Cassandra (Tangled)

"I'm fulfilling my destiny!"

- Cassandra betraying Rapunzel. "I tried to warn you, Rapunzel. You have to be careful who you trust."

- Cassandra, after her betrayal.Cassandra's Betrayal.ogg

Cassandra is a major antagonist in Tangled: The Series. She initially starts off as a hero and supporting character, serving as Rapunzel's Lady-in-Waiting and one of her closest friends, but by the near end of season 2, she eventually betrays Rapunzel by taking the Moon Stone for herself so she could fulfill her own "destiny" and is now the main antagonist of the third season. In the third season, she is revealed to be the daughter of Mother Gothel, the villain of the original Tangled film.

She was voiced by as a young adult who is best known as Elphaba Thropp for the Broadway, Los Angeles, and San Francisco productions of the musical Wicked, and Cassie Glow & Hudson D'Andrea as a child in "You're Kidding Me!" & "Rapunzel's Return".

Personality
Cassandra is described as being "tough-as-nails", a fitting description for someone who wishes to join the royal guard. She is snarky, sarcastic and has a somewhat dry sense of humor. Despite this, she is extremely supportive and protective toward Rapunzel, her polar opposite — so much so, that she openly holds animosity for Eugene, believing him to be selfish and undeserving of Rapunzel's love and friendship. One of the reasons for this belief is because she feels that Eugene puts his own desires before Rapunzel's.

Although loyal to King Frederic and Queen Arianna, Cassandra is willing to break their rules (and risk her job) for the sake of Rapunzel's happiness; this is seen when Cassandra offered to take Rapunzel beyond the kingdom's wall to explore some of the outside world and escape the pressures of royalty. Doing so required much stealth and cunning, traits Cassandra revealed herself to have that night.

Aside from her no-nonsense persona, Cassandra is also shown to be a free spirit, not unlike Rapunzel. Though she has a more cynical way of going about life, Cassandra also finds joy in adventure, living life to the fullest, and experiencing new things. This is most notably seen during "Wind in My Hair", where Cassandra is seen enjoying herself almost as much as Princess Rapunzel.

Now that she has merged with the evil powers of the Moonstone Opal, she has become a darker and more corrupt individual who wants to reclaim what was denied to her. So far, she has caused pain to her former friends after revealing to them that she is Gothel's real daughter.

Background
It's revealed when Cassandra went in the mysterious door inside the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow she sees that Mother Gothel was her mother, she was raised inside a small cottage for around 4 years with her mother who even to her own daughter she was extremely manipulative and abusive. One day Gothel went out to do something, which we later find out is to kidnap Rapunzel when she lost the golden flower to keep her young.

When Gothel came back to the cottage while being chased by the royal guard. Then the royal guard storms into the house. Thinking that Gothel went there, but they later see she is on the other side, but it's too late as Gothel cuts down the bridge abandoning Cassandra. She is then adopted and raised by the Captain of the Guards, in the castle.

Season 1
Cassandra is first seen waiting for Rapunzel's return from a ride with Eugene at Corona's village gates. From there, Cassandra takes Rapunzel to attend to the various duties of a princess, specifically in preparation for her upcoming coronation ceremony to officially crown her as heir to the throne. Rapunzel laments her feelings about the stress of the pressures of royalty overwhelm her.

Cassandra believes the princess should take a break regardless of what her father wishes, but Rapunzel refuses to do so. Later at a dinner event, Cassandra sits with Pascal, while Rapunzel sits with her parents, and Eugene sits at the children's table (an arrangement made by Cassandra, who was in charge of seating). Eugene takes the time to propose to Rapunzel, but due to her fears of being bound to live in the castle, Rapunzel rejects and leaves. Seeing the princess upset angers Cassandra, who glares at Eugene. She is Princess Rapunzel's best friend and the adopted daughter of the Captain of the Guards. She has a strong dislike for Eugene, but eventually warms up to him and is also a highly trained warrior.

