I mean, really... How will she know she's "in love"?
Right now, she'd fool me!
She cares about his well being and his wishes, she feels passion for him in every way... That seems to fit the classical romantic feeling.
Why does her still loving her past (dead) lover mean she doesn't love Terriod? Does that mean widows can't ever fall in love again? Cause that's basically what she is... In a twisted way.
The same face issue I kinda get... But, I think, he's not just a face to you!
In the end...
I'm confused. I, myself, struggled with the idea of romance. Honestly I don't know what she's supposed to feel to call it love and she also seems to have no clue either.
But it feels like she's not even trying to "solve" her guilt because she probably thinks trying to "solve" it would be selfish of her.
Another question: Does one feel the exact same every time they fall in love?
As you seem to struggle with shame over this relationship, I want to tell you some important things.
Loving someone is a beautiful thing, and breaking up doesn't take away the sincerity of your feelings.
While early stages of love can blindfold us a bit to the flaws of the object of our affection, it doesn't make you an idiot. Even in an established relationship, you can be tricked. Being Lied To doesn't Make You An Idiot, just not omniscient.
If the recipient of your love treated you badly, it's not because "you deserved it" or "should've been smarter". It's because they were an asshole to you. If they act badly it's on them.
But most importantly, if the relationship ended because they refused to respect your boundaries, it isn't because you didn't think about them, but because they were insensitive. Boundaries are important, in all relationships. Being your partner does not entitle them to do as they wish with you, or give their wishes precedence over your well-being.
You loved him. He was a jerk. That only tells that you can love, and he is a jerk. Doesn't speak badly of your character.
PS: It isn't healthy to be scared or intimidated by your partner. If they use intimidation to control you; You should talk about it with someone trusted!
Sincerely,
A random Lady.
i rlly liked the way u worded this random lady!!
Might be a bit spoiler-y to feedback checkers trying to figure out if they'll read this...
It might be a really slow-burn -especially this arc- but I don't feel that the plot has been left behind.
The plot was: "After coming back in time MC wants to do her best with her knowledge to find out why her family suffered such a sad fate and counter it".
If I don't remember wrong, from the beginning we got the foreshadowing that folk songs would be important to the plot, because she was singing and then got a compliment by an unidentified being about her singing when she was thrown back. And later she mentions how music had a big role to play in the rise of the church, and the church seems to be heavily involved in what happened to her family as it is amongst the only high enough powers that could've harmed her family.
I, therefore, think she is trying to turn the tides on the church's rise, hoping that by making the folk songs a big thing it will impede the growth in power of the church and weaken one of her prime suspects for culprits of her family's demise.
I also think that along the way we might see some more development of CutieDuke and see some weaknesses of hers. For example, a stubborn side that makes her obsess and narrows her sight of things temporarily? The assimilation of her person as a matured woman and her identity as a 2nd-time teenager lady.
Lastly, I feel it is a double-edged thinking to criticize a "mature adult" for getting heated about something they are passionate about because the interlocutor is younger; when the opposite is easily translated as the "mature adult" not taking the interlocutor seriously because they're younger, and thus be seen as disrespectful behavior.
She doesn't have to apologize for getting heated even though technically she's older and should be the more mature (that feels like a backhanded insult anyway). If she apologizes it should be for the rough tone, maybe.
Thank you for this. I actually have the same opinion. This arc is slow-burn, but I think this is perfect for this arc (unpopular opinion here). Especially, since this arc involved such a big move like confronting a popular religion in the empire. I don't know, it's just feel realistic to me.
By the way, lippe and rias just keep wearing each other color. I see what you did there, you two. ε=ε=(ノ≧∇≦)ノ
I didn't catch on to the color cues. But now, I must thank you because I see it!
Step 1- DON'T LIE AND SAY IT'S PERFECT! Being truthful doesn't necessarily equate to being hurtful.
Step 2- Start by asserting the positive about the action.
Step 3- Proceed to state the areas that need improvement.
Step 4- Be supportive and reassert positive points if necessary.
Bonus Step- Use one of those "trial is mother of success" quotes.
Encouragement is important but instilling false confidence in is just setting them up for self-doubt, later on, it's taking away an occasion for them to actually get good at whatever it is they are currently not stellar at.
But anyway did he not try out the potion first to see if it tastes poisonous or not? And if he did I have questions for his tastes buds.
please say it louder for those in the back. Hes going to feel so betrayed when he realizes all of the potions are horrid, causing her to vomit, and stealing her energy when she should be healing. She needs get healthy for next year and be using the time to research a way to beat the spirit.
I got into this thinking I wouldn't be interested in the story... I finished all available chapters in the evening.
