People hate Lucio too much but he really isn't a bad person. Except for making Patrizia queen because she's infertile, everything else was Rosemond's doing. Petronilla was executed because of Rosemond and Lucio didn't even know she did it until evidence proved otherwise. He's a great emperor despite his emotional disposition. Unless you read the novel, you probably won't be able to realize that.
Also let me point out that Lucio in the previous timeline was an affection-craving fool but in this timeline, he is more self-aware and in denial because he knows Rosemond doesn't love him. This is because Rosemond also has memories of the past and her self-awareness of her past mistakes altered her personality. I'm quite sure she truly loved Lucio despite manipulating him in the past timeline but in the present, she's so focused on becoming queen that it became her downfall in the end.
(LUCIO)
The previous emperor (Lucio's father) was married to Alisa, the daughter of the most powerful Duke in the kingdom. But Alisa was infertile and at the same time the emperor's concubine, Janet, gave birth to an heir. As a queen who could not give birth, Alisa was basically useless so she decides to take Janet's son as her own. But the truth was that she just wanted to fuse her jealousy and abuse the kid; physically, emotionally, and sometimes sexually as well. Lucio grew up believing Alisa was his mother and didn't understand why she treated him like that. Days before his birthday, Alisa called Lucio to the courtyard telling him she had a gift for him (Lucio never once celebrated his birthday so he was excited). When Lucio arrived, Alisa threatened him to kill a person hidden underneath a white veil. He refused but then she began to beat him up until he gave in. With a sword she gave him, he stabbed the person under the veil multiple times. Alisa, laughing crazily, then reveals that she wasn't his real mother and that the person Lucio killed was Janet, his biological mother. At that time the emperor was away from the palace so when he came back, Alisa was dethroned from her status as queen and Lucio was never the same again.
(ROSEMOND - warning mention of sexual assault)
Rosemond is the daughter of a prostitute and a Baron. When she was 10, her biological mother was killed by the Baroness then the Baron took her in. She was treated like a maid and abused in the estate. At one point, her half-brother began to see her as a woman and so he raped her. Rosemond wanted to become queen in order to not only destroy the Baron's household but to also eliminate anyone who judged her for her commoner background. That's when Rosemond decided to "coincidentally" meet the emperor and share her painful story with him. Because of that, Lucio sympathized with her, and her plot to becoming queen began.
(DUKE EPHRENY)
(by order of nobility: duke, marquis, count, viscount, baron) Duchess Ephreny was the daughter of a Marquis and Duke Ephreny was the son of a Baron. When they were younger, he seduced her, spiked her drink, and raped her. When she became pregnant, she married him because she had no memories of the rape and was convinced she loved him. Keep in mind though, that Duchess Ephreny is a blood descendent of the Ephrenys so she has a general claim of all rights and wealth while her husband is only powerful because of his wife's last name. Soon after the Duchess bore a son and her husband went from Marquis to Duke. The reason he was able to gain such a high title was because he manipulated the previous empress Alisa. Because of him, Alisa began to hate Janet (Lucio's biological mother) which ultimately lead to her forcing Lucio to kill his own mother. For some reason, Rosemond knows about this so she uses it to blackmail Duke Ephreny which is why he defends her in her trial and adopts her into his family.
There are 3 pillars in the kingdom. The chancellor of the three was the Dukedom of Oswins (empress Alisa's house). But because Ephreny manipulated the previous empress Alisa into committing treason, Duke Oswins sheltered himself and allowed the Dukedom of Ephreny to climb to the top. Rosemond's plan is to become Princess of Ephreny, announce that Patrizia is infertile, and work her way into becoming queen dowager (she basically plans to become a widowed queen aka getting rid of Lucio) by bearing Lucio's child. She would then be the only legible bachelorette to produce an heir as she would be the daughter of the most powerful duke.
Petronilla actually has memories of the previous timeline. She has an important role in helping Patrizia expose Rosemond. Because of Petronilla the truth about January (Duke Ephreny's mistress) conspiring with Rosemond is revealed. She manages to steal the letters Rosemond sent to January in order to provide them as evidence in court.
