Varian is a young alchemist who appears as a recurring character, later a major character in Tangled: The Series. He served as the main antagonist for the second half of the first season until he finally reforms in the third season.
Background[]
Personality[]
Varian is an intelligent scientist, inventor, and alchemist. Though he acknowledges the existence of magic, he prefers to solve problems through scientific means. However, his experiments were confused as magic, which makes others believe that he is some kind of wizard. He has good intentions and wanted to make his father proud of him for his creations. He has heard about the princess' hair along with his father and the villagers and also shows respect to the royal family, as he bows to Rapunzel and calls her "Your Highness" until he was told to just call her Rapunzel. Despite his intellect, he is pretty naïve and sometimes overlooks his plans and inventions. While he has a gift of inventing and alchemy, his creations usually backfire and cause more chaos than good.
Besides inventing and alchemy, he enjoys reading about the adventures of Flynn Rider. He became Flynn's biggest fan for his bravery and combat skills, but the excitement of his hero had him confuse Eugene Fitzherbert as Flynn Rider when Eugene used the name in his life of crime. He quickly trusts Eugene with his secret hot water machines, and tries to assure him that it's under control when Eugene expresses his concerns about how unstable the machines really are. When the machines start to cause mayhem, he did try to turn them down but nearly got hurt in the process. After his home and village fell to the ground and the machines got destroyed, he shows regret for his actions and for letting his father down.
Varian is shown to be very kind, supportive, and understanding. He is also constantly willing to help others in need, attempting to find a solution to the black rocks before they reach the castle, and rushing to aid when he apparently sees Stan in danger of drowning in "The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne".
The events of "Queen for a Day", however, have left Varian hurt after his father was encased in an amber he accidentally formed out of the black rocks. His heart is then filled with rage and an obsession for revenge after feeling betrayed by Rapunzel for turning her back on him during his time of need (as she couldn’t sacrifice her people and the kingdom for a single person); as well an urge to save his father. Varian's dark turn left him a much more bitter and unreasonable person, focused on proving himself able to save his father, even at the expense of others. Varian began thinking only of himself despite Rapunzel's attempts to make amends with Varian and by aiding him to get the Sundrop Flower, Varian betrays Rapunzel as soon as he gets what he wants from her. Even when Rapunzel tried to heal Varian's heart with her apology and promising to help him save his father, the barriers that Varian placed around him, so he wouldn't get hurt the same way again, prevented him from listening to reason.
Varian also proves himself to be capable of being ruthless in achieving his goals, manipulating and attacking people if necessary. After stealing the sun drop failed, Varian sets out to force Rapunzel into helping him free his father by means of assaulting the kingdom, only to fail.
Varian is also impulsive at times, swearing vengeance when in fact the kingdom and the people’s lives were in danger and did not think that Rapunzel’s didn’t mean of breaking the promise because of that, even if he did free his father from the amber he still would be arrested for his crimes, quickly blames Rapunzel for the amber when in fact he’s the one who created it and tried to kill Queen Arianna and Cassandra when they had nothing to do with the amber.
Even after learning that not even Rapunzel's hair could help him free his father, an unstable Varian remains committed to making his father proud of him, no matter what it takes.
In his anger, Varian has shown his abusive side by transforming his pet raccoon, Ruddiger, into a monster against his will.
After about a year later though, Varian showed deep remorse and shame for his past deeds and believed that he could never be forgiven, which was why he teamed up with the Separatists of Saporia to erase everyone's memories so that he could have a fresh start and be friends with Rapunzel again. However, by Rapunzel's compassion and the Separatists' change of plans, Varian turned over a new leaf and helped the princess and her friends save Corona. His rekindled friendship with Rapunzel gave him back his father with a change of heart.
Via Cassandra's red rocks, it has been shown that Varian's greatest fear is his father being encased in amber again and the people of Corona declaring him a traitor and telling him he deserves to be unable to free Quirin for his past crimes. It is also revealed that Varian still harbors guilt over everything he has done and still believes that the citizens of Corona will hate him more than ever. He also considers himself ordinary in comparison to Rapunzel. With Rapunzel's help, however, Varian manages to tackle his fear and save the kingdom from the red rocks, being hailed as a hero by Rapunzel and the citizens of Corona.
