Now let me be clear first: I don't dislike the story itself, nor the characters (per se), I also like the idea that they have a subplot of the Duke and the Duchess becoming closer, which is a plotline fit to spawn a separate Webtoon on its own, ordinarily.
But I'm now at chapter 23, about halfway into the story as far as it's available as of now, and with every passing chapter, the bitter aftertaste of the premise gets stronger, which is why I have to air my grievances here.
You see, the problem is that I don't hate any of the people of the Sheridan Duchy, unless they are meant to be hated, like that Bessie bitch (and don't forget about her yet, I'm not done with that yet, she's just not my main gripe here), which seemed to have a character design that screamed "I'M A VILLAIN" in the same way that awful Batwoman trailer yodeled "I'M A WOMAN". But I digress: I don't know if the current king is meant to be unlikeable at the beginning, as he even dishes out a dig toward our Duke, as he speaks about him being surrounded by "mongrels", while being in favor of killing a small child. While, yes, it is his "fault" that she has to die, because he could have spared her. Yet even the Duke himself didn't actually spare the MC, he simply couldn't break the law by killing a minor. The king said it was fine, and we all know: People shown to kill children are bad. Killing adults doesn't really matter most of the time, but children and animals means you are evil. Got it.
Like, I don't know if he improves as a character to be an ally of sorts, but for now, he's evil, right? But then you have to think again. While yes, the MC thanks the Duke for giving her a longer life expectancy - when she originally thought she wouldn't grow older than 12, as her brother had always said he was going to kill her, as soon as he was the one in power - one should never forget that those are the naive words of a child that is yet blind to the world.
10 years sound like a long time and she has had barely anything to live for until now. She didn't know anything but cruelty, was hardly old enough to even understand the reality of death and the worth of what it meant to be alive. At the same time, as soon as she was old enough to have a grasp of these intangible concepts, she was told she would die soon, so she never had any goals in life, no freedom to even find a hobby aside from talking to her rocks and playing in the dirt, and didn't even know what she can or can't do. And despite all of that, she still didn't want to die even now!
I know, the king never said it was "for her sake" that he wanted the Duke to just kill her, but you have to understand: you can't blame him for that, because the whole story wants you to forget that gnawing reality, because if you don't, the Duke suddenly becomes a wretched, cold, inhumane monster. For that, even Quentin, the one guy who openly states that he loves children and wants the best for MC, therefore she should be killed, does not, in fact, argue how cruel he is being to her, but instead goes on about how the Duke wouldn't be able to raise a child with his own hands and kill it a few years later with those same hands.
No one ever acknowledges the fact, that MC is now a child who knows nothing and killing her now would be, ultimately, mercy. In ten years, she will be older, no longer as naive, but still a child at the core. The difference is that by then she will have learned about the beauty of the world and life which she hadn't known prior to her life at the Sheridan Duchy; her thoughts and actions would then be informed by years of new experiences, filled with love and happiness, creating inevitable hopes and dreams for a future that would never come. Why teach her etiquette, when once she would be old enough to need it, she could only use it to kneel down gracefully, when the Duke cuts off her head? Why let her experience having friends and playing around, making the circle of people who would grief for her bigger by the second, when there was no one in this world who even knew her before that? Her entire world had ceased to exist when her blood related family was murdered. But now?
Even if the author would have portrayed her as that kid that wouldn't make a fuss - even though she made a bit of a fuss even when she had nothing in life and knew nothing in life, so it's unlikely she wouldn't beg for her life later - to make it easier for the Duke or to thank him for giving him this grace period of ten years, it wouldn't change the fact that it would be the cruelest thing you can do to someone, especially a child.
There's a reason why children with incurable and ultimately fatal illnesses are exempt from their duty of attending school. Or why there are foundations to have children experience their last wish in the real world.
Because when you are sick, there are things you cannot easily do, as you are withering away. But MC isn't sick. If she wants to climb a mountain, nothing can stop her (aside from the Duke and her Prisoner Status, of which the latter is mostly for show if we are honest). She is fully healthy and knows it. The world is open to her, but as soon as she would be old enough to just set foot in this world, she will lose her head.
There's a saying that the older you get, the more you cling onto life and that isn't only true for old people. The more things you have experienced, the more things you wish to experience. Once she experiences some form of love and gets to be a teenager, she will wish for romantic love, maybe a family of her own. All the things she knows she will never be old enough to have and it's not because of some inevitable circumstances that are beyond anyone's means, but because of a decision that was made by someone deliberately. Even illnesses are usually cursed and seen as unfair, but what will she think this is? She never did anything to anyone, she was simply unfortunate enough to be born as the daughter of a useless King.
I get it – I know, and you know, and I know that you know she won't actually die at the end, because this is her story. The author won't just cut off her head at the end. But here's the thing: The characters in this mess aren't supposed to be aware of that. They don't know they are part of a trope-y RoFan story. To their knowledge, Clarisse is going to die on the day of her 18th birthday and that's a fact.
