Oh noooo....a break up arc...... Oh noooooo, I guess we'll have to focus on side characters now! I guess we'll have to follow the incredibly hot goddess of life and death! I guess we'll have to see if that one blush scene leads to yuri!! Oh nooooo!!!! :((((
I have to say this, because it's on my mind since chapter one, but the fashion in this is god awful. I'm not even really complaining !! Like it's certainly more interesting to look at than some safer choices. But the colors, the way the fabric is layered or how it sits on the body (especially the dresses) is just ugly
I love overprotective husband Izek, but I could really do with some overprotective brother Izem too rn. Poor Ellen. Obviously poor Ruby, but damn
I'm sorry, I just don't understand why it was necessary to handle this plot point so clumsily. Our male lead is a serial killer, we can handle the protagonist being a bad older sister.
It makes no sense for him to want to stay with his aunt, if he clearly saw her hit his sister. It is completely unnecessary to make him so cruel to her and so unforgiving.
I don't need him to be a perfect victim, but the author is clearly framing this in a way, that makes the brother's resentment nonsensical.
I promise we would've been able to handle it, if she left her brother behind without a second thought.
I promise we would've been able to handle it, if she hit him for something less hurtful.
It's so fucking weird, because there's all the ingredients to a morally and emotionally complicated story??? Like if I was writing this, the obvious take would be that the brother resents his sister for the neglect that facilitated the sexual abuse. But if he never wanted to be around her in the first place, then he's just pissy because she hit him once when they were kids. It doesn't make the protagonist kinder, it makes her duller.
"My sister, who I loved and relied on, was too busy studying ((to make a better life for us)), not knowing I needed her then to protect me and I resent her because her independence cost me my childhood."
is just better than
"My bitch ass demon sister hit me one time, so now I want nothing to do with her and I'd rather stay with my abusive aunt. I wish she died with our parents."
I feel like the main thesis of this manga is parents failing their children.
Perez is a special case and I have an extreme hot take, so just put a pin in that.
Astana and Bellesac are both driven by the desire to impress their parents. They act prideful in front of strangers, but continually humiliated and insulted behind closed doors. Although they're obviously cruel and foolish, their motivations are the same as Florentias: protect their family. The Angenas family has left behind a legacy of bloodshed and if Astana doesn't seize power, both of their mothers (and Astana himself) are put in extreme danger.
The emperor and the empress are no exceptions to this. He's the most powerful man in the empire, yet he's still haunted by his abusive father. She's desperately clinging to whatever power she may have in her role as matriarch of her family.
The Lombardi are better, but not by much. To Tia, her grandfather is a kind old man, but his children don't know him as a father, but as a patriarch. Florentia's father was forced into a submissive role in the family and the eldest was allowed to dominate and abuse others. They share blood, but they clearly don't have any close relationship to each other.
While Florentia's father was obviously always very kind, he was rather weak, to the point that had Tia nod had experiences of an adult, she would've been ousted from the family. However kind they are, under the grandfather's and father's supervision, Tia spent her first childhood being bullied.
Bonus points for the aunt for being strong and kind to her sons, who grew up to be strong and kind. Though obviously there was a struggle with the cheating husband.
So.....the hot take time. While the author obviously made them meet as little as possible while they were children, it's obvious that Florentia's experience as an adult and his inexperience as a child shaped their relationship. She took care of him in a way only adult would have enough autonomy to and that he wouldn't have been as impressed with as the adult he was in his previous life. I'm not calling Tia a pedo or something, there is point to this:
The only reason why Florentia can change her fate and the fate of others, is because she doesn't have to rely on these adults to take care of her. She loved her family, but she doesn't trust them (rightfully so!) to protect her without her intervention. She knows that if she let others take care of her, she'd die a tragic premature death.
She has so much agency, because others around her are still trying to navigate their families, while she has already decided to shape it to fit her. Perez also doesn't have to navigate his family, because it's dogshit and they hate him.
Can you imagine if this was drawn by someone who didn't like boob windows and drawing yaoi. What a full world that would be
WE'VE WON!!!!!!!! PENELOPE WON!!!! SUMMER MAY BE ENDING, BUT WINTERS SURE AS HELL AIN'T COMING!!!
Today is a big day for the choking fetishist! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
My sincere condolences to the pegging enthusiasts, but there's always next time.
So real, because I would also do anything to catch a manipulative beautiful woman's attention
If all their sibling beef comes down to her hitting him once, because he told her she wished she was dead, it's gonna be so disappointing. I was hoping he saw her kill their parents or something idk
Also random theory moment, but since the whole plot is centered around Sylhan being poisoned, perhaps Lysbet's illness also has less than natural origins... Don't think Lister is the one responsible for it, by the virtue of being a fucking moron, but perhaps the lord of Khalak is tired of whatever limited freedom her predecessor has under Lysbet's rule.
What I find funny is that Lister isn't like... particularly evil. Obviously he is, by real world standards, but in any other manhwa I can imagine him being the main love interest.
So he goes on, thinking he's the cute tsundere young-master/ savior love interest, when in our eyes and in the eyes of Sylhan, he's an immature abusive sex-pest.
Poor fucking kid, god. I hope he makes it out of whatever fucked up yandere shit the lawyer's got planning.......but he probably won't...
Wait are baked-in ads for shitty ai games on illegaly translated manhwas seriously going to be a thing from now on???
I thought the journalist side plot would be a boring thing I'd have to endure for the sake of the greater plot, but it's actually really interesting and the journalist character is a strong lead too!