Okay, I have to object to the idea that Anise has been rolling over her entire life. Al becoming heir was entirely her choice. She abdicated her role, played up her homosexuality (though she really would've hated to be forced to marry a man), and made herself the heretic to dodge that responsibility. As much as she was an unsuitable heir, she was also so brilliant that Al knew that she was the best possible candidate to push past precedent. She was much more capable of doing the reforms that both of them would eventually see as necessary, but what did she do? She distanced herself from Al supposedly because she thought herself toxic politically. But since she did that unilaterally it looks like she did it so she could be free to do what she wants while he, who was painfully average, bore the burdens. Maybe there was a possible future where Anise, Euphie, and Al worked together to change Palettia (something Euphie herself wonders) but it was Anise's actions that denied that possibility. Anise pretty much decided the course of Al's life without asking him and his rebellion was his rejection of it. Anise realizes this, which is why she's so gung-ho about sacrificing herself as some sort of self-flagellation for what she sees as her sins.
When a loved one is about to step off a ledge, you don't do nothing to "respect their agency", you pull them back. Anise here is about to commit metaphorical suicide, pulling her from the ledge isn't coddling her.
I guess I didn't state it in that particular post, but I read every action you mentioned here on the part of Anise as a reaction to what she had been subjected to previously.
She abdicated the throne to her brother because the nobility saw her as completely unfit to take up the crown, by virtue of being unable to use magic. To me, that's the reason she sees herself as politically toxic; because she had been told she was such for as long as she'd been in that world.
She pursued Magitech because it was her connection to magic, something that gave her joy. But the nobility saw that as heretical because of their views on magic and its intertwining with ruling power in Palettia. She has already been declared unfit for the throne; so she pursues the thing that actually gives her life meaning, and gets branded a heretic by others as a result. Just because she chooses to embrace that title, doesn't mean she gave it to herself in a vacuum.
It doesn't matter how brilliant she was or how average Al was, because that didn't matter in the eyes of the powers that be who would actually be deciding on who would sit on the throne by virtue of who they would tolerate/be willing to work with. Yes, she should have maybe communicated better with her brother her reasoning for distancing herself so much, but I have to wonder if he was so blind to the sentiments of the nobility who are so ingrained in the power structures of the kingdom that he couldn't see that they would detest his sister being made queen? At that point, while she definitely proactively stepped back, I'd argue it was because of the position she'd been put in up to that point by the very people she'd have to otherwise win over, who see her as an abomination of a royal and reject her outright.
And you yourself said before - trying to push reforms and change the system of government would be terribly difficult, especially during a change of power on the throne. So many important people are against the idea of Anise taking the crown that she'd have an
even harder time in the political sense, however smart she may be. Intelligence means nothing when you can't get anyone to listen to you, and she lacks the political power and means to make that happen, where someone like Al wouldn't.
They really should have worked together. The fact they didn't is a failing on each of their part, but again, that's not all on Anise, because it's not like she'd been raised in preparation for any sort of political leadership because she'd been told she'd never have the chance, and so rejected the possibility already.
I'll give you that Euphie is right in trying to save Anise. But she's also still trying to dictate the latter's future, just under the pretense of "I love you so what I'm doing is okay", and she's cursing herself in the process, something that would hurt Anise just as much. It's a very no-good-ending situation for them both, because either person winning sees them both hurting themselves and the other in some fashion.
But at every turn, every decision Anise makes, as far as I can recall, is a result of previous situations and circumstances that she didn't have control over. She acted to the best of her ability, sure - but she was never given a true choice, because she was boxed in or branded with a label in some manner from the get go.
Maybe you could argue that something like self-determination just doesn't exist in this world given the power structures and systems in place, but Anise being the lens character for the series, we have an intimate view of how she's pushed around by many different people and forces, and every time she tries to make a decision to acquire some bit of autonomy for herself she ends up hurting someone and suffering again as a result.
