A good person

He shows a different side of himself off the battle field. It doesn't excuse it, but I guess she just thought that he was always a killer and is now finding out that he has a different face.

I would not trust him tough, he did threaten her as a slave if she could not heal his horse. It is one thing to be a hardened warrior but good to your people. It is another to toss away people of "lower" status like that.

The prison where he didn't care about abusing women or raping them was not the battlefield. Most honorable soldiers know not to abuse noncombatants. Soldiers who rape women captives and kill them are not honorable or kind.

I actually agree with manganiME, I know the author is washing him up and trying to make him "a good boy who had his circumstances". But he was not helpless, so the plot does not make real sense. In the end this is just a fantasy, things don't need to make a lot of sense, but I can't buy the idea of this man being a "good person". Specially when women are not "involved in war" traditionally, the common sense would say that he would not be hanging their heads unless he is Vlad Dracul.

But that’s pretty realistic and shows another side of how royalty works ? What I usually find annoying about historical manwhuas is that they disregard the human rights violation and hierarchy and make it seem like that it’s either the previous shitty emperor or the male villain who is only capable of enabling that system. They often make it seem that the male lead is a hero who is against the pratiarchy, slavery and etc and is an extremely kind person. I actually like how the author took a different approach.

If a story is realistic, I expect brutality, betrayal, greys. This one started with the brutality and now seems to want to swerve. We'll see. But if a hero is to be redeemable, generally, he's not going to abuse women/children, even if captives. It's one thing to have a society that has hard rules, slavery, etc, but a heroic hero doesn't just turn a blind eye to rape and murder right in front of his eyes. That does not make for a hero in the romantic sense.

Exactly. If we had seen that his men were about to rape/murder the women, and he'd said, "No, they are not soldiers. They will be servants/slaves, but you cannot do that." That would show he was not a beast.

That he could blithely allow men UNDER HIS ORDERS to rape and kill, that he himself could order killing of noncombatant females, well, he's a beast.

that’s exactly the point I’m talking about.....you’re describing the hero who wouldn’t hurt another soul and that’s something that we see far too much in historical manwhas or mangas in general. I like how the author is actually painting a different hero. All the other people in the story sees the ml as a heroic hero.

Because people don’t see slaves as humans? I think that it’s pretty apparent from the story that being a slave is the worst thing anyone can be. So, why would anyone have any empathy or compassion for a slave? When Chloe was in jail with the other women, even one of them said that being a slave was disgusting or something along the lines like that. Of course, Chloe is the exception but that’s because she’s different that most slaves and had to earn respect from people who had a higher social standing than her. I’m not saying that it’s right but if you’re going to keep looking at the story from an egalitarian perspective and get upset by his actions all the time, then stop reading it and find another story that suits your taste.

Slaves in our ancient societies had monetary value. They did work--all sorts. In some ancient societies, they could earn their freedom through valor in battle or in the ring, through loyalty to a master, through earning monies, etc. Some slaves were adopted by their slavemasers, who came to care for them. But slaves were ASSETS. You don't tear apart your stove, horses, roof. You make use of slaves. You harm them if they disobey or betray or you use them as scapegoats (as we've seen in some Chinese story scheming).

The fact that educated female slaves were treated as if disposable, of no value, says a lot about their characters. If you assume because in a society there is slavery that there is no value to slaves, that's economicall (and emotionally) short-sighted. ANd since these stories are written for A MODERN READER with modern sensibilities, then it's fine for us to judge them as shitheads if they mistreat slaves.

And, btw, you don't get to tell me what story I can read. I can hate characters and still read a story. I don't know why the assumption is that if I bitch, I can't still read.

Actually yes and no. Yes, because i agree about your statements about slavery being used for monetary gain. I say no, however, because there were people who mistreated slaves however they wanted, especially if they had a much higher social standing than them. Not every slave master was obligated to treat their slaves decently. Some of them were very ruthless regardless how the slave obeyed their master. Slavery existed on a spectrum from to being treated pretty well for a slave to a very very dehumanizing way. I wouldn’t say modern tendencies for the modern reader, because you’ll be surprised by how much the modern reader might feel okay with slavery or don’t give a same about it. ╮(￣▽￣)╭

because when someone doesn’t like the story or most of the characters, then it makes sense for you to drop it? I mean, if it’s pissing you off so much then you can find a story that won’t make you complain so much. You told me that you wanted to see how Chloe will get out of the situation. But, if you are going to keep getting upset with ml (especially his interactions with Chloe) then find a story with a ml that you’ll like?

