i wanna see jennette have a “father like daughter” realization with athy and claude again except have it years later
empress athy getting blackout drunk during a banquet and the palace is talking about how she’s out of commission for the entire day afterwards… dead and groveling on her bed and swearing like a sailor at anyone who tries to make her get up
or maybe BOTH jennette and athy party all night and they end up just like their dads… bedroom trashed like a crime scene, athy’s sprawled out on the bed and jetty’s somewhere passed on the couch
their usual cheery and elegant demeanors NO WHERE TO BE SEEN as they glare at lucas and ijekiel for even TRYING to take care of them
au where BOTH athy and jennette get introduced as claude’s long lost daughters at the debutant ball
imagine the mess Omg… one kid? okay wow Holy shit well at least he has an heir now, right?
but TWO?! GOD DAMN! does ANYONE else in the audience wanna to come forth and join the family reunion??????
rumors of claude being a rake 💀 “has the emperor been hittin it raw with everyone ????? i mean surely the EMPEROR can afford contraceptives… like no way bro doesn’t know about the pull out method 😭😭😭”
Technically, in the LP!verse, both girls are introduced but due to Athy's low status (her dress is extremely simple with very little to none accessories), which to other nobles, means she is not favored by thr Emperor but Jennette is genuinely a surprise, seeing she is also backed up by Duke Alpheus.
Honestly, Athy would be more of a surprise if she was also backed up by other noble or even foreign power. I don't know if you know but back then there was a theory that Diana was a runaway princess/illegitimate princess of the Siodonna ruler.
In some ways, if that theory had been true and some sort of Diana's maternal relatives found out about Athy's existence, they would have taken her from Obelia Empire and raise her as potential heir since she had both Siodonna/Obelia blood.
Which, would be fun! Imagine the missing princess turns up suddenly on the debutante and gasp! Another princess shows up! It would be the gossip of the lifetime.
imagine if athy was kidnapped as a baby and then introduced at the debutant ball by a siodonnian foreign dignitary 😭😭😭 i think it would be interesting to see society frame both girls as representatives of their nations
athy’s existence is already quite controversial with nobles considering her to have “commoner blood” but Damn imagine adding another nations noble blood into the mix !!! athy could be seen as some sort of bridge or treaty between nations lol
jennette being the (alleged) child of claude and penelope is technically setting up the scene for her to be a perfect princess because of her “noble blood”
but with the sudden introduction of two princesses… would it be more appropriate for jennette to be the heir because of her origins? or perhaps athy instead, to show obelia’s positive relations with siodonna Hmmmm
Athy, a mixed child of two nations but her appearance primarily favors her Obelian side and especially her father. Athy who bears the immortal name and the royal family's powerful mana. She excels in language, dancing and politics. This Athy charms everyone. Her fairy beauty will be used as an argument by those xenophobic nobles as Siodonna's unnatural magic.
Meanwhile, Jennette whose resemblance her mother is telling. Some (maybe Siodonna dignitaries or even those against the Alpheus and Judith) will spread rumors of her being another man's bastard instead of Claude's citing that there had to be a reason why Claude broke off his engagement to lady Penelope after years of friendship or that Duke Alpheus in his ambitions had bribed for her jewel eyes. The lack of mana is also suspicious and a downside to Jennette. However, her simple name and taste in clothing alongside her unconventional habits - to the nobility - like baking, gardening and praying instead sells her to the commoners.
The propaganda of a lovely and 'pure' princess who can relates to the downtrodden and the needy quickly rises. The nobles will also use nationalism to fight against those on Athy's side, stroking the fear of immigration and assimilation of a foreign country.
the internal motivation of both girls would surely be different as well; if athy went missing as a baby and the search for the missing princess seemed like a lost cause after years of looking, jennette would not only be heavily encouraged to charm claude to the point where she fills in the missing piece in his heart where his missing daughter would've been, but also would've been trained to inherit the throne as the only heir (thus far).
