Time travel is complicated, not in just its mechanics but also due to the way human relationships and characters are bent out of shape compared to the version of the first timeline.
The first time we see the Male Lead (ML) of this story is when he's treating the Female Lead (FL) unjustly out of prejudice. He then moves on to doing some seriously irredeemable actions before ending his introduction with executing this wife of his after thoroughly humiliating her. There was no way this character could ever be redeemed...
That was until the 'God' of this story realised that she died an unjust and miserable death because of his vague ass oracle. Once he sent her back in time and gave her a middle name that seriously boosted her status, we once again are introduced to the ML again in his younger years. You know, before he became an ego driven psycho who killed his wife's father and wasn't even that good of a ruler.
This version of him had none of the flaws the previously introduced ML had. Sure, he was cranky and still saw the FL as a nuisance who only wanted the status of being the Queen from him, but he wasn't as bad as the one of the first timeline.
The reason I call this redemption without the redemption is because the Male Lead literally hasn't done anything wrong at this point and had changed for the better thanks to her being more expressive, which makes me really uncomfortable.
This is another novel where I don't want the two main characters to end up together just like in Beatrice, except this isn't just because the ML wasn't characterised beyond his looks.
We get to see a lot of the young prince's struggles as a member of the imperial family, but it ultimately doesn't matter since none these struggles can change the first scenes that were engraved into our eyes. As well as the anger we readers felt.
What readers of this story feel all boils down not wanting someone who has become a trauma on the main character's psyche to ultimately end up with the perspective character we are always following, because of the 'suffering imbalance'.
Like I've mentioned before, if the backstory of one leading character is brighter than the other, then without fail, the readers won't want them to end up together. After all, there are many other options that aren't as stressful as the Prince she married in her first lifetime. She has zero inclination to choose him again, but the Author practically tied them together as if that's how it's supposed to be.
Those familiar with the story will point out the redhead she made friends with to be a better option than the prince, but I can see what the intention of the Author was to write this kind of story beyond shipping two characters together.
In the end it all, the story is about forgiveness and learning that not everyone grows up wanting to become a jerk. That in a different timeline, this character could've grown up into a decent person.
Though this theme completely goes out the window when you realise that he's only noticing her pain more because of her doing things out of character due to the time travel. She hadn't done anything worth cosmic punishment in the first timeline (unless you count sleeping with her husband as one), yet it's portrayed as if she should forgive him because now he's totally different.
I mean, no matter how good the prince is in this new timeline, it doesn't change the fact the he's the source of her trauma, and that it would be easier on both of them if they went separate ways.
Having her overcome the trauma and PTSD she now has is a good thing, but it doesn't give any reason to cheer for the Male Lead. It gives the feeling of an abuser turning around with a completely unrealistic flip in his personality and acting that way forever. It's a fairy tale that people can change so deeply just because of a few incidents happening in the past, that unrealistic.
On top of that, no reader wants their perspective character, the one they are always with, to be close with someone who we have already seen one future version of give a high dosage of humiliation.
It hurts the eyes to see these two together when so many better options are on the table. I mean, just because he's a prince doesn't mean the Female Lead HAS TO fall in love with him. It's the same logic if the ML in a story is undesirable.
Their dynamic currently is the FL having high suspicion of literally every action he makes while gradually warming up to him as he butters her up the way he SHOULD HAVE! In the first timeline, I don't like how the time travel doesn't affect him.
Sure, he isn't the same as the prince of the first timeline. However, does that matter when the FL is of that first timeline? It wasn't her fault he didn't like her when she did exactly as she had been raised to do all her life. It feel so uncomfortable...!
What reason to readers have to accept him as the ML when we've already seen what he would've become if she went about as a normal, innocent young girl? It's like accepting an abuser for us.
He may treat her better than before, but what's the point? He has already shown he doesn't deserve her with his actions in that first timeline, and just retconning the whole thing doesn't change that the FL has to experience PTSD due to of his mistakes.
Redemption isn't done like this. He has already become irredeemable in the readers eyes just from the first chapter alone. There is nothing he can do now as we readers now have prejudice towards him the same way he had it towards the Female Lead.
I sincerely hope people would make more fictions where the Female Lead doesn't have to get together with an emotionally abusive prince who does not deserve her. It just pains the eyes to read these types of stories unfold in such a way.
Hope you guys like this Analysis.