Hey sooo I spend an hour to write my version of the story (after I had to rant about it), you'll find it down below It's not perfect but so are we
Hate all the male characters wtf The ML seems to be a sulky retaliating mamas boy who just lashes out at everyone, his step brother Hugo ironically is quite similar - at least he's a bit understandable given the circumstances but still a shit choice for a partner or human being in general Then there's all of her trash exes and lo and behold even the crown prince is kinda unlikable to just nearly risk a war so he can have is love?? Let's his wife even be belittled and he does nothing even though he would have the highest authority after the emperor -we don't even know she wanted to marry him, for all we know he could have just forced her, not like she's in any position to speak up. And ever heard of royal duty my dude? Not that his sister is any better, by all means I'd sell her off too if that wasn't like predestined to be a chaos -its not like her personality will get any better and who will guarantee that she won't royally mess up? Argh where's their education, where the loyalty and intellect? Ofc theyre gonna be haughty with not having to deal with any consequences And the FL just seems to be a convenient doll to be pitied, just used over and over to show that even the cold male lead can take pity on her and warm his frozen heart -yea no shit dude her life's tragic but so is your addition to it And we all know how it's gonna play out so I'm just gonna imagine how else it could go (and probably won't): FL met MLs mother, talks with and will probably "cure" her, ML will be oh so thankful but also suspicious cause what? Empathy is a thing? Anyways after the trash talk about his father, they will go to the stepmothers party, who wants to make a life of her own? Hold the Man pearls, I think people are gonna faint!. Now this is where the fun begins: obv the ML hates stepmom and our female lead is also opposed as the now step-dowager-whatever-Stepmom got her position by cheating and she just got back from ML-mom-counseling-session and might be a tiny bit biased. But then after talking to Stepmom FL realises something more: first) how goddamn privileged she was and is, to not have been born poor and actually have a chance at life, to even dream of marrying for love not necessasity. That the oh so cruel Stepmom just used what was given to her in life to somehow get ahead in society or financially or whatever. And of course the morals are meh, cheating is still not quite nice, but I mean she never worked to kick out the ML-Mom or get her son to inherit everything, maybe she just wanted the financial safety of the duchy and genuinely loved that old fart (ML-dad). Second) that the men ain't shit. FL always dreamt of her own one true love, that if she could just marry for love, there'd be no need for anything else. Well she kinda had to give up/postpone that with the duke already but hey still her dream -but now she's unsure. Besides that it's kinda naive to bet your entire being on another random person because of "but I love him daddy", followed by dependency and fear of being possibly abandoned, the outcomes right before her don't seem so nice: either a wreak like ML-Mom, who can't accept separation, or trashed upon like ML-Stepmom or dead like FL-parents (maybe that's a bit much but it kinda irked me how they died hugging each other, like... You're daughter was right behind you? Why cover your wife/husband when YOUR CHILD is also at scene and could be shot? Well doesn't really matter) Now FL realises there is so much more to life than love. There's loyalty and friendship, hard work and heartbreak and unfairness and tragedies. And thats what makes life up, not just love. It's so much more grand. FL will struggle a bit with that, because her fantasy romcom feels so much more comfortable, wouldn't it be so much easier if she just fell in love and everything would be sunshine and rainbows? She doesn't really want to give up on her dream and kinda sees a potential partner in ML and Hugo. Oh back to the party there's a fight or whatever but she actually befriends ML-Stepmom and introduces her to ML-Mom , which she doesn't handle too well but she gets over it and they both realise that while they couldn't understand and hurt each other over the years, they already have spend way to much time on that and Want to live their future and not their past. They don't become besties, just accepting/tolerating each other yk and that's enough. ML won't get it and has another fit and FL is done with his bratty behaviour but has to do her contract part. Also she finds out what he did to her brother beforehand and everything. She kinda gets it (him being an asshole quite frankly but also that's his choice and he played his cards) and also knows she doesn't have to forgive him. (Maybe Step-Moms business doesn't crash and goes quite will and she's willing to give FL a fair loan or sth.) Hugo/Stepbro makes contact and pleads FL to be with him instead of his cold brother, FL connects the dots and is quite creeped out (understandably). Step-Mom and Mom both find out about their weird ass sons and are like "no hun, you deserve better. Look at us, you KNOW better". And FLs like "actually you're right. Sorry. But you're right, no offence". FL accepts neither duke nor stepbro. FL makes re-establishs her counseling office, but now more of a general life advice one. One may question what her qualifications are, and to that I say a pretty face and a whole lot of family drama she had to solve with the dukes family idk. Another arc with the blondie-princess: she is actually just jealous cause back when FL and she were friends she had FL dress up like to sometimes to not have to do stuff and FL met this cute boy she was in love with -thats prolly why she just tries to make FLs