If you think about it, Richard x Clara also gets shot in the foot in a lose/lose/Lose but in italic & bold scenario
Lose 1: Clara gets a crush on PC no matter how trash we treat her (i think there is even some internal dialogue where she even asks herself this), she realizes she doesn’t like Richard.
Lose 2: Similiar to Lose 1, except we do actually love Clara back.
Lose 3: Deceit Clara into thinking we actually like her only to rugpull and go “nuh uh” which is hilariously petty, “kick Richard while he is down” type shit, literally only for the lulz in a long-run manipulation that started since childhood, there is literally 0 reason to do this other than angst or more accurately, be an asshole.
Imo I do kind of feel bad for Richard, despite all the things i have said on this thread, hell! if you think about it, the problem is that it’s not excuseable.
He does up to 4 act that we could deem as threats (3 if you treat him like crap, funny that he is less dangerous when you aren’t nice), 3 of that we could argue were flirting with treason, disloyalty or some form of it.
The Duel of course. (though since we are in “equal standing” i would only argue it’s more of a show of threat than actual treason/disloyalty/other)
The disrespect in our coronation by coming in drunk and subtly challeging us by placing his hand on his sword.
Telling Lena he would have her head if she was involved with Charles death + revealing Charles was poisoned + making negociations more difficult because she could see Rhivenia as trying to threathen her.
And for those that didn’t do a “actually try to be nice to Richard for once” route.
The Provision Incident.
Should you not taint the provisions + have a good relationship with Richard, you will get attacked instead, and Richard finds that funny!
In what world would this be fine? My eye actually twitched when i read that i was like “RICHARD, YOU DUMBASS.” this is the last thing you want to say to avoid getting your family line purged in a Dynasty known for killing eachother to get rid of claimants (+ has a nasty past with civil war because of sibling claimants), he is somehow more of a threat if you actually try to be nice to him and attempt to avoid a Francis.
Richard’s problem is that he can’t lock tf in to save his own hide, his life was built on smoke & mirrors, it is a largely superficial and sheltered life, kinda like Freya in a way! but Freya is locking tf in (for better or worse, likely worse).
And then we ruin his entire life because we simply exist lol.
Richard doesn’t care for the throne and only wants his father’s approval, Charles pretty much disdains his son for being “weak” and only favours him because Charles is not just a terrible father but a terrible husband who condemned his own children for something our mother did.
He treats as if Atheris had a beef with him for no reason when (to her) he largely acts as aloof and keeps going “LOOK AT HOW FATHER LOVES ME, HE WAS PRESENT ON MY BIRTHDAY, HE GAVE ME GIFTS AND CARES ABOUT ME!” to a child with anger issues and resentment. (and not helped when the two branches hate eachother’s guts)
He thought he would marry and have a life with Clara, she does not see him that way and tells him as such after his father told him he was unworthy.
He then tries to send provisions to the populace, not out of genuine kindness of his own heart but because he was chasing Charles approval like a dog, so even the populace’s love is fake because he doesn’t actually deserve it, or gets cursed by the peasants because we poisoned them instead.
And his one final act, to declare a duel against us in a foreign land, which we can deny or win, the latter is even worse because despite everything, we win even at something he should excel at.
In general he kept searching for praise for the sake of it, rather than doing things to actually deserve it and then crashing out when his life turns upside down because most things were lies, on hindsight it’s honestly suprising it took up to Marania for him to actually crash out.
Honestly, i’d say most of the things were actually Charles fault by proxy, Richard may have done them but most things were Charles fault one way or another, i will not lie and say I like Richard, I do not but if you think about it, the problem is a bit below.
If Charles was an actually decent father figure instead of a deadbeat abusive bastard, i’d say most things if not all of them could had been avoided but alas, Richard is living in the shadow of Charles.
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