#unpopular opinion: Anastacius and Penelope probably had a healthier relationship

[brotherslayer]

We need to talk about Claudiana

This is not a callout post but I kinda wanna talk about the darker aspects of claude and diana’s relationship. Even though I think their relationship was probably highly toxic, I’m not trying to invalidate claudiana shippers. I am a firm believer that you are allowed to ship whatever you want.

1.) First of all there’s a huge power imbalance between them: him being an Emperor and her being a commoner.

2.) Second she’s a dancer and Claude was said captivated by her performance. “Enraptured by her beauty and grace, the emperor deflowered Diana and subsequently began courting her.” This is nicely phrased but it just plays into the trope how women who work as entertainers get constantly harrassed by male viewers of their audience, who feel entitled to their bodies cause they paid for the performance. At best it’s dub con at worst it’s rape. 

3.) To make it worse I heard somewhere she was actually a slave and given to Claude as a present.(Someone please confirm or deny that.) Yes, Diana fell in love with him too, but how realistic is it that she was okay to sleep with a stranger on their first night? Maybe it would be realistic if it were modern day au and Diana was already sexually liberated or whatever, but the wiki says he deflowered her, meaning she was a virgin.

I’m leaning myself a bit out of the window but doesn’t this also imply she was underage? Since at that time period, girls got married off when they were of age (if they were commoners) or they happened to be you know what (if they were slaves).

Would an underage, sexually inexperienced girl sleep with a stranger they just met? No, even if he was hot. However if he had a higher status and was known to chop off the heads of the people who disobeyed him...well, that’s another story. I wouldn’t say no because I’d be afraid for my parents life if I didn’t do it.

4. ) Speaking of parents. Diana travelled from Siodonna to Obelia, And Claude never returned her home but decided to keep her instead. Diana probably had parents and friends waiting for her to return. Keeping her in the palace in a foreign country where she’s isolated from everyone she knows is such an asshole move. Especially considering Diana was not used to the toxic power games that regularly happen in the royal palace.

5.) Why the fuck didn’t Claude disband his harem when he fell in love with Diana? Did he still continue to sleep with other women?

6.) I heard the parts with Diana in the novel are from Claude’s POV. How sure are we that he wasn’t just being delusional? I know, I must sound really hostile but if I’d peel all the pretty words away, and boiled their relationship down to the bare essentials it’s basically: abuse of power, slavery (???) i hope not, sexual harrassment at the work place, dub con or non con, kidnapping (?), Hybristophilia , man trying to force his lover into getting an abortation, possible fetishization of a foreign woman (Siodonna seems to be based on the orient). I’m harsh I know but kumbharkarni wrote in her post that part why Claude loved Diana was because she was “external, fantastical” and a “breath of fresh air”, untainted by the “toxic Obelian royality”, which made me suspect that Claude wouldn’t love Diana if she was an Obelian woman. There’s probably lots of more things I can think of.

Also this line in the wiki bothers me: “Athanasia said that Diana liked Claude, too. Claude loves Diana very much.” Why is Diana’s “like” in cursive. Why is it only said she likes him, but he is “ Claude is madly in love with Diana”? There are worlds between liking someone and being obsessed with them.

Short version: I believe canon Claude and Diana truly loved each other, but what we are shown is a rose-tinted version of their relationship. Personally I don’t think it’s realistic that they loved each other healthily or that Diana truly loved him back. No matter how hard the author tries to sell me this as an epic romance. Believing claudiana went from 1 to 100 in a single night “cause true love/ love at first sight” & everything was consentual  requires a huge suspension of belief. It would have been more realistic if this had been just her slave mentality or stockholme syndrome. Or if she liked Claude but didn’t love him back and decided to stay with him anyway in an attempt to do damage control since he was a tyrant. I’m also suspecting that Claude projected alot of his fantasies onto her.