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Honestly, I haven’t read the novel yet so I can only give my two cents on how the story is written in the manhwa. The writers did what could have been an amazing story incredibly dirty. The story started off beautifully with this story being depicted as a ancient legend being told through song, the art was gorgeous, the pacing was perfect, the premise was great, and the plot was going well. I only knew Soru would end up with Yato bc one of the top comments on the webtoon app spoiled it on the first chapter. However, I thought the manhwa would change who was end game since that isn’t uncommon. Initially I was okay with Yato ending up with Soru just because I had barely read ch 1 of the manhwa and Jahyun seemed like an arse already. But, Jahyun slowly started going through his character development and I bit by bit I found out that he wasn’t as bad of a person as I’d initially thought he was. Of course, not long afterward did I find out Yato wasn’t that bad of a demon either. Hence, I was stuck in the middle of who I wanted to cheer for. Sht started going south when out of the mf blue, the writers completely disregarded any grow Jahyun made and not only started making him revert back into how he was, but worst. He became a pathetic ml. Soru wasn’t allowed to have any growth either and consistently remained in the sorry state she started off in. I had suspected Jahyun’s sudden regression and Soru’s lack of growth was perhaps bc Jahyun and Soru weren’t going to end up together since the writers implied later on that they were first cousins - not that it stopped anybody back in the day. So, it would make sense that Yato would be the ml. However, they then ended up making Yato go into Prince Shinyul’s body? In the first chapter, I thought Prince Shinyul looked a lot like Yato. But I thought nah must be coincidence bc the dad died when she was born and why would 2nd ml be the dad, that’s just sick. While cousins marrying was common practice direct family was off limits for most. So, I wondered if Yato would end up feeling a protective fatherly love towards Soru, especially considering how he understood first hand how humans cared for their young ones. He’d raised a kid himself before and he’d cared Soru since she was a kid. Besides, it seemed like he never really engaged in romance no matter the body he possessed, so I thought he was incapable of feeling carnal desire or wasn’t interested in getting to know it and only wanted to find out more about this concept called “love” that supposedly only humans are capable of feeling. Again, love can come in all forms, not just romantic. But then they decided to make Yato and Soru end game as father and daughter? It doesn’t matter that Soru was conveniently never told by the exorcists, Biryung or Yato himself that he had taken on her father’s appearance. Nor does it make sense that by technicality it wasn’t incest since her father’s soul wasn’t inside her father’s body. But her father’s body was still being used to kiss her and later on I assume used for more so what the actual fck. Here I expected that the dialogue between Yato and Ashita during their brief encounters (you call us demons horrid bc we do all these heinous things but guess what you humans do worse) that they would find out humans and demons aren’t so different. They are both capable of committing atrocities and they are both capable of making beautiful things. Hence, I thought Yato would eventually sacrifice himself for Soru to protect her from the valley ruling demon who had been waiting for Yato to weaken in order to eat Soru. He would then give her back her eyes and his name as a final act of his love and trust for her. It would be during Yato’s last moments that Soru could know true parental love when she’d find out he did all these things for her and protected her in his own way ever since she was a child. Yato would tell her that he couldn’t stand seeing those around her mistreat her, so he took it upon himself to possess the body of the father who threw her away and take the role of protecting her. Yato would then understand that he didn’t need to become human to understand “love” because he realizes that simply being with Soru taught him exactly that. Yato would then die to redeem himself for the lives he took and then the gods would take pity upon his poor soul and allow him to reincarnate as a human in his next life with Soru as his actual daughter once she’d reincarnate too. Once Soru had died at the end she probably would have pleaded with the gods to allow her to reincarnate not as a celestial being but as a human. Maybe Jahyun could have lived happily with his healthy father as they’d reincarnate in their next life too, living as common folk free from the pressures of the palace.
Also wtf was that at the end that Soru went from “I hope you let me stay by your side bc only then can I not be tormented by demons and them killing my loved ones. I promise to not hinder you and I’ll live as silently as a dead rat…if I am useful to my savior that’s even better…but now I love you and I promised myself I wouldn’t want more from my savior. I am truly selfish to want not just your protection and warmth but also your gaze, touch, and love” to “I need to be with a someone who covets me.” I was hoping she’d understand she’s worthy of love and being wanted not just bc of her celestial powers or usefulness, but bc everyone deserves love, especially someone with a soul as beautiful as hers. This sudden change in personality was so freaking jarring bc there was no progression whatsoever. The end result was so bad too.
In all my 8 years of reading manhwa, never has a story disappointed me so. What an absolute waste of potential. And fck the studio that abused those working on this. The workers better sue.