our jennette was raised on the notion that her real family members (claude and athy) were in the palace; her only wish and goal was to finally have a real family; she never wished for the throne. i'm sure this jennette would also long for a real family (because that's just who she is), but with ONLY claude in the picture, i feel like she would've been raised with the clear intention to inherit the throne: taking numerous etiquette classes and studies that align with ruling a nation (with the finest resources a duke can afford anyway, they probably wouldn't be up to par with the palace and he'd need to educate her in a discreet way that wouldn't raise suspiscion of her origins)
whereas with this athy, she might not have such a strong desire for a family, since it's been fulfilled by her maternal side in Siodonna. perhaps she was only introduced because, well, a jewled eyed princess who WASN'T obelian living in siodonna would surely be suspicious 😭 her maternal family would probably only introduce her for the sake of political stability (and maybe because they care for athy and want her to know her father).
"hey dude! we found ur daughter lol !! NO we did NOT kidnap her. just, uh, wanted to let you know that the kid you've been looking for is alive and well. we even trained her in etiquette !! she IS half siodonnaian tho so we ask for joint custody hope u don't mind"
ngl it would be funny if this athy saw this family reunion as more of a learning experience instead of "returning home" 😭 "holy shit i get to be a princess in TWO countries ?!?!? i gotta bring back souvenirs for my fam back in siodonna !!"
since her internal need for community is already fufilled, maybe she would be more lax? honestly i keep thinking of this whole situation as athy living in obelia because her parents are divorced and hold joint custody over her LMFAOOO she's packing her bags every other weekend to go live with her bum ass father
their reactions to eachother would for SURE be interesting; would jennette see athy as competition for her fathers love at first? maybe, since the idea of her "filling in" the missing piece of claude's long lost daughter was drilled into her psyche since day 1. but she'd still long for a family so i feel like she'd get over it. however, the external pressure from both the alpheus family and society, pitting her against her brand new sister would surely cause some cognitive dissonance on how she would treat athy
i feel like athy wouldn't rlly gaf 😭 the obelian throne might not interest her as much because she already has a spot for it back in siodonna 🤷♀️ god it would be so funny if she treated the entire thing like a tourist experience 😭 first day in the palace and she's already outside in the city buying souvenirs.
maybe her family back in siodonna would ask her to open up more trade with obelia! it would be funny to imagine athy barging into claudes office with a power point detailing why they should buy more siodonnian products 😭 "AND! in exchange for access to obelian trading ports, you'll get a lifetime supply of lippe tea! what a steal, amiright, your majesty- wait no, uh, dad?"
Things I really want to see more often in fiction, especially manhwas:
1-An actual villainess/crazy female lead.
I want a female lead who truly does evil things—not just because she had a tragic past, but also because she genuinely wanted to. I want her to commit actions that are completely unjustifiable, and I don't want the author to give her "main character privilege." She should be treated like any other character and face the consequences of her actions. Even if she blames others, she should still know and admit that she's in the wrong. I want a messy, deeply flawed personality instead of a Mary Sue. Basically, I want a story that shows how childhood trauma can shape and destroy someone, while also showing how that person can hurt others—or even themselves—for reasons that aren't justifiable. (And by "evil deeds," I am not talking about rape.)
2-A story with a slave protagonist.
In many manhwas, slaves are often portrayed as "ungrateful" or villainized, like Rashta in The Remarried Empress or Eckles in Death Is the Only Ending for the Villainess. I'd like a story from the slave's perspective that honestly shows the cruelty of slavery, nobility, and slave owners.
3-A female lead raised in a misogynistic or heavily religious environment.
I'd love a female lead who was raised in a place where women have very few rights—where girls can't study, are forced to cover themselves, experience child marriage or forced marriage, or even suffer grooming, abuse, and emotional neglect. She manages to escape, but the trauma doesn't magically disappear. It continues to affect both her and the story. (Before anyone misunderstands what I mean, I'm not asking for stories that are anti-religion or portray any religion as inherently bad. That's not my intention at all. I also believe in God and respect people's religions and beliefs. What I want is a story that explores the suffering many women experience because of patriarchal interpretations, misogyny, and the way society judges them based on their bodies, age, or beauty standards.)
4-A childcare story with a stepmother or nanny female lead that has no romance.