Patrizia and Lucio grow increasingly close especially when she sees Lucio hurting himself due to a psychological attack in the next chapter of the manhwa (chapter 48). They also keep coincidentally seeing each other in the garden at night, which is also where Lucio tells Patrizia about his past. This all happens while Rosemond went away to her parent's house so when she came back Lucio began to reject her because he started to side with Patrizia. Everyone who knew about his past would avoid or judge him, but Patrizia pitied him and didn't understand why he was so used to pain. He then falls for her kind and genuine personality as well as her capabilities as queen.
After Rosemond gets adopted she makes Lucio drink an aphrodisiac in order to trick him to sleep with her. At this point, Lucio is already in love with Patrizia so he leaves the room to restrain himself. By coincidence, he meets Patrizia outside and they spend the night together. Patrizia had suggested he slept with Rosemond/maid/any woman in the palace but he didn't want to sleep with any other woman so Patrizia decides to help him stop the aphrodisiac.
After that night, Patrizia is confused with her feelings so she goes to her parent's home for a visit. On her way back to the palace, she's ambushed by assassins. Patrizia had purposely exposed the fact that she was leaving for her parents' home so she already expected the assassination to happen. And according to plan, Patrizia has the royal guards save her while she purposely slices her arms and legs with a knife for better effect and to cause an uproar among the people about someone trying to harm the queen. When she returns to the palace, Lucio says it was Rosemond's plan because he heard her talking about the assassination with her maid. Rosemond is again sentenced to execution and Lucio whole-heartedly agrees with it. She tries to get Duke Ephreny to save her but Patrizia and Petronilla had compiled Rosemond's letters to January and sent them to Duchess Ephreny.
The Duchess's son with the Duke had died because of the illness so the Duchess was mentally unstable. And after reading through the letters about her husband raping her, she kicks January and the Duke out of the mansion. So Rosemond then has no one to save her from execution. Days before her death, Patrizia confronts Rosemond about what she did to Duke Ephreny, January, and basically all her crimes. Rosemond claims she would survive because apparently, she was pregnant with Lucio's child. Patrizia then exposes that the perfume she gave Rosemond as a "gift" before had contained chemicals that could make her infertile. So Rosemond ultimately became infertile as well. After that, Rosemond is killed without delay.
Patrizia tells Lucio that she wants to step down from being queen. Lucio panics and begs her to stay. He always felt like he was alone in the palace but having Patrizia there made him feel like he wasn't (it was a very dramatic and emotional scene ngl. you could practically smell his mental state crumbling) In the end, Patrizia stays in the palace because (1) Lucio, as emperor, wouldn't let her, and (2) it wasn't that simple to just stop being queen.
In an effort to appease her, Lucio asks Petronilla about things Patrizia liked. Because Patrizia liked sweets/chocolate, Lucio asks the chef to teach him how to bake. He then keeps sending sweets to Patrizia that he baked on his own.
Petronilla tells Patrizia to stop staying in the past because her mission to save her family is complete. Petronilla admits that she did love Lucio (in the previous timeline) but it shouldn't stop Patrizia from loving him in the present because Lucio loved Patrizia and she wanted Patrizia to finally live happily. This is when Patrizia decides to accept her feelings for Lucio. Coincidentally that night, Lucio had another psychological attack. Patrizia goes into his room to comfort him and tell him she accepted his feelings. They slept together for the second time, but as lovers.
Anything after that is very fluffy husband-wife moments with Lucio still baking sweets for Patrizia from time to time. There's a scene during Patrizia's birthday banquet where she sees Lucio being seduced by a woman who wanted to be queen but he harshly rejects her. When he realized Patrizia saw him with the woman, he adorably tries to explain the situation frantically. They end up dancing on the balcony, having a steamy kiss and also watching the fireworks together. Patrizia then, for the first time, tells Lucio that she loved him.
