I didn't reread the whole thing and just read where I left off so I'm definitely forgetting a few key elements of this story from when I first started reading it so a reread is definitely due lol.
I ADORE Mc's relationship with his mother, it's genuinely treated as a real obstacle for him emotionally and while Mc might fear his mother, might hate her actions, and feel resentful for all the years she's treated him poorly, you can tell that he loves her or at the very least craves her validation, acceptance, and pride. While I wouldn't say this manwha has the best character writing, it has a fairly decent representation of the cycle of abuse. the empress is a victim of grooming, and I like how the story doesn't shy away from calling her a victim despite all of her misconducts, nor does it justify her actions, she is just a tragedy. She groomed her son under the pretense that he needed her when it was truly the other way around, she needed her son to be more than what society ever let her be, which I believe is commentary about how women put so much pressure on their daughters in the real world because they have opportunities that their mothers could never have. I LOVE LOVE how Mc didn't wish to become the emperor and neither did he wish for ML to become emperor, he did something right there, he rejected the path his mother carved out for him but not without acknowledging and taking the system that abused her which ultimately lead to her abusing him. I like to think of it as him telling her that her pain wasn't in vain or that at the very least, she is seen. I do wish this series had more subtly when it came to writing because I feel like it would have hit harder if the author just trusted their reader to read between the lines hehe, overall a 4/5 (๑•ㅂ•)و✧
I didn't reread the whole thing and just read where I left off so I'm definitely forgetting a few key elements of this story from when I first started reading it so a reread is definitely due lol.
I ADORE Mc's relationship with his mother, it's genuinely treated as a real obstacle for him emotionally and while Mc might fear his mother, might hate her actions, and feel resentful for all the years she's treated him poorly, you can tell that he loves her or at the very least craves her validation, acceptance, and pride. While I wouldn't say this manwha has the best character writing, it has a fairly decent representation of the cycle of abuse. the empress is a victim of grooming, and I like how the story doesn't shy away from calling her a victim despite all of her misconducts, nor does it justify her actions, she is just a tragedy. She groomed her son under the pretense that he needed her when it was truly the other way around, she needed her son to be more than what society ever let her be, which I believe is commentary about how women put so much pressure on their daughters in the real world because they have opportunities that their mothers could never have. I LOVE LOVE how Mc didn't wish to become the emperor and neither did he wish for ML to become emperor, he did something right there, he rejected the path his mother carved out for him but not without acknowledging and taking the system that abused her which ultimately lead to her abusing him. I like to think of it as him telling her that her pain wasn't in vain or that at the very least, she is seen. I do wish this series had more subtly when it came to writing because I feel like it would have hit harder if the author just trusted their reader to read between the lines hehe, overall a 4/5 (๑•ㅂ•)و✧