can i be honest?

Well i love Remilia, but I don't think she suit romance.... Angel are very pure in romance, and he's a very good ml, i don't really want him to be manipulate by Remilia. I don't mind she manipulate him to use his power (no romance transaction), but I'm uncomfortable when she get the power using his feelings, u get what i mean?
I don't mind if she's really do love the Angel tho, but so far i haven't see any that she is, all just an act.

ngl i thought this was yuri with em x rem, but it's for the revenge so we endure

I don’t think Remilia would ever conceivably return Angel’s feelings, but I do think Angel’s crush on her is super cute lol. For now she’s just using Angel to her advantage

It doesn't feel genuine bc it isn't (￣∇￣") Rem is living a lie but since she's planning to live out that lie forever I don't feel to bad about it (just a little).

I think rather than a lie, Remilia is more trying to live up to the image Emi created for her after so much hard work, Like a persona - that's why she always refers to it as "Emi's Remilia". She feels very deeply for Emi, the first person who genuinely cared for her so obviously she also wants to live up to the expectations Emi's hardwork created.

Also while Remilia has a lot of somewhat malicious thoughts and interests especially against anyone who has harmed Emi, she is also very careful to not let her maliciousness actually harm or even negatively effect the people who are around (in a way, people she considers her own even though she never mentioned it outright). Even when she manipulates them, she never let's her manipulation or even the dark intentions (mostly revenge driven against Emi's culprit) behind those manipulation harm them.

Her overpowering love for Emi is definitely her biggest driving force for anything and that will most probably never change, but maybe because its so overwhelming that her other subtly developing feelings & affection are not obvious. She actually likes the people around her like Sophia, Thorne and even Angel. Nobody can fake affection constantly for their whole lives.

(Spoiler - and she definitely has them around her for her whole life based on the novel spoilers)

Not saying Remilia is a good person because she is not (spoiler- especially after what she put Lina [The soul in Pina's body] through, a fate worse than death while most of the guys didn't get enough of a bad end which feels misogynistic with the rape and all that)
but she definitely cares for the people who are around her

this! i feel like people are forgetting that all this is not just for revenge against the prince & star maiden, her main goal is to make 'a world where emi can live peacefully' and she does this by following emi's persona and using her as a moral compass for the choices she makes.

while her ultimate goal and envisioned ending is up for speculation, i seriously think remilia intends to recede back into their shared consciousness while all this is over and coax emi to come back out and give her the life she built for her

despite all she achieved, remilia clearly still wants to go back to those days she treasures the most: observing emi live her life to the fullest while emi kept remilia in her thoughts if you look back at the previous chapters, she wasn't merely manipulating Angel to get what she wants via romance, she's phrasing it like she's actually considering him as a person that emi can be happy with. hence, why she acts as "emi's remilia" towards him.

honestly it's a very bittersweet ending to contemplate, and i don't know if emi will even want that for her, given how much she adores remilia as well. i just hope it can be concluded where both of them can exist in their current world together.

also checked novel spoilers and i'm highkey glad

I kinda disagree but that's okay. To me, faking a persona is lying. She's not being her genuine self and misleading everyone into thinking it is. Now, I don't really take issue with it bc it's honestly the best for everyone (except Emi haters rip). Rem is chilling and still authentically a true villainess (which I love in fiction but will run from rl). She loves Emi so much that she's willing to be the Remilia Emi was being; strong, smart, beautiful and righteous.

I read the short novel (after I couldn't wait lol) and imo, it's debatable whether Remilia would've still chosen Angel if she retained her own agency. She says smth along the lines of, I can love you who loves my Emi's Remilia so much. And while reading I always questioned whether she really came to love Angel or if she convinced herself to love him bc whenever she said she did, Angel's eyes didn't detect falsehood. And we know his eyes don't detect it if the person genuinely believes in their lie(s). There was nothing that explicitly said Remilia herself loved or was even attracted to Angel.

All in all, I think some ppl can't help but feel that their relationship is shallow bc it technically is with Angel not knowing the real Rem and Rem acting as her beloved Emi's ideal version of herself. It's morally grey but you know what they say, if you live the lie long enough, it becomes the truth. I actually really enjoyed this story mostly bc Remilia didn't suddenly change characters. It's extremely refreshing to see a villainess actually be kinda evil and still succeed while having a happy end!

That said, I also feel there were moments where Remilia herself genuinely wanted to do good and brushed it off as "it's what Emi would've wanted" which is why the contrast surprised me more. Totally agree that Lina's BE was uncalled for. I wished they settled with jailed hard labor only. Extremely distasteful but it's also not smth Rem was directly involved it unlike the other guys which surprised me more for some reason. She usually never does anything that can be traced back to her physically.

Thx for making it all the way here! Wasn't planning to write so much but I love talking about this story. It's such a unique take in this genre! So hard to make a likable villain readers actively root for even if they do some questionable things.

I also personally think Villain protagonist are very fun and Remilia certainly falls under the examples of the fun ones. Its fine to have difference in opinion, makes the discussions more interesting that way with all the various perspective (as you mentioned).

I definitely get why the romance between the main leads isn't that attractive to the fans, it's kinda the same for me. What I actually like about this manga is the storytelling happening visually. As someone who has also read the novel you must know that the novel lacks some of the details and more striking elements the manga has due to the difference in medium and this manga is very good at visual storytelling which I love - from the subtle genuine smiles that slip through her persona when she is around people she actually likes to the fleshing out the side character's personality done visually - I like it all.
And as you said Remilia's actual kind acts that she credited to Emi rather than her own intentions - even those situation feel more clear in the manga.

Also I personally don't consider persona to be lie because its something everyone has (at least according to Carl Jung), it's kind of like a work face through which we interact with the world, people don't usually lie to their co-worker but they are also not 100% open with all their thoughts either. But I also completely understand why you and others consider Remilia's relationships with Angel to be deceptive because there is an expectation of being 100% truthful to our life-partners which she never was to him.