one could argue that very quality gives her the ability to be the empress. With a king who takes lovers and has bastard children, that level of planning and deception and even cruelty are needed to keep her position and the position of her children. Of course that also makes her a villain but i dont fault her behavior due to what has forced her to act that way.fucking bitch. not even being sad that her own father is dead, just showing anger that her plan has a complication. she doesn't deserve to be the empress
Problem is that she is not good enough. She invest so much, yet she failed even in "original" timeline. If, instead of intrigues, she actually do government work, she would still loose, maybe even faster, because she's surrounded by incompetent people, even her son and father are subpar. She rose so high, but still can't do too much. Even if she technically "beat" Lombardy originally, it's solely because of Patriarch illness and his first son being stupid (the same problem she have)This woman is a true Empress.
Now if she was actually interested in the well being of fhe Empire, she would actually be a fairly good ruler.
Heartless, true. But one needs to be made od steel to rule.