My entire response got deleted for some reason and it only posted the first paragraph so I’m going to rant again.
This story reminds me of Usagi Drop, a story about a girl who gets adopted by her uncle after her parents abandoned her. It was such a heartwarming story about parenthood. That is until the second half of the story where it became a romance between the daughter and the uncle.
I have the same feelings about this story, because Annette’s journey was so well written, her development as a character and learning about her faults and doing everything to be a better person. Her journey of self discovery is practically stopped because the authors put these two back together for the sake of romance. It falls into the cliche’s much like Usagi Drop did, which is sad to see because I felt like they were taking a step to branch out from the usual tropes only to fall back into one.
On another note. I find it very amusing every time a “morally grey” character as u folks like to call them is a man, suddenly there’s defenders trying to give the benefit of the doubt. I never see this happening when it’s a female villain. Rashta from the remarried empress, it’s a pretty common fact we all know everyone in that fandom hates her and openly shits on her. Yet I see NO defenders for her when her “crimes” are honestly a joke compared to the mental torture and trauma Heiner put Annette through (WHETHER IT WAS INTENTIONAL OR NOT.) misogyny much?
Remarried empress is such an easy example of answering the question “if you hate this character so much why do you keep reading?”
Is it not obvious enough the author is purposely making readers dislike Heiner, none of his actions scream green flag male lead. He’s suppose to be disliked, just like how Rashta is. Yet absolutely nooobody defending her, in fact any time a female character does something slightly deemed bitchy I be seeing death threats in the comment section and noooobody is caring. Only when it’s a guy I start seeing these deranged defenders stating the most point blank nothing burger statements.
Actually the fact Rashta didn’t even do anything THAT bad she was LITERALLY a slave due to her parents just trying to survive. HONESTLY it doesn’t make sense this guy is trash and Rashta got hate even when she didn’t even do things that bad early in the webtoon. YET some people are defending bc him? FOR WHY? He’s TRAAAASH! I feel bad for when he WAS innocent but he’s not anymore I JUST WANT JUSTICE!
I feel like this comment section has become a he did this no he didn’t argument. There’s no damn nuance, it’s either he deserves to die (which I half jokingly agree on) or he wasn’t the entire cause it was politics!! If u don’t like it don’t read it