Reasons I think Varian Was Meant To Be The Moonstone
Okay, so I am a heavy reacher when it comes to tangled and I am also a firm believer that Varian was originally meant to be the moonstone but they changed it to Cassandra because either they wanted some massive plot twist or they thought Varian being a villain 3 times was too much. I think personally Varian would have been the better moonstone holder, nothing against Cass I just think he would have made a better villain.
Warning, this will be long. I apologise for any mistakes.
1- Cassandra's villain arc makes absolutely no sense.
Not only was this sudden change out of the blue with zero build up to it besides from Adira, but overall it isn't her personality at all. The whole "Gothel preferred you as a daughter" feels like a very rushed plot point just to give Cass some edge and a reason to hate Rapunzel. She was there, she knows about what Gothel was like and the things Rapunzel went through and she barely knew her in the first place.
2- Varian is the only one with abnormal hair colour.
Okay this one I REALLY looked into. If you go through the tangled series, there is not a single person who has any strange hair colours. And this one is explained in two sections. First half being about genetics and parents. Only 4 people in the show have their parents shown. Rapunzel, Eugene, Varian and Cassandra.
Cassandra shares the same hair colour and eye colour as mother Gothel. Eugene shares the same hair colour and eye colour as both of his parents. Now Rapunzel is when things get interesting. Rapunzel has the natural hair colour of her mother, but only when she isn't effected by the sundrop. The sundrop is what changed her hair colour.
Now for my explanation. Varian, is the only one, who doesn't follow this pattern. His father had black hair and via a canonical portrait, his mother was ginger.
So where did the teal hair come from? Now I hear you yelling "But Indi!! He could have had an alchemical accident or added it in himself!!" But is that true?
Because looks like he was born with it. And if Varian followed the pattern of the others with their parents, that hair stripe would be ginger. We've seen Quirin front and back and no where does he have that same stripe, likewise his mother doesn't show on either.
Cassandra's hair only TURNED teal after using the moonstone. However, Rapunzel, who would have genetically been born brunette, was born blonde because she was afflicted by the sundrop before she was born. And where did Varian's father come from? That's right, reason number 3.
3- Quirin and the brotherhood.
We know now that Quirin is a part of the brotherhood. All 3 of them have affiliations to the moonstone. Quirin was around when the blast from it had happened. The moonstone and the sundrop share something in common. Once they touch your insides, like the sundrop being drank by Arianna, and like Cassandra put the moonstone in her chest. Once touched internally, you are officially effected by it's power. Quirin was extremely close when the blast happened, there was no way he didn't get any injuries from it, which would have been a part of him to then pass down to his son. While Gothel, had no affiliations with the moonstone in the slightest.
There is more I could go off of but those reasons are more to do with my personal opinions about the lore and how the story should have gone while these ones are facts.
But yes I am very, very annoyed at the fact they didn't end up using Varian as the moonstone when the potential he could have had story wise would have been so insanely interesting rather than just sticking him with the Saporian's only to get betrayed in one single episode. Varian had such lackluster lore for such an important, repeated character in the series and then Disney denied us VAT7K.
Yes I am very mad about this.