It would have been way better for the Duke's integrity, had he been the one to want to kill her and the king, who knew about the law, had been the one to say she shall be kept around until she's of age. It wouldn't have mattered, since they didn't seem to want him to leave a good first impression anyway.
But knowing this is the backdrop of everything we see, it makes all the people in-the-know about her fate seem more cruel than anything. Acting cold toward her just barely keeping her alive would be more than enough and it wouldn't make her want to keep living, if she has to be kept alive only to be killed in the end anyway. Showing a child love, just to kill her off, that's a lot more inhumane.
On the matter of her being kept barely alive, I also have to mention how odd it felt that it seems she had no noticeable health issues. Playing in the dirt all day and being hated, but apparently well fed and not otherwise mistreated – that doesn't seem to be in character at all, for the people who had raised her to this age.
And about that Bessie bitch: First off, why is nobody in this house communicating with each other? Like, the knight who just heard something outrageous didn't think of going to the Duke right away to inform him? Why? He didn't seem to hold a grudge against his lord, in fact, he seemed rather loyal. Why WOULDN'T he warn the Duke of a potential fraud, a spy at worst, who slept in a room adjacent to him? Instead he just takes her words for granted, that it's because of the Duke's suspicions toward the Duchess, that they have such a distant relationship. And when he sees them interact with each other in a way that barely seemed close, he throws away everything he had seen for three fucking years and forgot all about anything he had heard in the dungeon, about the Duchess not being who they thought she was. It makes no sense to turn around and just forget all about it, without even discussing it and even if he discussed it in a chapter after the part I have already read, it would mean he simply delayed talking about this to the Duke for an unnecessary long time. Why have the bitch say that shit in the first place, basically stabbing her real employer in the back, just to do fuck all with it?
What I want to say with all of this, especially with the two additional points: Of course, I did mention everything I was annoyed with - I was at it anyway – but they kind of go hand in hand, in a weird way. It's like the author had an idea and they were doing well with portraying the characters themselves, but beyond that, nothing was particularly well thought out. She sees the family she was with for her whole life die brutally in front of her, but it barely shows any repercussions on her psyche. Her brother had his throat cut next to her, she would have bathed in his blood. But nope, nothing but a few tears, because she thought she had to die as well. Which, btw, would have psychological repercussions on its own. Yet in the end, she doesn't even suffer from nightmares or any other sign of trauma.
Another example, which isn't a plot hole in and of itself, but speaks to this issue as well: MC is very thankful, because it's her shortsighted way of being happy about having more time (when obviously, that would introduce hell to her, as soon as the day of death would actually approach) and goes around saying she's a prisoner with no problem. But when she speaks to Noah Sineth, even asks him to be her friend, she doesn't even mention that they wouldn't have to be friends for very long anyway. Like, she explains that she's a prisoner, but I don't get the feeling that he understands what it means for her to be a prisoner of war and why she was even taken as a prisoner. He doesn't tell her that she shouldn't speak about her ability because he thinks it's dangerous to her per se, but that she wouldn't have a peaceful life, likely recalling all the tragedy he must have heard about his own mother's life, as she had the same ability and MC would be the only one with that ability now. But that is also why it would likely serve as leverage to save her life – it's at least a power valuable enough to attempt using it that way. But instead, they use that halfhearted way of communicating in a situation in which they were already talking about things kids wouldn't normally talk about, in order for him to give her the shittiest advice imaginable, considering her desperate need for some value to her own life.
Again, I'm well aware she's likely not going to die and end the story that way. But that's me – or you, fellow reader, by extension. Why do the people IN THIS story seem to know that, when it shouldn't be that way? They treat the fact that this girl is going to die so fucking half-assedly, it makes me mad. On that note, I want to add that I am someone who also says you shouldn't read and complain when you have a problem with a premise or something else that is obvious, because it doesn't make sense to read and complain then. But the problem isn't the premise itself, even if the title of the thread might suggest otherwise, I know - it's as I said: The way it is treated is simply shit. But with that irresponsible treatment of the matter at hand, the whole premise turns into a table of shit irreversibly.
I kinda feel like she's the child of Lucas. No way they make a point of him having vanished, despite the impossibility of it, and don't make him show up again. He's basically Chekhov's invalid prince.
You know, I read a lot of stories with the Regression and Revenge Trope, it's sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. Since there are sometimes some more and some less aggressive holes in those, I can just forgive and forget those, because they entertain me and I usually don't have to think about them for too long... unless they jump in my face as if I was out on the Nostromo. So what about this story right here? Well, I've reached Chapter 28 of this and I must say, if the writing was any more inbred, we could call it a fucking sandwich.
