Nothing Left To Lose
Sep. 18th, 2020 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
satalasers I keep thinking about Varian and Cassandra, TBH.
- I just cannot understand the difference between how clearly the succeeded with one villain (Varian), and did not with the other (Cassandra).
- With Varian, there's a clear progression. If not logical, then understandable. From the second his father gets trapped by the amber rocks, Varian is sent into a spiral. He has to get help. He has to travel to Corona by himself. He has to travel through a snowstorm, desperate to rescue his father and make him proud. And he thinks that Rapunzel is the solution. And he gets denied -- not only that, but is dragged away -- and his emotions at this point, are unstable. When he returns to find his dad entirely encased in ice, it feels like it's over for him. Betrayed by his friends, unable to cope with his failure, he can only feel that he must direct the blame onto Rapunzel. And like the month(s?) he spends in isolation, hiding from people, is guaranteed to only worsen his mental condition, and solidify his descent into villainy. He has to do wrong to get his justice, because that's the only way they'll listen to him. He has to be underhanded and manipulative to get what he wants, because he tried being nice, and was turned away. (Maybe he waited that month, but no help came either.)
- So, despite what he's doing is wrong, and he knows it, it's easy to sympathize and understand why he's sworn revenge on Corona/Rapunzel.
- Cassandra, I just. Okay let's go through the various motivations:
Which... I. Okay. I don't know if that's enough for her to go villain? I can sort of understand that this causes her to resent Rapunzel, but even so, she's blaming Rapunzel for a lot of things she can't be held accountable for (being kidnapped was not her choice!), and -- lots of episodes of s1 and s2 focused on Cassandra and Rapunzel's friendship and rifts, and to me, you'd need something monumentally bigger than what was presented to tear them apart?
- I'm kind of confused at what attaining the moonstone would achieve for her? All through the journey, she's learnt that the moonstone is bad, a force of destruction.
You could maybe argue that the moonstone is influencing her negative emotions, and amplifying them. But really, it seems much clearer that Zhan Tiri is doing that, by being the devil in her ear -- and that's when I liked Cassandra and Zhan Tiri best TBH, not the moonstone. Though, yes, the moonstone could only be utilized by Cassandra harnessing her anger and rage, which may be feeding Cassandra's negative loop thought process though.
But I still don't know why having the moonstone would help her? If she only wants the moonstone to help achieve her 'destiny', then. She's just a glory-seeker, right? She wants acclaim and recognition, and. Are those really good motivation in order to become a villain?
And. It's also the fact that Cassandra doesn't see herself as a villain which I find really confusing? If written well, I can believe it. I can totally believe a dark hero does terrible things, and not realizing that he's stepped away from the path of goodness, and not realize how far they've fallen and in the end become the villain, BUT.
Cassandra's not one of them.
Like. I can sort of see the motivation, there is a path, but for me it never really becomes strong enough for me to understand why she had to turn away from them. Maybe if it was written down, so I could have her thought process, I'd believe it more. But -- with what I was shown, I kind of... felt like it was weak, and confusing, and her going back and forth with 'friendship vs destiny' was not well handled. I think because Cassandra was shown to treasure more her friendship than her 'destiny' time and time again, I didn't really feel like she regretted those moments? Even amidst the fights they had -- they had two big fights I think, in s2. And part of the problem is probably that, Cassandra herself refuses to open up, and hold it in -- how is Rapunzel supposed to know (in addition to Rapunzel having an incredibly sheltered upbringing).
IDK. I just feel like they gave her weak motivation, then had her flip flop between remembering her friendship, then preferring her destiny, and committing numerous bad things that in the end, Cassandra's villain arc felt messy.
Especially because: well, look. Varian and Rapunzel aren't close friends, but they are friends, but I don't think they knew each other particularly well, hence why it made sense why Varian turned away from Rapunzel and saw it as a betrayal to him personally. Because Cassandra and Rapunzel were close, spent two seasons with each other, it... makes less sense to me.
If I hadn't read up on meta and stuff, I would say, it felt like they made their decision at the end of s2, that Cassandra was going to be a villain, and then spent s3 trying to double down on that, with some back and forth, to show genuine remorse. and not manage it that well. Having read up a little on other's opinions, I can say, maybe they did try to build it up, but... I'm still not convinced it was well managed, all the same.
Hm. I still feel like I'm going to have to rewatch the show to properly put this into words, but this is somewhere along the lines of what I mean, I think. I just. I wish her villain arc wasn't so unsatisfying TBH.
- I just cannot understand the difference between how clearly the succeeded with one villain (Varian), and did not with the other (Cassandra).
