*There is nuance
I'm there with you about Riftan. Once I read his whole backstory before marrying Maxi, all his behavior made sense. People forget there is no mental health services in this time setting. You either have someone in your life who can articulate and guide you, due to their family experience or their own mistakes, or you suffer through it.
Both of them are doing the best that they can. Neither of them are wrong to want what they want. Maxi is the only one who can see where this is going to lead to their ruin. Riftan is still stuck; he thought he had made it through his own challenge and he is currently finding out he has not made it to the peak of the mountain. He hasn't seen Maxi as a person but as the root of his happiness and desire. Even if he had never beat her father within an inch of his life, they would have fought over her wanting to gain some independence.
Riftan is physically independent while Maxi is loving to become emotionally AND physically independent. It is time for him to work on his mental health. He has good men around him that can help him do so, even by simply standing beside him. Maxi, thanks to the princess, knows how to look for people to support her in the same way.
They need this time apart. Maxi was suffocated by her father and she is now allowed to be a person. Riftan suffocated himself to survive and he doesn't know what to do with himself because he anchored so much on an idea of a person. They are having growing pains.
And to clarify, even if I didn't know more about his backstory, at this point, it is clear Riftan has put too much of his happiness on putting Maxi on a pedestal. He needs help. It isn't like some other stories where he brought this dismay entirely on himself. It's just sad to see others not recognize when something is wrong not because someone is horrible but because someone is hurt and it has festered.
The hate on riftan is just getting out of hand tbh. I get he goes about things the wrong way and I’m not gonna justify it. But given the hand he was dealt in his childhood I think he managing pretty okay. As someone who can empathize with riftans trauma bc I really relate, he’s not a terrible person. I feel like this comment section is making the stigma worse for people that deal with trauma. Obviously there are horrible people with trauma but riftan isn’t one of them. There’s no nuance to stuff like this at all. At the end of the day he’s letting her go and I think that’s a good step for him in itself. Although he might’ve went about it the wrong way you can’t just use that to label him entirely as an awful abusive price of shit. I have bpd and really bad abandonment issues and I do try very hard to live with it and I take medication. Unfortunately I do have moments like riftan where I panic and spiral. I wouldn’t say that makes people like me evil or abusive at all. I fucking hate this stigma around things like this. Fortunately for me I have some people that care and support me that can help me through this disorder. It’s complex and I really feel for riftan in certain moments. This comment section sucks. I also feel like it’s because riftan is a male and that’s why he’s getting so much hate. There’s an even worse stigma around men already that deal with trauma and bad mental health. I feel like if the tables were turned maxi wouldn’t get nearly as much hate.