Tangled: The Series S3 E13-14

## Plot

The special starts with Rapunzel singing a song about how she has everything, and everything's fine, conveniently either forgetting about or deliberately choosing to ignore her best friend/sister, who isn't in any of her paintings. And Rapunzel's clearly not above painting only the good things, since there's also a painting of evil Varian, monster Rudiger, and the wrecked automatons from the season 1 finale. So much for learning not to suppress her emotions in the season premiere. Plus, she mentions later on that she does still miss Cass. Speaking of which, picking up on the cliffhanger that the previous episode left us on, the she-devil herself finally arrives in Corona. Eugene is thinking about proposing to Rapunzel again. Meanwhile, she's planning a surprise birthday party for him. Today is his real birthday. Edmund is even back to celebrate it, and reveals that Eugene is actually 26 today, not 25. He's a year older than he thought he was. Rapunzel is planning to propose to him that night. However, before she can, Cass shows up. She asks for the Demanitus scroll, and in exchange, she'll leave Corona in peace. She leaves to give them some time to think about it. Um, where were the guards during literally any of this? Public enemy number one just walked in casually like she owned the place! She literally could've killed everyone there, including the entire royal family, without a second thought. If they give the scroll to Cass, it could be the end of the world. They decide to hide it, but Rapunzel doesn't have it. She gave it to Varian so he could try and translate it. He now has a second lab in the large room with the Demanitus device. Rapunzel, Eugene, Lance, Pascal, and Max visit him and Rudiger, and he reveals that he created a translation key to figure out what the scroll says. It turns out that there's a third incantation on the scroll that would give whoever wields the moonstone complete control over the black rocks. It also says that there's a fourth incantation, but Varian can't find it anywhere on the scroll. And then Cass shows up behind them, having either followed them, or she simply decided to look for the scroll herself there, since she's been here before. Eugene attacks her with a sword, but it breaks against her armor, and the characters finally learn that it's made of black rocks. She cuts off part of the machine, which almost makes Max and Eugene fall into a chasm, but Lance is able to grab onto them. Unfortunately, he's not strong enough by himself to pull them both back up. Cass brings up how her mother chose Rapunzel over her again, and Rapunzel reminds her that Gothel kidnapped her as a baby, lied to, manipulated, and abused her, and held her against her will for her entire life, which wasn't her choice. Cass asks if it was her choice to push her out a window, even though that's not what happened. She tripped and fell out the window by accident, and technically, it was Pascal who tripped her. Rapunzel tells Cass that she wasn't there, and that's not what happened. Cass tells her to make her understand then. Oh, trust me, I'd love the chance to slap a bitch right across the face. Rudiger takes the scroll, and when Cass tries to go after him, Rapunzel lassos her foot with her hair, and Pascal takes the scroll. Cass runs after him, and Rapunzel runs after her. Before she can take the scroll, Rapunzel grabs it, and asks her to come back home, and let them face whatever this anger of hers is together. It almost makes her reconsider, but then the ghost girl shows up and accuses her of questioning her path. She claims that she wasn't, and Rapunzel asks her who she's talking to, confirming that only she can see and hear the girl. She claims that Rapunzel is trying to trick her, and Cass puts the others in danger so she'll be forced to save them, allowing her to take the scroll. She confronts Varian, who destroys his translation key, so she takes him instead. When the dust clears, all the others find is Rudiger. The ghost girl thinks Cass is running away at first, but she tells her that she's not running away, and she doesn't hide from anything. Rapunzel will come for her to get Varian back, and when she does, Cass will need to be prepared to protect what's "rightfully" hers, so she needs a stronghold, and she knows just where to build one: At the remains of the tower. That's incredibly fucked up. It looks like in the four years that Cass knew her mother, she picked up how to psychologically scar, traumatize, and manipulate someone for a tactical advantage from her. Varian wakes up, and obviously refuses to tell Cass the incantation, but she reveals that she gave him a taste of his own medicine, literally, by giving him his own truth serum. Despite his best efforts to resist it, he tells her the third incantation, and she creates her own tower out of black rocks, which creates shaking that's felt all throughout Corona. *Crescent high above Evolving as you go Raise what lies beneath And let the darkness grow Bend it to my will Consume the sunlight's glow Rise into the sky And let the darkness grow Let darkness grow* I love this special, but time is kind of all over the place. On the one hand, that tower is huge, so I can buy that it would take awhile for someone to climb up all those stairs. On the other hand, why did Rapunzel and the others wait until morning to try and figure out what Cass is going to do with Varian and the incantation? They felt the shaking too! Yes, they need sleep, but it just seems out of character for someone as