Kay was whiney, demanding and domineering. Apo was the submissive, soft, feminine, and agreeable girl that would've suited the entire mafia lifestyle as a wife 50x better than Kay. Yes, him and kay had more concrete and geniune enduring history and love but objectively kay was not the right fit for michaels direction once he stepped up and got into the family business especially after the don got shot. Kay could've accepted reality and the facts that the man she loved changed and she could've left, breaking up with Michael without any dramatics and moved on (like she eventually did after 2nd movie).
I could careless about both of them. Apo and Kay but Apo would've just blended in so well and adjusted to the life perfectly. She was made for it and men like Michael in that world needed Apos, at least on the rise and transition into power. Apo would've never disrespected him and aborted a human life like that especially without telling Michael. I can't see it for her at all. She would mostly get tired of his shit if she got fed up and would've left with the baby (even if he objected). She wouldnt have aborted as some self righteous pompous protest to his evil and madness. Like girl just say you didn't want another baby period and you hated him so thus you never wanted Michael's baby period.
A life is a life period, even if its not born yet and she knew michael was looking forward to having a boy. Its white entitlement and privilege she has that you guys dont seem to understand. She could've turned the baby over to Michael and been done with it. I think she deserved the slap he gave her and Its factual he loved Apo and both of his loves for apo and kay shouldn't be discredited.
This film was made back during a time where love could be conceptualized without needing a bunch of literal experiences together and a laundry list of memories.
Michael liked kay and "loved" her cause she was the best, nearest and only option out there. Men will have a general love for who they're with but there will always be a woman out there past present or future that will be his IT girl, his true type and who he would be with if he someone granted him the chance to have any type of woman he wanted and not just the woman he naturally met.
Apo isnt better than kay and kay isnt better than apo but everyone needs to accept that Apo was better suited for the lifestyle and organized crime. She just was. Last thing Michael needed was some blonde wife at home groaning and being dramatic about all of this like she never had a clue and couldn't leave. She was wealthier and better off than 80% of the country and most people with Michael and abusive relationships like Michael sister and her man existed. Michael stepped out on her when he was under the assumption he would start a new life in italy. Other than that? He always stayed with kay and anyone else would've did worse. Every other mob film the men cheat and dont care.
Apo didnt get a chance and didnt stand a chance but had she lived? Even if she were to have left michael eventually, she's still the better choice not cause of her being above or better but because he needed a more subdued, softer, easier to mold very TRADITIONAL old world kinda girl there.
All I ever saw with kay and michael aside from good times was butting heads, competition and kay determine to make him submit instead of just leaving peacefully and bowing out.
Kay was strong, stood up for herself and her children and was smart. Apollonia was a child, puppeted by her parents and sold off to the highest bidder and couldn't think or act by herself. Apollonia was the perfect young, naive and helpless girl that a corrupt, older mafioso would want on his arm for 3 reasons:
Control: The husband to dominate his wife and control her, having her agree to his every whim and demands.
Power: A mafioso who was also a family man was looked upon as having more structure and being respectable.
Children: To legitimize his family further and have sons to succeed the mafioso in the family business.
Michael's type was always Kay and women like Kay. If Kay wasn't the "right fit" for THE Michael Corleone, why the hell would a man as powerful, influential, well known and wealthy as him bother to keep her around? Michael could have had anyone he wanted. He could have had a woman like Apollonia brought to him out of Sicily faster than tracking Kay down to talk to her and get her back on his side. He chose not to, that was Michael's decision because he wanted to be with Kay. Nobody made Michael do anything he didn't want. Only Michael knew what was right for him and he acted on that.
You're right, Kay could have accepted the reality and the facts of what she had gotten herself into, but what is this so called "reality" and "facts"? She was lied to for over a decade, gaslit and deceived. She didn't know the "reality" and "facts". She knew whatever lies and secrecy Michael fed her to keep her quiet, confused and in line like he would have done with any woman in his life at that point. Kay could've left? She did. Once she realized her husband was becoming a sociopath, endangered her and her children's life (while she was pregnant, mind you) and all his lies came spilling through with his corrupt lifestyle he gaslit Kay into believing he was out of, she left. She did just that.
