I reread the beginning and yea, there is Only redemption IF he remembers the other life and how horribly he treated Tia and suffers from it. But now that i see the spoilers, im not so hopeful anymore
To one of your points, I will say that having the prince be culpable for his actions makes no sense. He didn't do those actions; a version of him in another timeline did them. This is practically a different person entirely and, besides being a bit cold and standoffish in the beginning, the prince has done nothing he needs to atone for. He can't be punished for stuff he doesn't remember doing because not only was that stuff in the future, but that timeline and the version of him who did those things doesn't exist anymore. This Ruve is innocent so to treat him like he's harmed Tia in the present would not be good plot progression.
I agree with you.
Best comment on this manga. Period.
I can tolerate shock value and emotional manipulation--hell, I purposely read some of these rebirth/reincarnation/transmigration story just for the vicarious thrill of a revenge bloodbath and give lots of plot hole leeway. But this one bothers me so much, because it's not another person, it's the SAME person, and that prince did horrible things to her and her family. He deserves NONE of her love. She should forge a life away from the palace and, ideally, plot the downfall of this shit ruler. He was unfair and cruel in the previous life, which says he is not fit to rule, as he cannot be fair and gather facts, but is swayed by rumors and emotions. If he can be so easily cruel even as a child, then he's no hero.
I guess she's supposed to "save" him and give him redemption. Okay, I'll play along, but honestly, I don't think I could ever forgive what was done in the previous life. And I'd be plotting to kill the little bitch as soon as she shows up, frankly.
I'd hold him culpable for it because it actually happened, if I were Tia. He really did those things to her. It was not a dream. If she hadn't made changes, he'd still be a shit. PLUS: she has no clue how he'll be when Jieun shows up. To her, he could just as easily turn into a viper under her spell.
It's unfair to Tia that those things happened, but it would be unfair to Ruve to make him suffer for things he didn't do. Like I said, this Ruve is basically a different person and the Ruve that did those things to her doesn't exist anymore. For the prince, it would be like your girlfriend being mad at you because you were mean to her in a dream. He hasn't experienced the wrongs she had to live through and had no hand in making her suffer that way.
And yet he did do it. It was him. And Tia is right to not trust him. For all she knows, his kindness is a front, a disguise.
It was not a dream. It happened. Big difference.
It happened to Tia. No one else around her has lived this experience so holding them accountable for things they didn't do isn't really fair.
This comment is entirely the problem I was highlighting. The author wanted the drama and excitement of Tia’s trauma at the hands of the prince and then set about contriving "a way out" for the prince that involves the above mental gymnastics.
Either way, the MC is forced to be the only one who has to live with the repercussions and we’re supposed to ... judge her over her fear of her lived experience/ continued mental trauma and claim she’s being unfair to him because "he’s like, totally different now" or “he was a victim of super secret super convenient hate poison”? Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers.
It still happened. Even if she’d the only one who knows or remembers.
Ok, incoming rant here about the "spoiler” listed in the comments about why the prince is/ was an asshole in the webtoon vs the novel.
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If it’s due to a hate poison... If that’s truly the webtoon’s edited excuse for Prince Ruve, BRUH, I GOT FIFTY TONS OF BEEF.
If the webtoon artist believed that explanation was going to go over better than the author’s side story from Ruve’s point of view, she is sorely mistaken. That reeks of forced contrivance and railroading the narrative to do something that is illogical. If the author or artist wanted Ruve to be sympathetic.. Maybe not have a forced sexual encounter with substantial coercion, a lost child, her father’s execution being revealed after getting her to beg for his life, and the MC’s gruesome death at Ruve’s hands.
Moreover, if this is indeed a webtoon spoiler that Ruve was under the spell of some hatred poison against Tia at Jieun’s hands that’s nonsense. In the previous timeline he was cruel to her when they were children prior to Jieun’s arrival.
Honestly, one of the greatest lessons a story teller can learn is to listen to your characters and trust who they become/ are as you draft the story rather than forcing them into your initial concept like square pegs into round holes.
If Tia’s gift from god is the power to forge her own fate, receive the name of pioneer -- have her do something truly revolutionary. Railroading her into this plot line of “but the prince wasn’t so bad!” defeats the impetus to Tia’s entire character growth and motivation, not to mention her source of mentally debilitating PTSD. She exists as she is now because of that experience regardless of the reason or face of the person doing the trauma.
Having Jieun give Ruve a hate poison just serves to offset fan hate onto a character who is more interesting when she’s selfish, ignorant and.. humanly petty. Making her either a conniving villainess or an unwitting participant/ victim like the prince must now be post-hate poison undercuts the heartbreaking banality of evil present in the story by those who put their own comfort/ greed/ power/ pride/ ego first.
The story is at its strongest when it’s about what these characters *choose* to be, influencing who they become or what they do. Mind control/ hate poisons are the types of excuses you’d expect from 1990s Sailor Moon when Darien gets amnesia for the 99th time that season and suddenly hates Usagi now for d R a M a. It was stupid then, it’s dumber now. Evil committed by people in full knowledge or, hell, misinformed self-righteousness is far more interesting than a dues ex machina hate poison. It’s so stupid a path to take I can’t fathom anyone in their right mind using it as an excuse outside of bargain basket fantasy harlequin novels that were secretly plagiarized by someone’s middle school fanfiction on FF.net written in the mid 2000s.
So if this spoiler is true, we’re left with the only possible conclusion that can be made with this work: the author wanted the abuse and trauma Tia suffered for shock value drama and nothing more. It was the packet of flavor in her ramen bowl of plot. She had no interest in making the prince culpable for his actions because she liked the UwU *spice* making Tia and her former abuser love each other "added" to the story.
TL:DR; I’m too old for this shit. Maybe Truck-kun will isekai me into another world where I can slap shittily implemented cliches from the minds of writers and in turn wash me clean of the perpetual saltiness of life experience.