Cassandra Watch

a gay liveblog of Tangled the series

[cassandra-watch]

About

This blog is a record of texts between myself and my sister after she told me to watch Tangled the series (because I was running out of shows to watch for my sapphic swordswomen marathon). What started as a few texts turned into a bit of a liveblog... gotta spend lockdown having fun somehow! Since it became a pain to scroll up the increasingly long message thread to revisit old thoughts, I copied everything here.

The index of episodes is here. The main draw of Tangled for me was Cassandra; in these texts I am having fun making sense of her choices and pulling out the queer subtext in the show. So our texts focus on these things. If you're not about jokes and takes about repressed gay Cassandra, oblivious gay Rapunzel, or happy bi poly Rapunzel, this probably isn't the liveblog for you. But I enjoy liveblogs, so I figured I'd share this with whoever might have fun poking around!

(Please excuse the terrible quality images, since my sister and I were texting I just took pictures of the screen...........)

[an-owl-flew-by]

tangled but replace owl with hooty,

part 1 / ?

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(anyways, made a separate blog for various fanwork tomfoolery)

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together after it all

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Summing up the livetexts of Lake’s second animatic:

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Awwww 😢😢😢😢

Ughhh first the dramatic spin setting up their conflict, then the happy spin from Freebird when they were so happy and free together ughhhhhhhh

Not fairrrrrrrrr

Rude transition

Time for some important angsty brooding

(from x)

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MS: enough with *your* gay moping — my wife, she’s coming for me, I can sense it,

Cassandra, lowering the painting of Rapunzel and immediately scanning the horizon for Rapunzel herself

That face

ZT, sensing the looming gay reunions: ugh how many times do I have to tell you, if you see Rapunzel, you Get Mad!!

hehehe

Back to the distance between them

And we’ve got spikes on Cassandra’s side, obviously, and trees and stuff on Rapunzel’s, from the sundrop’s past life as a plant

SD: honestly being a plant was way easier, no drama, 10/10 do recommend

They are close but not in sync

Quite like the dramatic spin, very legit,

Also that last pic? Pokémon battle

(from x)

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We interrupt this livetext for a sidenote: I think in canon, present Edmund actually only has one arm. I never noticed; I tripped over a post that pointed it out. The show literally never calls attention to it, but he only ever uses one arm while the other is usually hidden under his cloak. I think there’s one shot where the cloak is out of the way and you can see it’s missing. Totally got blown off when he touched the moonstone.

Anyways Cassandra throwing herself bodily in front of Rapunzel to protect her? Important

Also Cassandra please use a sword to parry or something, get yourself a shield, stop taking direct hits with your arms, I know you’re in armor but STILL,

I would say Keep your eyes on the enemy Cassandra! but, y’know, gay

Literally running through the memories my goodness

Aww the butterfly from the beginning!!

(from x)

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Cassandra there is no escaping the gay

(from x)

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Oh transitionnn

Really just yearning to be chasing after Cassandra in happier contexts

I like how by this transition we get the sun and moon together in a sense, since these are flashbacks when Rapunzel and Cassandra were united

No comments just happy gay mischief

(from x)

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Re: the direct physical contact post:

Honestly with how touch starved that girl is, especially once she’s evil,

Also I’m here for the lyrics fitting Rapunzel reaching out to Cassandra, “that I would never flee,” while Cassandra is the one who totally flees from this encounter

Ooh fun memory, calling back to the BEA adventure again

It all started THERE, their totally not a date, waking up the black rocks and setting them on a road that had them growing together AND growing apart

“I know I shouldn’t love you but I do” as she runs, hesitating but running,

BEA echo, again, running from the spikes behind them again, running out of Corona this time... also the hair streaming behind her like that is always excellent

“I feel it in my soul, I feel the empty hole” 👀

“The beast that can’t be killed” — just tying all the animation and lyrics very neatly together

And more creepy Zhan Tiri is always good

Important

“All the days of our delights are poison in my veins” 👀👀

“I know I shouldn’t love you” — how many times does Zhan Tiri have to hammer it in, Rapunzel = anger grr

(from x)

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(from x)

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The TRANSITION

The droopy long hair somehow even adds to Rapunzel’s visible distress here, I am here for it

they REACH

Also “if by the sun and moon I swore” yes very good

(from x)

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Starting things off strong with Rapunzel in Cassandra’s cloak, yes very gay, (I know this is actually because we’re in the BEA secret date right now but still)

Cassandra taking her crush out on an adventure just to see that expression

Hands 👀

Also I’m impressed that they didn’t go tumbling down that hill

Yes to the BEA fireflies, the stars, yes to this Lost Lagoon reference,

In awe first at the scenery but yes gazing at Cassandra Like That for bringing her there

(from x)

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The Cassunzel folk rock AMV, the prequel

Anyways Lake made a prequel to their other animatic (which I had livetexted under the “animatic” tag). I obviously had to livetext the prequel animatic to Meg as well.

This is not at all official but the animatic is good gay fun, so now for the next batch of livetexts!

[lakefama]

…so i’ve been on a cassunzel kick recently and made a couple of cassunzel animatics lmaooo 

this one is Bitter Water by the Oh Hellos

next one: Tongues & Teeth by the Crane Wives 

(spoilers for tangled S3 for both of these because i basically just condense the season into 6 minutes of sapphic yearning LOL) 

[lakefama]

aaand here’s the other cassunzel animatic hahaha, Tongues & Teeth by The Crane Wives

“prequel”? animatic here, Bitter Water by The Oh Hellos

spoilers for tangled s3, CW: blood

[lakefama]

oh i forgot to add: the epilogue

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Hello! I discovered your blog via link in your sister's Twitter, and I'm so much enjoyed it, that I even just registered on Tumblr to write this message to you. :) Very good job on putting all this analysis here! Thank you for making your posts available to read for everyone. I hope you don't mind if I send you some additional thoughts on the points you've made in your posts, don't you? [I was going to put samples here, but char limit] I watched the show recently and have no one to discuss it...

Yes, happy to discuss any of these thoughts further! Especially now that I’ve seen the full show and where everything ended up going.

I definitely have fun reading liveblogs, so I’m glad you enjoyed these posts =)