hrm. i can see it go either way depending on how you personally wanna interpret the ship because if you want to make them healthier than i do i can see ivan sort of sobering up, so to speak, and becoming a little more self-aware about his cruelty and becoming more engrained in the reality that he will never have lithuania (or anybody, really). i however lean much more into the second interpretation here. i think that lithuania's fearful complacency confirms to some place in ivan's brain that he can have what he wants if he just hurts others, and i think that also can create a whole "hurting people is how you show love" thing, which could play into some cold war amerus stuff if ur feeling freaky. it also enables ivan to get more cruel regardless of if he realizes that hes become even worse. and with how lithuania had to go back to russia after the depression stuff with america ivan has this narrative in his head that lithuania will ALWAYS come back and ALWAYS put up with cruelty. yeah. sorry for yapping this was a fun question