Oh, darlingâŠ.*TIGHT HUGS*!!!  This whole mess will haunt us foreverâŠ.but I donât think the problem is us being unable to understand (nothing about milathos makes sense in s3- itâs unbelievable) but us understanding far too well âŠ.
Needless to say I totally agree with you about milathos and the fact they should have ended up together and itâs not just a matter of personal preference. It is a matter of  logic, basic sense of narrative, character consistence and storyline continuity. The way their love was presented in the previous 2 seasons one would at least expect it to maintain itâs significance and value as both charactersâ âone true loveâ till the end. Because that was how they had build it up and kept planting seeds throughout s1&s2 especially in the form of foreshadowing quotes from the confession parallel in ep. 1x1 (âI once loved a manâ- âI loved herâ) to âSWEAR THAT NOTING WILL EVER COME BETWEEN USâ, to âTHERE CAN BE NO PEACE FOR EITHER OF US UNTIL WE ARE BOTH DEADâ to âWHATEVER I AM YOU LOVE ME AND YOU ALWAYS WILLâ to âI AM BOUND TO YOU AS YOU ARE TO MEâ. (not to mention the kept glove and the forget-me nots pauldron on S3). All these quotes were stated very seriously, not in any light way, they were never dismissed in any way at any point and most importantly their meaning/truth was never denied by either character. So maybe they were just words, and words alone donât always hold value, but from my POV the whole writing in S1X2 was good enough (especially when it came to milathos) and the development of the characters solid enough and the acting of the actors brilliant enough to see the storyline following through what those words implied or to at least feel they held much meaning, because the characters acted accordingly and their storylines developed in line to that meaning. So I donât think Adrian, who created the show and had some vision from the start about how it would all unfold throughout the 3 seasons would just randomly throw these heavy lines âlightlyâ or would kept them there while checking the final scripts.
Furthermore, I donât think â as far as the promotion of the show goes - they would leave such freedom to both actors to state things like âsheâs the LOVE of his LIFEâ â âtheir relationship is the BIGGEST thing in his life â EVEN biggest than the MUSKETEERSâ - âthey are DEFINITELY the ONE for each otherâ and âthey have found this pure and unique thing together and ONCE you had THAT you DONâT WANT ANYTHING ELSEâ or âshe tells him he WILL ALWAYS LOVE HER and itâs THE TRUTH and only she can tell him thatâ Maimie even hinted at them being endgame in that interview promoting s2 by saying she knows what she wants to happen âcanât they get back together already and have babies?â (donât think that resemblance with Athosâ ending is coincidental) without in any way denying that possibility but furthermore implying they just had to go on  a huge journey first (see s2 and presumably the whole s3 if they were given the chance) because âyou just have to drag it along for as long as possibleâ (presumably s3/aka the showsâ ending) âFOR THE SAKE OF DRAMAâ!Not only she hints that them ending up together is not only possible and desirable (if not definite since they are âdefinitelyâ the âOneâ for each other), but she also states that the only reasoning they canât have them get back together like ASAP is solely âfor dramaâs sakeâ!- nothing else! Also in s1 Tom somewhat stated that as far as Athosâ character goes what he found interesting about this adaptation was that by making certain choices (keeping Milady alive) they would get the chance to see him face a different kind of femininity or something like that, basically his character development would be affected by her presence. And let not forget Jessicaâs last twitter after s2 ending â aka in a way also the first promotional post about s3 â was a devastated Athos at the crossroads wearing Aramis scarf and holding Miladyâs glove with these words âAthos doesnât care about accessories he WANTS THE PEOPLE BACK!â (if your intention is to completely dismiss that notion by having the character not think of the person âhe wants backâ even once in the next season-at least at the beginning of it- you donât post something like that to build false expectations)
Even more importantly for me throughout the first 2 seasons we had Athos, who as far as the milathos relationship goes was:
- a man OBSESSED with his wife for YEARS,
- a man who was unable to watch her die â even though he was the one who ordered her death
- a man who apparently loved her so much that her loss and their shared tragedy was such a turning point for him - making him abandon everything and altering his whole life,
- a man who has been struggling with alcoholism and depression for years due to that loss and his guilt about it,
- a man whose last thoughts before he was about to be executed/ die was about her (1x10)
- a man who continued to love her for years EVEN when he thought she was DEAD
- and EVEN when he thought âor more correctly had almost convinced himself- she was nothing more than a lying cold-blooded murderess who deceived him
- a man who upon her return from the dead (1x3) when she set out to kill him â had actually surrendered to her to be killed on their first reunion scene (and just wanted a hugâŠ;p) and while talking to DâArt about it referred to her as âthe woman I LOVE!â *present tense*
- a man who didnât seem able to resist her even when he âhatedâ her, knew her main goal was revenge and that she was the Cardinalâs spy, (1x8)
- a man who didnât actively seek out to harm her even then, (even following his outburst in Ninoâs trial -when he was caught off guard and lost control- he didnât make any move to âpunishâ her or bring her to âjusticeâ, not about her âfalse testimonyâ nor about anything else â he didnât even, for a bunch of reasons, reveal to the others anything about her past or her involvement with the Cardinal for quite a while-thus willing or not âprotecting herâ) Â
- who didnât even try to stop her even though he knew she was also working for the âenemyâ and only revealed her secret and tried to stop her WHEN THINGS GOT TOO FAR (end of 1x9)
- and that only to eventually LET HER WALK FREE - thus basically SAVING her life, while also acknowledging his own responsibility for her post-hanging misdeeds (1x10)