determined as Rapunzel to go "Oh well, lost this round, better try again in the morning!" Then again, the same thing happened in season 1, where she couldn't be bothered to go back to Old Corona and check on Varian after the storm, or even send someone else to check up on him or his dad, even though the decision she had to make regarding him clearly weighed heavily on her mind, since she mentioned it to Eugene twice on two separate occasions, in two different episodes. And why aren't Frederic, Arianna, the guards, or the citizens doing anything about Cass? In the season 1 finale, they were prepared to launch a full scale attack against a lone teenager! I personally blame the writers. I don't think the Rapunzel from the movie would make such stupid non-decisions with Varian or Cass, even if she was incredibly sheltered. Also, I love the characters of Kiera and Catalina, and I'm glad they're getting more screen time, but even if they're tough ex-thieves and one of them can turn into a werewolf, you do not willingly bring children on dangerous missions! I'd personally replace them with the captain of the guards, since Cass is his daughter, and Edmund, so he could still celebrate Eugene's birthday, even though it and the party was yesterday. Still, Cass ruined that too, so I guess today is sort of like a do over? Or if not Edmund, then at least Quirin, since Varian is his son, and he's been shown before to be incredibly protective of him. Also, I can't believe I'm just thinking of this now, but we should really see Edmund and Quirin interacting. We never do. Also also, after this special aired, I started thinking about it and the latest RWBY volume 7 episode to air, and thought about how the characters would interact with each other, like Rapunzel and Ruby Rose and their boundless optimism and positivity, and determination to do what's right. And then I realized that Varian and Oscar would make the cutest gay crossover couple ever, even though I also ship Rose Garden. Then again, Ruby is fairly awkward and adorkable too, so maybe one true crossover threesome? And it's age appropriate too, since Oscar is 14 or 15, Varian is 15 or 16, and Ruby is either 16 or 17 by the time of volume 7. Compare that to Varian, who again, is only 15 or 16, and Cass, who at this point in time is 24. They're eight or nine years apart, not to mention that Cass is an adult, and Varian is still a minor. I never shipped those two, but I did think that Varian's crush on Cass in the very beginning of the show was cute, in an adorkable way, before Cerebus Syndrome set in and he turned evil and tried to kill her, and then *she* turned evil, and then he reformed, and then she kidnapped and basically drugged him. Ugh, I'm so conflicted! I like Cass, but I *love* Varian, and my favorite character has been kidnapped by someone who used to be my second favorite character. Maybe third favorite after Rapunzel, which certainly gives a weird meta spin to Cass's entire motivation for turning evil in the first place. Although I also really like Kiera and Catalina, even if they're minor characters… Anyway, Max points out Cass's tower in the distance, so at least they know where she is. I think it would've been better if the horse that Cass stole ran away while the tower was being built, and once it got back to the palace, they followed its tracks to the new tower, which reached *above the clouds* when Cass was finished building it that night. I also think it would've been better if she had taken her old horse, Fidella, instead of a random one. Or if Owl followed Cass and tried to get through to her, which he sort of does in a later episode. I also think that he should've found a way to communicate with and tell Rapunzel and the others the truth once Cass decided to lie again during season 2. He's disapproved of her lies in all three seasons (presumably), but Cass has always justified it to herself. That was bad decision making on his part. Have some agency and morality, Owl. Also, I've only now just realized that this is basically the plot of *Frozen* back when Elsa was evil. In the throne room at the top, Cass frees Varian and admits that she knows none of this is his fault and she doesn't want to hurt him, so when Rapunzel comes for him, he shouldn't try anything foolish. However, he tries to convince her to switch sides and give up her quest for… vengeance? Power? Recognition? Whatever. They have an amazing duet, and Jeremy Jordan and Eden Espinosa are amazing singers, and how did I not realize how much I wanted and needed this until I heard it?!? I also loved the symbolism, like how Cass leaves the light that's streaming in, and then Varian goes after her, but now he can withstand the darkness, sort of like Riku's character arc in *Kingdom Hearts*. And it comes right after the line "You're further astray from the light." Or Varian explaining that one day she'll realize there's nothing left to lose is as much a message towards his past self as it is towards Cass. I personally think that he still feels guilty, and maybe he always will, but the least he can do is try and stop her from repeating his mistakes and going down the same dark path. And when he grabs her hand, it's the one she injured in the previous season while trying to help Rapunzel. Or some of their lines matching some of Varian's previous lines in "Ready As I'll Ever Be". However, the one problem I had with the song was a little continuity issue. Cass leaves her sword at the beginning of the song, and doesn't grab it back onscreen, and we can see that it's not on her back, but