I'm the witch behind the Arbys

you can tell I come at most things from a Ruggie perspective, since he's very much my little guy out of the two. now you say it, I do agree that Leona would get a lot of flack from the media as well. we know he doesn't have a great reputation, and they'd definitely be after him for the whole power difference thing (when not criticizing Ruggie for the same thing on the other side, since the tabloid reaction to things is always highly hypocritical.) it would probably be frequently framed as a stunt on his part, and the common narrative would be that he'd break things off before any wedding actually happened.

as for how the coup itself might change, I do think Leona and Ruggie getting together ahead of time would lead to some pretty significant changes. first, like I think I mentioned in the last post, I think Ruggie immediately becomes an assassination target. Miza's a character that is willing to be pretty brutal, and I think she probably would immediately hold a lot of animosity for Ruggie, in her mind, suddenly getting in the way of her plans. in her eyes, Ruggie was just a forgettable hyena that didn't deserve her consideration before all this, and now he's getting in her way and preventing her from winning over Leona.

that said, things probably start out pretty subtle, because she doesn't want to tip her hand. staged accidents, maybe even poisoning (even if I think the Savanna doesn't have as much of a poisoning culture as the Scalding Sands), and other things to try to take Ruggie out in a way that doesn't immediately link back to her and her retinue. considering Leona isn't stupid, things would have to be pretty subtle to not tip him off, though Miza may not realize how smart he actually is. I think, in this AU, they're probably caught a lot less off guard by the coup, just because Leona can see Ruggie's being targeted and starts sounding the alarm.

as for the night of the coup itself, the major changes I think are that, as you say, Ruggie is attacked in a more direct way, rather than him just being initially a minor target alongside the rest of the servants. he's probably attacked by an actual mage, for instance. that said, I kinda imagine they still underestimate his magical ability, because the whole deal with Ruggie is that people underestimate him because he's a hyena from the slums. even with him being more in a spotlight, that doesn't mean their bias towards him disappears, I think. there's probably a good chance he's in Leona's room as the coup begins, honestly, depending on whether their relationship has progressed and if Leona has figured out enough to realize something is up.

as for Leona, I think Miza's plan goes from the original fic's "try to win him over but if we need to kill him instead, so be it," to "we must capture him at all costs so we can potentially bewitch him/otherwise create our own narrative." her goal is still to get the throne, and so she needs him under her power to do so. I think the narrative she'd try to go with is playing into the media narrative of his thing with Ruggie as him being potentially manipulated or even bewitched by someone trying to gain power (which. y'know. would be true in the end if Miza succeeds, but it's Miza, not Ruggie, doing so.)

and then I think her plan also changes from killing Cheka to capturing Cheka, as a backup plan. I don't think she's the type to marry a child (because, even if that's what royalty has done in the past, ew. even if it's realistic, I don't want to have that in my narrative because it's the kind of thing that makes me personally uncomfortable) but she would probably be able to go the advisor route/perhaps even have a child that is betrothed to him if she felt like that was her best option.

she'd still try to have Falena killed, and I think her plan for Shujaa would also be to have her killed. if she's planning on capturing Leona and Cheka, that's fewer variables if she doesn't have to worry about Shujaa.

in terms of how this all plays out? I'm not sure. I'd have to think about it a bit more, and if I was writing it out, things always change in writing it. characters would be less blindsided, but things like Leona and Falena's conflict might be ramped up at that point in a way that makes things still end badly. depends what the narrative calls for, I guess?