#A.O.A.B

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I think it's also because Rozemyne initially has a very Earth (or at least fresh eyes) perspective of the magic system. Like, to her, she initially believes it in the way that you believe in a magic system when you read a book/watch a movie, etc. You learn the rules and then accept them at face value.

She sees the magic in this world and then goes, "Oh cool, this is so fantasy," and then just accepts the magic at face value. The best example of this is I think during the first trombe hunt when her logic of "I just have to say the correct words and pray, right?" accidentally blesses the knights, even though that kind of magic supposedly isn't possible without a schtappe. (And then we also learn later that some of the "proper" spells are just prayers that have been simplified over time, that most of the people of this world didn't realize until the whole first ternisbefallen/Bible comparison incident.)

And then she just keeps praying, and it keeps working, and then she comes to the conclusion that the gods are actually real. Why wouldn't you pray and believe if your prayer and belief actually amount to something? Like even the most atheisty of atheists at that point would start believing in the gods (me included) because the proof is just right there.

One of the things that's always confused me about Ascendnace of a Bookworm is how the gods all seem to think this random child is the coolest thing ever

Like, historically speaking, have they gotten that involved with anyone else?

When Rozemyne asks for something, it's pretty much handled

Gotta borrow a shield, even without a schtappe? Not a problem, Schutzaria is personally looking out

Need to grow taller? Arnwachs heard you, bro

It just seems odd that they get so involved in regards to Rozemyne but somehow the people have forgotten so much about the temple and prayer

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Angelica getting engaged:

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When it comes to Lestilaut I honestly think it's funnier if he doesn't have a crush on Rozemyne (or Eglantine). Like nah, this guy just *really* appreciates beauty and art. Especially with that one scene where he ditches his fiancee or whatever to go draw Rozemyne. Like yeah, sometimes you see something that resonates with you so hard that you will explode if you don't draw it right now. I get it completely

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Can I just say that I love the unintentional equality of having Anastasius treat Rozemyne as a threat equivalent to a man. He is unironically worried that this tiny gremlin girl is going to steal his wife. And the thing is, his worries are entirely founded.

*Pepe Silvia voice*. My Theory™ is that the entire Ferdinand-blackmail thing was carefully planned by Anastasius to make Rozemyne lose interest in Eglantine /s.

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^^^^^

Not to mention that the whole "the gods call you your birth name" thing is. Well. Let's just say if I lived in Yurgenschmidt and got dead named by the literal gods, that would definitely be my joker moment.

I wonder how trans people are treated in Yurgenschmidt's noble society sometimes. The core identity of being a noble is having a lot of mana, so there's a bit of me that hopes and prays that they wouldn't care as long as they kept doing their job. Maybe Flutrane would help the trans mortals who prayed to her, embracing change and healing. Though on the other hand, Noble society is so ruthlessly conservative and status-based that I fear for those who don't have the protection of someone with actual power. Worst case scenario, the Temple is always an option I guess...

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I don't think we talk enough about the fact that Damuel is Rozemyne's poor little meow meow. She loves him so much. She's invested in his life so much. He is probably her most trusted noble retainer. She forces the higher status knights to listen to him. She gets annoyed at Cornelius on his behalf when he brags about his engagement in front of Damuel. She ruins Traugott's life because he makes a disparaging comment about him. She even blesses him alongside her family at the end of part 2. I love their relationship so much.

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This was originally going to be a more general post about how people have bad takes about Sylvester and Florencia, but it kinda got away from me because I started realizing that the Rozemyne/Wilfried engagement is probably the thing that's caused the most misunderstandings about him.

First of all, it was literally Ferdinand's idea originally. Seriously, look at the "Year One: Complete" chapter in p4v3. Such a simple detail, but it seems like a lot of people forget it.

Second, it did not happen because Sylvester favors Wilfried. In fact, Wilfried is basically just a means to an end in all of this. It happened because Sylvester prioritizes *Florencia*. Sylvester doesn't care if "commoner blood" or Ferdinand or whoever else becomes the next archduke. He cares about cementing Florencia's place as the mother of the next archduke. And on top of that, Sylvester was trying to grant Rozemyne's wish of staying in Ehrenfest. Mostly because obviously she benefits the duchy, but also he literally says that he still felt bad about tearing her away from her loving family and wants to at least grant her wish of staying near them.

Wilfried in particular benefiting from the engagement was just an extra little bonus in all of this. If Charlotte was a man, or Melchior was older, the engagement would've been with them instead. How do we know this? Because Sylvester and Florencia already gave up on the guaranteed Aub thing after the Ivory Tower incident, and if Charlotte or Melchior were an option then they'd be much more secure candidates than Wilfried (even completely disregarding skills and whatnot, Charlotte and Mechior not being criminals would give the Leisegang's much less leverage).

