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I found this on a tumblr I browse through, and it kind of just made me awww and squeee and possibly tear up a little, so I had to post it. The fact that someone else noticed and liked this bit of the movie so much made my fangirly little heart happy. Even if I don't agree with everything said in the post, I just could not resist sharing it.
Oh my goodness, y’all. I ship Fersen/Marie in a historical fandom sort of way and I love their relationship. But Marie and Louis.
I find it so sad. I don’t believe that they ever loved each other in a romantic sense. But by the end of it all, these poeple had been married for more than twenty years and had had four kids together. They basically spent most of their lives from mid teens to late thirties together. Everything major in their lives-the expectations, the terror of ruling, the realization that this wasn’t going to be okay-and worst of all their fear for their children. Everything they did was together. And yes, they may have been forced into it at first, but what started out as cold indifference turned into such a friendship, such a deep bond.
The fact that they had to watch one another fall almost makes it worse. Because in the end, they were so damn loyal to each other. They were such a family. (And in real life, both were known for being much more involved than most royal parents ever were.) It just kills me.
The scene in the movie that, to me, sums up that family is towards the end, when the revolutionaries want Marie. She’s holding her son and Marie Therese is grippingher shoulder, while Louis stands in front of them, guarding them. This is Louis. A short, heavy little man who has spent the entire film-and most of his life-being well-intentioned but an ineffectual ruler and a husband who finds it difficult to express his feelings. But when the door opens, he leaps up to defend them. And you know that this guy just can’t. All he would be is a body to plow through, another two seconds for Marie and the children. But he is willing to just be that two seconds.
I don’t know. I’d never noticed that moment before, and it just struck me. Not only is it brilliant on Sofia’s/the script’s part for showing that Louis, who’s been in the background, has changed as well and grown as person, for showing that he loved his family… It also calls to mind the real Louis. A lot of people are sympathizing with Marie today. And yes, she was smarter and wittier and more charming than Louis. She is easier to sympathize with, because she was the consort and he was the king. However. Louis was also this guy who just wanted to make locks. And if he had to be married, then, well, he’d rather just be married and kick it with his borderline platonic wife and kids and make locks when he wasn’t kicking it with them. It wasn’t like this was this guy who wanted the power. Did he use it poorly? Yes. But what do you expect? He has absolute power, and he has no idea what to do with it! Maybe his advisors do, but apparently, they’re not up to the job.
Ugh. Just… I feel terrible for the French people. I am disgusted at what happened to them. But you know, it was not that particular royal family’s fault for draining France of its prosperity. It was a build-up, piling on for years, decades if not over a century. So, yes. I am equally disgusted at what happened to Louis, Marie, and their children, not to mention the murdered French nobility like Lamballe.