when i say i could not have worded this better, i mean it. you're a saint for taking time out of your day to explain this
Ehehe thank u! Y'know, I really love both stories so I just got a bit fired up? ⁄(⁄ ⁄·⁄ω⁄·⁄ ⁄)⁄ then suddenly I wrote all of these wall of words hahaha.
I love both Clause and Lydia as a character, they are complex and different, the authors are both brilliant and everything they wrote are with reasons.
Also idk why but I feel like... Lately I saw a bit too much unnecessarily bad comments about men here and there.... "They favored him more just bcuz he's a man" and all... so I kinda wanted to proof that, no, its not true that many people are harder on Lydia just because Claude is a men. Even though its maybe right in a some cases, there are proper reasons in Claude's case. and that men in general, in a lot of cases are blamed more than a women if they ever did something. I feel like its a wrong generalization and misconception so I got fired up heheheh....
I saw people comparing Lydia vs Claude. On how Claude was accepted, and Lydia was rejected, and the reason is that Claude is a men. I humbly disagree.
Its just from my objective point of view, it was very understandable why people forgives claude and hard to Lydia. And I wish to share my long ass thoughts.
This is actually my reply to one of the comments, but then I realized there's quite a lot that has the same opinion so im putting this here. Its a long long explanation on my part (I like analyzing story hehe)
I swear its objectively written as a reader of both that loves both works the same. I never hated Lydia, nor did I love claude too much.
But before everything, I need people to understand, that they are not THAT similar.
The similarities are :
1. They're both grew up without parental love.
2. They both suffers on their life.
3. They both don't know how to love.
4. They're both a part of the cause why their daughter died (in the story vs in the past)
5. They both have insade facecard lol.
6. They're both betrayed at some point of their life.
Their differences are :
1. Claude was born royalty. Lydia was not.
2. Claude was exposed to nonstop wealth thanks to that, Lydia suffers from poverty.
3. Claude was cursed and his memories manipulated and locked, Lydia act on her own will.
4. Bcuz of poverty that Lydia has a lot of greed, meanwhile Claude only wanted his pain from curse to stop.
5. Claude has his kind brother when he was a child and met Diana to felt love for the first time, before he met his daughter obviously. While Lydia felt love for the first time from lyrica after she died sacrificing herself.
6. Lydia turns back the time, memories fully intact. She is the one with power to change things. Claude was just claude. His daughter is the one that has the power to "change" things.
7. Lydia was CLEARLY written to potray "regret" and Lyrica to potrait "unconditional love" as the main drive of the story. The villain part didnt mean as much. she needs to be THIS bad to make the story touch people's heart.
Meanwhile Claude and athy was written not to potray anythings in specific, they have a complex snd big picture villain plot to drive the story. And they are building their "bonds" through knowing each other more, and spending a lot of time together as a father-daughter.
There's many more but, just from here can you see? All of these are stems on how they will act and what happens to their child.
First, why is Lydia judged more harshly?
Im guessing because this is Lydia's "true" nature that's created due to her upbringings and cruel environment. But she was ultimately of her own control, not inside a story or was manipulated by some magic. And thanks to poverty, she in the past never gives her daughter anything apart from taking Lyrica with her, but eventually she marries her off to old noble. In spite of poverty, She as an adult, lives as a drunkard, made lyrica work for her and took her money, didnt feed her, hits her, and made lyrica sacrifice herself for her in the end, it was only then that he realized Lyrica's love for her. In this timeline, she "redeemed" herself though.
Meanwhile Claude in truth, grow up as a quite decent king despite the harsh past he has. But in the first place, he was a royalty. He then has his memories partly erased (about his wife and daughter) and was manipulated by a curse magic. The claude that killed her daughter was part of a "story". He was cursed to feel constant pain and felt displeasure staying next to his own bilogical daughter yet the pain immediately stops being near his "fake" daughter. It was orchestrated by the villains.
Second. As I said before, you can't compare the "current" lydia to the "current" claude. With memories intact and regrets, she consciously turn back the time to change everything. Meanwhile Clause is just... the same Claude. To him, it was the first time he experienced everything.
Still, he was never cruel to Athy and even loved her, apart from the actions he took when he was manipulated by the curse and with no memories and unbearable pain when athy is teen.
He did ignored athy for 3 or 4 years when she was a baby, but athy was still a princess with a loyal servant next to her. She was still given place to live comfortably. Athy never starved, and was never hit. But even when they met and interact, he was unexpectedly gentle and kind. That's how athy and the reader grow attached to him as well.
That's the difference.The difference that makes people react differently to them is, Claude was manipulated and was the main target of the whole plot, yet he never hit, starve, or make her daughter works to the bone.while Lydia in her first life did all that, fully conscious.
That's why people have some soft spot for claude, but find it hard to forgive Lydia. In this story, Claude was potrayed as the "victim" of the villains but Lydia was one of the "perpetrators" (she was a traitor remember?). Its not because he was a men or any double standard. Its just how lydia and claude was written.
Had claude ever done the exact same thing as Lydia in the past, (starve her, hit her, made her work to the bone) he will be even more hated than Lydia ever does especiallysince he was a king. He had power and authority.