shes so smart and vicious and steadfast. its not her fault the emperor is a bumbling simpleton and she assumes power quickly. its actually really amazing knowing she held on against tias grandfather for so long ALONE given that the men in her family, her father, her son, her bro, her in laws (tias uncles) are useless and tactless. other villains in this story is such a comic relief and easy ragebait but the empress, though she IS enraging, isnt as much a villain as tias grandfather. they both holds enormous power and is maintaining it as they see fit.
it literally took tia dying once to even stand on the same playing field with the empress. thats a feat.
Then Peres kinda wins in both life since he gets the throne in the previous life too :0
i love seeing ml suffer MUAHHAAHHAAH i hope this suffering arc stretch a bit more but dont make him a crazy controlling possessive psycho in return. hes actually doing pretty good i mean for a romance fantasy standard. hes aware at the fact that hes both a prince and her superior at work and his affection for her puts her in so much danger and risk, hes obviously sick with love but he doesnt lash out at her, and he accepted her rejection, though he hasnt bear results to control his feelings (and lets be honest he never will cause theyre endgame).
oh well, tara and kyle will laugh and tease each other about this phase in their relationship in their 30th wedding anniversary in my headcanon. its good spice!!!
ig now by right of merit, after all these are finished, mc gotta be crowned empress cause her backs bending so much from carrying the entire empires safety on her own haha
ML went from "prince hiding in plain sight" to "coward who marriage-trapped an independent woman" cause wym he bound adele WITHOUT telling her??? it was fine cause i was normal level annoyed when to the very end, he never admitted who he is with his own mouth while MC was already throwing your highnesses at him, but then he revealed that he had them bound together by an intricate magic bond without her consent by deception???? is it not enough for killian to take a stab on adeles integrity, taking her for a fool who wont discover his secret, even though he had witnessed firsthand what cunning clever ironfisted person MC is, he insulted her again by exercising the magic he use to trap her???
i mean obviously no romance fantasy webtoon is ever going to have a separated main couple but now adeles entire character hinges on how she's going to respond to killians insult on her judgement and her dignity as his wife. if she does nothing then shes has no self respect, if she divorces him, shell lose everything including the right to succeed her father until she finds another to marry to fill the inheritance clause.
i just...cant believe my eyes cause killian was an okay, swoon worthy at some points even, ML!!! though the main show of this webtoon is still MC, killian as ML didnt have anything quite bad to him. his character and his relationship with MC would have met a light at the end of the tunnel if he backs down and say "yes i kept things from you, but i have reasons, and if youd like ill tell them to you" or he can even just say sorry but noooooo he whips out the magic shackles instead
wait her daddy ass too cause he has 3 children from 3 different babymamas and yet imposed that the heir to the estate must be married???? what is he gonna do if MC had stood her ground and let noella marry first? is he gonna let his business run aground with a daughter who has never dipped a toe in the family business or what he hasnt apologised to her either for keeping mls secret from her, only the psycho brother seems to have a decent courtesy how ironic
On the point about the dad, Ngl I think it’s an obvious point by now that he cares for MC the most. I think it’s worth noting that of all the mothers, the only one he married is MC’s (who died when she was very young, I think it’s implied to be from childbirth or sometime around then. This might indicate that either he had to marry her, which may have been the case and he was never in love with anyone, or that he cared about her enough for her to be special. This man is wild like MC and probably could have seen his way around a contract marriage unless it was too much trouble, but we really don’t know anything about his history), and he immediately declared MC to be his successor (he could be lying but we’ve seen at times that while MC is correct in identifying how much he cares about money, she’s often wrong in measuring how much he cares about his family).
I’m sure he also would have seen how Noelle would have run the family business(es) into the ground and they would have just kept pushing back succession until MC fulfilled them or just done away with it altogether. MC has been outstanding since practically birth, and everyone (including him, who probably knows exactly how each of his children are) was surprised that she had a loss at all. I’m of the opinion that he just never told her bc he thought it was a foregone conclusion that everything would go smoothly, and that if it was genuinely a problem, he would have done away with the tradition. It would lose him money after all to not make MC the heir (though I’m sure he would have pressured her into marriage if she didn’t really hate it bc he really wants a grandchild).
