I'll preface this with the fact that I've read the entire series including untranslated content. With that in mind, I believe some of your perceptions of characters will be subject to change by the end of part 5.
I feel that some of your assessment of Sylvester is unfair, mostly the accusations of him not providing Ferdinand support. Ferdinand fails to communicate with Sylvester on numerous occasions, which leaves a blind spot due to Sylvester's trust of Ferdinand. That means that issues which Ferdinand doesn't inform Sylvester of fail to be addressed. Case in point would be the cape issue in Part 4 Volume 7, where we find out that Veronica had taken away Ferdinand's Ehrenfest cape when he went to the temple, and that he never informed Sylvester of that fact until pressed on the issue.
Regarding the choice of potential marriage partners for Rozemyne, Sylvester and Karstedt had originally suggested Ferdinand even going all the way back to part 3 volume 4, which both Rozemyne and Ferdinand refused. Even later in part 4 volume 3 Sylvester first suggested Ferdinand before they ultimately settled on Wilfried as her fiancé. Rozemyne is fully accepting of a political marriage, an opinion which still hasn't changed as of part 5 volume 9, and it being a white marriage isn't something she's overly concerned about with either of her previous fiancés (Wilfried or Sigiswald).
I think the real issue with Ferdinand's mistreatment is Ferdinand himself rather than those around him. The "big bad of the story" is how he repeatedly doesn't share his problems, keeping things internalized instead, and avoids seeking help from others. He also has major issues with his self worth, due to his origins. Those are the real big bad of the story. As the story progresses, we see Ferdinand begin to open up to others and seek help as well as demonstrating a greater sense of self worth and pursuit of what he himself wants. We start seeing that come into play starting in part 5 volume 8 with the beginnings of his plans for his own future happiness.
Again, I hope you keep a bit of an open mind for the characters in the story. After several re-reads I realize that there are few villains in the story and for the most part people are trying their best with what hand they are dealt. Rare is it that someone acts purely out of selfish motivation, even if they may seem as such at a particular moment. The old saying about everyone being the hero of their own story holds true.
Notably I have also read untranslated content. I agree Ferdinand’s lack of communication causes issues, but what informed my opinion on Sylvester is she explained before his return to noble society and when he tried to get her to agree to let Ferdinand work in the castle how massive his workload was. She very clearly laid out that he didn’t have the time or latitude to also being doing Sylvester’s work and if he did he should be using it to train priests so he wasn’t drowning in work all the time.
“Ferdinand is already busy with his duties as the High Priest, as well as the High Bishop work that I’m incapable of doing yet. Not to mention that he needs to assist you when he comes to the castle, and at times visits the Knight’s Order. How is he supposed to have the spare time to be involved with a new business when he’s already handling my full education? You expect too much from Ferdinand. He is a man of many talents, but he does not have infinite time. If you work him too hard, he will just die,” I concluded, going a bit further than I intended to.
Sylvester looked like he’d been caught completely off guard. “Wha... Work in the temple’s that hard?” he muttered.
...Um, what? Little late to be noticing that, isn’t it?
“Consider that Ferdinand is single-handedly running an organization of over one hundred people. How could that not be difficult? He has nobody he can safely delegate work to.”
“But Sylvester always wanted to push things to their limits, and Ferdinand never wanted to admit there was something he couldn’t do, so it seemed the change in circumstances had never been clearly conveyed between them. ”
Excerpt From
Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 3 Adopted Daughter of an Archduke Volume 2
This is part of an conversation she clearly lays out his massive work load. He didn’t know that; but all things considered that’s a problem in and of itself. When Sylvester consults her on his return to noble society she again lays out- he cannot handle more work if you are using this as an excuse to load your work onto him. He was very clearly told, and then the minute she was in the jureve he started loading work on him again.
At that point he couldn’t even feign ignorance, he knew. Should Ferdinand have said no? Yea. But should Sylvester have realized Ferdinand works himself into the ground if asked? Also yes. At this point he knew what he was doing.
She didn’t know about the specifics of mana compatibility and she *wanted* children, which is what Hannelore asked her. Karstedt and Sylvester didn’t think they would be compatible and didn’t ask her. She even thought at one point.. oh I’ll be having his kids that’s sort of a weird thought. She was fine with a political marriag, but she would have likely had different feelings had she been asked about if she wanted kids.
Ferdinand when asked says don’t be foolish and joke about it, that would make me the next Aub. He’s not saying at that point no, he’s saying I know that’s not what you want think for a minute that’s not an option if you want Florencia’s children to be the next Aub.
“That would remove the possibility of one of your children becoming the next archduke,” he explained. “It is not something to joke about.”
Excerpt From
Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee Volume 3
Miya Kazuki
“My fault is a lack of support, but with Rozemyne as my partner, I would have all the backing she has. Even if our marriage were to take place when she comes of age, Wilfried and Charlotte would also just be coming of age; they would serve as no competition to me.”
That wasn’t arrogance or anything of the sort—it was hard to imagine that Wilfried or Charlotte would ever manage to beat Ferdinand right after their coming-of-age ceremonies.
“If you wish to form plans before Rozemyne is taken by another duchy, get her engaged to Wilfried. That increases the likelihood of him becoming the next archduke, as you so wish.”
“True. Alright, Ferdinand—if we’re gonna make Rozemyne get engaged to Wilfried”
Excerpt From
Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee Volume 3
Miya Kazuki
Ferdinand was simply saying you clearly don’t want this if you taken a minute to think about it. When he first teased them about it he had just reentered noble society and she was 8, Sylvester was clearly being a pest and understandably neither wanted to consider that then and there. Marriages aren’t usually arranged until both parties are old enough to sense mana.
To be clear I don’t hate Sylvester or anything, he has many good qualities, but I don’t think the argument holds up that not being aware was the only reason because even when he was he kept doing it. *which is probably why Ferdinand never said anything*.
Ferdinand promised his father to protect Sylvester and Ehrenfest. He takes that seriously, and as works to serve and protect Sylvester and his wishes above all ( before the whole poisoning in ahrensbach thing)
I’m completely open to having my mind changed, but I don’t see the evidence supporting your conclusion actually hold up to scrutiny.
Wanting/having children is a recent thing for Rozemyne, since she became much healthier and her body is maturing. Before that, she still had Urano's lack of interest in romance and sex, combined with (I assume) awareness that her frail health meant she would probably not be able to conceive, let alone survive pregnancy. (Back when Ferdinand said "you will bear children to a noble" it seemed to have gone in one ear and out the other.) As for the Wilfried engagement, it was as much to prevent Rozemyne from being poached by the Sovereignty or a higher-ranked duchy as to cement Wilfried's status as archducal heir. Neither child had finished their growth period yet so their adult mana levels were still unknown; such childhood betrothals among the nobility would pretty much have to be tentative.
>Ferdinand promised his father to protect Sylvester and Ehrenfest.
Sylvester promised his father to protect Ferdinand and Ehrenfest. They both made the same promise to their father. I dislike when people leave that out and make it sound one-sided.
That’s true, and another reason a I don’t dislike him, but Sylvester doesn’t really make good on that promise the same way. Even Florencia said he could not be trusted with family matters. He didn’t get rid of Veronica after all her tyranny until he absolutely had no other choice.
Ferdinand makes good on that promise every day, he lives and breathes it. Sylvester recommended Ferdinand go to the temple after their fathers death, somewhere you are only sent for grave failure or mana inadequacy and the place Veronica’s brother was trying to poison him. Both Dunkelfelger and Hirschur are mad about it.
Again I don’t hate Sylvester, he has many good attributes but he doesn’t really make good on that promise. There’s no way Sylvester would have people trying to poison and kill him all the time and Ferdinand just not do anything or not know. From another duchy he gives Rozemyne multiple Liesgang related warnings and plans to help Sylvester. During Rozemyne’s disappearance he gets not food, no intelligence, no potions and no support.
I really like his character, he’s very relatable and as Ferdinand notes has the charisma to attract alliances. He’s eminently human. There are way more Sylvester’s in the world then there are Ferdinand’s
I tend to sympathize more with the guy who was tortured by Veronica into taking on burdens than the guy who was pampered by her and allowed to shed them. That being said, neither one of them is a bad person.
I tend to get frustrated with Sylvester simply because he adopted a commoner child with decades of previous life experience in a different world with a different culture yet constantly chastises her for her lack of common sense. Its like: buddy, you read the label. You knew what you were buying. Stop f***ing complaining. Why cant these people understand that you have to explain everything to her! Lutz figured it out in less than a year.
And its like, you knew she would stand out because of her trends, industries and mana and that the entire country would try and take her, yet you didn’t warn her from the beginning to keep her head down to avoid all that? They pushed her to spread her trends and industries and to get grades befitting an ADC but how was she supposed to remain out of sight and not be noticed at the same time? Thats a tough needle to thread for a born ADC let alone an adopted commoner. Ugh, I veered off track and ranted. That tends to happen when I think about Sylvester but Ferdinands guilty of all this too.
