Well it is a game to her. She knows she's trapped in a game she played so many times and destined to die. It's not awful, it's reality for her.
i did in fact already say/imply this but ty ?
Exactlyy personally Idt the MC is a good person solely because of how much she wronged Eclis (which a lot of people previously seemed to disagree with me lol), but I like that she’s not a perfect goody two-shoes FL like other manhwas. And I do have to give her the benefit of the doubt that she doesn’t think they’re real people, but still when it comes to Eclis it’s like she has no sympathy for him unlike the other characters.
And I mention there's nothing wrong with that since it is in fact a game and she is trapped. She will treat others as characters. There's nothing awful about it. Just look at that she just realized how much painful it'll be for her to treat any of them as humans (crown prince's half assed confession). Now she's reminding herself again her actual motive
Yeah I know right? Like when she saved him, when she saved him from other knights of her own family, when she gave him gifts, when she gave him a teacher, when she explains herself every time when eclis becomes sad, when she offered him to cut out his slave title. I mean I can understand these are all awful. Vinter and his brothers get more good treatments like they can't even talk to Penelope properly now. Such awful thing she does to save herself.
I’d argue though that there IS actually something (morally) wrong with it. However, this moral fault imo is grayed out when we consider her circumstances and how she chooses to navigate the situation w/ the system, a factor that ultimately enhances Penelope’s character for me.
Like I was realizing that if I were to judge her more objectively as a “good person” and tried to impose my morals when judging her (w/o context on her situation), I know I personally couldn't like her because of the whole enslaved x captor relationship she creates, the influences & intentions behind her “good” actions w/ him, and all of the nuances to that type of relationship.
but, that’s not the case
the rest of my message got cut off? ╮(￣▽￣)╭ but i was just saying that’s not the case so i like her ofc because i get to see her internal dialogues and don’t rlly assume her as to having “no sympathy” for Eclis
Why are you saying all those things to me when I didn't say anything about that? I'm talking about the fact that it is actually a game since you said how it's a game for her and how everyone is a character to her which is awful. Morality? Where did that even came from? The first thing people say bye while dealing with life and death situation is morality. I'm amazed you even came up with that and would even try to judge her situation with morality
Also I didn't even start arguing with you about eclis and Penelope's relationship. I'm mentioning it again for make it clear about what I'm talking to. It is a game and everyone is character. For her to treat them like that is normal not awful. You don't see in your usual life some % bar over people's head or don't have to think about getting killed every 2 sec. And despite being a human using magic so she will indeed treat her whole situation like a survival game. And I have a question why would you try to judge her objectively as a good person and with morality? I will say it again do you believe someone who thinks about dying all the time or have the chance to die all the time will think about morals? She bought a slave who can kill her if she didn't buy her but after buying that dangerous slave she did everything in her power to treat him normally. I think she showed enough humanity to a person who is destined to kill her.
The whole morals thing was supposed to be implied in my initial comments, but I am unsure of how it became such a focus in your responses. I don’t think it’s wrong to analyze her character from a view point of morality… I find that to be personally interesting when questioned and analyzed, it was never suppose to be as serious as you’re making it imo. Also no, people don’t always say goodbye to morals in life or death situations, medias like AOT (i.e. Armin) have demonstrated differently… However, all these semantics are not my point— I was just trying to say how I think Penelope being a morally gray character is interesting— that was really it.
However, I’m starting to get a little lost with the rest of what you’re saying & don’t even think we’re really understanding each other atp, or at least I am having trouble following, so ima just leave this as my last reply. (￣∇￣")
You really thought attack on Titan is the same thing as this one? A normal powerless girl suddenly transfered from her real world to a game and destined to die is the same situation as someone who knows how to fight titans and usually fight with his fellow members? Do you see where's the problem? Your comparison is fucked up. You bring morality into a villainess story. How is it not wrong? You compare a normal powerless girl left with no helping hand with a person who is trained to fight with titans and who also has help. In the first place your semantics don't make any sense. And if you are not serious about it don't bring it up. Of course you won't be able to follow since you ain't making any logical argument
Also according to your comparison, you'll feel upset if Armin morally doesn't treat titans right, right? Since in this case the one who's trying to kill the main characters are titans and eclis then according to you Armin shouldn't kill the titans cause that would make him bad person? Both of them tiring to survive on their own, from their own type of wost situation. And Penelope isn't even trying to kill eclis like Armin killing the titans
As much as a root for Penelope, love her character, and get how what Eclis will do if betrayal… good gosh is she manipulative and not in the sense of cool manipulative but in the sense of “oh that’s not…” ykwim?
Like if I wasn’t reading from her perspective & thoughts and didn’t know her circumstances— everything about her relationship with Eclis, the way she creates it (slave and master?!), and how she basically manipulates him for her interests, while simultaneously not even seeing him as an actual person (because atp she evidently still views this as a game and everyone as just characters) is rather awful. Like genuinely, what would’ve happened had the author not created some “justification” for disliking Eclis and the ML remained Callisto?? Just thinking about that alternative timeline and it kind of puts it into better perspective how awful her actions are.
Ironically this fault is also one of the many things I enjoy about her character and the story. So yeah, just my thought I had to share.