Rashta deserves a bad ending. She never valued the life of anyone but herself. Even now, s...

Rashta deserves a bad ending. She never valued the life of anyone but herself. Even now, she deludes herself by claiming she wishes the Iskuas were her parents - but she only feels this way because she likes what SHE gets out of them. She didn't care how THEY felt, missing their child. She didn't care that she was making them harm someone they loved. Her greatest flaw isn't that she's stupid and easy to manipulate by political enemies, it's that whenever she gets any measure of power, she uses it to be needlessly cruel. She's a victim of horrible things and it's affected the choices she makes, yes, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. Multiple murders are not in fact excused by PTSD.

That said, the fact that her cruelty became overshadowed by her stupidity in the end is a disservice to her character. It's hard to hold her accountable for the choices she made when somebody else is responsible for giving her all the worst choices. It would've been much more satisfying if she herself wanted to callously manipulate Ergi, and Ergi turned the tables on her and exposed the level of cruelty she was already comfortable with. Instead she became more and more helpless and weak, and therefore not ultimately responsible for the choices she made. I don't think her ending is actually unjust, but I understand why it FEELS like it is.

But you know whose ending is unjust? Sovieshu. A shining example of a man who made everything worse for everyone, despite having all the power and all possible options. He deserves much worse than just Being Sad over losing Navier and Being Embarrassed over Rashta. His daughter isn't his own, but he can still raise her with love. He has his empire, status, wealth, and the Western Empire has even stopped bullying their mages. As the catalyst for this whole fiasco, he was not punished nearly enough. Justice for Sovieshu! Guillotine for Sovieshu!