Discussion For all the broken engagements out there....

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by ATrueStory, Mar 4, 2021.

?

Who holds more moral claim?

  1. Heroine

    1 vote(s)
    6.7%
  2. Prince

    1 vote(s)
    6.7%
  3. Villainess

    13 vote(s)
    86.7%
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  1. ATrueStory

    ATrueStory Villainesses, Historical Shit, Noble Circuses

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    Sauce: https://mangadex.org/chapter/1231547/16
    https://mangadex.org/chapter/1228398/1

    I'm currently binging this anthology and I must say, that these chapters bring a lot of insight to the whole broken engagement and the trigger of the lady to being a villainess.

    In a love triangle between a prince, the 'heroine' and the 'villainess', the focus of attention is how the prince and heroine love for each other. and on their way to their happy ending. I have no qualms about other people's love and relationship. But I do have qualms against people stringing other people along just because it is convenient for them to do so. My personal take in this kind of context (barring the villainess is a perpetrator of abuse) is that the happy couple, in my eyes, is also morally deplorable people to the point of committing adultery. Engagements are considered to have an 'almost married' status and breaking them is considered to be socially, morally, and legally degrading for the other party, the lady who is about to be disgraced. Same cannot be said to the prince since he is the male lead for the heroine and if he is ruined, so is the heroine. Some people will not fault the heroine for 'falling in love' yet she is almost infallible even treated beyond the world's social and legal norms. Some people think that since 'love conquers all' the villainess lady should be satisfied to be left alive with all of her social equity and reputation destroyed as a sacrifice to a third party's happiness.

    And what about the heroine? I think that if the heroine does love the prince, she should be equally responsible for the conduct and nature of the relationship. If prince was considered to have committed adultery, I see that she may also be responsible for that. Controversial opinion, I know, since heroines are created to be almost 'perfect' and 'saint-like'.

    I guess the only equivalent I could frame this is an emotional affair while still having a relationship with another. Feel free to correct me.

    So, in this context, who does really have the moral high ground?
     
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  2. Siceraria

    Siceraria Well-Known Member

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    Just like how the original Romeo and Juliet teaches students in school that emotions shouldn't control your actions unless you want to intimately hook up with the business end of a knife or chugging some poison like some soft drink, you shouldn't break an engagement for just blind love.

    I can understand and do enjoy watching how love conquers all, but in reality, love is part of a relationship, not the entirety of it.
    I believe the villainess has the moral ground as long as she isn't actively trying to off the heroine like some young master in a CN novel.
    If the prince discovers that he loves with the heroine, he should show some regret and apologize to the villainess first and find a way to dissolve the engagement that can compensate the villainess since she was invested in the engagement in the first place through that hell called crown princess training that made her lose a significant portion of life (that could have been better spent reading novels on Novel Updates), that at the very least will give him some sympathy points.
    The heroine.... uhh.....should have chosen someone that wasn't engaged in the first place, come on! You're the heroine with like a dozen hunks salivating at your heels as if they are starving dogs at a buffet, don't ruin people's lives.

    TLDR: Villainess has moral ground, prince should get brain surgery, heroine try to catch someone not engaged.
     
  3. vannn

    vannn Well-Known Member

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    Aren’t the gentry known for having mistresses? Wife one, shack up with the other, EZ.
     
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  4. sjmcc13

    sjmcc13 Well-Known Member

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    For me, in most cases the high ground is the villainess. but it depends heavily on the social rules of the story.

    In most of these stories the Prince and the Villainess are already engaged, and as a political engagement it is not one to shrug off lightly. Meaning the prince is, normally blatantly, cheating on his fiancé which is an insult to his fiancé and her family on top of likely causing a scandal and bringing shame on his family.

    Even in settings that allow for mistresses, there are almost always rules for how you treat the fiancé and mistress that the prince is blatantly breaking.

