u/Gwynasyn

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1. Villains Are Destined To Die
2. Kill The Villainess
3. The Blooming Violet in the Back Garden

Obviously I don't want them to actually succeed, which means I'm discounting any story where the FL or ML successfully takes their life only to be reincarnated or regressed to an earlier point in their life. So no The Broken Ring, for example, even though Ines does it twice.

This may be a bit messed up to say, but I like seeing stories where the FL or ML hits their limit of tolerance for the awful things they have to deal with in life. They hate the people around them, they hate the world they live in, they lived and survived and fought for all the years beforehand but got to a point where they just didn't have the will or the energy to keep fighting if it meant they kept just getting more bullshit out of it.

I could also include stories like The Cruelty of Salvation or How To Win My Husband Over where the FLs hit their limit and are living in just absolute despair with no hope but haven't actually tried taking their own life. That's the kind of angsty feeling.

HOWEVER -- and this is equally as important!

I don't want a ML who was the original cause of the despair and desire to not live anymore 'making up for it' by groveling and redeeming themselves. I can also like those stories, but that's not the mood I'm in right now.

What I want is a more of a story where that same FL or ML finds happiness and purpose afterwards. It can be because they find a new resolve or a situation presents itself that helps them finally pull themselves out of the bullshit. Or it could be something, or someone (say the FL/ML) appearing just in time to start giving them nice things and show them good reasons to keep living. Whether it's just having someone on their side to care for and love them, or giving them a purpose they can believe in, or surrounding them with people who actually give a shit and want them to be happy...

That scene from The Cruelty of Salvation where Olivia sobbing in absolute despair as she walks down a deserted road, only for Noah to appear like a miracle and propose to her as her salvation, is one of my favourites. But I also love Kill The Villainess or other revenge stories where the FL finds purpose in getting revenge first, but by then having more to live for so they don't go through with taking their own life.

Honestly I'd fuck with a story where the FL gets her revenge by having a whole village, city, country or world destroyed because of her hatred for the world she was reincarnated into. Just full villainess ending, kind of like what happens with Roxana where her revenge is her whole family (couple of exceptions aside) being wiped out, but she never really got to that point of despair... more just pure hatred.

Any and all recs are wanted, with those guidelines in mind!

I think a lot of manhwas have a problem when they try to have some kind of scene where there's a court proceeding, or a similar kind of scene like it but more of a 'social court' situation.

You probably know the exact kind of scene I mean.

People throw out an accusation, it could be completely random or fabricated. They try and back it up with no evidence at all, maybe they bought a witness to make up testimony. They also spread rumours about the person (rightfully or wrongfully) to support or refute the story. And everyone around them will gasp at every claim and counter claim with complete credulity as if all you need to do is say something and it will be believed, but then you can just say "nuh uh" and then THAT will be believed.

If there's a trope I actually completely dislike, it's that.

Which is why I LOVED how The Devil Raises a Lady handled things like accusations, evidence, and so on. The trial scene by itself was the focal point of it, but it also involved how the rest of the story handled the build up and fall out of it. There were accusations made, real accusations of things that actually happened. It involved real and manipulated evidence from both sides. But just saying accusations or counter claims didn't mean much. Pointing out that a hit job contract with no signature and a handkerchief that looked like one from the accused family could easily be manufactured and aren't proof by themselves. Even the FL saying "hey so this guy who attacked me who is their son openly admitted it to me" by itself wasn't enough. They did have witness testimony to back that up, but they lost that when the witnesses all became too scared.

The immediate fallout of this scene didn't establish clear guilt or innocence. A follow up investigation was ordered, and the court of public opinion was more uncertain than it was going into it but nothing was really decided there either.

Anyways this isn't a major thing but after being mildly annoyed by so many manhwas doing this kind of thing poorly it was refreshing to read one that did a good job with it.

I have been loving this recent arc. It's been fun seeing a bunch of disparate side characters all coming together (except those magic kingdom fuckers, they can kick rocks), Ailette finally spilling the beans to her brother who their grandfather is and who SHE is, watching Ailette be a complete BOSS, and the divine art of all the characters and demons.

