#2024!Count would punch book!Albert in the face

[kaori04]

I feel like I can safely say at this point that there is not a single character in the whole book that invokes my sympathies. I got to the scene of Maximilian and Valentine on which a scene of Albert and Haydée is molded in tcomc 2024. They are similar in appearances, but complete opposite in their essense.

Maximilian is a scheming manipulator who tries to ruin a noble lady good marriage to have her for himself. He is going to marry up (this marriage is beneficial for him), she is going to marry down in that case. A lady of an old aristocratic house and heiress of great fortune to become a wife of a son of merchant who is just well off. If he loved her he would think about that and her honor instead of emotionally manupulating a young naive woman who tries to be a perfect daughter of her family and is willing to sacrifice her own feelings for them (that's why she cannot think about disobeying her father or upset her grandmother). But as he said so himself, he is an egoist and that is true, he won't let go of a woman who promises him so much of social and monetary capital that he could never dream of attaining himslef. A selfish man is about to make a selfless woman to ruin her life for him. So romantic/s

In tcomc 2024 Haydée grows through her love, as well as Albert. She is able to let go of her scars and let them heal thanks to Albert unconditional and selfless love for her. There is no ulterior motive in it for Albert, he is of an old much respected noble family, she is a former slave. If he cared about a benefitial marriage he would choose the one his father chose for him. But he chooses selfless love, and that in turn inspires Haydée to resist the destructive tendencies the Count tried to feed her on and choose life instead of revenge.

I am talking about the scenes in which Max and Al look like they might commit suicide if they loose their lovers (i mean, it's Al who only looks like it, Max, as horrible as he is, openly threatens Valentine with suicide), what in Max's case a selfish manipulation (or just a selfish reaction) that doesn't take into account what is best for Valentine but only what is best for him (be it her title and wealth or his feelings she must obey even if it contradicts her own higher convictions and values, or threatens her social standing), while Albert genuinely respects Haydée wishes and agency and wants to do what's best for her (as she sees it!), and his desperation is a testament of how strong his love is to someone whom it makes no sense for him to love in the first place (if he just walked away and never saw her again he would only win), hence, unconditional love that Haydée comes to recognise and that changes her forever.