currently re-reading and re-watching thg
hot take: i think the tragedy of coriolanus snow isn’t that he never loved lucy gray. i think it’s that he did.
hear me out now, saying “he never cared about lucy gray” is easier to paint him as the heartless villain that he appears to be later on down the line when he was the capitol leader.
what I feel happened was that he did love lucy gray at the start, it is clear as day that he loved her; and he so proved it with many of his actions in both the book and film. he did love her, but then his love became confused with possession and control. lucy gray and coriolanus snow are completely different people— that’s why it didn’t, and wouldn’t work.
snow favoured control and power over love and freedom which is basically everything lucy gray is as a person. she’s unpredictable, desperate for freedom, independent.
snow loved her so much that his love turned into obsession, which grew into an immense fear that lucy, with her desire for freedom, would try and escape him. leave him behind— which she eventually did, which, in my opinion, is why he shot at her.
I personally really like the scene where they’re in the woods and he shoots at her without even knowing for sure if she is trying to escape. she was out of his sight for no more than a second before he opted for his gun. that shows exactly the moment his love had turned into thirst for control over her. he no longer loved her healthily but hungrily. he believed she was his— because he was entitled to her now due to his feelings.
and maybe that’s the irony.
because I believe snow fell in love with lucy gray because of her qualities, and then over time he started resenting her for it.
somewhere along the way, which I believe is when he shot at her, snow stopped seeing lucy as a person he loved and instead as a person he’s entitled to.
snow is my favourite character of thg series, because of how remotely complex of a character he is. I know he is a bad person, who did bad things, and wanted to continue doing bad things without consequence.
but I don’t believe he was always bad, and that’s what’s most heartbreaking about it.
could lucy gray have changed his outcome if he had chosen her over power?
which is why his character is so much more tragic.
anyways, am I alone in this?