The last chapter of the original story is about Petronilla and Rothesay's wedding. Lucio and Patrizia are attending but in disguise. Other side stories after the main story are about (1) a coup de tat in the previous timeline after Petronilla died, (2) Rothesay's POV when he met Petronilla, and (3) Lucio and Patrizia's family life.
Patrizia and Lucio's family life is about Lucio being forced to choose a concubine in order to produce an heir because Patrizia was "infertile". Patrizia agreed to it but Lucio knew she was hurt and always cried a lot because the one thing she wanted was to have a child with the man she loved. Lucio promised she would be his one and only queen. When Patricia went to do charity, she met this old guy claiming he knew her and asked to see her later. During the concubine selection, Patrizia chose Lady Petunia among the candidates but she turns out to be another bitch that belongs to the street who openly insults Patrizia in front of everyone. Lucio then defends his wife and puts the bitch right where she belongs. Before Patrizia reselects another candidate, the old man from before arrived and exposed himself as the physician who conducted her health documents during the queen selection. Apparently, he heard Rosemond's plan in choosing the queen, so to save his daughter who was one of the candidates, he messed up Patrizia's fertility results.
Patrizia and Lucio then do the deed a lot of times (づ￣ ³￣)づ in order to make babies. Lucio joked about having 10 kids but Patrizia laughed saying it was impossible for her to give birth for 10 straight years. Lucio suggests they keep having twins to limit it to 5 years lol. One month later Patrizia is confirmed to be pregnant. Lucio kept feeding her berries and they kept being lovey-dovey.
Time skip 7 years later their first son Dylan wants to sleep with his mom. Lucio says you only sleep with someone you marry so Dylan says he wants to marry Patrizia. Lucio gets annoyed (cute) so Patrizia tells Dylan to sleep early and get tall because she likes tall people. Lucio has the AUDACITY to feel proud because he thinks he's pretty tall lmao. The three of them end up sleeping beside each other. Dylan then asks how babies were made and Lucio tells him if he wants a brother he should let him and Patrizia "hold hands alone". After that night Dylan keeps giving them time alone (⌒▽⌒)
Another time skip, Dylan has triplets as younger sisters; Regina, Ressie, and Raine. Lucio by this time is already in his 40s but Patrizia still describes her heart beating fast when she's with him despite them being together for 20 years already. Patrizia says none of the emperors throughout history have been as good to their queens as Lucio was to her. But maybe Dylan would break the record and Patrizia was really proud to have him as her son. Lucio also gets jealous since none of their children wanted to marry him, including his triplet daughters. All of them wanted to marry their mom.
The next night it's Patrizia's birthday and she's surprised with gifts. After opening them, the children tell Lucio and Patrizia to kiss. They kissed and lived happily ever after. The END
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. The spoilers here are only the main events in the novel so I skipped out on the minor details that didn't affect the plot drastically like Rosemond, after realizing Lucio was favoring Patrizia, admitted to Lucio that she never loved him and that no one would ever love a man who killed his own mother oof.
Okey so i didnt type any of this, i just copy pasted it. The rightful credit goes to @kyanma @akaashi
Thank you for your hard workd~<3
indeed! you're very welcome :))) for those who want to read the comments of the original post (that have questions and clarifications) you can go to this link http://www.mangago.me/home/mangatopic/8534723/
HAPPY NEW YEARRR ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
it doesn't excuse him at all. but at the same time, he literally didn't do anything as tragic as assassinating someone or blackmailing people to get what they wanted. in fact, he ultimately worked hard into becoming a better person and winning patrizia over. unlike other stories, the fl in this one actually makes the ml grovel on his knees until she accepts him. if you feel unsatisfied with that then this story simply isn't for you.
