orangeheaven's Topics (54)

To be honest, I like the Crown Prince more than the ML. Sure the ML is super sweet and in love with the MC, but he's so immature, unreasonable, and overacts to a violent degree. Like really; you're going to shoot the crown prince just because he touched her ARM!?

That being said I LOVED this. What an unexpected breath of fresh air with complex, interested characters. I thought it was great that there was no villain or bad guy here. Just the natural complications that come when politics includes things like arranged marriages and personal relationships. The relationship between Aurora and her ex-fiance Crown Prince was great; they really felt like childhood friends who understood each other. I loved that they acknowledged the fact that the foreign princess who "stole" Aurora's marriage was flawed because she is still a CHILD + her country has cultural differences from the one she's now in, not because she's some selfish harlot.

I love that the foreign princess grows and learns with Aurora's support and help and that her natural brilliance and intelligence are revealed. I love that the Crown Prince is described as cunning and good at hiding the true depth of his mind, but that he isn't evil or bad. I think it's easy to forget that being clever and not wearing your emotions on your sleeve can be a very important trait for a good ruler; a prince/king has to be able to play the political game, that doesn't make him a bad person.

Basically, what a great cast of characters! Honestly, the ML was the weakest link in my opinion.

It is interesting to me that a generation who popularized the phrase Eat The Rich, can't understand the mindset of a former slave who has little to no sympathy or trust in those of noble/royal standing. None of this is to say that I think Rashta's actions aren't wrong. If Souviech were a worse man and ruler, an empress falling from grace could mean death...not only hers, but her whole family's. Nor am I say that Navier isn't an innocent victim. She is. Navier had selflessly put her all into being a good Empress and was even prepared to remain in her unhappy marriage and continue serving as Empress despite Rashta's presence.

But Rashta is not heartless. She has been shown to have empathy and compassion for those whom she also considers as weak and suffering. The problem is she is blinded by her own prejudices and experience and, thus, does not see Navier as such. In her mind Navier is power hunger and privileged; her (Rashta)'s intrusion into their marriage hurts Navier only because it threaten's Navier's power because Navier has no love for Souviech and only covetous of the position of Empress rather than of husband's feelings. And so, Rashta conflates Navier with the power hungry nobleman who kept her as a slave and even now is using her as a tool to acquire more power and therefore feels no compassion for her, the same way she would not for that nobleman. Rashta is a slave. She spent her life being used, raped, beaten, blackmailed, forced. Why would she seek Souviech's honest help? What person of power and privileged has ever sincerely helped this slave girl? She escaped from hell only through usefulness and deceit and to risk her life and the life of her baby on the hope that Souviech would be so very different from other men of power would be, in the context of her life experiences, an absurd and stupid endeavor.

Between the two of the them (Rashta and Souveich), I find Souviech's behavior more reprehensible, but still I can understand his actions in the context of her experiences and upbringing. The emperor MUST have an heir. For the stability of the empire and the court, and after years Rashta has provided the first sign of hope for the stability. He loves Navier (spoiler?) but out of fear of father's legacy and desperation, chooses what he thinks is the best for the empire and the stability of the throne. He's wrong. Even if Navier were barren, his worst failing was in not trusting her. Not even necessarily with birth his progeny, but in not trusting her with his true thoughts and feelings and trusting that the strength of her devotion to the safety and stability of the empire was just as strong as his.

Unlike Rashta, Souveich doesn't have the same justifications for his lack of trust. Navier has stood by since they were young and proved time and time again her loyalty, responsibility, and selfless sense of duty. In my opinion, him stepping all over her resolve is even worst than him stepping on her heart. Feelings change; that is a fact of life that we have little control over. Divorces happen, break ups happen, that does not make the person who fell out of love necessarily a villain. If Souviech had simply, regretfully, fallen in love with someone else that would be a tragedy for Navier, but would not put him past being forgiven. But for him to disrespect her hard work and her character, that is what's truely intolerable. Souveich is foolish and faithless, not only in terms of fidelity but also as ruler and partner. His worse failing was not in bringing Rashta into their marriage (the morality of polygamy from a ruler who is obligated by his position to provide an heir can be debated with good arguments from either side, after all), it was not treating Navier as an equal

In this house, we love a cunning, shade throwing ML who rolls deep with a squad of bad bitches.