The plotline is riddled with stretches and holes so bad, any form of throughline has the integrity of an overcooked noodle - not even snapping, but just sadly smooshing into paste at any point of pressure.
But let's begin with the premise, since there isn't even a synopsis of this out: The Protagonist is the Daughter of the most powerful Duke in the Kingdom, and she's promised to soon be wed to one of the Kindom's three princes, Raymond. After they marry, he sits on the throne, but Sofia, the MC, doesn't know he's actually having an affair with her best friend Samantha and gives no shit about Sofia. Her Family is in his way, because their power is just too great, so he frames them for treason and has them all executed. She returns back into the past by two years, a short time before their engagement was originally announced, so she devises a plan to marry the first prince, Alexis - who's, of course, an illegitimate child with no political power to speak of - in order to sit that one on the throne instead.
Well, at least I wish I could say she devises a plan, but she actually makes it up as she goes along. That in and of itself, as someone being thrown into this situation without real preparation, isn't a problem to me though. The problem comes in when you actually see how she does things.
First off: Protagonist is really early on told by her Love Interest, First Prince Alexis, that she is "good at reading people", which is later being echoed by a situation in the past, in which Raymond came into her jail cell and blabbed to her about his numerous evil plots (we will talk about that later, so keep that in mind) and seemed to be in a good mood, so she tells him "You seems to be in a good mood" and he answers how she got good at reading his mood (or people in general). The thing is, she could have learned that in jail, but it's highly unlikely. Learning something like that when under constant scrutiny is one thing, but she just sat in a cell and barely saw anyone. If anything, she can read him, maybe Samantha, but not people in general. She would need way more experience.
And why was that not a thing she could do before, in my opinion? Well, let's talk about something else to tie into that first, shall we? I love how stories always try to hit the point of someone being evil home by either treating children - or, if available, some sort of otherwordly race - badly (because treating people in general badly is just not that interesting anymore, I guess) or by the author having them talk down to a female person of any age and empasizing the fact that it's a female person. In his case, Raymond thinks about her as someone who "should have" only smiled and gone along with him and his plans, because she was just a stupid woman. But the thing is... I know this is what the author is going for, but first of all, sexism in a time in which this sort of thinking wasn't stigmatized and therefore just normal (there's a cute little word for you, and it's "Indoctrination" - though just the regular mindset of that time, which nobody questioned, would be even more true, but the term Indoctrination might give you a clue) and he wouldn't have been considered evil for thinking that way, which in turn means he doesn't have to be evil to be thinking that way, because it's simply normal - only the smallest number of people would think differently, because they simply have no reason to. Also, that was exactly how she had acted. Within the story, we see her best friend being denied into her home once and she threw a complete Shitfit. I'm supposed to believe they were best friends for ages, but Sofia has never once in their entire friendship said the word "no" to Samantha? Or did she throw an aggressive fit like that and Sofia just didn't question it and kept putting Samantha before everything else? The prince and Samantha's cheating behavior was so obvious too. But Sofia? None the wiser.
She had no talent for reading people; life basically just passed by her, as she let everyone fool her back to front. At this point, I cannot tell if Raymond is supposed to be sexist, when viewed through a modern, western lense, or if he actually said that because "a stupid woman that only smiled and went along with everything" was exactly what he had seen she was the entire time: A willing doormat. Queen of motherfucking density. No way in hell is she now "good at reading people" because she sat in a cell and talked to that soggy napkin a few times.
But aside from that, the story gets all the details wrong: When she first talks to the other prince, Alexis, they are at a ball in the palace and stand on an easily accessible balcony, talking about how Prince Raymond plans to kill Alexis and how she plans to put Alexis on the throne in Raymond's place, but instead of whispering all of that highly dangerous stuff, they shout their shit at each other as if they were a couple of geriatric motherfuckers riddled with aids - overall, she loves shouting things, especially when its about stuff that should be kept secret. For example, that Raymond kidnapped a girl to force her older brother, who's on Alexis' side, to literally stab him in the back when they go to war a few days after said ball at the palace.
Raymond also held his captive, who is also known to the knights of the kingdom, apparently, in a warehouse that belongs to the fucking palace, befitting his role as the human embodiment of a participation award.
Anyway, the prince then doesn't simply confirm her words of someone having been kidnapped, by saving that person and bringing them back, but insists on taking her with him to said warehouse to save them. When in reality, if she was actually involved and this was a trap, she could come with him and get out unharmed anyway, because she wouldn't have been a target of the trap, unless the perp wanted her gone. Neither would have made a difference to Alexis. Taking her would only slow him down and inconvenience him, possibly leading to him losing the sister of one of his most loyal man with a half-assed rescue mission.
