#RDO is like. incredibly bleak.

[bestworstcase]

legitimately it fucks me up that RDO is widely considered both in and out of cassunzel circles to be just. cassunzel tangled au: the episode, and that in cassunzel spaces its reputation is largely that it’s a sweet romantic episode that comes as close to canonizing cassunzel as a disney princess cartoon could reasonably get–

–like it is unfathomable to me that RDO is seen this way when RDO is a horrific coda to RATGT and puts the final nail in the coffin of rapunzel’s and cassandra’s friendship-as-it-presently-stands. what cass sees in the house of yesterdays tomorrow isn’t the point of no return: RDO is. i will die on this hill.

RATGT ends with cass, having been mutilated by rapunzel, insisting that she is fine, donning armor, and quietly but determinedly telling rapunzel “it’s your call” re: whether the gang will press on to the dark kingdom or, you know, turn back to maybe seek medical care cassandra’s barbecued hand. this comes on the heels of rapunzel telling cass that 1) rapunzel is the future queen, 2) she is going to make decisions cass disagrees with, and 3) she needs and expects cass to “be okay” with that.

meaning, cassandra at the end of RATGT is attempting to do precisely what rapunzel asked her to do: set aside her own feelings completely and subordinate herself to rapunzel’s leadership, no matter what.

and RDO is a brutal examination of how untenable this state of affairs is.

because the premise of RDO is this: rapunzel cannot stand that cass is acting cranky and curt over what happened in the great tree, and she manipulates the situation to get cassandra alone with the intention of forcing cass to talk to her so things can go back to normal again.

furthermore, rapunzel is angry at cassandra for a constellation of interrelated reasons: 1) she has recast the events of the tree as “i told cass i had it under control, she didn’t listen and burned herself, if she had listened to me none of this would have happened,” ignoring or forgetting that she did not have it under control and that cass did not interfere until rapunzel said she couldn’t control the incantation, 2) because she blames cassandra for the injury, she feels indignant that cass is mad at her for something rapunzel has decided is not her fault, and 3) she has convinced herself that they just need to talk things out to make everything better and is infuriated that cass refuses to discuss it. she literally draws cassandra as an enraged monster while processing her feelings about this. rapunzel states that she “gets” why cass is mad at her, but her behavior makes it clear that in rapunzel’s mind, cassandra is the “bad guy” in this conflict.

meanwhile cassandra is focused on retraining her injured hand—not on healing, not on recuperating, not on working through her feelings about what happened, but on recovering her fighting ability because without that she has no worth to the group. i won’t even qualify that with an “in her mind,” because at this point… yeah. these people are her friends but at no point between RATGT and DC do they lift a finger to support her, express concern for her well-being or feelings, or treat her like their equal; in mirror mirror they will walk out on her mid-sentence and eugene will scoff openly at the idea that any of them would ever listen to her, in lost and found eugene will leap to the conclusion that cass is the traitor, and in destinies collide he and rapunzel will openly doubt her loyalty, intentions, and physical ability to help them (while also continuing to blame her for the injury). cass is worthless to them.

cassandra does not want to talk about it with rapunzel, probably because the last time she tried to be vulnerable with rapunzel she got shot down on the grounds of rapunzel being in charge. she makes this very clear. rapunzel strong arms cass into going on a scouting trip with just the two of them, and even becomes dismayed when cass tries to bring owl along because she wanted cass completely alone. she continually prods at the wound, trying to get cass to talk.

this comes to a head when they camp, and rapunzel directly initiates a conversation… leading with “i’m mad at you too” and again blaming the injury on cass. cass says, “if that’s how you feel, it’s fine,” and rapunzel pushes harder because it clearly isn’t fine, and she wants cass to talk about it NOW so they can resolve it and be friendly again. she harangues cass until cass snaps and shouts that she wishes rapunzel would forget the whole thing—

—and then boom! magic amnesia cassunzel tangled au. the whole thing is predicated on an enormous violation of cassandra’s boundaries by rapunzel, a violation which involved rapunzel blaming cass for the trauma rapunzel caused, a violation that continued relentlessly over cassandra’s repeated requests to stop until cass lashed out.

rapunzel without her memories is oblivious to this context and her painful history with cass. cass is not, and feels a huge weight of responsibility to fix her mistake. she recognizes that she inadvertently hurt rapunzel and throws herself into making it right… while continuing to withhold the truth, because the trauma is fresh, because she has too much bad experience with rapunzel to feel comfortable being emotionally open with her as she once was, and because she feels guilty about wiping rapunzel’s memories. at the same time, rapunzel’s reset back to a sweet, happy, excited person rather than one who is furious and harassing cassandra for having feelings about being maimed reminds cass of all the reasons she does love rapunzel…

…which all culminates in cassandra restoring rapunzel’s memories and apologizing. she details for rapunzel the reasons she’s upset, but follows it up with saying she shouldn’t have snapped, shouldn’t have touched the wand, shouldn’t have lied, and that while she is angry she isn’t always going to be: she’ll get over it because that’s what friends do.

there is no apology from rapunzel. rapunzel doesn’t take any accountability for burning cassandra’s hand, nor does she apologize for pestering and pushing until cass snapped, nor does she apologize for blaming cass and vilifying her for being mad. the framing of this reconciliation is “cass was wrong, and rapunzel graciously accepts her apology” which is SUPER FUCKED UP in the context of “rapunzel mutilated cass then blamed her for it and got mad that cass was upset and then nagged her until cass finally lost her temper.” which is what happens. but because rapunzel was harmed when cass lost her temper that context is shoved aside and cass ends up in the position of apologizing and accepting blame for the entire conflict.

lastly: paired together, “rapunzel accidentally mutilated cass” and “cass accidentally wiped rapunzel’s memories” are a stark illustration of how unbalanced the relationship has become, not just in the sense of rapunzel being the princess and cassandra her servant but also in the emotional sense that cass gives and rapunzel takes. when rapunzel accidentally harms cass she shifts all the blame onto cass, browbeats her for being upset, and makes it all about HER feelings and what SHE wants. by comparison when cass accidentally harms rapunzel she takes full responsibility and goes to great lengths to try to fix it while shoving her own feelings aside, and then offers rapunzel a heartfelt apology while also giving rapunzel the reassurance she demanded that things can be fine between them again—despite the fact that rapunzel’s stance on the great tree incident hasn’t budged.

RATGT digs a grave, but RDO is what puts their friendship in the ground. because cass is given no quarter: she is not allowed to be mad or upset, because rapunzel doesn’t want her to be. she is pushed and pushed and pushed until she snaps—and then she’s the one at fault for the whole thing, she’s the one apologizing, and she’s the one reassuring rapunzel that she’ll just get over her bad feelings without rapunzel having to do anything to earn her forgiveness. there is no real communication happening; RDO is where their ability to communicate dies. and personally i’m convinced that the device of rapunzel temporarily losing her memories was used specifically because the episode ends with rapunzel experiencing another false “reset” of sorts: she walks away from that conversation with cass believing everything is fine, or at least on a path to becoming find again, when in reality their friendship is now in the morgue.