I really like this story! Definitely a top contender in the “misunderstood/mistreated villainess gets revenge” trope. I really appreciated that she used her own abilities to accomplish everything instead of immediately leaning on a man like is so common for this trope. I think she’s a really interesting character who is a unique blend of loyalty, selflessness, and avarice. All in all, a great read.
It was a decent story overall, but I kind of disliked how Wellmy was built up as a stoic loner mastermind only to have the wind taken out of the sails when it was revealed that everyone around her knew everything the whole time and just let her struggle alone because reasons.
Everyone basically celebrates how smart and amazing she was for putting on an act and spinning so many schemes for so long, but they could have actually stepped in to help her before everything came to light.
I just thought it was weird how all these people who claim to care for, respect, and support her let her think she was alone and despised for so long when it really wasn’t necessary. She legitimately believed she was completely alone and thought she would be convicted at worst, or thrown penniless onto the streets at best
His brother is pissing me tf off. He’s basically telling him to get over it, because they’re all his parents’s problems. Yeah, and they’re issues that defined his childhood and identity. The brother basically left him in the dark to struggle alone for years knowing that Seongwon would never achieve anything he sacrificed his life to accomplish.
He has been poisoning himself basically since puberty to become an alpha that would be accepted by his father and approved of by his mother. Every single person in his family knew the secret, but told him nothing as he worked tirelessly to gain their approval.
So no, it’s not just “parental problems”. He was raised as an object whose sole purpose was to obtain the approval of his father, take control of the company, and bring his mother back into power/a relationship with his “father”.
Now an opportunistic sadist is trying to tear down his life for shits and giggles and the man he loves is in danger. The brother is part of the abuse. He stood by and didn’t give him info he needed as he watched him abuse himself to the point of illness all while knowing it was all for nothing. The father did the same thing, watching him bust his ass to prove himself knowing full well he would never be allowed into the true family or to earn any power within the company
As far as I’m concerned, all three of them are rotten peas in a pod, just as bad as each other
“Don’t take it out, it’ll dirty the seats” Piljoo is such a legend for that
True to form, even after a serious misunderstanding that left their entire relationship at risk, Jaehyuk is still more focused on the validation he feels from Garam’s distress/betrayal when he thought he’d been cheated on than actually comforting and alleviating Garam’s distress.
Jaehyuk is a major player, has been mostly straight, and has made degrading comments to Garam about his sexuality in the past. Under those circumstances it’s entirely reasonable for Garam to assume he’s cheating. And even when his relationship is imploding and his partner is in severe distress, he’s still only thinking about himself.
Even the original fight was about him being offended that Garam was not progressing in the relationship (thus providing higher levels of emotional gratification) fast enough. Any jerk can say “I love you”, but it takes time for someone to be ready to feel and say it.
Ugh I’m sick of guys who are annoyingly jealous even before being in an actual relationship. Man had to basically strong arm Jiheon to get him near him, which basically forced him to be in an involuntary work position that forces Jeheon to be around and cater to Jaekyung. That goes beyond a crush, very pushy and not in a good way. Zero boundaries respected. Rather than actually trying to win him over, Jaekyung went straight to the forced proximity trope. Also, if they’re this insecure, jealous, and possessive even before being friendly, much less dating, the whole story is just going to be a rehash of stale, toxic relationship tropes where Jiheon gets dragged around at Jaekyung’s whims, but the relationship magically still works because feelings and plot. Not saying he’s a horrible person, just saying that he objectively does not respect Jiheon’s boundaries because he views his desires to be more important than anything else. Jiheon will probably end up just bending to whatever he wants because that’s the only way a relationship with that type of personality can function. It’s a really common dynamic, but I’m over it.
But seriously, she hated him so much on a personal level she slapped him at their first meeting, and his family is always mooching off of, taking advantage of, and sabotaging her. Even if she did (*barf at the thought*) want to marry him, no fucking way that engagement slips part dad and big bro. He’s living in delulu land
Ritter is really out here sampling all the delulu lemons
And cue the trust issues. Kynel is comically terrible at communicating like an actual human, even considering his trauma. If he found out that Tia realized his trusted butler had been secretly drugging him, but decided to keep it a secret so “his feelings wouldn’t be hurt or his trust be betrayed” how do you think he would react? Not well. He infantilizes and tries to bubble wrap her instead of treating her like a true partner to go through the trials of life with. She put in so much effort to improve understanding and communication between them, only to be disrespected in return. Of course she’s upset and withdrawn. She literally has no one else to turn to. Even if she didn’t have pregnancy hormones, she would still be acting reasonably considering the whole situation. Kynel just loves pouring gas on the fire, and when he’s not doing that, he just watches it burn while choosing not to douse it with water
Wow that is a truly horrifying twist. Both hero and Arbil were self aware the whole time, but perpetually forced to act out horrific narratives while they’re trapped in flesh prisons.