True, I really don't like how FL was basically coerced and guilted into accepting him. I read another spoiler that said FL even questioned whether she had feelings for him out of sympathy instead of love. Like, the dude needs a therapist and not a wife. It shouldn't be her job to "fix" him. Moreover, I really, REALLY hated the whole infertile plot. FL suffered immensely from this and ML at one point knew and changed her results (I believe this was the first time around when choosing her as queen). He agreed to having FL bear his heir as part of their contract while having her marked as infertile in official medical records. This clearly shows he was planning to get rid of her eventually. So toxic. Love blooming in the worst possible start? I'm not feeling it
WOW THAT WAS A HANDFUL. imma need time to process this
The infertility thing was on the physician who conducted Patrizia's health documents during the queen selection. Apparently, he heard Rosemond's plan in choosing the queen, so to save his daughter who was one of the candidates, he messed up Patrizia's fertility results. The king did not have any thing to do with marking the queen infertile. I think the king wanted someone infertile so that she cannot bear his child.
Thanku TT
Ah misinformation sry but that still gets me. He knows how that turned out for his mom and stepmom... why would he even think that's a good idea? Moverover, he still agreed to FL on that arrangement (the heir coming from her. It's not even an absurd request considering how she was planning to allow him and Rosemund to be together.) It's terrible. My point still stands, he needs help for his mental issues. The fact that he suddenly gets better with FL's love is disrespectful
correction: he doesn't get better because of her love. he gets better cause he wants to deserve her love. she's actually the stoic and unfazed one in their relationship and doesn't handle his bullshit. she makes him handle it himself
That's not how mental illnesses work. My Nana was like that. We all still loved and cared for her and somedays it helped, but she would still fall into bouts of deep depression. It's not something you can cure just because you want to and try hard for. To include this in a story and have him get magically better is quite triggering for me. You never really get better, it's a constant struggle for most people.
recuperation is unique for every patient/victim. getting better doesn't mean getting cured. he was able to overcome his trauma; find happiness bit by bit even if he wasn't completely healed. in lucio's case, it was realizing he was more than capable of looking towards a brighter future because that's better than becoming his abusive mother and his neglective father. indeed mental illnesses don't magically disappear but it starts with valuing yourself and lucio worked hard to do that despite the constant panic attacks he had to endure every night. just cause people handle their psychological illnesses differently doesn't mean that's not how it works
Well, I haven't read the raws, but from the spoilers I've read both here and on the nu pages, it sounds like he suddenly got better after FL got together with him. Depression, anxiety and panic attacks that are constant and affect every aspect of your life is a chemical problem. Are there people who get through it on their own? Probably but it's a small percentage. Relapse is very common. Like I said earlier, many people want to get better and be happier but it's often not a reality for them. You say he works toward being a better partner for FL but from what I've seen, he doesn't really have any hiccups after falling in love with FL. It just rubs me the wrong way. I feel like the author the taking advantage of mental sickness to excuse people from fairly bad behavior.
it's definitely not an excuse. at least not for lucio. he fell in love with patrizia around the time rosemond was at her parents' house. prior to patrizia accepting his feelings and subsequent to rosemond returning to the palace, he gets a particular panic attack that I find uncomfortable to read considering how severe they are - hyperventilation, self-harm, insomnia, etc. usually he calls for his servants but instead, he shuts himself in his room without telling patrizia what's happening because he doesn't wanna bother her. the fact that he even has the consciousness to consider that shows he's struggling but trying because not only did he felt it was unbecoming of a ruler, he genuinely wants to break free of his mentality. alas, it didn't work but patrizia did end up running into his room.
this is why I find it difficult to appreciate manhwas derived from novels. novels have this essence that can completely express a story while pictures just don't do justice most of the time. monologues in particular are quite strong for the author of this story. which is why i appreciate lady to queen's novel more so than its manhwa
although i do agree that it would've been nice to see the progress of his mental state more. but the story unfortunately just went to a time skip to their pregnancy
Ah I see. A lot of novel adaptations gloss over some pretty important details. It's usually why I don't watch/read them if I read the novel first. I guess the author felt it wouldn't be interesting enough to add to his mental health journey but then, why include it in the first place? It's a sensitive issue and I'm clearly not the only one bothered by it. I honestly feel the author adds it in for drama and I don't think I'll be continuing this story. I just really needed to know how it ends but thanks for the clarification
1. Heesu in class 2
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/heesu_in_class_2/?KHt4
2. Thirty Years Old
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/thirty_years_old/
3. Someone else's bl manhwa
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/someone_else_s_bl_manhwa/?CaNT
4. Given
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/given/
(There is an anime on it)
I feel bad for the emperor but that doesnt justify his act of killing the FL's family so that his mistress can become a queen. This act of his was no less cruel than the Blonde empress.
