I want to expand on this bc I love analysing stories. The author could have done the typical story trope as the setting for Alya had everything: poor dead mother, evil mistress, true blood, ‘evil’ half sister, childhood friend duke, difficult relationship with father etc etc but by having the story through Thalia’s pov it becomes more interesting and complex.
How many read these types of stories & dislike the “illegitimate” child the moment they’re introduced into the story, often times bc they’re hostile towards the FL? The only justification of hating characters such as Alya would be when they’re portrayed as a white lotus against our MC, but the problem is she truly is a victim (so far i don’t read the novel) that in a way it feels confusing cos it’s going “against” the principles we’ve been indoctrinated by most stories.
Reading this idk how to feel as these characters are all understandable in their own way, I understand why Alya hates her stepmother and dislikes Thalia, I understand why Thalia is violent, heck I understand why Gareth feels the way he does (tho my complaint is he’s too villainous it’s like damn I get it he’s bad) etc etc .
My emotions are all in conflict ! A part of me pity the treatment Thalia received but another part of me dislikes her violent actions ahhhh ! I read some spoilers and I’m conflicted with the ML but that’s also just makes it more “human” ahhh . To conclude it really does make you reflect and look into the characters more in other series and how our emotions will get manipulated by the narrative, having the “evil” illegitimate CHILD most of the time be so stupid or comedically evil , or how ppl treat the female characters depending on their closeness to the FL etc etc
This story subverts so many tropes I’m so confused how I feel. It presents the typical story : ‘evil’ illegitimate child who terrorises the true blood ‘heroine’ trope, but we are given the illegitimate’s MC POV and you can’t help but understand and pity them, but at the same time you feel conflicted cos she genuinely does want to cause harm to what we typically considering a heroine as Alya was poisoned in most webtoons we’d be rooting for characters such as Alya and her romance with “the cold duke” and even love the “over protective brother trope”. But put in Thalia’s shoes we end up wanting to root for Her and Vakna and having the pov of the victim of the over protective brother action you can’t help but dislike him for the harm he causes. Vakna is engaged with Alya and how many of us reads a story and get upset at the emotional affair or when the “fiancé” loves somebody else, but at the same time seeing their backstory you can’t help “rooting” for them. Ahhh the author did such an amazing job! Especially considering her two other series the heroines are very similar to Alya but here we have the other perspective and it’s written in such a complex and interesting way! Can’t wait to see how this ties to under the oak tree world as it’s a prequel. I think Max is related to Thalia’s bloodline hmm.