#i genuinely think if it was me i would be catatonic by season three lmao

[bellamysgriffin]

You don't wanna know me now...

[markantonys]

It’s always interesting me that you feel Clarice is overall mean or cruel to Lucrezia. From my memory the only time we really see that is their initial meeting (which is understandable, she was thrust into a new life as a wife and her husband promised to care for her heart and she found out he was sleeping with someone else, but it’s not really anyone’s in the triangle’s fault in this situation imo) and that one scene in the church when Clarice has been dealing with rumours that Lorenzo is cheating on her and I think seeing Lucrezia in that moment just brings her back to a previous time of hurt, I don’t think she’s actually still resentful of Lucrezia, she was just in a raw moment where Lucrezia happened to act as a trigger, for lack of a better word, for her own hurt and she lashed out (plus she just had a baby so horomones, post-partum depression, etc) but of course this is all just my interpretation, and everyone’s is different! I’m definitely not trying to hate, just curious if there was anything else or other interactions between them I missed, because otherwise they did seem to be genuine friends and have respect for one another.

yeah i don’t blame anybody for anything that happens triangle-wise in s2, it’s a tricky and painful situation for all three of them (though moreso for lorenzo and lucrezia imo since they’ve got an actual loving longterm relationship that they have to lose, whereas clarice is just embarrassed that her stranger of a husband sleeps with another stranger for like 2 weeks after their wedding. and then he leaves her immediately when clarice asks him to so imo clarice didn’t really suffer all that much in the triangle - i blame the writers for making it seem like the equivalent of cheating in a modern relationship when that’s not AT ALL the context, they could’ve handled that whole 3x04 plotline with a lot more nuance)

then at the end of s2 it does indeed seem like a genuine friendship on both sides and i never would’ve said clarice was mean to lucrezia having seen just s2, but then s3 came out and changed that. clarice’s continuing jealousy of lucrezia actually goes back as far as 3x02 when she’s passing by in her carriage and sees lucrezia and lorenzo together (when lorenzo’s asking her to ask ardinghelli to vote with him) so it’s not just that the ippolita rumors are making her paranoid in 3x03, she clearly does still harbor some jealousy/resentment towards lucrezia specifically. which is understandable and wouldn’t rub me so much the wrong way if not for the fact that their ONLY conversation in the entire season is lucrezia comforting clarice and clarice lashing out at her (i think it’s giving the writers too much credit to imagine there’s supposed to be any postpartum hormones at play haha but the ippolita rumors are definitely part of it). it’s not surprising that clarice lashes out, but it’s still just a shitty thing to do like lucrezia is going out of her way to comfort her and even offers up her own money for lorenzo’s ransom, and clarice’s response is to bring up something lucrezia did 10 years ago that she’s long since made up for and give her a hard time about it. it’s just a dick move

but anyway, this being their only conversation in the entirety of s3 makes the whole relationship end on a sour note. it would be one thing if they had a more positive interaction later, but they don’t - at least not on clarice’s part, since she’s catatonic for all the stuff in 3x07 when lucrezia is taking care of her so she’s obviously not reciprocating any of that affection lmao but anyway there isn’t a single moment in s3 that indicates that clarice cares for lucrezia anywhere near as much as lucrezia does for her, which is what left me with the feeling that it’s a one-sided relationship where lucrezia is giving so much affection and help and getting nothing in return. that’s not the case in s2 though, the relationship felt much more balanced in s2 (ex: clarice’s “losing you must have hurt her very much” i always forget about that line but it’s so sweet and shows that she does have empathy for lucrezia. but unfortunately that empathy just isn’t there in s3 and s3 is what colors my overall view of the relationship since it’s the last we see of it)