
THE PROBLEMS ARE ALL MEN AND THEIR CREEPY ASS OBSESSION FOR ONE WOMAN. Leave Shuri the hell alone. She’s a kid and she just looks like some woman who honestly doesn’t give me good vibes since she lowkey cheated on the King by kissing Johannes. Shuri is not like the previous Empress at ALL but yall grown ass men projecting onto a 14 year old!!!!
IN OTHER NEWS, MEN CONTINUE TO DISAPPOINT.

I can’t ever get myself to read through this after someone said Navier is pretty much the equivalent of a white colonialist getting mad at a slave for trying to get out of slavery and fk over the system that enslaved her for her relative’s crimes lol

LFMAOAO this is a funny take. While we don't see the empire take over nations in this story, the slavery is not through conquest but through crimes. Rashtaa is a slave because her parents committed a crime, and she is forced to work it off. Though the story says slaves are generational, it never states the person who committed the crime can just elect their kids to do it, because her father is alive. That's the reason slaves are looked down upon and why Navier doesn't really do anything to resolve that. Its criminals that are serving, and children of criminals. It follows the same mindset of "the apple doesnt fall far from the tree" gimmick.

You could say that, but it completely ignores Navier and Rashta's (the former slave) personalities. The author did not write this with slavery in mind, it's more so supposed to be a twist on that rofan trope where the typical commoner girlie falls in love with a royal and against all odds ends up ruling the country with him. Honestly, Rashta having been a former slave is background info if nothing else and serves as petty justification for her malice.
They did miss out on that though. It would've been interesting to see Rashta go somewhere and make a point, but she's just an obstacle to be mad at. A seething hoe that happens to be a former slave too. You can imply that the author thinks a certain way about slaves/poor people, but that's just pointing fingers with no solid proof.

No no, I just wanted to provide context of the slavery that's written in the story- even though despite the means, it's still slavery. It's very uncomfortable that the author (novel) introduces slavery into the story and theres no justice brought to the slaves in the empire. I never finished the novel, so I'm not sure if it ends up being resolved.
In the end Rashtaa is demonized for taking things away from Navier despite it being a woman that's just trying to survive.

Oh dude I'm so sorry, I mistook the commenter above you as the you as well so I thought this comment was like a follow up. Yeah totally agree dude, I was excited to read this then damn that truth bomb just dropped on me. Why the hell is Navier and the King enslaving people for their parents' crimes?!?!??! White colonialist vibes ngl

I don't hate you.
And this manhwa is basically just about royal drama centered around an Empress, and it doesn't wanna mess with the deeper implications of slaves existing to begin with. If that's not for you, then don't read. It's a shame that the author chose to avoid the topic and make their main antagonist into a power-hungry former slave when there was potential for so much more to be said. It hypocritical or the author, but not every story needs to take apart it's politics.
In any case, why not make up your own opinion about this? You can read it on here without supporting the author anyway. Ngl that blm comment feels like a reach, I feel where it's coming from but again, a bit off the mark here. You'll get it when you read it yourself and can stop when you realize it's not doing it for you.

Why do you believe that bs? Seriously. Only racist Black people have ever said that phrase, point blank. Because everytime they say that, they follow up with, oh you can't be racist to this group of people. Wtf??
Imagine an Asian or White person saying, Black people can't talk about our situation or give their opinion because their not our skin tone.

Honestly think this manhwa is getting draggy and it doesn't handle the dark themes very well, for example the bullying Yeonwoo went through, feels like a 0 to 100 and thrown in without much thought to justify Yeonwoo's timidity. I'd have liked if there were more hints from it at the start, so we can put two and two together, because now it feels like the author's just writing some generic equation formula of "look at this shy boy! shy shy shy! and....... now tada!!! he got bullied really horribly that's why he's like this guys, okayyyy moving on"

There were so many hints tho, they kept foreshadowing about something happening in their previous school and Yeonwoo having nighmares too, even the manhwa title drawing getting burnt more and more kept us anticipating something terrible. It might feel cliche but that's how some victims of bullying and SA irl are, his self esteem issues, stuttering, not knowing how to act around others felt natural to me.
If you look at him in the first chapters his stuttering was so frequent and he was way more 'shy' than now and because of how he himself was trying hard to gain confidence and promising Haesol to be better made me not think of him as typical shy FL in romance mangas.

i disagree but respect to your opinion, it’s the fact that it should have been brought up much early on instead of seeded so subtly. Trauma doesn’t work that way. Read Gangnam ID as an example - it’s how you can keep it a light manga without going from 0 to 100, because right from the start they address the heavy themes properly but in a “it’s there, but I’m living my life still” instead of seeding it in SOOOOO slowly and then throwing it all out at once. Protag is also a very shy person with heavy trauma, and you can tell right away because she rates people’s faces and all the other things.

fym “I disagree” your og comment is you claiming that you felt they just threw in the trauma to explain Yeonwoo’s timidity, and the reply literally lists a few examples in which it was clearly hinted. You may have a problem with how slowly it was brought up, but that’s a completely different complaint than saying there weren’t many hints at all, which is just plain wrong.
And to say “trauma doesn’t work that way” is just,,, weird ??? Trauma works differently for everyone and it’s not going to be portrayed the same way in every story.
The reason why it was introduced so late is because the entire story Yeonwoo’s trying to change himself and move on from his past, (which is why we only see hints to it)until he can’t ignore it, LITERALLY, because his past PHYSICALLY caught up to him in the form of meeting the bully again, making him relive that trauma. You’re tripping if you think the placement is off, I think it was done pretty well.

