I don't agree with a lot of what you said. Some points are interesting, but I think you forgot what these characters were originally like. I couldn't care less about Jack, who does he think he is, to want to play the victim by being the asshole he was? Yes, she broke his gun, but it wasn't intentional, and she APOLOGIZED, and soon after thought about buying him a new gun to make up for it. The stalker who was always favored by his father, who neglected Melissa and was also always rude to her, was Jack. I don't think he deserves this victim role.
I get that you dislike that the mls are treated poorly, but have you considered that the whole point of this story is to clap back against mls who are treated favourably only because of their status as mls?
Like the person before me said, the bro was babied since a young age gaining whatever he wanted as the next in line to inheriting the house, using his position in power to stalk the supposed female lead (many other possessive mls come to mind). The first difference between this story and traditional ones is that the female lead legitimately doesn’t like it, she’s scared of him and doesn’t want his affection, yet cannot do anything because of her status. What would traditionally happen is that the villainess would then pick on the fl due to her own lack of power in some sort of dark reflection. This story is a feminist retelling where the villainess actively breaks traditional gender roles by becoming violent physically and mentally towards those who would generally be against her.
When you think about this book in the way the story presents it the supposed male leads are actually the antagonists and villains, this is a classic story of someone without power gaining it to go against fate and fight for what they believe is right(like my hero acidemia). I feel like the reason you disliked this book is because you missed the forest for the trees, equating the lane of ml with the position of ml so of course you feel bad when you didn’t get what you expected. As for nine, I found his personality quite refreshing upon the first read, acting as a more respectful foil to the other male leads, with his “dark side” an appropriate response to the hardship he endured from acting power hirachies, but we all have preferences so I understand if you don’t like him.
TLDR: the male leads are actually villains and antagonists who don’t get a romantic subplot because they’re all legitimately horrible boyfriends. This is a feminist book and the whole point plot is the fl getting back at patriarchal figures who misuse their power so bro got screwed. Nines personality is literally every villain ml from every other reincarnation manhwa ever, it is an acquired taste.
I’ve definitely don’t think Apologizing makes up for it due to the fact it was a very special gun and then even the replacement wasn’t as good as the original. I also felt like she didn’t really care when she apologized because like why would she but that’s a whole other thing.
Like I definitely think he deserves everything she put him through because he was a stalker, but he should be blamed for being the father favorite since the fault lies with the father, not the son. I don’t know if you meant the father neglected, Melissa or he did, but if you’re talking about the son, I don’t really agree due to the fact that she is the older sister. Like a younger brother can’t neglect a older sister.
I don’t think I missed the force for the trees because I definitely got what it was going for and I definitely liked it in concept. The thing I didn’t enjoy was how it kind of didn’t explore consequences despite claiming to do so. I enjoyed the fact that the brother got punished for being a stalker that makes sense to me what I didn’t like however was the fact that that went to have a happy and healthy sibling relationship like he started praising her name and started being a siscon like that doesn’t make sense at all. I’m not saying because she corrected his behavior that he needs to automatically start hating her but it definitely wouldn’t make their relationship better at least for a while and he definitely didn’t like her to begin with so
As far as nine, I just didn’t like how hypocritical they were with him vs the other werewolves. As far as the other werewolves, I’m not really gonna talk about it because I believe it was very weird especially if you look at it in regards to racial politics But I didn’t enjoy the fact that they went into another country told them how to run shit and I made the rulers subservient to her I think that’s weird.
At the end, started to feel like a harem because everyone was saying how Melissa could do no wrong and I know suspension of disbelief, but I was just expecting something a bit more from this then I actually received. I definitely think this would’ve been one of those series that would’ve benefited from not having every male love interest be over heels in love with Melissa.
And even though I do express my displeasure with some aspects of the manwah, I do still think it was good for the most part Like I think the best handled storyline was with the crown prints because he had all the makings of a good prince. He just wasn’t doing it, and I liked how at the end they maintained a professional relationship despite him being in love with her.
I think it’s really insane that her behavior a good thing first of all. I think it’s mainly due to the fact that there’s not a lot of female leads sticking it back to the male leads, but her behavior is extremely concerning because she beats disobedience out of everyone who wrong her, but it seems as a good thing because of people doing it, which is still concerning. Whenever she handles werewolves, I always have to look away because she just physically beats him up and says obey me or else and they love her for. the only smart one is a monster so no one listens to him, but he is right They shouldn’t have bought monsters at the end because it’s not like human society like them. But my biggest I have with the overall series her relationship with her brother because at no point in time should he start liking her.
I understand he’s a stalker, and she deals with that by turning him into a rabbit and emotionally and mentally scarring him And further emotionally embarrasses him by having the person he’s been obsessed with say leave me the fuck alone which he deserved, but still rough and then she breaks his treasured gun which he then cries over. At no point in time should he start respecting her out of this? He should start avoiding/being scared of her. They should not lead to healthy sibling relationship because this is not a healthy sibling relationship. He shouldn’t fuck with her after this, and this should be a lesson for her telling her that she can’t break the ML Otherwise, there will be consequences to her actions just like there are consequences to their actions. Maybe this could bring up insecurities and Jake like it would be so much more interesting to explore that instead of what we got. He should’ve abandoned the title to her like he did in this but without guiding her or maybe he could’ve if she actually apologized instead of just being like well I guess I’ll get you a gun. Every male character shouldn’t have turned around and started falling in love with her because “she was the only one who stood up to me” She didn’t stand up to you, she beat the shit out of you.
Her relationship with nine is whatever I don’t really care for him because I thought his personality was bland, but his brother was right about him which is insane because he acts innocent but he’s scary. He’s a scary person and he uses that to actively threaten multiple people.
There are so much to like about the concept of this, but the execution left much to be desired. I also think the fact that all of the non-main characters ended single was a bit disappointing. I’m not saying that they deserve a partner, but they deserve to be happy, and I don’t think any of the main male leads are truly happy at the end.