I felt bad for both of them. Obviously Ruan shouldn’t have done that and needed to pay the price for it. It felt like Ruan was constantly getting pushed and molded into place, power he never wanted, a lifetime of work he never asked for. Shein was a precious golden child who got away with shirking his duties over a minor illness. Ruan is only treated well when he is performing well. The second he steps out of line, his emotions are treated as a joke and his distress as an inconvenience. This story would be smooth sailing if not for the adults in Ruan’s life. His parents never bothered to understand or get to know him, and just pushed everything onto Herdic. They let a 9 year old do whatever he wanted and then were surprised and disappointed that he didn’t choose to study every day, then set him to another continent for 10+ years because he was so clearly unfocused. They let Shein get away with slacking off and force his role onto their young child. It’s clear that Shein is not that ill and it’s strange that the parents (who are pretty sharp) seemingly never picked up on it. Despite knowing how his laziness forced Ruan to give up his childhood, at no point does Shein show so much as a shred of concern for Ruan even when he is genuinely distressed. They see him as an heir, not a child or brother. Their only concern is that he performs his role without inconveniencing them. Even though Herdic is the only one who really provides emotional support, he ends up using Ruan’s feelings to convince him to agree to study abroad, but then he concealed all of Cloden’s letters to “avoid distracting” him. It was so unnecessary, and would have allowed them to stay connected. Later on, the count absolutely knew what would happen when Ruan started his search and how much it was going to hurt him, but he let it happen anyway to teach him a lesson and change his mind. Again, he prioritized “teaching” his heir how to wield authority and breaking him of his first love over his actual well being. It’s still his fault for snapping, but there were so many opportunities for everyone around him to have unknowingly prevented it if they had actually prioritized him as a person instead of trying to manipulate him into the path/behavior they wanted. That was his boiling point in a place nobody had ever prioritized him. Part of the reason he built up such a fixation on Cloden was that he has always been the only person in his life that genuinely cared for him without any conditions. He almost lost that because of the people around him
I felt bad for both of them. Obviously Ruan shouldn’t have done that and needed to pay the price for it. It felt like Ruan was constantly getting pushed and molded into place, power he never wanted, a lifetime of work he never asked for. Shein was a precious golden child who got away with shirking his duties over a minor illness. Ruan is only treated well when he is performing well. The second he steps out of line, his emotions are treated as a joke and his distress as an inconvenience.
This story would be smooth sailing if not for the adults in Ruan’s life. His parents never bothered to understand or get to know him, and just pushed everything onto Herdic. They let a 9 year old do whatever he wanted and then were surprised and disappointed that he didn’t choose to study every day, then set him to another continent for 10+ years because he was so clearly unfocused.
They let Shein get away with slacking off and force his role onto their young child. It’s clear that Shein is not that ill and it’s strange that the parents (who are pretty sharp) seemingly never picked up on it. Despite knowing how his laziness forced Ruan to give up his childhood, at no point does Shein show so much as a shred of concern for Ruan even when he is genuinely distressed.
They see him as an heir, not a child or brother. Their only concern is that he performs his role without inconveniencing them. Even though Herdic is the only one who really provides emotional support, he ends up using Ruan’s feelings to convince him to agree to study abroad, but then he concealed all of Cloden’s letters to “avoid distracting” him. It was so unnecessary, and would have allowed them to stay connected.
Later on, the count absolutely knew what would happen when Ruan started his search and how much it was going to hurt him, but he let it happen anyway to teach him a lesson and change his mind. Again, he prioritized “teaching” his heir how to wield authority and breaking him of his first love over his actual well being.
It’s still his fault for snapping, but there were so many opportunities for everyone around him to have unknowingly prevented it if they had actually prioritized him as a person instead of trying to manipulate him into the path/behavior they wanted. That was his boiling point in a place nobody had ever prioritized him. Part of the reason he built up such a fixation on Cloden was that he has always been the only person in his life that genuinely cared for him without any conditions.
He almost lost that because of the people around him