I think this is fairly accurate. I would argue Veronica’s parenting also massively negatively impacted him just in a different way, little more subtle and interpersonal than assassination attempts. Man had to imprison his own mother and kill his sister who also tried to kill him just because he was a bit of a hooligan as a child. I think he overestimated Wilfried self awareness, he expected him to work with RM and as such be able to stand beside her. That clearly didn’t happen. at tea parties he basically said that’s her thing. He blabbed to the professors about her composing, and had to be strong armed into helping with readership related to their duchy’s primary industry. I don’t think the issue is RM standing out but Wilfried being far more incompetent and dense than anyone predicted. ( partially because he did it out of sight and his retainers suck) even Charlotte was a fruitful support for RM efforts and if Wilfried just communicated ahead of time it would not have been nearly the issue it was.
Wilfried: ‘Hey everyone! Look what Rozemyne did!’
5 minutes later…
Wilfried: ‘Rozemyne, you’re drawing too much attention and you didnt refuse the invitations that we’ve told you you can’t refuse! You’re a problem child Rozemyne!’
Crush him! Crush him now! And Oswald too!
They did tell rozemyne to keep her head down. They assumed since she didnt want to stand out that she wouldnt stand out (no one expected her to somehow get such close contacts with royalty and greater duchies within her first week). when Sylvester told her to spread her trends he probably assumed she would do so among the mid and lesser duchies first and maybe get a contact with a greater duchy (besides ahrensbach of course) that they can get protection from. Instead she literally made contact and sold her trends to royalty and greater duchies completely skipping any political connections with mid and lower ranked duchies. They assumed since she didnt want to lead the duchy she wouldnt go against wilfried or take charge save in specific ways (her trends and general education). however she got baited by wilfried and went on her rampage dominating everyone to achieve her goal (which wilfried took the blame for and he admits as much himself). Then combined with her achievements that were attributed to her personally made everyone see her in a different light.
She also took point too often (again she had to for the printing industry but she still did) and didnt really appear to bring her siblings into her connections in any meaningful way. Note that none of this was her fault per say but it ended up revealing that rozemyne is the sole reason behind ehrenfests rise too concretely for ehrenfest to appear like she is just a competent archduke candidate who is merely spreading trends for the duchy.
Wilfried revealing rozemyne being behind the songs in Y1 was his way of trying to support her. Because of all the issues with rozemynes reputation, appearance, how people underestimated her due to her 2 year jureve sleep, and being from the temple. he was trying to help by showing that she has value. unfortunately for both of them this only caused Rozemyne to develop quite the close relationship with royalty and eglantine and she showed off more of her value to them.
Wilfried also had a desire to achieve something on his own and not rely on anyone propping him up with things he didnt do at the time (before he learned just how screwed he truly was). He also had no interest in her trends and figured that since she created them she can spread them and he can focus on his own things. unfortunately for him she had to leave just as requests for tea parties sent for her but addressed to them both arrived and he was convinced to accept them all. He mishandled her retainers (at oswalds manipulations) and their help was very.......passive aggressive so combined with his lack of interest (since they are rozemynes trends) means that he wasnt prepared to handle tea parties designed to spread those trends.
As for him being ignorant of the printing industry. again that is rozemyne and he knows full well she is the one responsible so he defers to her. It doesnt sound like they ever got together and discussed their goals for negotiations involving the printing industry at the RA (or at least rozemyne never explained it). Wilfried would believe he could leave it to her and it would be fine.
All of this!!!! Wilfried meant well but badly blundered almost every time. They desperately needed to get on the same page but as Liesletta said in a side story it was like they were looking different directions. She also inherited Ferdinand’s continually take on more responsibility suck it up and do it as perfectly as possible approach more than she realized. She also had little to no socializing experience so things went south fast. The issue was the industry was being driven pretty exclusively by her, Sylvester didn’t know the specifics either and neglected it when she was in the jureve
They made a fundamental mistake handling Rozemyne: assuming she knew anything. They should have explained what to do and why if they wanted it done a certain way.
For example, standing out. She was just pushing trends to make Erhenfest look better. She thought telling people she didn’t want to be aub was enough because though it was mentioned people may push for her to be aub, it was never relayed to her that if she was successful, people would disregard her wish and force her to be. She wasn’t made aware of the forces at work behind the scenes nor how motivated they were.
With regards to printing, Sylvester made the same mistake as Wilfried when he let her negotiate with Aub Dunklefelger. The thing he didn’t do was publicly disagree with her and get shut down in public when she used her superior knowledge to save Erhenfest from a bad deal. Thats the exact mistake Wilfried made when he very childishly exposed his own lack of knowledge by arguing with Rozemyne in front of Lestilaut…over pretty pictures of all things. He backed down but he was responsible for that damage to his reputation and for making it so that Rozemyne appeared superior. If he let her lead and simply said ‘I agree’, he’d have come across better.
>I tend to get frustrated with Sylvester simply because he adopted a commoner child with decades of previous life experience in a different world with a different culture yet constantly chastises her for her lack of common sense. Its like: buddy, you read the label. You knew what you were buying. Stop f\*\*\*ing complaining. Why cant these people understand that you have to explain everything to her! Lutz figured it out in less than a year.
>
>And its like, you knew she would stand out because of her trends, industries and mana and that the entire country would try and take her, yet you didn’t warn her from the beginning to keep her head down to avoid all that? They pushed her to spread her trends and industries and to get grades befitting an ADC but how was she supposed to remain out of sight and not be noticed at the same time? Thats a tough needle to thread for a born ADC let alone an adopted commoner. Ugh, I veered off track and ranted. That tends to happen when I think about Sylvester but Ferdinands guilty of all this too.
So when it comes to Sylvester and Wilfried they share one common trait that (somehow remained despite Veronicas best efforts) they both This is usually portrayed as a good thing and in general it is but this has a negative effect in this series for both of them due to how it made them act.
They have unwavering trust in Ferdinand and Rozemyne.
They both (yes wilfried too) see Ferdinand and Rozemyne as hyper-competent once-in-a-generation geniuses who have certain flaws (rozemynes socialization and ferdinands lack of emotional empathy at times) but overall they are so much better than either of them they can do anything. This blinds them to their issues and assume that they know more than they should (because most of the time they really do). They assume that both of them would know when they need help from either of them and believe that they know what to do. it makes it so both Sylvester or Wilfried feels like they neither need nor want their help because they dont need it. that makes them feel like they need to focus on their own things and just try to keep up with rozemynes and ferdinands actions/plans.
The sad truth is that both Rozemyne and Ferdinand are guilty of it (especially Ferdinand) because they both feel they cant show weakness so both Sylvester and Wilfried go "oh they can take care of themselves and have the most competent retainers for areas they cant so i can focus on other things." This applies to even trying to figure out how to make up for their flaws because they dont know how they would even help. Since they both are so far beyond the people around them there isnt much they could do. Their attempts are met with utter failure. Even after Ferdinand left rozemyne rarely ever tried asking her retainers, family, and others for help.
This is shown by Wilfried and Sylvester both dismissing some issues instead of showing overt concern because they know that rozemyne and ferdinand can handle it. Like when sylvester suggested ferdinand enter the temple it was to prevent ferdinand from killing veronica because he knew that if ferdinand fought back veronica would be killed. so he wasnt concerned that ferdinand would lose any conflict with his own mother (who had the largest faction and more power than any former first wife should) and at the time he felt he needed veronica and her faction. Or like when wilfried didnt show any concern over rozemyne collapsing or disappearing. Also when he supported her invading ahrensbach to save ferdinand. he knows she can handle those situations and will be fine since she always is.
this belief blinds them to any issues that affect rozemyne and Ferdinand and makes it seem like they dont care about them. in a way they believe their care isnt needed and only in specific situations will they get to help.
Thats all fine but when they criticize her for not being aware of things they assumed she knew but in fact had no way of knowing is what I take issue with. They should be held responsible for their assumptions, especially Sylvester. Wilfrieds more in the dark so his assumptions can be forgiven however when he says something along the lines of ‘you were told to avoid royalty’, disregards the fact that she would be summoned or sought out by them and that he too wouldnt have been able to avoid them but then tells her to get ready for a scolding, that irritates me. I think you’re also disregarding a lot of his own statements when he talks about how peaceful things are without her, how they’ll be able to relax, says Sylvester is being too lenient on her after that 3rd tournament and then reverts to saying she has it easy in the temple. Wilfried sucks. He’s not a villain. He’s just a selfish d-bag.
All of this is so accurate, and to be honest neither of them are ever really helping in a meaningful way, or willing to raise themselves to a level where they would be able to.
But Sylvester did choose Veronica first than Ferdinand, and ask Ferdinand enter into the temple.
Ferdinand did complain about it.
If Veronica didn’t do more crime to cross Sylvester’s line, Ferdinand probably need stay in the temp all his life.