Am I the only one who is sick of the worthless “turns out they were long lost childhood friends” trope? It just always seems so pointless and irrelevant. The fact that Tae Oh was nice to mc when they were both only a couple years out of diapers doesn’t change the fact that he is selfish, inconsiderate, entitled as an adult. It just seems like a weird detail to include or bring up. So this guy has been a major asshole with no regard for the mc for 40+ chapters and the relationship has issues with unhealthy power dynamics, a lack of communication, unnecessary deception/lies, and rampant toxicity, but they were super tight as first graders so it’s obviously destiny.
Even when the relationship isn’t negative or toxic, it still seems like a pointless add on. 9 times out of ten, one or both of them don’t actually remember until long after the relationship (and ensuing drama) is established. If only the bottom remembers, it either means that it’s completely irrelevant, or the reason they are pining for someone who is obviously unavailable or uninterested, and therefore willing to put up with a ridiculous amount of toxic bs because childhood feelings go thump. If only the top remembers, they will either say nothing while punishing the bottom in various toxic ways because they’re butthurt about being “forgotten”, or they realize it well into the relationship during their “redemption arc” which triggers them to finally treat their partner better. Whatever happens, 99% of the time it’s contrived and stupid.
I don’t understand why people are blaming Madelyn for any of the issues from their relationship. Madelyn was a bit naive and inexperienced, but all of their issues could have been avoided if Ian had just done the bare minimum to communicate with her.
Ian ignored and was cold to her for years with little explanation or communication. What was she supposed to think? Their relationship only improved because she took the initiative to really go the extra mile to try to interact with him. He does say very gruff and cold things repeatedly. Is she supposed to be a magical genius who can tell that he actually cares when he does not confirm it through his words or actions. When he makes kind gestures like finding Cory or sharing the books she does begin to realize that he cares about her. The issue is not that she misunderstands, but that he doesn’t give proper indicators of his affection. He basically kept her locked up for years and barely spoke to her. Of course she would think he disliked her.
It’s true that she didn’t understand his trauma, but she was a previously sheltered lady, people know less about mental illness in that time period, and even if it was well known, how would she be able to understand what he’s going through if he spends most of his time declining to interact with her. She tried many times to “be a good wife” and support her husband, and try to get to know him. It takes two to have a relationship, and Ian never wanted to participate. He ignored her for literally years whenever she tried to start a conversation or get to know him. How is that her fault?
She absolutely did try to help her father. She forced him not to invest in the doomed wine business and tried to curtail his reckless spending, but he kept spending anyway. He invested recklessly in another doomed trade venture behind her back. What more was she supposed to do? It’s clear that her father lacks the financial sense to maintain or grow his wealth, and he does not listen to her advice or acknowledge his problems. She bailed him out once with her knowledge of the future, but he just ended up in the same position with a different foolish investment. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it be more reflective and not to make shitty investments
On top of that, his plan to recover was basically to sell her off without a care in the world. He was selfish in his first life for killing herself and leaving her completely alone, destitute, and vulnerable, and he’s the same in this life for trying to leverage her marriage to bail out his own incompetence. Then when she refused to be sold he abandoned her, and then showed up to leech off of her when he thought she still had a chance with Ian. Why would she give any more help to someone who willfully refuses to acknowledge their failings and views her as nothing more as an asset to sell off when the times get rough?
She does try to plan for the future, she just doesn’t have a lot of options. She’s a noblewoman who was very sheltered, then basically imprisoned in her first life. She really doesn’t have any marketable skills or experience. She tries to educate herself, but she’s playing catch-up in a big way. She also has no money left for other education, but she makes it work by becoming a nurse. It was probably the best course of action. Since they’re so needed, every institution is desperate to train and employ more nurses during wartime. Once the war ended she would have sufficient training to either get a full time nursing job or get into a more thorough training program.
She is definitely hung up on the relationship, but it’s really just that she’s an excessively empathetic person. If she had ever actually hated him, she wouldn’t have tried to save everyone in his life. She prevented Isabel from making a reckless decision that would lead to her death, which prevented Eric from going onto the frontline where he would have died. She never actually wanted to leave him, she just wanted to have a good relationship with Ian, and that carried over into her second life. She’s just tries to warn people about the terrible things that happened to them in her first life.
