I totally agree the fact that in the previous timeline the empress still lost against Perez shows she was not as cunning as others make her out to be. If anything she is super arrogant and thinks her family and status will lead to her to victory which resulted in her downfall, the only reason her family was able to ruin the Lombardis in the past was due to the incompetence of Tias uncle.
EXACTLY!! I don't get people being like "i really like her as a villain" there's villains out there the lost simple cause they make the MC last minute have a miracle genius idea out off freaking nowhere when everything she did here was being born a angenas with a greedy atitude and she acts like she is so much better than her brother but in reality he is just more passive than her (and like you said in the past the Lombardi had a idiot tha was also her puppet her sister husband and she still lost
The empress doesn't really look like much in my eyes if in Tias first life she had actually won then maybe i could say "this time is because of the past life cheat" but she was passed behind by a young prince without the lombard help without having many of what he have now she still lost.
And she is not that smart she is arrogant and never sees the bigger picture she acts first plan later, she never has a plan B, she never has someone to take the fall, she oftens makes deals thinking her position is gonna make people try to please her, she is not the capable she was lucky to marry a greed prince that would cover for her because his life was easier with her being the messy one and he didn't need to move a finger when she was useful with her little tricks
She is not much of strategic villain she was lucky most of her life so i really don't get people saying she is a great villain