Unpopular opinion maybe but I don't think either Rose or Lily are supposed to be likeable, but they are understandable to me. All three main characters are products of their environments and I quite like that.
Lily, as unloved as she feels, has been incredibly sheltered and has never had to fear not having a roof over her head or had to deal with people trying to use her for power. She's unhappy and has unmet needs but she's lacking in life experience, and in combination with her status that is a recipe for selfishness. Lily is too preoccupied with her own hurt to understand the implications of her actions and the pain she might cause others. No one has really told her about these things, and the only person who genuinely loves her is a person of a lower class who is very limited in what she can say and do, but also has an image of her that she can't control. And while Lily has the power to drastically change the fate of a person of the lower class, she has no say in what happens to herself. I actually don't hate her.
(Sidenote, we also know her father has some love for her, or at least feels guilty for sending her away, based on his tears when she leaves, but Lily herself doesn't feel that way, which is understandable given the clues we've been given about her life and the fact that her father is quite literally selling her off.)
Rose is also interesting in the sense that unlike Lily, she has power but society has taught her that no one values who she really is, only what she can give them. She tells Lily that early on, and she uses that show of vulnerability as a weapon, having buried the hurt of that statement so deep she doesn't know she's still feeling it. Since the world's caused her pain, she's long given up on having genuine love, but since she has power she gaslights, gatekeeps, girlbosses her way into getting the next best thing. She's an interesting character, if nothing else.
And Anna... Interestingly, she is the only one out of the three that has actually GAINED something emotionally, which is what also makes her more capable of giving genuine love. Lily provided safety and a roof over her head, and through her Anna starts gleaning what love truly feels like. But it's still not a complete understanding, especially with her trauma around sex. But Anna cares deeply about the person who saved her and will do her best to make her happy. Unfortunately her lower class prevents her from having a real healthy relationship with Lily, she's too aware of her position and knows how much she has to lose, should anything happen.
And unfortunately, Lily is not in a position to understand her, and Anna herself is preventing Lily from doing so by thinking she must shield her from sex and keep her pure. Despite what I said about Anna being the most capable of giving, her idea of love isn't healthy either, because she's put Lily on a pedestal, like an object to worship.
At any rate, on the surface this may seem like a clichéd drama based on misunderstandings, but I actually think the setting and characters are incredibly solid so far. If you put aside the intense emotions associated with romantic and sexual love and feelings of betrayal, if you look at the bigger picture it all makes sense. Hopefully the writing stays equally interesting in the future! But yeah don't expect this to be cute, this is absolutely going to be a complete trainwreck to watch regardless of the quality of the writing, simply for the fact that the power imbalances are doing their job. It'll be cool to see if the characters get to grow and unravel the emotionally tangled messes that are their lives.
I agree with a lot of what you wrote, and it is way too well written for mangago. You should join the discussions going on at reddit or discord.
But I got to disagree on the Lily part. Lily sucks, either by writing or design. Lily almost kissed Rose twice before any manipulation occurred: the night she arrived and the next morning during breakfast. She also sneaked out during the night and lied to Anna about it to visit Rose in her bedchamber. Lily is presented as a character who lacks agency, but the first and only real decision she makes during the story is sneaking out to visit Rose. This character was so ready to cheat, it wasn’t even subtle. She is super horny. And that is because Lily is portrayed like a typical hentai story protagonist. If there hadn't been a orgy ongoing Lily would probably have had sex with Rose the very first night. What, a couple hours after meeting Rose for the first time?
u hit it right on the bone omg
i’m glad someone feels the same way as me too
I never said Lily doesn't suck. Just that I don't hate her and that it's understandable that she is the way she is. That doesn't mean I'm excusing her actions. Both her and Rose suck. What I'm saying is she doesn't have a true concept of the hurt her actions will cause for the most part, because of the way she was brought up and being lacking in life experience.
She does lack agency from the start, and then suddenly there's Rose tempting her with things she's never experienced before when she's felt is repressed for ages. So yeah, stepping out, lying to Anna and almost kissing Rose are shitty things to do. Her sexual advances towards Anna despite her saying no are bad too. But she's still currently under Rose's thumb in a big way because Rose is preying on her pain. These small choices of her don't change that her larger fate isn't decided by her. She also feels rejected by Anna, and this has been going on for a long time. Even when they say they love each other, Lily is convinced they don't feel the same way due to Anna rejecting her sexual advances, so there is no trust there.
Also you're right, Lily felt guilty on some level when she lied to Anna about sneaking out, or she wouldn't have, but there's a difference between a fleeting feeling and truly understanding it.
Lily is also at a point where she will latch onto anything and anyone that makes her feel wanted and can meet her needs, and to her sex is connected to love even if she tries to repress that part for the sake keeping Anna around.
