I decided to give the novel a go since this is on hiatus and I really do love the story. I'm surprised by how different the scenes go in the novel than the manhwa. The manhwa has taken so much liberties with how they arrange specific scenes and which character says what thing, though the main point and main roles are preserved.
I am unsure which I prefer more. While the novel seems more realistic in terms of recounting events and behavior, it does feel disjointed at times and the manhwa does a lot better in stringing the scenes along and giving a bigger picture of what's happening, however the manhwa... How do I say this... Beautifies the emotions and words a lot compared to the novel. It tries its best to make sure the feelings and intentions come across more obviously than the novel since the novel doesn't truly show how some people feel this much, especially with the imperial family and, for example, empress and her talks with shuri. It's so odd to read their conversations in the novel then witness them in the manhwa which are so different.
Also SO many church dynamics that have been happening in the manhwa are literally not mentioned till lets say the founding festival in the novel (cause that's where I'm at in the novel) despite them being shown in the manhwa more extensively.
It's interesting. I wouldn't say I prefer the manhwa, nor can I say I prefer the novel. I suppose the manhwa for me is more of a retelling of some events and should be read separately. I'll probably reread the manhwa again once im done with the novel.
So the scene with Jeremy finding the necklace happened and him concluding Shuri saw his father in him and was afraid of Johan. Well. That was underwhelming.
Gotta say I can't believe I prefer the manhwa overall over the novel. That's a first.
I think it's because it's the unofficial translation, but I hope the official translation does relay how much of a sickening feeling you get from the way he words his sentences. This scene in the novel was so fucking manipulative. He knows exactly how to play on Michelle's guilt and emotions, and his feeling of loyalty and duty so even if he's hurt and betrayed by the lie, he's not fully processing his emotions because he's at war with being relieved he's not going to part with "Ain" but at the same time shouldn't he feel lied to by "Ian"?
At the same time, he prepared himself mentally to accept whatever Lord Sheleg js like to begin with as long as he's amicable and not abusive, and that he'll dedicate himself to him. He's been groomed (in the traditional sense) and raised to be "demure" and loyal and a traditionalist conservative, and so he still feels it a duty to please his "wife" and foster a harmonious marriage, which clashes with his mental and psychological need to process hurt and anger and betrayal, and what Ian does is press further onto those parts of him and his emotions to pressure him, all so he can observe WHEN Michelle finally cracks and starts showing his true ugly and angry and unfaithful side that is uninterested in him now that there is no power dynamic placing him above Ian and he's no longer the one who's looking down at him.
And I say "when" because to Ian's mind it's not an "if". He's wholly convinced that's the reason why Michelle isn't reacting positively, which also isn't something he didn't expect. He planned this whole scheme with the expectation of such a reaction just to prove to himself that all nobles are trash manwhores who exploit whoever is of lower status, but that's a whole ass lore dump about his past you'll have to learn as the story progresses.
It wasn't until Michelle started spouting shit like he'll never abandon him had he been a woman and got pregnant, and running away with him, and even earlier when he kept talking about how he'll always be faithful because that's how his parents were and his father never had mistresses even if it's normalized in the south, that Ian took further interest in Michelle to keep the game going. He truly was planning to kill him that day in the snow while they hunted. He was being fr when he informed Katya that they shouldn't prepare anything. Michelle wasn't meant to return from that stay, and his return doesn't signify more than Ian's intrigue to see how far he can push him to finally roll over and show his ugly rotten belly of noble mentality and trashiness.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk. Prayers for poor Michelle who's being thrown around like a ragdoll in Ian's schemes of self hatred and self flagellation justification.
Please spoiler me.
Will michelle get a happy ending?
Or rather will that trash manipulate him enough to be happy with him at the end?
I wish i can tell you tbh but I haven't read further. I read up until where it was translated on chrysanthemum garden site and the translator stopped for a while.
However according to the translator who read it all, Ian does get so much better and they do get a happy ending together. I was a full on Ian hater (nit much really tbh) in the comments and she promised that he'll be loved by the end so I'm trusting that.
I asked for a Spoiler yesterday, they told me that it's a happy ending , now rest assured and sleep tight
(づ￣ ³￣)づ
chapter in the novel please
start from 7
the season 1 ends?
chapter seven, cherrymist tl, in novelupdates
really? thank you for your answer
of course, enjoy
Been praying for the time y'all finally learn his true face
What is this update im scared
It gets worse
STOP UR LYING
Wish i was.
