beta
Uhhh, I don't hate Helena? I'm excited to see what she'll do.
Of course, I don't like her (yet), but I don't hate her or dislike her, she's more interesting than anything else to me, maybe even a little relatable?
A lot of people were telling her that she has no reason to act like the "dumb heroine" but I think that if you thought about it, her entire job at this point is just to please the prince.
Officially, she's a maid but unofficially, she's basically a sugar baby.
The reason that I don't hate her, is actually because she genuinely doesn't have a choice.
If she stands up to the crown prince, she runs the risk of being executed or having her social position lowered even more than it already is. The prince is essentially her only way of support and even if she tries to cut ties with them, she'll always have that shadow and people won't want to be associated with her either way. At least if she acts dumb and pretends to ignore things, she won't get fired and she'll have a relatively stable job. I also doubt the prince would give up on her that easily. It's just easier to act like a doll for her because that's what she's been doing her entire life.
In the end, her moral compass is less geared towards compassion and more wanting to survive in a decent environment. I can respect that to a certain level. She can look over the small things because if she doesn't she can have stuff happen to her. She has little to no control over what she does, she's only presented with a choice of a short term bad decision and a long term bad decision. They're both bad decisions and it's really unlikely that anyone would actually have the courage to go against figures of authority when your entire life could be upended or destroyed with one wrong move.
And are we really ignoring the fact that her mother essentially abused her kid? She threated to kill a child and that child was fine with it. Don't you think that there's some stuff that's been going on behind the scenes if a child is okay with having a knife against their face, by their parent??
I don't find this makes her likeable, or charming, but it makes her interesting and more morally grey than anything else. She's not weak or anything that people keep saying she is just because she wants to live and be comfortable.
I don't think she was meant to be a good person, but just a girl who's trying to survive in a world that's being controlled by men who want her. She seems to be in a good social position, but if you look at the way she thinks she never actually says that she wants anything for herself. She just can't seem to think of anything she wants at all, just for herself. She's not selfish, to the point where she's self-sacrificing and I think that's the main problem and the reason people don't like her. Not because she's the "heroine" or anything like that, but because she never acts selfish. She never wants anything, has no agency of her own and only seems to exist to serve other people's storylines.
Sounds like the classic girl character in every badly written romance novel, right?
But honestly, this chapter might be the turning point. It shows that she might change, because despite the fact that the prince doesn't like Elise, she still tries to make amends. It's not big, but I doubt that anyone in real life immediately make a big gesture when not actively thinking about changing. This however, also plays into the "self sacrificing heroine" persona, since a good heroine would want to make friends with everyone, even the villainess, so I don't know how to take it.
But I do not know the future. I don't know if she decides to be a bad person later or what, but this is only just a few thoughts from what I've seen so far.
Extra note, I think it would just be strange if the author did write an empty, boring character. All their women characters are interesting and complex, (although we've only really seen two, so I suppose I can't make a judgement about that) But because Helena started in such a low place in terms of character, I think she could develop to be interesting and more likable than people expect her to be. I think that's where the author plans on taking Helena, but again, I don't know the future. I haven't read the novel, I haven't seen the raws, I don't know what happens. All I'm saying is that I think it's a good idea to have your mind open to see what will happen with her.
i totally agree with u!
It's a comic where this man can see spirits and such, he has light greyish whiteish hair (I think, although I could be wrong) and he travels around. I can't remember much more than that since I've hadn't read it in so long, but it was a Japanese manga and I think it's name was also japanese.
I think it was set in an historical japan, but it was most certainly fantasy
I think you're talking about "Mushishi"
OH MY GOD YES THANK YOU SO MUCH
Thank you,, so so much
I realised a very fascinating difference in how "Yuri" from "Beware the villainess" and "Helena" from "Kill the villainess" is treated, and technically speaking, they're in very similar positions.
Yuri never makes an actual move until she's built up courage to tell the prince "No" and Helena hasn't yet done anything of the sort, since updates are slower and Yuri only does that near the end of the first season (I think). The person who does all those things for her is Melissa. Yuri never voices it, only implies it through expressions and they use that to highlight how stupid the male leads are for not noticing that she doesn't like them.
