So it's been many many moons, but I've just gotten to this chapter and have been reading through the comment section and gotten kinda frustrated over some of the responses to your reply.
First off, you're right. You talk later about your own situation (I don't think people got that's just an example and not projecting) and yeah in reality there would be so many complex raw emotions here and there just aren't. It's just vague forgiveness and that's so frustrating to see. The MC suppressing and blaming themselves is in character, but everyone else is just kinda doing stuff. The mother blaming herself is an interesting note, but that shouldn't be all she is feeling. Where's the rage over the duaghter she nearly lost in the ordeal? The disappointment in the son who'd commit this? The sorrow in realizing she has to part from him? That's what is really frustrating about this conclusion (and so many in similar Japanese writing) there's no actual conflict to it. Humans are a MESS of contradictory emotions we can barely control and always have to countend me. This is a heavily complex situation the affected parties are going through yet it's written so one note. The king's dialogue here feels so monologue and he just seems vaguely disappointed in his relationship with his son (it doesn't really feel like he's reacting to all the awfulness he's done or putting his sister in danger (ya know like trying to kill her)).
Another big problem with this chapter is we're given no time to dwell on even the rudimentary one note emotions shown. It's like we're watching a slide show of still images moving from one shallow vague forgiveness scene to the next. It's just bad writing plain and simple. I don't know why people acting like it's fiction changes that and it's an insult of fantasy as a genre to suggest it's incapable of even trying to capture the complexities of human emotions, relationships, and interactions.
Adding on to that, I'd definitely say the description of the punishment isn't the problem. It really doesn't matter whether he'd have been executed or is whisked off to "the border and banished". What's happening here is that the author clearly doesn't want to deal with the character anymore and is just writing them ASAP. Again the problem is that we're not given any time to dwell on the complexities of the situation or emotions that would come from family members. He just kinda disappears. I actually think the punishment is "fine" (him being put to good use to solve his mess), but the problem I have is I don't really care. It's the equalivalent of a villian destroying an orphanage to prove they're "evil" vs stabbing a main character in their back and then giving us time to experience how awful that character feels having both lost someone they saw as a friend and being hurt by the betrayal and being in physical pain (which might even have long term consequences). Take Avatar the Last Airbender for example. Zuko's choice to betray Iroh and Katara in Ba Sing Se never went away and held consequences up until the end of the show. And he didn't even do anything really bad; he just helped Azula. But Iroh refused to speak to him and we didn't get them reconnecting until the finale (during which Zuko was so anxious and scared and disappointed in his past self). Katara who once was most willing to give Zuko a chance became his biggest obstacle when he tried to join the gang. She even called the line of thinking that Zuko wasn't as bad as the rest of his family excusing his actions. Again that's just good writing when a character who wasn't all that bad made a very understandable mistake when offered everything he thought he always wanted. The prince he made far FAR worse decisions and directly endangered and tried to kill and did harm more people and no one seems to really care that much. Not even the prince himself. He's just kinda "whoops. Yh. My B. I deserve whatever punishment." it's not good writing for everyone to "come to terms" with the situation when that's just not how humans would respond here. Certainly not everyone. Again there are hints of the more raw emotions and complex feelings you'd expect here, but it overall just comes across so shallow and still.
I've seen comments of the family and friends sympathizing and lmao no. Yes, it's possible they feel sorry for him and for the parents for example this is still their son so they will of course care. Like I said the mom blaming herself for not raising him right is kinda realistic, but it needs to be accompanied by more. Because at the end of the day the person they sympathize with still put their precious other daughter in danger and their kingdom and the prime ministers daughter (who was also in the room just kinda apologizing... wtf) and so on. Feeling sorry for the Prince facing consequences for his actions isn't the only emotion that comes through here. There's this really great play called Rabit Hole where a teen driver kills a child that jumped into the street. He wasn't drunk or doing anything particularly wrong. It's just an accident with awful consequences and what follows is a complex string of emotions. You don't just "get over" your daughter having been in great mortal danger. You don't just forget about that in the face of punishing your son who caused that even if the punishment is harsh and means never seeing him again (though they never really specified if his banishment meant seclusion as in visitors being prohibited).
That's all to say this was just bad. I mean if, as comments say, this is better than the LN and anime then yikes. It really just felt like the author couldn't be bothered and wanted to get this over with. Which is frankly insulting to my time as a reader (though I guess at least he didn't draw this out AND keep it on shallow vague forgiveness which is also unfortunately common).