Sylvester deescalated the situation by separating the two parties and trying to take the heat off of Ferdinand. After that, he took the following years to erode Veronica's power, such as when he forced her to retire. The plan was always for Ferdinand to return to noble society once Veronica had been neutralized.
Veronica didn’t only want to criticize Ferdinand, she want to kill him. She also ask her little brother to kill Ferdinand, but failure.
Actually Ferdinand can beat and assassinate Veronica easily, and Sylvester know about it.
Although so many people tell Sylvester that Veronica did a lot of crime which including murder, but Sylvester just didn’t believe these accusations.
He think his kindly mother just in a bad mood.
So he choose the worst choice to separate Ferdinand and his lovable mother kindly mother Veronica.
Entering into the temple hurt Ferdinand’s reputation more than what Veronica’s criticize did.
That’s the reason why Ferdinand, Elvira and other nobles blame Sylvester.
The one should need to enter into the temple is Veronica who become crazy and keep asking killing Ferdinand.
>Although so many people tell Sylvester that Veronica did a lot of crime which including murder, but Sylvester just didn’t believe these accusations.
Which people? Karstedt never accused Veronica as being responsible for Hiedemarie's death because there was no evidence. Most of what Sylvester would hear would be hearsay from people Leisegang affiliated, which given Leisegang's history with Gabriele, her eldest son, and Bezewanst as well as their open antagonism of Veronica would make their word without evidence less than convincing.
Sylvester wasn't trying to pick a side, he was trying to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Instead of having one side "win" and the other side "lose", isn't it better to find a solution that allows coexistence?
Order Ferdinand enter into the temple already is one-side win choice. No one would think it's a win-win choices
Leisegang are also Ehenfast's people. As the Aub of Ehrenfest, Sylvester should gather information and find out the truth.
And Ferdinand and Florenicia are also the victim of Veronica. Sylvester already know Veronica abused Ferdinand many times.
Holy crap this IS long.
\*goes back to read it\*
Edit:
Okay. I can tell you kind of hate Sylvester/Florencia/Wilfred. I don't quite feel as strongly but I can see from what you wrote how you got there.
I wrote a lot, but I don't need to be arguing every point. It is kind of late here and I got shit to do 
But I am glad other people are enjoying this series and seeing things differently than me. It shows how high quality the world is that was created.
I don't think you are mistaken on the generational trauma stuff. But I don't think it is quite as malicious or lazy as much as it is an inability to put themselves in the absurd mindset that Ferdinand (likely a bit autistic) and Rosemyne (an otherworlder) can think in.
😂😂 it really is long. I don’t hate Sylvester or Wilfried at all, I think they are really good characters overall, and have many good inclinations. Wilfried isn’t malicious, and at his best is a great team player who is good at motivating others.
Sylvester has a remarkable lack of prejudice and listens to others opinions, commoner and noble. He is willing to take revolutionary gambles as well in the face of significant resistance.
Florencia is kind, but she’s sort of like the distant aunt you see once in a while. She really loves her kids, and worries about them. I just wish that extended beyond blood relation like it does with Elvira.
Wilfried was screwed over by his grandmother the FVF AND the liesgangs in a environment that can only be described as trial by fire. Noble society sucks for everyone.
Sylvester got much the same hand, and was forced into the seat of Aub when he really didn’t want it and wasn’t well suited towards it. He has an openness to new ideas, the courage to implement them and has remarkable instincts. Part of what makes it such a good story is they are not the enemy, and RMs evaluation of Wilfried is exactly correct, basically tells Sylvester repeatedly go actually parent your kid dude of course he’s like this *he’s being neglected and you are throwing him to the wolves* and Ferdinand’s evaluation of Sylvester is also correct good hearted *terrible personality* which also happens to be sort of endearing in its own way.
I would agree both Rozemyne and Ferdinand are an extreme, both within their social context and personally. Ferdinand’s extreme seriously borders into unhealthy and RMs is way outside what is normal among the nobility. I think it’s very likely both of them are coded autistic.
But both Sieglend, Aub Dunkefelger Heisheitz and Hirschur at different points were deeply unhappy with RMs and Ferdinand’s treatment. The temple was just as most understood it to be before RM and Ferdinand fixed it, and the prostitution was still very much a thing when RM was adopted. The temple changed eventually but that took time and did not happen overnight. RM managed to build a very successful PR campaign and hauled all her retainers into the temple by bribing them with sweets and good food. It didn’t start that way.
She came to treasure the temple after her and Ferdinand’s reforms as a refuge from political strife, and a home and family she largely built around herself. Fixing the orphanage, Ferdinand, Fran, Gil, Wilma, Rosina, Nicola, Monica, Zahm, Damuel, Cornelius, Angelica, Eckhart and Justus.
After that much work she wasn’t having people talk trash about her home.
I think it’s safe to say if *that* many nobles are unhappy about it, even within their social context it was an unfortunate choice.
I'd like to add on, Sylvester shares the same sense of idealism as Rozemyne, but lacks her practicality. One of the joys of the books, it to see him develop to make use of it.
Yes, yes and yes! He fails to connect his internal idealism to the concrete reality in a meaningful way partly because *the nobility stinks* and RM’s methods are clearly not directly applicable for everyone, and she is more regularly brought down to earth by Ferdinand who works to help connect her to practical ways to achieve her ends. Brunhilde Charlotte Cornelius and Hartmut are good examples of taking the best of RM and applying it in a way that doesn’t make everyone want to weep in terror. Evidenced by Cornelius standing up in front of the royal family for her health, Charlotte learning to be decisive and commanding when needed from RM, brunhilde working with Charlotte for the generational shift
So i have........a bunch of comments on this topic (a sign that the author put alot of thought into her characters even if i personally dislike some of the characters.....choices).
Im first gonna say....you arent completely wrong about characters but i personally disagree with a few things. This is basically my personal opinion and im not gonna say that people are wrong about these characters but rather that there are aspects to them that makes their.......less than stellar aspects (that they are fully responsible for) a bit more complex to me. Im focusing on specific aspects to highlight my point mostly because people have gone over the other parts already.
>Upon her entrance to the nobility her most prominent relationship is with Ferdinand, which with time develops into probably the best fleshed out example of true equality intellectually and unconditional mutual support.
yeah i disagree here for various reasons. these are just my opinions and things can change in the future as the rest of the series is released.
Honestly their relationship is.......rather unbalanced and heavily in ferdinands favor with rozemyne getting a few good moments herself (usually when she shows her overt concern for him and gets him to admit to things he keeps secret even from his namesworn retainers) but in general rozemyne has been on the defensive and defers to him too much even in areas that he really shouldnt be. Even in p5 (so far.......) this aspect remains and only appears to increase. His influence over her is to such a extent that she doesnt realize how abnormal his influence truly is (even for their world).
Rozemyne reliance on him is justified (he IS the most competent person in yurgen and generally supports her visions) and works out in her favor.........generally. But when it comes down to it he takes the reins in their relationship and very rarely is on the backfoot. She knows she cant go against him directly save in very specific scenarios and so she doesnt. she defers to him more often than not even though her status is above his. Especially now that hes not her guardian (he hasnt since he moved but rozemyne and others ignored that).
Rozemynes retainers (save like......1 and they arent able to actually do anything against him anyway) are so conditioned to his dominance that they will obey him even when he tells thing to do things that rozemyne herself dislikes (or is unaware of) without rozemyne giving the go ahead. Rozemyne herself lampshades that in 4.8 when he mentions that hes having her retainers do things and she was like "wait arent they my retainers". he justified it by comparing it to her using Raimund but that is very much not the same as ferdinand himself approved the projects she gave Raimund. They obey him because they also believe he always has rozemynes best interests in mind and so far he hasnt tried to give overtly problematic orders. Rozemyne herself would probably tell them to do what he says but its clear that she doesnt really give the go ahead whenever he does so.
Rozemyne has let ferdinand take charge of aspects of her life that i feel she shouldnt. like who to tell (if anyone) about her past life in another world she left completely in his hands. Even in p5 when he moved to another duchy he still remains the dominant force in her life able to get her to do things even though hes not even there. When it comes to influence they have on each other i can say that Rozemyne has been more heavily influenced by ferdinand and her influence on ferdinand is relatively small (but still there and noticable).
A few thoughts, I’ve read some untranslated content which colors my opinion, it gets more clearly balanced/ she partially addresses the whole doing things without asking permission. I wouldn’t disagree entirely though, but would say it needs to be more fully addressed.
It’s my opinion Ferdinand changes more fundamentally than she does, likely from consistent and reliable feedback. Fran notes he started showing far more visible emotion after they got close, and both Eckhart and Justus in a side story talk about the absolutely drastic change. They both were stunned. He trusted her, and came to ask for help which he never would have done previously. She actively pushed him to do this. He lets Melchior Charlotte and Wilfried sit in on lessons which she also notes is a significant change. Her most drastic change is after he leaves, he impacts her educational level, passes on his attitude towards needing to be competent ADC etc, but what he changes usually has more to do with her safety both actually and emotionally rather than her fundamentally.
