#this is why I actually hate MC’s with such strong preset personalities

[yourqueenb]

I think it’s still valid to be surprised by MC’s reaction because:

Even if she didn’t expect him to be reinstated so soon, did she not expect Trystan to want to take a freaking moment to process everything that just happened? Although he often talks about how much he dislikes his family and living in Drakovia, that’s still the place he was born and the family he was born into. As you said, she fell in love with a disgraced, exiled prince. He was still forced to leave said country and the family members/(maybe friends) he did have good relationships with. His birthright was stripped from him and his name was dragged through the mud because people thought he murdered the woman he loved. So maybe, just maybe, he would want a second to breathe now that he’s back and his name has been cleared. And maybe he would also want to figure out who the hell has been trying to frame him for the murder in the first place because the trial made it obvious that someone is actively trying to get him to go down for it. And that person most likely had something to do with Juliana’s murder. Like OP said, this MC is not stupid, but she seems to be having a lot of trouble connecting dots right now, which is just OOC.

This, along with number 1, is MC’s problem. She’s being selfish. I can understand that she might be afraid of losing her partner. But assuming that Trystan would want to just leave and go back to “normal” and acting like he’s crazy for wanting to consider just because she doesn’t want to be in Drakovia is wrong. But this isn’t really something that caused surprise for me. It just made me angry because it shows a lack of consideration on MC’s part for someone she is supposed to love and care for. This MC is very logical, but also knows how to be compassionate. Logic + compassion + the love that she has for Trystan should have affected how she responded in that scene in my opinion.

I disagree that Trystan was the first one to be an ass. Even if we ignore what I said about MC being selfish by assuming that he would want to leave, the fact that she told Trystan what to do (“you have to tell them no”) and, again, dismissed his need to process things (“what’s there to get your head around”) were asshole moves. I’m also gonna play a little game of semantics here and say that Trystan said he “was hoping that [she] might stay”. Hoping and assuming are very different things. People keep saying that Trystan was presumptuous for thinking MC would remain in Drakovia with him, but I don’t see any evidence of that. He hoped that she would stay because she’s his partner romantically and professionally. He hoped that she would stay to help him work through his emotions and dealing with his family at a time like this because she cares about him and that’s what romantic partners do. But, and now I’m gonna do some analysis, Trystan knows what MC is like. He knows how important her job is to her. And despite some people misinterpreting him hoping she would stay (I’m pretty sure he meant for the time being) as him hoping she would stay in Drakovia forever because he’s already made up his mind about taking the throne… Trystan is not the type of person who would make assumptions like that. That’s just making him out to be someone he’s not. He knows that MC is a workaholic. He would not expect MC to just drop her life and career back in NY to stay in Drakovia indefinitely. However, he hoped that she would give him some time and support him. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Even if what MC said was out of shock/desperation/fear, no one is going to take kindly to being dismissed and told what to do. That is how it came across. I will say that I didn’t like Trystan’s response either, but I do understand it. I don’t understand what MC said before that because of the things I previously mentioned.

6. I can maybe understand fearing that Trystan would get so wrapped up in all these duties that he wouldn’t have time to actually think about what he wants. But there is a way to express that without completely flying off the handle. So maybe seeing unnecessary arguments and “angst” like this is fun and interesting to some people, but it’s not to me and many others. So I can understand why it was surprising and irritating. Also, even if MC doesn’t care about royalty and what that entails, she still has to know that there is a certain etiquette, that Trystan can’t just up and leave after being reinstated, and that perhaps he wouldn’t immediately want to even if he could. She may not like it as someone who is known to hate red tape and formalities. But she is aware that those things still exist and that she is not in the US where we don’t have monarchies. So she shouldn’t be expecting things to proceed in the same way or on her timeline. And despite her feelings about it, her significant other is someone who grew up in this world and who apparently does care about it. And that should be enough for her to respect and trust what he told her — that he needs some time to think. Now if she wants to leave in the meantime, then she can leave as no one is expecting or forcing her to stay. I think what Trystan and some of us readers did expect was just for her to be considerate

Does PB really, really, REALLY make us want to believe our Crimes of Passion MC has no idea how royalty works? ESPECIALLY when we're dating the HEIR to the throne?

[advernia]

Why do you like Ikerev's MC so much? Not hating on her (or you!) but she's written to be so dumb/naive on most routes 🤔

hiya and LMAOOO no worries there anon - i agree that she’s written to be rather dumb/naive in most routes that it gets frustrating! can’t blame other players for disliking her for that reason... ah, the fate of a generic jp otoge protagonist... (゜▽゜;)

so as to why i like her despite that... i think this has to do with the fact that i’m not keen on self-inserting and neither am i a fan of the ‘become the mc’ when it comes to otomes or just vns in general. i treat the mc/protagonist as an actual character in the game and i want to see them get some character development + grow too throughout a route/course of the story.

so even if ikerev’s mc has a lot of the typical ‘kind heroine’ traits, i guess she grew on me because cybird gave her enough of an identity for me to recognize + appreciate??? while she’s consistently kind/naive/dense, thank goodness that there are the differences in her personality + mindset in each route, both preset & a result of route events & interactions. at least that’s some proof that there’s some effort into writing her, bless. sure, the dumb can be really hard to ignore (she got it bad in some routes, ouch) + she isn’t super assertive/strong/smart as a heroine but she can be endearing in her own way, especially when her characterization/development happens to complement or even contrast well with that of her love interest’s.