But, dang! It hurt from the first time he asked himself if maybe being a sex toy is all he's good for in the eyes of the girls. Not even resonating with any of my life xps but definitely broke my heart a little... Plus this is triggering my separation anxiety so bad... Feels like the girls are leaving me. Maybe I was too soft-hearted for this one... I'm so close to tears.
I should stop feeding my relationships related fears...
Right I feel bad for him I think he should just leave to
Let me tell you a short story: «Yvan was walking in a forest and admiring its beauty. After passing by a bluebells field, suddenly an animal attacks him! After that, he ends up spending two weeks in bed with a fever.
Since then he hates bluebells with such a passion, he even finds people who like them disgusting!»
There it is... The ugliness of misassociation.
What hurt Yvan was the bite of the animal, but somehow the bluebells took the hate. ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
"Uncle", you disagree with the behaviour of the mother; work on transferring your negative energy back where it belongs instead of on the innocent child that was abandoned for ~7years because of the very thing you disagree with. She's not an accomplice to the thing you hate, but another victim of that situation.
Cordially,
A very annoyed (pseudo-)Lady
That was really such a good analogy. I've always wanted something like this to say but it would always end up super long or too short to be impactful.
There is confusion between explaining and excusing.
Explaining is when you give relief to the reality. Excusing is when you overwrite the reality.
Nobody (I hope) said he was abused and mistreated so we can't blame him for his shitty decisions.
People are just feeling sad for the non-unidimensional human character that is being shown as more than stupid and evil by omission.
We tend to judge people by idealistic standards and, mistake being compassionate for being lax.
My truths about this story are that he is a selfish fragile fool, infatuated with a manipulative vixen. And his selfish foolishness caused havoc and misery to many.
And I say fool because she was not even properly hiding it, he was just turning a blind eye to it as he demonstrated ever so recently.
I encourage you to engage me in a friendly conversation if you have an opinion you wish to share directly related, or not, to my barely organized rambling.
Have a nice day.
At least he's not as dumb as that trasha's prince, I forgot his name
I agree! Nobody is trashier than trashta's prince. This emperor comes second. ╮(￣▽￣)╭
I love Lucio, honestly; for reasons beyond his good and bad traits. But, my standards of a male lead is a character whose background has as much strength of relevance to the plotline as the female lead's. The novel depicts him as a misjudged and pitiful character - one, in my opinion, is unbefitting of a big role considering he, in a way, becomes a damsel in distress. He is not male lead material, but when readers talk about his "shitty decisions" I'd like to hear them elaborate.
He is damaged. And he is a fool.
Damage is totally a cause for sympathy.
But his foolishness is a menace, to the whole country, not just those intimately around him.
He's not fit to rule.
She'd make a better emperor. :)
Trashta's emperor deserves every misery he reaps.
This guy can change...right now, he's super frustrating.
I don't quite understand why people hate him so much. Yes, he's done some things but i don't think its enough to write him off as a bad person. His trust and love for the mistress is obviously coming from a traumatic past, so of course its not gonna be easy to accept or see their wrong doings. It's not an excuse, but looking how he's slowly seeing her for who she really is, it's a reason enough for me to route for him to be better.
I agree so well with you.
Story wise, the author gave him a great back story and great development. Current character wise, it's not fun to read his idiocy. I understand that they're working towards a great future for him, but right now, he's trash. ╮(￣▽￣)╭
Because when you first read it (the early chapters), he is trash.
Put yourself in the FL's feet, with your sister tormented, abused, framed, and executed. Then your parents humiliated in public and executed.
Then you are executed (and your sister's faithful servants).
We don't see his trauma at the start. We see a man basically marring a woman to ignore her, humiliate her in personal terms, while spoiling a woman who--if he had any sort of care, he'd have put a spy in place to see if she was who he thought she was. Given the main trauma of his life was a woman who was a viper and there was lying/deceit, he should have suspected even Redhead Bitch. His trauma should have said, "Let me make sure she isn't like my stepmother."
That one precaution would have saved a lot of suffering.
So, in the start, he's vile. In his foolishness, he's pathetic and dangerous.
His backstory adds sympathy (as all backstories with trauma and abuse and suffering and horrors will make us sympathize), but the fact is, he's Emperor and he's been betrayed and abused BY A FEMALE close to him. But he trusts the bitch???
Come on! That's being a fool and being careless and not properly being a leader of a nation or a husband to a queen.
And yes, I root for him to be better, to heal, and to be a great partner for the female lead.
As I understand it, Rose has suffered, too. Are you going to excuse her behavior and root for her cause she suffered?
Whoa dude I never said it was an excuse, I said I want him to be better. And i have hope that he will be better because i've seen signs of him contemplating everything. Trauma isn't an excuse, but it is a reason and I understand it.
Rose on the other hand has no remorse or regret for what she does, so you can't compare them.