I am trying so hard to like the direction of the manhwa but maybe I just hold the novel so dearly that the changes are bothering me, and also because idk how the author/artist here is planning to tie those core changes to the upcoming plot cause in the novel every situation tied to the rest in the end. Yeahhh...
Anyway, I absolutely love this story. Genuinely love Harriet a lot even tho she'd infuriate me at times that I wanna reach into my phone and shake her to STOP THINKING THAT WAY AND ACTUALLY LISTEN
I have nothing to say about Cedric.
Absolutely perfect.
Best male lead I've read in a long while.
Harriet is so damn lucky.
Anyway for anyone reading the manhwa and wondering or worried this might be one of those that starts strong and then drags out and becomes stupid, no worries! This is a very well written story! If the manhwa butchers it I'll be so sad, but if anyone wants to read the novel you should give it a go!
What did they change? I font mind any spoiler~
Ahh so,
Okay this is a spoiler for anyone who'll be come across it:
I haven't kept up with the recent manhwa chapters entirely, but the whole Albert and Bella thing never happened in the novel. The development in the plot in regards to the drug angelhic is also different. It was always implied Bella caused scandals using Harriet's appearance as a disguise, but that's all before the events of the story truly begins. As in, all the scandals we start the manhwa knowing is surrounding Harriet. So the whole disguising as Harriet and joining parties to distribute the drug? Didn't happen. In fact, joining an angelhic related party and causing some sort of a scandal while in disguise as the other counterpart was actually a plotpoint given to Harriet not Bella, later on.
Bella doesn't even come in contact with Albert until later in the story when shit hits the fan truly, and her involvement with the drug is through Tez Rorak. She's an addict. There are many details that give explanations to why other certain events will happen later on and develop in a certain way, so I'm confused why they chose that direction for Bella and Albert. I've mentioned in another comment weeks ago when they first introduced this change that it's completely illogical bearing in mind the future events will all be affected by it, including the fact the man bella should currently be involved in is someone's else's fiance, and that girl will be an essential character to Harriet, and even has a side story chapter dedicated to her love story with another essential character. It's just, the manhwa is changing too much for my liking.
I was excited to see the novel events play out so I'm a bit disappointed and maybe angry like when you're reading something that's wrong so you keep yelling THAT DOESNT MAKE SENSE THOUGH because you already read the whole thing before. Maybe the manhwa manages to do a good twist with the new stuff while also advancing normally in the og plot, so i wouldn't confidently give a verdict now. But yeah, that's it.
hi tysm for this, can you tell me where you've read the novel?
too bad they changed A LOT of it. But if those who didn't read the novel might ok with this but i do understand the frustration u have
At first I read the manhwa up until we met Aunt Trisha, then I picked up the novel from novelupdates. They had multiple sites as options for the translation there but I read it on novelish universe. Let me link you up since i think they changed sites to novexa
https://novexanovels.com/the-scandal-maker-has-returned/
It's a 200 chapters novel with 9 chapters side stories.
Up until chapter 171 it's unlocked, and the rest are unlocked for free a chapter every 10 days (10th, 20th, and 30th of each month). You could purchase coins if you wish to unlock some earlier.
I did continue it on another site (after hardcore search) after i reached 168 bec rest was locked at the time, it had all chapters and side stories, though that site has it translated in Arabic. While I do understand Arabic, I was so used to reading it in English that I felt it fitting to just continue with English format so I autotranslated the site with Google translate to English and honestly it was 90% readable with the exception of some names having different spellings every time due to Arabic being a phonetic language and translation tries to mimick that which ends up doing different ways of writing same name. That, and sometimes mixing first and third person speaking because the writing didn't have the tones (imagine chinese tones to same word can make it different meanings)
If you wish I provide that site too I shall!
Sorry for the long reply haha had to give you the full picture.
thank you so much! bless you ♡
The manhwa is already butchering it! I mean the fountain scene cannot happen. If Cedric himself asks Harriet to join the party with him, how can he gets mad for this reason?
The fountain scene is important for Cedric to discover his feelings and can I say? It's so darn romantic.
And the 'brooch in the party' has an important part in the novel, because he uses the excuse to 'repay her for bringing his Heirloom back', to fully supports her. I mean it's not necessary to follow a novel step by step, but the author cannot neither invent to whole story.
Here you can get the whole unlocked novel
https://lunaranime.ru/novel/the-scandal-maker-has-returned
bless you queen ♡
It feels like the story was going at a snail's pace then suddenly at the speed of light. Why are we rushing through the plot like the author has somewhere important to be with a deadline
"what is it that's making him so anxious?"
