Cassandra

Cassandra is one of Auradons Heroes. She is the daughter of Mother Gothel, the older sister of Venessa Gothel and the loving wife of Varian and the best friend of Rapunzel and witty snarky friend of Eugene and Lance. She is also allies and went on many Adventures with Mulan after the events of Tangled The Series and is a assistant teacher at Auradon Prep.

Tangled: Before Ever After
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 overwhelming 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 the proposal and leaves. Seeing the princess upset angers Cassandra, who glares at Eugene.

That night, Rapunzel agrees to relieve her built-up tension by following Cassandra beyond Corona's border wall to explore the outside world for the night. Cassandra gears up for the adventure, providing Rapunzel with a hooded cloak and the two sneak their way out through a hidden passageway. They journey through the night forest until Cassandra takes Rapunzel to a specific spot where the golden flower that saved Queen Arianna and the yet-to-be-born Rapunzel was grown, which was now occupied by mysterious spiked black rocks. Suddenly, when Rapunzel touches the rocks, a blast of magic hits the two that cause Rapunzel's magic, golden hair to return.

The two return to the castle where Cassandra tries desperately to cut the hair. However, like the rocks, it's unbreakable. When Eugene arrives, an anxious Cassandra urges Rapunzel not to tell him about the hair, fearing he'll tell the king and queen, which would cost Cassandra her job. He discovers the hair regardless, but the three agree to keep it a secret from everyone else, including Rapunzel's parents. What Eugene still doesn't know, however, is how the hair came to grow again. Cassandra refuses to tell him, and when confronted about her behavior towards him, Eugene discovers that his unintentional selfishness in regards to Rapunzel is partially to blame.

At Rapunzel's coronation, the hair is kept hidden beneath a wig, only to be revealed when she needs to utilize it as a weapon to fight off a band of thieves. While Rapunzel and Eugene fight off the goons, Cassandra takes on their leader Lady Caine. Caine is defeated and arrested for her crimes, though Rapunzel is reprimanded by King Frederic for the hair, Cassandra's part in restoring it was left out by Rapunzel.

Season One
In the premiere episode, "What the Hair?!", a week has passed since the return of Rapunzel's hair, and Cassandra is dead set on ensuring her involvement remains a secret. Rapunzel feels increasingly guilty over keeping Eugene in the dark, but Cassandra reminds her that if the secret is revealed, she would lose her job and be sent to a convent as punishment. After Cassandra subsequently proves Eugene's inability to keep a secret, Rapunzel agrees, though not without apprehension. By the end of the day, Rapunzel finally reveals the truth to Eugene, though he promises to keep it between them for Cassandra's sake.

Meanwhile, Cassandra deals with issues of her own, particularly about her goal of becoming a guard, which proves to be difficult due to both her father's overprotective nature and the reception she receives from the public (who viewed Cassandra as a mere servant girl, incapable of anything more). In "Challenge of the Brave", Cassandra enters a challenge that tests the strength of its competitors to determine who is the mightiest warrior in all the seven kingdoms. She is shown as increasingly strong and capable, even sacrificing her win in the end to save Rapunzel and single-handedly take down the last competitor. Though technically she loses in the end to Rapunzel, she nevertheless earns praise for her strength and exceptional fighting skills. Later in "Great Expectations", the guard is low on staff due to the kingdom's science fair, forcing the Captain to entrust Cassandra with filling in for the day, on the condition that she finishes her chores first. Varian asks Cassandra to act as his assistant during his presentation, and she agrees in exchange for having Varian handle her chores. This allows her to take on guard duty, but after being assigned to guard the esteemed Dr. St. Croix, Cassandra abandons Varian during his presentation. As a result of not having a reliable assistant, Varian is disqualified. Cassandra apologizes for her selfish behavior and offers her help when the experiments of the fair nearly destroy the castle. Proud of her actions, the Captain offers Cassandra another assignment as part of the guard, though she denies in favor of helping Varian clean up the mess.

Despite things ending on good terms, Cassandra was not satisfied with her performance at the science fair. In "Under Raps", Cassandra discovered — what she believed to be — a potential villain with interest in an ancient journal that originally belonged to one of Corona's previous kings. Cassandra sees this as an opportunity to prove her competence to her father and invites the mysterious foreigner (named Andrew), to see the journal while it is open to the public. By manipulating him into believing she was in love with him, Cassandra discovers that Andrew is part of a separatist organization bent on destroying Corona. With some help from Rapunzel and Eugene, Cassandra manages to defeat Andrew and save the book. She is hailed as a hero for her efforts, receives a Medal of Honor, and becomes the talk of the kingdom, as a result.

