they're "soul partners" or whatever, and they're both women, yes. i believe they're very much in love
okay you have to trust me when I say I don't want to sound homophobic because I'm queer myself, but honestly I don't think soul partners have got anything to do with being in love with eachother- because (spoilers)
our mc and the prince also inevitably become soul partners according to the spoilers, and I believe the mc doesn't yet end up with anyone romantically in wherever the novel is currently
oh yeah canonically, sure. i am sure the author doesn't mean anything romantic by this arrangement. but i, as a normal human being who has brain that can process thoughts, understand how laughable it is to label two people "soul partners" and then INSIST it's not romantic. i mean shit, there's a whole ass subreddit dedicated to stuff like this - sapphoandherfriend.
this is not me discrediting platonic relationships as being lesser than romantic ones. but somehow the sanctity of brotherhood and platonic relationships yada yada come up whenever it involves two women or two men. you don't see these weird mental gymnastics when it concerns a man and a woman, only when it's two people of the same sex.
yeah a lot of authors tend to do that it seems. I've heard of a lot of works where the authors write the relationship between two, usually same sex, characters in the most powerfully romantic and iconic way possible but then get mad when the fanbase ships them and they vehemently deny that any such sort of connections exist ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
sometimes one part of the fanbase does it too when the author neither confirms nor denies. the biggest example is the orv fandom. it really boils my blood seeing some people saying they hate the BL ships and don't understand why it exists and that they're sick of it when it's clearly blatant denial. but it's always the ships where it's not just a man and a woman.
i agree with you!! it's so funny how people will start frothing at the mouth if you even imply dokja and joonghyuk have a relationship that's not - gasp - purely platonic! i see this on r*ddit especially.
also people being sick of bl and gay shipping when queer people always have to put up with straight shit shoved down our throats i remember for a while i couldn't go to any sns without seeing some shippy stuff (and sometimes straight up hentai art of the orange haired female character from CM! i don't even engage with any anime stuff!) from fucking Chainsaw Man and Oshi no Ko. i wanted to die
RIGHT????? AND LITERALLY NO FCUKING BODY SEES A PROBLEM WITH THAT.
Tho the notion of soul partners is indeed very romantic, i don't think Empress Frederick and our Cardinal has romantic relationship. Slight spoiler, the previous Emperor and Frederic had a love marriage. Plus empress and Aurielle has been best friends since childhood
WAIT I WAS SO CONFUSED WHEN I SAW "PRINCE CONSORT" I THOUGHT THE EMPEROR WAS GAY OR SUMN SO EMPEROR FREDERICK IS A WOMAN??????