MC later wants to learn self defense, but it turns out she almost breaks down just from holding a sword, which was obvious, because you don't teach anyone swordsmenship before checking their stamina and building it up as a fundament. But the trainer, who's btw the girl that was kidnapped before, just hands her a sword and we are supposed to believe they trained just like that. Also, that girl was kidnapped, but the author saw the irony, so they had that 5 feet tall girl, 90 pounds soaking wet, say that it was just because there were "30 men who attacked her at once" - she would have been fine if it had been "only 20", of course. I wish to move on from this world. Please, kill me.
But let's not argue about something that should be clear from the beginning: Even if that was true for the girl who trains her, MC herself wouldn't be able to get to that level with a bit of training, so using up her time, which is a valuable resource when planning on a tight schedule like hers, in order to learn something futile, is pure piss. Because of course they would send even more people to get someone who might be guarded, as they are an i m p o r t a n t noble lady, instead of a commoner, like the trainer who also didn't manage so help herself earlier. Sofia should make sure to have someone of suitable strength at her guard all around the clock and concentrate on planning smarter instead of fighting stupidly, which she simply isn't build for. Especially when self defense and martial arts of any kind have little to nothing in common, as you would need extensive amounts of training and even more experience in the field in order to use what you have learned effectively in an unprepared way, on untrained environments, with unknown opponents.
In fact, when Sofia is then attacked for the first time, a knive is held to her throat and she steps on the assailant's foot, which makes him pull his arm to the side from being startled. I wonder where the author learned about such a move when a knife was being held to one's throat, because that thing would have slit right through her neck with that movement. Darwin Awards, I presume? And she then goes on to punch him while holding her fist in the air in such away that she would have sprained her wrist, even if the person she had hit had not been a man 2 heads taller than her. But it was indeed a man, taller, stronger, more robust - her dinky punches wouldn't do shit. What is with every god damn decision that is made in this story? What is this extended impression of a headless chicken supposed to be?
But anyways, she then decides and says outright, that she doesn't want Raymond and his hoe to know about how she knows about the two of them - she doesn't want them to know that she considers marrying prince Alexis instead. Consequently, in order to find a spy in her own home, she promptly spreads a rumor among the select few she considers possible spies... about her plans to marry prince Alexis. She doesn't even do this herself, but leaves it to her handmaid, which was, in the erased future, the only servant who stayed by them, as their house gradually fell apart. Had I written that story, that specific maid, Annie, would have been the spy, because staying behind doesn't hurt you, if you have backing anyway and so you can keep monitoring and framing them the whole time. Instead, because the one-perfect-friend-maid needs to be innocent, she singles out three of the servants of a huge ducal household - of which one is, for some reason, their chef, which makes me wonder why not any maid in the house could have had eadier access to all the information the spy had and needed, if the fucking head chef in the kitchen was considered suspicious to her - and has them hear three rumors about her marriage plans to Alexis, with three different additional stories as to how they got to know each other. So, that seems like a neat bit of writing here, right? FALSE! That's terrible! Please, don't copy that shit, if you ever wanna write something like that, I implore you!
First of all: She now announced to him something he wouldn't have dreamed of thinking up, resulting in the asshole prince becoming anxious when he certainly didn't have to be made aware like this. Sure, the idea was that he would come right away to ask her about it, so she would know who told him the rumor - but who says he would have even noted that additional info of how they supposedly met? Asking about it would have given her trap away even more obviously. And what if the spy had deemed this info unnecessary and left it out entirely? She would have given up all her cards - which she didn't want to give up right before coming up with that idiotic plan - all for nothing. She could have had them say something untrue about the family and business endeavors or something entirely different, which may or may not have been true. I know too little about the world to make an accurate example, but for the person coming up with the story, having every possibility in the world, this should have been simple.
She also takes the spy out right away with the help of her father. Another stupid mistake: She takes him out, but doesn't force him to keep in contact with the prince, in order to uphold the facade. Now he has given the prince info that Sofia denied, after him being a loyal spy for so long, and suddenly he vanished. Every normal functioning person should be able to reason from that, that the ducal family might have found a spy and if he had gotten false accounts, that might have been exactly what it was - a filter trap, in order to find a spy and whoever they are working for. So he would know to conclude the jig is up and the family of Sofia know he's been spying on them, right? Nooooooooo, apparently not. But I guess that's okay, because the Prince is stupid.
I mean, really, not just because he's obviously dumb, but because the story can't resist mentioning at every miniscule opportunity just how utterly incompetent he is; just how absolutely inferior when held against either of this two brothers. Even the one who's all about his intelligence is still better at swordplay than Raymond. To come back to my earlier point at this opportunity: the only reason MC knows so many details about all the missdeeds Raymond has done, is that he came to her cell in order to gloat about all of his plants, like a little kid trying to impress their mom. Simply a pathetic little loser who can't stand anyone better than him. Don't we all just love fights against clearly unarmed opponents?
