
Lol. No amount of sappy backstory is going to make me like the Emperor.
A sad past does not excuse his actions.
He still kept her in the dark, manipulated her, spied on her, tried to control her and when that failed, threatened her. Then he abused his power to make her an outlaw, hunted her, kidnapped her children and he is STILL neither explaining himself nor trying to listen to her/understand her perspective.
He isn't treating her like a lover. He's not even treating her like a person and I HATE THAT I CAN SEE WHERE THE AUTHOR IS MOST LIKELY TAKING THIS.
Imo, there are only two routes the author can take to save this story and not make it a cliché-toxic-romance:
1. Double down on the angst.
Make the Emperor more obsessive and cruel and turn the genre towards thriller/horror where the mc needs to save her kids and try to escape the Emperor for good.
2. Make the Emperor repent.
And I mean REALLY repent. Make him see EXACTLY the kind of manipulative, controlling asshole he's been and REGEET IT. BIG TIME.
I'd honestly prefer the first one at this point. Rn any attempt to make him more likeable, is going to feel forced and cliché.
So, I'm debating with myself whether I should prepare myself for disappointment, but hope for the best, and stick around or just save myself the grief and drop this...

Ikr?
Like, he did nothing to earn her trust. He knew she was pregnant when she asked him the what he'd do if a woman confessed she was with his child, yet he still told her "she would be lying".
No encouragement, no honesty, no nothing. He just fed her insecurities and fears and for what? Amusement?
Next, when she discovers their dreams together are real, she becomes justifiably angry. He could apologise. He could beg for her forgiveness. He could profess his love. He could try to explain himself.
Yet, does he do any of these things? No.
He doubles down and tells her: "Then I'll bring you back by force".
She may not have done much to understand him better beyond the rumours, but he certainly didn't do anything to improve his reputation or earn her trust, beyond letting her sit on his lap (which gross uncles and mall Santas can also do). Lol.

It's so fakeeeeee. Like, STAPH IT.
If a neighbour killed my cat, then I found out he had a tragic backstory where cats ate his parents' corpses or some shit, it still would not change the fact THAT HE KILLED MY CAT.
It may explain why he's afraid of cats, and thus why he'd be tempted to kill my cat when he saw it on his lawn, but it wouldn't excuse his actions.

This is a complete rip-off of Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu xD
Only I liked that one better... ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭

Well... If you view Isekai stories as a new sub genre of fantasy, then yes and no.
But I have read a LOT of Isekai, and though there are many similarities and common tropes, I have not yet read two stories that are THIS similar.
The similarities are sooo specific.
A woman wearing glasses gets summoned to another world along with another girl, because that world needs a saintess. Then, because the other girl is more beautiful, she is immidiately assumed to be the saintess while the mc is overlooked.
The prince takes immidiate interest in other-girl, while mc is left to fend for herself and thus gets a job close to the castle.
She meets the commander of the knights and gets friendly with him and romance insues.
Along the way some knights are injured and mc uses her powers to heal them, which makes people suspect that she is in fact the saintess - not the other girl.
She also gets rid off her glasses at some point, making others notice her beauty...
Sound familiar yet? Yeah, I just summarized Seijo.
It's just kinda funny ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭
The premise for the plot is kinda dubious, but my god the smut is SO hot and the art is so pretty!
And its so refreshing to read smut where the FL is confident in her body and sexuality, instead of the meek and shy FL's who are always paired up with some possessive and misogynistic ML.
We stan a confident and sexy woman! (๑•ㅂ•)و✧