I don't want the female lead and the father to fall in love. Maybe the father still loves his late wife, or maybe he simply chooses to stay single. I genuinely want a childcare story that focuses only on the relationship between the caregiver and the children—preferably with a daughter, since daughters are much rarer than sons in this genre.
5-A story that portrays children realistically.
I want kids who actually behave like kids—or even teenagers. They shouldn't immediately love the new stepmother or nanny. In fact, they might dislike her throughout most, or even all, of the story, and that's perfectly okay. I want to see children realistically dealing with the trauma of losing their mother, having an emotionally distant father, or struggling with a remarriage. They can be selfish, childish, or difficult—I don't mind. I just want them to feel like real children instead of unrealistically cute fantasy characters.
6-A protagonist whose parents get divorced.
In almost every manhwa I read, the parents either have a perfect love story, the mother dies, the father blames the child, or the protagonist gets a kind new stepmother. I'd like to see a protagonist whose parents divorce instead. Growing up in a complicated family could realistically make it difficult for them to trust others or fall in love.
7-A female lead who doesn't develop Stockholm syndrome.
Instead, she—or someone else—kills her abuser. I don't want abusive male leads to get happy endings. I don't want the female lead to mistake manipulation and trauma for love. I want the abusive male lead to face real consequences for what he did.
8-A "weak" female lead.
By "weak," I don't mean someone who needs a man to save her. I don't even want the story to introduce a male savior. She can be overly sensitive, physically or emotionally weak, too kind, naive, childish, immature, selfish, bullied, or deeply traumatized. These flaws can cause her to make bad decisions or even hurt herself and others. But over time, she slowly learns to stand up for herself. Maybe she gets therapy, maybe she heals with the support of friends. She won't magically become perfect, but she'll gradually grow stronger while the people who hurt her finally face the consequences of their actions.
9-A love story that doesn't treat marriage as the only path to healing.
Why does every story act like moving on from loss or trauma requires finding a new romantic partner? Can we get therapy for once? People can heal, find happiness, and move on without remarrying or starting a new relationship. They can cherish the memory of someone they loved while still living a fulfilling life. Not everyone needs to be in a relationship to be happy. Being single can be a happy ending too.
I have no valid reason to hate Alfonso but for some reason, I still hate looking at his stupid face so much.
I don't really talk about how much I hate Alfonso specifically, whenever he's brought up, he's usually grouped in with a multitude of other complaints I have about I am the queen in this life in general. The reason I don't openly hate on Alfonso himself is because my reasons for hating are admittedly very petty 😭
He technically doesn't do anything TOO terrible as far I can remember, outside of his mistreatment of Lariessa, compared to almost everyone else, Alfonso is a pretty decent person for the most part, and yet for some reason, I feel immensely uncomfortable and even irritated when he's on screen, he could just stand there and I would feel the urge to tell him to go away, something about him is just pissing me off and I can't put my finger on exactly why he pisses me off.
Maybe it's because he's excruciatingly boring, maybe it's because he exists to be Ariadne's plot device to get her out of any sticky situation she ends up in, or maybe Cesare is just secretly whispering "Alfonso sucks" into my ears while I'm asleep at night.
All I know is that whenever he shows up, I subconsciously channel the energy of Timmy's dad.
The beauty of women and the simultaneous hatred for them in "I am the queen in this life"
The way Isabella was written doesn't feel like the usual way someone would write the woman you are supposed to see as "the wrong kind of woman" There's a certain subtle amount of vitriol that went into her development, turning her from a character with a role to fulfill for the story to caricature with a role to fill for the author's and the audiences hatred for people they project onto her.
Isabella was originally supposed to be the most beautiful female character in the story, no matter how evil she is, her beauty is a part of what makes Isabella the woman she is, she knows her looks are the only piece of her that matters according to her family, which could have been used to explain why she wasn't as educated as her sisters. Her good looks combined with her fake personality are what brought her to such high standing in the first life.
That same beauty is what would eventually become the source of mockery against the character as a whole, it paints her as a backpedal on feminism, a stereotype that women who care about their looks and dress in traditionally feminine colors and clothes are all pure evil temptresses with the brain power of a sloth, these type of "bad women" can never be better than the "right women" because the "right kind" of women never have to beg other men to notice her, the men already notice how different and "unique" she is because she doesn't dress or act callously like other broads. Ariadne doesn't have to wear heels or bright colors because men like Alfonso are already attracted to how "special" she is compared to other women.