Right, but because there wouldn't be any stakes anymore, seeing how worthless Raymond has already become, about 5 chapters into the story, we need to raise them again. God knows, this clown car of a plot needs some sort of hurdle to tumble over. For this, no one will ever let you forget: Only Raymond is the legitimate son of the current Queen. The nobles stand behind Raymond.
... but it's made clear he still wants to marry Sofia, because he needs the power of the most powerful ducal house, even in the erased future, when the only other competing prince was already dead. He only got rid of them, despite having planted false evidence of their alleged treason well beforehand, after he had already taken the throne about two years after Alexis initially died. Though, the time accounts are very convoluted, so I can't say for sure, but that's what makes the most sense going off of Sofias words.
In the current timeline, when Sofia is engaged to Alexis, Raymond has another duke adopt his hoe Samantha, in order for them to connect through a marital bond. So, another duke would have sufficed? Even though Alexis is now alive, has made a fucking lifetime achievemend by ending some war that would have originally cost him his life, AND is engaged to the most influential noble family in the kingdom? How does this even out the stakes? Does the MCs family not have any vassal families? Shouldn't they have a lot of people changing sides?
Additionally, the whole plot with the adoption coincides with the mother of the brainiac third prince almost dying. The third prince is such a genius, who randomly grasps random information from inside the MCs family (which should make you wonder if there might be more spies around, as there usually would be), regarding completely irrelevant shit like MC learning self defense. And yet he was unable to spot his mother being poisoned and even the doctor lying about it, despite his untrusting personality and supposed wisdom, paired with a great information network. The maid who poisoned her had her husband killed in front of her and her child abducted to put pressure on her. None of that showed up on his great information network. MC had to tell him about it.
Yet, without anyone being able to foretell what she would know due to her future knowledge, somehow they anticipated her talking to the maid after she was put in a jail cell and somehow, within the palace's cell, someone shoots an arrow at the maid. Despite being shot in the chest, she's alive for long enough to tell them where her child is being held at, which is lucky for her to even know, but even more lucky that she managed to say it. They then travel to "the outskirts of the city", which shouldn't actually take that fucking long and once they are there, they already hold a newspaper in their hands, talking about the adoption of the hoe into that other dukedom. They literally say that they had them go to the outskirts of town, in order for them to go through with the adoption while they are gone. You are literally telling me it took them so long to the outskirts of town, someone could finish an entire adoption process and publisize it in the newspaper? And for what? What would they have been able to do against something that has literally jack shit to do with them? And what would have happened, had this poor maid not lived long enough to even tell them where to go, with her heart split in two? Whoever thought this up as a trap for MC and her gaggle of monkey brains is an utter clown car.
And I'm sure that's still not all of the sheer dumbassness I had to witness, but my head starts to hurt, trying to piece together all the stupid in this frumpy, fumbled, flanderized fuck of a storyline.
In short: This is the webtoon equivalent of an IQ test that came back negative. It's like their collective brains caught in fire and someone filled in sand to put it out. You'd think that every single character in this mess was the result of a social experiment and the world was just unfortunate enough that someone has left their cage open.
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Every culture has a way to make awesome music. Japan as well.
I've skimmed through the newer comments and especially the ones right after the last chapter dropped, finding a lot of opinions on the Character Gren, some even stating that he was getting better; that he was Shin's only chance at a family; that they didn't even care he died.
Now, unlike popular beliefs, storytelling doesn't only happen when characters tell you how they think or feel. In fact, it happens all the time - every move a character makes, every step they take, every decision that is made within a story tells volumes about the characters' thoughts and values. Therefore, just telling in narration or having a character in story tell you straight away that something is this way or that means little in the broader scheme of things, if what is shown differs from it. Words mean nothing.
Take that as a base of this assessment, and let's try to understand who "Grens Heim" as a character was and what he meant to the overall story, especially regarding his supposed future life with Shin as his family.
We open up their relationship with Shin vaguely recognizing a similarity between Owen, the kid from the Garage, and some kid he had known from his own childhood, whom he hadn't thought of in a long time and had almost forgotten about. We get that scene for narrative reasons, in order for us to get a clue about Gren even existing, but it also sets in stone that he had a certain amount of affection for him, but not enough for him to look for, or even really think about him in the last decade or so. He barely remembered his face upon seeing someone who looked extremely similar.
On Gren's side, he recognized Shin on the spot, because he had kept their old picture together and would look at it the way a religious men might look at the bible. He held it and remembered a time in which he had it rough, yet it was still bearable. One of the most important differences was that back then, he had someone he was allowed to call "brother", someone who gave him strength by protecting him und caring for him.
This person is now gone, but the memory lasts, which has been the only thing that kept him going in his wretched life. Like the woman they had met as children, telling them the drugs were the only thing that gave her any happiness anymore. Keep that in mind.