ML is just a whiny bitch with a grudge against prophets because one malicious prophet fucked up his life. He’s very self centered and emotional. Even if he doesn’t trust prophets, Eugene never tried to scam or convince anyone and helped both him and his family in many ways, even before their relationship deepened, but he’s ready to scrap the entire relationship over something like that?! Alexis needs a serious reality check and attitude adjustment
Imagine being so distracted by constant horniness that you need to take mood altering anti-horny meds that give you lethargy just to function in society
That’s such a raw deal. Bro had to delay retirement to take care of an S+ esper, got killed in the field, and woke up 5 years later in the body of a decrepit misfit. He just wanted to retire in peace ╥﹏╥
This is a horrible story with an insidiously manipulative ML. ML is a Duke, but pretends to be the peasant best friend of the fl for more than a decade. She learns that she is going to be sold to the Duke presumably to be used for sex, then killled. She goes to the ml for help, hoping that if they marry, and she is no longer a virgin, the Duke won’t be interested any more. She is 100% upfront about what is happening and why she is proposing.
Despite the fact the ml is the Duke, knows that she isn’t going to be abused like that, and that he has the resources to protect her, he doesn’t tell her anything to make her less desperate or fearful.
His men swoop in and “rescue” her from people trying to kidnap her, only to imprison her in the Duke’s castle. ML pretends to be a gardener to see her and still doesn’t let her know what’s happening. She still believes she’s going to be assaulted and killed at some point. He is going ahead with wedding plans for two weeks without even proposing or clearing the air. When she finds out the truth he even guilts her into going along with it by painting her as manipulating his feelings and trying to exploit him.
He deliberately manipulates her by pretending to be sweet and vulnerable so she will do what he wants. He doesn’t care about her opinion or autonomy, and is happy to take advantage of her fear and desperation to get what he wants. Basically, the type of character who would rather manipulate her into an emotional and literal corner than actually try to win her over, because he knows he will never take no for an answer, so if it ever came out of her mouth, he would become the undisputed villain.
The fl is not a real character, but an accessory to the ml. She’s got the usual fl Jekyll/Hyde switch (basically a normal personality for when the ml isn’t around or doing something shitty, and a permissive doormat personality for when the ml treats her like property). Since accommodating the ml’s toxic behavior is a higher priority than the consistency of her character, behavior, and personality she gets watered down into a dumb, naive, spineless, and shallow character. The only reason the ML isn’t the villain is because the fl magically forgives everything instantly, and does not think or act like a normal person (or even her main personality) whenever she finds out the ml has lied to, manipulated, gaslit, disrespected, or demeaned her.
We were given a golden retriever, but he turned into a psychopath! Not cool!
(╯°Д °)╯╧╧
I cannot get over how shitty the parents are. First of all, even though he actively tried to do it, splattering is basically an involuntary medical condition that happens even if he’s actively trying not to. The parents just punish him as a troublemaker, but never bother trying to actually talk to him or figure out why he acts that way. Basically all his classmates think he’s weird and gross, except for some girls who view his condition as a novel form of entertainment.
He overfixates on sexual behavior because it’s the only way he receives positive attention from his peers, even if they’re really just treating him more like a circus sideshow. This mentality is common in people who have low self esteem and have a hard time making friends, but are considered attractive and receive attention for it. They oversexualize themselves because they think that’s the only part of them that people could or would ever like. He knew that none of the girls actually liked or cared about him, but he couldn’t bear to give up on his only social relationships.
His parents basically give him some vague bs advice, then cart him off to a random place where he may or may not be able to make friends. They know his abnormal body sets him apart from normal people, and that he’s always compared to his perfect, popular mother, but never did anything to help him cope with these difficulties. They basically threw him into another school and just hoped he would magically be able to work through his issues.
I get that they genuinely love and care for him, but it just felt like they constantly ignored the serious issues in favor of punishing the crap behavior that was the result of them. It was only down to luck that he managed to meet supportive friends that helped him work through everything, but it could’ve gone way worse. I just felt that they didn’t even put the minimum degree of effort into understanding him
That red head bitch is such a tool. It’s obvious he’s the “grass is greener on the other side” type. He had her in her first life and treated her horribly. He only wants her now because he can’t have her and his inferiority complex towards Carcel keeps getting triggered. Now I’m afraid he has memories of their past lives. I need someone to take him out stat