A bit of all of what you said. But how I would phrase it myself is : the purpose of criticizing such plot development is to point out that positive portrayal of forced marriage, acceptance thereof, depicting the optimistic possible consequences of it while ignoring the pessimistic ones, and more generally spreading or defending such practices through the lens of characters being happy after having those forced on them is morally wrong, for both the writer and readers.

Pretty sure it's been already pointed out a few times before that arranged marriage is not the same as forced marriage.

To make the jejune and self-evident observation that if the actions being depicted as taking place in a fantasy storyworld based on the historical past were to actually take place in contemporary real life, their implications would be different?

Not even sure they would necessarily be all that different, as evidenced by Adachi and Shimamura.

And this is where my brain just goes...

Nice. :D

If only the file names weren't so spoilery.

Well, that was something...

I'm not arguing about the whether or not it should've been in the story, okay? And that's not what the other commenter was saying either. They said that the idea that the queen was being raped was projection, and I said that even if she didn't outwardly protest to either sex or marriage, the fact that she felt as though she had no control or power to say no, despite her clearly wanting to, does constitute rape. There's actually a word for that, you know? It's called marital rape and is not only the most common form of rape, but in many countries it is either not illegal or the law goes entirely unforced. The incessant dismissal of these facts in this discussion board is what I am arguing against.

I mean, the king is shown to have been as apprehensive as her before the marriage, if not more so, so I really can't see this reading as anything more than a projection, unless you want to insist that she raped her husband as well. There is not indication of either of them forcing the other into anything, they certainly would not look as fondly back on their time together as they are shown here if that were the case.

Cute.

Unexpected rare pair with a twist. :D

I think this actually counts as a twist. But hopefully we'll get another as well.

Cute.

On one hand, I do remember having similar feelings about my own (by now ex-)girlfriend with a similar age gap, and I did my best to hide my feelings at first as well. On the other hand, my mother's parents apparently had twice this gap, so...

Mai-chan is starting to realize her own feelings. ^_^

last edited at Jan 28, 2023 2:25PM

And yet, I think that if this story ends with Aki and Momo breaking up, Momo having to marry and bear the children of some Penguin prince or whatever, and a "happy ending" in which she's shown to have a happy family and being good friends with Aki, people will not say that this was okay and that is how it should have ended.

Why are we even having this discussion when Momo has already made it clear that she will accept no such engagement...?

Ah, Seika's harem. ^_^

Lovely.

Do it, Yua Serufu!

Failed shakedown.

Very nice.

Lovely.

Perfect. :D

Nice.

Cute.

Cute.

Nice. :D

When the TV is talking directly to you.