Bruh wtf. This entire drama was caused by Rishar’s pathetic jealousy spilling an extremely dangerous secret putting Antoine, a helpless bystander’s life at risk for nothing. Him and Mathias openly going against the queen is also insane because there is no way she’s going to let Antoine get betrothed into royalty, but she doesn’t have many options since it’s already largely public. Rishar knows full well that the queen can torture Etienne all she wants with no consequences, and still provokes her over petty pride. Mathias knows exactly how vicious she is, but still angled his kid into betrothal right before betraying her. She’s obviously going not going to want to let his family accumulate power through the betrothal, which means Antoine needs to be discredited or dealt with in such a way that the marriage isn’t socially/politically viable. Mathias and Rishar are running around with clumsy, heavy handed schemes, but it’s Etienne and Antoine who are taking all the risk. That being said, I think Etienne drinking the poisoned wine makes more sense than it seems at first glance. He has lived a life of control, deprivation, and isolation on top of severe chronic illnesses from the drugs he’s been forced to take since birth. Those drugs also cause psychiatric symptoms in the past. He has a history of depression and erratic behavior. He’s also just drained from so many years of suffering. His current relationship with Rishar is somewhat superficial. His lover, his closest confidant invalidates his opinions when it’s inconvenient, runs around putting him in danger over petty pride, and really hasn’t done much at all to actually help him beyond occasionally hanging out/f$cking. The only reason Etienne perceives this relationship so positively is because he has nothing better to compare it to. Etienne is panicking, in survival mode. He doesn’t go to Rishar for help because he has shown himself to be profoundly obstructive/useless in the actual urgent life problems that Etienne has to endure on a daily basis. He’s mentally exhausted and physically sick while being desperate to protect an innocent pawn from his mother. Also remember that in the back of his mind he also knows that he has a shortened lifespan from the drugs. He has to make a split second decision and it’s not as difficult as one would think. He protects Antoine while potentially exposing his mother. If he dies she will lose all chance of power or standing and the throne will automatically go to Rishar, someone who he knows will be a competent/just ruler. It’s actually brilliant because he may be able to force her hand to save his life with an antidote or telling doctors how to save his life. Even if she acts clueless, the entire interaction between the three of them makes the queen look suspicious since she handed Antoine the poisoned glass. Either way there’s going to be an investigation controlled by the king (who hates the queen) that will shake a lot of damaging secrets loose. He created a massive opportunity for Rishar, Mathias, and the king to take the queen and house Herace down. I think it was executed in a clumsy way that makes it seem like just a dumb, spur of the moment decision, but in the actual logistics it makes sense with his history/psychology, and could really turn the tables. Desperate people do desperate things, and anyone would be impatient to escape that abuse when their boyfriend does nothing but say nice things and cause more complications, father is too uninterested to even speak to them much less care, and there’s no end in sight.
Bruh wtf. This entire drama was caused by Rishar’s pathetic jealousy spilling an extremely dangerous secret putting Antoine, a helpless bystander’s life at risk for nothing. Him and Mathias openly going against the queen is also insane because there is no way she’s going to let Antoine get betrothed into royalty, but she doesn’t have many options since it’s already largely public.
Rishar knows full well that the queen can torture Etienne all she wants with no consequences, and still provokes her over petty pride. Mathias knows exactly how vicious she is, but still angled his kid into betrothal right before betraying her. She’s obviously going not going to want to let his family accumulate power through the betrothal, which means Antoine needs to be discredited or dealt with in such a way that the marriage isn’t socially/politically viable. Mathias and Rishar are running around with clumsy, heavy handed schemes, but it’s Etienne and Antoine who are taking all the risk.
That being said, I think Etienne drinking the poisoned wine makes more sense than it seems at first glance. He has lived a life of control, deprivation, and isolation on top of severe chronic illnesses from the drugs he’s been forced to take since birth. Those drugs also cause psychiatric symptoms in the past. He has a history of depression and erratic behavior. He’s also just drained from so many years of suffering. His current relationship with Rishar is somewhat superficial. His lover, his closest confidant invalidates his opinions when it’s inconvenient, runs around putting him in danger over petty pride, and really hasn’t done much at all to actually help him beyond occasionally hanging out/f$cking. The only reason Etienne perceives this relationship so positively is because he has nothing better to compare it to.
Etienne is panicking, in survival mode. He doesn’t go to Rishar for help because he has shown himself to be profoundly obstructive/useless in the actual urgent life problems that Etienne has to endure on a daily basis. He’s mentally exhausted and physically sick while being desperate to protect an innocent pawn from his mother. Also remember that in the back of his mind he also knows that he has a shortened lifespan from the drugs. He has to make a split second decision and it’s not as difficult as one would think.
He protects Antoine while potentially exposing his mother. If he dies she will lose all chance of power or standing and the throne will automatically go to Rishar, someone who he knows will be a competent/just ruler. It’s actually brilliant because he may be able to force her hand to save his life with an antidote or telling doctors how to save his life. Even if she acts clueless, the entire interaction between the three of them makes the queen look suspicious since she handed Antoine the poisoned glass. Either way there’s going to be an investigation controlled by the king (who hates the queen) that will shake a lot of damaging secrets loose.
He created a massive opportunity for Rishar, Mathias, and the king to take the queen and house Herace down. I think it was executed in a clumsy way that makes it seem like just a dumb, spur of the moment decision, but in the actual logistics it makes sense with his history/psychology, and could really turn the tables.
Desperate people do desperate things, and anyone would be impatient to escape that abuse when their boyfriend does nothing but say nice things and cause more complications, father is too uninterested to even speak to them much less care, and there’s no end in sight.