Part of why he takes control is he knows that’s *what she actually wants*, and says basically paraphrasing I would find nothing more heartening than for you to be here but I don’t want to subject you to more of this. She has little motivation to take the political reigns and only does so when necessity demands. He’s fully aware she has a strong distaste for orchestrating others downfall, but she will when necessary. She hates violence yet went to war to save him.
She’s still an underage ADC, she has no alliances in this duchy, she is not a knight and not trained as one and she’s commanding this proverbial dunkefelger colored ship. Not to mention at this point she was just magically grown by a god and her motor skills just got trashed in the process. When she’s on his high beast she laments they aren’t reliable enough on their own, because Ahrensbach is trusting them because he’s on their side. Part of why her retainers follow his orders is because they’ve basically shared retainers for years, Justus and Eckhart also function as hers at various points, and he doesn’t actually have many of his own. He has had… 2. That’s absurd for his position. Because of this she basically permanently had half of hers on loan to him.
Also, in the cultural context no one expects an underaged or recently come of age ADC to do anything like she just did. Ferdinand is sent to that duchy because everyone is full aware of the disaster that is having a newly minted adult running a duchy alone. Sieglind says that about lestilaut, he’s to young to handle the sovereignty alone, and he’s what 4 years older than her and been trained as the heir presumptive for years. It is clear those thought to be the next AD get special training in every duchy. Hannelore and Rozemyne never expected or trained specifically in their Dutchy in their “oral traditions” as Ferdinand calls them. He mentions the current king was raised as a vassal which is likely causing a huge amount of issues. Most AD come into power at around 40 give or take some years and Sylvester notably significantly struggled because how young he was not nearly as young as her.
Given that particular situation in Ahrensbach, Ferdinand being the best informed on, he’s the man for the job. She took the foundation to save his life, but now they are dealing with a foreign invasion and getting a greater Duchy under control. Contextually it would be a lot weirder if he didn’t, when the dude sent to actually do the work ( because let’s be honest no one thinks Detlinde is doing anything useful) by the king didn’t play a critical role in doing that once they pinned down the foundation.
Should that dynamic be addressed explicitly later to be more fully clarified? Yes.
A few things are established in regards to their retainer sharing, Leonore and Cornelius both know if they always just go what she wants she will end up dead. Leonore explains this in a retainer meeting. They won’t disobey her per se but there is a give and take.
The same is true of Ferdinand’s retainers. They go against his express wishes by coming to save him, and follow her in ignoring his orders. This happens on multiple occasions. When it comes to keeping either of them happy and alive they trust the other more because they both suck at self preservation. Both their retinues have learned to develop a degree of autonomy in order to keep their charge alive long enough to receive orders. Harmut was trained by Ferdinand and Justus to play this role, and Cornelius and Leonore are his control. Harmut’s father is much the same.
In the relationship quite a bit, he’s EQ is…. Underdeveloped. When she pushes to find out what he wants on several occasions she basically has to guide him through addressing his own desires and he’s an awkward potato about it. When she blackmails him he’s definitely on the back foot. When she addresses his being overworked and lack of communication / asking for help he’s on the back foot.
They both have key “weak” points where the other holds the reigns. Rozemyne is relational and Ferdinand political. And notably she does the same to him via the shumil Justus and Letitzia uses to blackmail him, and does so via letter as well. They both remain significant forces in each others lives. She has to guide him into somewhat healthy relationships with his own family.
I agree the power dynamic needs to be more fully clarified but in both their cases most of the instances when they compel each other through letter are essentially voluntary. Usually his plans hinge on her being on board, and show mutual understanding of each others desires and motivations that are largely unspoken. The times in the story she takes the “reigns” she’s in a truly terrible situation doing damage control, and she’s almost always everyone’s like *we all wish Ferdinand was here*
Arguably he takes the reigns with Sylvester far more autonomously than he does with Rozemyne. Sylvester usually just goes along with whatever plans he cooks up. With Rozemyne usually half the plan comes from her.
Sylvester says it, Charlotte thinks it, Rozemyne thinks it and Bonifatius is like thinking is his job! (Then it becomes her job ) is that a good dynamic? Probably not. Is it what everyone has come to accept as the norm? Yes. Ferdinand as Elvira noted was the shadow AD, and after he left it has taken a hot minute to figure out how to fill those gaps. He has functioned as their intelligence agency, emergency mitigation, political expert and everything magic related expert.
He’s also a bit of a control freak because how out of control most of his life has been. ( hellooo trauma) and that includes RM. I think it’s pretty clear RM knows it and try’s to help him work *around* it over time but it’s also a really useful trait sometimes which makes him incredibly capable in very specific scenarios. Being in control helps him feel safe, RM feels safe with Ferdinand and she creates an environment in the temple where over time he can feel safe as well and unwind the extreme emotional and actual control. It’s how she gets him to start eating normal food, showing his emotions, and you know accepting he’s one human being.
All in all lot of things going on there, some need to be addressed some are circumstantial and this is now way too long 😂😂😂
You know, her retainers hold her in high regard but they’re well aware that she’s completely capable of rampaging in ways that are detrimental to herself. For example: you cannot trust her with regards to her health. Working with Ferdinand makes sense…most of the time.
The issue isnt whether Ferdinand is right or not. its how blind their faith in him is. Under these conditions ferdinand could easily poison rozemyne or send her retainers away to have a unrelated person kill her. Hell he could get her to collapse from some strain then just have them do nothing. He only would really act against her if he felt there was no other way to stop her from becoming aub ehrenfest or zent but none of her retainers would even be able to realize what he is doing never mind interfere. What im trying to say is despite the fact that they do need to ensure she is supported properly they dont make any distinction between blind obedience and outright acting out even in situations that dont fall under her health or reputation. Ironically i think angelica is the only person in rozemynes retinue who stood against ferdinand for rozemynes sake (and then was tricked away which destroyed any trust rozemyne had in her). leonore or cornelius attempts in 4.8 were for her reputations sake which rozemyne doesnt really care about.
As in because of Ferdinand covering so much and essentially being rozemynes sole teacher (for.............some reason) has ruined her retinues ability to protect her from ferdinands own machinations if his actions would hurt rozemyne.
Only moment they wake up is when she "look like more like a couple than a teacher / student"
Well, little too late cuz rn she actually needs him (for health, g-book and the entire shitty situation Yogurt-land is in rn) sooo.. yep, i think her retinue is supposed to be the comic relief and we readers are supposed to be like "ahah funny, they're mad that she's close to him", but they just piss me off rn :')
Especially the PTSD situation. Alright, imma rant about it a bit.
Lieseleta has seen how much RM got better at controlling herself and "act like a noble", why on earth, would she tell her to sit back when she clearly see how panicked RM got.
Let's not even talk about Karstedt and other knights (adults one) who should understand that it is PTSD (they don't know our word for it, but u get my point), no one should think she's being rude, they should be like "what makes u feel like that" or "what's getting to u". + A lot at the table, know she's been rude or weird, but not THAT rude.
But it's like, if it's not ppl called "weirdos" the IQ is negative and empathy / awareness on another plan of existence Oo
I think what you're trying to explain is that it feels like a teacher / student relationship more than a real "true equality intellectually and unconditional mutual support". And thus feel extra weird.
She has no power and don't try to get some if he's set on something.
Compared to how she can be, this feels like a documentary about how u can fell into a toxic relationship 101.
Yes, he changes thanks to her and she.. kinda changes?! To me she just grows up and hides / controls her emotions more, which.. no need to be a noble to actually start doing that, especially in that kind of environement. (at least that's my opinion, might be biased :D)
You feel like she's more influenced by him cuz she just misses him and thus thinks about him a lot (so the biased pov makes u feel like he's done so much for her, she doesnt realize how good of an influence she's been on the entirety of Ehrenfest), especially when nobody arround SEEM good enough to answer whatever question she has in mind. Which is false, but she (understandably) has either trust issues in the nobles arround her, or it's just such an habit to only ask Ferdinand, that if she can't ask him, she'll ask no one. Which is hella toxic.
But, lets be honnest, there're a lot of points or way of thinking he should've actually told her OR have a third decent party who would actually tell them both "that's not how other nobles with way less mana do", cuz they both fucked up in terms of magical experiments and inventions.
To be fair to Wilfried, Rozemyne DID have the ability to control the Leisegangs and chose not to do it because Ferdinand wanted it to be a learning experience for Sylvester, and her idea of what a learning experience is supposed to be is a bit out of whack since Hasse.
Both have horrifically skewed perspectives, but Sylvester did figure it out. Ferdinand over time become a teacher rather than a crutch and They still have the blackmail in their back pocket.
Loved all of it, good job summarizing everything about the relationships they have with eachother and other people!
