Interesting difference in how "heroine" trope characters are treated!

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.