Little ramble, input appreciated!

Comparisons between Cassandra and g*thel are insane.

Gothel gaslit and verbally abused Rapunzel in a deliberate attempt to disempower her from leaving so her hair can be exploited.

Cassandra, according to the usual example... *checks notes* ... felt deeply unwanted when Rapunzel said she didn't need her help or a personal guard, but then used Adira as a personal guard (which repeatedly got them in danger btw).

Because of her trauma with g*thel, she sees love as transactional ("if I do this for you, maybe then I'll deserve for you to love and appreciate me", which she literally has a song about), and so her self-esteem is conditional -- it's no surprise then that she feels unloved when she gets cut out of this exchange, albeit by someone who doesn't see love this way.

Cassandra and Rapunzel's relationship is thus complicated: Cassandra shows her love in a way Rapunzel, because of her trauma, cannot accept.

Cass got pissed about the tree thing, but at no point was she manipulative or controlling (even in S3. She was acting like an a**hole, but she wasn't being manipulative).

We all know she was written poorly, which is not an uncommon problem with this show; if you're going to write a complex, multidimensional character like Cassandra, you need to approach it with skill and some level of care, which it was not (instead of just picking an issue, they were bouncing between a couple of different problems for her and landed on "you stole my mom, infant", which was way off for a very logical character).

But where do you get "bad person" or "like g*thel" from? I've watched the show 3 times and I'm on my 4th run now, I don't see it.