People are now pitying and accepting the emperor because of his sad past and justifying his actions. But according to spoilers in the older comments, even Rosemond has a sad(?) past. Most of us not gonna care and some of us are still gonna bash her. I dont understand this discrimination. (╯°Д °)╯╧╧
honestly in my opinion i believe that rosemonds case is different than the emperor. I understand that even though the emperor hasn’t directly caused harm to patricia in this present life his indirect actions of just ignoring rosemonds evil actions against patricia is really bad of him. But honestly he does attempt to understand in my opinion that rosemonds is doing wrong. i feel that we also need to understand the depth of his trauma and the way he has copped with it until now. which is feeling that he doesn’t deserve and honestly he believes that his forgiveness lies in siding w rosemond who is the mistress just like his mother was. I don’t remember how old he is but he’s literally lived all his life believing he doesn’t deserve anything and that he’s a monster.
rosemond on the other hand has a terrible past which involves abuse however instead of attempting to cope in a healthy manner she has chosen to follow the terrible path of ruining other people’s lives. It has remained evident that she has been overcome w greed and is now using her past to her benefit when needed to gain pity from the emperor for example. She never shows a glimpse of wanting redemption which leaves me not liking her at all. She has NO character development and chooses to wallow in her greed. So yes i will keep bashing rosemond because she literally shows no resentment throughout the rest of the storyline.
Oh then I agree with you too. Rosemond had it coming for her.
But i do feel bad for the emperor not to the point of forgiving him of killing the Fl's family.
I agree with the character development in the emperor.
Maybe in the previous life Rosemond did do some bad stuff to FL's sister but the emperor didn't know of it or just turned a blind eye to it. So if this actually happened then this would be considered as the emperor only admitted Rosemond's wrong doings just because empire would've been in danger. Maybe he is a good king but he failed to be a good husband to the sister.
It hasn't happened though this is an entirely different timeline none of the stuff that happened in the previous timeliness has happened and it's silly to blame him for stuff that never even happened
I get that Jeanette wants a family, but she can't just think that if she says that she is claude's daughter and athy's sister she will get her family. LIKE NO BISH FAMILY IS A FEELING. Just because yall get close and stuff there is difference between friends and family and friends that become family. Moreover there is a difference between wanting a family and ruining a family. You cant just ruin something just cuz you want something
Everyone knows that the guy's gonna screw it up. But they just waiting to see it. lmaoo
Personally, I don't hate or dislike any characters except that Dongwon and FM's friend. I think the friend will do something bad. And I lowkey hope Suzy and FL will become friends and Suzy dates someone who is nice to her and loves her back (I don't mind FM's bro). Hajoon and Sahoon really need to sort out their feelings
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So seme is not hit with the bottle. he dodges it. Stuff happens. and he explains why had a "fake" relationship with Jina. More progress with second lead.
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Wait.... Progress with sehun the barista right?
Yup. The next chaps are more of him and MC.
I like this manga cuz the original FL turned out to be a good person rather than a villain like in similar plot stories and i think she might have some psychological disorders considering she went through so much physical and mental abuse from her mother. And i like the fact that Lilith and Payne (Those two broken souls healing each other) became a couple.
Moreover i hope that Naska becomes the male bestie of the FL(Like Lee Do Hwa and Eun Dan Oh from Extraordinary You AKA July Found By Chance) and not just make him another character inlove with the FL which would be a huge turn off.
I lowkey hope it becomes Yuri.
If the FL was blonde then i wouldve lowkey thought this is the backstory of Athy's parents lol ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