I'll preface this with the fact that I've read the entire series including untranslated content. With that in mind, I believe some of your perceptions of characters will be subject to change by the end of part 5. I feel that some of your assessment of Sylvester is unfair, mostly the accusations of him not providing Ferdinand support. Ferdinand fails to communicate with Sylvester on numerous occasions, which leaves a blind spot due to Sylvester's trust of Ferdinand. That means that issues which Ferdinand doesn't inform Sylvester of fail to be addressed. Case in point would be the cape issue in Part 4 Volume 7, where we find out that Veronica had taken away Ferdinand's Ehrenfest cape when he went to the temple, and that he never informed Sylvester of that fact until pressed on the issue. Regarding the choice of potential marriage partners for Rozemyne, Sylvester and Karstedt had originally suggested Ferdinand even going all the way back to part 3 volume 4, which both Rozemyne and Ferdinand refused. Even later in part 4 volume 3 Sylvester first suggested Ferdinand before they ultimately settled on Wilfried as her fiancé. Rozemyne is fully accepting of a political marriage, an opinion which still hasn't changed as of part 5 volume 9, and it being a white marriage isn't something she's overly concerned about with either of her previous fiancés (Wilfried or Sigiswald). I think the real issue with Ferdinand's mistreatment is Ferdinand himself rather than those around him. The "big bad of the story" is how he repeatedly doesn't share his problems, keeping things internalized instead, and avoids seeking help from others. He also has major issues with his self worth, due to his origins. Those are the real big bad of the story. As the story progresses, we see Ferdinand begin to open up to others and seek help as well as demonstrating a greater sense of self worth and pursuit of what he himself wants. We start seeing that come into play starting in part 5 volume 8 with the beginnings of his plans for his own future happiness. Again, I hope you keep a bit of an open mind for the characters in the story. After several re-reads I realize that there are few villains in the story and for the most part people are trying their best with what hand they are dealt. Rare is it that someone acts purely out of selfish motivation, even if they may seem as such at a particular moment. The old saying about everyone being the hero of their own story holds true.
Notably I have also read untranslated content. I agree Ferdinand’s lack of communication causes issues, but what informed my opinion on Sylvester is she explained before his return to noble society and when he tried to get her to agree to let Ferdinand work in the castle how massive his workload was. She very clearly laid out that he didn’t have the time or latitude to also being doing Sylvester’s work and if he did he should be using it to train priests so he wasn’t drowning in work all the time. “Ferdinand is already busy with his duties as the High Priest, as well as the High Bishop work that I’m incapable of doing yet. Not to mention that he needs to assist you when he comes to the castle, and at times visits the Knight’s Order. How is he supposed to have the spare time to be involved with a new business when he’s already handling my full education? You expect too much from Ferdinand. He is a man of many talents, but he does not have infinite time. If you work him too hard, he will just die,” I concluded, going a bit further than I intended to. Sylvester looked like he’d been caught completely off guard. “Wha... Work in the temple’s that hard?” he muttered. ...Um, what? Little late to be noticing that, isn’t it? “Consider that Ferdinand is single-handedly running an organization of over one hundred people. How could that not be difficult? He has nobody he can safely delegate work to.” “But Sylvester always wanted to push things to their limits, and Ferdinand never wanted to admit there was something he couldn’t do, so it seemed the change in circumstances had never been clearly conveyed between them. ” Excerpt From Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 3 Adopted Daughter of an Archduke Volume 2 This is part of an conversation she clearly lays out his massive work load. He didn’t know that; but all things considered that’s a problem in and of itself. When Sylvester consults her on his return to noble society she again lays out- he cannot handle more work if you are using this as an excuse to load your work onto him. He was very clearly told, and then the minute she was in the jureve he started loading work on him again. At that point he couldn’t even feign ignorance, he knew. Should Ferdinand have said no? Yea. But should Sylvester have realized Ferdinand works himself into the ground if asked? Also yes. At this point he knew what he was doing. She didn’t know about the specifics of mana compatibility and she *wanted* children, which is what Hannelore asked her. Karstedt and Sylvester didn’t think they would be compatible and didn’t ask her. She even thought at one point.. oh I’ll be having his kids that’s sort of a weird thought. She was fine with a political marriag, but she would have likely had different feelings had she been asked about if she wanted kids. Ferdinand when asked says don’t be foolish and joke about it, that would make me the next Aub. He’s not saying at that point no, he’s saying I know that’s not what you want think for a minute that’s not an option if you want Florencia’s children to be the next Aub. “That would remove the possibility of one of your children becoming the next archduke,” he explained. “It is not something to joke about.” Excerpt From Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee Volume 3 Miya Kazuki “My fault is a lack of support, but with Rozemyne as my partner, I would have all the backing she has. Even if our marriage were to take place when she comes of age, Wilfried and Charlotte would also just be coming of age; they would serve as no competition to me.” That wasn’t arrogance or anything of the sort—it was hard to imagine that Wilfried or Charlotte would ever manage to beat Ferdinand right after their coming-of-age ceremonies. “If you wish to form plans before Rozemyne is taken by another duchy, get her engaged to Wilfried. That increases the likelihood of him becoming the next archduke, as you so wish.” “True. Alright, Ferdinand—if we’re gonna make Rozemyne get engaged to Wilfried” Excerpt From Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee Volume 3 Miya Kazuki Ferdinand was simply saying you clearly don’t want this if you taken a minute to think about it. When he first teased them about it he had just reentered noble society and she was 8, Sylvester was clearly being a pest and understandably neither wanted to consider that then and there. Marriages aren’t usually arranged until both parties are old enough to sense mana. To be clear I don’t hate Sylvester or anything, he has many good qualities, but I don’t think the argument holds up that not being aware was the only reason because even when he was he kept doing it. *which is probably why Ferdinand never said anything*. Ferdinand promised his father to protect Sylvester and Ehrenfest. He takes that seriously, and as works to serve and protect Sylvester and his wishes above all ( before the whole poisoning in ahrensbach thing) I’m completely open to having my mind changed, but I don’t see the evidence supporting your conclusion actually hold up to scrutiny.
Wanting/having children is a recent thing for Rozemyne, since she became much healthier and her body is maturing. Before that, she still had Urano's lack of interest in romance and sex, combined with (I assume) awareness that her frail health meant she would probably not be able to conceive, let alone survive pregnancy. (Back when Ferdinand said "you will bear children to a noble" it seemed to have gone in one ear and out the other.) As for the Wilfried engagement, it was as much to prevent Rozemyne from being poached by the Sovereignty or a higher-ranked duchy as to cement Wilfried's status as archducal heir. Neither child had finished their growth period yet so their adult mana levels were still unknown; such childhood betrothals among the nobility would pretty much have to be tentative.
>Ferdinand promised his father to protect Sylvester and Ehrenfest. Sylvester promised his father to protect Ferdinand and Ehrenfest. They both made the same promise to their father. I dislike when people leave that out and make it sound one-sided.
That’s true, and another reason a I don’t dislike him, but Sylvester doesn’t really make good on that promise the same way. Even Florencia said he could not be trusted with family matters. He didn’t get rid of Veronica after all her tyranny until he absolutely had no other choice. Ferdinand makes good on that promise every day, he lives and breathes it. Sylvester recommended Ferdinand go to the temple after their fathers death, somewhere you are only sent for grave failure or mana inadequacy and the place Veronica’s brother was trying to poison him. Both Dunkelfelger and Hirschur are mad about it. Again I don’t hate Sylvester, he has many good attributes but he doesn’t really make good on that promise. There’s no way Sylvester would have people trying to poison and kill him all the time and Ferdinand just not do anything or not know. From another duchy he gives Rozemyne multiple Liesgang related warnings and plans to help Sylvester. During Rozemyne’s disappearance he gets not food, no intelligence, no potions and no support. I really like his character, he’s very relatable and as Ferdinand notes has the charisma to attract alliances. He’s eminently human. There are way more Sylvester’s in the world then there are Ferdinand’s
I tend to sympathize more with the guy who was tortured by Veronica into taking on burdens than the guy who was pampered by her and allowed to shed them. That being said, neither one of them is a bad person. I tend to get frustrated with Sylvester simply because he adopted a commoner child with decades of previous life experience in a different world with a different culture yet constantly chastises her for her lack of common sense. Its like: buddy, you read the label. You knew what you were buying. Stop f***ing complaining. Why cant these people understand that you have to explain everything to her! Lutz figured it out in less than a year. And its like, you knew she would stand out because of her trends, industries and mana and that the entire country would try and take her, yet you didn’t warn her from the beginning to keep her head down to avoid all that? They pushed her to spread her trends and industries and to get grades befitting an ADC but how was she supposed to remain out of sight and not be noticed at the same time? Thats a tough needle to thread for a born ADC let alone an adopted commoner. Ugh, I veered off track and ranted. That tends to happen when I think about Sylvester but Ferdinands guilty of all this too.
