• No_Nick_Needed@bookwormstory.social
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    10 months ago

    Why does Ferdinand have to be the way he is? Why does he have to say or do stuff so crual to the very people who love and help him, that it just makes me want to either grab his shoulders and shacke some sense into him, or outright punch him in the face? And how can people ship Rozemyne with him? Even without the age difference, he is outright manipulative and at time even abusive to her. She deserves better.

    Rozemyne just literally saved his life and is now taking HIS comfort into account when deciding HER future… and what is his reaction? He intentionally hurts her! Please Kazuki sensei, I beg you: Either stop making him do that, or have Rozemyne slap him hard the next time he does it! Preferably the latter, so he can finally learn a lesson.

    • poltroon@bookwormstory.social
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      10 months ago

      I don’t really see him as being intentionally cruel to her, especially once he came to know her at all. I think he is often clueless at her and doesn’t always explain himself well. Sometimes he has been harsh when he thinks that protects her.

      She is also sometimes the same right back.

      They share a love for books and research and knowledge and enjoy simply being in each other’s company.

      They have protected each other and know inner secrets about each other that no one else knows. This has created a (non-sexual) intimacy in their relationship. In a world where adult men and women aren’t allowed to be close friends, it is a challenge to find a path where they keep this where they aren’t officially paired off. Thank goodness we don’t live in a world like that ourselves, any longer anyway.

      Normally I would squick about the age difference and worse the mentor/student relationship but it helps that (a) Rozemyne is actually older than him if you count both lives and (b) Ferdinand has never shown any romantic overtures at any time to anyone during the story. Also, at this time she actually has power over him in multiple dimensions. She literally has his life in her hands and she was urged by a god and even Ferdinand himself to kill him so she would receive the full book of Meistionora. And she now outranks him politically and socially, and has plenty of alternatives for partners if she will so choose.

    • poltroon@bookwormstory.social
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      10 months ago

      I also think Ferdinand is pretty confused about what Rozemyne is thinking. There’s a hint that he suspects she is choosing him above all others, but when he asks in the indirect noble fashion she refuses to answer. She’s got the royal family amulet. He’s having trouble making sense of this and when he can’t figure that out his trust level plummets.

      This is complicated by the fact that Rozemyne does not herself really seem to want to answer these questions, not even to herself.

      It’s only when he decides to put himself back in the familiar role of her guardian that he can tease out some of the answers about what she doesn’t want, and from there I suspect he’s putting some pieces together about what she might want and how to get her there. Like that he’s talked her out of going through with any integration into the Royal Family.

      If they do ship in the end, I suspect it will be a relationship of friends and equals.

          • No_Nick_Needed@bookwormstory.social
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            10 months ago

            So if you were reunited with someone and so overjoyed that in the heat of the moment, you blurted out “I’m so happy to see you, I’ll let you do whatever you like” and that person started stabbing a screwdriver through your hands, you’d just be “Oh well, I did say they could do anything they like, so nothing I can do about it. That’s just how concent works”? oO

            • Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              That is such an extremely unfair comparison that I almost have to conclude you came from an abusive household. Pinching her cheeks is a lot closer to a very strong hug or a noogie than it is to a literal stabbing, and both of the former are common expressions of affection.

              • No_Nick_Needed@bookwormstory.social
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                10 months ago

                I intentionally picked a ridiculously over the top example to show how little sense the argument makes. She gave him permission for, as you say, a gesture of affection, not to outright hurt her. And yet he abused this permission to do the latter and just plain up hurt her. It is entirely possible to pinch a cheek in a way that barely hurts or doesn’t hurt at all, and it is very clear that Rozemyne meant it that way.

                But even IF she had given him permission to outright hurt her, that still makes him a sadist for actually doing it.

                Now if his movements are still affected by the poison and he unintentionally hurt her far more than he intended, that would be fine, but in that case he should absolutely apologize for going too far. As it stands, he deserves a slap in my opinion.