It's clearly the wrong choice. But what I'm surprised the most, is that noone thought of adding a new law where people have two names and one surname, as a few countries already do in our current world. Seriously, we have here the Emperor that could pull out a law like that or something else absurd to force her stupid ass to wake up in a win-win scenario.
Honestly, I was quite happy with everything in this manwha until she made this choice. Sure, it's the effort that you have put for years in name which is the past and another one is the rest of her life being shared with the person she loves who is also the father of her son. The emperor's daugher could grow up with a brother and a mother well, but that is also denied for her. Paul's choice to keep a memento of her past is basically negating all of their future.
I disagree.
It’s not just the name that’s the issue, is what the name represents. Women in this nation don’t even have the opportunity to live outside their preassigned roles. Paul defied that through her own skill, determination, and a bit of good luck. But now, she’s being asked to make a sacrifice of her position and the status that she went against all odds to earn simply because the man she happened to fall in love with was the Emperor.
She mentions that when looking at the “heirs” being nominated to take up the Winter title and land, every single one was a young man or boy. If she surrenders it to a young man who doesn’t know of her struggles to obtain the title of “Winter”, then it’ll be like it never happened. She’ll no longer be a knight in any capacity, she’ll only be the Empress (which let’s be real, seems to mainly be a figurehead position).
If the Emperor wants to win her back, he’ll lay down new laws to allow her to still remain a knight whilst being the Empress. The buck ultimately stops at him, and he’s the only one that can reinforce true changes in this world. He’s been going on about wanting to earn her love, and Paul giving him the cold hard truth was the kick in the pants he needed to actually make new policies for the next generation.
Also come on. Everyone of status knows Gerald is a prince in all but official title. He’ll live a nice cozy life as the son of the Marquess with support from the Emperor whenever it’s needed. Plus he’s Paul’s son, so he’s probably gonna want to earn his position with his own merits. If anything Paul is doing him a favor by sparing him the political agony of being the “crown prince” despite being the second-born, when the crown should be the Princess’s birthright.