@RavenWolf:
I totally respect the cultural relativity of medieval mores when the authors stick to it sincerely (
Emperor and the Female Knight comes to mind, where both the protagonist is ordered killed and innocent members of royal houses slaughtered, and it feels right for that world).
But so many of these are both A) chock-full of a mish-mash of anachronisms and B) are at heart flighty romance novels (or some such light entertainment)—at which point I feel it is appropriate to examine
which ancient morals were plucked to suit the plot, why, and
how they are framed. Certainly, for instance, setting your novel in a pre-industrial setting should not be considered
carte blanche to romanticize abusive relationship principles.
(In this particular series, of course—though I haven't read much yet—I'm likely to give it a decent amount of extra benefit of the doubt, because him having done horrible things to her in the beginning appears to be the central emotional conflict the plot is built around. Since that's the main idea the author is playing with, making him detestable at this point is a totally respectable authorial move—indeed, I would see people's seething reactions as an indication that the author possibly is getting more-or-less the reactions they wanted—and any ire on my part will be more guided by how the romance, itself, is accordingly conducted and framed.)
Edit: As was not yet apparent when I was reading this chapter, but is when reading those immediately after it: This manwha
is one of the rare ones that's taking the grim consequences of its setting relatively seriously, so the "it's just medieval folks being medieval" argument does have some potential bearing here. (Which doesn't mean I won't judge it later if it starts slipping, it should be said :'p).