It doesn't occur to her to put another person first and consider their feelings rather than her own, because she's never had any healthy relationships. Including with Anna. No one has taught her how to be a good person or why she should be either. And her and Anna's communication is atrocious. They just tell each other they love one another without addressing any of the issues their relationship has.
It still doesn't excuse the cheating, no. But I understand her character.
Unfortunately, emotional neglect can really do a number on people's growth.
Anyway that's my take on it but if you still disagree, I respect that.
/shakes your hand
same! :')
Don't take this the wrong way—I have a lot of respect for your deep and intelligent analysis of the story. I hope it won't feel pointless if the story dives deep into hardcore NTR hentai territory. I'm hoping for the best, but I remain very skeptical so far.
You're quite right about Lily. She is clearly very self-centered and selfish. I don't say this negatively; as you mentioned, she lacks life experience and doesn't understand the difficult position she has put Anna in.
I very much agree with your points about Anna and Lily. It's clear that Anna loves Lily in a romantic way but is unable to be intimate with her because of her own trauma. Despite this, she has dedicated her life to Lily in every other way. While Lily says she feels the same, there seems to be a misunderstanding because Anna won’t sleep with her and hasn’t explained why. A simple conversation could have helped a lot. However, Anna is in a vulnerable position as just a maid and a woman, where sleeping with Lily could have serious consequences for her. And as you mentioned, Lily doesn't seem to understand any of this.
However, the fact that she can claim to love Anna and then discard a relationship that has lasted most of her life just hours after meeting Rose really bothers me. I have little interest in seeing Anna end up with Lily, even though the story seems headed that way. Especially since I anticipate Lily will go through a very dark and sexual arc while Anna suffers. My heart isn't ready for it at all.
Do you have any thoughts on where the story might go?
Oh, no worries at all. Honestly I currently think the setting is solid, but lots of stories with promising settings also do take a nosedive plotwise, so I totally get the skepticism.
And yeah, that's always the problem, isn't it. If the characters could just talk, that would help so much, but then again if you haven't been brought up to see the value of communication, chances are you'll be stuck in your own bubble.
It's super valid to be bothered by that. To me it shows how unhappy Lily's been, but it also shows that she truly doesn't understand the value of her relationship with Anna because she's too caught up in her own pain. Anna's been her only light in the dark for a long time, but again she still feels rejected and hurt by Anna, which is why she's so ready to jump on any possibility for change. It's really unfortunate. But just to reiterate, still a shitty thing to do.
Luckily you don't have to give anyone your forgiveness or interest, especially not a fictional character.
I'm not particularly invested in Anna and Lily's relationship either - I think they were deeply unhealthy from the start with Anna putting Lily on a pedestal and Lily literally being unable to understand how dangerous their class differences could be or understanding anyone but herself.
I actually have no idea where the story will go, I just know it's going to be incredibly messy.
IF it was up to me they'd all make discoveries about themselves that lead them to become better people. Rose would get back in touch with the hurt she's repressed and probably fall in love with Lily, who's still in love with Anna, for real, and have to navigate those feelings while understanding how actually awful she has been. Lily would start understanding Anna's position through her toxic and unbalanced relationship with Rose and gain awareness that she's not the only person in the world and that she is capable of causing others pain the same way she's been hurt, and attempt to atone for it. Which ultimately probably would mean letting Anna go. And Anna would stop seeing Lily as a pure angel to be protected and understand that she too didn't see Lily for who she is either.
And in the end they'd all go their separate ways. But again, those are just my own wishes.
I love your take on this cause truth be told I saw this story as just h*ntai forced to have a plot that leads to more s*x. Reading your discussions was quite enjoyable (▰˘◡˘▰) it has been a long time since I saw people's analysis on things and full on intellectual too!
I should go back and read people's analysis more rather than force myself to read the broken translations, I can feel my grammar degrading.
I hope the story won't continue with the cliche misunderstandings repeatedly, ╮(￣▽￣)╭ cuz it stressing to see a potential relationship get ruined cause they don't talk
There's a discord for this??? How can I join?
You’re literally so real for this take
What strikes me most about this conversation is how challenging it will be to write Lily as a character. Even under the best circumstances, she needs to be very well-developed to make the reader care about her. And in this story, where sex is so central, that will be very hard to achieve. Because no matter how much we understand where she's coming from, she just comes off as very unlikable. For many readers, every time Lily has sex with Rose or someone else, she's essentially trampling on Anna's feelings and their shared history.
I think your ending aligns with my best-case scenario. I see the night Lily sneaked out of bed to visit Rose as the end of their relationship, and some things you just can't come back from. However, I would find it much more interesting if Anna and Rose interacted more. I think there could be something very compelling in their dynamic. What Anna offers is essentially what Rose wants from someone, and I feel it would be very dull if Lily becomes too much the focus of the story.
