SPOILERS

SPOILERS: " warning this is just the people who read the novel conversation but it has some major spoilers to it"


someone else I don't understand what was up with Lamia in the last chapter. ML a) Apologized publicly b) did magical oath to never be near brother again and c) healed brother's hand so now d) not only is brother not maimed but he's also the heir. So... why was she losing her shit and even stabbing the ML at the end there? I mean, I didn't want her to fall in love with him or anything, she doesn't have to like him just because he undid his wrong, but she was acting psychotic and harming him for literally no reason. Guy did everything and more to fix the brother, yet Lamia acted like he went there and broke the other hand instead.

Honestly, I don't think I have ever read something where no one of the main cast is salvageable. The MC is a raging bitch, Ml is an idiot and cruel, brother is an idiot, father... etc etc. And this is all made worse by the writing:

a) Lamia: we are told she is a lovely, warm-hearted girl, that commands respect through her high intelligence and leadership. We are told this. What we are shown, however, is an immature little girl frothing at the mouth with an unhealthy obsession with her brother, to the point that she cannot think straight, act like a normal human being, refuses to think of the good of her people (letting her inexperienced brother be the heir will threaten them), acts like a bitch even when there is no more reason to (last chapter), screams and shouts and kicks valuable employees away because they didn't coddle the brother. Oh, and coddles the brother. I did not read every chapter (not do I intend to, ever) but everything I did read at no point showed me an intelligent MC or even one with emotional maturity. She's psychotic and obsessed at all times. I can't imagine the Lamia the ML is chasing after at all.

This MC... I can't root for her. Her goals are stupid, short-sighted and selfish. Her actions even worse. I was disappointed she didn't get killed off, as I was hoping to reset to a timeline with a better version.

b) The ML. Whew. Was an idiot. He acts shocked and surprised that MC didn't want anything to do with him. Did he really expect differently when he fucked up the brother's hand? I initially thought his dumb acting meant that there was a misunderstanding or the brother was outright lying, and ML hadn't hurt him. But no, turns out ML did. Which was also fucked up; no the brother fucking up in another timeline doesn't make it okay to do as he did here. If anything, if the brother was evil, ML just managed to ensure the evil brother now had all the power while pushing Ml away where he can't properly protect Lamia. So, despite the narrative acting like MC is this cold and calculating dangerous person... what I saw was an outright idiot, who acts as rashly and without sense as MC (guess they deserve each other in that sense). As a person who seems to have experienced so many timelines, you think this idiot would have learned how to act and proceed by now.

"Had to break the brother's hand to get lamia to give up the inheritance" really? all that time travelling and he literally couldn't think of any other way at all? Maybe it's not that it's hard to keep Lamia alive, he just sucks.

I can't even root for him either. He's acting as if he and Lamia were BFFs and then being shocked when she lashed out were too pathetic. Even if I think Lamia went overboard, the ML still did little to deserve her love. And at the same time... if he feels in love with some docile kind Lamia of some other timeline... I can't understand why he's in love with this deranged bitter version anyway.

c) The brother. WHEW x100. I can't even. Again the narrative (by way of blind Lamia) tells us he is hardworking... but then instead of showing us a hardworking person, shows us a whining little bitch. He couldn't recall basic guest names, actually told his sister he wasn't going to stay at the party until the end because he didn't want to etcetcetc. Nothing of worth to him. He didn't even really want the position yet couldn't even say he didn't to his sister. I don't even get wtf happened (might be because I didn't read everything) where he is STILL the heir even after his hand is fixed. Wasn't Lamia psychotic because the hand was his life? So now that he got it back why didn't he return to the supposed life he always truly wanted?

The narrative tries to, at the very end, force you to like him by creating a dumb as fuck backstory where every single person except for "perfect" MC blamed a child for the death of his mother. Eesh. And that didn't make me like the brother more. If he was so starved for respect and love because of his Tragic Backstory(TM) why not show him exerting effort now? Instead, he acts like a spoiled brat that had the golden spoon firmly shoved in his ass mouth since birth.

The fact that his hand was broken, and so his PTSD is warranted and not a ploy didn't help at all. If anything, I wanted him to be lying. I wanted the brother to be evil and pretending to be weak and stupid and incapable. That would have made him conniving yet interesting character. But no, he's just actually pathetic.

It would be nice if some theories here were correct and he is more than just a child that killed a mother by way of birth. But nothing in the narrative so far has shown the author is good enough to do that at all.

d) the father. Shit parenting skills. Clearly failed to teach both kids, keeps being changed by narrative from standoffish yet caring to cold and indifferent. Also not bright at all, I see the kids have his brain.

c) Those epilogues. Already briefly mentioned but, completely forced. Felt like the author realized readers weren't going along and liking the pathetic brother so they quickly cooked up some over the top traumatic abusive past to try and make him endearing. Except now they just made everyone else look ridiculous (blaming a child? Really? And then all you needed was Lamia holding his head to back off?) but also makes the way he behaves weird considering the trauma he should be carrying.

To summarize: very bad writing makes for very bad characters. Telling us someone is X doesn't work if you then only show them being the exact opposite. Tragic Backstories need thought and effort or else they'll just feel like last-minute additions to convince the readers to feel like you want them to feel.

I'm bitter that the good art is wasted on this