By the time of "Secret of the Sun Drop", King Frederic has discovered that Cassandra was the one that leads Rapunzel over Corona's border wall and orders for her to be sent to a convent as punishment. Regretfully and with a heavy heart, the Captain abides by the king's decision, disappointing his daughter immensely. Before she can leave, however, the castle is attacked by a feral monstrosity sent by a now-villainous Varian. The Captain is injured during the attack, prompting Cassandra to take command of the guards in his place. Cassandra's bravery and competence earn her stay in the castle. Unfortunately, Queen Arianna had been kidnapped during the siege, prompting the King to issue an assault upon Varian. With the Captain wounded, Cassandra is chosen to assume his position and lead the assault, which she does confidently, with Eugene, Maximus, and Lance by her side.

Toward the end of the episode, Rapunzel defeats Varian and reconciles with her father. The rocks, meanwhile, form a path leading somewhere beyond Corona's walls, prompting Rapunzel to follow its trail.

Season Two
Cassandra joins Rapunzel on her journey—as does Eugene, Lance, Hook Foot, and Shorty, much to Cassandra's chagrin. According to "Beyond the Corona Walls", Cassandra made a promise to King Frederic that she'll keep Rapunzel safe on their journey, and keeps to her promise with her usual protective and callous nature. She also eventually meets her match with Adira, an eccentric, yet skilled warrior that introduces herself as a guide for Rapunzel and her allies, whom Cassandra quickly starts to dislike.

In "Rapunzel and the Great Tree", Cassandra, Rapunzel, and their friends stumble across the Great Tree. Upon getting inside of it, Adira reveals to the company that the tree once was a stronghold of the powerful dark sorcerer Zhan Tiri, thus making Cassandra even more suspicious about her. When she tries to tell Rapunzel to leave Adira, the princess refuses and tells Cassandra that she'll sometimes make decisions they won't always agree on, which makes the latter feel like she's waiting in the wings for Rapunzel and her friends.

When the sinister warrior Hector attacks the company, Cassandra fights back and ultimately pushes him off the ledge. However, Hector comes back, possessed by the Heart of Zhan Tiri's tree. Despite Cassandra's protests, Rapunzel decides to use the reverse incantation, that she found before the attack, to destroy the vines holding Hector. At that moment Cassandra notices a magic spear and tries to convince Rapunzel to let her use it against the tree, but the incantation's power proves itself to be way too uncontrollable for the princess to stop using it. In an attempt to stop her, Cassandra touches Rapunzel's arm, but the incantation's destructive power severely burns her right arm, turning it pitch black. When everyone escaped from the falling tree, Cassandra finds a suit of armor and puts it on to protect her body from further pain. In the time following these events, Cassandra remains bitter, blaming Rapunzel for the events that transpired. Rapunzel tries to communicate with Cassandra about the tension between them, but the reserved Cassandra is hesitant to do so.

In "Mirror, Mirror", a powerful storm forces the group to take shelter in a peculiar inn hosted by a man named Matthews. During their time there, Cassandra hears a mysterious voice calling her to a room that sucks her inside. When she escapes, the house has been destroyed, though Rapunzel and her friends are all safe. Rapunzel questions Cassandra on her absence, but she is quick to brush off any suspicion. Later, Rapunzel and Eugene can uncover the final piece of a scroll detailing Rapunzel's connection to the rocks with the help of Lord Demanitus. Before his departure, Demanitus warns Eugene that someone will betray Rapunzel before their journey comes to an end. Though Eugene has come to love Cassandra like an "annoying sister", he believes her to be the most likely candidate and warns Rapunzel about the matter in "Destinies Collide". Rapunzel believes Demanitus was wrong and continues forth to the Dark Kingdom, where she is destined to connect with the source of the black rocks (a life-killing opal) and restore balance to the world. Inside the Dark Kingdom's castle, Rapunzel, Eugene, and Cassandra approach the opal together. Before Rapunzel can touch it and fulfill her destiny, Cassandra grabs it, instead, declares that she's fulfilling her destiny and merges the opal with her body—magically altering her body, eyes and, hair. Once the alteration is over, Cassandra sinisterly tells Rapunzel that she should have been careful who she trusted.

Season Three
In the prologue of "Rapunzel's Return", it reveals what Cassandra had seen in the mysterious room she walked into at The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow during "Rapunzeltopia". There she met an enchanted girl who shows her younger self with her biological mother, who turns out to be Gothel, on the night that Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel, however, she and her child self watch in dismay as Gothel takes down the bridge to their house before she leaves Cassandra all on her own while taking Rapunzel with her. Being reminded of her past had caused Cassandra to cry to herself as the spirit convinced her that she would always be overshadowed by Rapunzel, which would ultimately lead her to double-cross her in the Dark Kingdom.

