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Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion
Episode 6

by Rebecca Silverman,

How would you rate episode 6 of
Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion ?
Community score: 4.2

raeliana-ep-6

It must be harder to be in Raeliana's position than most stories of this nature lead us to believe. Of course, not many reincarnated characters feel as keenly as she does that they have taken over someone else's life. There are a few, but Raeliana never lets herself lose sight of that fact, and it makes her very aware of the idea that she has “taken over” Raeliana McMillan's life and displaced Beatrice in her own story. What she seems to forget is that if Rinka hadn't stepped in, Raeliana would have died, making her the heroine of this tale, not Beatrice. How many side characters get saved by dukes, after all? Any regular reader of historical romance can tell you the answer: none, unless they persist in seeing themselves as side characters long after everyone else has realized that they're the protagonist (See: The Famous Heroine by Mary Balogh for a good example of this).

But none of that changes how Raeliana feels: bewildered, trapped, and as though she's doing something wrong. Noah isn't helping, of course. His delight in teasing her almost always goes too far, and he can't bring himself to admit that he's unwilling to end their engagement because he's falling in love with her. The implication this week is that something happened in his past that made him think that royal dukes don't have the right to fall in love, or at the very least, it comes with an outsized risk. That makes sense as a reason for his often immature actions where she's concerned. He has essentially stunted his emotional growth to the point where he may not be able to recognize his feelings. He knows he enjoys being with Raeliana. He could also recognize that he went too far this week when he let her think they'd had sex. But he's having as much trouble recognizing himself as the romantic hero as she is in accepting her role as the new heroine. They're both stumbling around in the dark and every time one of them makes a step in the right direction, something happens, whether that's Noah taking a joke too far or Raeliana thinking she's spotted Beatrice. Still, the insert song highlights that while both of them want to end things, they realize that soon it will be too late because they'll have fallen in love.

This being the sort of story that it is, Noah's likely to have real competition if he doesn't get his act together soon. We've already we've seen Adam (silent, silent Adam; he doesn't speak a single word this week) obey Raeliana over Noah, and then she bumps into Keith Westerberg, who is instantly entranced by her linguistic prowess, even before he realizes who she is. That's two potential suitors lined up if Noah screws things up, and he's at least aware of Adam as a threat. Poor Gideon - his face when Noah calls Adam a kidnapper is one of the better bits of imagery in this show as he visibly deflates. Noah may feel a little more secure now that the official betrothal ceremony has taken place (not that we got to see it), but both of our main characters need to get their acts together - and fast.

Perhaps their romance isn't the only area where this needs to happen. Raeliana's worries about Beatrice and her notable absence from the story may be something more than just a simple reworking of the book she read. I think we need to keep our eyes on all the possibilities because while the romance plot takes center stage, there may be more going on that could come to light now that Raeliana and Noah are official.

Rating:

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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