Lizz

Yes ik the mother has but like really little or the bare minimum. Which feels like although she is changing and helping Lyrica but EMOTIONALLY she is still quite neglectful. If not for the fact that we can hear her thoughts and see from her perspective, we wouldn't really know or feel the depths of her regret and effort making her come of as really detached. Which is why I dont think what she is doing is enough to be FULLY forgiven, given how horribly she treated Lyrica. I see a lot of ppl comparing her and the dads in abandoned princess stories and how it's sexist to forgive the dads so easily (which I haven't I kinda hate them all no matter the reason) but most if not all those stories the dads are mostly shown to neglect the MC (which is abuse bcuz child neglect IS abuse) but at least they don't physically and emotionlly abuse them for their whole life and then proceeds to sell her off to an old man for money? That's like so focking actually terrible, that's why I don't think what she has shown is enough to compensate for that, she abused that child for her WHOLE life even till her death on the damn burning STAKE . (Honestly ik she is regretful and the author shows her less bcuz it is focused on Lyrica and the rOmAnCE so I do hope they show more moments between mother and daughter) + the romance is unnecessary and cheesy in a bad way in my not so humble opinion :(

I do get where you're coming from but I genuinely think the other rofan fathers are as equally bad as the Mother of Lily. If their children still came out as badly traumatized because of what they did, what mattered is that they all equally failed their children, despite how horrible or grand their wrongdoings were in comparison to each other.

What's good about how the mother is written here and why some people like her as a «character» compared to some other rofan parents in the same situation is exactly because she's still undeniably NOT the best mother despite trying to rectify her failures as a parent, and this manhwa doesn't shy away from showing that. While some parents are given no proper character depth or development by showing their remorse and how it affects them and their actions other than an increase in favorability towards their child (which instantly shows them in a better light)

This manhwa shows how human the mother is and how incredibly flawed she is. We as humans tend to not even know what to do when we fail others, what more for a mother who's never known what to do to make up for her mistakes due to her past selfishness? Even now, her selfishness is shown through her monologues by her want to lock Lily away for her own peace of mind regarding her daughter's safety but she never executes those choices. Because she's trying.

It consistently shows in the story that the mother could never feel like she's done enough to make up for everything wrong she's done—and she's right, it may never be enough. And perhaps the readers and herself could never forgive her in behalf of the trauma Lily has gone through before, but her trying desperately in spite of her never knowing what would be enough to be forgiven- is human nature in it's rawest form. For what are we if not trying despite failing?

The reason why it seems like she's seen in a better light most of the time in this manhwa is because it's in the narrative of her child who loves her unconditionally.

(also please don't take this as a rebuke towards your comment, this is merely my analytical take on Lily's Mother)

Oh also I agree on your take with how the manhwa has a tendency to focus on the mother's romance with the emperor and how emotionally neglectful the mother can still be. I wish they showed more moments of the mother and Lily, even with the other characters Lily seems to develop a deeper relationship with them. And yet her relationship with her mother still feels the same as it did in the first few chapters.

I completely understand your view, it honestly helped my empathize with her more. Though my previous comment wasn't really criticizing her efforts, I was more disappointed on how rarely the author shows mother and daughter moments yk? Plus the romance plot doesn't really help (between her and the emperor) to me it just makes it a little shallow. But I do understand that she is shown in a very human way, despite trying really hard she still has a lot of flaws and old toxic patterns which I really appreciate and that's why I at least forgive her more than the dads (especially when they completely erase the damage the dads have done and paint them in a really glorified light, like come on). What I initially meant is because of the lack of communication and quality time between mother and daughter, I felt like the past or the abuse hasn't completely been addressed yet, it kind of felt swept under the rug.