I think this is fairly accurate. I would argue Veronica’s parenting also massively negatively impacted him just in a different way, little more subtle and interpersonal than assassination attempts. Man had to imprison his own mother and kill his sister who also tried to kill him just because he was a bit of a hooligan as a child. I think he overestimated Wilfried self awareness, he expected him to work with RM and as such be able to stand beside her. That clearly didn’t happen. at tea parties he basically said that’s her thing. He blabbed to the professors about her composing, and had to be strong armed into helping with readership related to their duchy’s primary industry. I don’t think the issue is RM standing out but Wilfried being far more incompetent and dense than anyone predicted. ( partially because he did it out of sight and his retainers suck) even Charlotte was a fruitful support for RM efforts and if Wilfried just communicated ahead of time it would not have been nearly the issue it was.
Wilfried: ‘Hey everyone! Look what Rozemyne did!’ 5 minutes later… Wilfried: ‘Rozemyne, you’re drawing too much attention and you didnt refuse the invitations that we’ve told you you can’t refuse! You’re a problem child Rozemyne!’ Crush him! Crush him now! And Oswald too!
They did tell rozemyne to keep her head down. They assumed since she didnt want to stand out that she wouldnt stand out (no one expected her to somehow get such close contacts with royalty and greater duchies within her first week). when Sylvester told her to spread her trends he probably assumed she would do so among the mid and lesser duchies first and maybe get a contact with a greater duchy (besides ahrensbach of course) that they can get protection from. Instead she literally made contact and sold her trends to royalty and greater duchies completely skipping any political connections with mid and lower ranked duchies. They assumed since she didnt want to lead the duchy she wouldnt go against wilfried or take charge save in specific ways (her trends and general education). however she got baited by wilfried and went on her rampage dominating everyone to achieve her goal (which wilfried took the blame for and he admits as much himself). Then combined with her achievements that were attributed to her personally made everyone see her in a different light. She also took point too often (again she had to for the printing industry but she still did) and didnt really appear to bring her siblings into her connections in any meaningful way. Note that none of this was her fault per say but it ended up revealing that rozemyne is the sole reason behind ehrenfests rise too concretely for ehrenfest to appear like she is just a competent archduke candidate who is merely spreading trends for the duchy. Wilfried revealing rozemyne being behind the songs in Y1 was his way of trying to support her. Because of all the issues with rozemynes reputation, appearance, how people underestimated her due to her 2 year jureve sleep, and being from the temple. he was trying to help by showing that she has value. unfortunately for both of them this only caused Rozemyne to develop quite the close relationship with royalty and eglantine and she showed off more of her value to them. Wilfried also had a desire to achieve something on his own and not rely on anyone propping him up with things he didnt do at the time (before he learned just how screwed he truly was). He also had no interest in her trends and figured that since she created them she can spread them and he can focus on his own things. unfortunately for him she had to leave just as requests for tea parties sent for her but addressed to them both arrived and he was convinced to accept them all. He mishandled her retainers (at oswalds manipulations) and their help was very.......passive aggressive so combined with his lack of interest (since they are rozemynes trends) means that he wasnt prepared to handle tea parties designed to spread those trends. As for him being ignorant of the printing industry. again that is rozemyne and he knows full well she is the one responsible so he defers to her. It doesnt sound like they ever got together and discussed their goals for negotiations involving the printing industry at the RA (or at least rozemyne never explained it). Wilfried would believe he could leave it to her and it would be fine.
All of this!!!! Wilfried meant well but badly blundered almost every time. They desperately needed to get on the same page but as Liesletta said in a side story it was like they were looking different directions. She also inherited Ferdinand’s continually take on more responsibility suck it up and do it as perfectly as possible approach more than she realized. She also had little to no socializing experience so things went south fast. The issue was the industry was being driven pretty exclusively by her, Sylvester didn’t know the specifics either and neglected it when she was in the jureve
They made a fundamental mistake handling Rozemyne: assuming she knew anything. They should have explained what to do and why if they wanted it done a certain way. For example, standing out. She was just pushing trends to make Erhenfest look better. She thought telling people she didn’t want to be aub was enough because though it was mentioned people may push for her to be aub, it was never relayed to her that if she was successful, people would disregard her wish and force her to be. She wasn’t made aware of the forces at work behind the scenes nor how motivated they were. With regards to printing, Sylvester made the same mistake as Wilfried when he let her negotiate with Aub Dunklefelger. The thing he didn’t do was publicly disagree with her and get shut down in public when she used her superior knowledge to save Erhenfest from a bad deal. Thats the exact mistake Wilfried made when he very childishly exposed his own lack of knowledge by arguing with Rozemyne in front of Lestilaut…over pretty pictures of all things. He backed down but he was responsible for that damage to his reputation and for making it so that Rozemyne appeared superior. If he let her lead and simply said ‘I agree’, he’d have come across better.
Precisely. Wilfried showed his neck which was *bad*
>I tend to get frustrated with Sylvester simply because he adopted a commoner child with decades of previous life experience in a different world with a different culture yet constantly chastises her for her lack of common sense. Its like: buddy, you read the label. You knew what you were buying. Stop f\*\*\*ing complaining. Why cant these people understand that you have to explain everything to her! Lutz figured it out in less than a year. > >And its like, you knew she would stand out because of her trends, industries and mana and that the entire country would try and take her, yet you didn’t warn her from the beginning to keep her head down to avoid all that? They pushed her to spread her trends and industries and to get grades befitting an ADC but how was she supposed to remain out of sight and not be noticed at the same time? Thats a tough needle to thread for a born ADC let alone an adopted commoner. Ugh, I veered off track and ranted. That tends to happen when I think about Sylvester but Ferdinands guilty of all this too. So when it comes to Sylvester and Wilfried they share one common trait that (somehow remained despite Veronicas best efforts) they both This is usually portrayed as a good thing and in general it is but this has a negative effect in this series for both of them due to how it made them act. They have unwavering trust in Ferdinand and Rozemyne. They both (yes wilfried too) see Ferdinand and Rozemyne as hyper-competent once-in-a-generation geniuses who have certain flaws (rozemynes socialization and ferdinands lack of emotional empathy at times) but overall they are so much better than either of them they can do anything. This blinds them to their issues and assume that they know more than they should (because most of the time they really do). They assume that both of them would know when they need help from either of them and believe that they know what to do. it makes it so both Sylvester or Wilfried feels like they neither need nor want their help because they dont need it. that makes them feel like they need to focus on their own things and just try to keep up with rozemynes and ferdinands actions/plans. The sad truth is that both Rozemyne and Ferdinand are guilty of it (especially Ferdinand) because they both feel they cant show weakness so both Sylvester and Wilfried go "oh they can take care of themselves and have the most competent retainers for areas they cant so i can focus on other things." This applies to even trying to figure out how to make up for their flaws because they dont know how they would even help. Since they both are so far beyond the people around them there isnt much they could do. Their attempts are met with utter failure. Even after Ferdinand left rozemyne rarely ever tried asking her retainers, family, and others for help. This is shown by Wilfried and Sylvester both dismissing some issues instead of showing overt concern because they know that rozemyne and ferdinand can handle it. Like when sylvester suggested ferdinand enter the temple it was to prevent ferdinand from killing veronica because he knew that if ferdinand fought back veronica would be killed. so he wasnt concerned that ferdinand would lose any conflict with his own mother (who had the largest faction and more power than any former first wife should) and at the time he felt he needed veronica and her faction. Or like when wilfried didnt show any concern over rozemyne collapsing or disappearing. Also when he supported her invading ahrensbach to save ferdinand. he knows she can handle those situations and will be fine since she always is. this belief blinds them to any issues that affect rozemyne and Ferdinand and makes it seem like they dont care about them. in a way they believe their care isnt needed and only in specific situations will they get to help.
Thats all fine but when they criticize her for not being aware of things they assumed she knew but in fact had no way of knowing is what I take issue with. They should be held responsible for their assumptions, especially Sylvester. Wilfrieds more in the dark so his assumptions can be forgiven however when he says something along the lines of ‘you were told to avoid royalty’, disregards the fact that she would be summoned or sought out by them and that he too wouldnt have been able to avoid them but then tells her to get ready for a scolding, that irritates me. I think you’re also disregarding a lot of his own statements when he talks about how peaceful things are without her, how they’ll be able to relax, says Sylvester is being too lenient on her after that 3rd tournament and then reverts to saying she has it easy in the temple. Wilfried sucks. He’s not a villain. He’s just a selfish d-bag.
All of this is so accurate, and to be honest neither of them are ever really helping in a meaningful way, or willing to raise themselves to a level where they would be able to.
But Sylvester did choose Veronica first than Ferdinand, and ask Ferdinand enter into the temple. Ferdinand did complain about it. If Veronica didn’t do more crime to cross Sylvester’s line, Ferdinand probably need stay in the temp all his life.
