not an unpopular opinion. A person who calls themselves ruler and does not bother to consider the people they rule is easily going down the road to ignorance as a ruler and can easily fall into tyranny for keeping a cushy self entitled life or tyranny through the lies and manipulations of their officials who are greedy for personal gains. And even those who do not, try as they might, it's nothing if they do not see the reality of their people and consider the big picture of the needs for the nation.
We are first introduced to the FL as a well groomed princess but as the exposition of the story continues, we begin to see that her life is that of a green house flower; she has bloomed quite spectacularly in her green house however she cannot withstand and be resilient without exposure to the outside world (as seen in her sparring practice). In this chapter, we are yet again reminded of her naivete by her thoughts about the red queen, believing in her so unconditionally and not recognizing the manipulation. However as with the sparring and this chapter, there are signs of her changing. With sparring, her recognizing her overestimating her abilities and underestimating those who are professionals if a change. Here we don't see it as much since she still believes the red queen but as the red queen said, the FL is behaving differently.
However I do think that your remark about the FL being just as shitty as her parents is a bit harsh and following with the fact that it is evident since she is not one to show emotions and indulge others.... Anyway, the FL said that she is well aware of the power she has and protects herself by not displaying that power (page 15). She is self awareness of her position and so far, from what we know, her studies have gone as well as they could for her from book learning. But we all know that she is naive and needs to gain real world experience, actually see the people. it's weird that she hasn't ventured outside at all, but then again she could have and it could be that she's only seen the "white picket fences and fresh cut green grass".
At this stage, we're at the beginning so we can all looking forward to her development; just needs to step out into the world to gain experience. I don't think your thoughts are far off from mine. I'm quite open minded to her ability to be able to embrace reality and learn to become a wiser ruler for it. Her coming of age is likely meant to signify a turning point and soon after, she'll start on a path towards enlightenment; at least the prologue shows some indication of that.
My wording was really bad lol I don’t think she’s shitty like her parents but I think that the people who don’t know her would think that. By people, I mean the characters in the story. I like the FL because like you said, she’s showing qualities that make her different than her father and mother. I was making the assumption that the characters in the story who don’t know the FL like we do, they think she’s like her parents because they know the parents more than they know her. I don’t know if that makes sense. I’ve been so busy so I’m writing this with the last bit of brain cells I have today lol
I think the brother’s thoughts are justified. We as the reader don’t have enough information about the rule of the current emperor, but I speculate that his rule is considerably bad. In one of the chapters, it stated that the FL would be just like the previous rulers because she, just like her predecessors, have never stepped out of the castle. How can you rule an empire by placing yourself above the people and not involving yourself with your subjects? I don’t think you can be a good ruler unless you know and understand what’s happening with your subjects. Plus, you can see how the father approves of the birthday celebration, which wasted tons of money. The queen squanders money and the king approves. As of right now, if I didn’t know the FL’s thoughts and those parts of her character that makes her different from her family, I would assume and think that she was just like her shitty father and mother. I mean she shows no emotion on her face and doesn’t really indulge in other people. Don’t get me wrong, I like the FL, but I feel like she needs to experience the world because she’s too naive right now. She needs to grow and she acknowledges that she’s too naive as well. Please feel free to debate with me on this. I’m probably not seeing eye to eye with most because I might have misinterpreted something.