Yeah that's why I feel like because of the romance and the lack of time between them, it made the relationship seem really shallow and not as deeply connected as it should be. Like Lily's relationship with her brother and the ML or just any character in general seems a lot more developed and real then hers with her mom, the same can be said between the mom and the emperor. They feel really distant like whenever there's a moment between them I keep feeling that it's kinda shallow or forced, not because what they feel is not real but more like it's just there to show that they spent time together and there isn't any real connection or communication shown

No I will say that this is a very accurate and real representation of a human. She's still inherently herself, she still the same selfish person, but she's trying to change that to be better for her daughter, I also understand that because of who she is as a person being emotionally neglectful kind of fits the narrative. She's still learning to be a good mother for her daughter but since there's no one to teach her how, she's learning along the way that's why there's still a lot of work to do and things to fix, she's not perfect after all, that's why I was kind of annoyed because she is painted in such a glorified light (but I do understand that it's because it's in Lily's perspective). My comment was honestly just a critique on some faults I wanted to point out since there was a lot of comments defending her lol (I was salty if you can't tell )

Her character reminds me of a scene from Rise of the Guardians, where the guardians realize they don't actually know how to treat a child. Jake being the only one who at least somewhat knows asks them if they've ever even spent time with children and Santa says something like, "We spent too much time protecting children, we do not have time....for children." It's all I can think of everytime she doesn't have time to be with her daughter because of one of her plans.

That was so accurate ong

I agree with this. It kind of goes well with the saying that oftentimes parents don't really fully see their children as their own person other than the child they need to raise (if that makes sense?)

Like yes, you love them. Yes, you want to protect them. But do you actually know them? Do you know what they want? Do you know their boundaries? Do you respect them as one should towards another being?

Absolutely. Honestly I kind of focused more on your take regarding why others tend to sympathize more on the mother here compared to other rofan fathers. But you speaking about your saltiness toward the emphasis on the romance parts with the mother and the emperor was also insightful. I'm going to be honest, I skipped a a few scenes from chapters where it focused on the emperor and the mother. (I was kind offfffff annoyed, this is not me being analytical on this part, just being a bit nitpicky about the tendency to focus on romance on this manhwa that *is* a romantic fantasy but each to their own).

I actually enjoy reading your takes!
I do hope that more scenes in the future will focus on the development of Lily and her mother's relationship. Hopefully there'll be an arc dedicated to it.

A part of me thinks that the recent scene of the mother and emperor feels intentional. Because she's still selfish and neglectful despite being protective, she seeks words of comfort; a presence that grounds her, that makes her feel that she isn't completely failing. Which might be why she instantly latched unto the emperor when he offered comfort- so she had something to ground her.

(I don't inherently think that selfishness is something bad, it's human. More rather, you can only be so selfish for your own needs until it becomes overbearing and I don't think the mother understands that fully yet.)

But there's a chapter with the mother's monologue I really love where they were discussing about Lauv (Lily's knight) and the mother wanted to get rid of him from Lily's side because he was dangerous. But Lily disagreed.

In that moment, the mother thought, "How dare she?!? I'm doing this for her own sake, I've sacrificed so much for her just to protect her! Does she not know that I'm only doing all this to keep her safe?? How dare she" Or something along the lines with the same sentiment.

And I absolutely love how it shows that her way of protecting Lily *does* feel shackling to her. Love is supposed to nurture you as much as you give, it's not meant to hollow you out. Both Lily and her mother think that loving each other means to sacrifice their all for the other and I think that shows just how dysfunctional their mother-daughter relationship can be. They both have yet to fully understand that to love is supposed to be soft, not overbearing in sacrifices or selflessness.

Where the mother's love stems from too much selfishness, Lily's love stems from too much selflessness.

Love is supposed to be compassionate and Lily has yet to include herself in that compassion (though it is understandable, she is a child. One who's always put others before her)

And love is supposed to be nurturing and lily's mother is is close and yet too distant to nurture herself and her child emotionally.

I don't think love is something that even most humans understand. We only know to give our own form of what we think we would've wanted even if we ourselves haven't even properly received such thing. That goes in par with the imperfections Lily's mother has as a person.

Their relationship makes me so damn sad, i can't help but bawl everytime I re read the first few chapters bcuz lily's thoughts were devastating