I've been reading for decades, thousands and thousands of books. You think initial dislike of a character is justification for not seeing what happens? You ain't read enough. :D

I keep agreeing with manganIME. First, it's cool to be critic towards what you read. Some analysis is cool. You don't have to like it all to read it. And you can learn other stuff. No everything is black and white and not everything will perfectly 100% fit your tastes. And specially I love the drawing of this comic, narrative works well, even if the script is a bit flimsy for certain characters.

Second, slaves were EXPENSIVE. They needed clothes, food, training. So normally, if you were meaning to sell them, you would not allow them to be harmed by your subordinates. That's a bad business idea.

Third, when conquering territories, you would not normally just murder people around who you disliked, you fight on the battlefield, and maybe, get rid of traitors and stuff, not always by killing them, but sometimes by banning them from the territory. Why is that? because you NEED to keep the population happy (unless you plan to murder them all, like UK did in EEUU), or else, you'll find the population turning against you. And we have seen that a few times in history, and never worked well. That is why you normally DO NOT TOUCH civilians who don't fight in the war. In current days, you would end up facing a trial for war crimes. In the older days... you might end up with your head chopped down and your body buried far away, just in case you're immortal.

I DO like grey characters. But they are not writing a grey character in this story, it's not really consistent. They tried to put the blame on his father all the time and now they are washing him up to make him look like a hero. Give it time and you'll understand what I mean. As a person who does write comics, the narrative they are taking to wash him up is not even something new. For me it would have worked better as a grey character. But the author is not really meaning to make him grey. That's why they are spending so many pages on saying "how good he is".

Thank you. And that is exacty the issue: instead of showing true justification for his actions (if possible) or showing him being ACTUALLY kind (and there was lots of opportunity earlier in the horse situation, where a little mercy and gratitude would have started the 'kind-if-fying") it's a lot of TELL (people saying he's kind) when there's no SHOW of him actually being kind in a meaningful way. Giving her a horn as an afterthought, rahter than say giving her actual food and deeper considerations, and then just mouthpieces saying he's kind is NOT good writing.

Yes, but you don't normally see those folks in fiction as heroic in any way. You see them as villains or side characters. Heroes aren't abusive "just cause." And any modern human being who is okay with slavery is kinda a shitty human being. We're supposed to be moving to justice-more, not injustice-more.

I would argue that he is a gray character. A gray character provides nuance to their personality. On one hand, he’s shown as a tyrant in the beginning. However, we noticed that the people around him like him. For the most part, they like and respect him. Even in the recent chapters, his people were praising him. That’s a gray character by itself. It’s the small details that matter. Now if they didn’t show any of that and everyone just hated nor respected him, then yes I would agree with you that he’s not a gray character. But, in this case, he is.

I think because people got so upset with him for what happened in chapter 1, they missed out on a lot of important details about how other people perceived the ML afterwards.

That’s because what’s kind to you is not going to be kind to others and vice versa. You’re not Chloe and Chloe is not you. I think that is exactly the point the author is trying to make here. Chloe was a slave and has been abused. For Chloe to say that he’s a good man, reveals something about Chloe’s character. She doesn’t seem like the type to hate people or hold grudges. She actually looks at the bright side of things no matter how shitty her situation is. You don’t like how Chloe got the horn? Well, for Chloe, that was the best thing (maybe) she’s ever gotten from someone. He’s not perfect. He’s made it very clear from the beginning that he is not fond of women so why expect him to treat Chloe like a princess or something? That’s already growth in itself from his character for someone who despises women . If he just did exactly what you’ve wanted him to do, then that would be a bit too much in such a short amount of time. Again, drop the webcomic now because I guarantee you are not going to like their relationship up to chapter 32.

But how exactly is it an issue for the author to start showing his good traits? it makes perfect sense for the author to show him more of his good traits (along with his bad traits) since it’s still in the beginning of the story. We’re on chapter 26 still. His character makes sense giving the plot of the story.