Do you think Penelope liked Eclis at all? I'm certain she never loved him, but was there any affection there even a little? The only person she's expressed any explicit fondness for so far has been the prince. Seems to me that she's angry at her trust being betrayed and afraid that her chance for escape is disappearing, but I don't think I would say she's heartbroken.
I just realized that the relationship between Penelope and Eclis reminds me of the relationship between the FL and her knight from Kill the Villainess except it's a bad end. The biggest difference is that the FL in Kill the Villainess admits to her knight that she isn't the person she's possessing and she needs his help so she can go back to her own world. I wonder if being trusted with that information would have changed Eclis's actions at all. Of course, there are other differences that have pretty big consequences, I'm sure. Penelope can die from anything and anyone here and the FL from Kill the Villainess could only die in one specific way, so trusting someone would be much harder for Penelope. Also, Eclis is an enslaved prince from a slaughtered nation while the knight from Kill the Villainess is a nobody orphan with no prospects, and while both are sad, Eclis's backstory is definitely more traumatizing and probably messed up his personality a good bit. Anyway, I think it's an interesting comparison between two similar circumstances.
Despite baving read the spoilers for this webtoon, I honestly don't feel all that bad for the FL. Maybe it's just poor writing, but 3 men who are basically her brothers-in-arms and also in love with her very suddenly stop caring about her at all and she just accepts it. She hires an information guild, yes, but aside from that, she doesn't try very hard to do anything else to investigate or try to fix the issue. Feels to me like she never had a real relationship with any of them and assumed all of their affection and shared experiences were purely based on her role as the Main Character. So, not much of a betrayal when it seems like the FL was keeping them all at arms length the whole time anyway.
I'm calling it now. The brother is either dead or never existed, and the voice she speaks to all the time is either her brother's or her grandmother's spirit. It could also be her own powers or a spirit familiar or something, but regardless, I don't think she actually has a shut-in brother.
Maybe it shows just how tired of cliches I am, but the amount of relief I felt when I realized there wasn't going to be a stupid misunderstanding subplot was intense. A lesser webtoon would have had Ricardis get jealous and sulky and he would have started avoiding Roselyn, and she would have been confused and hurt, and the whole thing would have been EXHAUSTING. It was very much appreciated that an ML who claims to like the FL also actually knows her well enough to immediately understand that whatever she's doing is for his sake.
I'm sure it's mostly unintentional, but I find it hilarious how much this story digs at common manga tropes. Like implying that the concept of a beautiful kind MC who gets assualted all the time and has a harem that adores them for no definable reason is something only a weird self-insert fantasy-obsessed middle-schooler would come up with.
Out of the three shitty "love interests," I still have a tiny tiny bit of sympathy left for the priest. The plot of the novel never actually got to progress to the point where he betrayed the original Eris, so he is innocent of that at the very least. Plus, his mother clearly traumatized him deeply with her treatment of him and her death, and I'll always sympathize with children born into shitty situations out of their control. I wish he could have gotten some form of healing. But he made an unforgivable mistake when he tried to chain down an unwilling stranger with his trauma. He actively tried to ruin not-Eris's life and trap her in a world that made her suffer, just so he could feel better. So ultimately, he's getting what was coming to him. Karma's a bitch, I guess.
How do you even shop for pants with something like THAT attached to you? No way that's comfortable.
I just came back from the author's twitter and it looks like they're also a fan of ENNEAD, which is pretty neat, I think. I really wish we could get someone to translate the Twitter extras. There's so many and I'd love to know exactly what's going on.
We keep hearing about how awesome and capable and intimidating Hyeon is but he keeps letting his brother get away with crazy petty bullshit. How does he not have countermeasures or stopgaps in place? Yiseon keeps getting put in danger or dragged through the mud, and all I can think about is how the older brother is not shown to be talented or dangerous enough to be causing so many problems and I can't figure out why he's still around.
I'm curious to find out more about Mio's husband. From what we've seen so far (Chapter 24), it seems like he's also grieving? While we definitely haven't seen any evidence suggesting that he wasn't a terrible cheating piece of shit spouse, I'm starting to suspect that maybe he was a decent father at least? His wife refuses to accept the situation, his mother doesn't acknowledge the true tragedy of Taiga's passing, and the people around him keep pressuring him to be the strong one. There's still a possibility that he was an absentee father who only feels guilty now that his child is gone but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
Can someone drop a link to where the author said there wouldn't be a happy ending? I can't find it anywhere just from keyword searching.
I can't tell if it was a bad translation or just poor writing, but I literally had no idea that San was dead until this most recent chapter. Even though the all characters were constantly talking about how San would die because of the plan, there was very little reaction to his death and it felt very much like it was only Hwan's death. Plus, Geumsun literally said how relieved he was that it turned out his plan had no sacrifices, so what the hell? Guess he just doesn't consider San to be a sacrifice? Very confusing.
The confirmation that Shun was the dead lover's reincarnation was less angsty and dramatic than I thought it should have been and it also felt like it happened randomly without hardly any buildup. Also also, we really didn't learn anything about their previous relationship or how Miiyu originally fell in love, which I think would have helped the story feel more heartwrenching. It wasn't necessarily bad but it was disappointing. Oh well.
Sorry, but the ending was stupid. The kid realized that life on earth sucked, and as God, he had the power to fix it, but he chose not to for some reason? He didn't even make the choice to end all life on Earth, he killed himself thinking that there would be no effect on humans so even the gravity of that outcome felt unearned. Not to mention how aspects of the ending felt retconned. He gave up on what he wanted to do as God because he didn't have a big enough perspective(??) as a human and God was able to die because his human personality was strong-willed enough(??) and that delayed the fusion????? Honestly, it felt like the author got bored or depressed and just gave up on the ending. I've seen very few endings as irritating as this one.
A part of me deeply wants for this to be made into an anime, but I honestly don't have the confidence that an anime could do it justice. The art gets SO FREAKING GOOD, I really can't imagine how it could be properly replicated in animation. It would have to go to a studio that could give it the tender love and care it deserves.
It makes me smile to see everyone in the comments loving and appreciating the second couple as much as I do. I still like the first couple but the growth and depth of the second couple is just *chef's kiss.*
For anyone feeling put off by Riftan's behavior, don't worry too much. The author takes her sweet time (and then some) building up to it, but there is a point being made and I definitely think you are meant to find him overbearing and unpleasant at times. Unless the webtoon decides to be significantly different from the novel, this isn't the typical ignoring and waving away of the ML's problematic behavior.
They are so good and sweet together. I'm really going to miss this story now that it's finished.
Somehow, I just now realized that the summary is a lie. I don't know how it took me so long. But I've been waiting 100 chapters for Dietrich to decapitate Herman because the summary says "What’s that in your hand? Don’t tell me that’s the male lead’s head?" but no, Herman is still alive and kicking in Chapter 106 and will probably continue to be fine. Which is a shame, because it would have been interesting for Annissa to have to grapple with Dietrich doing something cruel and evil, bit whatever, it's a different story now.