when she tries to destroy a painting of Rapunzel, she has the sword again, and then when she sings with Varian, we can see that she doesn't have it again. It's just a little issue that bugs me, since they could've easily shown her picking it up at any point during her black rocks interpretive dance sequence, and then have it strapped to her back during that glorious 2D animated orbital "camera" spin. Seriously you guys, that camera spin might actually be better than Steven Universe's 360º 2D camera spin. Both of those shows were hand drawn too. Actually, I just rewatched the scene and went through it frame by frame, and it looks like Cass can actually change the shape of her armor, and extended the rocks covering her right hand to try and destroy the painting, and then threaten Varian with it when he stopped her, which also explains why he didn't hurt his hands when he grabbed it, since we later see that even though he wears some pretty thick looking gloves, fire still hurts. That's a pretty cool way to establish more of Cass's new abilities without having it spelled out for the audience, and it's also a brilliant use of show, don't tell. It's too bad that we never see more of this unique ability in the future, ever again. Anyway, Cass imprisons Varian in a cage and sends him outside over a large drop in case he thinks of escaping. However, her expression when she sits on her throne appears to be one of sadness and loneliness, before it hardens into her default season 3 face, anger. Meanwhile, Rapunzel, Eugene, Lance, Kiera, Catalina, Pascal, and Max get to the tower. There are no entrances at the bottom, so they have to get up there by climbing it, but none of the methods that they try work. Cass is watching them and laughing at their attempts, but the ghost girl tells her to let them in, because it's not enough for her to defeat Rapunzel. She has to break her spirit and force her to fight. She makes a door for them. They don't know which set of stairs they need to take though, so Rapunzel, Eugene, and Pascal go one way to actually try and progress the plot while the others go another way and get lost to provide comic relief so the young kids watching this don't get *too* scared. Which is weird, because they immediately follow that up with Varian in a pink nightmare hellscape where he meets the ghost girl, who has a grin that creeps me out even more than the Cheshire Cat does, which is saying a lot, and she also does impossible things with her body. Also, the fire is green, which we've seen before in nightmares, and the tree is the same one that Sugracha tried to get Rapunzel, Lance, and others to paint, in order to release Zhan Tiri from their prison. Anyway, the creepy ghost girl claims that Cassandra can be saved if the sundrop uses the final incantation against the moonstone's power. Varian says there is no final incantation on the scroll, but she tells him to use the sun to see the sun, and he wakes up. Rapunzel knows that getting into the tower was too easy, so they could be walking into a trap. Pascal goes ahead to scout out the situation, but his antics cause him to be caught by Cass. Eugene starts to wonder if the only way out of this mess is to kill her in self defense (yes please), but Rapunzel is sure that she can convince her to come around. Cass is their friend, not some monster. Those things are not mutually exclusive. Varian gets frustrated and throws his goggles and the scroll. Sunlight hits the goggles, which concentrates the light to reveal that the final incantation was hidden on the back in photo reactive ink. Rapunzel and Eugene enter the throne room and find him. He tells them that he needs something else to concentrate the sunlight to reveal the final incantation, because his goggles are too scratched up. Rapunzel realizes that he can use a crystal, and reveals her engagement ring to Eugene. He's touched, tells her that he was going to ask her, and heads outside to get the ring to Varian while Rapunzel tries to find Pascal. Cass shows up and reveals that she caged him up too, but she releases him. Then she closes all the windows, including the one leading to Varian and Eugene. The ghost girl tells her to show Rapunzel how powerful she's become, and she tries to kill her by crushing her in between the floor and the ceiling, but her hair protects her. So Cass gets rid of the floor underneath her, and she loses her bag, but is able to hang on with her hair. Eugene loses his grip on the ring, but Varian is able to grab it. However, the beam of sunlight that's concentrated through the crystal is so intense that it sets the scroll on fire and destroys it. Luckily, Varian was able to write down the final incantation before that happened. Still, in some way or another, that scroll has been a part of this show's mythos since the end of season 1, and to lose it so unceremoniously feels just a little bit cheap, at least to me. Anyway, Varian doesn't have any ideas for how to get out of his cage and back inside the tower, so he and Eugene just sit outside for awhile, clearly bored out of their minds. Which is a little weird, because Rapunzel is also outside at this moment, hanging from her hair, which she uses to climb back up to the throne room. Cass is able to pin her to a wall, but her old friend still refuses to fight her. The ghost girl gleefully tells Cass to break her spirit, so she brings Varian and Eugene back inside, and starts slowly crushing Eugene. Ouch. Um, Cass? That's exactly how Varian tried to kill you and Arianna at the end of the season 1 finale. Fucking