And ESPECIALLY the one scene with the interaction of Ailette and Reed through the mirror, and seeing his expressions observing the magical projection of her after she ran away from him. Or, related, seeing Teslid not fooled by the DoppelAilette for a second lol

It was a conversation that needed to happen. While I was a bit disappointed because the snowmen scene didn't live up to the ridiculous expectations I had of it from the novel, this scene made up for it. I only wish Bjorn actually cried like he deserved to.

But then this mfer dropped a Han Solo "I know" when she said "I love you" to him for the first time since they made up, and she let it go because he's a good kisser had me rolling lmao.

I really hope this does some of the side stories, so we can get to see the new dynamic of the two of them with the more confident Erna alongside a more humbled (with her) Bjorn.

For the first 150 or so chapters of this manhwa, I was thoroughly in love. This story made so many bold choices that broke a lot of the usual tropes I've read in these kinds of stories and it felt so refreshing.

First, the FL was 'older' AND a commoner! Pretty sure she was still in her 20's, but she had been married already and had a four year old daughter. Her husband died of the plague, her daughter was taken and sold into slavery by a shithead noble who wanted her. She was just a regular person with some small magical ability. She did have the tragic story that led to her looking and acting like a completely broken woman who was just a shell of a human being. But that was fine because...

Second, the ML was not just a green flag but he showed actual patience. It made the romance a real slow burn, but given her history and mental state when he found her by chance and saved her from being buried alive with that shithead noble who died of >! karma !< the plague not long after he took the FL. The ML was a bit dense about his own feelings at first, but when he realized it he acted so amazingly calm and understanding with her, her trauma, and her history with her husband and child. He never really pressured her beyond making his feelings and intentions clear and known, but never in an aggressive or insistent manner. All of the scenes I attached to this post came from before the FL allows herself to be with him, before then she battles a lot of trauma at first, and then guilt second. But even then, you can see in the last scene how the ML handles it. He doesn't show any jealousy or annoyance when the FL is sad or missing her husband. He shows an endless amount of empathy and understanding, acknowledges her feelings and expresses his admiration for him who won her love first.

I know from the comments on the site I was reading this on, there was some impatience at time at how the slow burn developed but I adored it. The scenes showing growth of them each as characters and together as potential romantic partners had just the right pacing for me, balanced between not going too fast in a way that undercut the emotional grief and trauma she was healing from or going too slow so it felt like no progress was ever being made.

Some minor things I'll throw in that I also really liked... there was a great mix of side characters. The Saintess character Tania is just an absolute Queen, I loved her. The old Abbot I showed in a couple of scenes was also a great balance of kindly old grandfather figure and complete troll/foil for the ML. Then there was the 'harem' the ML had as a cover for them being a secret order of badass Knightmaidens who all had their own personality and strengths and roles, but together they were so kind and friendly with each other, including the FL... of course while they were secretly plotting to get the FL and ML together. Best wing-women ever.

I was ready to call this a perfect romance story, until......

A few things towards the end happened that I didn't like as much. Not enough to ruin it, I'd still rate this manhwa very highly and would recommend it to anyone reading it, but it did make me consider it more an 8/10 than a 10/10. I'm getting into actual plot spoilers here so you've been warned if you don't want to have the big twists and plot events spoiled in more detail than I've given so far.

First, it did that damn manhwa thing where that commoner FL turns out to be a princess because of course she is. This I didn't mind that much, and it connected to the lore of the world and the main plot of the story well enough that I wouldn't even say this by itself would have led to me knocking it down from a 10/10. It just annoyed me because I was so hyped to see one of the very rare manhwa where one or both of the FL/ML is NOT a high noble or royalty only to have that rug pulled out from under me again. Felt like Charlie Brown falling for that football trick again.

