Cassandra(Tangled)

She is the biological daughter of Mother Gothel, who was abandoned as a child when Gothel kidnapped Princess Rapunzel and hid away from the world. She was taken in by the Captain of the Guards thereafter. Ironically, upon Rapunzel's return to the palace, Cassandra would be enlisted as the princess' lady-in-waiting. The two developed a close friendship overtime, until Cassandra's internal bitterness and insecurities had drove her to harness the power of the deadly Moonstone Opal in an attempt to supersede Rapunzel,

## Background

Cassandra is the adopted daughter of Corona's Captain of the Guard. She is a skilled fighter who dreamt of joining the royal guard, though she formerly— and contently — served as Rapunzel's lady-in-waiting and closest confidante, alongside the princess' pet chameleon Pascal.

Her role generally required that she assist Rapunzel by any means necessary. She also played an instrumental role in the return of Rapunzel's 70-feet of magic, golden hair.

In Rapunzel's Return, Zhan Tiri showed her forgotten past. It was revealed that she is Mother Gothel's biological daughter. Rapunzel said that it made them sisters, which angered Cassandra.

She lived her childhood in a quaint cottage by a waterfall, often being left alone and doing chores around the house while Gothel was out preparing to kidnap Princess Rapunzel. On the night of the kidnapping, the guards chased her to the cottage, but she could not get to the cottage, and hid behind a rock. Cassandra, seeing her mother from the window, came outside, only to witness firsthand how her own mother cut the bridge across the moat in front of their cottage, cradling another child and showing it more affection than she ever showed her. The Captain of the Guards carried her off, soothing her as she bawled "I want my mama".

Zhan Tiri further manipulated Cassandra into the difficult times she was placed in by reminding her of the times she had to reject big opportunities for her friendship with Rapunzel, as well as constantly being in her shadow all the time. Leading Cassandra to betray her best friend by grabbing the all-powerful Moonstone, stating it is HER destiny.

## Personality

Cassandra is described as being "tough-as-nails", a fitting description for someone who wishes to join the royal guard. She is snarky, sarcastic and has a somewhat dry sense of humor. She is also very intelligent, often subtly insulting Eugene in clever ways that go over his head. Despite this, she is extremely supportive and protective toward Rapunzel, her polar opposite—so much so, that she openly holds animosity for Eugene, believing him to be a selfish freeloader and undeserving of Rapunzel's love and friendship. In the series, however, their relationship gradually becomes less hostile, and slightly more playful as the two spend more time together. In "Fitzherbert P.I.", Cassandra genuinely admired Eugene's determination to become a royal guard, and actively assisted him in proving his worth to her father. It was later shown that Eugene's quirkiness had started to warm up to Cassandra, who found amusement in his excitement to school the guards as head of a training class.

Aside from her no-nonsense persona, Cassandra is also a free-spirit, not unlike Rapunzel. Though she has a more cynical way of going about life, Cassandra also finds joy in adventure, living life to the fullest, and experiencing new things.

Although loyal to King Frederic and Queen Arianna, Cassandra is willing to break their rules (and risk her job) for the sake of Rapunzel's happiness and to accomplish her dreams; this is seen when Cassandra offered to take Rapunzel beyond the kingdom's wall to explore some of the outside worlds and escape the pressures of royalty. Doing so required much stealth and cunning, traits Cassandra revealed herself to have abundantly that night.

In "Challenge of the Brave", it is revealed that Cassandra has some insecurities about how she is seen just like a girl/handmaiden instead of a strong, skilled, and capable warrior who deserves as much respect as anyone in the royal guard. These insecurities, and the desire to prove herself can sometimes drive Cassandra to act selfishly, even to those she cares about. Once she realizes her mistakes, however, Cassandra is mature enough to own up to her faults and make amends as best she can. Cassandra's cynical nature gives her trust issues. Examples are that she doesn't forgive people easily, she doesn't like sharing her feelings, keeps secrets to herself, or she won't accept help. This is one of the reasons she has a rivalry with Eugene because he was a thief in the past and she thinks he's ignorant enough to not address other people's feelings.

In "Not in the Mood", her personality develops a bit. She likes to show no mercy toward not just Eugene, but other suspicious-looking people. She later realizes she should be more compassionate. For starters, she made friends with a man who was large and scary, but friendly.

She still has a firm belief that strangers can't be trusted, especially when they lurk in the shadows. She jumps to conclusions about people's actions rather quickly. If she doesn't like someone, she'll fight them. She even fights just for the fun of it, not in the mood for being nice.

Throughout Season 2, Cassandra's seriousness about the journey ahead grows to a point where she becomes resentful at the group's dismissals of her concerns. Her hand is injured due to Rapunzel's use of the Decay Incantation in "Rapunzel and the Great Tree" which she and Rapunzel struggle to communicate about; a growing crack in their relationship that only got worse when she discovered her backstory in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow and that her mother chose Rapunzel over her, which soon motivates her to betray Rapunzel and take the Moonstone for herself. She then ran away with the opal, opting to use its powers to make her destiny apart from Rapunzel and her former friends.

