beta
I feel like acting like this is the FL falling in love suddenly is really misinterpreting the situation...It's not that she sees him in a romantic light now, she had a panic attack and didn't even recognize him. It didn't come out of nowhere, her cracking under the weight of her suppressed memories has been brought up before. She didn't break down because he was a bit mean her, but because of a communication breakdown in a high-stress situation. Like it's obvious she was brought back to a moment where her words were ignored and she got hurt because of it.
Hot take, this makes her a stronger character, not a weaker one. A character who girl-bosses around the place all the time, with no vulnerabilities whatsoever isn't a strong one, it's just another two dimensional character. She isn't this cry-baby princess now, she just had a traumatic flashback and reacted like a person.
Also like... she's kind of crazy. That's an important part of her character. She doesn't act crazy to be mischievous, she genuinely understands the world a bit differently. That doesn't mean she's not smart, or not professional, but that she isn't being weird around the duke to fuck with him, she's just communicating in the clearest way possible to get. Idk, you don't get her like I do