Running away with the fiancée of the crown prince is by itself a crime. The wedding was just three months away, the entire country was preparing for it and the painters were hired and sent by the royal family. In other words, not only was the monarchs humiliated, the prince was publicly cuckolded by another man. When the nobles and commoners condemned Ines and the painter guy, how does Valeztena try to save her to keep her life? Kill the man who committed the crime with her and ask for pardon from the royal family for Ines.
To put this under modern light, if Princess Diana has ran away with another man just before her wedding, would it be a worldwide scandal or not? They say approximately 700 million people from 74 countries across the globe watched their wedding. Even by today’s standard she would have been scandalized worldwide if she had done something like that. Then imagine in Ines’s time more than a century ago. Ines was condemned by both nobles and commoners and Valeztena tried to save her life when everyone else wanted her punished, They weren’t concerned about the painter who is a stranger they don’t know. Ines herself believes Luciano didn’t really have any particular feeling about the painter. Instead, he made a cold-blooded decision to save his sister’s life.
you're correct! i've read the novel it was all part of his plan to destroy her relationship with her brother
I read the novel and the crown prince did not manipulate her brother. Her brother isn’t stupid. To begin with, Valeztena was the offender from the start because of Ines’s actions. What Oscar did was take advantage of an already messy situation by ordering Valeztena to retrieve Ines knowing that the outcome that occurred was highly likely. Like Ines says in the side story, she put her family between a rock and hard place. Oscar just took advantage by trying to appear like he had nothing to do with her tragic outcome whereas her family did despite them being pressured by the imperial family, nobles and society.
omg yes i understand that but it's not stupid to read between the lines, oscar himself implies that when he's telling her about what happened in their past lives. he purposely put her brother and father in that position to drift them apart. ines herself realizes that in that scene (if you know which one i'm talking about).
The reader doesn’t have to read between the lines because this is Ines’s conclusion in her thoughts about what Oscar intended. If anything, Oscar was counting on HER to react as he wanted. In the end, the person who would’ve been manipulated is her. Not her family. Her family negotiated from a weak stand because she committed the offense first and they needed to find justification to save her. It’s reasonable, as the party in the wrong, to agree to certain terms to save her.
Thank you for all this context! Indeed, this makes a lot of sense. I kinda like it also because it doesn't paint him as an innocent saint but someone who took a pragmatic decision in his goal to save his sister.
That’s the essence of it. You hit the nail right on its head. Ines herself said her brother is like this.
Do you guys think maybe in her second life the crown prince manipulated her brother into killing her husband?
We know he was surprised she loathed him for it and that he's usually protective, even to the point of helping her potentially kill the Crown Prince in her first life despite how it'd cost him his life.
I am not buying he did a 180 and just found her being with a poor commoner gross or disgraceful and that was all it took. Just some thoughts..