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Sorry, Guppy, I have misunderstood you as i thought you were traying to put the blame on the system rather on Henrietta.
I do agree that this makes her actions less surprising.
However, we also have to remember what nice things she says. It makes one expect that she would act according those words, but instead she acts totally differently from what she said, being a total hypocrite.
I would understand if she would be lying to her political opponents but she is also two-faced with Louise, who should be her best friend.
I do agree that if not impossible acts from Louise and Saito she would have been in a pitch, but I do not see that as an argument that she is less calculated manipulator.
The first Louise miracle was without a doubt totally unexpected for her, but later, I think Henrietta started to believe that Louise and Saito are capable to do impossible things for her, thus using them as her trump card. So in a sense she was expecting them to do impossible things, Maybe of less magnitude but still...
For me it seems taht she either does not understand that Louise has her limits and that she burns out each time she uses her void magic more and more or she understands but still uses Louise purely as a tool.
Sure she reminds of how they are best friends each possible moment and cares for their (Louise and Saito) both health in an instant, but it doesn't stop her from using them as tools the other moment.
Again, i am not trying to portray her as evil witch or something, however I think that some people greatly overestimate her naiveté bit too much. She is portrayed as such but her actions give us another portrait of her.
In anime - sure she is what we see. But again in anime we will never see a really heartbroken/depressed Louise, nor we will see Saito pondering about the meaning of life and death (like he did in Wales arc in novels). Basically anime is for children who enjoy seeing tit-jokes every ten minutes. It doesn't try to be complex in terms of plot or characters.
Noborus ZnT novels are not the most complex light novels around here, tahts for sure, but they do deep digger than anime would ever be able to. Thats why taking Henrietta just as a naive kindhearted princess who only fell in the hands of system and evil manipulators is simplifying things too much.
I agree with hchuang, that this makes Hnerietta one of the most interesting characters to look at. sure, I do not like her as much as I did in the first books, yet it still doesn't make her a shallow character.
One more interesting thing - have anyone noticed that Henrietta is trying to build a circle of young nobles around her? I mean she is giving a rather big positions from the young nobles from academy who will become heads of their families someday. It could also be treated that she is preparing to have a loyal circle of nobles that support her in the future.
It is not secret that older family members do look down on Henrietta a little but this cannot be said about youngsters so Henrietta is using this to make them feel indebted now to ensure their loyalty in the future. Plus she is ensuring her fame between peasants as well. If everything goes right she may be a rather strong ruler in the future.
One problem is that she relies on Saito and Louise miracles bit too much. Louise is burning herself out as she is using more and more void powers without being able to rest herself and restore it properly. Saito is much more reliable at this sense, but Henrietta already failed in seducing him anyway and the latest acts by the duo may have made her little bit scared of loosing them both (plus Tabitha, is not trusting her "dear" cousin as much as she trusts Saito or Kirche).
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