YMMV / Maiden Crown

• Jerkass Woobie: Tove isn't the nicest person, but her childhood was so utterly miserable (abandoned by her father at birth, and forced to grow up without any friends in a backwater house with an abusive mother and a servant who tried to molest her when she was eleven) that it's no wonder she's so self-serving and bitter.
• Nightmare Fuel: The way Tove dies by being steamed alive is nothing short of terrifying. When she's finally taken out of the bathhouse, her body is horrifically shriveled, and all she can do is whisper for water (which obviously does nothing to help her) before expiring.
• One-Scene Wonder: The mystic Heikki only shows up in a single scene where he divines the main characters' futures, but his appearance is very memorable and establishes the Arc Words ("How does the proud heart learn to forgive great wrongs?") for Sophie's character.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: For all the drama that it hinges on, Sophie's relationship with Tove isn't nearly as developed as one would expect. They became friends for some time after Sophie's marriage to Valdemar and Sophie considered Tove her favorite lady-in-waiting until she saw Tove's son with Valdemar, but none of this actually gets shown—it's just described after the fact by another character to Stig. Though Sophie and Tove do interact plenty after this, it's entirely hostile, and the underexploration of their past friendship makes Sophie's accidental murder of Tove slightly less impactful than it should be.
• The Woobie: Sophie. She was left behind as a baby by her mother, is forced to leave home forever at sixteen to marry a man she's never met and give up her chance at love with her first crush on the way to her arranged wedding, is subjected to constant gossip and judgment from strangers in public life as queen, and witnesses the permanent maiming of said first crush at his trial for the false charge of adultery with her, which distresses her so badly that she gives birth early to a son who dies immediately after being born. It's nigh impossible not to want to give the girl a hug after all that.