maychan's Favorite

Trying to take my preferences out of the equation, I think the development of Mono and Lego’s relationship absolutely influences the way in which we read Mono and Baron’s relationship. And while I don’t mean to endorse any immaturity or hate towards another opinion, I think that there is merit to the feelings of readers that dislike Baron’s relationship due Mono’s relationship Lego. I don’t believe the character deserves hate, but I don’t think the negativity towards him is totally unexplained.

If you reread the series, like several Mono x Baron shippers are fond of suggesting, you’ll notice that there are a number of instances that would suggest Mono and Lego would develop a relationship, the majority of these being rather sexual encounters. It isn’t often you see a manhwa or manga introduce such a relationship (initially free of romantic rivals) only to not have it pan out. Of course, it isn’t that Mum isn’t capable of deviating from the norm, but it’s perfectly reasonable for fans to anticipate Mono and Lego’s relationship heading in that direction.

Looking at their scenes together, you’ll notice that despite what Mono tells Lego in Ch. 49, there is little to suggest that Mono truly dislikes Lego. Though he’s certainly caused him trouble, Mono’s actually shown a great deal of concern for him. I’d like to think I’m reasonably good at interpreting facial expressions, even when they’re illustrated, and none of Mono’s expressions came across as disgust or distaste when he engaged Lego on a more intimate level in late Season 1 or early Season 2. Of course, he didn’t seem to be head over heels in love either, but there was a sense of amusement, that he was teasing Lego to an extent, but certainly not maliciously. It seemed more flirtatious, as is within Mono’s character, but to a degree that was not seen with other characters. I’d like to say Mono has a sort of begrudging, if not fully acknowledged fondness towards the boy. I doubt that he would go out of his way (willingly) to help Lego time and time again, if he didn’t care, at least a little.

The combination of these things naturally would lead readers to expect something to come of this set up, which made Baron’s introduction as a love interest a little jarring. It very much felt as though we were being asked to suddenly drop a character we were already attached to and root for his romantic rival. I think the hints of Baron’s arrival were too subtle for the average reader, myself included, to perceive the first time around,and this makes his addition feel very forced. And, quite frankly, I’m not sure how persuasive I find them. Personally, when I read a story in which some former romantic interest has caused a protagonist a lot of emotional hurt because they abandoned them, I’m not looking for them to get back together, I’m looking for the protagonist to move onto a healthier relationship. From the tragic first love angle, maybe it works, but I have trouble seeing how Mono and Baron could reconcile the fact that Baron is married with a child without it being Really Weird. I think it would also be very troubling to me if it winds up that Lego was being emotionally manipulated by Mono the whole time. Again, I think it would be very out of character and very inappropriate, considering he suffered through a similar experience himself.

In the end, an author will always have certain intentions, and as much as we’d like to understand those, none of us really know where this story is going, so its difficult to speak about the work in absolutes about Mum’s plans for her story, and I apologize if I am doing so.

—

TLDR, Baron isn’t compelling enough for me to jump the Mono/Lego ship, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to finish this series.

Again, this story honestly left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s trash, trash at it’s peak. Yea the first timeline is a tragedy but a poorly written one. The second timeline is even shitter.

so what’s wrong with this story you may ask? Well that’d be a whole packaged to unpack, and I don’t wanna remember, the problem is the way the story presents itself. So what we’re supposed to forget everything the prince did, cause what he was a affectionate deprived spoiled brat,? he felt threatened by mc and all that she had?, he a man of privilege should be forgiven cause guess what he was dumb prince who got manipulated? . What the story is conveying is that a women should be okey with rape, should be okey with the abuse she suffered in the first timeline cause guess what, in what life would a victim re falls in love with her abuser? Only in the world of novels. I’m using re fall in love cause mc never fall out of love with that piece of shit.

The abandoned empress is rooted deep in misogynistic ideologies, and what’s even worse the character i hated the most is mc herself, I’m not even gonna do her the favor of using her name. What was she? I feel like I should do a character Analysis on everything that was wrong with her. she has to be one of the worst fmc I’ve ever came across. Sure the first timeline was a poorly written tragedy, the second timeline was even worse and I pity you if you defend the ml and sum up his actions on the note that “he was a child who need affections and got manipulated”.

Ew just thinking of this trash of a story is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

I was truly hoping in trying to give another go but from the comments alone, it seems like this story is still a lost cause. Shes truly going for the prince bastard huh. Like, lemme get this straight. We were given, in the beginning of this story, a hopeful and new start to her life. A green and red haird cuties that ISN'T the same guy that abused her, an inspiring plan to become the head knight of her family just like her dad, and a SOLID PLAN TO AVOID AND NOT END UP WITH THE SAME GUY THAT ABUSED HER.

