NotDoneAbusingYou

No. We most certainly will never agree on this. I'm not trying to say Catherine is blameless or that Mary is. My point is simply that they are all to blame. They all made mistakes. Equally.

Her goal in most actions was always her children. Yes she wanted to protect her position and herself, but in her mind that was the same thing. Her children needed her in order to survive. And that is true if you look at what actually happened. Whenever they didn't listen to her things got screwed up.

And I disagree that she had no remorse for what she did to Mary. At the end of episode one Nosty tells Catherine she must continue to sacrifice....she hadn't sacrificed anything in that episode...except Mary. So she saw it as a sacrifice. A bad thing. And it is not the same as killing her...which was my point that that is a line she wouldn't cross...but Mary would. Mary was so righteous about not killing unless necessary...but she did the same more than once. Which was my point and not that Catherine did nothing wrong. Mary is a hypocrite.

And she was still able to go after Mary in season 2 regardless of any poison. In fact Narcisse offered to go after her and Catherine shut him down under no uncertain terms because she had come to "care for her".

She does not ONLY protect herself....she protects her family too and that included Mary in every episode post 1.07. [They clearly changed Catherine's character after the pilot as many pilots do and usually you have to disregard anything that happens in a pilot in any show when it comes to character dynamics]

If it rings false for you....give me even one example of something bad she did that did not help her children in some way.

I wonder what would have happened if Mary had simply done what Catberine asked and gone back to Scotland before marrying Francis...or if she'd honestly done anything she'd told her to do. Honestly, if you look at things Mary's downfall began the moment she killed Narcisse's son. So in essence she died because she didn't listen to Catherine. So did Francis. Don't go out without guards....2 seconds later....goes out without guards and dies.