Hmm.... If so, then maybe I read her character wrong in the first & 2nd season
I can't explain it very well, but during those seasons, her character seemed to be the type to continuously improve and develop herself.
Like, to me, she was portrayed in the earlier seasons as someone who doesn't "skirt the sidelines" & is able to identify when she should start getting "proactive" in politics.
Her political savvy at that time seemed to have disappeared in this season, which is disappointing really.
And if I'm right, that means it WAS out of character for to not have impactful growth.
But, either way, I definitely agree that this story was poorly executed
Makes me wonder if the novel went more in depth with ther extended family
I didnt see her character as one that was continuously improving, she had one goal and that was to save her brother, outside of her brother she didnt really have any other goal besides staying out of the way. She only got involved when if it meant getting her brother out of harms way. Honestly thats the only real reason she sought improvement. Now she has achieved that goal and the only one is to stay out of the fight. So does it really not make sense she is constantly pulling herself to the side line?(really its the ill runaway and everything will be fine trope lol) She never had any passion to be a leader, she is only the head to keep her brother safe and keep them out of the fight.
Thats why i said that they needed to flesh the family out more, cause then it would make her need to protect her family not feel so forced. She has always been indecisive when it came to her own matters, so im not surprised she is still like that. She just seemed like she was successful bc she knew the majority of the plot in the story. I mean,after the princes grandpa died, all the scenes after feel rushed and vague, all those scenes she comes off as weak. Those are also all the scenes where she can no longer fully predict what will happen. The only thing she knew was that there would be a fight for the throne.
In the beginning of the story i personally didnt really see her as politically savvy, the best thing she does politically is change her home dynamic by taking the sword instead of her brother and again that was when she had the goal to protect him. Other than that she was more of a i do ny duties worker bee type, not some political savant. Or maybe thats just me. I do see your point in how she could be seen that way and how it comes off as a failure of her character instead.
Her personality has been consistent, i think the difference is now she doesnt know the future. And honestly her reluctance to cut off the traitors in her family would make more sense had the story fleshed out her relationship with them more. Cause at most, we know how much she cherishes her brother, but outside of that the rest of the family is kinda a blank, even the parents. The betrayal of that part of their family isnt interesting bc it isnt fleshed out. Had it been this arc would seem cooler. Like with ole boy in 95, had we seen him more instead of just going off of kaylas vague ass memory if him, this would seem more intense.
I also think because Kayla has been consistent is whats making this fall flat. She has shown no impactful growth, a good time to have done more development would have been during her time preparing her family to stay nuetral, having her interacting more with her family outside of meeting and mements with the brought up family members like the traitors and dropping tid bits of foreshadowing to them would have built reader tension better and grown more emotional depth in all the characters. The premise its self isnt boring, its poorly executed. Her family feels disposable to the reader but theyre trying to make her this 'for my family' kind of girl, but thats only well done when the readers see how attached the character is and why theyre close in the first place for a third party to root for the Mc's belief. On another note, she seems weak because she has the same strength as she did at the beginning of the story and yet the trials she face now are more difficult. This makes her weak overall and makes her lack of growth very obvious. Having the ML help her discover her strength isnt a bad thing, especially considering the bloodline thing, however, it would have been more endearing if at some point before the princes return she had another 'upgrade' that involved her brother in this universe to show that she can grow outside the prince but also that she didnt just cast him off to his wife when all was said and done (considering the start of this was heavy with the regret she had when ignoring her brother from the ogworld).
This is getting long so ill stop here, but those are my bigger peeves.