She angrily declares that Rapunzel's destiny belongs to her as Rapunzel asks her to let her help before she is ultimately confronted by Adira, easily repelling her, stealing her Shadow Blade, and fleeing the Moonstone Opal's chamber, with the Black Rocks covering her escape. Rapunzel chases after her in an attempt to convince her to come back, but Cassandra refuses to listen to reason and uses her stolen Shadow Blade to slice away the bridge of Black Rocks she created to make her getaway, leaving Rapunzel heartbroken over the thought that her best friend is now her newest enemy.

At the end of "Return of the King", Cassandra is trying to harness the power of the Moonstone, but cannot make it work on the Black Rocks as she did earlier. Then she hears the familiar voice of the Enchanted Girl, who explains in "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?" that the Moonstone's powers tap into the anger and hatred of the user, and tells her to delve into the depths of her rage, reminding her of Rapunzel. Upon hearing this advice, Cassandra begins to learn to harness her new powers. In "Beginnings", when Cassandra begins to feel guilty about her betrayal to Rapunzel, the Enchanted Girl reveals when Rapunzel first touched the Black Rocks, the Moonstone granted a part of its power to her, causing her hair to become indestructible and protective to ensure she would be safe on her journey to the Dark Kingdom and reunite with the opal. With this revelation, Cassandra tears up a picture of her and Rapunzel, cementing her role as the Princess's newest enemy.

In "Be Very Afraid", Cassandra's fear towards the idea of destroying Rapunzel causes the Black rocks to turn into red rocks. Causing them to grow in Corona and reveal the citizens' worst fears, when Rapunzel touches one of the rocks at the same time as Cassandra they can sense each other. Rapunzel can tell that Cassandra is still good inside. Later Rapunzel reveals to a reformed Varian her biggest fear is losing Cassandra as a friend forever (along with the kingdom in ruins). At the end of the episode, she tells Eugene that there is still a chance to save her.

In "Islands Apart", it's revealed that she had fought with her adoptive father, the Captain of the Guards, and called him out for keeping her mother's identity a secret from her. She left him feeling guilty for his actions and he went to live on Terapi Island with a fake four-year-old Cassandra, which he wished for out of guilt. But the wish came at the price of having its magic turn against him by creating an army of Cassandras who attack Rapunzel and Eugene, who found him at the island. But, fortunately, Rapunzel convinced him to take back the wish and to not give up on the real Cassandra. Meanwhile, the real Cassandra and the Enchanted Girl went to the Great Tree to look for the incantation scrolls to help her learn how to harness the powers of both the Sun Drop and the Moonstone, only to find them destroyed. But when the Enchanted Girl mentions Demanitus' scroll as the other way to do it, Cassandra realizes that they have to return to Corona.

In "Cassandra's Revenge", Cassandra comes back to Corona and crashes Eugene's birthday party. Cassandra demands Rapunzel to give up the scroll and goes to find it in Varian's new lab. She even kidnaps Varian because he remembers the scroll and takes him to the site of Rapunzel's Tower, where she doses him with his own truth serum to force him to reveal her the third incantation, which she uses to build her own tower out of the black rocks. Knowing that the path of destruction and rage won't get her anywhere, Varian tries to urge Cassandra to stop what she is doing, but she refuses to listen to him and ultimately traps Varian in a cage, pushing it away at the edge of her tower.

Cassandra soon finds Pascal as he tries to sneak into her tower without being seen, but Rapunzel finds her with the question of whether Pascal is alright, and Cassandra gives him back. Rapunzel says she doesn't want to fight Cassandra since they're supposed to be friends, but Cassandra forces her to fight since she loves Eugene. During the battle, Rapunzel unleashes the incantation of the Sundrop's full power, which destroys Cassandra's tower. In the wake of the battle, Cassandra realizes that the Moonstone has been chipped, and then sees the Enchanted Girl has regained her normal form.

In "Race to the Spire", after rebuilding her fortress, Cassandra and Zhan Tiri headed over to the spire to get an item from Calliope. Although they got the item but failed to get the key due to Calliope sending it to Rapunzel, Cassandra and Zhan Tiri formed a plan to get the key from her. However, when Rapunzel realizes the ruse, Cassandra revealed herself. When the item was revealed to be the Mind-Trap stone, Cassandra and Zhan Tiri were able to get it when Rapunzel chose Calliope's safety as they took advantage of her compassion. After returning to her fortress, Cassandra used the Mind-Trap stone to control everyone loyal to the Dark Kingdom.