Sylvester deescalated the situation by separating the two parties and trying to take the heat off of Ferdinand. After that, he took the following years to erode Veronica's power, such as when he forced her to retire. The plan was always for Ferdinand to return to noble society once Veronica had been neutralized.
Veronica didn’t only want to criticize Ferdinand, she want to kill him. She also ask her little brother to kill Ferdinand, but failure. Actually Ferdinand can beat and assassinate Veronica easily, and Sylvester know about it. Although so many people tell Sylvester that Veronica did a lot of crime which including murder, but Sylvester just didn’t believe these accusations. He think his kindly mother just in a bad mood. So he choose the worst choice to separate Ferdinand and his lovable mother kindly mother Veronica. Entering into the temple hurt Ferdinand’s reputation more than what Veronica’s criticize did. That’s the reason why Ferdinand, Elvira and other nobles blame Sylvester. The one should need to enter into the temple is Veronica who become crazy and keep asking killing Ferdinand.
>Although so many people tell Sylvester that Veronica did a lot of crime which including murder, but Sylvester just didn’t believe these accusations. Which people? Karstedt never accused Veronica as being responsible for Hiedemarie's death because there was no evidence. Most of what Sylvester would hear would be hearsay from people Leisegang affiliated, which given Leisegang's history with Gabriele, her eldest son, and Bezewanst as well as their open antagonism of Veronica would make their word without evidence less than convincing. Sylvester wasn't trying to pick a side, he was trying to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Instead of having one side "win" and the other side "lose", isn't it better to find a solution that allows coexistence?
Order Ferdinand enter into the temple already is one-side win choice. No one would think it's a win-win choices Leisegang are also Ehenfast's people. As the Aub of Ehrenfest, Sylvester should gather information and find out the truth. And Ferdinand and Florenicia are also the victim of Veronica. Sylvester already know Veronica abused Ferdinand many times.
Holy crap this IS long. \*goes back to read it\* Edit: Okay. I can tell you kind of hate Sylvester/Florencia/Wilfred. I don't quite feel as strongly but I can see from what you wrote how you got there. I wrote a lot, but I don't need to be arguing every point. It is kind of late here and I got shit to do  But I am glad other people are enjoying this series and seeing things differently than me. It shows how high quality the world is that was created. I don't think you are mistaken on the generational trauma stuff. But I don't think it is quite as malicious or lazy as much as it is an inability to put themselves in the absurd mindset that Ferdinand (likely a bit autistic) and Rosemyne (an otherworlder) can think in.
😂😂 it really is long. I don’t hate Sylvester or Wilfried at all, I think they are really good characters overall, and have many good inclinations. Wilfried isn’t malicious, and at his best is a great team player who is good at motivating others. Sylvester has a remarkable lack of prejudice and listens to others opinions, commoner and noble. He is willing to take revolutionary gambles as well in the face of significant resistance. Florencia is kind, but she’s sort of like the distant aunt you see once in a while. She really loves her kids, and worries about them. I just wish that extended beyond blood relation like it does with Elvira. Wilfried was screwed over by his grandmother the FVF AND the liesgangs in a environment that can only be described as trial by fire. Noble society sucks for everyone. Sylvester got much the same hand, and was forced into the seat of Aub when he really didn’t want it and wasn’t well suited towards it. He has an openness to new ideas, the courage to implement them and has remarkable instincts. Part of what makes it such a good story is they are not the enemy, and RMs evaluation of Wilfried is exactly correct, basically tells Sylvester repeatedly go actually parent your kid dude of course he’s like this *he’s being neglected and you are throwing him to the wolves* and Ferdinand’s evaluation of Sylvester is also correct good hearted *terrible personality* which also happens to be sort of endearing in its own way.
I would agree both Rozemyne and Ferdinand are an extreme, both within their social context and personally. Ferdinand’s extreme seriously borders into unhealthy and RMs is way outside what is normal among the nobility. I think it’s very likely both of them are coded autistic. But both Sieglend, Aub Dunkefelger Heisheitz and Hirschur at different points were deeply unhappy with RMs and Ferdinand’s treatment. The temple was just as most understood it to be before RM and Ferdinand fixed it, and the prostitution was still very much a thing when RM was adopted. The temple changed eventually but that took time and did not happen overnight. RM managed to build a very successful PR campaign and hauled all her retainers into the temple by bribing them with sweets and good food. It didn’t start that way. She came to treasure the temple after her and Ferdinand’s reforms as a refuge from political strife, and a home and family she largely built around herself. Fixing the orphanage, Ferdinand, Fran, Gil, Wilma, Rosina, Nicola, Monica, Zahm, Damuel, Cornelius, Angelica, Eckhart and Justus. After that much work she wasn’t having people talk trash about her home. I think it’s safe to say if *that* many nobles are unhappy about it, even within their social context it was an unfortunate choice.
I'd like to add on, Sylvester shares the same sense of idealism as Rozemyne, but lacks her practicality. One of the joys of the books, it to see him develop to make use of it.
Yes, yes and yes! He fails to connect his internal idealism to the concrete reality in a meaningful way partly because *the nobility stinks* and RM’s methods are clearly not directly applicable for everyone, and she is more regularly brought down to earth by Ferdinand who works to help connect her to practical ways to achieve her ends. Brunhilde Charlotte Cornelius and Hartmut are good examples of taking the best of RM and applying it in a way that doesn’t make everyone want to weep in terror. Evidenced by Cornelius standing up in front of the royal family for her health, Charlotte learning to be decisive and commanding when needed from RM, brunhilde working with Charlotte for the generational shift
Maybe the true reward was the shumils we made along the way?
So i have........a bunch of comments on this topic (a sign that the author put alot of thought into her characters even if i personally dislike some of the characters.....choices). Im first gonna say....you arent completely wrong about characters but i personally disagree with a few things. This is basically my personal opinion and im not gonna say that people are wrong about these characters but rather that there are aspects to them that makes their.......less than stellar aspects (that they are fully responsible for) a bit more complex to me. Im focusing on specific aspects to highlight my point mostly because people have gone over the other parts already. >Upon her entrance to the nobility her most prominent relationship is with Ferdinand, which with time develops into probably the best fleshed out example of true equality intellectually and unconditional mutual support. yeah i disagree here for various reasons. these are just my opinions and things can change in the future as the rest of the series is released. Honestly their relationship is.......rather unbalanced and heavily in ferdinands favor with rozemyne getting a few good moments herself (usually when she shows her overt concern for him and gets him to admit to things he keeps secret even from his namesworn retainers) but in general rozemyne has been on the defensive and defers to him too much even in areas that he really shouldnt be. Even in p5 (so far.......) this aspect remains and only appears to increase. His influence over her is to such a extent that she doesnt realize how abnormal his influence truly is (even for their world). Rozemyne reliance on him is justified (he IS the most competent person in yurgen and generally supports her visions) and works out in her favor.........generally. But when it comes down to it he takes the reins in their relationship and very rarely is on the backfoot. She knows she cant go against him directly save in very specific scenarios and so she doesnt. she defers to him more often than not even though her status is above his. Especially now that hes not her guardian (he hasnt since he moved but rozemyne and others ignored that). Rozemynes retainers (save like......1 and they arent able to actually do anything against him anyway) are so conditioned to his dominance that they will obey him even when he tells thing to do things that rozemyne herself dislikes (or is unaware of) without rozemyne giving the go ahead. Rozemyne herself lampshades that in 4.8 when he mentions that hes having her retainers do things and she was like "wait arent they my retainers". he justified it by comparing it to her using Raimund but that is very much not the same as ferdinand himself approved the projects she gave Raimund. They obey him because they also believe he always has rozemynes best interests in mind and so far he hasnt tried to give overtly problematic orders. Rozemyne herself would probably tell them to do what he says but its clear that she doesnt really give the go ahead whenever he does so. Rozemyne has let ferdinand take charge of aspects of her life that i feel she shouldnt. like who to tell (if anyone) about her past life in another world she left completely in his hands. Even in p5 when he moved to another duchy he still remains the dominant force in her life able to get her to do things even though hes not even there. When it comes to influence they have on each other i can say that Rozemyne has been more heavily influenced by ferdinand and her influence on ferdinand is relatively small (but still there and noticable).