Second, the crazy green flag ML pulled an Ian Dalton from Miss Pendleton and, when the FL found out she was this princess and regained her memories and realized the implications of her being with the ML considering who they each were... she freaked out, started reliving all new grief and trauma that came fresh to her, and was trying to run away from the ML. Of course he finds her, and after initially failing to kill her he puts a knife to his own throat and basically says it would be better for him to die. The TL;DR of this situation is there's a curse her grandmother cast on the emperor's bloodline, and it mainly affects the ML's father. The only way for the curse to end is for that bloodline to end, or for someone from the grandmother's bloodline to offer sincere forgiveness. And that is ONLY the FL at this point. But she doesn't think she can do it because her knowledge of why the curse was cast in the first place (what happened to her mother) is something she only just regained, so all that grief is fresh as if it just happened to her. And she freaks out because she feels so much pressure to forgive the emperor who is on his deathbed and cure him of the curse. She wants to just run away from everyone and everything because of it. But since that is the main reason why the FL thinks she can't be with the ML, the ML basically offered to relieve her of all that pressure by just killing himself, if he can't even be with her anyways it was the one thing he could do to help make her happier... and he was sincere about it, I think. Still though, it was pretty fucked up and just traumatized her into staying at least in his territory instead of running away like she wanted.

Third, the whole ending was just a chaotic mess. I get it's somewhat realistic given the nature of there being a huge battle, but so much of it just didn't seem to fit with the themes or threads of the plot leading to that point. It seemed like a lot got thrown into this big battle just because. A dragon woke up and did nothing really important in the end except it meant it left the magic place it was slumbering in. Which was important because the antagonist got away without achieving his ultimate goal, but achieved some of it... only for us to be told, but not shown, that he actually died off-screen in that same place where the dragon was slumbering in the side stories. So we didn't get to see it. In fact, of the whole very fast, chaotic final battle for the plot, I'm pretty sure we saw as much backstory for the villain as we did of the actual final battle. But it's not like the villain had this deep, complicated story. He was a narcissist who was desperate to be just so super special over everyone that he decided he wanted to achieve immortality/godhood, and the whole burning the FL's mother (who was a princess) alive thing was solely because she turned him down for being his eternal partner as an immortal god-like being and he threw a tantrum over being told 'no' for the first time in his life. Seriously, that was the whole god damned motivation and back story, but stretched over multiple chapters. I dunno, it wasn't my story to write but I was disappointed by that climactic moment of the story. I think it could have been done better, in a way that was much more in line with the rest of the story to that point.

But I can forgive the manhwa for doing that, because in the end the ML found the FL's daughter for her, they had a beautiful reunion and were just adorable as a family unit and they had their happiness in the end.

For the first 150 chapters or so, it was a perfect 10/10. After that it was a 7/10 for me, on average. The ending has a lot of weight, so I'll give it an overall score of 8/10 and I recommend it even if just for the first 2/3 of it.

I just... loved this story so much. It gave me such a similar vibe as For Better Or For Worse, even if it had a very different setting and story. It was such a refreshing and, in my opinion, fairly unique read because it ignored so many of the typical tropes in the genre. It was lighthearted, comedic and silly without being ridiculous or over the top with anything. It had a very focused story and plot, it didn't try to do too many things or have any unnecessary arcs or characters or anything like that. It had a love story to tell and by god they were going to tell it and only it, and it did an incredible job.

It was just such a beautiful and well told story in every way I could think of. I just finished this late last night and even after sleeping on it my brain is a chaotic storm of activity trying to put down organized and coherent thoughts about why I loved this so much, but by god I'm going to try. This may come out as just a stream of consciousness lol

WARNING: This will contain a lot of spoilers, so if you're just looking for an understanding on if you should read this or not, than I will say right now I consider this a top tier story and I would HIGHLY recommend this to everyone. Now immediately go start reading it and don't come back to this until you finish it!

SPOILERS BELOW

Sadness, Depression, and Tragedy

I love love LOVE the way it showed and handled the... not quite trauma, but the deep feelings the FL had around the death of her twin brother. It wasn't all encompassing, it didn't make prevent her from living her life or even finding joy in her usual likes and hobbies. It made her sad when things reminded her about it, like when it rained or when the ML offered her a hair pin with similar words that her brother used when he gave her the butterfly pin. But she isn't unable to go out in the rain and she didn't break down into helpless sobs over the beetle pin. Or, even worse when considering OIs, it didn't do something over the type like have her pass out and stay in a coma for three days because of it. What would happen is subtle but not un-obvious. You would see her behaviour change, and she would look sad enough that the people who knew her could tell what was going on.

