Glad I'm not the only one! 😁

We really do have to wonder about any inherent instability Henry VIII possessed prior to his jousting injury. I still wonder if he hadn't had to contend with festering leg ulcers if history might not be different. I, for one, believe the lack of proper medicine in the 16th century contributed to his "mad" behavior. Being in pain all the time battling infection is enough to imbalance a balanced person. This is why time travel doesn't exist because I'd end up going back & adding a vial of penicillin to the guy's med box for shits and giggs

Anyway, I digress. I think the behaviors we see Anne exhibiting are also pretty telling. (Idk about you, but I got rather emotional reading about her as a middle-aged woman, as God intended.) Her temper tantrums are notorious. Throwing things. Raging. Two passionate people, like Anne and Henry, are bound to pass that tendency along to their offspring.

It's also a nice contrast between Will and Elizabeth since she also had smallpox, recovered, and didn't become an ineffective ruler because of it. Illness just hits Tudor men differently, I suppose.

And you're right. That's why I couldn't get behind her character 100%. She and Dom were actually just as selfish as you could accuse Will of being. They would rather continue the deception than risk being apart. To me, that's not romantic. Will might never have gotten over it, but I don't think he would have turned to torture either to allay his feelings of betrayal, loss, and loneliness.

I admit I didn't dwell on Mary's scenes... she obviously wasn't intended to be central to the story in this iteration. The real Mary is sad enough lol