Cassandra (Winx Club)

Evil-doer
Full Name	Cassandra
Alias	Countess Cassandra
Origin	Winx Club
Occupation	Queen of Solaria (formerly) Countess
Powers / Skills	Magic Manipulation
Goals	Take over Solaria Engage King Radius Banish Stella (all failed)
Crimes	Abuse of power High treason Attempted usurpation Brainwashing Animal cruelty Sabotage
Type of Villain	Manipulative Authoritarian

Countess Cassandra is a major antagonist of the third season of Winx Club alongside her daughter, she was planned to engage Stella's father, King Radius, only to get the throne of Solaria and become queen.

She is voiced by Francesca Draghetti in the original Italian and Kath Soucie in the Cinelumé dub.

History

Countess Cassandra makes her first appearance in "Valtor's Mark" looking out the window, watching Stella, Bloom and King Radius before closing the curtains. When she sees Chimera spying on Stella and Bloom, Cassandra scolds her for acting out of status but expresses her own hatred for her step-daughter Stella as well. She believes only her biological daughter is suitable to be the Princess of Solaria and comforts her when Chimera becomes distressed about King Radius's unconditional love for his daughter.

Nonetheless, she tells Chimera that they must put on a sweet façade to please the Crown Princess. However, she witnesses Chimera lose her cool against Stella and questions Bloom, who happily answers her about an incident between them during a shopping spree.

Later, she sees Chimera's end result of her failed attempts to irk Stella. Valtor then enters their room, offering a proposition: in exchange for the power of the Second Sun of Solaria, he will give Cassandra and Chimera stronger and darker powers. Cassandra agrees and Valtor keeps his promise, with his mark being placed on their necks.

During the princess ball, Chimera casts a terrible spell on Stella (transforming her into a hideous monster) while Countess Cassandra puts King Radius under her control.

She is then seen on Eraklyon, insulting Stella and complaining how she was a troublemaker. When Sky ordered his guards to capture the Winx, as he was under Diaspro's spell during that time, the dragons that were released and began running amok during the celebration. This caused the guests to flee, including her and Chimera. She told King Radius to keep the dragon busy and left Eraklyon with her daughter, leaving King Radius behind.

Overtime, Cassandra has slowly taken over Solaria with King Radius only serving as her pawn. She ruthlessly builds and maintain the power she currently has and even threatened a servant and old friend of the king for questioning Cassandra and Chimera's rightful holding of the throne.

Before the wedding, she makes sure that Stella was not put on the guest list, and was surprised when Stella was able to stop the ceremony anyway. When the spell over King Radius is broken, he commands the guards to arrest Countess Cassandra and Chimera and permanently banishes them.

Trivia

• Countess Cassandra derives her name from Cassandra, daughter to King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy from Greek Mythology.
  • According to the mythos of Ancient Greece, Cassandra obtained the Gift of Prophecy from the Sun God Apollo when she promised to become his bride. However, Cassandra refused him upon receiving the Gift, causing Apollo to curse her, making it so nobody would believe any of her foretellings of the future. As a result, when Cassandra foresees the Destruction of Troy, which includes the trap of the Trojan Horse, as well as her own death, no one in the kingdom believes her, obviously leading to the Greeks besieging Troy.
  • Interestingly, Countess Cassandra's actions are somewhat of a reversed reflection of the Trojan Princess's.
    • Rather than receiving the Gift of Prophecy, Cassandra receives the gift of hypnosis from Valtor in the form of his mark, which allows her to control King Radius.
    • Whereas Princess Cassandra's prophecies were believed to be poor attempts at deception thanks to Apollo's curse, Countess Cassandra actively deceived the people of Solaria in her attempts at taking the throne.
    • While not a "reverse," both Cassandras win over the affections of men who represent the sun. Just as Princess Cassandra wins over Apollo's affections while acting as a priest for him, Countess Cassandra wins over Radius' while acting as a member of his Royal Court.
• In the Nickelodeon dub, Cassandra still has her countess title but her position is a lady-in-waiting. However in the Cinélume dub she is regarded as a very powerful political figure.