The Candace&Vanessa dynamic is sort of weird because Candace and Vanessa were set up as parallels very early in the series, but as the series went on they kind of stopped being parallels.
This is of course most evident in the rightfully iconic Busted. Like one of the most popular songs in the show.
Both Candace and Vanessa both have a family member who makes dangerous inventions that they want to "Bust" to their mom.
Their moms are even friends with each other from their cooking class.
Candace has her best friend Stacey, and her boyfriend Jeremy. Vanessa has her best friend Lacey, and her boyfriend Johnny.
Note the similar names.
But this parallel only really is emphasized in just a couple of season 1 episodes:
Hail Doofania
I Scream You Scream
And come season 2, and the Summer Belongs to You special, while she isn't exactly approving of her father's evil, she sort of reluctantly accepts that part of him. And starts doing some of her own petty evil.
Overall, after season 1, Vanessa drops her interest in busting her father. Turning from someone who is primarily embarrassed and frustrated by her father, to someone who is more pitying of her father. And also often frustrated by him.
And she also breaks up with her boyfriend Johnny in season 3, which sets her up to date Monty Monogram. Who instead is her parallel on the OWCA side to her part in Doofensmirtz Evil Inc.
And while Vanessa was always less high energy than Candace, over time she became less concerned with others opinions and became less disdainful of her father's activities. She's grown to understand why he's like this, and be more concerned for him.
Vanessa grew out of being Candace's foil while Candace... didn't grow with her. Or at least not in the same direction.
I think saying Candace stayed the same isn't quite accurate; like Vanessa she's become less concerned with the opinions of those around her and less prone to finding her parents embarrassing. And she HAS grown in some self awareness behind her reasons for busting her brothers.
Vanessa decided she didn't need to bust her dad to her mom and instead just needed to learn to accept her dad. Candace, while coming to appreciate her brothers more, has nevertheless decided she still needs to prove to her mom what the boys are up to.
Instead, Candace is paralleled more with Heinz Doofensmirtz.
Both as the victims in the cosmic cycle that is their lives. Candace and Doofensmirtz both can't ever win. Even when Perry isn't around, Doof is doomed to failure.
Both sometimes try to give up on their goals (busting/taking over the tri state area) because they don't seem to bring them any happiness, but are never able to give up on it for long.
And it's Vanessa who acts as a voice of reason to her father. Instead of getting him in trouble with her mom, she is able to get him to give up on evil for a little while at the end of the first summer by having an honest discussion with him.
And in more recent content she also occasionally acts as a voice of reason to Candace trying to convince her NOT to bust, as seen at the start of CATU or in No Slumber Party. So she sort of fills a similar role to both Heinz and Candace.
But the interesting thing is that Candace and Vanessa really didn't start hanging out until AFTER Vanessa kinda stopped caring about busting her dad. So they never really got to bond over that. Candace never really gets to see a Vanessa whose like her. To Candace Vanessa is "Cool Older Girl", who seemingly has a lot of wisdom (even if Candace isn't really interested in absorbing it).
Candace just gets the Vanessa who already got over her busting. But for some reason we never see Vanessa sort of acknowledge that to try and relate to Candace or get through to her. In part I don't think we've seen much Vanessa vs. Busting Candace yet at all. So I do think its more an aspect of their relationship with untapped potential. But I also think there is untapped potential in regard to what Vanessa could learn from Candace.
A big difference between Candace and Vanessa's busting is that Vanessa's issue is with her dad and Candace is with her younger brothers.
Vanessa doesn't have to be responsible for her dads actions. Her dad is a grown man who can and will make his own decisions. So any issues she has with him, she can take it up with him directly. No need for her mom, who doesn't even live with her dad anyway.
Phineas and Ferb are Linda and Lawrence's responsibility. But unlike Linda and Lawrence as much as Phineas and Ferb respect Candace she doesn't have the same authority over them. But in the absence of Linda and Lawrence doing anything about the situation Candace as their older sister still justifiably feels responsibility for them. Because she loves them and wants them safe.
So Candace needs that middleman(her mom) to offload the responsibility and get the situation resolved.
While technically Candace could talk to Phineas and Ferb herself, it probably wouldn't get Candace what she wants. Candace doesn't really want her brothers to stop building. But she often orders them to not build anything when given an inch of authority, and then finds herself regretting that.
"I thought you wanted us to take the day off and not annoy you?"
Really, I think what Candace wants is her mom to step in and set clear boundaries with the boys on what they should or should not be doing. That's not something Candace can (or should) really do herself.
