In part of “Cassandra Appreciation Month”, here’s an in-depth discussion into some of Cass’ relationship with a few TTS characters.
Admittedly, listing down Cassandra’s relationship with every character that she’s ever interacted with is pretty much an impossible task for me to handle. So, I’ve just pick a few that I wanted to highlight. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this super long post!
Rapunzel - Out of every person that Cassandra has ever bonded with, I would say Rapunzel is the most important one. Cass was pretty much a person who focuses on “the here and now” due to her handmaiden job and goal in wanting to show people of her combat skills. Because of those reasons, she never learned on how to make friends. All of that changed with Rapunzel.
I imagine that back when Cass first heard about Rapunzel’s return is that she must’ve felt pleased to hear about it, although didn’t care much about it personally since she has other things in mind. Their relationship didn’t started off good since Cass was very annoyed with Raps’ upbeat attitude and surely wasn’t happy in being assigned to being the princess’ handmaiden. But upon hearing that Raps has never experienced on making friends, Cass immediately understands to that feeling due to also never learning in how to do it. And from that moment when both shared their first laugh together, a beautiful friendship began to glow. Cass ends up sacrificing her personal opportunity and values her new friendship with Rapunzel to be more important. Their bond continues to grow as we saw during the first and second season. These moments include having each other backs, learning life lessons, and even enjoy the little things like horse racing. And even when they have their heated moments, both manage to keep that wonderful bond intact. That is until the heartbreaking moment that’ll ultimately put their relationship to the limits.
Even with despite of Cass’ bad deeds throughout season 3, Rapunzel is very defiant to their friendship no matter what. When Raps tells Cass that she still views her the very same person that she first became friends with, it truly meant the whole world for Cassandra. And after leaving Corona for her own adventure, I imagine that Cass also carries all the powerful memories that she has endured with her princess friend who shaped her in becoming a much better person that she became by series’ end.
Cassandra’s relationship with Rapunzel may have started off as best friends, but I’ll always see their interaction as like a sisterly-like bond. Even Raps has said that she views Cass as the closest she’ll ever have to one like it. When they both said “I love you” and have their last hug together, it felt to me as a departure of the two sisters that both will remain into each other hearts no matter how far apart they are. And in regardless if Cass does have a much deeper feeling towards Rapunzel more than what she saids, that one of a kind friendship that she has with her will forever be the most important relationship that helped Cassandra’s character growth.⚔️
Eugene Fitzherbert - Much like how I view Cassandra’s relationship with Rapunzel to be a sibling-like bond, I also see something like that in nearly all of her screen time with Eugene. They started off in not liking each other at all. This is for sure mainly because of how Cass looks at him as Flynn Rider and doesn’t view any thief as good people at the time despite of Eugene having putting his old career behind for good. Cass and Eugene so often get into many arguments that even cost a vase to get broken in the process((twice)). But eventually, they both learned in how to get along better whatever it’ll be through teamwork or sharing the likeness that each of them have for Rapunzel.
This is the relationship that I honestly have the most fun watching. I always love in how their interact with one another as if they are actually brother and sister. That sibling-like chemistry between Cassandra and Eugene is something that I can personally relate to. Whenever I watch them making fun of each other, working together, and even sharing a cherish moment, it reminds me of all the times that I’ve ever spend with my two sisters.
And one of my favorite scenes between them is when Eugene said to Cass “You’re worth fighting for.” I love in how Cass smiled of those words as she looks at him and probably even thought about all the incredible moments that she had with him. They might not even admit it, but I do believe that both do love each other as one of the greatest partners that each of them couldn’t even better asked for.😊
Varian - As I previously mentioned from my favorite episode post, I really like on how Cassandra establishes a nice friendship with Varian in “Great Exportations”. Both relate on how hard it is to impress their dads even when they worked very hard for it. Plus, it was wonderful to see Cass’ moral value being played out when she chooses her friendship with Varian over her own personal opportunity just as she did it for Rapunzel before((timeline wise)) in “Beginnings”.
It’s very interesting in how the next two interaction they have with each other is when one of them is acting the “bad guy”. First was when Varian grab a hold onto Cass with his giant machine and almost broke her as he had a strong grip on her in “Secret of the Sundrop”. Then much later in “Cassandra’s Revenge”, Varian gets kidnapped by Cass since she needs him on everything he knows about the Demanitus' scroll.
This musical number they both shared together is some of the most memorable scenes from the entire series, and for good reason. Varian knows very well on what Cass is feeling that is consume by anger and hatred. He tries his absolute best to in telling her that it’s not the right path to be on since he once was on that very same direction. Cassandra gets offended when he said about being the “villain” and tells him that she believes her destiny will guide her to that ultimate goal. She even calls him out on being a weak villain, but Varian still tries his best in trying to persuade her since he genuinely cares about his friend. The animation and lyrics throughout in “Nothing Left to Lose” is truly brilliant, and is my second favorite song in TTS because it has a tragedy vibe to it. Even though I’m not a big fan of how Cass was portrayed in season 3 as a bad guy, this scene is definitely very astounding to watch.
It’s kinda a shame that we don’t see them talk with each other again after “Cassandra’s Revenge”. Although I think that Cass and Varian very likely still had a decent conversation shortly after Zhan Tiri’s defeat. I imagine that they each apologized for the bad behavior they did onto each other, and they decided to remain goods friends. We see that Cass wears the “Cassandrium” neckless that Varian gave her when she departs for her own adventure. A huge remembrance of her alchemist friend that she’ll always cherish.💎
The Captain - Cassandra’s relationship with her father is a complex one, but I’ll keep this one short since this has been a very long post. She was adopted by the Captain of the Guard on the night Gothal took Rapunzel away. He tries his very best on raising Cass in however he could even if he wasn’t perfect on being a parent. It’s pretty much because of him Cass became the person that she is when TTS started. However, even despite on Cass’ hope on becoming a full time guard, her father’s standards for her are very high. It wouldn’t be until in “Secret of the Sundrop” where she was finally able to show her full worth when she took command after the Captain got injured. That moment when she sang “As Ready As I’ll Ever Be” while the Captain smiles towards her always brings me great happiness every time I watch it.😊
I can’t even imagine on how broken he must’ve felt when he first heard about Cass’ betrayal. That scene when he came across her at that giant maze really took a serious told on him, and I can’t help but feel sorry for him. Watching “Islands Apart” gave me a huge respect towards him as a character. Even with the amount of imperfections he did in looking after Cass back when she was a kid, at least his heart is in the right place.
And the scene where Cassandra and her father have their last moment together was heartwarming to watch. I seriously believe that the Captain is incredibly proud on what Cass has become by the end of the series as she continues to improve herself. Even as Cassandra is on her journey, I imagine that she’ll send letters to her father on the progress she’s been doing and that she misses him just as much as the rest of her friends too.❤️
And I have one more major relationship that Cassandra has with that I want to talk about. However, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow when I go in-depth on a certain winged-friend that Cass has by her side.🦉
