thinking about becket or the honour of god by jean anouilh 1961 again and like. yes henry's romantic love is blatant but the sort of. parental themes of it all are interesting too? like it's abt the inherently fucked up dynamics of royal families. the loneliness of being king etc.
(not to mention henry's subsequent lack of affection for his own sons ... he's never breaking the cycle etc).
like it's a case of henrys mommy issues/lack of any genuine parental love and how he seems to find that/wish for that in becket. there is constantly something familial abt their interactions, from their outward appearances as the childish king and his older, wiser chancellor, to everything else abt them.
the way henry is always saying that becket taught him everything. ("every thought in my head came from you" is quite something.)
the "gently, as if to a little boy" and the rare use of henrys name is especially insane here because this isn't actually becket speaking, it's from henry's imagined conversation as he kneels by becket's tomb. but it's there in their real interactions too.
+ this bit below which i went crazy over because it's an extra little moment that wasn't in the film: when henry falls asleep in becket's bed after gwendolyns suicide, he wakes again with a nightmare, and becket soothes him back to sleep like a child:
+ there's other stuff i could point to but yeah basically yes henry was insanely in love but their relationship genuinely contains many multitudes.... ruler and subject. older brother and little brother. friends. best friends who go out hunting drinking wenching sharing the same girl's bed etc. enemies. norman conquerer and conquered saxon. man who is deeply in love with the man who cares for no one and hates to be loved. father and son. the church and the state. the king and his right hand arm/man/confidant/silly rabbit. evil old men yaoi boys. etc etc etc etc etc etc