Well, let's put it this way though: The title itself is Lily of the Valley, which is a flower that looks dainty and cute but is actually incredibly poisonous. I don't think the intention was ever to write a likeable protagonist here. Sometimes the main character of the story is the villain, and the goal isn't to make the reader feel good.
Yeah, I agree. That was what I would have wanted to write with this setting, but it also might be that Lily ends up putting both Rose and Anna through hell.
And yeah that would be interesting to see. Especially because Anna seems very unlikely to ever give Rose the thing she really wants.
I love both of these two a lot ;; Doha is pretty emotionally stunted and damaged from his life, it's not strange that he has trouble controlling his emotions, and Yeonwoo is such a lovely and gentle character. And the way they grow to care about each other is just so nice in the middle of the grimness of the plot.
Doha really needs someone to lift him up and see him for who he is, and Yeonwoo is that person. Meanwhile, Yeonwoo really needs someone who really loves him after his string of shitty exes. Sure, he picked up another weirdo, but unlike the others Doha's feelings are more genuine. They're an odd couple but they fit each other so well.
Imagine communicating so badly with your ex that you end up playing a worldwide game of cat and mouse with multiple national security forces involved, except the plot twist is the cat is actually trying to get itself killed by the mouse.
Exactly lmao! Well said lololol
Amazing you literally summarised the whole freaking plot.
right? ikr lmaooo
Don't read this if you liked this story, probably.
But yeah this was not well written imo. I went into it thinking it was going to be a psychological type of story given El's first life and all the rape. But in actuality all of the trauma and rape was just glossed over and suddenly they're living a happy family life? I get that El wanted to be loved and now he suddenly has three husbands, but two of them were the cause of his misery in his past life even if he never blamed the husband he married in his first life.
Basically my problem is this entire story lacks substance. We can GUESS the motivations for some of the characters' motivations in the first life but we never actually get to see them. And then in the side stories we suddenly get to see why the three husbands are in love with El, but he literally has no reason to be in love with any of them except his knight maybe.
His first life husband? Talked a couple of hours and decided to get married? Or at least that's what the timing of the comic made it seem like. Oof.
The black market owner? Apparently fixated so hard on El after meeting when they were children that he then tried to sabotage El's marriage in the first life (from what I can deduct, since that's never openly stated), and El doesn't even seem to remember him? Yikes.
Both of these men literally contributed to him taking his own life even if it was the first husband's father that was the driving force behind everything.
The knight is literally the only one who stayed faithful to him throughout both lives, but even he is an unrealistic choice given that he also raped El even if he wasn't aware of El's identity at the start of it.
Basically all of these could have been interesting storylines if they were more believable and were more fleshed out, but El falls in love with all three of them for no reason except they're now his baby daddies and he's dependent on their pheromones to be stable?
The kids are adorable but the whole going from misery, trauma and rape to a happy family life without any of the processing required is kind of nauseating. Like, I don't believe that sort of trauma even could lead to a happy family life with the very people who hurt you in the first place, for the most part. But IF it's going to be that plotline, at least try to make it somewhat believable and include all the ugly emotions you need to process to make it work, and the fights and forgiveness at the end of it.
And then their kid's story? At least his partner had a reason to love him and an interesting story, but damn if Lionel didn't trust too easily after finding that letter. Also how old is Lionel at that point?? From what I remember his siblings were born when he was still a small kid, but THEY'RE still small kids by the time this relationship happens, which makes the age implications uncomfy to think about.
Listen I'm saying all of this fully appreciating that it's fictional, and I do believe in people's right to write what they want even if it's bad/not to my taste. So I respect this story's right to exist. BUT I also do want a discussion around works like this because more impressionable people need to understand that these behaviours are not normal or ok. This trivialises rape to an uncomfortable degree.
i aint reading all this but you're right
lmao understandable, it's a whole essay
well i agree aswell
The way you dissected this story to filth!
I enjoyed its simplicity but yeah big yikes
I think the author probably didn’t cross reference with a team or something.. it’s giving PWP
I couldn't help myself :')
Yeah. Honestly I enjoy PWP, and simplicity. I think my problem with this one is that it promised plot and then did not deliver, lol.
"I promise to never feed you my cooking again" -
Why does that feel like the most romantic thing this guy has said the entire time T__T (Ch. 23)
Ahh I love them, this chapter was so tender ;o; though it sure ended in an anxiety inducing way
I don't care what anyone says, there is no straight explanation for this entire story :)
Excuse me but who the fuck talks during a live performance like that, even if it's more of a rehearsal than an actual show.
LMAOO right and in auditorium that isn’t even full so even if they were whispering somebody prob heard smth lol
EXACTLY!! The disrespect, I'd be so embarrassed whether I was them, the actors or someone else in the audience. They said there were journalists there too lmao
I'm sorry, I can't help but laugh at Kyle seething in the corner.
I like him a lot but it really is nice to see him suffer a little.