Also I know that the hospital near me doesn't use paper charts anymore. Everything is computerized, and patient rooms have standing computer stations on wheels that the doctors and nurses use (and they auto-lock after a few minutes and need to be unlocked with an ID badge). But of course I realize that this is all super petty technical stuff and probably has no bearing on the actual story.
Even without a paper chart for Marina to read, I don't see any logical reason as to why Andrew wouldn't have given his consent for Marina to be able to talk to a nurse or doctor. An aunt giving a niece consent is perfectly fine and normal. Being in Andrew's shoes, I would have wanted my wife to help me as much as possible with this situation. Being in Marina's shoes, I would have wanted to have helped my husband as much as possible, because I love him (right?), and my family and I are responsible for this situation that my husband is sacrificing himself to help keep us safe and protect us.
Remember, this whole idea came from Nikos and was supported by Marina and her cousins. Andrew specifically asked for Marina's approval. Afterwards, every single time that Andrew tried to back out of this, it was Marina who told him not to. She presumably (?) had no idea how this was going to escalate into what is basically a 99% complete gender reassignment surgery with age progression, mental changes, personality changes, etc. However, she should be feeling guilty for being partially responsible for not letting Andrew opt out every time he tried to.
But putting myself in Marina's shoes, if I was a loving wife worried about my husband, I don't believe I'd think to read the chart while I was in the room talking to my husband even if there was a chart to look at. I'd expect my husband to tell me all the pertinent details.
This is where we just have to agree to disagree.
If I was in Marina's shoes, I would have wanted to know every detail so that I could offer as much emotional and physical support as possible. My husband was turned into a woman and I would feel the need to be the one to help him adjust to womanhood. I wouldn't just say, good luck, hopefully my uncle and cousins will take care of you. I'm going to be busy hanging out with this new dude I just met.
That is, of course, until later on when he started acting strangely, which was at the dinner party when he ignored the codeword. At that point, I'd probably try to contact the doctor, who of course would refuse to tell me anything because of doctor-patient confidentiality. My only other recourse would be to go directly to Elena, or to her "husband", neither of whom seem to be acting in their right mind or are particularly cooperative or trustworthy at the moment.
Exactly! Those were red flags. Marina's inactions were not consistent with how a loving spouse would react in my opinion. In Marina's shoes, my husband has made sacrifices for me and my family, that we have asked him to do, when he resisted I insisted that he continue, and now he appears to be
LOSING HIMSELF MENTALLY. I would have tried my best to have figured out what was going on and tried to help fix things. If I failed to figure out what was going on and failed to fix things. I certainly wouldn't blame my victim of a husband for actions that I should realize might be out of his control. If my husband, who I've specifically told to play the part of Elena - the loving wife of my uncle, had sex with my uncle, I would blame myself, my husband, and my uncle. I failed as a wife to help "protect" my husband, despite all the sacrifices that he had made for me and my family. I wouldn't put all of the blame on my husband and pretend like all of those other circumstances that I'm aware of don't exist. I certainly wouldn't start thinking about fucking some dude that I clearly have no love connection with, just to get some petty revenge on a husband that I'm supposed to be in love with. Honestly, if Marina bangs James, I'm not going to believe that Marina ever loved Andrew in the first place. Maybe she didn't?
I would have been fine if this had
clearly been a story about two unhappy people trapped in a marriage and all this crazy stuff happens and they both find love in the arms of other people. That would have been fine. I actually want to see Elena and Nikos end up together, which would pair Marina with someone like James. With the magical help of Aphrodite rewriting history, that could be done in a happy way. Without the use of magic, it isn't going to feel like a happy ending. It is going to feel dark, because the love between Elena and Nikos is forced. It isn't natural, it is medically induced. Any love story between Marina and James isn't going to feel happy either. If this was going to be a dark story with bad endings, it should have been built that way from the start. I love stories with bad endings just as much as stories with good endings. However, they require different formulas.
Aphrodite's Mirror feels like it is mixing elements of the two. It almost feels bipolar at times.
Melissa has said repeteadly that
Aphrodite's Mirror will not have a dark ending. She has also implied (up to interpretation) that it wouldn't be a bittersweet ending either.
I just can't forsee a happy ending coming out of this story at this point in time. Even if we do get some kind of happy ending, will it be enough to get the bad taste out of our mouths from all of this darker stuff?