    Most cases the villainesses actions are little more (though often escalating over time) then an attempt to drive off the heroine to end the scandal, and preserve her families honor. Really the background politics of the setting should be one that the prince is in the process of committing political/career suicide, since the villainess's family will demand retribution, and they are powerful enough to cause issues or else the engagement would not have happened, or there is another prince who is going to use this to build support for his claim to the throne at the prince's expense, or the king should look at him, and order the prince to stop disrespecting him and end the affair permanently that day.
     
  5. LockedPuppet

    LockedPuppet From the void, the circus horns~

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    It kinda depends on how the parties handle it.

    In the Prince's case:
    Okay yeah, I can't blame someone for falling in love with another person if they were engaged at a young age- that commitment was forced on you by someone else and I think a lot of people tend to forget that.

    AT THE SAME TIME HOWEVER,
    you still owe it to the person you're breaking your engagement with. If you're iffy about the engagement in the first place or don't even like them, try to get it broken off as soon as possible. The farther the breakup is from your adult life, the less likely I think it'll have a major effect on either of your social standings- after all that stuff is ultimately up to the adults.

    If you start of feeling okay about it but fall for someone else for real, then you better commit to it. You have to be absolutely sure "this is the type of person I want to spend my life with" and that they are what they say they are. You also wanna help them adjust to newer social circles since regardless of how much you lose standing you're still likely to be bringing them up to a higher stratum. Again, you also owe it to your ex-fiance to break things off as peacefully and in her family's favor. You also kind of have to accept that you're sacrificing quite a bit of future power and social standing to be with the person you love. Also, if you're going to be loveydovey, keep it discreet. If this is pre-annulment you should really be prepared to break the news to you soon-to-be ex-fiance as soon as you can.

    In the Villainess's case:
    First of all, if you suspect your fiance is making googly eyes at the Heroine, pull him aside and lay it flat what the consequences are like I mentioned above if he keeps doing so you should also make it apparent that it looks bad in public too. If he's that deadset then it's best to offer an annulment early, because there's really no reason to let him keep dragging your reputation down any longer. In this case since he wants to break up with you, you and your family likely have an advantage at the bargaining table. Granted, you might have trouble finding a spouse in the future but it's way better than the alternative.

    Also as a rule of thumb, don't harass the Heroine. If the heroine is a stranger to you I think it'd be best if you avoided contact with her as much as you can. Like don't make it apparent you're avoiding her but also keep her movements in mind. If you do have to interact keep it civil and polite, especially if you're in public since wrong moves can be used against you. If she (and the Prince) is the type to play victim then you could probably live without giving them legitimate ammo, also if things keep progressing to graduation day you may want to start building up a strong base of allies/witnesses.

    If you need to tell the Heroine off, then tell her off, but don't go out of your way to harass her and make her life miserable. That just gives her ammo. I think a lot of people on this site forget this because it's so saturated in Revenge Fiction, but I think a lot of people tend to forget this but there's also a clear difference between acting in self-defense and being spiteful and vindictive. Do what you need to protect yourself and your family, but not anything more than that.

    In the Heroine's case:
    Uh, yeah don't really know about this one. If you're gonna fall in love with someone, at least make sure they aren't married yet.
     
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  6. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    I don't think thee is a moral high ground here.

    The prince wants to marry someone else when his partner was already decided for him... Well, sucks to be him I guess. No matter how he tries managing the situation, things will suck for him, either emotionally or politically.

    The villainess wants to keep the status quo when it is breaking a part... And considering that she dedicated her whole life for that status quo, she can understandably get a bit crazy when trying to keep it the way it is.

    The heroine was probably isekai'd from somewhere and has no idea about what is happening, but there is that one guy that clearly likes her and she likes him too... Well, considering she quite possibly has a completely different view on society, marriage and what not, and she might not even know that the prince is engaged... She is just following her heart I guess? It's not like she was the one hitting on the prince in the first place. At most she was letting him lead her along.

    Basically, everyone is right to some extent and wrong to some extent... Human relationships are complicated~
     
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