It baffles me how too many people think it was "ok" for this ML to have never either tried to annul the engagement, nor tried to be the one to strike a deal with the FL (to be civil but respect each other's boundaries, or whatever) , or even be the one to find a way out (like when he even had his red haired brother once offering him to replace him as her fiance, for example) despite him always refering to it like he was allegedly being under such "torture" of "having to continue to deal with her", and always thinking of himself like "her trapped victim", ...without any sense of how, when one thought of the *practical* state of affairs, this kinda made him sound... a we bit hypocritical...??
It baffles me even more so not only because his family was getting something out of it, but because now even in the story, itself, even the ML himself has admitted to himself that, even HE, deep down, could recognize that it hadn't been that hard all this time, for anyone and their dog to figure out that she was a princess only in name, a princess with no actual power... (and so, IMO it shouldn't have been that hard to realize that her spoiled attitude was NOT because she was spoiled by her emperor father... but just a vain attempt on her part to cling to whatever was left of her pride, since it was obvious neither of her parents, nor even the rest of her family, cared. Acting spoiled was her way of playing dumb, pretending, desperately trying to distract people from taking full notice of the painful reality of her home situation, that she sensed that everyone else could also see, and that was too heartbreaking for her to accept, herself: the fact that she, unlike her much esteemed fiance, didn't really have a single person on her side, not one friend or family member who cared enough to stand up for her, if the ones who were supposed to be *below* her and below the rest of her imperial family, in the hierarchy, decided that she specifically was an easy, "safe" target to bully and vent all their political and social grievances on...
And, this IS RELATED to her engagement, when you think how this means... that she had no one who would be seriously angered for her sake at hearing her red haired "brother-in-law" insulted and mocked her every time they met --without holding back despite her being an imperial princess --, or a father who wouldn't tell her to just "endure" the redhead's insults for the sake of her engagement, like her emperor father told her when he heard about it... nor anyone who would be angered for her sake if they found out she was being covertly disrespected, mocked, badmouthed, ignored, mistreated, or even her basic personal safety -like with the balcony- neglected... let alone, even a friend or family member who would try to find out WHY she fell from a balcony, or see a need to prevent a situation where even *mere* servants might feel safe thinking that they could get away with neglecting the living conditions of an imperial princess, or with ignoring or disrespecting her, thinking that even her *blood* family, imperial or not, would just stand for it and ALLOW IT...)
The ML has already admitted that it wasn't that difficul to see that, due to all this, it had always been plain for anyone that out of the two of them, it had always been only HIM who always had the advantage, in every sense, in their relationship, since (out of the two of them) he was the only one who had:
1) society's favor and backing, where everyone criticised her and excused and pitied him (chapter 21: "there isn't a soul alive who doesn't know the history of the wicked imperial princess who was utterly obsessed with her fiance") despite the fact that normally, some effort to entice their fiance was always expected of engaged women (even in arranged or merely political engagements, and sometimes, in those cases it was even more so) and how the women were expected to "try to make the engagement work" (or find a way to get along with their fiance, at least enough to get him to pretend, just for the sake of appearances, that he was "invested" in the engagement). Even though it was women who were the ones worse off whenever the engagement didn't look "steady", "solid" or even "real" in the eyes of society, the truth is that the performing of basic official duties of a political or arranged engagement (for the sake of keeping up of apparances, in public) was actually a SHARED responsibility (which means both parties shared some responsibility in guaranteeing the fulfilment of some basic conditions expected of any kind of engagement, which included giving society some legitimate "reason" to think the engagement was real, like letting themselves be seen spending some time together and letting themselves be seen together in public enough times... **extra points if they could pretend to be a bit affectionate in public, or at least seem like they weren't indifferent to each other**... to let people know the engagement actually DID exist and CONTINUED to exist... and also to avoid commiting any public slight to their partner's reputation, particularly so by giving their partner the reputation of a "cuckhold" or of "an easy/safe target for disrespect" by letting themselves be seen in public favoring other members of the opposite sex, other than their alleged engagement partner... etc etc,...) I mean, EVEN IF the ML's family and the emperor knew the whole arrangement was just a sham, the citizens and other people didn't, and maybe not even the FL herself knew.