So now they have met again and Gren immediately lights up, but shows signs of being uncomfortable with a guy like Jake, for example. Sure, he knows him as a dangerous crook, but the problem is that Gren, as a member of MASS, knows better than anyone that it would lead them to two different frontlines, if Shin were to collaborate with Jake from the Mercifuls. He's afraid that Shin wouldn't take his side, when Shin isn't part of any of this himself and losing it over something so childish, again, just endangered Shin again.
Just to cover that side as well: If he actually were just worried about Jake being a crook, it would even reflect worse on Gren, because he's a far more dangerous crook to be around than Jake, because Gren is not in control of himself at all and gets himself in a lot more trouble than Jake does. This isn't made completely clear, but it's very likely it's the former reason, aside from simply hating the fact that he's obviously "close" to Jake.
Alas, we come to the point where Shin realizes that Gren could be in trouble and worries, and the sequence of Gren "getting better" for Shin in rehab. Those sequences shine light on the affection they hold for each other and the nature of said affection.
When Shin left his old life behind and tried to reach a point which can be called "living", he forgot all about the "younger brother" he had found along the way. They weren't together for many years, as even their latest memories show little sign of aging when held against their earliest memories. That doesn't mean Shin didn't have any brotherly feelings toward Gren, but they weren't that deep.
Leaving him behind may not have been an easy choice to make, but he decided to make it anyway. He never looked for him even years after the fact. Remember, he has a friend that can easily look into people; Ho-Sung found out about Gren's history after they randomly met him on the street. Shin would have had ALL the reasons, yet he gave no shit about this kid he once knew. That breeds guilt. He finally met the kid again and finds out he never stopped thinking about him, while he clearly didn't think about him at all.
He now wants to make right on his promise to protect him; to be his "Hyung". Which is why this kid he barely remembered the face of is suddenly important enough for him to pick up the gun Jake left him and point it at another human being. He wants to help him now... but it's already too late.
Too late? Even though they are totally "family" and he got so much better? Well, remember that moment with the lady and her "only happiness" again, as I said I would come back to it.
While Shin took this advice as a cautionary tale, refusing to ever take any drugs harder than tobacco or alcohol, Gren fell into the same trappings as the woman herself. Holding onto his memory of a better time, which was far out of reach, he might have dreamed himself a new reality, falling deeper and deeper into his addiction. Gren is shown to be impatient, irrational and lacking any sense of tact or self control. Someone like that doesn't easily let go of an addiction, because they don't have the diligence to stay clean, demonstrated very well during the time he had to get a fix while one highly influential Gang in the city was looking to capture and ultimately kill him.
Suddenly, he can stop taking drugs, because Shin is there? Yes, because Shin is just another drug to him - a distant dream, reminding him of better times; the only thing he ever had to hold onto. Not so much a brother, than simply his symbol of something he never had: Happiness.
Let me make this clear: His obsessive behavior shows distinctively that he never got "better" - he simply switched out one addiction; one crutch for another. That also means he would likely fall off the wagon again at the drop of a hat - the moment Shin does something that goes against his view of what his imaginary brother was or should be, he might have a breakdown, just like Shin being close to Jake, his "enemy", was enough for him to snap and shoot him.
Not to mention the fact that he would have never survived another time in prison, because he would have taken his own life first. But nothing but that was on the horizon for him. Last time, in fear of going to prison, he killed a bunch of people in cold blood. Not that I say killing should never be the answer among crooks, but I'm saying he's a bit different from Jake: Again, Gren has no control over his actions at all, while Jake does. That and the fact that Jake isn't actually crook make this difference to important.
They aren't their "only chance at family" or even "real family". They are each other's IDEA of what family is. A placeholder, polished by memories seen through rose-tinted glasses.
Gren was the one who wanted to see Shin so bad, he couldn't understand that it was too dangerous because of him in the first place. He wouldn't accept a no and Shin, who felt bad for him, gave in. The collective IQ in this situation made onions cry, but let's overlook it as an act of desperation on both ends, which cost them dearly.
The thing is, I'm probably one of those people that are referenced when another comment says "people say it was good that he died" in utter horror. But think about just a bit further than simply "poor Gren", and think about the implications of how his life, with everything stated above, would have actually continued. He isn't like Shin, who had a few encounters that brought him down, yet would do well in a regular, calm lifestyle, doing a good job and living properly. He just had to be given a chance.
Gren was given a chance, but he didn't take it. He couldn't because he needed to see Shin, even when everything told him it was a terrible idea, becasue there's dangerous people looking for him. Even when Jake made it clear to him that he would get his "Hyung" in trouble as well. He didn't take drugs in rehab, but that's why he obsessed even more over Shin.
If I were to make an equation between the two: The reason Shin was able to make it out and Gren didn't is a telltale sign of their innate characteristics. As Jake mused once, if two mice were thrown in a bucket of cream, one would swim until it all becomes butter to escape. My own version would involve the proverb "If god hands you lemons, make some lemonade" - Shin would make the lemonade (and probably open up shop with it, lol), while Gren would bite it with little effort, huff the cest fumes and imagine it was lemonade, while sucking pure acid (no shade on lemons, though).