- a man who had given up on romance (and even sex) because of her and who was consistently showed as one unable to move on even though she was dead or let her go even though he thought he had exiled her and was never going to see her again,
- a man who couldnât stand the thought of her with another man (2x4/2x6-actually he even flinched in 1x8 when she hinted at using her ânatural talentsâ ;p)
- a man who had continued loving her even though he thought she was continuing her wicked ways and even though she kept rebuffing his every attempt to approach her in a more amicable way, (2x6/2x7-even 2x8 when he offered his âundying gratitudeâ)
- a man who was shown worried about her SAFETY (2x6/2x9)
- a man who was STILL IN LOVE with his wife in such an obvious way that not only her (2x4) but others too (Catherine) could tell simply by looking at his face (despite him stating he hated her) and called him out for it-twice (2x5/2x9), and he never even  tries to deny it (he even asks Catherine to forgive him ⊠for it)
- a man who had even ACCEPTED her wicked ways, since -although obviously disappointed by the revelation that she killed again (2x9) and despite her refusal to apologize for it- doesnât give up on her, but on the contrary was even shown brushing off accusations about her being âa murdering whoreâ with a simple âneverthelessâ âŠ
- THIS man who the last time he saw her their relationship has only positively evolved since
- she had gained his RESPECT,
- Â he had tried to offer her HELP,
- she had offered her HELP,
- he had SAVED her life- again- by rescuing her from hanging
- he had TRUSTED her not only to help with a crucial mission but also TRUSTED her to save Aramis (aka his âbrotherâs life, which means more to him than saving his own life),
- she had actually SAVED his brotherâ life,
- he had finally LISTENED to her side of the story and BELIEVED her, (watch the tunnel scene!)
- he had been so overwhelmed by his -always burning and hard to control- desire for her that couldnât restrained himself anymore and they had gloriously make out even though the âfuture of France was at stakeâ atm, thus fully re-igniting all their mutual passion
- then she had opened up to him and basically offered reconciliation and once again he BELIEVES she is being honest (if not as far as her will to change her life goes at least as far as her feelings go) or at least agrees on the fact they are âboundâ becauseâŠ
- he was ready -if not to abandon everything again and run off with her (the showrunners actually claimed that was the case)- to at least meet her at the crossroads and ask her to stay and give it a try, they miss each other at the crossroads he is shown HEARTBROKEN and DEVASTATED âŠ.
- btw he was shown feeling guilty over her hanging for years - even when he thought she was a lying cold-murderess that deserved to die, so after believing (beyond any doubt) she was telling the truth about it being an act of self-defense and also listened to her saying how it all defined her afterwards aka becoming the Cardinalâs creature  (something he had already realized and even admitted in ep.1x10- that he had âmade her who she wasâ) I bet his guilt about the way he mistreated her then must have reached the highest levels EVER by the end of s2! I would really expect that to show in his treatment of her from that point onâŠfor example when it comes to him being really cautious about not jumping to conclusions when it comes to her or acting harshly on impulse âŠ.*coughs-like not chocking her maybe-coughs* Â
   Enter s3: THAT *supposedly* SAME MAN the next time he sees his wife (aka âTHE LOVE OF HIS LIFEâ) with whom his RELATIONSHIP had only positively EVOLVED (as described above) and whose leaving DEVASTATED him and who is also holding the glove he was holding back then (which he apparently kept all those years and even matched with the forget-me-nots he had placed all over his pauldron and doublet after he returned from war aka even AFTER 4 YEARS had passed) THAT MAN supposedly simply gives up on her after everything that had happened between them (because who cares about years of intense feelings and undeniable love â he probably managed to deal with  them-although he was never showed even thinking about her?!) and it all only takes him like less than a minuteâŠwhich minute includes an âas ever- passionate kissing (although he is over her) and an out of the blue chocking (because although nothing negative occurred between them since they last met he suddenly doesnât trust/believe her or gives a damn about her safety and has no problem with attempting to kill her) and he doesnât even think of her ONCE afterwards (despite the âlove of his lifeâ, or the passionate kissing, or even just the wrongly chocking!). Oh, but he does run off with a girl he met like two weeks ago ⊠Â
So whatâs left to understand? Adrian, the creator of the show, walks away and we get new people running the show (I donât think that event automatically changed their initial plans about milathos but definitely affected the way Maimieâs pregnancy was handled) âŠthen the pregnancy occurs âbehind the scene shenanigans take placeâ they cut off the âCatherine sceneâ in 2x10 ⊠theyâre not sure what to do with Miladyâs initially âhugeâ part in the last season (they are unwilling/unable to make adjustments) they want to stick to Athosâ planned storyline so they pass Miladyâs âroleâ (at least as far as Athosâ âlove interestâ goes) to a new âcharacterâ (for me that is pretty clear if you closely examine certain elements/scenes of that storyline) âŠUnfortunately that was also their biggest mistake, because by doing so -given how a) Athosâ character was build up to that point â actually since he was first created by Dumas and presented in every other adaptation ever! b) important the milathos relationship was in his whole storyline and how intertwined with Miladyâs it had been- they inevitably also threw away any sense of narrative, character consistency, storyline continuity and ignore all previous character and storyline development â they just ignore s2 completely in regards to milathos (imo they even ignore s1 at as far as Athosâ feelings for Milady go..). They just didnât realize how crucial Miladyâs part in that storyline was in order for it to maintain any depth and meaningfulness or even for it to come off as one fitting and believable as far as Athosâ character go and thatâs basically why it didnât work for many of us⊠  Â
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