As a result I think Vanessa understands part of why Candace busts her brothers. The part of it that has to do with Candace's self-esteem and Candace's desire for normalcy. Because that's what it was for Vanessa. Otherwise, Vanessa doesn't actually have a particularly strong sense of responsibility or justice. Because while she's technically older than Norm (and Perry) she's the baby of her family. She cares about her family deeply, and puts a lot of effort into getting them to be their best selves. But since she's the baby, it's more about getting them to be better for themselves.
Doofensmirtz being evil is "out of a sense of obligation to [his] backstory" and doesn't actually bring him any joy. It's a deeply personal situation for him, being good (theoretically, not in practice) doesn't have a meaningful affect on anyone else's life. But for Candace she isn't as easily talked into giving up on busting because it isn't just about her. It's about her relationship with her mom and her brothers.
While I think Vanessa on the whole is a bit more mature than Candace, Candace has Vanessa beat in some regards. While Vanessa's got a lot more emotional intelligence than Candace does. Candace's sense of responsibility is far stronger. Vanessa may be able to get along well with the kids in their limited interactions but she doesn't seem to recognize them as kids. We don't really see her interact with kids much. And the times we do see her interact with kids don't exactly inspire confidence.
Candace on the other hand is pretty consistently shown to be at least okay with kids. Not necessarily great with children. But more than competent.
Also, Candace is qualified to be a life guard. At worse Candace is prone to panic, but even that has waned as the seasons have progressed, and even if she freaked that little girl out, Candace had her best interests in mind. Candace can be trusted to keep others safe.
Candace even basically babysat Milo for a bit when she thought Milo could be a danger to the others.
Also you know. Didn't steal a doll out of a little girls arms.
So I would NOT trust Vanessa to babysit. Trust her as backup in a fight? Sure. A room with a 5 year old alone. Honestly. No. She told Buford to stick his head in a toilet. Like yes, that's how truth or dare works. But that kid DOES NOT need enabling on his disgusting habits. Not that VANESSA should be expected to know that. She's 17 and doesn't know Buford that well. But still.
Maybe it's more Candace is just less selfish. This isn't really a bash against Vanessa, and Candace is plenty selfish. But looking at SBTY, Candace left her boyfriend in Paris to babysit her brothers. Vanessa was very much doing her own thing and sorta just ditched Ferb. To be clear, Vanessa didn't have any responsibilities. Candace DID. Candace just has more responsibilities by default, so she's learned to be more responsible and considerate by default.
But the big area that Candace matured in over the course of the series, but not Vanessa, is romantic relationships. Now, romance is a two way street, so Vanessa cannot on her own develop a healthy romantic relationship, Johnny and Monty's shortcomings also play a factor.
But it still speaks to Candace's own growth that she's got a healthy relationship built on mutual effort, open communication and trust. Candace approaches her relationship with Jeremy with complete sincerity.
Meanwhile Vanessa just kinda dropped off on talking to Monty and isn't even sure that she likes Monty or if she's pursuing this relationship just to bother her dad. Is it Monty she likes or the drama and the idea of dating Monty. Vanessa ended her first date with Monty bickering, and chided Johnny for expressing admiration for Vanessa's dad.
Johnny and Vanessa broke up because Johnny was focusing on video games. Conversely, when Jeremy got a new video game, he invited Candace over to join him. Because he thought it'd be more fun with him. And Candace jumped at the opportunity to hang out.
This may be in part because both Jeremy and Candace have healthy loving marriages modeled for them by their parents. Vanessa's parents are divorced. A relatively healthy divorce mind you, but still not a healthy romantic relationship for Vanessa to learn from.
Now, it took time to get there. Candace started out as insecure, and has been known to lie to Jeremy in the name of trying to keep from embarrassing herself in front of him. Or for Candace to be overly concerned with typical dating , like nicknames or officially calling each other girlfriend and boyfriend. But Candace and Jeremy were able to figure things out together to become a sickeningly sweet couple.
The closest Candace and Jeremy have gotten to a real fight was in the Christmas episode (a bit later in the timeline after their relationship isn't quite so new). Where Jeremy calls out Candace for not communicating with him directly.
"Candace, you should know me better than that. Look, I have to go home."
Anyway Busted is such an iconic song, but it is such a season 1 thing. It's not very reflective of Vanessa's character outside of season 1, much less her dynamic with Candace once they actually become friends. Vanessa mellowed out on the busting, but Candace grew in Candace started And I think their dynamic in canon right now is a bit one sided, and while I think Candace could benefit from "absorbing Vanessa's coolness". I think Vanessa could also benefit from absorbing Candace's sincere passion.
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