i totally get what ppl are saying abt leah being a damsel in distress but i feel like ppl still aren't giving her enough credit...like yea sure she's been w ishakhan for a couple months living a great life but let's not forget that she's literally spent her entire life before this being manipulated, brainwashed, abused, and wanting to die??? like she's been taught from birth that all she's supposed to be is a docile pawn, worthless and meaningless and whose only value comes from her beauty. when you're in that state it takes so much effort to even feel loved or value yourself, and growth is very rarely (or never) linear. even when she was in kurkan leah repeatedly relapsed, never being able to completely recover from years of trauma; and as we see when she's being taken away at the wedding, she never truly believed she would be free forever. to me, it actually makes sense that she would try to kill herself, as sad as it is. she has had absolutely no control over her life, only gaining some when she met ishakhan---and having the core belief deep down that she will never be able to escape her old life (due to both the magic and just the trauma itself), she decides to exercise the final act of control that she possibly can before they take even that choice away from her, leaving the world of her own accord, refusing to go back to being essentially a slave to cerdina. obviously i am NOT saying that suicide is ever the answer nor am i trying to romanticize it in any way but from a psychological standpoint, i'm saying it makes sense that instead of being a "strong female character" in the way that some ppl expect her to be and valiantly fight off (the obviously stronger and deranged) blain and cerdina, her lifelong ABUSERS, she turns the blade on herself. in her mind, this IS her act of defiance and rebellion.
now, having said that, i once again completely understand why ppl don't like her. i understand how it can be rlly frustrating to wait and wait for her to rise up of her own accord and fight back against her abusers (especially after her happy times in kurkan), only to have her be quickly overpowered. this is just my perspective. in my opinion, i actually do think she's come a long way---she has learned her own value and worth, accepts that she is loved for purely herself, and has already consistently rejected and fought against her abusers. to me i think this kind of growth after such little time is remarkable and pretty realistic?? and depending on what i remember from the novel (of which we are not even HALFWAY THROUGH yet btw) she continues to have more and more development.
TLDR; i get the frustration, but imo leah's reactions to being captured again make total sense for her character and she has already demonstrated qualities of being a strong person, ig just not in the ways that most ppl want to read abt.
i totally get what ppl are saying abt leah being a damsel in distress but i feel like ppl still aren't giving her enough credit...like yea sure she's been w ishakhan for a couple months living a great life but let's not forget that she's literally spent her entire life before this being manipulated, brainwashed, abused, and wanting to die??? like she's been taught from birth that all she's supposed to be is a docile pawn, worthless and meaningless and whose only value comes from her beauty. when you're in that state it takes so much effort to even feel loved or value yourself, and growth is very rarely (or never) linear. even when she was in kurkan leah repeatedly relapsed, never being able to completely recover from years of trauma; and as we see when she's being taken away at the wedding, she never truly believed she would be free forever. to me, it actually makes sense that she would try to kill herself, as sad as it is. she has had absolutely no control over her life, only gaining some when she met ishakhan---and having the core belief deep down that she will never be able to escape her old life (due to both the magic and just the trauma itself), she decides to exercise the final act of control that she possibly can before they take even that choice away from her, leaving the world of her own accord, refusing to go back to being essentially a slave to cerdina. obviously i am NOT saying that suicide is ever the answer nor am i trying to romanticize it in any way but from a psychological standpoint, i'm saying it makes sense that instead of being a "strong female character" in the way that some ppl expect her to be and valiantly fight off (the obviously stronger and deranged) blain and cerdina, her lifelong ABUSERS, she turns the blade on herself. in her mind, this IS her act of defiance and rebellion.
now, having said that, i once again completely understand why ppl don't like her. i understand how it can be rlly frustrating to wait and wait for her to rise up of her own accord and fight back against her abusers (especially after her happy times in kurkan), only to have her be quickly overpowered. this is just my perspective. in my opinion, i actually do think she's come a long way---she has learned her own value and worth, accepts that she is loved for purely herself, and has already consistently rejected and fought against her abusers. to me i think this kind of growth after such little time is remarkable and pretty realistic?? and depending on what i remember from the novel (of which we are not even HALFWAY THROUGH yet btw) she continues to have more and more development.
TLDR; i get the frustration, but imo leah's reactions to being captured again make total sense for her character and she has already demonstrated qualities of being a strong person, ig just not in the ways that most ppl want to read abt.