but i really need to get this out of my chest.
it bothers me that the female characters in this story is comprised of 95% being dead, evil of various degree, or both at the same time. while only the remaining 5% is normal women, including MC and og protag. in contrast, the male character in this story is comprised of 95% himbo/golden retriever adjacent, secret softie under a stoic/brash facade, or misunderstood people with depth to their stories and characters. the remaining 5% of the men is petty characters or literal children.
the storys engaging and interesting but i cannot for the life of me stop noticing this trend in this story and others. even the grim reaper assigned to her soul was a woman....before he morphed to be a man??? and for no reason ig except for establishing the fact that MC is loved and supported by practically all men, and incurs the nonsensical wrath of practically all women from the get-go.
all i know this is virtually prevalent in almost all if not every webtoons with this dukes daughter found family stuff. the subject of the acceptance is mainly men, and the subject of the rejection are mainly women. all of the mothers are dead and out of the picture too so that mc can be the sole object of affection. this story takes it up a notch by having her ducal family have 2 dead mothers, both of whom are evil or have dubious agenda, PLUS a dead sister who was never acknowledged again outside of the matter of her bodysnatch plot.
its just......i hope these authors know they can build a strong case for readers favorability for an MC without resorting to....whatever strain of casual misogyny this trend was built on. conscious or unconsciously.
her relationships with all the women and her struggle with class and power is wayyyy more interesting than the romance plot
also idc about her dad/abuser. he shouldve been in jail or executed along with the emperor as well, since hes the warmongering brain of everything that has caused cerise to have grown up as a lab grown super soldier???? im not moved!!! the rebels while eventually revealed to have been dubious and miscalculated on their own strategy, deserves wayyyyy kinder understanding than the father, but not even the commoner massacre survivor/rebel leader (kyle) was afforded a closure, we dont know what fate befall him after the 'battle' if you can even call it that. i feel like im going insane from this story glazing the father!!! lmaooo
also whys there still a crown at all??? they really couldnt just topple the monarchy, afrer everything??? is the entire conflict not enough for the country to want to start anew? a different king wouldnt have made any difference, the country was already in a class-locked power struggle for long before the current king, and cerises father was just continuing an already existing power balance, with the royalist vs. noble class. even after the king v. noble conflict resolved, none of the commoners has gained anything...they will still live in the same socially, economically, and politically stagnant life, only under some different king. not even a talk of a more egalitarian reform or something. just same old whatever.
its such a shame cause cerise herself is a very distinct character. very easy to like and root for her. its also a shame the 'small' story around the relationship of her precinct colleagues and the crimes they solve in the beginning is soooo goooodd. unfortunately the 'big' story just didnt pull its weight around them, especially on tying loose ends. everything was just so....so. the romance is also just whatever, but i let it slide because it really was not important in the first place.
it was off to a promising start but its very anticlimactic, partly because the way the problem itself wasnt strong enough to have a climax.
the earlier chapters are off in translation but i got by so its fine.
i love that theres sooo many intrigues. it starts off pretty typically for an isekai, and i thought the problems was just going to be as typical but its actually pretty complex.
one problem that i have is that MC pretty much has very little if none of the sense of danger/urgency. i get that she really thought this was a game, and she got ahead by having played this to a certain point for 43 times. but for the longest time in this webtoon, she felt like she thinks shes untouchable, not in danger, and disconnected from the 'game' consequences. her not having any thought about why the organisation who sent 'lynne dawechester' is evil is also bamboozling as hell. cause wym she couldnt suspect the 'lets groom children in an isolated dimension so they can die for the worlds later' people arent twisted in the slightest??? even if its all just a game, even if its not even a VR experience, the fact alone wouldve raised so many red flags. but she didnt even think of questioning the moral of her org until chapter 81, even though shes been busy running around being suspicious of everyone else. shes quick w everything else but the biggest foreshadowing issue right under her nose.
anyway its just a little bit from the story that i find frustrating a bit, but otherwise a solid and engaging story!!!!