YOU! YOU ARE! YOU AND YOUR LACK OF INFORMATION! YOUR AMBIGUITY!
The town is built on a slope, looking like a pyramid or, you guessed it, a mountain.
Guwon's house is at the peak. He has to climb all those steps and through the entire town to reach the only place he can rest.
Nice catch
Can someone remind me where we see their kids in kiss me liar? Like which chapters cause I need to see again
in the side stories!
I could kiss you rn
Oh Cecil is a copy paste from chase LMAO
ofc yes
yessss he is! down to his bratty behaviour too lol
I am somehow reminded of a post on X (or an insta reel or TikTok I caNT FIND IT NOW) about someone asking their artist friend who draws smut if they rub one out to their art or jist stay horny as they draw it, or have no reaction at all. The answer lives in my head rent free and when trying to apply it now to manhwa authors/artists it makes it even funnier.
The answer was yes, they do, sometimes, multiple times even while drawing. I wish to unlearn this, but also go queens.
I'm wondering if it's the same for fanfiction's authors.
I... I actually am not sure i think it depends on the emotions the author is trying to convey through the scene? I've written smut before in an actual fic/og story setting and in roleplay setting. In roleplay? Yeah I got the whole deal alright. I suppose since it relies also on the other person's responses to my characters and the way they react so it feels less out of my control and unpredictable, which makes you immersed in the actions rather than the emotions because you're constantly reacting to them.
When it was me writing fanfiction or og stories, my smut scenes were usually tinged with certain emotions. Either yearning and longing, or desperation, or the dread of doing it thinking the other person wouldn't place the same weight into the act as they do. The scene ends up being emotionally loaded despite the details of smut, because as you write you pick and choose your words, and the focus shifts from the actions (as in rp-ing) to the feelings. You start to lose yourself a bit into the mentality of the character you're writing in order to convey those emotions, and it ends with you not feeling any sort of sexiness from it.
Maybe later, when I reread, i think "oh yea that's hot actually" but the ghost of intense emotions hangs over my shoulder and smacks my head each and every time so it's hard to goon to the agony I just put into words lol.
Idk if it'd be different from fanfics that are labelled porn without plot or simply mindless smut, because what I write is heavily plot based. But I think maybe?
That makes sense, especially the distinction you made between focusing on actions versus emotions. Thanks for the insight.
I am happy nanjo can recognize that using death threats is a form of manipulation even if the person using it doesn't have that intention, but it's very funny and ironic how this all-knowing rationale wasn't there when he was being played by Sunhwa and tossed around like a sexdoll in those threesomes. Pretty convenient to gain enlightenment now lmao
Comparing having a threesome with a guy you like to having a guy you cut off threatening to kill himself
He was coerced into having a threesome he didn't want and didn't exactly like almost all of the time, conned into being a sugar daddy, and played by Sunhwa badly that he didn't even question anything despite so many warning signs and red flags. Whenever Mokyeon would drop a hint to anything he'd label him a liar, an abuser, a sociopath, so on. So yes, I will compare the mental maturity and presence of mind a character shows belatedly in the story to a single specific character while conveniently lacking it for the majority of the plot when it came to a certain poorly acting Sunhwa.
It is evident that that what Nanjo cares about most is himself and his own views of things rather than the actual concept of not being gaslit or guilt tripped of coerced. If he feels good about the thing or the person then he wouldn't care, if he doesn't like the person then it's a problem. If he wants to find faults then he will, if he doesn't want to find faults he'll conveniently turn a blind eye to it. Even when he was presented with the truth of Sunhwa, he was still more angry at Mokyeon than Sunhwa and that says a lot.
This in no way erases what Mok did and how he wronged Nanjo, but I find Nanjo's hyper vigilance so very misplaced and odd when he had an out of this situation many times and he chose an in almost every time. It's just ironic.
Exactly, because he liked Sunhwa, and not Mokyeon. You can write as many paragraphs about how much worse Sunhwa is but at the end of the day, he still went back to him and not Mokyeon. He says it himself after Mokyeon confesses the truth, Sunhwa didn’t have that much power over him, so he was going along because he liked him. And he was not even being hyper vigilant with Mokyeon, Mokyeon just acted crazy and no sane person would’ve stayed by his side,
Lowkey proving my point but okay. Agree to disagree on some aspects.