He says he loves him and I'm sure he did, but what he really loved was what he imagined him to be; the idea of him being his brother. He barely even knew the guy, beyond him liking cars. It's the same the other way around.
Those two were poison to each other and Gren was destined to either go to jail or die in some way or another. If he was a dog, he would have been put down ages ago and it would have been mercy. Don't delude yourself into thinking this character could have had a redemption - his death and the sacrifice he made were his redemption, there was nothing beyond that.
Also, for those who said they got over his death too rapidly: Don't you think it takes time to bury a corpse, likely covertly as well? Do you know how long it takes to get a gravestone ready? Those things need to be carved, they don't stand around with all the data on them, ready for pick-up. Time has definitely gone by in the shot that continues after his death. And I have no reason to believe that Shin, who's also callous due to his past, would wallow in endless sorrow over a brother hadn't seen in over a decade, barely remembered and spoke all of 50 minutes in total to. That's exactly what I meant before: he had no impact on Shin's life, barring the additional trouble he helped him get into, so there really is nothing to miss. Just a few weeks prior, he couldn't even know if he wasn't already dead.
I'm not saying he isn't sad. He finally wanted to make good on his promise to take him under his wing and be his brother, but he couldn't safe him at all and now he's gone. But for Gren, this was the only way he could ever be rid of his misery and he would have caused trouble for Shin down the road again, with his antics, so it is better for him as well.
I don't remember why, but I'd like to say first that I have read this before and put it on hold. I did read quite a few chapters, but I can barely recall anything except for the feeling of frustration and irritation that was likely not supposed to be a feature.
Since there were a lot of chapters and I guess a lot "more" than when I last came here, I thought I'd give this a second chance, because the squirrel was cute. Anyway, I want to keep reading, but in order to do that, I have to went my frustrations a bit.
Now I'm maybe one quarter or barely one third into chapter 12 and I'm back at the feeling of frustration.
Let's start with one of the premises of the protagonist: She wants to get out of the place she was in, going back to her remaining family - brother and father - and stay there as a "guest" until she has come of age. Her reasoning is, for some reason, that they would let her stay and give her an opportunity to grow without being sold off to the imperial family, which was what her aunt clearly tried to do.
Now, there's a few problems with this tid bit of continuity in the long run, or rather with this bit of her motivation, because why would she assume her aunt would have tried to sell her, while her father, an oh-so-mighty duke, wasn't aware? The aunt made it seem to her as if her father had abandoned her. Why would she expect to be treated better in a house that had more reason to look down on her, if what she perceived as reality was anywhere near the truth? Had her father not, in actuality, loved her more than anything, prompting him to ship her over to the capital for safe keeping, she would have fucked herself twice over.
She says her world was small, which would mean she's bad at interacting with people, but she also read an aweful lot. How is someone simultaneously old enough to be seen as an adult (at least in mind) and "well-read", yet not smart enough to understand the simplest of things? Like, when she equates the word "cute" with people gaining something valuable, as if she had not encountered the word "cute" many times more in her stories. It's as if the author used the "I regressed into my younger self" trope, in order to bring in some cool future knowledge and some extra years of shitty treatment, without giving a shit on how someone of that background would act and think.
She wants to become a merchant, on the "woe is me" premise of how her aunt told her she had no shame, therefore she must "have it all" to become a merchant, seeing as some random book about merchantry says that merchants should know no shame. But guess what a merchant should first and foremost be? Yes, smart. Quite smart, in fact.
But even if they were to go on, trying to portray her as smart through some tell, the show has already spilled the beans on her being as dense as a fudgy cake.
That kind of pulls apart the story, because in actaulity, she should have come there with conviction and bet everything on her one card: That the father didn't know what happened.
Because if he did and hadn't done anything, that means he didn't care. And if she expects he wouldn't care even after knowing about it, she would have never traveled there, especially after hitting the second prince of the Empire with enough force to excommunicate one of his teeth from the unity of its denture. She could have gone anywhere, but she gave her freedom up, by going where people knew her and would be able to detain her, just to give that chance a go, so she could have only gambled on him giving at least 1/8 of a shit about her well being, because if she hadn't her going to the north would have made no sense at all.
From that setup, I don't understand why her first action isn't to tell her father that she doesn't want to go back there, because she's being treated terribly and all she wants is to live a quiet life as a merchant. Since she wants to form a contractual partnership with the duke in the first place, and is naive enough to think that would totally work, I don't get why she wouldn't state her grievances with her current place of suffering. Of course, she can't disclose transgressions that have yet to happen, like her being killed by the second prince in the future, but if she expects him to care even a tiny bit, just enough for him to try and uphold appearances, he should take her side immediately, hearing how her aunt has abused her position as a caretaker for 8 years now.