Which brings us to the final piece of this: "Sylvester is such a bad father! He didn't let Wilfried step down even though he wanted to!!" Let's remember the situation here: Wilfried picked quite literally the worst possible moment to start backing out, which Sylvester points out. Sylvester even said that he would've let Wilfried step down and take responsibility for Rozemyne himself, but Wilfried didn't change his mind until it was too late. Remember, he wasn't suffering silently wanting to step down the whole engagement: he changed his mind *after* his conversation with Ortwin, which was *after* the FVF purge.

Don't get me wrong, Sylvester has a lot to be criticized for, but this the way people try to erase the complexity of layers that Kazuki-sensei weaves into her characters is so maddening.

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It kinda frustrates me when I see posts where the OP clearly sees Rozemyne as a typical overpowered "most strong and cool and awesome" protagonist that everyone should bow down to, because it feels like that's missing the whole point of her character.

"Omg Florenica and Sylvester are so dumb, how could they say that Rozemyne is too emotional and narrow-focused to be a good Zent!!" Because she literally is! It's her strength—who else could've saved Ferdinand the way she did—but also not a good trait for a leader of an entire country. She literally gets annoyed that she can't do nepotism when she finds out they made the dyeing competition anonymous lmao

Not to mention, putting qualifications aside, Rozemyne doesn't even want positions of power! She just wants to be a librarian and read books! This isn't the "I want to gain all of the powers and save the world" isekai. This is the "I just want to read books, but all this troublesome shit keeps getting in my way" isekai. People are forgetting that she never even wanted to leave the lower city in the first place, let alone become Zent.

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If Charlotte was a man Wilfried would be fucking toast. Charlotte, Rozemyne, and Ferdinand would be the unstoppable trio of the millennia

Charlotte has to be one of the most tragic characters in Ascendance of a Bookworm because my girl was TRAINED to be an Aub since day one, she studied, she excelled, she helped out during when Rozemyne was asleep, she keeps up with what she asks of her, is able to SUPPORT and reign her in -

Yet she’ll always be second to Wilfred. A spoiled brat who was told he deserved his Aub position by the woman who neglected and bullied Charlotte. He’s incompetent in every sense of the word, not even being qualified to protect Rozemyne MUCH less marry her

Charlotte outright said “you’re so incompetent that if gender hadn’t forced me out of this position, you wouldn’t be the next Aub”

And he’s like “actually I won’t a chess match once (1) so actually you wouldn’t”

This man infuriates me

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Currently doing my 3rd reread of bookworm and wow. Going through part 4 again with the gay ass Eglantine interactions just makes me laugh cause they really fumbled the bag with Rozemyne so hard it's crazy 😭

Like all Eglantine had to do to get Rozemyne on board was probably bat her eyelashes, offer a few books, and promise to protect Ferdinand – hit the Rozemyne weakness trifecta of cute girls, books, and family – and instead they went with the most destructive path possible like you have to laugh. It takes a lot of skill to fuck up acquiring the easiest ally ever

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Okay but Judithe is such an underrated character. She's an Angelica fangirl even after learning about what a waste of beauty she is. She's the long range specialist that becomes an important part of the battle strategies. Arguably one of the best knights for guarding Rozemyne in her highbeast due to its roofed nature. THE BRIDE DITTER SCENE THE BRIDE DITTER SCENE THE BRIDE DITTER SCE—

Also the whole "flowers" thing with Rozemyne and Hannelore made me laugh even though I was crying, I gotta give her points for that

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Part 5 is really funny because what do you mean THREE morons knocked up their wives at an extremely inopportune moment

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Putting aside everything else about me that would make it impossible for me to actually live in Yurgenschmidt, I think the funniest thing about imagining myself as Rozemyne is getting to the high beast creation part and realizing that I can't do proper magic because I'm an aphant.

Just imagining getting to the "now visualize a sphere" part of the instructions, being like "Oh yeah this is actually impossible for me" then getting put down like a dog just makes me laugh.

Btw for anyone that's gonna say like "Oh but it's magic so it could work" etc etc, please just think about how hilarious it would be. Exhibit A:

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I know there's a lot more glaring things that Kazuki chose to not elaborate on, but as someone who's also from an island, I do think it would've been interesting to explore what it would be like to suddenly be reincarnated into a landlocked area. Especially since at the beginning of the story, it seemed unlikely that Myne would ever even leave the city, let alone see an ocean. It mostly manifests as the fish obsession for her. But as someone who was born and raised on an island, with a culture that reveres the ocean, I would honestly be missing the beach pretty badly if I woke up in that situation. I will say the fish and rice obsession is incredibly accurate though, I would also be losing my mind.

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I really wanna learn more about real-Lanzenave, since a lot of what we saw was from the Yurgenschmidt noble descendants