[frodonk]

Originally Posted by Kinematics

Regardless, she has (or will have, in the near future) every major system in the kingdom that she knows of (except possibly the Queen) shown to her to be corrupt, and the source of the problems in the country. The thing is, all of her power depends on those systems. You can't have a kingdom without an army, or without the cooperation of the nobles and the church. The nobles have to recognize you as a proper authority, or they'll turn on you and overthrown the crown. The church is the only source that everyone will recognize and granting legitimate authority to the crown. And if the army doesn't follow you, well, military coup, anyone?

Melty is the crown princess, the next in line to the throne. Yet, for all her ostensible power, what can she actually do? She promised to bring the soldiers that attacked Raphtalia's village to justice, but when the entire system is corrupt from the top down, what does that promise even mean? Can she punish those soldiers? Would there be any meaning to it when the act of enslaving all those people and sending them off to be the toys of nobles throughout the kingdom is already done? And she's only the crown princess; she'd have to petition the Queen or King to actually act. She can't even get the King to reconcile with Naofumi just by asking; can she ask for something more serious?

The only leverage she has is the Queen, and we still know so little about her. Slavery is a thing, which means the Queen has to have allowed it. How much can she actually change? How much is she willing to change?

As much as I would like to see where the plot will go to answer your questions I think even the source material hasn't touched upon these questions yet, (maybe) therefore it will never be answered in the anime

Originally Posted by Huh...?

Wonder why they changed the part with Rifana.

Both in the LN and Manga, Raphtalia already knew that Rifana was dead, because she died in-front of her, and it was her death that in a way mentally broke Raphtalia (before Naofumi found her).

This would've made waaay too much sense, I know Raphtalia could've had mental issues because she was enslaved, but seeing Rifana die before her would've explained perfectly why she was in that state when Nao found her.

Originally Posted by Kanon

I heard that in the LN

Spoiler for comparison:

While Idol does survive his fall there as well, Raphtalia's intentions were completely different. She fully intended to kill him, stabbing him with both her swords, so that he would never be able to hurt another person again. None of that "I'll be like him if I kill him" bullshit.

That makes a hell of a lot more sense than what the anime did. The change is very puzzling.

If this is the way how it happened in this episode then Nao's words of "this isn't your fault" would not have been too believable. They really had to amp up Raphtalia's tragic backstory so that's probably why that was changed.