THEY MADE HIM FRENCH???
Okay so Amerie, bbg<3
Iruma finally snapped her out of her unhealthy mindset, where she thinks she has to be "Knight" and Iruma has to be the "Princess".
It's interesting how the dynamic of these two is both an inversion of stereotypical genderroles and a fullfillment of them.
At the end of the day Amerie is the "stereotypical princess" getting saved, and Iruma is the knight in shining Armor.
Amerie thought that Iruma needed saving while beeing completely in denial of her own need of being saved/ having someone to reley on.
She was so trapped in the fairy tale of her own making, that made her blind to reality. She was ready to bear the sin of that contract, even if she hated the idea of that with every fiber of her being.
Trusting babels with the slums wasn't an option before Iruma destroyed that contract, because destroying the contract is what made her snap out of it.
That's when she realized that Iruma isn't the princess and babels isn't the tower/enemie.
I mean look at this panel
the way the are
both sweating, nervous
She clearly sees now how shameful and forceful she had been before,
making Iruma into someone he is not,
making her herself into someone she is not,
making their relationship into something it's not
she is dropping her head in shame now, a clear juxtaposition between the frame above and here.
She is also not looming above him anymore, inserting herself into his space forefully.
Instead iruma is getting on her level
She tried so hard to be a "suave alpha male lead" in some romance story, she completely forgot to be herself.
Now personally I'm not quite sure what to think of the possible subtext message here.
After all, this follows
I think the idea that subtextually "The girls are happier in traditional gender roles" is not what the author tried to go for but it's kinda there as an unintended side effect of amerie ending up in the "princess" role.
I think the main take away of this panel is to actually show that she's growing out of her in box thinking where one side has to be the princess and the other has to be the prince. Though i don't think it's that well conveyed? It's sounds alot like she is more in denial about Iruma being her "Knight", rather than rejecting the idea of needing a knight in the first place
I mean if it's supposed to be panel about conforming to her role as "princess"even if in denial then this panel
doesn't make any sense, since she is acknowledging him as the young boss of babel, as equal, here. Not her knight or the princess. But the role iruma choose for himself
the young boss of babel.
This get's further cemented here
If she thought of him as princess or knight she would spoil him, take responsibility for the water damage herself, but no.
He's the young boss of babels someone she is now works with as equals, even if technically under him.
So she makes him take responsibility for it.
yeah even if there were some minor bumps in this, I
sooo enjoyed this sorta deconstruction of gender roles in romance immensely.
Edit: Ops, just realized there was an issue with the pictures (at least for me) hopefully I fixed it~