love life miserable. As she sees that FL dumped ML, she's angry that FL still had everything she ever wanted and still threw it away. they fought and after screamo match, FL grew out her backbone and hit princess with it a few times. Once again she realises how a mere man was the reason for another broken relationship. Doesn't mean FL forgives princess though. She just doesn't feel the need to get revenge. Princess is ashamed and takes a break for a couple of months on some world tour and comes back as a stronger, more independent self. Now shes able to properly apologise (whether it's accepted is never said, it's FL decision). Now princess does the best with her bold and outspoken personality, once again flourishes in high society and is pushing for women's rights cause wdym men can have mistresses but women can't? She does quite the job at being a predecessor of a women having multiple lovers CONSENSUALLY and not being ashamed for it, hits back everytime people badmouth her by spilling their secrets. How the other country-marriage thing gets solved, idk, maybe they practice polygamy there and she has her own harem and is quite happy (she also enjoys the different culture) or maybe they find a different way of building trust between the countries instead of marriage, may I introduce trade agreements and keeping each other constantly in check? Okay and last additional arc, cause I believe she also deserves it: Crown-Princess is more of a quieter personality, maybe genuinely loves crown-prince and just accepted everything thrown at her by crown-princess before because of that. She befriends FL (FL is a bit jealous because crown Princess seems to have her dream love life but she accepts it that feeling jealous is okay just not wildly acting upon it is important -see princess) and has her own duties and social work stuff but never quite the backing as she's a former war prisoner and everything. Then she sees as the women in the story gain more and more of a foothold, she roots them on, but also feels a bit left behind. She urges to make sth of herself, even though she feels conflicted as she already is at the highest seat in the empire, with her lover at her side (who's NOT cheating, we deserve that happy couple, though idk if he does) and quite the comfortable life and an enriching friendship. She doesn't want to be the shining flower of society as she's more quieter, nor does she want to go into politics or business like her friends. Crown-princess finally finds fulfillment in doing social work, esp regarding the war-struck places and her former-citizens. She realises she is the highest authority to stand in for them if need be, and quietly becomes a pillar of unity for the common people, that become her backing. The characters all live their lives and even though it's not all sunshine, they continue to grow with every storm: Grow more resilient but nonetheless also stay soft, loving and feeling. Womanhood
Or maybe "humanhood" idk, Do I care for the futures of the male counterparts? No not really, but I maybe would have had they been less annoying. Hope you enjoyed my little story :)
Hey sooo I spend an hour to write my version of the story (after I had to rant about it), you'll find it down below
It's not perfect but so are we
Hate all the male characters wtf
The ML seems to be a sulky retaliating mamas boy who just lashes out at everyone, his step brother Hugo ironically is quite similar - at least he's a bit understandable given the circumstances but still a shit choice for a partner or human being in general
Then there's all of her trash exes and lo and behold even the crown prince is kinda unlikable to just nearly risk a war so he can have is love?? Let's his wife even be belittled and he does nothing even though he would have the highest authority after the emperor -we don't even know she wanted to marry him, for all we know he could have just forced her, not like she's in any position to speak up. And ever heard of royal duty my dude? Not that his sister is any better, by all means I'd sell her off too if that wasn't like predestined to be a chaos -its not like her personality will get any better and who will guarantee that she won't royally mess up? Argh where's their education, where the loyalty and intellect? Ofc theyre gonna be haughty with not having to deal with any consequences
And the FL just seems to be a convenient doll to be pitied, just used over and over to show that even the cold male lead can take pity on her and warm his frozen heart -yea no shit dude her life's tragic but so is your addition to it
And we all know how it's gonna play out so I'm just gonna imagine how else it could go (and probably won't):
FL met MLs mother, talks with and will probably "cure" her, ML will be oh so thankful but also suspicious cause what? Empathy is a thing? Anyways after the trash talk about his father, they will go to the stepmothers party, who wants to make a life of her own? Hold the Man pearls, I think people are gonna faint!. Now this is where the fun begins: obv the ML hates stepmom and our female lead is also opposed as the now step-dowager-whatever-Stepmom got her position by cheating and she just got back from ML-mom-counseling-session and might be a tiny bit biased. But then after talking to Stepmom FL realises something more:
first) how goddamn privileged she was and is, to not have been born poor and actually have a chance at life, to even dream of marrying for love not necessasity. That the oh so cruel Stepmom just used what was given to her in life to somehow get ahead in society or financially or whatever. And of course the morals are meh, cheating is still not quite nice, but I mean she never worked to kick out the ML-Mom or get her son to inherit everything, maybe she just wanted the financial safety of the duchy and genuinely loved that old fart (ML-dad).