- With Varian, there's a clear progression. If not logical, then understandable. From the second his father gets trapped by the amber rocks, Varian is sent into a spiral. He has to get help. He has to travel to Corona by himself. He has to travel through a snowstorm, desperate to rescue his father and make him proud. And he thinks that Rapunzel is the solution. And he gets denied -- not only that, but is dragged away -- and his emotions at this point, are unstable. When he returns to find his dad entirely encased in ice, it feels like it's over for him. Betrayed by his friends, unable to cope with his failure, he can only feel that he must direct the blame onto Rapunzel. And like the month(s?) he spends in isolation, hiding from people, is guaranteed to only worsen his mental condition, and solidify his descent into villainy. He has to do wrong to get his justice, because that's the only way they'll listen to him. He has to be underhanded and manipulative to get what he wants, because he tried being nice, and was turned away. (Maybe he waited that month, but no help came either.)
- So, despite what he's doing is wrong, and he knows it, it's easy to sympathize and understand why he's sworn revenge on Corona/Rapunzel.
- Cassandra, I just. Okay let's go through the various motivations:
- She's tired of waiting for her moment/her destiny.
- Through various episodes, she's sacrificed what she wants for the sake of friendship (Rapunzel), and never feels like it's enough?
- She doesn't really mention 'destiny' for a good part of the show, maybe only in s3 TBH? At which point it feels like, 'where did this come from'? Does she even have a destiny?
- Doesn't want to overshadowed, which again, she feels like Rapunzel does, always without meaning to or even realizing. Learning that Gothel chose Rapunzel as a baby over her, her own flesh and blood, is icing on the cake.
- So part of her wants to spite Rapunzel.
Which... I. Okay. I don't know if that's enough for her to go villain? I can sort of understand that this causes her to resent Rapunzel, but even so, she's blaming Rapunzel for a lot of things she can't be held accountable for (being kidnapped was not her choice!), and -- lots of episodes of s1 and s2 focused on Cassandra and Rapunzel's friendship and rifts, and to me, you'd need something monumentally bigger than what was presented to tear them apart?
- I'm kind of confused at what attaining the moonstone would achieve for her? All through the journey, she's learnt that the moonstone is bad, a force of destruction.
You could maybe argue that the moonstone is influencing her negative emotions, and amplifying them. But really, it seems much clearer that Zhan Tiri is doing that, by being the devil in her ear -- and that's when I liked Cassandra and Zhan Tiri best TBH, not the moonstone. Though, yes, the moonstone could only be utilized by Cassandra harnessing her anger and rage, which may be feeding Cassandra's negative loop thought process though.
But I still don't know why having the moonstone would help her? If she only wants the moonstone to help achieve her 'destiny', then. She's just a glory-seeker, right? She wants acclaim and recognition, and. Are those really good motivation in order to become a villain?
And. It's also the fact that Cassandra doesn't see herself as a villain which I find really confusing? If written well, I can believe it. I can totally believe a dark hero does terrible things, and not realizing that he's stepped away from the path of goodness, and not realize how far they've fallen and in the end become the villain, BUT.
Cassandra's not one of them.
Like. I can sort of see the motivation, there is a path, but for me it never really becomes strong enough for me to understand why she had to turn away from them. Maybe if it was written down, so I could have her thought process, I'd believe it more. But -- with what I was shown, I kind of... felt like it was weak, and confusing, and her going back and forth with 'friendship vs destiny' was not well handled. I think because Cassandra was shown to treasure more her friendship than her 'destiny' time and time again, I didn't really feel like she regretted those moments? Even amidst the fights they had -- they had two big fights I think, in s2. And part of the problem is probably that, Cassandra herself refuses to open up, and hold it in -- how is Rapunzel supposed to know (in addition to Rapunzel having an incredibly sheltered upbringing).
IDK. I just feel like they gave her weak motivation, then had her flip flop between remembering her friendship, then preferring her destiny, and committing numerous bad things that in the end, Cassandra's villain arc felt messy.
Especially because: well, look. Varian and Rapunzel aren't close friends, but they are friends, but I don't think they knew each other particularly well, hence why it made sense why Varian turned away from Rapunzel and saw it as a betrayal to him personally. Because Cassandra and Rapunzel were close, spent two seasons with each other, it... makes less sense to me.
If I hadn't read up on meta and stuff, I would say, it felt like they made their decision at the end of s2, that Cassandra was going to be a villain, and then spent s3 trying to double down on that, with some back and forth, to show genuine remorse. and not manage it that well. Having read up a little on other's opinions, I can say, maybe they did try to build it up, but... I'm still not convinced it was well managed, all the same.
Hm. I still feel like I'm going to have to rewatch the show to properly put this into words, but this is somewhere along the lines of what I mean, I think. I just. I wish her villain arc wasn't so unsatisfying TBH.