Isabella's lack of interest in anything outside of makeup, fashion, jewelry, and evil scheming isn't the result of a writer wanting to tell a story about the inherent sexist society the setting takes place in, Isabella's lack of interest in academics or the arts is simply because she needs to embody every negative trait of these perceived "bad women" to prove a point, that girls who act a certain way are all secretly out to get you because they're jealous of your special ability to attract men with your messy bun and "interesting" personality.
The funny part about this whole thing is that despite Isabella being portrayed as someone who will do anything for men to love her, she still is depicted as a misandrist, one of the only remaining remnants of what she used to be before personal bias, and hatred tainted her character writing. When has Isabella ever truly had any kind of genuine crush on another man? Every man she has ever been affiliated with, she only ever tolerated them in the moment because there was something to gain out of it. Power, status, a chance to hurt Ariadne, whatever it may have been, love was never a reason.
Sure, her inability to charm most men is something that is designed to ridicule her. Ariadne doesn't have to try, and several attractive and powerful men are already at her feet, ready to do whatever she says. Isabella can only attract ugly, fat, diseased, and sexist men who only want her for her body, these types of men are her "punishment" for being so girly and unoriginal, they could do horrible and sadistic things to her and you'd be expected to nod along because these horrifying crimes would be inflicted on the woman who "deserves it" because she's so cruel.
Isabella pushes children down the stairs, causes miscarriages, sacrifices infants, sleeps with other women's partners in broad daylight, sexually assaults people including her own sister, attempts to assassinate the same sister, NOT because she is the villain of the story, but because if she wasn't this obscenely evil then the fantasy of watching her be mutilated and abused by other men wouldn't feel as comfortable to the audience. Notice how everything she does plays little of a role in the actual narrative? How most characters who were victims of her wrath don't think about the trauma that was inflicted on them until it is needed for an Isabella torture scene or how nothing is done out of randomly writing her as a rapist?
Isabella isn't evil because she's the main antagonist, she's evil because the author NEEDS her to be evil in order to paint the stereotype as true, she's evil because there needs to be some kind of justification to watch this character be brutally tortured while still being able to claim that the people who hurt her are "better" than her because at least they know to hate the right woman.
And despite all of that, that little piece of the original Isabella still survived, she may have been reduced to a slut who will throw herself at anyone who gives her a five-dollar bill, but her view on the patriarchal society she is confined has remained, she knows these men won't love her forever, she is AWARE that she is replaceable, she never tries to get attached out for the sake of romance.
It makes her a tragic character in a way, a woman who is aware that she is trapped in a situation that forces her to rely on the whims of men to survive but will never be allowed to leave that situation due to the hand of the people who already won the race. Unlike her amazing, generous, intelligent, and special sister. Isabella is "the wrong" type of woman, so whatever happens to her is always going to be considered to be deserved.
At least our toxic queen still has several panels of looking spectacular.
Lariessa is a victim of similar writing to Isabella, she's another case of "The bad type" of women in IATQITL, acting very much like first life Ariadne in the way that she's obsessive over a man who never loved her to begin with and is instead pining after another woman.
But whereas Ariadne is owed sympathy by the audience, Lariessa is mocked and ridiculed for acting "delusional" She doesn't want to accept that the first person who asked about HER and not her sister, Susanne, is in love with another woman, the man that she has been promised to actively trying to fight against the marriage because he doesn't want HER, he wants Ariadne, the only "good woman" who doesn't think about things that are "typical" or "basic" Lariessa is all about fairytales and romance, she wants things to go her way exactly, and when she can't have that, she copes in self-destructive ways.
Alfonso telling her to remember that she is just a woman, to remember her place amongst both her homeland and Etruscan's culture, is meant to be considered a moment of triumph for Ariadne as it proves her love interest's adoration for the main character. Who cares if Lariessa was basically degraded to a womb and a vagina with eyes in the most passive aggressive way imaginable? Alfonso was the one who said it, he isn't one of the ugly fat men who blatantly tell women to get back in the kitchen, so it isn't sexism! Alfonso is head over heels for one particular woman who was ordained as "Good" and "Mentally sane" So he's already a feminist, guys!