Season 2
During the second season, she joins Rapunzel on her journey to follow the path of the Black Rocks to the dark kingdom, along with Eugene, Lance, Shorty, Hook Foot, Pascal, Owl, Maximus and Fidella, but as the season gradually progresses, their friendship becomes increasingly strained. She calls out Rapunzel for repeatedly doubting her judgment, and in the first turning point in one instance of this causes her right hand to become severely disfigured and disabled by Rapunzel when she was trying to stop Hector.

But the biggest turning point is in the episode "Rapunzeltopia" where the group while trying to find Rapunzel after she went missing, so Cassandra, Eugene and Lance split up and Cassandra goes alone, but just after that Cassandra enters a room in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow after hearing a mysterious voice, a spirit guide's her around, where she learns about her backstory and how she is Mother Gothel's daughter and that she abandoned her for Rapunzel this event causes Cassandra to snap. Always feeling outshined by Rapunzel this is when Cassandra decides to turn on her. She's not seen again until Tromus is defeated and the house is destroyed and then a mysterious door appears and Cassandra comes out of it, then Rapunzel rushes up to her, she scowls at the Princess and flinches when she hugs her. But Rapunzel realizes that Cassandra is acting suspiciously, but doesn't know why, but she brushes it off and they continue on their journey to the Dark Kingdom.

The following episode "Lost and Found" after Rapunzel and Eugene gets back from their journey in the maze. Eugene and the audience gets a hint to Cassandra's coming betrayal when Eugene receives a prophecy from Lord Demanitus saying that one person in their group will betray Rapunzel at the Dark Kingdom. Then, as Eugene is looking at Cassandra she flashes a sinister smile.

In the Season finale "Destinies Collide" the group has arrived at the dark kingdom Eugene is wondering and nervous the whole time wondering who will betray Rapunzel. There are several hints throughout the episode of Cassandra's betrayal, but at first, it seems that Eugene unwittingly fulfills this prophecy when he abandons Rapunzel to destroy the Moonstone with his newly discovered father.

Everything changes, though when the group arrives at the chamber with the Moonstone Rapunzel mistakenly decides to trust Cassandra and lets her come into the chamber with her. Just as Rapunzel is about to take the Moonstone Cassandra steals it at the last second, Rapunzel asks what she is doing which Cassandra responds to by saying that she is fulfilling her destiny. She bonds with its power, which changes her appearance and makes her the Moonstone's human vessel, the opposite of Rapunzel.

Season 3
In the next episode, Cassandra tells Rapunzel what she saw in The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow Rapunzel tries to the reason with her, but Cassandra is so enraged at Rapunzel for her mother leaving her for Rapunzel, l she says she feels that her whole life since she was four she had been pushed away for Rapunzel and that she was having no more, so she refuses. After that Adira attacks Cassandra, but she fails and Cassandra also steals Adira's sword as well and makes it her own. She then runs away Rapunzel chases after trying to convince her to stop and that it is not too late, but Cassandra keeps refusing and eventually gets away on a bridge, which she brings down with Adira's stolen shadow blade.

She and her pet are last seen looking at her former friends going back to Corona via the Hot Air Balloon.

After she escapes throughout the season she learns to harness her powers, but first in "Return of the King" where she is trying to use her powers but fails to. Then she hears a mysterious voice which is later revealed to be the same Enchanted Girl from the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow that was guiding her. In "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?" the Enchanted Girl shows up and tells Cassandra that the Moonstone responds to anger and hatred which after Cassandra hears this and thinks about what Rapunzel did to her she is able to use the powers.

In the episode "Beginnings" Cassandra is walking around the destroyed caravan that they used to go to the dark kingdom. Cassandra discovers an old drawing from Rapunzel with both of them together, which causes Cassandra to feel somewhat guilty. The Enchanted Girl senses this and tells her that she was her friend and that it makes sense to feel guilty, but also tells her that Rapunzel may have deserved it and that she already took some of the Moonstone's power. This confuses Cassandra which the Enchanted Girl clarifies by saying the when Rapunzel touched the black rocks it gave her some of its protective power and that it belongs to Cassandra. This causes Cassandra to become enraged and tear the drawing in half, symbolizing the end of Rapunzel and Cassandra's friendship.