It irks me how Titania is solely the one so harshly criticised when at the end of the day her only crime was thinking that she had to (was expected to) try her best to make her engagement actually work, and try to come up by herself with the reasons for WHY, whenever her engagement didn't seem to be working... (and can you blame her for only thinking up STUPID reasons for it not to be working --- like, for example, when she genuinely thought it'd be all fixed in their relationship if she just managed to make herself "beautiful enough" for him, and misguidedly started using make up and dressing up over the top, and getting angry at unsympathetic maids who wouldn't think it was their duty as her servants to comply with her orders, and work competently to achieve this goal, on the occasional times the ML actually visited...? --- Can you blame her for only thinking up STUPID reasons for why her engagement wasn't working, when while all in her lonesome , when it's not hard to see she was clearly neglected to the point that she -- unlike her fiance who was a very much valued heir for his ducal family -- was probably not even given a sound education, since it was *Cleo* who was in charge of her upbringing??
Cleo would most probably have thought it wasn't a good idea to let her rival consort's child receive a thorough education (let alone, one that fostered "accurate" political thinking, like the one Titania's fiance, as a valued and LOVED ducal heir, would have undoubtly not been denied of) so Cleo would've sabotaged her education at every point, wanting her to grow up as ignorant as possible. And how would have Cleo allowed Titania to have anyone around her willing to correct her gross errors in judgement -- instead of ENCOURAGING them, like Cleo herself was doing it? ...Can you blame Titania for having it all wrong in her head, when she probably grew up receiving only the kind of education that CLEO chose for her??)
So, esentially, Titania was in a situation where not only no one told her she needn't have ever bothered to try to make her engagement work, but where they all even blamed her alone for the miscommunication with her fiance, and even BLAMED her, and her alone, for the fact that it was embarrasingly plain for the rest of society to see that her engagement wasn't working... (as if the ML's self-complacent, passive attitude in everything, his sticking to the convenient role of "victim" that the eyes of society had assigned him, and his lack of giving her even the benefit of the doubt, at least just enough to try to communicate with her, had never had part in all of that, at all... -- all this while still allowing his brother to heatedly provoke her whenever they met, and his servants to badmouth her to some degree, in his presence- ).
2) Also, the ML was the only one (between the two parties in this engagement) who actually had a family who cared enough to have his back and always be willing to defend him from any potential abuse from the other party, or even from abuse from any others, *for real*... whereas Titania's complete lack of family protection and support that was made glaringly obvious with the explicit mention of the two-folded double-standard of how people felt, in one hand, that it was "safe" to criticise an emperor's daughter behind her back, but not that it was safe to insult a "lower rank" duke's adopted daughter like Vivi, and on the other hand, how people felt that it was safe to criticise the emperor's "incompetent" daughter, but NOT to criticise the incompetent emperor HIMSELF, nor his incompetent son, the "crown" prince). If the ML and his family hadn't known before (that it was "safe" to publicly slight her, because her family would NOT react to defend her.. not only because they didn't have a particularly important interest in the outcome of the engagement itself, but also because they didn't have any particularly important interest in the outcome of the princess herself, altogether) and if they didn't realize before that her family would let them, the ML and his brother, get away with any slight to her (as long as it didn't directly affect the other imperial family members)... if they didn't know this at first, they would have to at least have increasingly come to suspect it, all thiswhile,... and they would've DEFINITELY confirmed it, for sure, by the time the emperor failed to call the ML out even for the whole public dancing fiasco.
and
3) even his in-law's practical enabling of him and his family to treat the princess almost however they wanted, evidenced by the emperor's constantly ignoring or minimizing any semblance of public slight to his daughter (like, when it was revealed the emperor had told her to simply "endure" her red haired "brother-in-law's" constant insults, or when the emperor failed to make the ML take any real responsibility for the public slight to his engaged imperial princess fiancee by dancing with someone else in public... **ASK YOURSELVES: how would all of them have reacted if the one to dance with another guy instead of her fiance, in public and right in front of him, had been the "safe traget for criticism, bullying, neglecting and mocking" ill-reputed princess, Titania?)
To sum up:
...The ML *ALWAYS* had the effective upper hand in everything, compared to her, people... The narrative (that was socially spread mostly thanks to the emperor's and Cleo's complete lack of interest, and that with time even the ML himself evidently bought into), which claimed he was just a poor guy trapped and tortured by a much more powerful, spoiled princess, and had NO way out of it, was that and only that: a narrative... Compared to her, he ALWAYS had the education and political insight not to let himself be fooled by this "narrative" and to be able to figure out that, instead of her, it was her FATHER who was the real one trapping him with the engagement, while still neglecting his own daughter (which meant that slighting and breaking the heart of a powerless princess, and not doing anything to help when he saw how she brokenly cried , had NOT been a justified act...) and the ML also had the education and upbringing with political insight enough to be able to see that, compared to her, he himself was effectively A LOT less powerless, A LOT more supported by the people around him, A LOT more educated (both in general, and in political matters)... and A LOT less alone.
