Side characters

I agree i love the side characters in this and theyre a huge draw for me personally. I enjoyed the majority of the backstories but i lwk skim yajin's on rereads, i js feel like they could've paced it a little better. still i did enjoy it overall (the shot of all of the clocks always goes so hard), but i got so worked up into the momentum of lau finding out what yajin hid and then it just randomly jumps to his backstory idk i feel like the author should've placed it earlier in the series to not ruin the pacing of that sequence. i was one of the comments who was complaining abt chen's backstory back then but now looking at it i honestly find it rly sweet. fu rin's backstory is a straight up banger and had some lines that rly stuck with me, same with suna's.

honestly back then it was just the pain of having not seen xin in like 4 months that rly set in lmao. updates were every 10 days too and not on a consistent schedule sometimes it was rough out here┗( T﹏T )┛ not to mention none of the illegal sites had raws either it was downright painful having to wait for my pookie bear's reappearance also i think the majority of the commenters back then would disagree with what they said back then. i remember one comment saying "can we PLEASE get back to lau and xin" and then a few months later when the "twist" happened they said "i lwk take it back..." lmfao

im rly hyped for s3 as well, and im especially curious abt lian and wei's backstories considering whats been hinted at before. they were introduced as part of the "main four" early on, but their involvement kinda fizzled out over the course of the story until now. hopefully we'll get to see them more now. 2 heroes and 2 villains as the main four, super excited to see what the author can do w that dynamic.

Oh yeah, I totally get it! I had the privilege of binge-reading this, so I didn’t have to excruciatingly wait for the sparse updates so that makes sense, haha. I wasn’t judging readers, more so just surprised at the lack of engagement with any side characters except for Miu and Lian (for obvious reasons).

I admit, some of the flashbacks gave me whiplash too—especially during confrontations, like when Fu Rin tries to save Suna, or when Lau confronts Yajin as you said. But I ended up being so engrossed in them that I almost forgot what was happening in the main timeline. It took me a while to get used to the constant back-and-forth between past and present, and honestly, I feel like it works most of the time, but it does break immersion when it interrupts tense moments.

Can I just say how fun it’s been reading the comment section though? Especially your comments. I love how invested you are in the story. It’s been so fun reading your theories, timelines, and even fanfiction, lol. You’ve made the story even more enjoyable for me, and I’m sure for many other readers too, so thank you!

Yeah tbf I think the lack of engagement with any side charas was cuz there was like 4 ppl reading it here at the time if u go on other manga sites (that i daren’t say the name of or else mangago will smite me down) ppl engage a bit more w them (but it was mostly hating on suna tbh).

Also I was reading ur comment abt this on ur profile (yes i stalk ppls profiles don’t ask) and I agree the first few times I read it I was willing to excuse the weird transitions because I was locked in on all of the info they were giving us but the more I reread it, it becomes glaringly obvious that the author needs better transitions between the present and past. Most of the time they have good transitions, where the lore/flashbacks start playing (ie the transition to Lau and xins childhood, absolute cinema) but the yajin one lwk just pissed me off. Like I audibly sighed when I saw ts

I don’t mind the overexposition at the beginning and throughout because whenever I reread it I find new details that further the plot (like the stick Lian uses to eat fruit being the iron awl that was stolen from yajin’s family). The plot and the reasons why the lore is there became much clearer on a reread for me since I didn’t get all of it the first time around. But take my opinion with a grain of salt cuz I just love lore too much

Also abt ur last point, I agree that the authors really heavy handed with characterization, which works well sometimes but other times it can also be… something. like yeah the fu rin one made it especially obvious. But also to counteract ur point abt the author thinking their readers are stupid, they lwk are tho like ive gotten into beef with ppl on a diff site abt ppl calling fu Rin and suna Mary sue’s when they’re not so yeah manhwa readers ARE pretty stupid but it doesn’t excuse the heavy handed storytelling. Im a bit conflicted though because I think one of the strengths of this manhwa is that it’s not afraid to be heavy handed. Idk I feel like too many stories either give readers too much info or too little info but this story gives just enough imo. It doesn’t try to baby the audience when it comes to the mystery but it does baby us when it comes to characterization especially with side characters. I have a love hate relationship with the way this author does storytelling (like a 80:20 love hate ratio so ig I love it much more)

Fanfic? What fanfic? that was literally what happens next /j. Anyways someone else read it omfg, I’m lwk embarrassed even if I wrote it for the bit I’m glad my comments made this more enjoyable for u and I like to think they helped other ppl too lol. I’ve lwk written more abt this manhwa than i have in all of my English classes combined so at least someone gained something out of it LOL This manhwa means a lot to me, to the point where I got a job just to buy the officials legally I love this story despite its flaws so it’s nice to talk to someone who can admit its flaws in a nuanced way. A real rarity these days in manhwa fandoms tbh Also I was browsing ur profile and I love the way u write. Like u could totally become a professional reviewer like swiftologist or someone like that u have rly good vocabulary

Definitely agree that the way the story is layered invites and rewards multiple readings. That’s why I mentioned I’m going to reread this, the mystery is so dense and well crafted I know I'm going to find details I missed the first time (also thank you for pointing out that detail, I completely missed that). The way the author made every other family seem suspicious while keeping the Mings under the radar fooled me lol. I felt so dumb because I actually believed Lian at some point. She was so blatantly unhinged I convinced myself it’d be too obvious if she turned out to be the villain—so I basically gaslit myself into ruling her out until pretty far in the story.

I know I focused a bit on the negatives in my comment, but honestly, I adore how the mystery was structured too. Being stuck in Lau’s head when he’s completely out of the loop and led on a wild goose chase was so disorienting—a challenging perspective to follow but one that works so well for the mystery. One reason I initially disliked the overexposition was that I thought Lau should already know some of that info given his position as guardian, but realizing everyone was keeping things from him gave the exposition a whole new context. That actually made me appreciate it a lot more in hindsight.

Heavily agree with you that the average manhwa reader is just ... slow. I try not to sound like a smartass so I ignore most bad takes but it actually was so frustrating that I made an alt account just to rant about readers lmao. I have a post basically venting and luckily found someone with similar perspectives to vent with and discuss stories. The fact anyone would think Fu Rin and Suna are Mary Sues is mind boggling to me because they might seem perfect at first but they have their flaws and worked so hard to carve out a place for themselves.

Also when it comes to theories I think I'm leaning most toward your theory that Lian isn't actually a villain and just trying to help in the most chaotic convoluted way she can think of ... or at least I hope so. Though the stories from Xin and Lau's childhood kinda alluded to a grim prospect but one can only hope. I can't for the life of me think of how that will play out though so I'm excited for S3.

Aw, it's kinda embarrassing that you read through my comments, I can be such a hater sometimes, lol. Also I usually write down my thoughts as I'm reading a story then delete everything to write something semi-coherent once it's is completed so take my comments on-ongoing stories with a grain of salt. I'm sure my final review will be much more positive since the author has already proven their talent even if some aspects are better handled than others. I also agree that many authors give too much or too little at times. Your reply has actually made me appreciate the story even more now. This is why I love discussing stories with informed readers. Usually people either hate something with a passion and go insane if you dare criticise their favourites so it's been so refreshing hearing your takes!