analyses as they occur. {spoilers within}

[patheticvillain]

relationships as commerce

Cassel Sharpe sucks at relationships. This is known. But because he completely lacks self-awareness, it's hard for him to articulate why he sucks so hard, or even articulate that he does.

Here are some reasons. There are a lot of reasons, but here are some of them, and they all boil down to: Cassel sees all relationships as commerce.

This is not some kind of inherent weirdness about Cassel. He was not Born This Way. He was Trained This Way. From a very young age, his emotions were magically manipulated by his mother so that he would conform to her view of relationships as commerce. To fully understand why she did this, let's talk about Shandra Singer.

Shandra is an emotion worker. This means all she has to do is touch someone and she has full control over their emotions. She can make them cry with a thought, make them love her with another, drive them completely insane in an instant. As such, empathy, conscience, and consequences are not high on her list of "things that matter". She can get whatever she wants whenever she wants it by making other people get it for her, and she has been able to do this since her power manifested at a very young age. This is both why she is so valuable to the Zacharov family and why she's so incredibly dangerous and volatile. Shandra uses emotion work to buy her way into everything, including her sons' hearts. Example: She curses Lila to love Cassel and legitimately thinks that he will be grateful for this, that it'll make him forgive her for her keeping his powers from him.

While Cassel doesn't exactly follow her worldview, doesn't wholeheartedly believe that people are meant to be bought for one's own entertainment and benefit, he has been trained well enough by his family and his environment that he thinks everyone else thinks this. When someone approaches Cassel trying to be friendly, he instantly assumes that they're trying to get something out of him, and if they do end up asking for something? There's his worldview completely confirmed. If they honestly don't want something from him, he either thinks that a) they're lying or b) they're biding their time and letting him build up debt to them until they need him for something.

He logically understands on some level that this isn't how the real world works, and on some level he wants to be part of the real world. However, on another level he really doesn't. He wants to belong to his family, to fit in with them, to be part of Barron's world and Shandra's world and most of all Lila's world, and because of this he adheres to Shandra's lessons as best he can. And when someone comes along who doesn't fit in to his view of the world, he has no idea how to handle them.

This is why Cassel is so baffled by Sam. He likes Sam, honestly does, thinks he's a cool guy and a good friend, for a given value of "friend" because let's be real, when has Cassel ever had a friend. But Sam asks for zip from him other than a quick retort, an in on cool shenanigans, and maybe a chance to collaborate of special effects someday. He doesn't fit into Cassel's world at all, and that's why in the end he's Cassel's only true friend. That's why Cassel actually feels guilty when he gets hurt: because Sam is the epitome of innocence, of goodness, of someone completely outside the sphere of workers and worker mob families and their drama. Sam is untouched and untainted by Cassel's family, unlike Daneca and Lila, and Cassel wants to protect Sam in a way he has never protected anyone else.

None of which means he understands him. Cassel and altruism don't mix, Cassel and friendship don't mix, and Cassel and healthy relationships don't mix. Because everyone wants something from him, always.

intermission

the story of how cassel sharpe wrote a film noir story starring cassel sharpe, also featuring his brothers, classmates, and some other people, he guesses, and at the very end of the opening credits, "WITH LILA ZACHAROV" in sparkle text ~ inasinglebound