Terrence's Topics (196)

I DONT CARE ABOUT THE PAST GOD DAMMIT we already know Joseph was best sweet boi and Dad is asshole

Speaking of which. This is off topic but the dad’s redemption arc so far is pretty weak is that just me? “If this was a female mother character who treated her daughter like this could you forgive her?” The answer was no.

He is very similar to Claude from “Who Made me a Princess” in being a parent to neglect, and ultimately kill the protagonist. Claude by comparison is extremely well written from beginning to end in his arc of redemption.

This father however isn’t written to be rooted for, the author wants us to like him but ultimately it isn’t making us grow to cherish and care for his growth like in the instance of Claude. I’m rambling but has anyone else noticed that?

I’ve read a lot of reincarnation stories and I mean a lot. I really love ones with well written redemption buts it hard to write so it’s rare that it makes a point. Usually it’s “Sorry I abused you for decades of you child and adult life” with no real force behind their change as a person. I hope the story chooses not for redeem the father or give us something to root for bc neglect is abuse. It’s even more prevalent and heartbreaking I’m the novel that he was plainly cruel. At first I wanted to cut him some slack but I thought to myself

Did we need this? Feels like filler to the plot we didn’t need when people wanted season two to get to the face off finally

It’s gonna be crazy to see Claude realize Athy and Lucas have feelings for each other. As a father I’d never allow it since he’s thousands of years old and Claude doesn’t know Athy is also mentally an adult.

I saw a lot of valid discourse online about how shitty of a father he is/was. But in the case of this story it’s the most well written I’ve ever seen it but didn’t go as far as defending him because he very rarely critique male abusive characters in manhwas. Readers took the adoration for the “bad boy” and “enemies to lovers”

But this story is almost seamless I’m Claude’s redemption. A lot of stories try to redeem characters who are abusive in a past life and genuinely disgusts me. Claude was an outlier for many reasons

1. He treatment of Athy was never out of genuine malice rather than lack of emotion. He never went out of his way to cause her sorrow or heartache. There’s not evidence of him enjoying his power or pain over her (a hallmark of abusive character)

2. His hardwork of character development. We get scenes of him genuinely caring for Athy when she’s unconscious or off screen. Him confused on why he feels this way. This shows his change was not solely tied to the manipulation of Athy. My favorite example of this in the story is Athy’s debutant birthday. Athy sees a potential manipulation tactic of mimicking her mother’s rumored great dancing skills and tries her best, but ultimately fails when dance with Claude. But from Claude’s point of view, he sees this as a revelation of her character. “She’s not her,” (her) referencing her mother. He takes the leap of knowing Athy and her mother are two separate entities. And as Athy recounts this as failure. This is a victory for Claude as a character because he loves her for her and not nostalgia of his lost love. In a lot of poor written redemption in reincarnation stories the character suddenly “decides” they’re gonna be good not after seeing the error in their ways, but being shown their victims new superiority.

For example in “I Tamed a Tyrant and Ran Away” our main character uses her rebirth unabashedly showing off her talents of wit, sword fighting, and political prowess. It is only after her father and brothers witness her new fond power and lack of attachment to them they attempt to repent for years and years of blatant neglect and abuse. Here their improvement is lazy because they had an incentive. Our FL is now powerful, and doesn’t need them. No where near as nuanced as the long inner dialogue we witness Claude face in his development into loving Athy.

3. The Duality. The biggest reason I see Claude as distinct for other poorly written male redemption is his characters mirrored duality when compared to Athy. Athy had a lot of development in her relationship with Claude. Let’s examine. Both characters started out in the beginning of the story seeing each other as steppingstones, nuisances, and pawns for a greater goal. The both have to admit sometime in the story that’s no longer the case. Athy openly admits she loves him as a father and Claude admits he loves her more than the pain of mourning. Not only that this ties into the overarching themes of intimate bonds and love concurring over the wounds of time. (This is further mirrored by Lucas).

Beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful

So lemme get this straight, the white haired boy who abused her in her past life is gonna get redemption (that’s pretty obvious from his personality traits, characterization, backstory of abusive father, and flashback to reveal he actually loved her) which is bs because the abuse she suffered at his hands cannot be forgiven and the excuse “ well in this lifetime he didn’t do it” is dumb because if she had followed the path she did before he definitely would have again. There was no major events to trigger a change in the content of his character.

Now there’s hints of her sister getting redemption. By making her genuinely sympathetic and giving her a possible love interest?

Then there’s her brother who was hinted to secretly be good from the start I just…. That’s like three of her abusers getting redemption.

I liked the story because the villainess stayed a villain and was completely valid in her hatred and revenge plot and now they’re doing this

I’m getting the vibe they’re gonna give her abusive brother redemption and I’m not here for it. The fact he’s sexually attracted to her just makes it worse.

“He was a bad husband but a good emperor...” What emperor we talking bout honey? The one who dampened diplomatic relations with foreign investors? The one who weakened the appearance of nobility by bringing a low born women into the palace and repeatedly breaking precedent to cater to her? The one who faked his mistress noble birth? The one who’s running a country that hasn’t outlawed slavery? THAT GOOD EMPEROR???

Uh uh

Yes yes yes destroy it all. We love female rage

To be honest I thought about dropping this. FYI if you think the novel will be good it’s beautifully written but HUGE TRIGGER WARNING Riftan rapes Maxi on multiple occasions in the novel. As a victim myself blatantly reading Maxi say things like, no, stop, it hurts, and Riftan saying I hate you, I don’t care, just be quiet was soooooo sooooo nauseating for me. Then when I commented on it I got attacked . How do you argue against if rape is rape? The fact these readers (of the novel) couldn’t even tell just shows how damaging “romances” like that are so toxic to women who consume them. “It was a different time period” ok? Rape doesn’t evolve with time, us holding men accountable does, that’s didn’t mean rape isn’t rape. Secondly this is a fantasy world with dragons, wizards and orges, you telling me they couldn’t have written out the brutal rape of the protagonist in multiple chapters? BULLSHIT.

Anyways the manhwa is great just warning people who wanna read the novel.