What also happened is what it taught her about people living with the same kind of conditions and stigma around being chronically ill. After initially being scared when she found out her twin was sick, her mother helped show her what it means to put yourself in the shoes of others. She learned empathy. She learned how to draw and write and composed a beautiful book full of things she wanted to share with him that he couldn't experience himself. And of course that also came up later with how she was able to help the ML's brother who also had asthma.

I love that only a year passed since her twin's tragic death, and you could see how it still affected her but also how she was learning to live after. I ADORED how, after she opened her heart and told the ML all about that story, how he responded to help her with that healing. The private ceremony he arranged for her, the things he said about him, him asking if they could name their first son after the brother, all of it.

Love and Romance

I don't know if this would qualify as an enemies to lovers kind of story, but I loved the dynamic and evolution of the relationship between the ML and FL. Seeing the ML eventually explain all the reasons why he hated the princess selection process, going back to what he learned his mother had gone through because of it, and what his sick brother had to go through sort of because of it too. He had a deep distrust of the politics and scheming that it fostered, and therefore of all the princess candidates involved.

And you could also see how the ML was perfect for the FL once you learned her backstory. Not just because they became partners in crime (the 9th picture I shared on this post where they both have red demon eyes plotting together in front of the empress fucking killed me lmao), but they just had different elements of their personality that complimented each other. She helped drag him out of his cynical shell while bringing every day wisdom she gained from experiences outside of the palace that he couldn't have, while he could keep her (relatively) grounded and fill the void in her life left when her twin died.

I love that both the FL and ML weren't the stereotypical kinds, in terms of their looks. The ML had long hair, for one, but he wasn't this absolute fridge with a 12 pack of abs and hands as big as the FL's upperbody. He was taller than her, but I don't think you ever really saw him with ripped muscles? The FL looked pretty but she wasn't constantly praised by everyone for being the most beautiful woman in the empire, in fact it was said even by the FL herself that her sister had the reputation for beauty beyond her own. She was a tomboy, after all. But their looks weren't really emphasized at all, even for why they loved the other. They were not unappealing, obviously, but it was more about who they were as people than their looks.

I just love how their relationship progressed. From the initial hostility of two stray cats raising their fur at each other, to gaining a mutual sense of trust and respect, to a sense of kinship and a similar sense of justice, to then coming to rely on, feel vulnerable with, and open their hearts to the other. That scene in the rain where he asks her about why the rain makes her sad, showing that he came to know her enough to notice that and want to know why, and how she pretty quickly felt secure enough with him to share her story was so beautifully done. And how quickly their romance bloomed from that. There was no misunderstanding arcs, there was a brief period where the two were in different kinds of denial about the feelings (more on that in the next section), but they both wound up admitting it pretty quickly. And after that, they still had the same teasing dynamic but now with a little (read: a lot) of affection and genuine love shining through as well. The cuddling, the kissing, the looks of love shared had me kicking my feet more than once.

OH MY GOD I LOVE THE EMPRESS SO MUCH

I could make a whole post just about the Empress, the ML's mother... and one day I might just because I loved her character so much. She was this incredible balance of a very kind and loving mother with a badass empress you don't want to fuck with. She raised her sons with empathy but a firm hand. She governed as the Empress with kindness but strict, no bullshit attitude.

When her son, the ML, was in a confused state about his feelings where he acted in denial about being in love with the FL but insisting she's the one who loved him, her reprimanding him for how he was handling the FL as a result was straight to the point. And when he still didn't fully receive the message, she forced him to admit it to himself by threatening/bluffing to have the FL marry his brother instead. And then when, not long after, he fully realized his feelings because she had the FL care for him when he was sick and she confronted him about it directly as well, she gave him shit for it as only a loving mother could lmao. She was a stern mother who didn't helicopter-parent, she let them make mistakes and learn lessons themselves, but would step in where she recognized they needed guidance. She wasn't manipulative about it, I guess the part where she kind of lied about marrying the FL to the ML's brother instead was kind of a manipulation but it's not like she wasn't being obvious about any of it... the ML was just too deep into his own highly dense brain to recognize it.