Lariessa is moody, she's high maintenance, she's bipolar, narcissistic and BPD coded, she needs constant validation, she's clingy and obsessive, she was happy that her amazing unseen sister is dead, she wants attention, and most of all, she can't it through her head that Ariadne suffered the most so only she deserves basic respect as a woman.
Okay, sarcastic rant over, you guys know where I'm getting at.
I find it really ironic that the woman who acted just like Ariadne, a woman who believes that she should be absolved of all responsibility because she acted in the name of love, is being villainized as an unintentional stereotype of a person with a personality disorder. It's funny how an author will go so far to convince the readers that the main character deserves nothing but the readers sympathy that they start making contradictions in their morals.
Because that does is make me feel sympathy for Lariessa because she's just acting the same way Ariadne is, but since she doesn't have the foresight from a past life, the author's favoritism, or the traits of what makes a good the "right" type of woman, she is expected to be scorned as Alfonsos uglier fiancé with no chance at winning is heart.
And yes, Lariessa, according to the novel, is considered ugly by the standards of the story. Way to write women for the sake being put down to bring the boss babe up, Lariessa deserves way more than just being the evil crazy fiancé trope.
Even if Alfonso and Lariessa were wed, how would it even go forward in a healthy way? He didn't really give her a chance since he assumed she was on the same page as him and slowly grew to resent her when he realized just how desperate she is for his affections. Lariessa would still be denied the love she craves so much, simply because she isn't the protagonist, she's the one getting in the way of fantasy fulfillment of Ariadne. What could she do when her husband brings in his first love as a mistress, whenever Ariadne accepts becoming a mistress or not, the feelings towards Lariessa would still be evident.
Alfonso wants nothing to do with her, not after her emotions consistently got the better of her when she threatened him. She isn't what the story considers to be 'The right" kind of woman, her insecurities and lack of love for herself don't matter when she doesn't act like a good victim or a sanitized depiction of mental health.
Lariessa and Isabella aren't even the end to this trend of "Women the readers and the authors don't like being punished by sexism"
Body shaming and slut shaming is cruel... It's not Ariadne's fault she was born that; Isabella is probably just jealous that she doesn't have large, luscious melons like her beautiful sister.
Until it's the "bad women" Ariadne is back handily slut shaming. It's okay though, Lucrezia should know better than to show her cleavage and wear heavy makeup at her age.
A maid has to use her body if she wants a chance at a happier life? Oh wow... I can't believe Ariadne's mother had to endure all that just because she wasn't lucky enough to be born into wealth...
A maid is using her body to her advantage to gain financial security by having a baby with the son of the house? Ugh, what a whore, what kind of shallow skank thinks that she can cheat her way in life, she should be grateful that she even has this job.
There's a clear pattern here. It's what determines what makes a woman one of the "good ones" by this story's standards. The answer is obvious.
You have to be Ariadne or at the very least, you have to be someone who is both below her in status and devoid of any personality that has nothing to do with your love for Ariadne.
And if you're a female character with importance to the plot that isn't an enemy of the girl boss, then what do you know, you're being lined up on the chopping block of killed off characters for the sake of shock value
Isabella, Lariessa, Lucrezia, Maletta, and many more, will always be the women readers will want to stick around for the most, because tales of women trying to achieve happiness in a society that does whatever it can to push them down is far more interesting than watching a woman participate in that system because of her victim complex.
Anyway, live laugh love Bianca, she's one of the only female characters in the story that's still alive, likeable, and she isn't fodder for Ariadne, honestly, she deserves to have her own novel.
The mentality of Ariadne de Mare. What makes her no different than the system designed to oppress people like her.
An essay about my second least favorite character in the well know web novel and webcomic, Sister I am the queen in this life.
