Agreed. The setting they have given for the MC makes her behaviour throughout the storyline even more jarring and nonsensical among the already nonsensical regressor genre. At least, some regressor genres handle it better by quickly erasing the original person that the character is supposed to be in and getting the MC to naturally behave in coherence with their character setting within the storyline. There are some that have handled it so well that you could replace the plot point of the character's past life knowledge with the character receiving prophetic dreams and nothing else would have to change.
But, this MC keeps harking back to her life experiences and her identity as a 33 year old woman from our world. There's only so much suspension of disbelief that you can achieve when you are constantly being faced in her behaviour, in her dialogues, in the plot progression that this is not the person that every other character is thinking of her as and she does not fit in.
The author should have just picked a side for her and stuck to it. If you want the plot to be moved by the fact that she is a 33 year old woman who is aware that she wrote the story that she is, let her behave in a way that makes sense for that identity. If you want instead that the one moving the plot is a daughter of three families central to the fate of the world you've created, let her behave like one albeit with a little prophetic awareness.
Not her acting like a mom to one five year old kid and then acting like a confused five year old around another. She goes from acting like a child in front of her parents one second to acting like their colleague the next. Woman, if you are aware that you are the writer and you created these characters, why the heck are you getting emotional and judgemental and taking it personally (and casually asking people's kids to kill their parents. On the one hand, she is going crazy with worry over the fate she has written for Rayan because he's a real person to her now but then goes and treats other characters like plot devices) when your characters act the way you've written them to? Not a single frame where the MC is present looks credible.
Most characters are adorable. Most inter character relationships (except the two romance plots which are problematic for different reasons and the ones that are bad for plot reasons) are so healthy, so realistic and so beautiful. The plot has potential. All gone to waste because authors these days just have to shove an audience proxy into every goddamn story. Why can't these people just write a normal shoujo? Or even better, when you have this good of a foundation in your hands, just turn it into a shounen with a female lead. Chef's kiss! I have only got a couple of mangas with the kind of female lead characters that I could wholeheartedly approve as a role model for a young child that I was responsible for.
The only reason that I got as far as I did was because of Rayan's relationship with the MC, the prince and his adoptive parents. I was hoping to see more of them. The only realistic relationship MC has is with Rayan and her younger sister. Because those two are the only characters with whom she behaves in a manner consistent with her identity as a 33 year woman who created these characters. But, now that they need to force a romance between him and someone he last met when she was a baby and has grown up thinking of as a little sister, I can't do it anymore.
Even if they aren't siblings in a real sense because they weren't raised together nor are they genetically related, but considering there hadn't been any romantic development (remember, the girl was a literal baby) prior to him being adopted and then leaving for his biological father's kingdom, all logic would dictate that a person in his situation would still think of her as a little sister. The last time we saw him before he leaves their house is him referring to both the girls as his sisters. It might make sense for the girl to develop romantic interest in him considering she never knew him and has grown up with the knowledge that he has only been adopted in a political sense but it is going to be so weird when the story makes him reciprocate.
Rayan was the character that I was anchoring on in this story. I can ignore other much more problematic behaviour like our groomer catfish MC by skipping the chapters as long the character I am identifying with doesn't get involved in creepy behaviour. Once they do, I can't care about them anymore and Rayan with his people was only thing I had cared about in this story. I had really wanted to like this story. It does have a lot of good parts and pieces. Unfortunately, the whole is barely a fraction of the sum of those parts.
This feels like a story that has all the trappings of an interesting plot but doesn't quite execute it effectively enough that the reader feels like they missed something along the way.
One thing I've noticed about the MC is she somehow comes off as disingenuous. Even with the manhwa showing us her growth in this world, it just feels so surface level for some reason. Doesn't help that all the characters seem to be pandering to her existence. I can't explain it well but everybody in this story feels heavily reliant on what the MC chooses to do. It doesn't really feel like every individual has a choice and they all fall in line with what their characters are supposed to do in the story - if that makes sense.
I suppose in that way it makes sense. As much as MC says she made this world, everything does come off as an outline story rather than events organically falling into place.
Y'all, am I even making sense?