On the last point, I’m sure he either doesn’t feel guilty or knows his daughter doesn’t know and doesn’t want to eat a loss for nothing. He’s kind of a terrible person to even his own kids tbh
I'm with you for this one cuz in every 'independent fl' manhwa the fl is never really independent
add the lord and theyd form the dumb triad the only serious character so far is just ML with a mystery to his background and being caught in a conspiracy hahaha. anyway i didnt expect to be enjoying this so much AND find a unified period costuming. all the italian renaissance dresses MC and her lady wears are so pretty im being indulged with these idk cohesive costuming in webtoon gives me a serotonin surge lmao
SAME!! Not only cohesive costuming, but when they clearly take inspiration from specific time periods and/or cultures to make it work better... it makes me so happy.
A Stepmother's Marchen & The Secret Lady give a slight more of a fantasy vibe but are clearly inspired by a certain time period, and I genuinely love it so much (I've had both series on hiatus for a while now so I def need to catch up). I Will Change The Genre/The Villainess Flips The Script is also one of my favourites by following a rule that most historical manwhas don't: the fact that most of the time, ladies keep their hair up/tied, only letting it down when they're sleeping (or some other specified event), at least for the most part. It's something I noticed early on and it's a detail I really adore.
Though my favourite for costuming and hairstyles has to be I'll Be The Matriarch In This Life/I Shall Master This Family... Italian renessaince dresses and outfits are so pretty and the art does it so much justice, and the fact that we also get to see the men wear clothing from the same time period (compared tot he usual generic historical fantasy outfits we get for them) is just *chef's kiss*
I'm genuinely so happy to see another series use the time period as inspiration/base for the setting.
Sorry to go off a bit, I'm always so excited to find someone else who appreciates/gets happy about these kinds of things lol (￣∇￣")
YESSSSS OMGGG truth be told im so effin sick of insane anachronistic costumings LIKEEE idgaf about historical accuracy but at least make them not insanely so different cause wym one is in a backless sleek ralph lauren dress and the other girls are in robe de cour inspired outfit HORRENDOUS i say!!! i like secret lady and stepmothers marchens too but im biased with italian/florentine renaissance (i watch too many borgias/medici shows) so ill be the matriarch this time takes the spot for me!!
bc GOD every woman in this webtoon are entangled with another woman and eachother:
1. the duchess/emperors sister is probs having a repressed twisted love for her late sister in law, and thats why shes unreasonable in her hate to the empress who replaced her.
2. MC is in an angsty not yet disclosed emotional conflict with her former master, the crown princess of dunamis.
3. her rival knight, serene, is jealous of MC and crown princess relationship and blames MC for the crown princess losing her former self.
4. princess johanna of ollogos is a wild card who gets pulled in all of the other womens conflict.
5. MC's ex friends/fellow maids are struggling with competition with each other AND their puppeteers who are also higher ranking noblewomen.
6. not to mention the main relationship between MC and empress who gets on at first chance and the empress begging her husband to spare MC despite her precarious standing and dependency on his favor for her.
both the emperor and his son (who is unfortunately, the ML) literally only serves as extra problem trigger IM DYING LMAO and its kinda really funny too cause ML is genuinely a strong well built character!! he manages not to be a useless cog in the sea of sapphic yearning and frustration, so ill give credits where its due.
its also kinda amazing that while this is very angsty, you dont get that vibe at all and instead it carries its comedic tone well. im so glad i scrolled through the latest update page and find this webtoon cause this is incredibly entertaining despite not being actual GL
YES OMG THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT I WAS THINKING ABOUT did you read myind or something lol
im only on the first chapter and when MC was so awestruck and pledged herself to the empress on first sight i lowkey got butterflies so im going to join the already massive chorus crying over the fact that this isnt gl
cause even when shes killing left and right and plotting to kill her husband only based on a previous timeline i was rooting for her haha. even if shes killing just to be empress and not some noble causes or proportional revenge id still root for her. i love me all the cersei lannisters in stories cause women dont need reasons to crave power!!! the fact that she has a legitimate reason now dont change the fact that she outsmarted everyone, even the girl who has the same advantage of being brought back in time with her. her husband was right to fear her
shes not very smart, she has no unique talent, she doesnt have a distinct enough personality to be attached to, whys she wasting away such power for her!!! couldve maximised her joint slay with our MC and get rid of the emperor in a stride instead!!!
As you said she is not very smart.
Uno reverse +4! HAHAHA (my head cracks and laughed at convo)
Idk I thought she was in love with her. I think she said that she married her husband for the consort's sake. Sounds pretty gay to me