kvothe

I think for aria it's not that she has a morally grey perspective but it's Cass centered. For aria Cass IS life and to make her sister happy she's willing to do anything... whether that's burn the world to the ground or be a healer to save lives.

As for the ML's they all have deep seated issues with no one to guide them. Cass had her teacher who from a young age told her right from wrong and to love life but they didn't have that.
I do agree that it's always the women who has to ha e the moral compass but in THIS case I think it has more to do with how they were raised vs. Gender...
ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~

I'm loving out chat and would love to continue it if you want!

because harem books are almost always self-insert fantasies. the person at the center has to hold similar opinions (or similar enough) to the majority of people so they are able to function as a self insert.

Fr like girls can have that bloodlust and trauma too and it would be totally refreshing to see men tap in to the soft side without making them too timid or too shy

I would love to continue it, more with the other lovely answers this comment had.
I agreed with everything said in this conversation. I am tired that women are always used as the moral compas, maybe that's the reason why I read more webtoons/manga/manhwa/etc that have more antiheroines, they are what women are, human beings, complex.
I hate it when they are so perfect, so white and black in their point of view, that isn't real, it isn't that what Cass is saying is wrong is that what Diego said, as future leader of the empire, is awful, the writer by making Cass the moral compass makes her the only person with empathy, the rest? are psychopaths, or something similar.
I know she had the teacher, that taught her black and white, but, the thing is that having someone like that doesn't make you a good person, it helps you? sure, but it doesn't makes you.
Aria was raised by Cass, more than anyone, in that case Aria was raised with the same morals as Cass, but Aria knows to be selfish, she does see the bigger picture, because Cass thinks the bigger picture as being a martyr, all for the greater good, sacrificing too much, thus she isn't seeing the bigger picture, she is seeing two colours.
Aria isn't seeing two colours, to her, as you said her colour is Cass, all she does is for Cass, but she does know how to sympathise with the other person because she knows what it means to protect and survive for your own and for the person you love. Aria is a ML, she is, she would be the older brother that would tell Cass that the villain is in prison when in reality she disposed of him, Cass is Richard and Aria is Jason/Tim/Damian/Barbara/Cassandra/Stephanie/Etc
The webtoon its making it look as if the difference between Cass and all the others is that she had her master and the others no, but that's a dumb excuse, it doesn't work, because Leo? I think it was who wanted to follow to the woods the other boy and kill him, he had someone, that care about him and probably raised him well, yet it was that same person that drove him to the despair he felt, that is what Aria makes Cass see, what would you do to avenge the one you love? Cass would burn the world for Aria, we know it, and the writer didn't touch that, because Cass if she had been on his shoes she would have done the same.
They want to make us believe that its how they were raised, it isn't, Diego has his father, who doesn't look like a tyrant, he should have raised his son well, to be a diplomat, not to be someone that creates war crimes (I know maybe at those times they were thought that they were ok) yet, he said lets kill them all, lets brainwashed the children, it was madness. But, saint Cass, was the one that said dude no that's wrong, its again the structure of the saint teaching the crown prince to be human, I thought this was in the past, the idea of the FL as the saviour of white light.
For me, the way that they were raised, can't be their only difference, that's poor writing because if we start to discuss every decision Cass made before the teacher was mentioned, it would show that it wasn't because of him, he appeared mid webtoon? I think...they are using her as the girl that is the white to the black of the boys worlds, because God forgives if a women has anger, has bloodlust, has grey in her, no, no, the men are those and the women are nice and delicate and are the voice of goodness.
sorry for the rant! Love to read your answer!

I agree with you to a point but we've also forgotten Cass past life as a 21st century women.
I think that also helped her build that moral compass she lives with this the idea of just killing someone cus your a noble wasn't a thing for her in the past... like the most recent chapters where she's fighting with the idea of when war comes she'll have to actually kill people.

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hi! I didn't answer because I was reading the last chapters.
So, lets us continue, wait! before, thank you for answering I am loving this!
It's true that she is from the 21st century, but that doesn't make her not naive, people now at days are naive, it's the sad truth of humanity people are always going to think in a innocent way, sometimes its great and other times its just dumb.
I believe that a good evidence of this, is the last chapters, she says how they should give the carrot and not the stick, but, here's the thing, first the romans were nice to the countries they conquered because in that way the people opened up to them and they could rob them from parts of their culture, the most known is Greece/Rome they were nice with them but because of the benefits, but they weren't all roses and daisies with them, that would make them idiot and easy to overurle, no they did use the stick when it was necessary, like any country that was in the same position as Rome, yet that part of the story she forgets, how Rome did erased from history those cultures that didn't submitted to them or they didn't find interesting. At the same time she wants to save a people, that from what we know want to destroy the empire, they have a whole lot of history between them, bad blood, and she thinks that being nice can change that, and she thinks that the prince is thinking like that because he has been hurt before, which he most probably is. BUT, sometimes people who were raised with betrayal in their life, yes they see everyone like a Judah, but that type of thinking can save them, give them a different point of view, yes he believes that there is no saving this northern, and maybe he is wrong, maybe he is right, but he is right in thinking that they could betray them, that letting their guard down, that being 100% nice can make them fall, for a reason there exist the carrot and the stick. She is idealistic, the emperor said so, the prince is extremist, he also said so, and its true, a great example is the eternals! a great movie that shows those ideals, the idealist that its an extremist prefers to die than to accept its wrong, the idealist its killing other people because they think they are right, who's right? for me? neither
she is an idealist, not because how or when she was raised, she dumb, she thinks that being nice can change the world, and that doesn't change it, hey! I am not saying be evil and kill HAHAHAH no, I am saying don't be dumb, nice can take you so far, she believes that they can all hold hands and sing kumbaya. she asks the second prince what he thinks, and for a moment I fear she could push him to be the crown pince because he is an idealist, but, here is the thing, she shouldn't have told him what they discussed that was wrong and his answer was about racism not colonialism, she likes to hear what she wants to hear, she heard aria but she used that to say oh poor crown prince he was badly raised so he mistrust everyone, while, with the second prince oh he was put aside and no one sees how great he is, she is white and black and it doesn't make senses, how was she Mir? How did she survive? Who raised Aria with so different POV? Idk, sorry again for the vomit