Written by Prune
Ariadne is such an infuriating yet interesting character to follow in the same way Navier is an infuriating/interesting character. She is evil, occasionally the narrative will admit that she is evil, but will she ever suffer proper consequences? Will other characters who aren't specifically designed to be pathetic villains call her out when she isn't as virtuous as we are led to believe? The answer is simply no, because all the seemingly innocent people caught in her crosshairs are either people who acted worse than her or their deaths were needed to progress her story arc of getting everything she wants, even if she doesn't really deserve it. She's unintentionally one of the greatest depictions of hypocrisy, internalized misogyny, and victim mentality I have ever witnessed so far.
Because while she may emulate the image of what a perfect noble woman and future queen should be, she started out like this, a peasant girl who couldn't afford luxuries as basic as an education, she needed to rely on memories of a past life just to be on the same rank as Isabella in her current life, she had to endure back breaking labor if she wanted to survive as a mere nobody in the 16th century Italy inspired setting just like everyone else, and if it weren't for the cardinal, then she would have been another plague casualty, another citizen nobody cared about, another unidentified skeleton that would or wouldn't be unearthed over four hundred years later.
And despite that, despite most of her neighbors being in the same position as her, despite knowing that there were other children who suffered under the thumbs of opportunistic adults who could barely qualify as guardians, she still chose to fight against a preacher during a sermon that called out the greedy nature of the church and the divine right of nobles that could have, and in fact did in a past life, made lives for the millions of those struggling people easier, it originally would have taught these people that poor people are still people, regardless of any possibility of a wicked past life, they shouldn't be deprived of basic resources and instead should be offered the grace of God's forgiveness.
Ariadne, someone whose past life was riddled with selfishness, petty envy, and bloodshed, should know this better than anyone, she helped usurp a kingdom, she killed the man she is currently trying to enter a relationship with, and she still chose to follow the orders of the same man's tyrannical brother even if it was in the name of love. She by all accounts doesn't deserve to go back in time so she can try again and become a queen but here she is, alive and well, living in a mansion and already gaining the affections of the crown prince, surely this should be a sign that God has extended some kind of forgiveness for her sins because this God knows that she had to have suffered immensely to become the monster she is now.
Ariadne is living proof of the preacher's example, that no one should deserve this kind of cruelty no matter what the bible says about divine favor, and yet she still chooses to condemn this man in public and ruin his life so she can gain the favor of a father who only started to remotely care about her existence so he could marry her off to an unstable abuser. Her neighbors, childhood friends, strangers who happened to be struggling just like her, single mothers with children just like the situation she and her mother once shared, are now being left to suffer further class inequality and discrimination, all because Ariadne wanted to rub elbows with the nobility and clergy. She can say that she doesn't really believe in those classist ideologies all she wants, she still made the active decision to allow the belief that those in poverty are inherently born sinful and dirty to spread, she betrayed her child self and her mother in that way.
But when the poor are left to fend for themselves during a plague, when they are left to rot in shelters that can hardly be called that, when they are so hungry that they no longer care about any possible punishment for attacking noble girls feeding them soup that won't last long enough for everyone because one of them chose to wear jewelry, all of a sudden Ariadne cares about the impoverished. She's willing to throw money at them, she's willing to guide them so they can survive the illness, some of them are even willing to go as far as to die for her. Ariadne is willing to be their voice, but only for a price, and that price is unwavering loyalty, just look at Sancha, what is she other than the loyal maid Ariadne was generous enough to keep around?
These people are ignorant to the fact that the woman claiming the role as their savior during a time of crisis is the same woman who paved the way for their suffering for years to come, and they either have no clue, or they are accepted that Ariadne is the best they can do when she's one of the few nobles who doesn't want them to drop dead for the crime of poverty.
Ariadne wants to think she's better than her family. When she first regressed, she had the belief that she suffered the most, she sacrificed the most, and she is the most deserving of the fortune she believes God owes her for the trials she endured in the past. While she does eventually somewhat acknowledge that she is a terrible person, that acknowledgment hardly means anything because she still hardly, if ever, needs to atone for her sins. Everyone else is simply worse than her.
Lucrezia is an abusive mother to Arabella and an enabling mother to Isabella and Ippolito, she embezzles money to her greedy family, and she refused help for Arabella that could have saved her life.