Completely agreed. Also the author didn't bring in the trauma to say this is why Yeonwoo is shy. Yeonwoo has always been a shy person as you can see from their childhood and it's BECAUSE he is shy that the bullies thought that it was easier to bully him. This wasn't a "gotcha" moment. And it was definitely hinted waaay earlier. Especially with the way how Yeonwoo and Junhyuk interacted with each other and other people.

If u actually read my comment I said it’s ok to have an opinion on the author’s pacing choices , I clearly stated I only had a problem with u saying there were barely any hints when there clearly was.
And I don’t think I said anything crazy? The whole point of comment sections is to share opinions, discuss the story, and be able to reply to others if u think they misinterpreted something, which is what I did. I didn’t call ur opinion shit Lmfao I don’t know why you’re acting like I told u to kys

Okay Yuriel x Rosie is my favorite ship but ehhh I don’t really like how this is turning out… Yuriel kissing Rosie while she’s grieving about her unrequited love for Kael is a no-go, it’s why I don’t particularly like Kael or the Duke since they just kiss and touch Nathan without consent. I mean, if Yuriel was a man, I’m sure you guys would find it kind of gross for a dude to just kiss a girl crying over another guy…

Eunyoung saying he sees Haejoon’s Mom in him… From the start when Haejoon chose to stay in the dorm so Eunyoung wouldn’t be left alone with ghosts despite how Eunyoung hurt and mocked him, Eunyoung knew he was a good person.
My own feeling behind Eunyoung asking Haejoon if he has siblings is that he sees Haejoon as his family. I think he might be kind of happy that Haejoon doesn’t have siblings since it means that he will always be one of the closest to Haejoon.

I knew they wouldn't end up together but this ending is way too open, like author made Siwoo into a rapist for no real development??? (He is a rapist by the way considering Dohyeok was passed out when Siwoo was putting in all those sex toys) Like Dohyeok changing??? Apologizing to Suha??? Dude got gangraped and that's never addressed?????? No therapy???????????? He just gonna wrap a scarf and get over it???? Like damn this story opens up a lot of dark themes and doesn't address them well

Yeah honestly I don't think people are pissed off mainly that Siwoo and Dohyeok didn't get together, because we've had BL where the main couple broke up at the end and the backlash wasn't as big. This one was mid because it opened up a lot of things - Dohyeok being gangraped and his trauma as someone who himself did so (pressured Suha), Siwoo having some feelings for the guy who abused his closest friend, the gangrape itself - and closed none of them well.
The only thing it barely closed was that Siwoo rejected Dohyeok, which in itself is fine, but Siwoo can't suddenly take the moral high ground at the end of it all when he raped Dohyeok as well.
I’m most definitely going to get dislikes and angry replies, but I’ll say it: honestly disappointed to see the shallow reactions to Derrick. This manga is so good and complex. To just see the characters as bad vs good feels like the readers read the manga in a surface level way, but I guess most readers are teens or kids here so it’s not anyone to blame.
The legitimate discussion by paid Korean readers is much better, for those looking for better discussions. This manga is crazy popular. There are some theories that when Derrick breaks free from the mind control he will have a severe mental breakdown based on the glass shatter background, and they’re discussing why Yvonne made her personal maid (who’s still under mind control) confess to the crime when it implicates her
I completely agree. I usually don’t pay much attention to whatever people say here lol
Omggg I knowww, Derrick is literally so confused for the past two episodes, there's no way to make it more clear that he is being used as a puppet, he literally just worried a lot about Pennelope and wondered why he can't say a word about that but readers still don't understand.
Nah I'm with you. I've been reading the novel and it goes into a lot more depth with the emotions of all the characters.
I like Derrick in that he's a complicated man. He's been holding onto the guilt and shame of losing his sister all these years, and has just now been realizing that Penelope is a whole person that he does care for on some level which drives him deeper into guilt. Not to mention he's the 1st son of one of the most powerful houses in the empire, I know Calisto said it before but it also applies to Derrick "I must always be perfect."
I hope he can be saved. I don't think he's a bad guy at all, he feels he is the only barrier between his bonkers family and the judgement of an entire empire.
I don't see how Derrick is good in anyway. At most he is just a creep who wants to keep Penelope locked up because I think he feels guilty about Yvonne for leaving her hand and losing her in crowd. He is just directing his guilt to Penelope and in wrong "creepy" way.
Bet all his childhood he was like having "hate to see Penelope taking his sister's place but then coming to care for her and also wishes to not lose her like his sister so he will take all control of Penelope's life and discipline her and make it so she's at his mercy so she does not dare to rebel." He thinks Penelope as an object to elevate his guilt which infact perfectly labels him as bad no need for deeper discussions on a character like him cuz manwha has portrayed it quite obviously that he cares for her but is a shitty character who wants Penelope to act submissive even if she's going through torture. Kind of like men in some typical male dominated society who wants women to always stay low which infact aligns with thought process of men of that period but since it's magical world prejudice against women is less but Derrick here, still tops it cuz he is "the wannabe alpha man of the family" and no one is above him except his father(who is pretty much not going to live forever)