I respectfully disagree that Isabelle was a villain in that story, she did nothing wrong other be loved by Charles.
You’re correct in saying Isabelle was wrong to treat Richard as a tool against alvena but her reasons for doing so are far more justifiably then alvena’s reasons for poisoning her childhood friend. which were “I was trying to protect my children because Isabelle was going use her children to harm mine” which is complete nonsense because Isabelle has never, ever tried to harm or manipulate any of alvena children in fact she saves the MC from falling into lake. and alvena second reason (which feels more honest to me) “I was jealous that Isabelle was loved and I was not” which makes her a despicable person because she hurt two people she loved and took an innocent life, alvena even admits even if she know Isabelle was pregnant she still would’ve poisoned Isabelle.
in a AU post over at Patreon where alvena didn’t poison Isabelle Charles treats alvena respectfully in the sense that he listens to her when she needs him to do something. Basically she someone who apart of Charles’s household, someone who he responsible for but doesn’t love.
I imagine this how things were before Isabelle was poisoned.
Sorry I should be more specific, Isabelle wasn’t at fault for anything that happened up to her poisoning since all she did was marry for love (you could argue whether it was wise since she was Alvena’s best friend prior to this, but it’s not inherently evil). Everything up to that point, she did nothing wrong, and even changing her behavior likely wouldn’t have affected the ultimate outcome greatly.
What does make her a villain is emotionally abusing Richard to the point where he’s actively antagonizing his own half-siblings for potentially no reason at all. Ignoring the fact that weaponizing a child and turning them against their siblings is already pretty evil on its own, this ends up creating a major problem since Richard’s upbringing, combined with not becoming king (which Isabelle reinforced was basically the only thing that made him worth loving) and not getting Clara (which isn’t anybody’s fault), puts the kingdom closer to civil war were it not for the MC either killing Richard outright, or going out of their way to mend fences with him. Even then, it’s still possible that Richard being seen publicly at odds with the MC will cause political problems down the line regardless of whether Richard is dead or not.
Far be it from me to claim she’s worse than Alvena or Charles, she’s not even close to as terrible as them in the grand scheme of things, but I call her a villain because if she didn’t do what she did, at least a few of the current issues would not have happened (as opposed to Charles where if he didn’t do the things he did, about 99% of the current issues wouldn’t have happened).
Yeah being treated as an acquaintance isn’t exactly justification to poison your best friend, but I can at least see how it would hurt to be treated as an acquaintance by the person you genuinely love. Which means I still have an excuse to blame Charles for this one anyways, and by jove, I’m taking it!
Yeah…child abuse tho? I mean, empathy points for sure but…I have a personal thing abt kids since I worked w foster kids
Also is there a way other than not punishing aour sisters mentor at all, to make sure she doesn’t kinda…lose it? I just have trouble hurting my siblings…call it the hazard of being the eldest child irl heh…
If you exile Locke then Atheris is upset but nowhere as much as if you pick other punishment options, and she still interacts with MC pretty much normally.
Normally the free release is a month after Patreon one, but there wasn’t any new chapter on Patreon so not sure what you’re talking about? The author is still working on the patch for existing content, and the public demo has all the stuff the Patreon one does.
I read through the first version of this story, and while I liked it, I think this rewrite vastly improves the characters. I’m also really enjoying the romance with Clara, even though right now she’s trying to find herself more, I actually really appreciate the character arc you’re giving her. Makes me like her even more, and I’ll be happy to see her again when she’s ready. Can’t wait to read more!
I could not agree more. I think Clara trying to distance herself adds that depth of character because it shows that she did not want to be the cause of two brothers destruction because they both liked her. That said, it also confused me a bit because Richard already did that to her telling her they need to not be around one another now more so to me it was kind of redundant for her to do so to the MC. Me, I am fixing that problem easy enough by Marrying Richard off when at the ball that they are going to soon enough.
Like Clara tells you herself, she [also] doesn’t want to be seen only as “that girl in love with MC”. So, no, distancing herself from Richard doesn’t do anything to change that aspect. But separating from MC potentially does.
I actually like him, my crazy empathizes w his tho I disapprove of his actions