My plot seems to have spiralled out of control (The Thrall's Tale)

This is an excellent list. Perhaps the way I've written the summary is very detached, but I'd like to think that the narrative in its current state answers all of those questions fairly well, though I think it has other problems.

The book is written from a first-person perspective, and the last time I posted a snippet here, one piece of feedback I got was that Lise seemed very chatty in an internal sort of way. She muses about most things on this list at length.

The following is what the narrative suggests in regards to the list:

  1. She feels entitled but has no clear idea of what ruling might involve.

  2. This one is potentially not explored as much, but prior to the story, she felt a girlish excitement towards the foreign lord she's never met and only distantly corresponded with. Once the story gets going, the betrothal slips from her mind.

  3. Potentially all of those. Forbidden romance is something I've hinted at but not talked about in depth yet.

  4. She mopes a lot about it and turns to religion and internal contemplation at first. She's clearly quite uncomfortable with her new condition, but has enough youthful zest for life that she continues on.

  5. She wants revenge and feels entitled to rule. Thus far, there's no resentment. She shows her pampered aristocrat side now and then in other areas, though less and less as time goes on.

  6. It's largely over her head. She doesn't really care for the grand mystery and only wants to find out things that have to do with herself and return things to a sense of normality.

But overall I do think she is very passive, being a pampered lady taken care of by everyone else with few skills of her own. I think this is part of the central theme of powerlessness I envision in the story: she can't fight. She has no one to rely on except the cousin/half-brother with whom the relationship is tarnished by betrayal and distrust. Her faith turns out to be worth little more than a placebo. And she now serves the will of a mysterious being who hardly gives her any guidance or time of the day.

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