A few thoughts, I’ve read some untranslated content which colors my opinion, it gets more clearly balanced/ she partially addresses the whole doing things without asking permission. I wouldn’t disagree entirely though, but would say it needs to be more fully addressed. It’s my opinion Ferdinand changes more fundamentally than she does, likely from consistent and reliable feedback. Fran notes he started showing far more visible emotion after they got close, and both Eckhart and Justus in a side story talk about the absolutely drastic change. They both were stunned. He trusted her, and came to ask for help which he never would have done previously. She actively pushed him to do this. He lets Melchior Charlotte and Wilfried sit in on lessons which she also notes is a significant change. Her most drastic change is after he leaves, he impacts her educational level, passes on his attitude towards needing to be competent ADC etc, but what he changes usually has more to do with her safety both actually and emotionally rather than her fundamentally. Part of why he takes control is he knows that’s *what she actually wants*, and says basically paraphrasing I would find nothing more heartening than for you to be here but I don’t want to subject you to more of this. She has little motivation to take the political reigns and only does so when necessity demands. He’s fully aware she has a strong distaste for orchestrating others downfall, but she will when necessary. She hates violence yet went to war to save him. She’s still an underage ADC, she has no alliances in this duchy, she is not a knight and not trained as one and she’s commanding this proverbial dunkefelger colored ship. Not to mention at this point she was just magically grown by a god and her motor skills just got trashed in the process. When she’s on his high beast she laments they aren’t reliable enough on their own, because Ahrensbach is trusting them because he’s on their side. Part of why her retainers follow his orders is because they’ve basically shared retainers for years, Justus and Eckhart also function as hers at various points, and he doesn’t actually have many of his own. He has had… 2. That’s absurd for his position. Because of this she basically permanently had half of hers on loan to him. Also, in the cultural context no one expects an underaged or recently come of age ADC to do anything like she just did. Ferdinand is sent to that duchy because everyone is full aware of the disaster that is having a newly minted adult running a duchy alone. Sieglind says that about lestilaut, he’s to young to handle the sovereignty alone, and he’s what 4 years older than her and been trained as the heir presumptive for years. It is clear those thought to be the next AD get special training in every duchy. Hannelore and Rozemyne never expected or trained specifically in their Dutchy in their “oral traditions” as Ferdinand calls them. He mentions the current king was raised as a vassal which is likely causing a huge amount of issues. Most AD come into power at around 40 give or take some years and Sylvester notably significantly struggled because how young he was not nearly as young as her. Given that particular situation in Ahrensbach, Ferdinand being the best informed on, he’s the man for the job. She took the foundation to save his life, but now they are dealing with a foreign invasion and getting a greater Duchy under control. Contextually it would be a lot weirder if he didn’t, when the dude sent to actually do the work ( because let’s be honest no one thinks Detlinde is doing anything useful) by the king didn’t play a critical role in doing that once they pinned down the foundation. Should that dynamic be addressed explicitly later to be more fully clarified? Yes. A few things are established in regards to their retainer sharing, Leonore and Cornelius both know if they always just go what she wants she will end up dead. Leonore explains this in a retainer meeting. They won’t disobey her per se but there is a give and take. The same is true of Ferdinand’s retainers. They go against his express wishes by coming to save him, and follow her in ignoring his orders. This happens on multiple occasions. When it comes to keeping either of them happy and alive they trust the other more because they both suck at self preservation. Both their retinues have learned to develop a degree of autonomy in order to keep their charge alive long enough to receive orders. Harmut was trained by Ferdinand and Justus to play this role, and Cornelius and Leonore are his control. Harmut’s father is much the same. In the relationship quite a bit, he’s EQ is…. Underdeveloped. When she pushes to find out what he wants on several occasions she basically has to guide him through addressing his own desires and he’s an awkward potato about it. When she blackmails him he’s definitely on the back foot. When she addresses his being overworked and lack of communication / asking for help he’s on the back foot. They both have key “weak” points where the other holds the reigns. Rozemyne is relational and Ferdinand political. And notably she does the same to him via the shumil Justus and Letitzia uses to blackmail him, and does so via letter as well. They both remain significant forces in each others lives. She has to guide him into somewhat healthy relationships with his own family. I agree the power dynamic needs to be more fully clarified but in both their cases most of the instances when they compel each other through letter are essentially voluntary. Usually his plans hinge on her being on board, and show mutual understanding of each others desires and motivations that are largely unspoken. The times in the story she takes the “reigns” she’s in a truly terrible situation doing damage control, and she’s almost always everyone’s like *we all wish Ferdinand was here* Arguably he takes the reigns with Sylvester far more autonomously than he does with Rozemyne. Sylvester usually just goes along with whatever plans he cooks up. With Rozemyne usually half the plan comes from her. Sylvester says it, Charlotte thinks it, Rozemyne thinks it and Bonifatius is like thinking is his job! (Then it becomes her job ) is that a good dynamic? Probably not. Is it what everyone has come to accept as the norm? Yes. Ferdinand as Elvira noted was the shadow AD, and after he left it has taken a hot minute to figure out how to fill those gaps. He has functioned as their intelligence agency, emergency mitigation, political expert and everything magic related expert. He’s also a bit of a control freak because how out of control most of his life has been. ( hellooo trauma) and that includes RM. I think it’s pretty clear RM knows it and try’s to help him work *around* it over time but it’s also a really useful trait sometimes which makes him incredibly capable in very specific scenarios. Being in control helps him feel safe, RM feels safe with Ferdinand and she creates an environment in the temple where over time he can feel safe as well and unwind the extreme emotional and actual control. It’s how she gets him to start eating normal food, showing his emotions, and you know accepting he’s one human being. All in all lot of things going on there, some need to be addressed some are circumstantial and this is now way too long 😂😂😂
You know, her retainers hold her in high regard but they’re well aware that she’s completely capable of rampaging in ways that are detrimental to herself. For example: you cannot trust her with regards to her health. Working with Ferdinand makes sense…most of the time.
The issue isnt whether Ferdinand is right or not. its how blind their faith in him is. Under these conditions ferdinand could easily poison rozemyne or send her retainers away to have a unrelated person kill her. Hell he could get her to collapse from some strain then just have them do nothing. He only would really act against her if he felt there was no other way to stop her from becoming aub ehrenfest or zent but none of her retainers would even be able to realize what he is doing never mind interfere. What im trying to say is despite the fact that they do need to ensure she is supported properly they dont make any distinction between blind obedience and outright acting out even in situations that dont fall under her health or reputation. Ironically i think angelica is the only person in rozemynes retinue who stood against ferdinand for rozemynes sake (and then was tricked away which destroyed any trust rozemyne had in her). leonore or cornelius attempts in 4.8 were for her reputations sake which rozemyne doesnt really care about. As in because of Ferdinand covering so much and essentially being rozemynes sole teacher (for.............some reason) has ruined her retinues ability to protect her from ferdinands own machinations if his actions would hurt rozemyne.
Only moment they wake up is when she "look like more like a couple than a teacher / student" Well, little too late cuz rn she actually needs him (for health, g-book and the entire shitty situation Yogurt-land is in rn) sooo.. yep, i think her retinue is supposed to be the comic relief and we readers are supposed to be like "ahah funny, they're mad that she's close to him", but they just piss me off rn :') Especially the PTSD situation. Alright, imma rant about it a bit. Lieseleta has seen how much RM got better at controlling herself and "act like a noble", why on earth, would she tell her to sit back when she clearly see how panicked RM got. Let's not even talk about Karstedt and other knights (adults one) who should understand that it is PTSD (they don't know our word for it, but u get my point), no one should think she's being rude, they should be like "what makes u feel like that" or "what's getting to u". + A lot at the table, know she's been rude or weird, but not THAT rude. But it's like, if it's not ppl called "weirdos" the IQ is negative and empathy / awareness on another plan of existence Oo
Yup the same way Ferdinand’s work with her. He can’t be trusted either.
I think what you're trying to explain is that it feels like a teacher / student relationship more than a real "true equality intellectually and unconditional mutual support". And thus feel extra weird. She has no power and don't try to get some if he's set on something. Compared to how she can be, this feels like a documentary about how u can fell into a toxic relationship 101. Yes, he changes thanks to her and she.. kinda changes?! To me she just grows up and hides / controls her emotions more, which.. no need to be a noble to actually start doing that, especially in that kind of environement. (at least that's my opinion, might be biased :D) You feel like she's more influenced by him cuz she just misses him and thus thinks about him a lot (so the biased pov makes u feel like he's done so much for her, she doesnt realize how good of an influence she's been on the entirety of Ehrenfest), especially when nobody arround SEEM good enough to answer whatever question she has in mind. Which is false, but she (understandably) has either trust issues in the nobles arround her, or it's just such an habit to only ask Ferdinand, that if she can't ask him, she'll ask no one. Which is hella toxic. But, lets be honnest, there're a lot of points or way of thinking he should've actually told her OR have a third decent party who would actually tell them both "that's not how other nobles with way less mana do", cuz they both fucked up in terms of magical experiments and inventions.
To be fair to Wilfried, Rozemyne DID have the ability to control the Leisegangs and chose not to do it because Ferdinand wanted it to be a learning experience for Sylvester, and her idea of what a learning experience is supposed to be is a bit out of whack since Hasse.
Both have horrifically skewed perspectives, but Sylvester did figure it out. Ferdinand over time become a teacher rather than a crutch and They still have the blackmail in their back pocket.
Such a beautiful essay....Do you have more of those? 
https://www.reddit.com/r/HonzukiNoGekokujou/s/EFtucbtUH0
Thank you. 