Second) that the men ain't shit. FL always dreamt of her own one true love, that if she could just marry for love, there'd be no need for anything else. Well she kinda had to give up/postpone that with the duke already but hey still her dream -but now she's unsure. Besides that it's kinda naive to bet your entire being on another random person because of "but I love him daddy", followed by dependency and fear of being possibly abandoned, the outcomes right before her don't seem so nice: either a wreak like ML-Mom, who can't accept separation, or trashed upon like ML-Stepmom or dead like FL-parents (maybe that's a bit much but it kinda irked me how they died hugging each other, like... You're daughter was right behind you? Why cover your wife/husband when YOUR CHILD is also at scene and could be shot? Well doesn't really matter)
Now FL realises there is so much more to life than love. There's loyalty and friendship, hard work and heartbreak and unfairness and tragedies. And thats what makes life up, not just love. It's so much more grand. FL will struggle a bit with that, because her fantasy romcom feels so much more comfortable, wouldn't it be so much easier if she just fell in love and everything would be sunshine and rainbows? She doesn't really want to give up on her dream and kinda sees a potential partner in ML and Hugo. Oh back to the party there's a fight or whatever but she actually befriends ML-Stepmom and introduces her to ML-Mom , which she doesn't handle too well but she gets over it and they both realise that while they couldn't understand and hurt each other over the years, they already have spend way to much time on that and Want to live their future and not their past. They don't become besties, just accepting/tolerating each other yk and that's enough. ML won't get it and has another fit and FL is done with his bratty behaviour but has to do her contract part. Also she finds out what he did to her brother beforehand and everything. She kinda gets it (him being an asshole quite frankly but also that's his choice and he played his cards) and also knows she doesn't have to forgive him. (Maybe Step-Moms business doesn't crash and goes quite will and she's willing to give FL a fair loan or sth.) Hugo/Stepbro makes contact and pleads FL to be with him instead of his cold brother, FL connects the dots and is quite creeped out (understandably). Step-Mom and Mom both find out about their weird ass sons and are like "no hun, you deserve better. Look at us, you KNOW better". And FLs like "actually you're right. Sorry. But you're right, no offence". FL accepts neither duke nor stepbro. FL makes re-establishs her counseling office, but now more of a general life advice one. One may question what her qualifications are, and to that I say a pretty face and a whole lot of family drama she had to solve with the dukes family idk. Another arc with the blondie-princess: she is actually just jealous cause back when FL and she were friends she had FL dress up like to sometimes to not have to do stuff and FL met this cute boy she was in love with -thats prolly why she just tries to make FLs love life miserable. As she sees that FL dumped ML, she's angry that FL still had everything she ever wanted and still threw it away. they fought and after screamo match, FL grew out her backbone and hit princess with it a few times. Once again she realises how a mere man was the reason for another broken relationship. Doesn't mean FL forgives princess though. She just doesn't feel the need to get revenge. Princess is ashamed and takes a break for a couple of months on some world tour and comes back as a stronger, more independent self. Now shes able to properly apologise (whether it's accepted is never said, it's FL decision). Now princess does the best with her bold and outspoken personality, once again flourishes in high society and is pushing for women's rights cause wdym men can have mistresses but women can't? She does quite the job at being a predecessor of a women having multiple lovers CONSENSUALLY and not being ashamed for it, hits back everytime people badmouth her by spilling their secrets. How the other country-marriage thing gets solved, idk, maybe they practice polygamy there and she has her own harem and is quite happy (she also enjoys the different culture) or maybe they find a different way of building trust between the countries instead of marriage, may I introduce trade agreements and keeping each other constantly in check? Okay and last additional arc, cause I believe she also deserves it: Crown-Princess is more of a quieter personality, maybe genuinely loves crown-prince and just accepted everything thrown at her by crown-princess before because of that. She befriends FL (FL is a bit jealous because crown Princess seems to have her dream love life but she accepts it that feeling jealous is okay just not wildly acting upon it is important -see princess) and has her own duties and social work stuff but never quite the backing as she's a former war prisoner and everything. Then she sees as the women in the story gain more and more of a foothold, she roots them on, but also feels a bit left behind. She urges to make sth of herself, even though she feels conflicted as she already is at the highest seat in the empire, with her lover at her side (who's NOT cheating, we deserve that happy couple, though idk if he does) and quite the comfortable life and an enriching friendship. She doesn't want to be the shining flower of society as she's more quieter, nor does she want to go into politics or business like her friends. Crown-princess finally finds fulfillment in doing social work, esp regarding the war-struck places and her former-citizens. She realises she is the highest authority to stand in for them if need be, and quietly becomes a pillar of unity for the common people, that become her backing.
The characters all live their lives and even though it's not all sunshine, they continue to grow with every storm: Grow more resilient but nonetheless also stay soft, loving and feeling. Womanhood
Or maybe "humanhood" idk, Do I care for the futures of the male counterparts? No not really, but I maybe would have had they been less annoying.
Hope you enjoyed my little story :)