Character Discussion: Cassie

[buffyangellvr23]

Here goes...the character who often seems to get the most negativity, and sometimes it's for good reason. I know my LJ folder is gonna be swamped this week, but I'll turn you loose anyway LOL

I do like the animal loving part myself...but there are things that some of you say about her that I can see as well...both positive and negative.

Comments

[blue_rampion]

You can't discuss Cassie without discussion her moral compass - Cassie, for good of for ill, gets cast in the role of 'moral compass'. You've got a bunch of kids thrown into a freaking war, with all of the moral complexity that comes with that - and then there's Cassie, already the kind of person who has strong morals and acts on them. So they go to her for the moral guidance, because to them it seems like she's got a better handle on things.

But she doesn't - there's cases where you can most definitely argue that Cassie is in the wrong. Letting Tom escape with the Blue Box is often the example people argue the most. But I think this is part of what makes Cassie interesting as a character. She doesn't have all the answers. She gets things wrong. She'd been saddled with this enormous responsibility of thinking about what's right and wrong, and we often see her having to struggle with what she believes in and what she actually has to do

[lisacharly]

But she doesn't - there's cases where you can most definitely argue that Cassie is in the wrong. Letting Tom escape with the Blue Box is often the example people argue the most. But I think this is part of what makes Cassie interesting as a character. She doesn't have all the answers. She gets things wrong. She'd been saddled with this enormous responsibility of thinking about what's right and wrong, and we often see her having to struggle with what she believes in and what she actually has to do.THIS THIS THIS. I could not agree with this more

I adore the phrase "Karma Houdini" :)

[natural_blue_26]

-David. Her belief that killing him would be immoral ends up sentencing him to a fate worse than death. We even see in #48 that this was a really bad move on her part.

YES. I would have liked to see this actually DEALT with within the group so MUCH. I get the suspenseful fade to black and all that, but, come one, Cassie had to have SOMETHING to say about it afterwards when she's not in giant doom!box. D:

-#28. Marco's curse-out to her in the middle of the book is so epic.

You? Marco? Noooooooooo ;) ;)

-The beginning of #19. Marco and Rachel just RIP INTO HER in the beginning. And you know, they're right. They're in too deep to quit. And she does decide to come back. And she loses her friendship with Rachel anyway. God, I love #19.

Really? This is why I dislike 19. ;) But I honestly don't think she said it meaning to hurt Rachel *on purpose*. (They were never going to last through the war intact anyways, but 19/54+ is not that far.) It's just... Think about it, and THEN insert your foot in your mouth if you're really sure you

Re: I adore the phrase "Karma Houdini" :)

[lisacharly]

Yeah, David kind of...only gets mentioned what, three times after the fact? #48 and #45 and...somewhere else? I don't know. For such a gamechanging trilogy it really should have been mentioned more.

Marco gives the best curse-outs. Fact. Except for Rachel's "you just said the whole world can go to hell so long as you, Cassie, don't end up turning into me" line, which just wins the championships of curse-outs.

No, Cassie certainly didn't mean to hurt Rachel most. She was being self-absorbed and desperate and didn't realize the effect her words would have on any of the other members (Jake for losing her as his gf, Marco for trying to quit when she was such an advocate of HIM staying on the team, Tobias because he can't quit even if he wants to, Rachel for implying that the worst thing that can happen to her is to be numb to the violence - I don't think Ax cared all that much).

Re: I adore the phrase "Karma Houdini" :)

[natural_blue_26]

All very good points.

Except for Rachel's "you just said the whole world can go to hell so long as you, Cassie, don't end up turning into me" line, which just wins the championships of curse-outs.

TANGENT RACHEL LOVE FOR BEING A DO NOT MESS WITH ME BITCH BADASS :DDD

Re: I adore the phrase "Karma Houdini" :)

[lisacharly]

BTW, Karma Houdini is from TVTropes. I wish I could say I copywrote it.

Re: I adore the phrase "Karma Houdini" :)

[natural_blue_26]

Shhhhhhhhhh- I won't tell if you don't ;) ;)

[blue_rampion]

And literary wise, I think seeing that constant struggle between the moral and the practical is more interesting. I'd actually have liked to see more of it with Cassie - more of her struggling on the inside with the decisions she makes, and more of her making those mistakes and realising that she's gotten things so horribly wrong. Possibly if we hadn't had the Ghostwriters we'd have seen more of this.

[lisacharly]

I also think Cassie got royally shafted by having the post-Tobias/pre-Marco books in the line-up. Both Tobias and Marco tend to get a lot of angsty impactful (usually) wham! novels (#3, #5, #10, #13, #15, #23, #30, #33, #43, #45, #49), which meant that Cassie's books tended to be breathers between our two angstmuppets. I mean, pretty much every book of hers that ends in a four is either happy-go-lucky or cool-down filler. Girl got stuck with magical whales, Andalite toilets, Helmacrons and Australia. She only got half the time for the angst and moral dilemmas! She had to go fight Taxxons in the outback!

[natural_blue_26]

angstmuppts ftw!

[blue_rampion]

sdfsdfgsddfs I didn't notice that Lisa had used that word until you pointed it that THAT IS INDEED AWESOME we should now forever refer to Marco and Tobias as the Angstmuppets

[lisacharly]

Now featuring songs like "It's Not Easy Being Red-Tailed" and "The Visser Connection".

Why are there such a big
Slug in my mom's brain?
If she's even alive out there?
It must be 'cuz Applegate
Needed to keep me
From going anywhere

I tried to quit but thanks to a coincidence
She was on the Pool Ship that day
Someday I'll find her, my mother the Visser
And I'll make that nasty slug pay...

It works with the melody!

[blue_rampion]

dkljndfgkfsjngklfgnfsdklgnjfsklgnsfdk;njgafsoh dear god that is beautiful

[natural_blue_26]

...You did not just make those those lyrics up on the spot. There is no way!!!

[lisacharly]

I did. Because I suck like that. I totally turned on The Rainbow Connection to do so, because I DO have that song on my iTunes.

[natural_blue_26]

It was a sad, dark day when Jim Hensen died. (Although Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island are love.)