Even after being abducted by Cassandra, Varian expresses sympathy for what she went through and attempts to get through to her, which is ironically what Queen Arianna attempted with him after he had captured her. He even relates to her, admitting that the path of hatred may feel good at first but will slowly lead to the person losing their mind and conscience, having evidently went through the same thing. Aside from this, Varian's bravery manifests again, with him refusing to tell Cassandra the third incantation despite not knowing what she will do to him if he does not comply. He is also revealed to have an extremely good memory, being capable of fully memorizing the Demanitus Scroll. Additionally, Varian is implied to be a bit mischievous, tricking Eugene into thinking that him touching a part of the hot air balloon he built will cause it to explode in "Race to the Spire".
As he matures, Varian takes on a more responsible approach in regards to his inventions, telling others not to touch them and scolding Lance for ignoring his warnings and causing the explosion of his "rooster" invention.
In "Once a Handmaiden...", he seems to have given up hope that Cassandra could relinquish her vengeful desires, even starting a project alongside Eugene that involves destroying her by encasing her in amber if she attacks again. However, at Rapunzel's urge, he agrees to show restraint, and attempts to reach out to her once more later on. Varian also seems to be somewhat skilled at shooting and horseback riding.
In "Plus Est En Vous", Varian does everything he can to banish Zhan Tiri back to Limbo, including rebuilding the machine used by Demanitus to do so, even taking somewhat of a leadership role when Rapunzel and Eugene are not around. Additionally, he expresses denial and anger over Eugene's concerns that his father, like Adira and Hector was mind controlled by Cassandra, but is nonetheless willing to take precautions just in case, putting the welfare of Corona first. After she gains possession of the Sundrop and Moonstone, Varian battles Zhan Tiri head-on along with the rest of Corona, yet again showing his bravery, and is made the Royal Engineer following Zhan Tiri's destruction, showing the royal family have trust and faith in him even though he conspired against them. He is also shown to have become closer with his father, as Quirin helps him with his machines, and when one of them explodes, the both of them simply laugh it off.
Physical appearance[]
At fourteen years of age (in season 1), Varian is a slender teen with fair skin, shaggy black hair with brown highlights and one teal streak, freckles, two front buck teeth, and light blue eyes. He wears a blue-gray shirt with a teal patch sewn on to it, brown pants, dark maroon apron, black gloves, dark brown shoes, and brown-and-gold goggles.
When Rapunzel and Cassandra first met him, he was wearing a black and gray coat and a gray bauta, which makes his eyes appear to be glowing a yellow-green color and makes his voice sound intimidating.
During a blizzard in "Queen for a Day", he wore a brown coat with a two grayish-brown colored cloak with a white fur-lined hoodie, a black belt, and a red scarf.
In "Rapunzel's Return", he donned a bad boy outfit, consisting of a black coat with red outlines, a red bandanna with sharp teeth design, gray vest, brown belt and straps that could carry his chemical balls, red gloves with metal straps, tan pants, gray-and-black boots, and a fake goatee which he draw it on.
From "The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne" and onwards in season 3, he wears a more adventurous steampunk style outfit, consisting of a beige shirt, maroon vest, dark brown gloves with brown straps, brown pants, dark brown utility belt, tan apron, and dark maroon-and-khaki boots.
Powers and abilities[]
Varian possesses no magical abilities. However, he displays a wide range of skill and talents, far beyond what is normally expected from a village boy.
- Alchemy and Engineering: His knowledge on alchemy and engineering skills allow him to build and make his creations and ideas, like machines, gadgets, and chemical mixtures, come to life. Even when his inventions don't always work and sometimes lead to nearly killing people, he still tries to overcome and fix his mistakes and to become the alchemist that he can be. Varian was also able to use his alchemy to modify the mood potion into a truth serum, as well as replicating it, while his engineering allowed him to build an army of Reverse-engineered copies of the Automaton he encountered in the underground tunnel system.
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