Amanda growing violets and Clarissa watching her garden, wanting to join but scared of dirtying her hands because her mother would disapprove (this is a metaphor)
DISCLAIMER: 🗣️ THIS POST IS MEANT IN A FRIENDLY, ANALYTICAL WAY. I DONT WANT TO START DRAMA, I AM PROVIDING MY OPINION 🗣️
I’ve been seeing a lot of support for Mark/Clarissa recently (which is good and nice! I love diversity in opinions!), but occasionally it does come off as bashing Amanda/Clarissa (I’m sure this isn’t intentional though, you’re all lovely people <3) and I’m here to defend my OTP :) Essay under cut, with a TLDR at the end before the conclusion, in bold.
Clamanda, as a ship,is heavily dependent on context.
Firstly, due to the nature of the media, we get very little idea of Clarissa’s true thoughts and feelings. In my opinion, I see her experiencing heavy comphet; her mom is slowly dying, and says, “I’m not long for this world, honey. That’s why I’m so excited to see you get married.” I also hc that she lives in a fairly Christian area. The local priest is obviously Father Petrovsky and I mean. Uh. Nothing against him but also I’m like 75% sure he’d be against gay marriage (despite being played by Sam, who would certainly play him as accepting because he’s him, despite it being kinda out of character for Petrovsky) Also everything against him because have you HEARD the guy?! He’s like genuinely the world’s least empathetic priest, except all those megachurch fucks…
But I digress. My point is, small community = pressure to conform.
Secondly, Clarissa’s marriage to Mark is NOT a healthy one, nor is it done at a good point in their relationship. It’s a spur-of-the-moment, one-sided thing, which marriage should not be. Hell, Mark doesn’t even know he’s getting married until the day of! It was a legal process that served the purpose of an apology.
They promised to change, but marrying someone before any evidence* of change isn’t… a fab idea…
*I know she displays some evidence of being willing to change, but the fact is that the play takes place over maaaybe a week, MAXIMUM. That motivation could be gone within the month.That’s not to say I think it will be! I do truly believe she will make an effort, but will Mark do the same? He (understandably) never seems to fully forgive her on stage. (She took a call!! As he was proposing!! What the fuck?!?!! Maybe she was hoping it was Amanda…)
My third point is a HC that Clarissa and Amanda dated once when they were like early 20s, late teens maybe, and they truly were in love, but they had a sleepover once, got drunk, had sex, and when Clarissa woke up in the morning she was overwhelmed with guilt and regret and they broke up, and Amanda was very understanding. (This may or may not be the plot of my 20k choose your own adventure fanfic which is in progress, watch this space). They broke up on good terms, stayed friends, and maybe Mark and Clarissa got together out of convenience and societal expectations.
TLDR; 2 headcanons are stated, along with an analysis of the plot. The first HC is regarding Clarissa’s comphet, as inferred by OP from the source material. The analysis addresses the spur-of-the-moment marriage, and the implications. The second HC is that Clarissa and Amanda slept together once and Clarissa felt incredibly guilty (tying into the idea of Comphet).
Now, I understand that the play ending with Clarissa breaking up with Mark and marrying/getting together with Amanda would be a worse end. That would be one of the most selfish things Clarissa could have done. However, i do believe she and Amanda CAN work, without absolutely just screwing over Mark. I have a lot to say about him and Clarissa’s rocky relationship, but that’s for another post.
All of this is to say, the CONTEXT is most important for a ship like this to work:
- On one hand, Amanda and Clarissa get together right before the marriage and Mark… what, is left at the altar he was invited to? Oh my god that poor guy.
- On the other, Clarissa tells Mark, significantly after all the events of the play transpire, that she has realised she’s a lesbian. She treats him with compassion, and helps him get help for his own trauma. For several months, at the VERY LEAST, they can stay close (both geographically and emotionally), even when Clarissa starts dating Amanda. Especially when Clarissa starts dating Amanda.
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Okay. I’m not sure how much this makes sense, I just wanted to get it out there. I love Clarissa/Amanda as a ship so much because of its complexity. Oh they make me sick. Okay bye hope you enjoyed the post please don’t be mean to me xoxo
PS: if you liked this post go look at @beiyuanism’s awesome take in the rbs! They wrote some original takes masterfully, added some more depth to some of my points in a way that I struggled to, and just oh my goodness gracious it’s brilliant.
