i guess the most interesting thing to me about cassandra's mentality wrt positioning herself in relation to power is that it's so clearly in reaction to how much of her life trajectory was defined by politics. she was orphaned because of her parents' involvement in an attempted coup and then taken in and raised by her mortalitasi uncle, and she's openly disdainful of both her own titles/ties to royalty and necromancy. she characterizes herself and her role as seeker/right hand as a brute force bruiser, in direct contrast to/rejection of the scheming and subterfuge that, to her, are the defining characteristics of Politics.
but that separation isn't actually as neat as she would like it to be - in the first place, she was rerouted from the templars to the seekers by her uncle, and the seekers are underdeveloped as all hell, but her noble status + his influence as a high-ranking mortalitasi definitely had a part to play in her acceptance into the order. then the vast majority of her time as a seeker has actually been spent as right hand, a position she was granted effectively as a publicity stunt capitalizing on her fame as the hero of orlais. her own shows of force are deliberately used when she knows they will be effective and when she knows she can get away with violence.
& like, cassandra is evidently more politically aware than she chooses to portray herself, as a result of her background and her experience as right hand. she doesn't like the people who play the game and doesn't have the patience or the subtlety to be an effective player, but she's been in these environments, occupying a position of not-insignificant power herself, long enough to get an understanding of what goes on.
there's a related mental divide she tries to maintain between 'duty' and 'ambition' when it comes to engaging with politics and vying for power. she is obligated to carry out her duty to serve a greater moral or religious purpose above her own personal interests. (although this duty may just so happen to intersect with, say, her personal interest as a teenager in seeking vengeance for her brother's death). the power she holds as seeker/right hand/potentially divine is not a reward but a burden of responsibility she has to take on for that purpose. ambition, on the other hand, is shameful because it's the pursuit of one's personal interests.
Cassandra: I am ill-suited to finery, Vivienne. Besides, I can accomplish more as I am now.
Vivienne: You pursued duty and responsibility, a path that took you next to the Sunburst Throne. Well played.
Cassandra: I try to do the Maker's work. Where I stand while doing so is unimportant.
Vivienne: You must admit it does help.
then they bring you to the same place anyway. funny how that happens. like there's this... i think cassandra engages in a certain amount of self-deception where she wants to believe she is where she is because of her own merit, she wants that to be the way the world works. and to say that can't be entirely true of her or of the world she lives in isn't even really meant to be disparaging of her, it just is what it is. and she doesn't want to see and accept that.
It distresses me that [Galyan and the other Circle mages'] contribution has been overlooked while I have been singled out as a hero. I was willing to die to protect the Most Holy, it's true, and I almost did die. But fighting against such evil is my sworn duty. Galyan had no such oath to compel him.
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