beta
Read through all the spoilers and ngl this is so much heavier than I thought. There will be war and bloodshed and finding out some of my favs from the webtoon is going to die made me so sad, ML being an asshole is the least of my concerns tbh.
People dropping it just cause they think they are gonna hate the ML from the spoilers feels like they are missing out a whole chunk of the story. 38 chapters in the webtoon and the only romance we see is a one-sided love from a 11 yo girl so this series is obviously NOT focused on the development of romance. Rather, romance really takes a backseat and it's more about politics and the growth of MC.
For people concerned, yes ML groped her chest to confirm her gender, no he did not rape her, he stopped when he realise MC didn't want him. To give context, ML did not know MC's gender at that point and was super angry at MC. He confused the hate and love he felt for MC and the assualt turned into sexual assault after he blew up from finding out MC's real gender. The FL stepped in to beg ML to turn that violence on her instead. In turn, MC tries to diverge the ML's attention back to her because bro was crazy with anger, but thankfully he cooled down after seeing MC cry and left. Im in no way defending him, but MC ends up using ML's love for her as a leverage over him in exchange for a promise to be with him. So yes he's an asshole, but he is a useful asshole with a tight leesh on his neck. And no, he's not the only end game so thank god for that.
A lot of MC's relationships are planned and discarded for survival and her relationship with her lovers are a reflection of that. She and the FL had a emotional connection while she and the ML mainly had a physical connection. FL acts as her emotional support despite not being able to accompany her out for fights, while ML is MC's main chesspiece with the fighting and warfare despite being a huge pain in the ass for her mental health. ( He had loads of red flags and I was hoping another dude would be the ML but it is what it is. Someone had to match MC's ruthlessness and it was not FL. MC had a harem of admirers but most of them died before anything could happen ╥﹏╥ ) FL and ML's rs is also pretty interesting to read because they went from hating, to tolerating, to actively protecting each other for the MC's sake (Fyi their first meeting happened because FL was sent to seduce the ML, but they ended up realising they were both in love with the MC lol. Baraou(Richard III) anyone?).
Wouldn't say the writing is amazingly jawdropping but it is interesting enough. There is A LOT of deaths and MC will cause thousands to die with a command. It's brutal and scary but needed for her growth to power. Like, my love for a powerful MC outweighted my dislike for the ML, and it's so rare to see this kind of triangle ending with both genders so yea I'll continue following the webtoon cause the art is so good. (Also wanna know how the ML will look like with this art) I knew 3 kingdoms was brutal but damn is it brutal. Hope the webtoon don't censor anything because I love myself an unconventional series...