Cassandra

**Cassandra** is a major character in the *Tangled* franchise. She is the deuteragonist of the Disney Channel film *Tangled: Before Ever After,* and the tritagonist of its follow-up series. 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, and raised in Corona as a handmaiden. Upon Rapunzel's return to the kingdom, Cassandra was enlisted as the princess's lady-in-waiting. Despite being polar opposites and occasional rivals, Cassandra and Rapunzel developed a close friendship—one that would inspire Cassandra to pursue a bright future despite her troubled background.

## Background

As revealed in "Rapunzel's Return", Cassandra is the biological daughter of Mother Gothel, though she was severely neglected and was often left to fend for herself in their cottage while Gothel went about her daily business. On the night of Rapunzel's kidnapping, Gothel's initial plan was to seek refuge at her cottage, but upon arriving, she found that it was overrun by guardsmen on the hunt for the lost princess. To evade arrest, Gothel cut the bridge connecting her cottage to the mainland and fled the scene, abandoning Cassandra. With her mother gone, the Captain of the Guards decided to adopt Cassandra and raise her as his own in the palace of Corona. In the years that followed, Cassandra repressed her memories of Gothel and grew to be intelligent, mature, and an extremely skilled fighter. Taking after her father, she developed a dream to join the royal guard, though she instead served as a lady-in-waiting.

### 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. This is most notably seen during "Wind in My Hair", where Cassandra is seen enjoying herself almost as much as Rapunzel.

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 (even though it's not his fault he can't tell).

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 insecurity and desire to rise above everyone's view of her grew to a point where she became bitter to Rapunzel for always upstaging her at everything; a growing crack in their relationship that only gotten worse when she discovered her backstory in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow and that her mother chose Rapunzel over her, which soon motives 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.

As depicted in the episode "Cassandra's Revenge", she has become increasingly ruthless and often resorts to violence. However, there are some lines she is still not willing to cross, such as sparing 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.

On quite a few occasions, Cassandra displays hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Even though she dislikes Eugene for being a former criminal and views him as nothing but self-centered, she herself goes as far as to threaten Corona if Rapunzel does not comply with her demands, and has hurt people who have not severely wronged her, attacking her adoptive father, attempting to crush Eugene to get Rapunzel to fight her, enabling Zhan Tiri's threats against Calliope, using mind control on the members of the Brotherhood in hopes of igniting a war, and forcefully taking over Corona with her black rocks. She also claims she is not a villain or a bad person, in spite of the aforementioned misdeeds.

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 revert Cassandra to her bitter and vengeful self, prompting her to leave Rapunzel to die in the mines (only momentarily hesitating) and not come back for her, with Rapunzel only surviving due to being rescued by Pascal.

In "Once a Handmaiden...", after realizing that Zhan Tiri tricked 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. Unfortunately, after Zhan Tiri manipulates her again, Cassandra comes to believe Rapunzel intends to destroy her, causing her to turn her back on her once more and revert to her vindictive self. She is also unwilling to take responsibility for her actions, instead placing the blame on Rapunzel and Zhan Tiri, even though she still did them willingly.

In “Plus Est En Vous”, Cassandra's rage and anger has made her become completely malevolent, 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 a jar made by her Aunt Willow, which she holds dearly. 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. While imprisoned, Cassandra breaks down in tears and finally apologizes to Rapunzel, revealing that she had let her rage cloud her mind and prevented her from seeing what she really needed. She also reveals that all she wanted to find her own destiny and set out a path for herself, but let her insecurities blind her from those needs. The two then make amends and Rapunzel says that there is more in Cassandra, more than she ever knew, which installs a new confidence in Cassandra. 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.

### Physical appearance

Cassandra is a tall, pale-skinned young woman with dark pink lips, hazel eyes and black bob-cut layered hair with gray highlights. Her graying hair could allude to her mother's longevity, implying that Cassandra is also older than she looks.

In her childhood, she had longer wavy hair which went past her shoulders and wore a green dress with a dark green apron and dark green shoes.

Her signature outfit is a grayish-brown shirt, black leather gloves, a dark brown belt with a purse and a dagger on it, dark brown-and-red striped leggings and brown boots.

When performing her duties as Rapunzel's handmaiden, Cassandra dresses in a blue and white dress, with a white headdress, a white choker, and light blue slippers.

Since attempting to touch Rapunzel while she was reciting the Moonstone incantation, Cassandra's right hand and wrist were turned pitch black. To cover for her injuries, Cassandra donned a knight's armor and a purple cape.

When she is corrupted by the Moonstone Opal, her hair and eyes turn turquoise and her clothes turn into an indestructible black and dark blue armor with spikes similar to the Black Rocks. The Moonstone opal itself becomes embedded in her chest. Overtime, Cassandra's skin tone becomes paler, and in Race to the Spire she steals a black shapeshifting hooded cloak similar to her mother's, which she wears until Once a Handmaiden....

After the Moonstone was stolen from her body, her original tones returned and her armor became plain and dark brown. She later sported a green tunic similar looking to her season 1 outfit, with her torn handmaiden headdress wrapped around her right arm and a dark green cape, along with her Cassandrium Necklace.

