This is something I haven’t really addressed in the past, so I’m coming here to say things out loud. Let me start with:
I do not ship Cassarian anymore and have not since I left the Tangled the Series fandom back in 2020, but I admit I did in the past.
When I got hyperfixated on Tangled: The Series, I was super fixated on Varian. When I made this Tumblr, it was for the purpose of finding a community who also liked Tangled and also liked Varian. Most people I found at the time who liked Varian happened to be Cassarian shippers.
Looking back on it, I was a minor (15) whose online Tumblr mutuals were mostly older adults (20s-30s). They made me feel like it was okay to ship Cassarian, so long as Varian was aged up and both of them were adults in an AU. I acknowledge now that it’s not—aging a child character up for the sole purpose of shipping them with an adult is not good, and not something I condone. I should’ve known better back then. However I didn’t: I made the choices I made and the past can’t be undone. Essentially, the space I had curated for myself in the fandom was of Cassarian shippers. The friends I had made then were ones whose other political and religious views I did not and do not share.
The only Cassarian art that I had drawn and posted were: one of Cass and Varian hugging (a Bonnie and Clyde AU with Cass saying, “Don’t leave me, Varian”), one of a modern AU where Cass has her arm around his shoulder (they’re at a party and Varian’s just anxious about being there), and another modern AU group piece of Rapunzel, Eugene, Varian, and Cass where Varian just has his hand on Cass’s arm and Cass is wearing the necklace he gave her in the “Great Expotations” episode. Though I didn’t draw much of the ship myself, the people I associated with and their Cassarian art that I reblogged have brought my name up in other posts and reblogs at the time.
When my Tangled: The Series hyperfixation died down after season 2’s finale and season 3 started coming out, the love I had for Varian instead shifted to Cassandra. I started hyperfixating on Cassandra’s character, was shipping Cassunzel more, and distanced myself from Cassarian.
I can’t remember when exactly (it was sometime in the past few years), but at some point I reflected on my time in the TTS fandom and how wrong I was for shipping Cassarian. I was abhorred thinking about it and that I was even associated with it, so I decided to delete any posts / reblogs I made regarding Cassarian or the shippers I was friends with. Hence the only post you can find on this blog with “#cassarian” is my reply to someone asking if I still shipped it back in 2020. But, considering how Tumblr maintains reblogs on other people’s accounts even if you delete the original post, my art is still out there on other Cassarian shippers’ blogs.
Since then, I’ve distanced myself from the ship, the fandom, and the people I once associated with. I don’t ship Cassarian anymore: I don’t condone it or aging a minor up for the sake of shipping them with an adult.
I am sorry to everyone I hurt by supporting the ship and by supporting proshippers. I do not condone their actions, nor does that excuse my own behavior. I apologize for what I did and for the hurt I was spreading.
