the narrative is so purposefully anachronistic/modern in how it examines stede and mary’s marriage but a lot of meta on it likes leaning hard into whatever portrayal makes one or the other of them look like The Big Villain.

the modern lens on them is the whole point! they were both unhappy together! they were both uninterested and unable to connect even when they tried bc they are incompatible people! they BOTH felt trapped and BOTH! wound up being hurtful to each other in ways while that marriage was being upheld! because they BOTH wanted love and became more and more aware over time that there was no way they would find the love they wanted in each other!

this is so NOT black-and-white idk why it keeps getting reduced to finger-pointing