He’s not being a dick at all. The woman he loves has followed him to a battlefield where she has no training at all, where he can’t make sure she’s protected. She’s the only person he couldn’t stand to lose and there she his smack in the middle of where so many lose their lives.
His reaction is completely reasonable.
That’s what I mean by he’s still good by this settings standards, and that we’re in the prologue. But he’s like this with no good explanation even in the novel too. (I do t recall him deeply sharing his pov with her) He’s also constantly throwing her insecurities about being a dukes daughter right in her face when she wants to more prove herself as a knights wife.
Btw I enjoy this story and like riftan. I’m just lamenting how early into the miscommunication trope we’re in
He doesn’t know that’s an insecurity of hers, how can he be throwing it in her face? Riftan doesn’t even find out how Maxi was treated until much later in the future.
And I think the communication part is just a flaw he’ll always be working on. Also saying hey you shouldn’t be here and here’s why is communicating, he’s just upset on top it.
She has said it multiple times. Either she’s a dukes daughter and listen to her, or she’s your wife and you can lord over her as her husband. “Riftan isn’t seeing reality” if you want to stick at the level of being inside the story. I think he’s being pretty harsh from an “outside the story” level. Maybe it’s a compliment to the author, then, that they can make the scene so tense, but I think he’s being a dick lmao. Like if I described the story to convince a friend to read it, I’d probably tell them that the ML is kinda a rough brute, bordering being a dick, until they actually work on resolving misunderstandings which starts at basically the end of this arc.
SPOILER.
Riftan’s journey of being against maxi and treating her like this, to actually being supportive and proud of her is like, the main conflict of the story. He’s a dick to her about her participation in anything at the beginning, and in many of the following arcs. He’s borderline emotionally abusive later about it when he basically emotionally ghosts her after he reveals his past and she still participates in a campaign. But he eventually gets over it and swears his oath to her in respect by the end. He realizes he can’t rule her, and effectively swears his subservience to her as her knight. Its about maxi gaining her confidence and conquering her worlds patriarchy through gaining riftan’s trust. Riftan represent their modern patriarchy compared to her father who is the traditional patriarchy.
Sorry for triggering you. I think he’s being a dick rn ¯_(ツ)_/¯
He’s suck a fucking dick at this perspective. we need his POV asap for this to at least parse better. Like, he’s so bad, but still so good by this settings standards. This is also like, the literal prologue still