In Tito's defense, it's probably difficult not to turn out twisted in SOME ways when you're raised by a misanthropic immortal tsundere.

I wonder if the fact that he turned into such a psychopath in the original story isn't just because he was neglected, but also has something to do with the evil spirits in Belos. Based off Clete's dream where she saw Tita with cold eyes and thought 'that's not Tita', I think there's something more at play with why OG Tita became the way he did.

Also I was initially uncomfortable with Tita being the ML, but the more I see Clete, the more I think that this is probably the only way someone COULD end up as her ML. She clearly has very low emotional EQ, has no sense of romance, and doesn't get attached easily (understandable since she's immortal). So the only way someone could get past all that was if she already had very long emotional investment in them and so couldn't dismiss their feelings as easily.

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Kara's ML is another nobleman named Bred. He's a vassal of the emperor who the emperor was trying to pair Charlotte with as part of a scheme to get her wealth. When the letter about the match came, Kara volunteered to go in Charlotte's stead to make him hate her for being 'crude and mannish', however Bred and Kara fall for each other immediately because they're both each other's type (he likes that she's not weak and delicate and they have the same tastes, like prefering beer to wine). They actually end up sleeping together immediately. Bred falls hard for Kara and even starts referring to Charlotte as his sister-in-law in her head. At one point he found out that the dad was plotting against Charlotte so he sent his knights to secretly follow her carriage to protect her, because he thought she was being led into a trap. Only for her to show up in front of HIS door, because she's there to yell at him about taking responsibility for her little sister because Kara is apparently pregnant XD. Bred immediately asks Charlotte's permission to marry Kara.

Charlotte's ML is the red haired duke (the emperor's half brother). He's the fire magician in the prologue and Charlotte is his lamp. They met because Charlotte bumped into him when she was spying on Kara's date with Bred. The duke falls for her immediately because her personality was so unique.

The character I feel saddest for is the MC's fiance.

Spoiler
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Even in the first life, he truly loved the MC, but Angelica fed him a love potion and that's the only reason why he liked Angelica in the first life. In this life, as we see, Angelica has no interest in him so she doesn't give him the potion, so the fiance still loves the MC. She's been his true love since he was young and he learned to fight just so he could become the MC's knight. But the MC breaks their engagement in this life and he's devastated. Even though later she finds out that he did those things in the first life because of the love potion and he was a victim too, she still can't get past the trauma she associates with him.

The fiance still loves her though and even privately swears his knight's oath to her and protects her for afar. :(

I'm just reading all the comments of people who hate the brother and remember the time my little brother put mud in my hot chocolate when he was ten. Where were you all when I needed you?

SPOILERS ABOUT VILLAIN
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Cosette "technically" is the Duke's daughter as well.

The issue started with the the Duke and his first wife. The first wife loved the duke, however she was bullied and harassed by staff and other nobles. Partly because of her low status but also because it was all orchestrated by the MC's grandfather, who wanted his own own daughter to marry to Duke because of the power and prestige it would bring. The MC's grandfather is the one who fabricated the lie that the first wife was barren. Because of the Duke's shitty neutrality policy, he never defended or protected the first wife. He basically tossed her aside after it was spread out that she was barren and then finally divorced and banished her so her could marry the MC's mom.

The first wife was pregnant when she was sent away and the child that she was pregnant with was Cosette. However, the first wife wanted revenge on the Duke so she made a deal with a demon. As part of the price, the demon took over Cosette's body.

So technically, Cosette's body is the Duke's daughter, but the mind and soul occupying it is a demon.

In the original time line, after the MC is executed, the demon becomes super strong and leads a demon army and destroys the world. In the new time line, the MC manages to stop the demon. She then also purifies Cosette's body and buries it in the family cemetery. She feels really bad for the first wife and her half-sister for being victims of her grandfather's thirst for power and of the duke's indifference.

chinese: https://www.cocomanhua.com/15820/
vietnamese: http://truyenchon.com/truyen/gian-phi-nhu-thu-da-kieu-26719

I appreciate Mary and Patrick's friendship so much. It's refreshing to see a broken engagement storyline where the prince neither turns out to be an asshole nor does he regret ending things because he falls in love with the MC. I love that the one he truly loves is still the heroine and but he still treats Mary with respect and affection because she's his childhood friend.