And as an Empress, the scene where she first speaks openly with the FL about it to confirm her feelings as well, and make sure she was cool with being the crown princess/next empress, and in the middle of the conversation just casually drops this chilling line about "taking the opportunity to clear out all the rats causing problems" gave me legitimate goosebumps. Or how she handled the final "trial" for the other princess candidates to reveal who the mastermind was, and tricked the antagonist girl into being confronted by all the people she was only too willingly throwing under the bus to save herself to back her into a corner was great, even when she let the FL take over the last part and the cleanup.

I'm just saying if there was ever a spinoff series about the Empress and when she was a princess candidate falling in love with the (now) Emperor, I would read the absolute hell out of it. She may be my new favourite side character in any manhwa!

I'm just in a mood to gush about this. I hope there are other people willing to share their favourite scenes, characters, or other reasons why they too loved The Crown Princess Scandal with me!!

What manhwas have you read where the emotion, especially the angsty moments, are so painfully realistic that you can't help but think that the author has deep, personal, and first-hand experience with the exact kind of thing in the story?

I felt that way about Karina's Last Days, especially with her shithead father and all the BS excuses he made about why he was such a failure as a father to her and only to her. The pain Karina felt at constantly being neglected, and the shameless downplaying of responsibility her parents constantly made for why they just ignored their own daughter was so real I just cannot help but assume the author either dealt with such parents themselves or they are very close to someone who did and heard all the stories that were very similar.

I had the same thought about a novel I recently finished, called Now It's Your Turn To Regret. It was a similar situation where no one in her family ever cared about the FL, and the neglect and despair she felt was very real. But it was the way the author described the death scene of the FL's maternal-substitute character that was described so viscerally in terms of what the FL saw, heard, and felt in the moment that made me think "oh this author has lived this kind of moment before". I just wanted to give them a big hug.

These were not scenes or stories where the author was writing out a clichéd scene where bad thing happens and character is sad. It went deep into human psychology and wrote/drew it in a way that hits the reader's emotional center of the brain in a direct hit. With the kind of detail shared that just had to be someone who either already knew from experience or did a hell of a job in their research for it.

I love creative storytelling. My favourite situation to be in is when I've become fully immersed in a particular genre or kind of media to the point I know full well what the common tropes are, and then I come across a story made by someone who also loves the genre and its tropes and starts putting some creative, subversive twists on them.

I think my favourite example of this is the movie Knives Out. I have always loved murder mysteries since I was a kid and got into Sherlock Holmes. Knives Out was framed as a classic whodunnit murder mystery. But instead of having the protagonist investigator find and follow clues but hold onto who they think/know is the killer until the end reveal, it flipped those tropes on their head and used them against the audience. It revealed what happened and who the killer was to the audience very early on, and suddenly the emotional investment got flipped on its head. The tropes of finding and following clues became a source of tension as we cheered AGAINST the investigator to find them and put the pieces together, hoping he doesn't pick up the clues and that the 'killer' would hide the traces and get away. Only for everything to get flipped back on its feet with the classic grand reveal that the investigator had done the classic thing and was finding the real evidence of who the ACTUAL killer was all along.

That's why some of my favourite manhwas have some element of subverting the usual tropes, especially within OI. So if anyone knows of any other great examples of subversive OIs that have a deep love and understanding of the genres, knowing and understanding them to the point that they know the best ways to creatively break them or turn them on their head for the sake of making a more creative variation of a typical OI story... I'm all ears!

Some top examples of what I've already read, in order to match the pictures I attached to this post, are...

(WARNING: DISCUSSION OF THE MANHWAS BELOW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS TO DESCRIBE WHY THEY ARE SUBVERSIVE AND GOOD)

1) Kill The Villainess: Set up the reverse harem OI plot, taking place in a novel whose world has the power to enforce the plot to happen so strongly that it prevents people from taking their own life to escape it. So instead, the FL comes to hate all the main characters and finds new people to help her escape it by, essentially, maliciously complying with the original plot and its tropes. And in doing so, the OG villainess came to be obsessed over by the same male characters that were supposed to reject her, and in the end they all got nothing they wanted.