Isabella is evil incarnate, she killed her little sister with no remorse, she actively seduces engaged men like a siren, she is shallow and only concerns herself with makeup and fashion so she can appear more beautiful than she already is, she sacrifices babies, causes miscarriages, pushes people down the stairs, drugs people with love potions, and even sexually assaults other people.
Ippolito abused his power to sleep with Maletta and promptly had her and her unborn child killed to save his reputation, he allowed his doting mother to take the fall and eventually take her life to save himself, he is heavily implied to be a pedophile as he seemed interested in marrying Alfonso's cousin, Bianca, when she was twelve years old, and everything else about him is all just textbook incel behaviors that follow him up until his demise.
And the cardinal, despite being the only family member with a redemption arc after he acknowledged Ariadne as the superior child to her pathetic siblings, is still a misogynist that imprisoned his de-facto wife and raised his daughters to become broodmares. He is part of the reason Isabella turned out the way she is after all, he raised her with shame for her gender in mind.
Even Lucrezia's nephew is a sexist creep with an incestuous lust for Isabella and a bloodlust for Ariadne.
Ariadne can admit she's a bad person, but does that matter when her family consists of the worst of the worst? People you have no choice but to hate more than Ariadne because she could be worse, right? She could be killing children, she could be a pedophile, she could be incestuous, the world around her should be grateful for the person she chose to become instead of demanding she practice what she preaches. Ariadne doesn't have to change, the world does, she isn't flawed, the world is.
Alfonso and Raphel will be there to fight for her honor, Sancha will always be ready to lick her boots. Her self-awareness is the bare minimum, and it's the best Ariadne will be willing to do to "better herself." Dozens of handsome and influential men fall for her for a reason, she's the kindest soul compared to the cesspit she calls a family, she's "interesting" because she's just decent enough to stand out from other seemingly shallow girls but not so decent that she stands against the wall the separates the clean from the filthy.
The only character development I see are the new elaborate ways Ariadne can evade accountability.
Ariadne wants to act as a stand for women as a whole, you could almost call her a symbol of feminism, she's an intelligent and cunning young woman who climbed out of the mud as a peasant, to a respected daughter of the cardinal, to the head of her households finances, to a countess, to a princess, and she will inevitably become the queen as the title of her story would imply.
As I said, Ariadne believes she deserves the fortune of a good life as the queen of Etruscan because she suffered then and she's suffering now. Women who currently aren't suffering don't deserve that kind of divine right, Isabella was given everything since she was a girl, so Ariadne doesn't feel that she is doing anything wrong when Isabella is being abused by other men, not only is she not the one specifically abusing her sister, but Isabella technically "deserves it" in her eyes because she was evil anyway and that cancels out the horrors of misogyny being inflicted on her sister, over and over. Ariadne feels hurt when Alfonso has to spend his time dancing with Lariessa because she feels she has suffered more, she doesn't like the idea of another woman falling in love with the man she already declared as her future, Lariessa's feelings don't matter to Ariadne, she doesn't even think of the possibility that they are on two sides of the same coin.
Ariadne believes she is entitled to a good future because everyone in her family had hurt her before, Lariessa believes she is entitled to endless love and attention because her family had neglected her before, it doesn't occur to either of them that they don't have to be feeding the fire when they will both inevitably be consumed by the same flames, Lariessa just continues to plot and scheme to get Alfonso to herself and Ariadne will always win and get what she wants because her suffering outweighs any damage she could be inflicting on other people.
At first glance, you could think of her as a girl's girl. When she wants to be, she can be as evidenced by Sancha and Bianca for example. However, when you notice that the majority of her main enemies are all women and how it doesn't occur to Ariadne to think of most of them as people unless she is literally forced to see it for a brief moment, you realize that Ariadne is feeding the fire, she may not hate her own gender, she may be perfectly fine with working together with other women, but the moment those women deviate from what she expects them to act like, any and all sympathy for their plights is thrown out the window. Despite knowing the dangerous survival of the fittest mentality women need if they want to thrive in a society that hates them, Ariadne only ever seems to acknowledge that when it can be used to defend and justify her own behavior, but other women using that excuse? suddenly that excuse loses its meaning and all empathy is discarded for them, Ariadne will expect others to feel sorry for her because she was body shamed for her broad shoulders and larger chest but then she'll judge Lucrezia for wearing heavy makeup and exposing her cleavage.