In "A Tale of Two Sisters", hearing rumors through Zhan Tiri about Gothel's ghost haunting her old cottage, Cassandra investigates her childhood home and saw Rapunzel there as well. While fighting, Cassandra and Rapunzel ended up in a mine when the cottage accidentally fell over. After working together to deal with the cave animals, Cassandra and Rapunzel notice Mother Gothel's old magic mirrors that she used to record herself. Seeing this, Cassandra begins to question her mother's love for her. However, after escaping from being burned to death, Cassandra notices one of her mother's mirrors in Rapunzel's bag, which was put there by Zhan Tiri in her attempts to keep their friendship broken. Believing her former friend lied to her when she sees the memory of being given the music box from her mother as a show of her love, Cassandra left Rapunzel to die in the mines. Just as she leaves, Cassandra ended up feeling guilty when Rapunzel pleaded for help but shook it off and continued to walk away. Cassandra returned to her fortress, unaware that Zhan Tiri stole a piece of her mother's mirror that shows that she only saw her as a pest and threw it out to prevent her from making amends with Rapunzel.

In "Once a Handmaiden...", Cassandra was outside her fortress where she notices something shining. Realizing it's the missing piece from her mother's mirror, Cassandra puts the piece in the mirror and then discovers that Rapunzel didn't lie about Mother Gothel not loving either of them when she sees that her mother only saw her as a pest. Cassandra confronts Zhan Tiri, after realizing that she tricked her into turning against the first friend she ever had. During the confrontation, Cassandra finds out who her mentor really is and leaves her fortress ashamed for her actions. After reuniting with Owl, Cassandra decides to sneak into Corona by using the magic cloak she stole from the Spire to impersonate Rapunzel's new handmaiden Faith to make things right with the Princess. During the good will festival at Corona, Cassandra was confronted by Zhan Tiri, who becomes more determined to make sure she doesn't reconcile with the Princess and to put her plan into action, as she tells her about Rapunzel authorizing a weapon that could be used against her, unaware that she did it out of protecting the kingdom and would only use it as a last resort. Despite being scared that Rapunzel wouldn't forgive her and not entirely convinced of Zhan Tiri's claim of the weapon she was talking about, Cassandra meets up with the Princess in her cloak disguise. However, Cassandra was revealed when Zhan Tiri, who made sure she wasn't seen by the two girls, removes the cloak in front of Rapunzel. Due to everyone seeing her as a threat, Cassandra couldn't explain to Rapunzel her reasons for coming into Corona. Cassandra fought off the guards but calmed down when Rapunzel pleads with her that it isn't too late to make things right. However, Cassandra believes that Rapunzel now sees her as a threat like everyone else when Zhan Tiri fires the weapon Varian was holding in order to trick her into taking over Corona for her. After driving everyone out of the kingdom, Cassandra sits alone in the throne room, unaware that she helped Zhan Tiri put her plans into motion.

In the series finale "Plus Est En Vous", following her hostile takeover of Corona, Cassandra pays her former room in the castle a visit. Filled with rage, she proceeds to destroy everything that reminds her of Rapunzel and her old life as a handmaiden, although she left the picture and necklace in the room untouched. As the solar eclipse draws near, which goes as far as to weaken Rapunzel's power, Zhan Tiri tries to convince Cassandra to defeat Rapunzel and claim the Sundrop. Though Cassandra agrees to do so, she reveals that she no longer trusts Zhan Tiri, due to all of the times the demon has manipulated her, and imprisons her in a cage made of black rocks.

Once the people of Corona have infiltrated the castle, Cassandra personally confronts Rapunzel and Pascal in the castle halls. When Rapunzel refused to give up on her, Cassandra rebuffs it and attempts to kill her. The two engage in mortal combat, with Cassandra weaponizing vases and the black rocks against the princess. Just when it seems like Rapunzel has the upper hand, Cassandra turns her power into a weakness, and transports her to her room.

There, once the eclipse has finally come, Cassandra depowers Rapunzel and nearly obtains the Sundrop, only for Zhan Tiri, who escaped the cage using one of Varian's vials, to jump in and grabbed both the Sundrop and Moonstone. This causes Cassandra to lose her power as well, and she and Rapunzel watch Zhan Tiri transform into a huge demonic creature. Cassandra was mocked by Zhan Tiri for failing by her ego, like her mother was, and traps her and Rapunzel in a cage made of Sun rocks.

Imprisoned together, Cassandra finally regrets her actions in front of Rapunzel and apologizes to her. Hearing Rapunzel say the phrase "Plus est en vous", Cassandra regains her confidence. Afterwards, the two of them team up once more and are able to make the Sundrop and Moonstone collide, destroying Zhan Tiri. However, Cassandra dies in the resulting shockwave, that is until Rapunzel uses the Healing Incantation to revive her and everyone else, before sending the Sundrop and the Moonstone back to space. With peace restored, Cassandra embraces Rapunzel and Eugene.

After reconciling with her adoptive father and gaining a new green outfit, Cassandra bids farewell to Rapunzel and leaves Corona with Owl and Fidella, free to find her true destiny and to no longer be waiting in the wings.