The Male Leads in "Beware the villainess" are stupid, spectacularly unaware of their surrounding and the people they spend time with and selfish. The Male Leads in "Kill the villainess" (specifically the crown prince) are similar, but with a bit more of a darker tone because the prince has an undertone of power and power without intelligence is genuinely frightening.
They're both in a situation where men dominate their lives and would rather that it didn't happen. You might argue that Helena doesn't actually mind and agrees with how the prince treats Eris, but I disagree. When you're in such a situation, like Helena is, but it's highly unlikely that you'll actually have the strength to stand up to them. Even just in expression when spending time with them. The crown prince has a lot of power and it seems like the king just never interfered at all. He never decided to give Helena an option to leave safely and the Empress actually goes out of her way to encourage the behaviour.
A lot of people don't like Helena because she's inactive an very passive, but I don't think that the way she is is really supposed to be liked?
More pitied if anything else. With the hope that she changes. She's been abused since she was a kid and people who have been harassed by men who think they own them and technically almost do due to the power they have over her. She's not even actually liked by any of them. The Prince only uses her as a way to get back at Eris for god knows what reason, and the prince never actually seems to like Helena. She knows that to an extent. But I think her mind has (in a way) glossed over it in an attempt to justify it to herself.
Disclaimer, By no means do I think Helena is morally Good character or particularly interesting as she is now. Y'all confuse "likeability" with "interest" and we're going to have some problems.
I think Helena is an Interesting character, but if she stays the way she is now, I'll just get bored of her and probably the entire comic eventually. Helena in my expectation is supposed to be someone who Changes and becomes better. Like Yuri being saved by Melissa until she garners courage to refuse the prince. She's supposed to change and learn to stand up for herself despite not having any social standing whatsoever.
I do not understand people who think that Helena's pride and morality is the only thing on the line when she interacts with the prince (and to be frank, a lot of the male characters on there). That's not true. If you've ever been harassed by someone who has power over your life, you'd know that's not true. She has her job, her social status (which would affect her being hired in the future) and what's worse, the prince might actually go after her if he's given the opportunity (and since he's the prince, he has ALL the opportunity).
And by no means am I saying that Yuri is the exact same as Helena. They developed differently. Melissa and Yuri immediately hit it off and became pretty good friends, Yuri was always more expressive (most likely because she realised that the MLs were too stupid to notice her expressions) and because she's been in a constant loop of relieving the life. Helena doesn't have that. She doesn't have Eris constantly trying to protect her, her childhood is different, practically everything about them is different except for the fact that men control their lives.
I think a lot of comics where the FL is supposed to be strong, often has sexism and men be the antagonists/problem to overcome. I don't think "Kill the villainess" and "beware the villainess" is any different. Men are supposed to be held accountable for the stuff they do, and in both comics, the FLs are the only ones who can seemingly do that. Eris just doesn't have that much of an interest in it, but it seems like that's the direction it's going in naturally. She clashes with the MLs even when they try to be accommodating because they think little of her personality, whether it's consciously or unconsciously.
exactly.;;
(btw if you want to open up a discussion about a specific manga, you should ask a question on the sharing page instead so that it's not considered as a spam by mangago)
oh, sorry, thank you for letting me know!
I read the raws and he does get better very soon and they have a more cliched relationship of becoming closer I think, but mainly because- SPOILERS
He finds out that she has a chronic illness and basically he feels bad that he treated her so terribly with the lack of firewood and all. To be completely honest they do kind of look like they're going to gloss over the first ten chapters of him being terrible and her literally knowing everything about his past without consent.
I cannot imagine how she could have get his approval to read that book. xD
Where did u read the raws ?.? I need pls gimme
https://tkor.toys/%EC%97%94%EB%94%A9_%ED%9B%84_%EC%84%9C%EB%B8%8C%EB%82%A8%EC%9D%84_%EC%A3%BC%EC%9B%A0%EB%8B%A4_30%ED%99%94.html