Both ML and FL is shockingly mature, calm and strategic. Their communication is a solid B+!
FL is competent, decisive and straightforward. She's not a "Tee-hee! Genki Desu!Bubbly Cheerful Sunflower girl" but she's not all stoic, doom and gloom and melancholic either. She's refreshing tbh.
All the usual misunderstandings and bullshit will-they/won't-they do NOT happen here. Yes, it packs in ALL of the cliches, often reading like it'll follow the tried and true and oh-so tired drawn out miscommunication arcs, but nope. FL will get shit handled within the next two chapters.
The crown prince was taken down by ch 45 for instance
This girl is NOT fucking around...
until she literally is with the ML LMFAO Yes, girl, get it!
ML, despite being rather eerie and behaves strangely, actually has a reason to be the way he is. He's NOT cold nor is he emotionally constipated even if he's rather aloof and standoffish. He knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. And, boy, he gets it.
ML isn't human. Therefore, he obviously isn't going to behave like even a vaguely well-adjusted, semi-functional human being. Doesn't mean he's a psychopath or sociopath though and neither is he inhumane.
He understands good vs evil, right vs wrong, and has a solid grasp of morals and ethics.
He does NOT see humans as bugs or inferior. He does see them as actors on a stage while he's sitting down, watching from the viewpoint of the audience. Separate. He has the ability to interact with the "actors" and the "stage" itself but he's really not part of the production at all.
All that said, the story is very tidy. Bloodless. The passion and emotions are banked, subdued. Stakes are high but because of the sheer determination from FL it doesn't feel like there's any urgency, desperation, deadline, dread or existential crisis that so many other stories with this plotline has.
FL is both strategic...and not. It feels like we're only seeing half of what she's strategizing and never the whole picture. Something else has already happened and we still don't know what the other half of the plan was/is/could have been from the events earlier than the current crisis.
It's just really odd.
Also, sometimes the chemistry works and they are charming AF, but for the vast majority of the time it does NOT. They're as electrifying as rubber. It's really strange.