Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather character notes for the extended Corleone family, based on each character's description in Mario Puzo's original novel (from The Godfather Notebook, 2016)
it tells me a lot that kay and connie are the most tridimensional and developed female characters in the godfather trilogy and yet the most hated. the arguments being...they're reckless (like the men) selfish (like the men) annoying (like the men) traitors (like the men).
of course, no one has to like them, but when the fans are overwhelming in love with apollonia (a sixteen year old who barely talked & had no apparent personality) but hate every woman who creates conflict with the men it makes me wonder. the men can create conflict with themselves, fredo can be stupid and reckless, michael can get him killed, sonny can be impulsive, bigoted and betray the thing vito valued the most (family) by being a cheater...and that's all fine because they're not supposed to be perfect, they're not even supposed to be good!
but the women in the story (that already don't serve them) have to be puppets to the men's schemes to be likable in any way? connie was supposed to be the perfect victim of abuse, rely on the brothers who would never let her participate in their business and live like her mother (only to attend, be nothing more than a mother and wife)? kay was supposed to be a trophy wife she never agreed to being because MICHAEL promised her something different and failed to give her? she was supposed to lay in bed all day in the cage michael made their home be, waiting for someone to get her and her children killed, or see her baby boy become a monster?
they were fighting to be something in a time, a context, an environment and a family that would not allow women to be more than mothers and wives. connie & kay, they could never make me hate you