AND YET. She still somehow FALLS IN LOVE WITH THAT SAME GUY DESPITE TWO (mostly just one, cuz let's be honest. Vegetable hair is kinda iffy) POSSIBLE CANDIDATES FOR LOVE. Like, ffs. Ok, this isn't my first rodeo in these kinds of stories since I've read Palace of Bardo, God of Pains Bride, Killing Stalking, etc. I'm honestly open to these kinds of things AS LONG AS THEYRE WRITTEN WELL.

Cuz while reading this, I honestly asked myself "Why do I hate this more even though I've read stuff like Palace of Bardo?" And that's when it hit me. Its because of the way Palace of Bardo was written. And by that, I mean HE HATED his abuser. Like her, he knew about his past with the Emperor and tried to get away from him and obviously hated him. He also explicitly showed how he suffered under his hands and how traumatized he is

With Aristia, she was obviously scared of him but it didn't feel like he hated the man that did so much damage to her enough because a mere few chapters later , it's almost like she forgot her trauma and was suddenly buddy buddy with him. Palace of Bardo addresses what the emperor had done to him in way that feel grounded and realistic.

And it's just sad thinking that this couldve been better. Because I was so hopeful about this story. Now, this is obviously just my opinion on this story and if you're happy with Ruven ending up with Aristia, that's fine and I can understand that. Everyone has their own opinions after all. I mean, I like pineapple pizza but I know not everyone does and I respect that. It's just not their cup of tea.

But what I don't like is when people get angry at people who don't want Aristia and Ruven to get together without logical basis. It's bad that the author are getting death threats and I hope that people would stop doing stupid shit like that. But, it's also bad to just hate on people who are justifiably upset over a story that we had high hopes for. Most importantly when it was written in such a way that we would actually hope that she'd do better. Like, we seriously have valid arguments as to why we dont want them together from both a moral standpoint to a writing standpoint.

Tbh, I'm truly just disappointed rather than mad. I'm disappointed that this ended up the way it did because this had the chance to become something wonderful but ended up with such a bad ending. I imagined her being a powerful, strong woman who lives a whole new better life far from her previous one. It's just sad at this point.

So I really love the MC, she's one of the strongest female leads I've read in a webtoon yet. And I find the plot really interesting too. BUT I have two pretty big problems with this story. And those are:

1. The villain
2. The love interest

I find Rose such an annoying and tedious villain. And it's bc the author has made her incredibly one dimensional. She has absolutely no other trait, wish, desire or interest other than becoming queen, which is so unrealistic that she comes across more like a machine than human. When Rose does something twisted and disgusting I don't get mad at her, I get mad at the author, bc Rose doesn't even feel like a character she feels like a convenient plot device.
What baffles me even more is that the author originally gave her more nuance, but then randomly decided to strip her of that. I think it was a big mistake to have Rose declare she was never in love with the King and was only using him to become Queen. Bc her genuinely having a crush/being in love with the King, but not being allowed to marry him bc of her class, actually gave her some much needed nuance and sympathetic feelings. And it would have been massively satisfying to see her feel jealous and get her heart broken as payback for all the shit she's pulled, when she realizes he has fallen in love with our MC instead. Really a missed opportunity.

And then there's the King... Oh boy oh boy is he a weak love interest. He is as one dimensional as Rose, except his only trait is that he's a spineless pushover. First by his mom, then by his lover and now by our MC. The way he's portrayed in this story is so bad that he often comes across like a little boy, which makes his dynamic with our MC feel more like that of a mother and child, since her personality is so strong and assertive. Which is... SO NOT HOT. In fact it's creepy. You can make a character broken, but still a likeable and attractive ADULT. His characterization is another missed opportunity imo.

why most people think the ex deserves the heartache and the ex's new bf is a bitch:

- it's not that Taejoo broke up with Yoon, it's HOW he broke up with him:
instead of just explaining things clearly, he deliberately flaunted his new bf. his aim was TO HURT Yoon, not to break things off clearly. Taejoo clearly wanted to lash out at Yoon for going missing for 5 years.

- during all the 5 years that Yoon was in a coma, the novel revealed that redhead (new bf) KNEW where Yoon was, knew why Yoon was missing, but he did not tell Taejoo because he wanted to snatch Taejoo, leaving Taejoo in a state of despair.

- redhead tricked Taejoo into thinking Taejoo raped him while drunk, so he basically guilt trip him into a relationship. so yes, REDHEAD IS A BITCH lmao.

- Taejoo hit yoon.
NOTHING excuse abuse. NOTHING. especially done to people who was just waking up from coma, from head injury. that could be fatal. did he want to kill Yoon?? asshole.