I thought something similar when reading it the first and second time, your analysis is so good. Ibelin becoming a side character in Latte’s life instead of taking ownership of her own life and becoming a genuine protagonist…that’s gold. I understood even from the side characters when the prince was the magic mirror and Ibelin the evil queen from Snow White that the author was saying they suited each other because of their lack of depth and vanity. Everything was always handed to them, the prince had OP skills with a sword (that we never seen by the way), and god-tier looks, while Ibelin never had to experience hardship for too long before someone swooped in to save her. However, Arwin’s life was full of hardships and the only thing given him was OP magic affinity/skill, while Kenneth was a duke who had to silently suffer from all those stalkers. I was holding out hope to discover Arwin’s parents or any relatives out there, and now that I’m thinking I would’ve liked to see what life was like in Kenneth’s duchy, and what happened that he became a duke so young? I don’t think it was a bad thing that the princess got engrossed in being and author, but I thought she would’ve been a good couple with Kenneth in the main story…she’s so kind and compassionate that I think she’d be understanding of his fear of women. And someone else mentioned awhile back how Latte and the crown prince had developed a good, lighthearted relationship, but it was destroyed when he no longer had a reason to be forced to remember her existence since he got Ibelin and they were no longer “friends.” If not a redemption arc then at least a self-discovery arc for the crown prince and Ibelin would’ve gone a long way. Lastly, why’d we have to miss the pregnancy and parenting of the MLs, I wanted to see how often Arwin threatened to destroy the world when she had morning sickness or if he ever had moments when he realized his child would have parents, even grandparents unlike him.
Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly binged this and enjoyed the humor! But the prince after-chapter sits different with me. Like basically Ibelin just goes with the only option left that’s into her, never pursuing anyone, never showing character development or even lack thereof. It was such an important moment that I wanted to see just a glimmer more of. Ibelin is a consort (aka wife) and not empress (can rule) and seems like she’s pregnant and has a whole palave it wounded like, but the prince is like laughing about latte making fun of the rabbit for some reason, like it broke his reality and gravity that surrounded Ibelin and its like he never wore off the spell of Ibelin and they exist in a polite relationship? I hope not but idk—It would have been nice if Ibelin learned to love or try to connect with others—or at least expand on the scene after latte confronted her about the whole “protagonist” thing instead of a cut-forward that she was okay with her life being only a consort (wife) instead of ruling empress. Like was she still full of the feelings of jealousy and hate or did she overcome them to live her life? We don’t get that closure. The prince is never expanded on as a character, which makes sense to some degree as the webcomic is about turning expectations and tropes on its head. And yes, he is almost just as cookie-cutter as Ibelin, existing in the story without much depth, but the scene where he remembers the rabbit somehow broke my heart, like he is still searching for something real and wondering if he was just in love with an “other-worldly being” or not. I feel like everyone got an after story and their uncle except for them, good or bad.
In some ways it’s poetic because in some ways, Ibelin went from being the one character Latte’s entertainment and life orbited around, until Latte became her own protagonist and Ibelin became the minor character in Latte’s story since Latte expanded on her life as more than a spectator of another's, and accepted the world she lived in as reality than a story she was reading and spectator of. I truly see the poetry, but somehow I feel at least the prince deserved as smidge more like Kenneth?