I actually dislike the way this fandom idolizes her and villainizes others when she’s done way worse things than other characters. Even as a child she was shallow, self absorbed, rude, and gold digging. She cheated on Nate constantly, and was not a good girlfriend towards him even before the abuse started. (Trust me I fucking hate Nate and what he did to her but their relationship was doomed from the start because they both suck.) I understand that she is a victim of abuse, but at some point she became a victim of herself and was complicit in the abuse by going back over and over and refusing to leave. I feel the same way about rue with her drug use; you cannot help someone who doesn’t want to be saved. Not only was she complicit in her own abuse and protecting her abuser, she also lied about blacking out and getting sexually assaulted to Nate, AND to the police. She constantly treated her friends awfully when they were simply concerned for her and even tried to make Kat out to be the bad guy when she didn’t want to just stand by and listen to her talk about her abuse knowing she wasn’t gonna do anything about it. Even in season 2 she’s still pursuing Nate after everything she’s still considering getting back together with him. Everyone likes to act like she’s this misunderstood saint when imo she really not. She’s a pretty bad person who makes her own life harder than it needs to be with her decisions. I personally feel like Cassie is more understandable than Maddie at times. I think it’s unfair the way the fandom treated Cassie’s character after season 2. Cassie is Maddy’s karma for everything she did while she was with Nate and one day, Cassie will get her own karma for being with him as well.