Also I don't know why he trusts her so much, as you said we don't know his pasts, so I can't chalk it up to him just being stupid, there's obviously a reason to it as we are about to find out.
And just because 1 women betrayed him doesn't automatically mean he's gonna hate and be cautious against all women. Hexs the Emperor so hexs probably been betrayed hy people regardless of gender.
I like to think of his inconsistencies as simply misunderstood. People hate him regardless if they know his story or not and I don't really care cause it's their opinions. But what I find annoying is when they make up biased accusations just to support their hate in an attempt to describe him as waaay antagonizing than he's actually depicted. Like, find a reasonable way to hate him at least. Don't just base your dissatisfaction on his association with Rosemond. He is not a two-dimensional character.
"I hate him because he's protecting his mistress." That itself is false because unlike Sovieshit of Remarried Empress, Lucio has never. not. once. defended Rosemond simply because Rosemond has also never, until Patrizia came along, shown any acts of treason.
That is why he is not to be blamed. Hated? Knock yourself out. But not blamed because you can't criticize him for being deceived, especially when Rosemond is constantly leading him to believe that she is only being belittled for having dirty blood - a trait Lucio completely relates to.
While that may sound like logical behavior, psychological protections work differently.
I think that, since he seemed in an avoidant response(Denial for example) instead of a controlling one(double guessing and setting preemptive measures), that he may have had some attachment to the woman who abused him; and to protect him from the tear of again loving the wrong person (which he could interpret as his badness destroying her goodness), his psyche idealized the Redhead, cut away any negative attribute.
That's, how I interpret it especially after the chapter where we're shown how he thinks of her in contrast to his own detested self. (To him, she was the light to his darkness)
Also, he is tortured by the death of "that" woman. She was an object of two conflicting sentiments and he might have felt like he destroyed her. And now he is reliving the conflict.
That's the explanation I take from the story elements at least.
To make it shorter: He feels the need to trust her, because of the past abuse.
I wish psychological therapy was a thing back then. Or at least that he'd had another attachment figure. (A sane one).
But yeah the guy's dangerous (for others and himself).
That's a very common problem. The readers standing in an almost omniscient position (depending on the storytelling style) end up labelling the characters as idiots for not knowing they were being fooled. It's not the deceived person's fault they are being deceived. I generally feel a mix of annoyance because I know and I can't tell them, and sadness because I can anticipate the fall. Plus a lot of stories seem to portray being smart and likable as being omniscient or in an almost constant state of paranoia. I wish it was easier to admit: "I don't like him because he isn't my type of ml, he's actually a kind I have a particularly hard time with." Sometimes waves don't align. You're not a criminal for not loving this guy. (I avoid hating because it seems, to me, like a lot of emotional investment. But others are free to feel as they do.)
I did get annoyed after the banquet thingy though... His reaction was weaker than I expected. I saw my own weak reactions to most things reflected, with the brutal psychosomatic backlash later... The bitterness of avoidant coping.
From my understanding of what love is, I'd consider what he feels towards her as a prolonged state of infatuation. She's not showing her true self, I don't think he is either. And the idealized image he has of her is too shiny and flawless for his affection for her to have evolved into genuine sane love.
Amen....aka Emperor Shitebag
Amen....aka Emperor Shite-bag
He's definitely idealized the Redhead (Rose), but as king, he has always known about deception and plots and schemes and betrayal. His life was one big betrayal.
He made Rose his safespace, but I figure if you've been betrayed and lied to BY women, then your safespace would be a man or an animal or a cause, not a woman.
Humans are complicated, so I get your point. The desire to please the object of abuse (so there is no abuse) is a well-known phenomenon, but he didn't pick a woman who looked like his abuser (a substitute person to submit to and please), neither did he pick one like his mother (to atone). Those I could understand, He wants to "remake" the past by making someone who is similar into the ideal instead of the nightmare.
Plus he's fucking her. So, I assume there was sexual abuse or he has some background desire to have sex with mom. Which is also effed up.
He is smart enough day to day to functionally run an empire. I still see him not having people check on Rose as a plot hole. Or at the very least to protect the Empress better, because both are his women, in a sense. He knows his mother died at the hands of a woman, so woman on woman violence is part of his very real reality.
He's just really rather useless so far.
After reading all this I realize that some things you mention I don't know about. Did I miss some chapters or have you read raws or the novel?
Oh, maybe cause I read spoilers on here in the comments.
... for a fictional character and all the real people who have similar life experiences.
I feel like I'm a fountain in those moments. I've yet to dry.
I like Astina. I like Terriod.
People who shut off the heart to be logical are actually being unreasonable. Feelings are a factor in life that we know we can't control but should navigate.
Also, you can love more than once. The healthy heart isn't so small it'll only allow one love per life.
To finish this off: too bad therapy isn't a thing yet... You need the guidance.