### Abilities

Cassandra possesses skills in horseback riding, fencing, archery, athletics, and other skills in combat; which she had learned for being the daughter of the Captain of the Guards. She is also shown to be very clever when she understood Rapunzel's clues, had helped Varian with his project and spotted the mistakes in letters from a suspicious character. As well as possessing skills in acting, as she had tricked a Separatist of Saporia member into thinking that she has feelings for him, so he would come to Corona and she could uncover his true intentions. Cassandra also has skills in sewing, cleaning and other skills that are needed for her handmaiden duties.

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, although she never attempted to use it though the Decay incantantion, possibly because she knew how dangerous it was. She also has control over the Black Rocks which was first seen when she creates some to escape the Dark Kingdom, and when she learned the third incantation, she masters her powers to the point she was able to build her own tower 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 paralyzed with fright if they stare to them too long.

After being reduced back to her normal state, Cassandra has lost all of her newfound powers, rendering her as once again a normal woman.

## Trivia

* She is voiced by Eden Espinosa (who voiced Orizaba in *Elena of Avalor*). Ironically, she became a villain in the Season 2 finale of *Tangled: The Series,* thus becoming the second villain to be voiced by Eden Espinosa after Orizaba.
* It is revealed in "Rapunzel's Return" that Cassandra is Mother Gothel's biological daughter.
* Cassandra's will to protect Rapunzel at all costs is also quite damaging, specifically as a form of self-sacrifice. Because of Rapunzel's inability to keep Cassandra's secret toward Eugene, Rapunzel puts Cassandra at risk of being sent to a convent, which in turn cripples the amount of trust shared between the two.
* Cassandra's name serves a metaphor for one's failure to "get through" to the people and avert disaster, like the Greek Seer Cassandra, whose accurate prophecies were always fated to be disbelieved. Such metaphor fits her perfectly, as Cassandra was always telling Rapunzel's gang about the possible dangers but they didn't listen to her, only for her to be proven right when it's too late. Examples of this are prominent in "Freebird", "Rapunzel and the Great Tree" and "Mirror, Mirror".
	+ However, in "Cassandra v. Eugene" and "Plus Est En Vous", Cassandra herself ironically is put in a position where she doesn't believe others, despite them stating what is true.
* In "Rapunzel's Enemy" and "Fitzherbert P.I.", it is shown that Cassandra respects Corona's history a great deal, and considers it an esteemed honour to uphold the kingdom's traditions.
* According to "Great Expotations", Cassandra has been training to join the guard since she was six. In "Secret of the Sun Drop", she is entrusted to lead the guard in her father's place.
* In "Keeper of the Spire", she is revealed to be four years older than Rapunzel.
* Cassandra is the second of Rapunzel's allies to turn against her, the first being Varian (they both managed to redeem themselves).
* In "Cassandra's Revenge", despite claiming she and Varian aren't the same, she shares similarities with Varian as both turned against Rapunzel due to their anger towards her that stemmed from misguided, yet self-important, feelings of bitterness (Cassandra being upset with Rapunzel for being 'chosen' by Gothel over her and not seeing the vain and selfish person Gothel is, and Varian feeling betrayed due to Rapunzel's inability to help him during the blizzard threatening Corona and the lives of people, and still believed that Rapunzel should have gone with him over saving the kingdom). Fortunately, they managed to realize the error of their ways and redeemed themselves. Additionally, a few of Cassandra's actions towards Rapunzel, Corona, and the people that the princess cares about were somewhat similar to the ones that Varian had done in "Secret of the Sun Drop".
	+ They both had villain arcs involving them turning against Rapunzel due to feeling unappreciated by her. Though they start small in their misdeeds (Varian only stealing the Sundrop Flower to save his father, and Cassandra only leaving after taking the Moonstone), certain further events push them further into villainy, culminating in them posing a threat to the Kingdom of Corona as a whole and attempting to kill Rapunzel.
* In "Once a Handmaiden...", Varian intends to use "Project Obsidian" to encase Cassandra in amber. This foreshadows the events of "Plus Est En Vous", where Cassandra does indeed lose her self-esteem after being betrayed and imprisoned by Zhan Tiri, before Rapunzel manages to convince her that there is more in her.
* Cassandra hates talking about feelings, which she reveals in "Rapunzel: Day One". She even states the thought of it makes her feel queasy.
* In "Plus Est En Vous", Zhan Tiri compares Cassandra to her mother Gothel, specifically their egos. While Cassandra inherited much of her physical appearance from Gothel, Gothel is purely cold-hearted, abusive, and only cares about herself, whereas Cassandra is loyal, protective, and insecure about who best to side with. Though the series delighted in showing her in a light like Gothel, once even infamously using Gothel's "You want me to be the bad guy? Fine, now I'm the bad guy!" line in "Once a Handmaiden...".
* Throughout Season 3 (from "Rapunzel's Return" to "Cassandra's Revenge"), Cassandra blames Rapunzel for being abandoned by her mother Gothel and claims that Rapunzel "overshadowed" her. Cassandra eventually finally realized and saw that Gothel was a selfish and vain person who only cared about herself, never loved Cassandra or Rapunzel and abandoned her for the sun drop. And it was her insecurities that prevented her from understanding her mother's true nature as it was Gothel who caused Cassandra to feel insecure as she grew up.
* Althrough the Sundrop revived Cassandra in the series finale, it's unknown if it also healed her injured hand.