I genuinely don't know what made you think Elizabeth was a righteous and moral character.
I don't think Elizabeth herself is righteous. I did not say that. I said saying the STORY established her as a righteous and genuinely benevolent person at the beginning. Before the betrayal, Elizabeth is devoted to her kingdom and its people. She sees it as her duty to dedicate her life to the well-being and happiness of her subjects. She works tirelessly for the kingdom, and the anime/manga/novel itself explicitly describes her as someone who works for the kingdom and its people. So yes, her behavior at the beginning is quite literally righteous. She isn't introduced as some morally questionable woman who was merely waiting for an excuse to become cruel. She's introduced as a dutiful future queen who genuinely cares about her people and dedicates herself to serving them. THAT is why I said the story portrays her as righteous. I'm not saying ‘I personally think Elizabeth is righteous.’ The narrative establishes her as a good and self-sacrificing person, gives her a betrayal, and then uses that betrayal as the foundation for her revenge. My criticism is that her actions eventually become completely disproportionate to the original wrongs committed against her. Once innocent people, including children, are being harmed, I no longer find the revenge cathartic. As stated in my original comment, I would have much more respect for the story if it explicitly treated that as Elizabeth's moral descent and had us watch her become the villain rather than continuing to frame her revenge through the lens of ‘look what they did to this woman who devoted herself to them.’ So no, I don't think Elizabeth is righteous. I think the STORY initially establishes her as righteous.
Yeah well, the story also present her change of mind quite quickly. Such a shift in personality is either unnatural or she was like that from the start (and her caring attitude is either a façade or a part of her personnality). And it's not like she acted righteous for 15 chapters and then boom, she goes for blood. She spent multiple chapters bissecting random soldiers and bandits right and left (and I don't talk about the fact she purposefully pushed a competitor to steal her poisoned recipe (and poisonned customers), just to make her firm grow fast.
It's not the acts of a normal person.
Chapter 6 : "Hey, it's a villainess who kills people and steal company, look at how cool she is !"
Chapter 11 : "Hey it's a villainess who kills soldiers in retaliation for killing villagers and raping wome. If only more MC were like her !
Chapter 15 : "Carnage !!! Unleash hell !!! Erase The Haldorian Kingdom from the world map !!! Torture that shit-for-brain Prince !!! " (that one is a real comment)
Chapter 16 : "Oh my god, she kills children, what a monster."
Seriously there are enough clues in the story to see where it's going. Random unamed guys got killed in the most gruesome ways and you'd think one of her main targets would suffer the same fate ? ^^
Btw, I also agree she goes too far.
I don't disagree that the story gives plenty of warning signs that Elizabeth is ruthless. Her ruthlessness and her initial benevolence toward her kingdom aren't mutually exclusive. She can have a ruthless streak and still genuinely care about her people. I don't think her willingness to kill people she considers enemies means that her devotion to her kingdom was necessarily a facade or that she was secretly the exact same person from the beginning. Where I disagree with you is that because there were warning signs, I should therefore interpret her later actions as simply consistent with who she always was. I don't. To me, there's a difference between establishing that a character has a ruthless side and establishing that their earlier devotion and care were insincere. I saw the clues that she's capable of becoming increasingly ruthless, I just don't think those clues negate the fact that the story initially establishes her as someone who genuinely cared about and devoted herself to her people.
Well you can’t do anything if the citizens of the kingdom want to stay ignorant ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
That’s not enough reason to condemn them to death.
Wow. She’s evil. I draw the line at killing innocent people, especially children. Yeah, I’m good off this. I cannot fuck with child murderers. Especially since they try to portray Elizabeth as righteous and simply getting her get-back. No, this goes further than that and is really not acceptable. I wouldn’t take such issue with this if she was established as evil from the beginning. But no… she was portrayed as being wronged (which she was). But the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. They should’ve truly portrayed all the citizens to be evil in order for me to even consider ‘ignoring’ this aspect. All the author showed was the citizens believing the bad rumors about her, but is that enough to warrant their deaths? I don’t think so. If the story had leaned fully into Elizabeth becoming the villain while the audience watches her rationalize increasingly horrific things, I'd actually find that considerably more compelling as a narrative. If you’re looking for a cathartic revenge story, I wouldn’t really say this is for you. If you’re looking for a scorned woman turning into a villain? This is right up your alley. Hats off to people that actually enjoy this. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned I guess.