@kuali said in Bookworm Part 5 Vol. 3 Discussion!:
It will cost me mana or political capital to get out of this is about as binding as most things get in-universe.
That's a fair assessment. It's a difference in degree, not in kind.
Refusing to oblige Wilfried's commitments would cost less political capital than going back on his own commitments- but either one costs more than Sylvester has, because Sylvester has none to spare.
@kuali said in Bookworm Part 5 Vol. 3 Discussion!:
By the looks of it, Veronica actually does not have that reputation, even though she was far more guilty of it than Sylvester is. Very few people seem to be recognising who Fernestine is...
Very few people, meaning exactly zero outside of Ehrenfest, I think. I'm pretty sure even Ferdinand himself doesn't know (because he hasn't read it yet).
Veronica's reputation seems to have survived intact, yes. Sylvester is getting the bad reputation that Veronica deserves.
Those who were pushing for Ferdinand to marry out of Ehrenfest did know that he was forced into the temple, but not necessarily all knew it was by Veronica (and not by Sylvester's father). They also failed to realize that Sylvester inviting Ferdinand come with him to the archduke conference implied that Sylvester wasn't continuing Veronica's policies. I think that was some motivated reasoning on the part of Ahrensbach, combined with Sylvester not having anyone willing to listen to his side of the story (no political capital; Sylvester is a bad politician; yadda-yadda).