come Get Her | ᴄᴀꜱꜱɪᴇ ʜᴏᴡᴀʀᴅ

(all info from https://euphoria.fandom.com/wiki/Cassie_Howard)

Cassie is very sweet but a people pleaser, as evidenced by how she sacrifices her own comfort for the pleasure of others. Cassie falls in love with every guy she dates and empties her cup to fill theirs to make sure they don't abandon her like her father did. She is a very sensitive and sentimental person too. She is crushingly insecure and desperate for that sense of security, which she seeks in other people instead of herself. She is hyper feminine, vulnerable, and dependent on others.

Cassie's validation-seeking personality formed in large part from her parents. Her father was inconsistent, and abandoned her not once but twice. This was likely the root cause of many of Cassie’s issues later in life. She formed a deep and intense fear of abandonment and being alone, as seeing her father leave her constantly as a child scarred her deeply. Her father's fairweather attentions conditioned her to ignored red flags and accept volatile behavior and affection, such as when he surprises her with with ice skates, only to end her lessons when paying was no longer convenient. Cassie often tries to be convenient and anticipate what type of person someone wants her to be. From her mother, Cassie learned that life without a man is empty, and is emotionally neglected.

Cassie has spent her entire life being told how beautiful she is, and how her appearance and the sexual favors she can provides are her only sources of worth. This creates a terrible cycle where Cassie will try to get the security and validation she craves from a boy or man, only for him to tell her that her body is the only she can offer. Yet when she then offers up her looks and access to her body in exchange for the love she seeks, the recipients of this behavior, who often asked and demanded for those sexual favors and appreciating her appearance in the first place, view her as 'easy', disposable, and unworthy of love. The more she tries to give them the sexy, hot girlfriend they expect and demand, the less they see her as girlfriend material.

Cassie's eagerness to please has lead her to make poor romantic decisions with guys who then take advantage by asking for nudes or creating sex tapes, which they inevitably leak and spread around school. Rue narrates Cassie's reaction after stumbling upon the videos "The first time she found out, she had a panic attack, and wanted to swallow a whole bottle of Tylenol." Her vulnerability and availability make her a tempting target for the next guy, who does not want to have a serious relationship with her because of her reputation, but is more than willing to take advantage of her never-ceasing hope in love to have his turn.

Season 1 Cassie is a victim. Her desperation for love and validation cause her to be sexually and emotionally used, abused, and abandoned by every man she has sought love from. Her only form of self love is in her manic, daily grooming habits, which take her hours to complete. She enjoys the ritual of these tasks and the attention to detail, but even this act of 'self' love and attention is in service of others, since she usually adapts her style to match the taste of those around her.

She sought to break the cycle by dating an older guy, McKay, and maintaining a steady relationship for a full year. McKay is seemingly accepting of Cassie's sexual past, and, since he attends college, is removed from the mire of high school drama and judgement that follow Cassie. However, McKay is a 'nice guy' who gives Cassie conflicting signals. He enjoys her appearance, but tells her she dresses too provocatively; accuses her of making everything sexual, but pressures her for nudes when she tries to change/ doesn't want to; says he loves her, but is deeply embarrassed and ashamed to be seen with her. His hypocritical behavior leaves Cassie increasingly insecure and desperate for a stronger attachment and response from McKay. When Cassie learns she is pregnant, she is hopeful that the child might be the permanent connection she has been seeking, but this is destroyed when McKay immediately denies that they're even in a relationship.

Her neediness and brokenness make viewers and the other characters uncomfortable, twisting into derision and dislike because her vulnerable neediness seems pathetic and weak, and her desire to be liked causes her to lose herself to become a copy of what she believes the other person wants her to be.

In Season 2, Cassie's personality begins to warp in reaction to her experiences, and under the influence of Nate. Her abortion and abandonment by McKay are largely unshown, but clearly had a devastating affect on her wellbeing and psyche. Cassie has a level of rage, fragility, and emotional volatility not seen in season 1.

Cassie gives in to the temptation Nate offers in a moment of pathetic and needy vulnerability. After, she is aware that this action will cost her her relationship with her best friend, Maddy, and the remainder of her friend group, which makes her desperately double down on her attachment to Nate in order to make this loss 'worth it'. Cassie also takes a heady and unhealthy form of pleasure in being "chosen" by Nate, the impossible to pin down guy, since his attention means she is 'better' than her strong, confident, and desirable friend, Maddy, whom Nate rejected, and since Nate has been blatantly derisive of Cassie in the past, implies that Cassie's charm and beauty are enough to win him over.

In order to keep Nate after the loss of her friends, (who are aware of Nate's extremely violent tendencies, Cassie's own vulnerabilities, and the on-again off-again nature of Maddy's relationship with him, yet still frame the relationship as a 'betrayal' instead of showing concern) Cassie willingly resorts to violence, bullying, revenge and anger to achieve her desires and takes perverse pleasure in the power she gets from dating Nate and in harming people, even as she has messy emotional and mental breakdowns from the way he treats her and her lack of support.

It has been theorized, but never confirmed, that Cassie has Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Some evidence to support this fan theory include: The fact that she sets her self-worth around one or a few people that can provide her comfort and a feeling of safety. The danger of basing her entire self-worth on someone is that she will allow so much of herself to be lost to these people, like Nate, that it ruins all her current friendships and relationships. She will continue to repeat these toxic patterns in order to experience a sense of comfort and safety. She will seemingly do or say anything to get a specific person (or people) to love; in Cassie’s case it’s Nate Jacobs. She is shown to have pervasive feelings of emptiness without someone else to base herself off of, impulsivity, frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, unstable self-image, and instability due to mood—all things Cassie and BPD have in common.

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Physical Appearance

Cassie is 5’3” Jewish-American woman and she has long, slightly wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, and has a curvy "hourglass" figure, complemented by her slender frame.

Her appearance, makeup, and wardrobe often adapt to the tastes of the person she is currently attached to, whether that person be Maddy, Nate, McKay, or a random boyfriend, often changing dramatically.

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