothy should look around. Dorothy does and noticed the Ice Spikes have surrounded her. Rapunzel uses the Spike Sandwich technique to fold and slam into Dorothy. Rapunzel restates that she is beautiful and gives a thumbs-down gesture while calling Dorothy a "bitch".

Everyone is worried for Dorothy when they notice she has has blocked the spikes from sandwiching her with her Nature ÄRM, Zephyrus Broom, then shatters the spikes with a blast of wind from her ÄRM. Rapunzel then asks whose mastery is strong, ice or wind and attacks with another wave of spikes. Dorothy easy counters this with another swing of her broom, reducing the spikes to rubble once again, and sends out a small blast of wind that cuts Rapunzel's face. The cut on Rapunzel's "beautiful" face causes her to lose herself in anger and attack Dorothy with intent to kill.

Rapunzel activates her Nature ÄRM, Hair Master. This lets Rapunzel manipulate her own hair and sends several cones of hair to create a barrier between her and Dorothy. Dorothy prepares to use Zephyrus Broom again to slice apart Rapunzel's hair. Before Dorothy can launcher her attack she is speared through the stomach by part of Rapunzel's hair. Dorothy realizes that the hair has hardened significantly and that Rapunzel wasn't making a barrier with her hair but instead sending it through the ground to attack with. Rapunzel explains that wind users have a weakness, that their immediate surrounding as similar to an eye of a hurricane and that is where they are weakest and that wound Dorothy just received should prevent her from using wind for the rest of the match. Rapunzel attacks Dorothy with a barrage of attacks cutting her all over her body. Rapunzel comments that just like Girom, she also takes delight in killing women. She monologues her traumatic past as justification for her current self and tells Ginta that after she kills Dorothy she'll advance to the next round where he'll will be her next victim.

Dorothy activates her Guardian ÄRM, Crazy Quilt. The chatterbox guardian begins going into a long monologue of how long it was put away for. Dorothy tells Crazy Quilt that Rapunzel is the prey for the day. Quilt takes one look at Rapunzel and comments on her monstrous appearance. Quilt refuses to fight and says freedom is better used picking flowers, skipping stones or playing with kids. After noticing Dorothy's severe wound, Quilt's attitude changes and she wants to make Rapunzel pay for what she's done. Quilt charges in all the while dodging Rapunzel's Hair Master attacks. Dorothy orders Crazy Quilt to sing and the guardian begins to sing a cacophonous song with nonsensical lyrics at an absurdly high volume. Rapunzel covers her ears screeching in pain. While Rapunzel closes her eyes in pain as she desperately clasps her ears trying to block as much of the singing as possible, Dorothy swaps Crazy Quilt out to immediately cut her with a single sharp gust of wind from her broom. The wind leaves a severe slash across Rapunzel's right breast and knocks her to the ground, resulting in her defeat.

After Pozun declares her the victor, Dorothy limps over to Rapunzel on the frozen ground and looks upon the fallen knight. Dorothy asks if her if she knows a woman named Diana. Rapunzel gasps in shock, surprised that the witch knows the identity of the Queen of the Chess, confirming Dorothy's fears.

Aftermath[]

After the fifth round, the Knights are called into Phantom's room in Lestava Castle for a meeting. Despite the meeting being for the Knight class only, Rapunzel brings her little brother Girom with her in. Candice apologizes to Phantom for failing to win her match. Phantom kindly reassures her not to worry as he wasn't upset about it. Candice's expression changes to adoration as Ash raises his hand and speaks up, reminding that he also lost his match due to forfeit and offered himself to be punished. Phantom happily assures Ash that he wasn't mad with him either, as it was just part of who Ash was as a person. Phantom then specified that the only Knight who needed to be punished was Rapunzel, for her senseless murder spree of Chess teammates (including Aqua) without Phantom's permission during the fourth round. Girom attempted to defend his sister's actions, but quickly backed off when Phantom gave him a cold glare. Phantom offered her a chance to save herself by dueling against a Rook named Ian. Despite being insulted that a mere Rook was chosen to deliver punishment to Knight such as herself, she accepts the challenge.

Girom and the remaining Knights go outside to the surface below where the castle floated to observe the duel between Rapunzel and Ian. She offers Ian the first move, but his silence causes her to underestimate him further and makes the first move by activating Ice Spikes. He jumps in the air to avoid the initial attack, though allows Rapunzel to use her Spike Sandwich technique on him. Girom cheers on his sister while belittling Ian for his rank. As he walks up to his sister, the ice glows from inside and Ian instantly breaks free. The siblings are blown back, with Girom falling over on the ground while Rapunzel manages to hold her footing. Shocked that he broke out unscathed, Rapunzel frustratingly states that she's changed her mind and intends to give him a painful death. She activates Hair Master, but Ian not only dodges the hair spikes but also brushes one off into a nearby tree, showing he is not in the least bit threatened by the assault. He continues to dodge each strike as he runs and jumps toward her, landing on the ground a few meters away. Confused that he put himself in better range for her to accurately hit him, she tries again to strike him, but he immediately burns the ends of her hair. Rapunzel realizes the fatal mistake she's made in underestimating him once she figures out that Ian was suppressing his magic power since he first appeared before her. Before she can react, Ian immediately incinerates her with one attack, killing her in front of Girom's eyes, therefore indirectly avenging Aqua, Mr Hook, Kollekio and Avrute.

ÄRMs[]

Aside from her ÄRMs, Rapunzel showcased immense physical abilities, having shown to be capable of slicing a person’s head off using her bare hands.

Rapunzel's ÄRMs include:

• Ice Spikes: A Nature ÄRM which creates several streams of giant icicles along the ground. It can also be used to make a sort of bear trap out of two spiked walls.
  • Spike Sandwich: After creating walls of ice spikes in the ground on either side of her opponent, Rapunzel flips the walls upward like the jaws of a bear trap, killing them.
• Hair Master: A Nature ÄRM allowing her to manipulate her already odd hair, turning it into several very sharp and hard, tentacle-like drills - an obvious pun on the name Rapunzel.

Trivia[]

• While Rapunzel herself is directly based on the titular fairy tale princess, her backstory that she shares with her brother Girom may be loosely based on another fairy tale, Brother and Sister.
• Rapunzel's death in the anime was toned down due to the graphic nature; in original the manga she was decapitated.

Gallery[]