asks pt 5 (last for now)
Mn, I guess? I can see that as a potential threat for her to make, it just doesn’t feel super related to what she said. Huh. I wonder if they weren’t allowed to use the word divorce this ep? That would explain some slightly odd wording in a couple places.
Yeah, I suspect that too. It’s a shame, but. Stuff happened the way it happened.
So… my impression of their relationship prior to CotH was that they were a genuinely loving, supportive relationship between two very amoral nasty people. The way he came over to put his hands on her shoulders at the end of Escaping Expulsion, her casually reaching into his coat for a business card, the way she tugged him down into kneeling when Hunter showed up, all of that felt to me like they legitimately cared about each other and understood each other in a way other people didn’t. I find that a fascinating dynamic. I loved the idea that they were terrible parents but good spouses, it’s tasty to watch. Villains with loved ones who remain genuine villains are something I enjoy in fiction a lot.
When it became clear Alador was going to come around at least a bit and be on his kids’ side, I was really looking forward to the tension that would bring between him and Odalia. Two people who genuinely love each other, a relationship split apart as one develops a moral compass and the other doesn’t. Odalia not understanding why her husband is pulling away from her, Alador not understanding why his wife can’t see how wrong they’ve been. I think that dynamic is super tasty.
The way CotH was written, though, seemed to kind of retcon it so that she was never a loving wife to him but more of a bad boss he had to escape. It makes the relationship comparatively flat, one-directionally unhealthy. I wouldn’t take issue with it if that was how it had come off from the start; the way that it’s written now, I’m proud of Alador for splitting off and trying to be a better father. I just feel like it had potential for some really intriguing, complex dynamics that it didn’t follow through on.
…which is probably yet another casualty of the shortened show length, like we said above.