even from when he was barely making an appearance in the beginning lmao. joe won by being her knight, he was readily available on stand by for her, thats his job, but i have never find him and keira to have any progression at all. they dont even really 'talk'. it honestly surprises me to see him having so many shooters based on passive interactions and internal monologues only on his side, painting her as some kind of savior angel princess queen on pedestal inside a glass case n all that. all that projection on his part is boorish as heck for me, personally. he doesnt really know keira. he knows lady keira, his lady-charge/employer though. i suppose he isnt objectively bad, i just know i thought he doesnt fit keira. maybe hes a good match for her, if shes not who she is and has not been through the things she has, and have the challenge that shes currently overcoming.
erez on the other hand was the one who saw right through her, and whom she divulged all of her secrets, her tears, her laughs. from the moment he made her laugh, its apparent they were not separated by a glass barrier. shes not some perfect lady with erez. she was a disgraced, once gullible girl whose naivete led to her death, and whose willpower and cunning eventually led her to a path where they meet (again). she was keira, the girl, the person. and with her, erez the ever omnipotent sorcerer, was just a boy whose compassion and wit in the previous tl set in motion their happy ending in the current tl.
idk i just always thought kira and erez bears more weight than kira and joe in terms of fated lines and chemistry from their mutual interactions vs. one sided daydreams and mental images. the flow of the story was always going to moor in keira and erez being endgame, everything else was an added flavor
i dont understand the moral roundabout this story is going at. like...she does so much for a presumably dead cat ghost but you jolt at live human reality in which...yes...people are in even worse economical condition than her, and she did jackshit, and the duke, who is well, a duke lmao, was just there sitting ducks. "its common in this part of town" he said or something. her familys landed gentry, so she did have a life of luxury before her parents passing, and she does live in a manor, albeit it being out of repair and no staff, so i understand, actual poverty must be a shock to her. but her disconnect with class divide and her lack of comprehension about basic this and that in her own world (the storys world) is just off to me.
the moral of that chapter's story was that lower class people will only be happy in/with death??? or something like that, which to say at the least, confound me
is that after the ending, robellia and prinel works to convert the empire to united republics or something similar. they are direct victims of rigid monarchial power system, and both of them have been working with and taking the sides of commoners while the story unfolds, so they know how cruel and unjust the status quo is. also, the emperor is so trapped in his title and position that he had to genocide an entire race to manage his sovereignty. the imperial system was already faulty. also, i couldnt imagine either prinel or robellia wanting to conceive an heir at all, since they already have two daughters who are abuse survivors. id like to think that prinel would just want to spend his fatherhood healing the girls' wounds and giving them new memories, given that he was in the same boat as them. he also understood well that children are purely parents' whims, 'duty' or not, and spent most of his life barely escaping death at every turn merely because of the existence of another child.
anyway, its a good story for its length. very strong characters across the board, not much complexities in political intrigue but it still serves as a good device for the story. the only thing left unclear is the fate of robellias mother. did she die? how did she die? how did robellia survived her teenagehood without her up to the point of the storys beginning? other than that im quite entertained
its been way over a year since i last touched this webtoon, but i still find it bamboozling to know that raretis/laertes is the endgame?????
is cassio chopped liver or something??
nobodys touching ophelias level in regards to emilia. shes on a class of her own so im not gonna talk abt her further EXCEPT the fact that i firmly believe ophelia chose cassios family to sponsor emilia bc both she and cassio are kindred spirits/two peas in a pod. theyre both cruel, manipulative, brash, possessive, and jealous as hell. they might wield these traits in different ways and cassios active in politics so his actions bears more consequences, but at the core, i feel like ophelia understand theyre spiritually the same person, so she, whos bitter about letting go of emilia in death, basically just made sure emilia would still belong to 'her' thru cassio.
obviously emilia deserves a steady, calm person and a nourishing ending for herself. choosing a simple love with raretis might be a way for her to break the cycle of toxicity that has seeped into her through loving ophelia. the problem is just that: none of the dialogues, the art, or the established characterisation for each characters makes her and raretis believable!!!! they make sense, yes, but convincing????? maybe the artist and author are really into baiting ME personally cause??? theyre totally not selling emilia-raretis to me!!!
