moment of silent for helena

True she’s so pitiful. But honestly she could’ve spoken up more for the original eris when she was being treated harshly by the prince. Idk if she was scared of speaking up, but by not doing that, she allowed herself to be used by the prince to incite jealously and ended up being a bystander to the injustice done to the original Eris. Either she turned a blind eye intentionally bcuz she was receiving preferential treatment and didn’t want to lose it, or she was too stupid to realize what consequences her actions would cause. I don’t think it was bcuz she was kind bcuz she would’ve felt bad and said something when she saw OG eris being treated by the prince. To me, she’s like those people that see a person getting bullied but wont do anything to help cuz it doesn’t concern her. Maybe she finally realized it in the end and felt guilty so she allowed herself to be killed. That’s just what I think, she’s not a villain but she’s definitely not innocent to me.

in my opinion even if she speaks up no one would listen to her anyway and it would just taint eris pride and reputation, being defended by a traitor's daughter. the nobles who sided with her arent genuine either cause they only chose her to vilify eris and her dad. shes alone. the prince didnt love her and didnt chose her for her opinion, he chose her bc of the queens grudge and guilt, shes an object to him

thats why i said whatever she says, whomever she sided with, shes going to end up punished, either by her employer in the palace, the other nobles, the other men, eris, literally every things she did is going to have unfair consequences on her bc shes a traitors daughter.

sorry i left this out lolanyway, helena is a house mouse in a forest full of predators. and i think she knew all along that the only thing she can do is choose which of the predators she will be eaten by, and she chose eris bc she knows eris is as much a victim as she is. theyre both 2 sides of the same coin, both has been driven to corners, both has been alone, both are loveless. eris has more leeway bc shes rich and only wants to die, so shes not afraid of taking drastic measures. helena just wanted to get by. theyre tied together

I rly like your point of view and insight and I agree with a lot of things. But personally I feel it’s such a waste that she didn’t try to stand for herself against the prince, or verbalize her opinion even once. She didn’t even have to stand for the injustice towards Eris, but If she was going to get eat by a predator it would’ve been better if she died fighting for herself. Instead she just let herself be used like a fool. I remember that one scene where Eris gets slapped by the prince in front of Helen cuz the prince thought she pushed her, and Helen said nothing to mitigate the situation. She’s pitiful and a victim but it’s hard to feel bad for her cuz she didn’t even TRY. Her intentions weren’t good or bad, just self-serving. She wasn’t kind but wasn’t unkind. She wanted affection, but was prepared to throw her life away in the end. It seemed like she was an empty husk of a shell with no real reason to live.

i agree with the self serving point! in the early chapters to my memory, theres a time when theyre younger where helena tried to spoke out against the prince or something and when she told her mother, the woman beats her. at the same time theres also the looming threat of other nobles hurting her mother like even then she had to protect the mother who abused her. defending eris isnt in her first priority i mean i think her life is just that busy with threats of violence how would she even thought of other people when shes barely getting by