TTS Character Analysis

Nigel *updated

So, many of you are going to be super surprised when I say that I actually like Nigel (aka fake Frenchman 😉).  Ok, that lays it on a little thick.  Let me rephrase that.  Nigel is a character that most of the fandom dislikes, but I actually believe that he is merely misunderstood. He gets on my nerves, yes, but I actually respect him.  This analysis is different from my previous one, because it'll follow my journey in understanding Nigel's character.

To be honest, I didn't like him at all until season 3.  I thought he was annoying and was just disagreeable. All he seemed to do was disagree with everything and everyone.  Even though I do not agree with his ideas, I can respect him because he is doing what Fredric failed to do.  He wants what's best for the kingdom and as Royal Adviser, well, giving the king all the angles he can is his job.

So saying "But your highness" is his job and once I realized this, he suddenly became less annoying to me.  In an odd way.

Now I know that what he's doing is what he believes is best for the kingdom.  As I said before, I don't agree with a lot of his ideas, but I can respect that and know that he's doing his best.

This is all nice and all, but what really made me actually realize that he is a misunderstood character is when I actually put myself in his shoes.  This was when I actually understood why he was who he was. 

The key to knowing Nigel are in the episodes "Pascal's Dragon" and a clip in "Be Very Afraid" that I had overlooked.  Plus I realize now that Be Very Afraid was the episode right before Pascal's Dragon, so thumbs up to the writers on foreshadowing the next episode.

Let's start with the clip in Be Very Afraid.  At one point, Nigel is running around screaming that "Dragons!  Dragons!  There are dragons everywhere!"  That means dragons are Nigel's greatest fear.

Why are they his greatest fear?  We get the answer in Pascal's Dragon.

He harboured a baby dragon when he was little, which shows he has a soft heart. Or did at one point.  However, because of this, his village was almost destroyed and was fortunate that no one was seriously harmed.

Talk about childhood trauma, I can't bring myself to blame him for hating dragons.  True he went too far, and he did disobey Rapunzel.  In his head, it was all for good reason.  In his point of view, Rapunzel was so worried about Pascal's feelings that he felt like Rapunzel didn't take enough caution of Corona.  Nigel would not have stepped outside his boundaries had the dragon incident not been so personal that his emotions blinded his better judgment.

Now we know that little bit of history.  It makes me wonder if his greatest fear isn't actually the dragons, but the results of decisions he made gone for the worst.  That's just a theory/headcanon rather than anything so don't put that as a fact.  Either way, his decision in Pascal's Dragon makes a lot of sense.  Logically and personally in his view.

Once I put this together, as much as I hated to admit it, if I had lived in Nigel's life, what would I do in this position?  Do whatever it would have taken to rid the Kingdom of the dragon.  I would be where Nigel stood, but I would have gone about it in a different way.

Then Nigel also researched for hours on what that strange egg was earlier on in the episode.  And I mean the old fashion way of painstakingly going through page by page, chapter by chapter, book by book.  There was no Google.  I could say that it was his job, but it looked more like dedication to the Kingdom to me.

So, in the end, I ended up kinda liking Nigel and he officially earned my respect.  As I said that I don't agree with a lot of his decisions, I have to admit that he is actually a pretty admirable character that I could form some theories and headcanons on. 

Many may argue the whole rumor with Varian attacking Rapunzel was Nigel's fault and that was my first conclusion.  It's the obvious choice for Nigel did accuse Varian of attacking the princess, but he didn't spread that rumor.  I'm sure he mentioned it to Fredric, but honestly, from his point of view, you have a random kid run to the princess and start shaking her.  So technically... yeah, you're not supposed to lay your hands on royalty like that, especially since he didn't know Varian.  If we're speaking on technical terms, it's easy to see why Nigel would jump to that conclusion.

In conclusion, Nigel is a flawed human being, but thoroughly misunderstood.  He's just like Rapunzel, trying his best for Corona even if his views and ways of doing so are not how I would go about it.

Do I love fanfiction where Nigel is a villain?  Heck yeah, he makes a good one!  But I love the occasional fanfiction where Varian and Nigel come to a mutual understanding of one another when they finally realize they have the same goal in mind.

Please comment who you would like me to talk about next!