Abel✯lied's Topics (601)

Spooky

Kind of lame ngl...The art is good and the concept sounded interesting, but it just failed. Just as I can look past any pro-imperialist and bio-essentialist views presented in an Isekai romance, to enjoy the story and the characters, I thought that I could look past the pro-capital punishment and cartoonishly evil criminals to enjoy this one, but like...what else is there???

The fights are over extremely quickly and they're not satisfying at all, due to how op the main character is. I can't even think "Wow, that was a clever move on his part!" Because his abilities just aren't explained.

The characters are flat."Look how evil this villain is, he smiles crazily and likes to murder people!" Alright, that's interesting, but it can't be nearly ALL of your characters. When they brought in the two kids, and the sister-in-law was trying to excuse them, I thought they'd have some interesting, morally gray backstory, not "they killed one person in self-defense and are now on deathrow for it".
In this manhwa about how morality relates to your right to live, most of the characters are either crazy murderers who kill in the thousands or good heros who never killed anyone. The most morally gray characters we have is the old man (I do like him actually!!!), the mc, and slave children who killed in self defence. Surely, there must be something of note in-between "we murder for fun, because we're crazy evil", and "we're slave children and killed a woman with a giant knife pointing at us."????

If I said that the female characters are poorly written, it'd be a lie, they're all poorly written. I can't care about the MC's moral degradation, when I don't know what he was like before, but in every flashback, it seems like he didn't mind murder that much anyway. I can't care about the brother, when he's on screen for two seconds, dies, and then turns out to be someone who hid his fiance from his beloved brother for no reason. But, on the female characters, I won't probably continue reading this, but to those who will, do take a shot whenever a new criminal lady who's cute and attractive, but in a scary twisted way turns up.

Some of the story choices are wild. Ideas that are interesting on paper get completely fumbled in the order that they're presented in. We find out that the
good sister (GS) is dead, then we meet the bad sister (BS), we see her evil plotting for multiple chapters, then, in middle of the final showdown, we find out that they're sisters, we stop the fight to see their backstory, where the mc isn't involved at all, then BS seems little sad that her sister is dead, even though that affection wasn't even remotely present in the flashback (I'd argue that the first scene showed that BS was egoistic and became a hero for praise, not that BS particularly loved her), then BS is about to die and THEN she start begging for her life. It was so out of nowhere for her character, I didn't know if she was tricking mc like the previous criminals, or if it was actually meant to mirror her victims, until they hammered it in.

SPEAKING OF!!! I totally get how the mc is frustrated over everyone comparing him to a criminals, because I am very much frustrated too. Saying it once would've already been on the nose, because it's a story ABOUT A PACIFIST HERO BECOMING A MURDERER OF MURDERERS!!! I don't need to be pointed out the theme like a child! I can see it, clearly! You don't have to have a villain say "See, you're becoming a monster too!" everytime there's a significant fight! Also why do they say that?? Most of these people don't know the mc personally, and the heros apparently have issues with corruption, why would they think telling this dude that he's going to become a criminal too (after they saw him murder a bunch of people), would remotely move him? I guess it's because they're stupid evil crazy criminals lol.

"You say that this story is pro-capital punishment, but they actually explore both sides of the argument!" No! No, they get close to exploring both sides of the argument (with the slave children who killed in self-defense, mind you), and one the mc has a shred of complex thoughts, they get murdered anyway, so that the mc can carry on mindlessly and there are no consequences for this entire arc! The rest of the criminals are one dimensional nut jobs! And again, I'm no moralist. I could enjoy the fights, the characters and the story even if it was strictly pro-capital punishment, but the fights are without stakes, the characters are plain and the story is poorly paced!

Finally, this is nitpicking, but what's wrong with the world building? I dislike long exposition as much as the next guy (especially when it's delivered by a villain, to another villain, who should know this information lol), but I'd like to know why there's so many heros and villains. What do you mean, that there are over 100 villains, just in this prison, just on this floor, that have killed over a thousand people?? How does their society function? So far we've only seen rubble, meadow with some peasant looking children, the headquarters and the prison. Do people go to work? Are we talking future, present, past, a mix of all three? What do they put in the water, that there are so many people who murder not out of hatred, not out of greed, and for the sheer fun of it??
Also "Guy can turn people into balls and throw the balls telepathically" just isn't a unique enough power for me to think "wow he's so strong and undefeatable". The guy who could command object paths could make your eyeballs fly out of the back of your head and it'd achieve the same result. AAANDDD WHILE I'M ON IT, generic black and red unexplained power isn't cool, it isn't interesting. I'm not a medieval peasant to be entertained by this pageantry. Even in solo leveling, where the mc is similar with similar powers, they bothered to explained them. I cheered for him, no matter where he fought, because I knew the limits of his power, how he acquired them and how they worked.

Finally, finally, if you've read this far I love you, even if you're about to reply how stupid and wrong I am.

Sorry, I wanted to love this toxic yuri, I really did, but Naoi is so frustrating. If you're going to turn fucking around and bullying a girl into a game, at least play the damn game right! "Steal something from the teacher's desk!" She steals something important and Naoi turns around and says "No, that doesn't count!". Naoi says "Strip yourself or you'll lose these papers!" She does, and Naoi throws them away anyways! That's not a good story idea! That's just annoying.

When Kokoro called her mom, despite her objections, that was frustrating in a good way! When Kokoro pushes an idealized personality on her, it's frustrating in a good way! It let's us know, that she really can't be her true self around Kokoro, despite how kind she is, and pushes the story forward.

When Naoi says "Do x or I'll do y!" I don't care anymore! I don't care! Why would I, when I know she's just going to do y anyway? It makes the choices pointless. It makes the progression into freedom and delinquency not something that she chooses, but something she's forced into by this bully, who just says "I know the real you" over and over again.

At the start I was expecting the father to have a more of a background role, perhaps becoming a bit regretful, but ultimately not really be affected by Penelope. I thought that he'd be an obstacle to her, and she would have to manoeuver around him.

I'm really happy with how wrong I was though, it's clear that he's learned what's wrong in his household and decided not only to amend his words, but his actions. He knows now, how alone Penelope is in his manor, and he can't allow anyone else to take over the investigation. No one else can be trusted with his daughter's safety.

Sigh, it's true, I did want to see his animal ears...

I'm going to cry, that was so touching. Oh god,,, I haven't seen anything like this in a romance manhwa since...I don't even remember...This, this might be the first time I've seen it actually? And how beautiful is that! Yes! What a serene moment! Oh how lucky we are to have gathered here today on this occasion:

The artist actually drew the people in the crowd!!!!!!!!

Let's ignore the gaslighting and go back to that flashback, because what was that???!!!????
The most generous implication is, that Na Hae-soo was being abused when she was younger, and her boyfriend is mad at her for not getting over it.

However!!! She isn't a young girl in that flashback. They married very young, so if I were an artist's and wanted to depict, that she was abused as a teen, I'd draw her in her school uniform or something, which leads me to the less generous implication:

At some point in their marriage, he became alcoholic and physically abusive, she stayed with him despite it, and then, now that he's not anymore, he's mad at here for not reacting correctly???

Wowie, so you broke a stone with a golden eyes monster in it, and afterwards, a strange golden eyed man approached you wowiee

For a moment there, I thought he staples his bum closed, dear lord

Rip to toxic yuri, you could've been great together