She just keeps….

You honestly sounds like a straight white dude who never faced bullying in your life. Because no other person in their right mind would read the whole story and blame Leila for being powerless in that situation. She's constantly bullied, belittled, gaslit throughout the series and you'd think she can pull a whole other identity and a personality out of her ass because she has a title nobody actually respects? Honestly, it's your audacity for me.

Um no.
I’m an asian girl who has been bullied thanks for asking. Plus not sure why you’re bringing race into this? You can make a point without it thanks.

She has stood up for herself and demonstrated that she ain’t powerless at this meet before but she goes back and reverts. Even I know as a female, to not take drinks from anyone and to just go and isolate myself when feeling unwell. Especially when she’s not in a familiar environment surrounded be enemies. You would go to another female or acquaintance for assistance. She set herself up.

Yeah I was on a mood when I replied. I'm sorry. Some asshole tried to defend New Zealand Tinder killer. Race doesn't have anything to do with it. I should have phrased it better.

She WAS dumb to accept that drink, but we have to understand the context here. We know not to accept drinks strangers give because we have access to that knowledge because of the internet. Does she? No. In that situation I doubt she'd think that someone will try to take advantage of her. It was a clever plan if we take out our knowledge of knowing this happening. Author was relying on clichés rather than coming up with less see through, so it's on the author.

Leila was operating on social norms of the context author built, which implies a patriarchal society where women who don't do as what men are told are disrespectful. It was disgracing the host to not accept his son's advances. Leila, who is a born and raised doormat, doesn't want to cause anyone any discomfort because she's a people pleaser. This society doesn't care for women's mental health, so I doubt Leila has enough time to grow a backbone in such a claustrophobic environment. Not to forget the looming narcissist infront of her who keeps gaslighting her to not be rude.

She has had wins before, yes. She stood up for herself before. But the situation is totally different from the previous one where she had more leg room. Here, she's suffocating from the narcissist's influence. She wants to get away and she's willing to do whatever to get away without making a fuss. So she gulps the drink on one breath and try to distance herself. Her one fault here would be trusting a random strange manservant.

In this context, the nobles treat servants as if they're furniture. They think servants don't think for themselves and would have the best interests of whoever they're serving at the given moment. This all make sense to me if I consider this as a parallel society to early Victorian era where information is very scarce and women are considered as 2nd class citizens.

That's not a fair critique because fantasy worlds don't have the same conventions. She is not acting as the Emperor's Agent at the party because it is a social gathering atp, not a matter of diplomacy. She has to use that power conservatively, because no one believes in her own power currently, so to just throw around "EMPERORS AGENT! EMPEROR'S AGENT!" would further reinforce that she has no power or pride on her own.

Furthermore, Aldor is the son of the HOSTING MARQUIS. Her rejecting him was already rude, and if Diane didn't save her she would've been in trouble. So further rejecting the son of the host would put her and the emperor in a tough position because they have to maintain amicable relationships. She's being aware of her position as a noble and official. You're blaming her for being subject to a patriarchal world set up against her, and at every point treats her as less than a man for the simple fact she was born into a certain body.

Like you guys continuously forget that these fantasy worlds are based on historical societies like the regency and Victorian eras. Like great read a story because it helps you escape from reality, but these stories are not it because there are lots of subjects about SA and misogyny. This comment is just incredibly privileged because we are so lucky to live in a world where we know we have to be careful, and that we can be in a position to reject. She isn't. If she rejects, it's going to create trouble either way. it's also not fair to blame her for not expecting this, because she believes people are sensible enough not to pull this. It's not a normal convention in these types of worlds to know men do deeds like this.

Even for Korea, women aren't in readily easy positions to reject men as they please, because patriarchal societies always have women put there heads down. To not recognize this when a core theme of this webtoon has been about navigating a patriarchal misogynistic world, that belittles and treats women like trash, is truly such a shame as a fellow reader.

shit duplicates, this site man, this site.

FURTHERMORE, real world cliches wouldn't be cliches in a fantasy novel because once again they don't operate on the same 1:1 conventions.

Like if you want to critique the AUTHOR for using obvious cliches, that's fair, but don't blame the victim using privileged takes.

Thanks for taking words out of my mouth. I get frustrated when people think the context they live in is the norm everywhere. If that's not entitlement, I don't know what is.