2) Concubine Walkthrough: Set up as the 'reincarnated as a character in a video game' kind of OI, it takes a sci-fi turn where the FL and other characters she finds turn out to be not reincarnated, but trapped in the game's virtual/artificial reality system. The subversive elements come in where, instead of the FL and those other "gamer" characters being the ones to exploit their knowledge of the game and how the plot and world are supposed to work, instead it's one of the main characters of the game who got a Westworld kind of sentience and was manipulating things -- and the gamer characters -- to help them escape, even at the cost of his own love and life.

3) The Taming of the Tyrant: The FL regresses after being victimized, tortured, and turned into a literal weapon for the bad guys. The usual tropes for this kind of regression-revenge story is the FL uses her knowledge to take revenge on the people who wronged her before, but also to save the day and prevent the bad things from happening in general, not just what happened to her. In doing so she comes into contact (intentionally or not) with a powerful Duke or Prince/Emperor figure, he becomes her ally, and they both get her revenge and/or save the day and fall in love and live happily ever after. But instead, this FL didn't really care about specific, individual revenge. She wanted to destroy the whole empire, and she sought out and taught/raised the genius prince to become emperor but turned him into a tyrant so he'd wreck everything while she destroyed the evil cult group behind her misfortune in the first life. It turned into more of a toxic psychological story where love is weaponized for her revenge, but the ML eventually realizes what she's doing and just goes along with it to help.

4) For Better or For Worse: One of my favourite OIs of all time. This one was subversive from the beginning. Instead of the usual regression, the FL in this one went from being the OGFL to being the character of the OG Villainess character, but she doesn't know this at first. So she spends a lot of time feeling shame for being the bad one before, and just waiting for the OGFL to show up and take her rightful place in the story and as the ML's love interest. It lays so many subtle breadcrumbs (subtlety is not a common strength in OI) that she is, in fact, the real FL. Then the OGFL is actually the OG Villainess, but she's realized the errors of her ways and wants to be a friend and ally to the FL. It was subversive to pull off that twist at the end, which I know turned some people off but I liked it.

5) The Broken Ring: Not as overtly subversive, but it does something kind of similar to For Better Or For Worse by hiding the true, original story. In this case, Ines and Carcel lived four lives, but originally we are made to think there was only three. It makes us think of the two characters (and others involved) in a particular way about who they are and why they're like that, only for it to slowly be revealed that in their original life, and the "fate" they were meant to live, they were already husband and wife and should have had a great, happy life together if they didn't get repeatedly kicked in the face in their first life. It changed their whole relationship dynamic, and you saw some of that when Ines really started to fall in love with Carcel. It was something she couldn't help but feel for him given their intended fate and their love from their first life.

So, yeah, probably big spoilers so you've been warned as much as I can.

So I read the manhwa as far as it's gone. Then I read ahead in the novel, up until the appearance of Robert -- Radis' captain from the monster hunting order from her first life. He has his memories of the past life just like she did, but he lived for a bit longer.

Why I am wanting spoilers actually doesn't have anything to do with Robert, it has to do with the Marquis Eve/Yves especially, and the Prince Olivier to a lesser extent. There are two or three things I need spoiled if I want to continue with this from those who have read/finished the novel.

So, first of all, I'm getting uncomfortable by the fact that Eve appears to have changed from being a father figure (sort of) to Radis to now being a love interest. The fact that she is a 16 year old girl, and I don't know how old he is but he doesn't seem like he's still a teenager or even in his early 20's, and he was acting like a father figure/employer/protector for her while also essentially pimping her out to Olivier, to now he's falling for her? And she's sort of falling for him? But she was also falling for the prince? And now Robert came and he loved her the whole time and I wouldn't be surprised if she started falling for him next too? And Yves is losing his mind in jealousy and wanting to be more controlling of Radis but trying to hold himself back from going overboard (probably because she knocked his ass out when he tried to stop her from going out lol).

WHYYYYY? Why couldn't they just have a surrogate father-found daughter relationship like from Author Of My Own Destiny??? Why did it have to get weird! Especially since he's falling for her while also still wanting to continue with his plan of using her to attract the attention of the prince by making him fall in love with her!