What dramatics? It was Michael who was dramatic. Michael got up yelling and acting abusive. Michael struck his wife. Was that necessary? Could he not have controlled himself? Let's not make excuses for his fury. What's ignored here is that Kay knew the only way to have Michael let her go, divorce her and make sure they never see each other again was to abort his child and bring it up to his face by insulting the family business (calling it "this Sicilian thing"). She understood it just as well as Michael did, so it was no "Sicilian thing", but she did what she had to do to make that man hate her so Kay could truly be free of him. Michael should have moved on. Why is half the plot of The Godfather Part III Michael chasing Kay around, telling her he loved her and wanted her back? Why was he lamenting like a loser? Why did he pretend to be her taxi driver? Why did he want all that closure? Talk about dramatic.
Apollonia would have been easier to abuse, control and manipulate. Those are the ONLY reasons why she would have adjusted "perfectly". Apollonia would never have left Michael even if he beat her day and night, and that's depressing and horrid to think of as a concept. She wouldn't have up and left, where would she go? She'd have broken English, no money, no education, no credentials to her name other than being a child-birthing machine and no job. She'd be stuck being Michael's bangmaid for the rest of her life. She'd know nothing but a lifetime of his cruelty and distance no matter how many children she popped out. That would be Michael's only use for her, just like how back in Sicily Michael's only use for her was for sex. It literally states in the book Michael married her because he was horny and knew people in Sicily were too "prude" and pre-marital sex was frowned upon. Also, he was bored, there for months without an end date and kept Apollonia as a "sex slave" (stated in the book verbatim) in the house without letting her see anyone for weeks.
Kay did want Michael's baby, which is clearly why she got pregnant with it and carried it for 3 months, until she almost got assassinated with Michael and her unborn child and discovered all of his lies. Why should she go and be a single mother of 3 children, one of which is a newborn baby without a father figure or the funds to support it? Why would she give birth to Michael's expectation; a boy more intelligent and cruder than Anthony to succeed Michael? Who the hell would wanna carry that nightmarish reminder in their body for 6 more months after divorcing the guy?
"A life is a life" I'm gonna have to stop you right there, anon. I'm more than happy to debate The Godfather on all levels, but not the topic of abortion. The fetus was in Kay's body, it's Kay's choice. She was in no way, shape or form entitled to carry a child for 9 months that she didn't want just to "hand it over" to Michael like it's some sweater she knit over a period of almost a year. Also, it's alarming you think Kay deserved to be hit because she had an abortion. You think domestic violence is justifiable in certain cases to you? Unless Kay gave birth to that baby and tore it apart alive in front of Michael's face, nothing warrants abuse, period. Full stop. Women don't deserve to be abused by their husbands.
Mario Puzo, the literal creator of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola and Al Pacino himself said Kay was the love of Michael's life many times over. Apollonia was never mentioned. In the book, it clearly states Michael only loved his father and Kay. It's not "factual" he loved Apollonia, that is strictly your opinion. It's actually incorrect, considering the given statements from Puzo and the novel.
"This film was made back during a time where love could be conceptualized" Incorrect. People had no issue falling in love and creating loving memories and bonds with each other in the 1940s-1960s. I think this is a form of Apollonia cope, because Michael had no bonding with Apollonia other than giving her presents to appease her parents through his wealth so he could literally do 1 thing with her) have sex. He had plenty of bonding with Kay though, and this seems to bother Apollonia stans. You can't discredit this just because it doesn't suit your narrative.
Kay was Michael's "it" girl whether you like it or not. Like I stated above, Michael could have had anyone he wanted if he truly didn't love or need Kay. Just as easily as he married Apollonia, he could have had any other pretty Sicilian girl or whatever to suit his corrupt lifestyle. Again, as Mario Puzo himself, along with Al Pacino and Francis Ford Coppola clamed, Kay Adams was the love of Michael Corleone's life. They're literally telling you right there that Kay IS the "IT" girl of Michael's life.
There's too much talk of what Michael "needed" to succeed in his lifestyle and not enough talk about his corruption, his evil personality, and the pain he caused others. Why are we trying to find women to be trapped alongside with him? Why are we picking which women best suit to go through those evils with him? We should be talking about how Michael deserved nothing good in his life because he fucked it all up for power. He could never be half the man his father was, and the irony of it is that he had it all from birth and he still chose to sabotage it.
That's all I'll say on that.