I read in a comment that she told them about the mistreatment in Chapter 35, and I seriously can't remember if I ever read that far, but I do know I read far enough for the aunt to get in some level of trouble because of the things she did and even at that point, it was never really adressed how she was treated in the capital. That's a bit of the frustration and irritation I remember feeling, because in the chapters I read, it was still only because the father overreacted on minor points that the aunt got into trouble and it was still kind of unclear if Beati / Beaty was supposed to go back to the capital after all or not, when it should be obvious that she can't go back there, since she's being abused. Her behavior can't even be chalked up to insecurity or childish cluelessness, because she's supposed to be older in mind and her actions are outright thoughtless. Like, her brain seems simply empty. Especially when the plot brings in the "misunderstandings", for her to not understand how people view her as "cute" or thinking they would offer entire floors of their mansion to mere "guests".
For a character set up to be someone totally capable of taking care of themselves and a go getting, hard working merchant in the making, she's portrayed from the beginning as an incapable, incompetent fool, who would be nothing without the literal future knowledge (as in, not even gained experience or smarts, but simply "I know this thing is the solution for this thing, because someone found out" type of future knowlegde), because she herself isn't even intelligent enough to be a merchant in the first place.
Wasn't it, like, an open Secret? I guess it's obvious he was somehow brainwashed in the future events, sure, but he really was oblivious as to who would be to blame? He is so dense with... stupid. His naivety just went nuclear.
It's been a while since I last fell for a Promo bait. Damn, I didn't check the chapter count at all.
Did we ever get to know how she died?
It kind of felt like Esther was her actual child. But if thought that was impossible at first, because then the father would have known. But with that necklace showing up at the place Esther came from, with that place being a den of bandits, could it be she was abducted? Maybe an attack while she was out in a carriage, when no one knew she was pregnant. If she was meant to be sold, they could habe realized and thought it would be better to wait for the child and get twice the money. Let's say I wouldn't be surprised if she was actually their blood related child. And who knows? Maybe the mother is from a split part of the worlds most horrific turbo cunt's family. Or maybe the god just fucked them over on their contract, but I kind of don't believe it's that easy.
Also: "F"s in the chat for Sebastian. My man has it hard.
I never hated him. He's actually so cute, in his bi-polar kind of way. He's not even Tsundere, like "We don't care about your opinion at all... So just TELL ME YOUR OPINION"-002, but he's so easy to toggle from 0 to 100 negative and positive, while being blatantly dishonest about his feelings. So blatantly, you can read his real feelings off his face.
I really don't want him to get hurt. In fact, why can't Ijin get them to join SW? They could go on missions abroad and such, not necessarily the Bodyguard Section, if that's not what they want. Some, like 032 and 018, aren't cut out for such work either way. But it's not like they aren't still super important skill-wise.
With that, Ijin could have them close and with the Camp gone, who would even recognize them?
So I was curious what people meant when I read the first few shown Reviews on this one, saying that it's BL-Logic and that he's basically a moron because he concluded that he's just too cute, that's why bad things are happening to people.
But I just read a bit of the very first chapter and that's not actually his conclusion?
I mean, sure, that's what he says, but judging from his counter measures, it's clear he simply meant to say that he shouldn't be cute. Because he's basically cursed - every person who finds him cute and calls him as such is apparently doomed. So he has to be less cute - the only reason people are getting hurt is because they think he's cute. So he's too cute, as everyone called him as such, even though it's not even common for guys to be called cute as they grow up.
I don't think he's stupid here. More like traumatized into changing his whole being, because he couldn't conclude anything but the fact that every person who called him cute got ship wrecked one way or another.
I'm just a few chapters in and there's not much to rag on, but even though I don't hate the fact that he trains some sort of self defense means (though Rice Cake seems to be able to guard him just fine in my opinion), learning Swordsmenship and Beastmen Martial Arts both seem to kind of harshly wear down his hands. From holding the wooden sword and swinging it, to somehow crawling around on all fours through all-terrain. The hands of a chef are as holy as that of a violinist or pianist. If his hands numb through this sort of coarse exercise, that would be no good at all. Not a good combination.
I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm saying it's kind of late in the game. If he had some fundament, it would be easier for his body to get used to it - like, had he started cooking and training his body at the same time, for instance. But now this is just going to make his hands, which where solely trained for work in the kitchen, do something so straneous, which is going to be detrimental when cooking later.
I just read somewhere that this has been dropped, but it was on a German Site, which makes sense, because a Publishing House had acquired the license for this Webtoon for it to (originally) be published earlier this year, but fumbled the ball somehow and had to renounce the publishing. I don't know why it happened, though. Now I'm wondering if it was dropped for real and that happened around the time Season 2 ended.
