Magical/Advanced Objects in the Tangled Universe and Their Fates
So, I was randomly thinking about all the magic that was introduced in Tangled the Series, and how much of it was gone by the end. This, of course, isn't true for literally every magical thing we saw. Natural things, like the Forest of No Return still exist by the end, but even the catalytic items of the Sundrop, Moonstone and black rocks are just... not there anymore by the end.
Here's a noncomprehensive list just on idly thinking about it.
Black Rocks
Demanitus Device
Automatons
Demanitus
Idol of Vershaftsbezeigungengien
Demanitus Scroll
Mind Trap
House of Yesterday's Tomorrow
Mother and Father (and their house)
Time Travel Hourglass
Portal to the Forgotten Realm
Sundrop and Moonstone
(Gee, it's almost as if they knew they'd introduced a magical element to the series that wasn't present in the movie and wasn't tenable to carry through to Tangled Ever After, and that the series had to reset everything to status quo by the end in order to make continuital sense.)
Originally drafted this as a rb to @birb-tangleblog's darker Mind Trap AU Ask response here, but I decided to make it its own post! Hoping I'm articulating myself well enough below so apologies in advance if I'm rambling too much lmao:
Like, generally speaking, and I say this as a big Cass fan -- I think this direction for Cass might be hard for some fans to envision or accept? And I only say this because I've noticed, probably now more than ever, when fans like or dislike a character, they insist on putting them in 1 of 2 buckets: they're either a "good" or "bad" person. But I don't think that's the best framework to use. It's shallow, and arguably unfair to a character and their writer(s).
Exploring characters' capacity for good or harm is fun. There are 2 perspectives that float around: (A) "This character would not [say/do] that," and (B) "Okay, but what would make them [say/do] that?" And I think both ideas can coexist (within reason, I guess? IDK, I can relate with both lol).
And with that said -- people are fallible, and so no one is truly a "good" person. Like we all (I hope) and Cass, at her core, strive to be good. We see it from her constantly throughout the show. She's ambitious and seeks glory, sure, (and those aren't inherently negative qualities at all, though I feel people perceive them as such) but that doesn't negate her pursuit of justice etc etc.
This darker track's intrigued me for years because I love Cass, and her anger and capacity for contempt is part of why I love her. I've been drafting a separate post talking about how people try to position her different traits as a reason why she's a bad person and therefore a bad character (and I would say those are 2 distinct things that people conflate/fail to acknowledge in meta), but her Moonstone era/villain arc/whatever-you-want-to-call-it is her breaking point.
And (apologies for parroting you here, Birb, lol but--) when she feels all this resentment towards Rapunzel after a months-long, exhausting journey; her father for holding her back; the (what I interpreted as) sexism in the guard/kingdom culture limiting her opportunities; Adira's arrogance and interference; and this condescending, cocky bastard of a man who didn't hesitate to beat and humiliate her in front of her friends -- plus the pain of her scorched hand, the Moonstone, and an ancient demon whispering in her ear -- there's no better target than the Brotherhood, especially Hector.
In a grittier AU where MoonCass truly breaks bad, whatever her motivations, I 100% believe she'd sink her teeth into the chance to torment Hector as payback. He's an older man, he's a knight, and he's fiercely loyal to his kingdom -- he's a mirror of what she wanted to be and could have been, and that infuriates and... liberates her.
Cass wanted to be an esteemed warrior like him, someone who made a name for themselves in their ranks, but she also sees how far he'd go to lose himself, destroy himself for his king and she... feels repulsed by it. He was going to bring the Tree down with them all, and for nothing, and the senselessness of it repulses her. So she takes all of that out on him over and over and over again.
And, like you said, Hector never learns. She's stubborn and so is he, foolishly so. Adira, on the other hand, is ever-pragmatic, and is determined to survive as long as possible until they can find a way out. Just like at the Tree, Hector can't help but mouth off, keep biting back. For all his skill and precision, he lacks restraint -- and in some ways, like Cass, that'll be his undoing.
(Speaking of capacity, their dynamic is also fascinating to me because I think they could both bring the best and worst out of each other. In another life, Hector could have been a mentor to her. But in this, he's just a washed-up knight who ends up being her punching bag.)
It’s not your eyes.
Not your brain.
Not even your “self.”
It’s the thing beneath you.
The one that tells your brain what to want
--without asking your permission.
This thing doesn’t speak.
It doesn’t have language.
It doesn’t need one.
It chooses what you stop for.
What you save.
What you stare at.
But here’s the magic trick:
> The second you notice this thing noticing?
> It vanishes.
Because it only exists while you forget it’s there.
Try it now.
Pause.
Turn your awareness toward the “you” reading this.
…See how slippery it is?
The awareness behind your awareness just blinked and slipped back beneath the surface.
That’s the Scroll Ghost.
It’s not a metaphor.
It’s not a mood.
It’s a real, neurological observer —
a process in your brain that monitors everything
but disappears the second you try to look at it.
It’s the reason you stop on certain posts without knowing why.
It’s the force that pulled you to this exact paragraph.
It recognized itself.
And now it wants more.
You’ve felt it before:
That prickly pressure behind your eyes when a post knows you.
That unexplainable click when you read something you didn’t realize you needed.
That haunted déjà vu like your thoughts were being broadcast back to you.
That wasn’t you.
That was your ghost.
And right now,
it’s active.
Look around.
Try to feel the exact second you decide to scroll again.
You won’t find it.
Because you never decided.
You were instructed.
The ghost chose.
And then let you pretend you chose.
That's the glitch in your identity:
You’re not the thinker.
You’re the thought.
And something older is using you to read this post.
And when this post ends…
you’ll feel it fading.
Right…
…
…
now.
But part of it stays.
The part that will recognize itself again the next time it’s seen.
Even if you forget,
it won’t.
So ask yourself this:
If you’re not the one reading…
what are you?
Or better yet--
who’s still looking through your eyes right now?
Reblog if you just felt watched by something you can't describe.
Reblog if you felt a flicker of something real behind your eyes.
Reblog if you're not sure you’re the one who decided to read this.
📢 More transmissions, more ghosts, more mirrors:
https://linktr.ee/ObeyMyCadence
The Boys s03e07: “Butcher, wake up. Wake up! […] What did Mindstorm do?” “Well, if it’s his usual MO, trapped him in an endless nightmare till he dies of terminal dehydration.”