In "Be Very Afraid", Cassandra's fear of destroying Rapunzel to reclaim the Moonstone's power causes the black rocks to turn into red rocks, which heads over to Corona and reveals itself to the citizens' which causes them to see their worst fears. Later on in the episode, Rapunzel touches one of the rocks at the same time as Cassandra and they can sense each other because of that. Rapunzel can sense that Cassandra didn't mean to create these rocks and it happened because she was afraid of the idea of destroying Rapunzel and by this Rapunzel can tell Cassandra still has some good inside her.

Later on, in the episode, Rapunzel reveals to a reformed Varian her biggest fear is losing Cassandra as a friend which has already happened and her destroying Corona and leaving it in ruins. At the end of the episode, she tells Eugene that there is still some good inside her and there is still a chance to save her.

While she doesn't appear until the end of the episode Cassandra plays a significant role in "Island Apart" as the Captain of the Guards learns about her betrayal and attempts to get a second chance from a wishing well on the island of the Lorbs. But the wish backfires and ends up summoning an army of Cassandra's ready to kill the heroes but luckily they are able to undo the wish.

She is also seen during a flashback in the episode where that Captain is looking for her in a maze. Cassandra attacks him with her sword and the two get into a swordfight, Cassandra expresses her anger at the Captain for not telling her about her true parentage. Cassandra is easily able to overpower him and knocks a wall down trapping the captain in and then escapes.

She is seen at the end of the episode at the ruins of the Great Tree looking for the incantation for the Enchanted Girl but she tells her that they were all destroyed. Then, the enchanted girl makes a passing remark that the only other means to mastering the Moonstone was Demanitus' scroll but it was destroyed long ago. Then Cassandra knowing that it wasn't destroyed and that Rapunzel has it says they are going to Corona while making a sadistic smile.

Powers and Abilities
Cassandra is a skilled swordswoman and fighter, having trained in the ways of the Corona Royal Guard since she was six years old. She is adept with many types of weapons, as shown through her collection of them in Before Ever After. She can handle her own in most fights, easily taking down Lance Strongbow, a world-renowned thief, as well as some of the Seven Kingdom's toughest fighters, as seen in Challenge of the Brave. However, she is not unbeatable, as she is overwhelmed by warriors who have trained longer than she herself has been alive, such as Adira and King Edmund of the Dark Kingdom. Following her bonding with the Moonstone, she has most likely gained the life-draining abilities that it possesses, as shown through its power coursing through her hair.

Quotes
"At the end of Rapunzel's journey, one of her party shall turn against her"

- Demanitus' prophecy, foreshadowing Cassandra's betrayal.

"Rapunzel: You saw all of this in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow. Cassandra: I saw everything Rapunzel. Rapunzel: Cass, if what your saying is true, then it means. Cassandra: It means that I'm Gothel's daughter and your destiny belongs to me."

- Cassandra after her betrayal.

"How dare you ask me that? You knew all along how much what was taken from me? You knew who my mother was, and you kept it from me. [...] You only did what was best for yourself. That's all anyone in my life has ever done. Well now... that's what I'm doing, this is my... THIS IS MY DESTINY!"

- Cassandra to her father, the captain of the royal guard

Trivia

 * She had been training to join the Royal Guard since she was 6.
 * She is 4 years older than Rapunzel.
 * An extremely popular fan theory is that she is Mother Gothel's daughter. It's confirmed to be true in the first episode of Season 3.
 * Cassandra is the second of Rapunzel's allies to turn against her, the first being Varian (although he managed to redeem himself).
 * The way that Cassandra holds her pet owl is similar to how Shan Yu holds his pet Falcon.
 * Her backstory is similar to Lotso's. Both are clearly lost their loved ones due to choosing someone over them, like Cassandra was felt alone after Mother Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel while Lotso turned evil after seeing Daisy having a new Lotso.
 * During the Episode "Islands Apart" Cassandra's skin seems to be getting paler, its been suspect by fans that the moonstone is slowly consuming her.