hypocrite. Varian gives the final incantation to Rapunzel and tells her to use it. She does so, and it makes her hair and eyes glow yellow/gold, and it turns out to be the one thing powerful enough to destroy the black rocks. *Power of the sun Gift me with your light Shine into the dark Restore our fading sight Rise into the dawn Blazing star so bright Burn away the strife Let my hope ignite Let hope ignite* She tells Cass to let Eugene go, but she refuses, and sends more black rocks towards her, which she easily destroys. The ghost girl's silhouette changes into a more familiar and even creepier shape as she watches them fight, and she disappears when she goes through a pink reality warping portal. Well, that was trippy. The sundrop's full power is able to *crack* the moonstone, and free Eugene and Varian. And then Cass and Varian both fall off the tower, but Cass is able to save herself with a black rock before she falls into a river, and Lance inadvertently catches Varian. Am I a bad person for wanting to see an edited or reanimated version of this scene where Cass falls to her death? And the others save Varian intentionally in an awesome sequence that uses all of their unique skills, to show that this is where betraying people and going it alone has gotten Cass: An early and completely avoidable death, alone, because she had no friends to help or save her this time, unlike in the previous two seasons. Sort of like the exact opposite of the ending of *Wreck-It Ralph*. Basically take any scene of two characters making eye contact in slow motion, preferably one villainous and one heroic, like Harumi and Lloyd during season 9 of Ninjago, or Hunter and Emperor Belos in season 2b of *The Owl House*, or even Luz and Belos in the season 1 finale. Contrary to what Cass's idiotic mind currently thinks, the ghost girl doesn't count as a friend, or even an ally or mentor. Rapunzel reunites with Eugene and Pascal. Gotta love how they're not concerned about Varian whatsoever, yet again. What the hell guys? It's hard to root for the "heroes" when they also do heartless and stupid shit like this. Back at the castle, everyone finally celebrates Eugene's birthday, and he and Rapunzel once again decide to hold off on their engagement, proving that they still haven't learned what that word actually means. I hope one of their birthday gifts was a dictionary. I've known people in real life who were engaged for years before they finally either got married or broke things off. My paternal grandmother actually advised my dad to keep his engagement with my mom for at least a year, because planning a wedding is really hard. It's incredibly expensive and time consuming. Cass climbs to the top of the ruined tower and sees that the moonstone is cracked. The pink portal opens up in front of her. The ghost girl now has a physical form. She's been manipulating and using Cass and the others this whole time to get the sun and moon to fight each other, in order to finally release her from her prison. Her name is… Zhan Tiri. Which is why it really sucks that the credits kept calling her Enchanted Girl.

## Review

So, long story short, fuck season 3 Cass, I hate her with every fiber of my being, but I know it's not her fault that she's a poorly developed and written puppet, and it hurts my brain to think of all the different, much better ways this could've gone, at least in my opinion (especially with a much higher episode count, *Disney*, although I don't know if that would've fixed the issues I had with the pacing or just made it even worse). For example, what if Cass took the moonstone because she thought Rapunzel would die if she took it (and, like with Tromus, she would've been right), and that's how Zhan Tiri manipulates her into taking the sundrop as well, because she thinks she'll be sacrificing herself for the sake of her best friend/sister, as well as the world, since season 2 made it clear that the two cosmic powers *have* to be reunited, and that Cass really wants glory and praise and validation and other crap like that. That seems like the kind of thing a child could use a healthy amount of, but not too much, or they end up like Gaston. Too little and they end up with self-esteem and self-worth issues. Plus, having a sympathetic motivation like Varian did in late season 1 would've made me like her more. Or, for another hot take, what if Cass really did die at the end of this episode? Anti-climactic, disappointing, and potentially soul crushing, especially for fans of her character specifically? Oh, totally. But it would up the stakes and make the show even darker than it already is, proving that Zhan Tiri isn't messing around. Plus, hey, ghosts exist in this world, so Cass could still be a part of the main cast that way. She could still be redeemed and start actually atoning for her villainous actions, and maybe be useful by possessing items or living things like Zelda does in *Spirit Tracks*. Rapunzel could probably still use the sundrop's power to bring her back to life anyways during the series finale, a la Karone, Kendrix, Mack, Gem, Gemma, and Zayto in various *Power Rangers* seasons. Or none of that happens except Cass's death, and Rapunzel has to learn to live with the massive guilt and trauma that would naturally result from something like that happening to someone in real life, while also dealing with Zhan Tiri for the last third of the season. So, Disney… where is *Varian and the Seven Kingdoms* already? I need it! I can only survive on dwindling fanmade animatics, fics, songs, and comics for so long!