So the first thing I need to know is everyone's ages? Yves and Olivier's ages mostly, if they were mentioned in either the manhwa or the novel I missed it. I assume the prince was late teens, early 20's at the oldest. Yves I assumed is older.

The second thing I need to know is who the actual main male lead is supposed to be? The way things started I assumed it would be the prince, but now that Robert appeared and things with Yves are getting weird and Olivier apparently just disappeared from the plot for now, I don't know. Though I knew I should be suspicious of the fact he had long hair, that's just not main male lead material!

The third thing I need to know is where the hell the story is going? It feels janky as hell at this point. It's jumping back and forth between her relationships with each of the three potential male leads and the Radis getting pimped to the prince storyline, to her life living with the Marquis and her shit biological family storyline, to the monsters/forest/evil dark wizards storyline picking back up now that Robert is back. The FL is starting to feel like driftwood in a river, just completely passive and allowing herself to float along wherever the current takes her.

Overall I'm just at a point where I don't know if I want to continue if the directions it's taking keep going like that. I know the FL lived to 26, but she is now 16. She is 16 to everyone except Robert, who at this point I'm guessing is the closest in age to her.

Does this weird reverse harem keep going? Is it as middle school-cringe like romance the whole way? Does it ever find and stick to a direction for the overall story or does it try to make all three of those different parts all the main story while switching back and forth between them?

I love this man! He's loudly and proudly waiving his green flag for the FL at every opportunity, and can't help but brag about her accomplishments from before they even knew each other. Between this and the actual dating they've been doing, the vibes in this manhwa have just been I-M-M-A-C-U-L-A-T-E.

If anyone knows of any other manhwa or novel that has these kinds of vibes with an ML like this please let me know I need my heart to keep filling up!

I started reading this on a whim based on some art and a funny scene I saw shared here recently. So I knew nothing about the plot other than the initial premise -- the FL is obsessed (sorry, simping) for Abel and winds up getting with Abel's dad, Hades.

First of all, I just noticed that I'm 70-something chapters in and how has it already been that many??? It feels like not much has actually happened yet, but I mean this as a good thing it feels like it's only been 20.

But then I got to the twist where it's revealed who the FL really is, her tragic background, the fucked up situation she's in and now I just got to the point where she's going to ask Hades to kill her so she can escape her curse and she won't kill Abel or Hades.

Ahhhhhh my heart... I was not at all ready for how this plot turned from light hearted and funny to angst as brutal as suddenly getting kicked in the face by a warhorse. 😫

I loved this novel so much. The ending was kind of weak and felt rushed, but that's common enough in any kind of story/comic/manhwa/novel that I can forgive it, especially because I love the FL and the dynamic she had early on with the ML.

Her way of thinking and manner of speech is so unorthodox that her ability to completely vex or even stunlock the ML had me chuckling and laughing out loud very often. He tries so hard to pin her down but it's like trying to grab a leaf in the wind, where her wind is at category 5 hurricane levels of force.

I had to cut down the number of screenshots I had taken so it wasn't so much but my god I had so many saved because I knew I wanted to make a post here about it when I was done. I think it would make for a fantastic manhwa, and wouldn't be too long either (unless they fixed the ending which I wish they would!)

Anyways if you like reading novels and like lighthearted romance, and these screenshots from some parts of it sound like it's your fancy, I highly recommend it.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH THEY'RE FINALLY BACK AND WE GET TO SEE THEM! I hope this part has more than just a couple of chapters of us getting to see them, I just want to be able to see them being happy together as much as possible. ❤️

Seriously, can we talk about this art? I don't think I've ever seen a manhwa with this specific style, but I AM SO IN LOVE WITH IT! I was before too, but I was too depressed about the hiatus to talk much about it. I never look up who the artists of any manhwa are but this person needs their props, and I hope they will do/have done other manhwas this gorgeous for me to appreciate!

All these beautiful people are looking as gorgeous as ever with this artwork. I'm so happy they've returned to us ❤️😭

Poor Yulikan, all he wants is to be sincere and romantic and Maddie is just having NONE of it lmao