It baffles me how too many people think it was "ok" for this ML to have never either tried to annul the engagement, nor tried to be the one to strike a deal with the FL (to be civil but respect each other's boundaries, or whatever) , or even be the one to find a way out (like when he even had his red haired brother once offering him to replace him as her fiance, for example) despite him always refering to it like he was allegedly being under such "torture" of "having to continue to deal with her", and always thinking of himself like "her trapped victim", ...without any sense of how, when one thought of the *practical* state of affairs, this kinda made him sound... a we bit hypocritical...??
It baffles me even more so not only because his family was getting something out of it, but because now even in the story, itself, even the ML himself has admitted to himself that, even HE, deep down, could recognize that it hadn't been that hard all this time, for anyone and their dog to figure out that she was a princess only in name, a princess with no actual power... (and so, IMO it shouldn't have been that hard to realize that her spoiled attitude was NOT because she was spoiled by her emperor father... but just a vain attempt on her part to cling to whatever was left of her pride, since it was obvious neither of her parents, nor even the rest of her family, cared. Acting spoiled was her way of playing dumb, pretending, desperately trying to distract people from taking full notice of the painful reality of her home situation, that she sensed that everyone else could also see, and that was too heartbreaking for her to accept, herself: the fact that she, unlike her much esteemed fiance, didn't really have a single person on her side, not one friend or family member who cared enough to stand up for her, if the ones who were supposed to be *below* her and below the rest of her imperial family, in the hierarchy, decided that she specifically was an easy, "safe" target to bully and vent all their political and social grievances on...
And, this IS RELATED to her engagement, when you think how this means... that she had no one who would be seriously angered for her sake at hearing her red haired "brother-in-law" insulted and mocked her every time they met --without holding back despite her being an imperial princess --, or a father who wouldn't tell her to just "endure" the redhead's insults for the sake of her engagement, like her emperor father told her when he heard about it... nor anyone who would be angered for her sake if they found out she was being covertly disrespected, mocked, badmouthed, ignored, mistreated, or even her basic personal safety -like with the balcony- neglected... let alone, even a friend or family member who would try to find out WHY she fell from a balcony, or see a need to prevent a situation where even *mere* servants might feel safe thinking that they could get away with neglecting the living conditions of an imperial princess, or with ignoring or disrespecting her, thinking that even her *blood* family, imperial or not, would just stand for it and ALLOW IT...)
The ML has already admitted that it wasn't that difficul to see that, due to all this, it had always been plain for anyone that out of the two of them, it had always been only HIM who always had the advantage, in every sense, in their relationship, since (out of the two of them) he was the only one who had:
1) society's favor and backing, where everyone criticised her and excused and pitied him (chapter 21: "there isn't a soul alive who doesn't know the history of the wicked imperial princess who was utterly obsessed with her fiance") despite the fact that normally, some effort to entice their fiance was always expected of engaged women (even in arranged or merely political engagements, and sometimes, in those cases it was even more so) and how the women were expected to "try to make the engagement work" (or find a way to get along with their fiance, at least enough to get him to pretend, just for the sake of appearances, that he was "invested" in the engagement). Even though it was women who were the ones worse off whenever the engagement didn't look "steady", "solid" or even "real" in the eyes of society, the truth is that the performing of basic official duties of a political or arranged engagement (for the sake of keeping up of apparances, in public) was actually a SHARED responsibility (which means both parties shared some responsibility in guaranteeing the fulfilment of some basic conditions expected of any kind of engagement, which included giving society some legitimate "reason" to think the engagement was real, like letting themselves be seen spending some time together and letting themselves be seen together in public enough times... **extra points if they could pretend to be a bit affectionate in public, or at least seem like they weren't indifferent to each other**... to let people know the engagement actually DID exist and CONTINUED to exist... and also to avoid commiting any public slight to their partner's reputation, particularly so by giving their partner the reputation of a "cuckhold" or of "an easy/safe target for disrespect" by letting themselves be seen in public favoring other members of the opposite sex, other than their alleged engagement partner... etc etc,...) I mean, EVEN IF the ML's family and the emperor knew the whole arrangement was just a sham, the citizens and other people didn't, and maybe not even the FL herself knew.