the foundation of emilia-raretis in this webtoon is often told through flashbacks or internal monologues of the two characters. sure, the same thing is done for emilia-ophelia, but raretis is alive and well while ophelias dead!!! emilia-raretis live only in the memory of their past and in their heads. compare that to emilia-cassio whose relationship in this webtoon unfolds a lot from one-one-one engagements. we see them converse, counter each other, argue, raise their voices, clever and subtle insults were thrown to and fro, they scheme together, they have hidden agendas involving each other, then theyre using each other and then they came to understand each other through their shortcomings DARN IT he crafted her a chic jewelry piece with poison-antidote stash bc he knows her and what kind of emergency kit she needs so well!!!! their interactions takes place in the webtoons real time, their relationship is alive, not because the story demands it. while raretis-emilia hinges on whatever was on the story's checklist, doesnt matter they have abysmal chemistry and little interaction to develop that, theyre just endgame, period, just another thing
to cross off the list.
for emilia, maybe its cruel for me to root for cassio for her, bc of my believe that cassio is ophelias proxy twin. it might be poetic for her to end up with someone she has once let go from her heart to make room for ophelia. BUT GOSH i wish they either tone it down with the cassio red herring or up raretis' game or something. maybe im delusional maybe im daft maybe im just stubborn or maybe its maybelline bro idk anymore
maybe its the translation maybe its the way its set up i just cant get the feeling that its giving steve universe (ish) vibe, moreso the early chapter when theyre children. i mean not like ive actually watched the show, but ik enough and theres an established internet consensus ig about the whole imagery with steven universe, and the vibe im getting from that image is echoed in this entire webtoon. the premise, the way they become friends,
this is among the very few politically and socially logical flow of narrative amongst many that utilise the rigidity of feudal/monarchial based intrigues. a lot of these webtoons were spouting nonsense as their worldbuilding and problem trigger because the romance or smut takes centre stage, so none of the characters actually ever pulled the conclusion that monarchy and birthbased peerages is a fundamentally flawed system. half of the problems in many stories would fall apart if the characters veers towards dismantling it instead of rehabilitating it by putting the crown on a different head.
having the ml be an actual antimonarchist revolutionary is new, and so far smart as hell. good for ingerd (fl's motherland) for having a successful revolt, and good for the author for framing it as something praiseworthy, and for establishing the villainy of the bad guys is because they aim to ruin the revolutions success. ik its naive to think a revolution was won without crossing many lines and new sins against peoples sovereignty being carved, every struggle of power must call for its price, ingerd probably have their own tale of postrevolt bloodshed, but i still wish that the kind light afforded for aiming for a republic doesnt change
cause dohyeuk shouldve finished the job and not leave it to chance....because in unknown virus outbreak THERES SO MANY (chances)! he shot the fisherman to punish/give oreum an ultimatum, for one moment there, it was as much as a game to him as taking over the mansion was for the fisherman. his decision to stoop low was the reason now theres already a darn mutant variant in a week old pandemic
shes terrifying as hell i would gladly serve her to the end my days if she'll have me (PLEASE GIVE ME A CHANCE )
i got baited by the regency dress and seeing first chapter i thought its probs emulating austenian regency romances only to be bombed with edwardian/late victorian in the second chapter lmaoooo. art is very pretty but i would really love if the artist stand on business 10 feet down with the regency outfits and bonnets instead of hats, it would truly elevate this webtoon soooooo much for me but im reading this anyway
that all the years i spent in this website i kept coming back to this one manga for CRUMBS knowing full well ill only ever get a headache but i really just keep coming back. the irony of ilya living through me and through so many who does this for literal years lmao
that the only person the asshat emperor loved betrayed him and he didnt even have the heart to use the proof of her treason to hold against their son and her house. he who is a jerk through and through, manipulated all his consorts including MC, manipulated his son from the empress whom he loved....in the end fumbled an upperhand because she held his heart
FL is very intriguing. shes psychotic and diabolical. the first princess is righteous and just but also exceedingly arrogant. fls family is messy aff, they love each other but each prioritise their own goals and values instead of each other thats soooo unique. waiting for more!
but the red haired bastard prince/grand duke is kinda................
i hate cain and the many love interest like him!!! IM SORRYYY!! he is practically set up to warm up main ML and other than the longing and the yearning...his only purpose is to cockblock/challenge said main ML. his archetypes dampers the actual schemes due to his own jealousy and insecurities like...im sorry honey youre not in the know with FL's grand plans and theres much more at stake than just ur feelings! not to mention this FL is sooooo good and complex i doubt he can handle her. hes chasing a mirage of a person anyway, im not sure he even knew the actual cecilia beyond his own purity projection on 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!!!