Being a girls girl comes with conditions, loyalty is a must, if you don't know which boots are the right ones to lick, then you're going to be in for one hell of a ride because women who don't know their place around Ariadne aren't long for this world. She ultimately knows how to hide behind a mask, a mask of glamour, bright colors, and modesty to distract you from the fact that nothing in this kingdom is going to be different with her as queen. For a woman who experienced thirty years of life in the past, she ironically has learned nothing about rediscovering her humanity, but she has learned a lot to pretend that she isn't sustaining the society that wants to see women like her crumble and fall.
Ariadne as a whole is a complicated amalgamation of misguided justice, entitlement, and denial. Her existence gives the illusion that she would change Etruscan for the better but if the current king wasn't a parody of Henry VIII and her family wasn't the very definition of monstrous, than that illusion would disappear. She likes to think that she's different but she's not, she just has an advantage they will never have and that is her foresight, she knows not to act as brazen as the people around her because she saw what happens to people like that. She knows not to cut off her finger for a man who won't appreciate her while Isabella has no choice but to relent to sexual coercion. She never escaped the cycle of hatred for women and the impoverished, none of the women in this story did, she was just one of the few who found ways to make that cycle feel more comfortable to participate in.
Maybe if Arabella wasn't killed off, Ariadne could have had a shred of introspection, perhaps she could have had an epiphany as she watched Arabella grow from a little girl to a teenager, remembering that there was once a time when she considered that small child to be a threat to her, a time when she didn't care if Arabella was deprived of a proper diet because she was acting out first. Sometimes it takes remembering that you once saw a child as a threat to realize that the cycle of women attacking other women has poisoned the well.
But Arabella is dead, and all her death has done was feed into Ariadne's willful ignorance and desire for revenge. She defeats the people who killed Arabella but then what? Nothing changed, Arabella isn't coming back, Lucrezia never regretted letting her youngest child die, and Isabella still smirks at the memory of her little sister flailing down the stairs like a ragdoll. People died, people were horrifically maimed, and no good came of it.
Poor Ariadne, she really does believe she's playing chess when she's really part of the same checkers tournament as everyone else.
Не знаю, насколько не фейк, но однажды Джен Ли ответила шипперу Кристанны на вопрос "Анна и Кристоф - канон?" неопределённым "Время покажет"
Просто в свете последних событий, это скорее "нет", чем "да". То есть, создатели и сами понимают, что Кристоф не про любовь. На День Рожденье Анны он даже не волнуется, чтобы порадовать её, во второй короткометражке и второй части Анна и вовсе только об Эльзе, Кристофа для неё почти и нет. А ему важно только предложение, а не она сама, настолько, что он уже потерял сам себя. В удалённом отрывке Кристоф совсем не хочет быть частью Аренделла, мужем Анны и тем более, жить во дворце, они должны были разойтись. Недавно анонсировали, что мы увидим свадьбу Анны с Кристофом, почти сразу после появилось официальное изображение Анны, скачущей с Эльзой по лесу, верхом на Ситроне, коне Ганса. Может, Анну и планируют с Кристофом развести, но медленно, чтобы уложиться в несколько частей истории? Я имею в виду, что если бы от Кристофа избавились бы ещё в первой, то история могла бы быть полностью завершена, как снятие проклятья снегом в раннем сценарии?
This broke my heart it’s more clear from the novel but Riftan always felt like he wasn’t enough for her. He was just a knight (a powerful one yes but he wasn’t from a noble bloodline) he worked his way up from being a poor blacksmiths helper to where he is now. But Maxi’s descendants were actually royalty in the past. She is technically of noble blood! Riftan obsesses with giving Maxi the best of the best thinking she grew up with everything she could ever want. He knows nothing of the abuse she got from her father. He feels like she went from a life of pampering and excess and now is just the wife of a knight! It hurts him. And this scene just hits differently if you read the novel. He feels like he is dragging her down and he just wants her to have the best of everything not understanding he is enough to make her happy 😩😭
When maxi says this she is proud of it but he sees it as an insult 😭😭😭😭