It irks me how Titania is solely the one so harshly criticised when at the end of the day her only crime was thinking that she had to (was expected to) try her best to make her engagement actually work, and try to come up by herself with the reasons for WHY, whenever her engagement didn't seem to be working... (and can you blame her for only thinking up STUPID reasons for it not to be working --- like, for example, when she genuinely thought it'd be all fixed in their relationship if she just managed to make herself "beautiful enough" for him, and misguidedly started using make up and dressing up over the top, and getting angry at unsympathetic maids who wouldn't think it was their duty as her servants to comply with her orders, and work competently to achieve this goal, on the occasional times the ML actually visited...? --- Can you blame her for only thinking up STUPID reasons for why her engagement wasn't working, when while all in her lonesome , when it's not hard to see she was clearly neglected to the point that she -- unlike her fiance who was a very much valued heir for his ducal family -- was probably not even given a sound education, since it was *Cleo* who was in charge of her upbringing??
Cleo would most probably have thought it wasn't a good idea to let her rival consort's child receive a thorough education (let alone, one that fostered "accurate" political thinking, like the one Titania's fiance, as a valued and LOVED ducal heir, would have undoubtly not been denied of) so Cleo would've sabotaged her education at every point, wanting her to grow up as ignorant as possible. And how would have Cleo allowed Titania to have anyone around her willing to correct her gross errors in judgement -- instead of ENCOURAGING them, like Cleo herself was doing it? ...Can you blame Titania for having it all wrong in her head, when she probably grew up receiving only the kind of education that CLEO chose for her??)
So, esentially, Titania was in a situation where not only no one told her she needn't have ever bothered to try to make her engagement work, but where they all even blamed her alone for the miscommunication with her fiance, and even BLAMED her, and her alone, for the fact that it was embarrasingly plain for the rest of society to see that her engagement wasn't working... (as if the ML's self-complacent, passive attitude in everything, his sticking to the convenient role of "victim" that the eyes of society had assigned him, and his lack of giving her even the benefit of the doubt, at least just enough to try to communicate with her, had never had part in all of that, at all... -- all this while still allowing his brother to heatedly provoke her whenever they met, and his servants to badmouth her to some degree, in his presence- ).
2) Also, the ML was the only one (between the two parties in this engagement) who actually had a family who cared enough to have his back and always be willing to defend him from any potential abuse from the other party, or even from abuse from any others, *for real*... whereas Titania's complete lack of family protection and support that was made glaringly obvious with the explicit mention of the two-folded double-standard of how people felt, in one hand, that it was "safe" to criticise an emperor's daughter behind her back, but not that it was safe to insult a "lower rank" duke's adopted daughter like Vivi, and on the other hand, how people felt that it was safe to criticise the emperor's "incompetent" daughter, but NOT to criticise the incompetent emperor HIMSELF, nor his incompetent son, the "crown" prince). If the ML and his family hadn't known before (that it was "safe" to publicly slight her, because her family would NOT react to defend her.. not only because they didn't have a particularly important interest in the outcome of the engagement itself, but also because they didn't have any particularly important interest in the outcome of the princess herself, altogether) and if they didn't realize before that her family would let them, the ML and his brother, get away with any slight to her (as long as it didn't directly affect the other imperial family members)... if they didn't know this at first, they would have to at least have increasingly come to suspect it, all thiswhile,... and they would've DEFINITELY confirmed it, for sure, by the time the emperor failed to call the ML out even for the whole public dancing fiasco.
and
3) even his in-law's practical enabling of him and his family to treat the princess almost however they wanted, evidenced by the emperor's constantly ignoring or minimizing any semblance of public slight to his daughter (like, when it was revealed the emperor had told her to simply "endure" her red haired "brother-in-law's" constant insults, or when the emperor failed to make the ML take any real responsibility for the public slight to his engaged imperial princess fiancee by dancing with someone else in public... **ASK YOURSELVES: how would all of them have reacted if the one to dance with another guy instead of her fiance, in public and right in front of him, had been the "safe traget for criticism, bullying, neglecting and mocking" ill-reputed princess, Titania?)
To sum up:
...The ML *ALWAYS* had the effective upper hand in everything, compared to her, people... The narrative (that was socially spread mostly thanks to the emperor's and Cleo's complete lack of interest, and that with time even the ML himself evidently bought into), which claimed he was just a poor guy trapped and tortured by a much more powerful, spoiled princess, and had NO way out of it, was that and only that: a narrative... Compared to her, he ALWAYS had the education and political insight not to let himself be fooled by this "narrative" and to be able to figure out that, instead of her, it was her FATHER who was the real one trapping him with the engagement, while still neglecting his own daughter (which meant that slighting and breaking the heart of a powerless princess, and not doing anything to help when he saw how she brokenly cried , had NOT been a justified act...) and the ML also had the education and upbringing with political insight enough to be able to see that, compared to her, he himself was effectively A LOT less powerless, A LOT more supported by the people around him, A LOT more educated (both in general, and in political matters)... and A LOT less alone.