Cassandra's anger towards Rapunzel is stoked by Zhan Tiri throughout Season 3, who encourages her to blame Rapunzel for Gothel abandoning her. Although Cassandra has moments of weakness, under Zhan Tiri's encouragement she attacks Rapunzel in order to obtain the Demanitus Scroll. As depicted in the episode "Cassandra's Revenge", she has become increasingly ruthless under Zhan Tiri's influence. However, there are some lines she is still not willing to cross, such as sparing Pascal and Varian's life, who has been in the same position as her. However, she tells him they are not as similar as he says, and rejects his pleas for her to stop.

However, in "A Tale of Two Sisters", Cassandra being stuck with Rapunzel under Gothel's old cottage gradually causes her to become protective and warm-hearted towards her once more. They even reminisce and bond over the old times, only for a misunderstanding caused by Zhan Tiri to misguide Cassandra into believing that Rapunzel intentionally withheld a seemingly happy memory between Gothel and Cassandra from her.

In "Once a Handmaiden...", after realizing that Zhan Tiri tricked her and that her mother never really loved her, Cassandra becomes remorseful over her actions and seeks to make amends with Rapunzel. However, she expresses fear that Rapunzel won't forgive her, and comes back to Corona disguised as Faith and manages to bond with Rapunzel again. Unfortunately, after Zhan Tiri manipulates her yet again, Cassandra comes to believe Rapunzel intends to destroy her after being struck by amber from Varian's Project Obsidian, causing her to turn her back on her once more.

In "Plus Est En Vous", Cassandra's anger has made her completely mistrustful, and any remembrance of Rapunzel's "betrayal" causes her to destroy things in a rage. She also no longer trusts Zhan Tiri, possibly blaming her for most of the events that transpired. As she and Rapunzel fight, Cassandra sadistically mocks her and reminds her of how she's always felt second best. Cassandra seems to hold some fondness left for Rapunzel by sparing the frame picture she made her that was kept in her old room as she only put it down and a jar made by her Aunt Willow, which she holds dear. However, this fondness wasn't enough for Cassandra to spare her entirely and just as she was about to eliminate Rapunzel, Zhan Tiri took both the Moonstone and SunDrop from them, reducing Rapunzel's hair back to its natural color and Cassandra back to her old self, Cassandra gets told by Zhan Tiri that is indeed like her villainous mother; having an ego. While imprisoned, Cassandra breaks down in tears for all of her heinous actions and finally apologizes to Rapunzel, revealing that she all she wanted was to find her own destiny and set out a path for herself, but let her insecurities blind her from those needs. Rapunzel forgives Cassandra and says that there is more in her, more than she has ever known, which instills a new confidence in her. Once they break out of the prison and defeat Zhan Tiri, Cass was gravely injured in the scuffle and apparently died, but was revived by Rapunzel by using the Moonstone and SunDrop. She later leaves Corona after tearfully bidding farewell to Rapunzel, acknowledging themselves as best friends, and sets out to travel the world and find her destiny.

## Powers and Abilities/ Heavenly Powers

After bonding with the Moonstone's power, she, most likely, receives the life-draining power that it possesses, as evidenced by its energy coursing through her hair. She now has control over the Black Rocks which was first seen when she creates some to escape the Dark Kingdom, and in time she has mastered her powers to the point she was able to build Cassandra's Stronghold out of the Black Rocks.

Due to her connection to the Black Rocks, they respond to her emotions, as seen when she was afraid of the idea of destroying Rapunzel, the rocks turned red and gained the ability to show people their worst fears until becoming literally paralyzed with fright if they stared at them too long:

* **Lunakinetic Combat**
* **Moonlight Energy Solidification****:**Cassandra is also capable of generating the Stone's supremely powerful pure lunar energies from her body and causing extensive bodily harm to those who come into contact with them.

* **Command Over the Black Rocks:** She has total command of the Opal's supremely powerful physical defenses at her disposal; capable of manipulating their unpredictable direction and movements at a higher rate than the rock spikes themselves. Her first display of her control over them, was using them as a shield to prevent Princess Rapunzel from approaching her. Their mental connection to her seems to be strong enough that she could even erect the bridge that they had made for Princess Rapunzel to approach the case from within the heavenly magical Stone rested.
* **Destruction & Decay Creation & Control****:** Due to the Moonstone's decay spell, she is capable leaving quite a lot of devastation and ruin, shadow and weakness in her wake but has yet to unleash its full potential.
* **Lunar Shield Erection****:** Utilizing the Black Rock Spikes, Cass is able to defend herself and anything around her by commanding them to shield herself from any approaching threat, even from a distance. She has yet to create one from the Opal itself.
* **Moon Affinity & Empowerment**: Now that she and the Moonstone are forever one entity, Cassandra can now draw more strength from the Stone and even the Moon itself.
* **Lunar Energy Creation & Manipulation**

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

In Sora’s Adventures in Corona, Cassandra meets Sora and friends for the first time, and form a bond when they learn why Rapunzel's "Rapunzhair" came back. However, the forces of darkness catch up with her when Marluxia and Demyx take her in and reveal a shocking truth about Cass's lineage: she is in fact the biological daughter of Mother Gothel! She is then promptly turned to the dark side and steals the Moonstone Opal for her own destiny and bring her mother back from the dead. After Zhan Tiri's defeat, Cassandra reforms and sets off on her own journey.

In Happy Lunar New Year, Sora!, it is revealed that Cassandra got a job at Radiant Garden High School as the new girls' PE teacher. She also participates in the Lunar New Year dragon parade.