He is but he has a inferiority complex because his former fiancee has the one who gave all good Idea...he didn't like the fact that she was so smart and wanted her to depend on him more that why he accepted easily that situation... jealousy envy...your partner wanted to support you
Maybe his infatuation for the evil bitch is manufactured by the magic, but not his overall actions & emotions regarding the FL. He always envied her, was jealous of her skills & the praises she received, & resented her for making him feel incompetent. Notice that he only started to get along with her, after she said that she was working hard for HIS sake. It gave him a feeling of superiority to hear that she saw herself inferior to HIM. He felt entitlement because she was working that hard, just to be to "catch up to him" & become useful to HIM. That's the only reason he became less hostile towards her, & allowed himself to care a bit for her. But when he saw people praising HER, he stupidly saw it as her showing off. Unfortunately for the FL, she had an affinity to be praised by the people whose praise HE wanted for HIMSELF.
The persuasion simply gave him the opportunity he was hoping for, to rise above he & the excuse he needed to make himself feel better about himself. That's why he wanted her to apologize publicly, so that people could see that she wasn't the perfect girl they so fervently praised. If he had actually cherished her, but was under magical influence. He would've dismissed her privately, to spare her publicly. Or something along those line, The manipulation of his emotions simply suppressed the SLIGHT care he had for her. That's why he feels that nagging little pinch of guilt when his actions come into question. In those moments the magic is less effective, so his inner guilt comes through. At this point it's all him, not because his emotions are manipulated.
I see your point, but i still disagree to an extent. He was influenced and manipulated without his knowledge or consent which resulted in his inferiority complex flourishing in this specific scenario.
While i do find it believable that another scenario could’ve happened where it was purely his own will, without the usage of the items, we will never truly know because what happened was that he was manipulated by the perfume.
It doesn’t help that it effectively worked on multiple people who viewed her in a respectful light to top it off. Their negative feelings, inferiorities, selfishness etc and all the flawed aspects of their character were heightened. Star maiden’s manipulation was the cherry on top to completely sway them.
I still respect your perspective, i personally still think it’s brainwashing, just a subtle version of it, but I do see how even without the perfume, they could’ve done it by their own free will given other circumstances due to their negative traits.
oh another thing to add as that since it’s heightening their existing flaws, it’s not allowing them to think rationally over their actions and GROW as people, that limitation is why i believe it’s brain washing.
Acording to the novel.. The prince was never realy affected by the love potion, because as a royal, he has had his resistance raised from childhood.
It is stated that he knew he couldn't trust the "heroin" but chose to condem FL because he wanted her to come crawling back begging at his feet.
He wanted to see her broken to the point she would have nothing, thats how bad his inferiority complex is. Because he is all looks and no brain. Its the same with his friends, most of them resented FL for being great at everything when they only had one thing they were great at.
oh wow! that definitely puts things in a different light, thank you for sharing it with me. i think the novel does a better job at portraying its mostly their own selfishness than influence of the perfume, bc in the manga they’re highly uncomfortable, then suddenly do a 180
i rlly enjoy the world building but one thing i don’t like is how they try and claim that the male leads aren’t brainwashed. they’re having their emotions heightened, exaggerated and controlled without their consent. even if they have personal beliefs, needs or desires that happen to be compatible with its effects (for example i think the ex fiancé has some insecurity that has him wanting to compete with remi), his emotions are still being manipulated and accelerated.
i think every person has at least a few unreasonable thoughts or emotions. we can’t help things such as envy, frustration or even uncomfortabality towards others, but it’s important to recognize these thoughts are unreasonable and not take it out on someone who’s literally doing nothing wrong. except how are you supposed to be able to control those unreasonable thoughts if they’re being controlled, accelerated, provoked and influenced by someone else without your knowledge or consent?
its kind of like yuri in ddlc where her love/obsession was heightened to the point she went insane. its mind control, or at the very least manipulation, and they’re still victims.