medeva's Topics (90)

alicia is an awful woman but oscar is an evil man and i find the dynamic between them playing into niceties and façades with while knowing the true depravity or ambition they both share interesting. i know people would hate to see more of them but not me! would love to see this bowl of contempt either flourish or spoil. i also do love evil women so i’ve grown to like alicia’s nefarious but subtle nature, even the way she’s drawn to be less appealing endears her to me. it would be interesting to see if she grows to be a major obstacle for ines or not but it’d be nice for me to get her introspection or inner conflicts.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but I’ve read far more worse stories ‘contractual marriage’ stories than this, with not nearly the same quality of art. So a lot of these complaints just sound like complete nitpicking to me, this is a fun premise and the FL is lovely. The ML kind of had a boring design to me but I’ve really warmed up to his character and personality.

I think it would’ve been a really interesting tango between the two of trying to kill the other and outsmarting the other. However, if the ML was the killer the FL wouldn’t have been making such brutish and impulsive decisions at times. She’s interesting but she’s not as pragmatic as the webtoon would like to have you believe, it’s her stoic Rei-expy demeanor that leads you to the impression of being more observant than she is, tbh. The ML is really fun too, I like the pairing and dynamic between them so far.

I also think the killer is either Ditor(?) or is in close connections with him.

The way Micheol mocked and goaded her when he asked Na Haesoo if she really thought she could leave him. I told y’all he treats her like she’s his property to abuse and misuse that’s why he seriously thinks she can’t leave him. That debt they have binds them together and he knows it. Too bad for him that she’s “friends” with a walking piggy bank, lol!

Even the ML yandere specifically choosing to play poor instead of white-knighting the FL from her shitty life is on purpose to display the correlations and understanding between characters about socioeconomic class they live in. For me, this was the strongest appeal to reading another manhwa about a torrid affair and revenge fantasy because of how important poverty was to the characters complexity and dynamics.

Mincheol is a titular character emblematic of South Korea’s uber-misogyny that’s been accelerating against women but also a clear example of how socioeconomic standards also drive huge influence into how family members can abuse others within the unit. Sure, he loved her at some point— deep down probably still does— but he despises her now because he associates her with poverty, his poverty to be exact, the poverty HE dragged her into. He also simultaneously sees her as his property to debase and humiliate because she is also still his poverty. Because there’s nothing left that a poor person will have besides the fact they’re poor. And Na Haesoo has assimilated into that poverty class with such diligence and attention that it disgusts him now. Seeing as he’s a character who goes out of his way everyday to play into appearances, to not let others be aware of how poor he actually is.

This is why I also feel a sense of frustration when I see comments get mad at Na Haesoo for not behaving in a certain way, especially because the misconception to many might be that she’s behaving this way to fit into a certain shy-girl archetype that you see in many stories. I understand because I tire of those too. But what I think what makes Na Haesoo different is because her character and behavior is not driven by being raised ‘right’ or that she’s a ‘maiden’ but an intentional depiction of what society deems a poor person should behave. She embodies their idealized version of poverty. The embodiment of poverty.

Just as there is an unspoken idea of a ‘perfect victim’ there is unspoken idea of the ‘perfect poor person’. The type of individual that is hard-working, not loud, doesn’t beg, doesn’t complain about their situation even though it gets worse. The world hates poverty and hates the poor, the homeless, while simultaneously behaving as if they have their best interests in heart— the rich do nothing but drive a stronger poverty gap worldwide all while blaming the poor for not being hardworking enough. Capitalism needs to incentivize the idea that your circumstances are created by you, and you alone— and that only you can save yourself. Ignoring the countless of evidence and studies, showing that poverty is systemic, abusive, generational, and parasitic.

The poor cannot complain about their lives, they have no right to. They also should not go out showing themselves as poor, which is why the surge of anti-homeless infrastructure is everywhere in major cities. The poor cannot indulge themselves in luxury, because that would show they’re frivolous and unfocused on getting out of poverty. The poor shouldn’t have children, because they are forcibly ruining their lives by doing that— despite the fact that they actively block the fundings poor people need to support their kids or block access to planned parenthood to have them avoid bringing children into the picture in the first place. They also cannot be poor anymore or else that’s criminalized (yes, in certain states in America (for example) homeless is now criminalized.)

See what I’m getting at? The poor cannot live and they cannot live at peace with being poor either, but you cannot sell them a dream that poverty can be eradicted (even though it very much could). The ideal impoverished is given the message “Stay poor, stay hidden, and die quietly.” — Tara Colon.

And this is the energy Na Haesoo exudes to the bottom of the bottle. It’s not an archetype of a maiden who is too lovesick to leave her man. It’s a thirty year old women who is trauma bonded to a man that uses and abuses her financially to make a feasible living for himself while she chucks away at their debt little by little all because he is the man she has been with for years, has not experienced or been involved in anything else but his orbit for years, and has nothing to her identity or herself outside of him because she dedicated her whole life to him. It’s more akin to a 1950’s housewife story, really.

I just need them to figure out the translations here because it’s a hot mess rn

I think it’s the designs that’s making them look worse… I hate to say it (I don’t) but there aren’t many cool characters designs in this genre of shoujo isekai anymore and it’s really disappointing

Like genuinely such a gorgeous FL and most of her outfits look great and aren’t gaudy… I really liked the potential of her trying to be good but the OG Chersina was always tempting her to that volatile nature… Just for them to dampen that angle completely smh.

And her man??? By god is he mid. It hurts to say because he could’ve at least looked and behaved more like the ML in I Tamed My Ex-Husband's Mad Dog I would’ve been tapped IN but alas. He’s not really selling it for me and the lovey dovey stuff is boring me if I’m not moved by one part of the relationship. Booooooooo what a waste because there’s so much potential here

Hilarious that the ML fell for the FL when she retired her audacious baddie attire and started dawning on cute tiktok tradwife looks, and I happened to really like those baddie looks.

I like them as a couple they’re sweet I’m a bit disappointed on the direction of Lize, it feels stagnant that she’s always pretending to reject her inner misogyny and hatred for Edith when people like Cliff are willing to do anything for her.

I would’ve appreciated some more inner turmoil if it’s more like Lize is a good person but just hates Edith. Which doesn’t seem to be the case tbh.

This is also why her and Cliff doesn’t really do much for me, it feels like he’s proactive and she’s reactive. The fact the story doesn’t frame this as a toxic dynamic or anything tells me they’re supposed to be a duo yet it feels like Cliff does all the work while Lize just sits there pretty lol. Very boring duo. In that sense, I can agree with the comment that found Cliff and Edith’s relationship more interesting. There’s a lot of tension, distrust, and manipulation playing around them that would make for a good enemies to lovers pairing or a corruption couple. But alas!

Anyway I enjoyed my catch up

I read the comments and changed my mind abot this first paragraph lmao.

Anyway, I hope she doesn’t end up with any of them they are all genuinely awful and do not value your humanity outside of chattle or objectification. There’s also no real progression here, I get that this is Enemies to Lovers but you’re not allowing an avenue that allows each party to be viewed as an equal and that makes it harder for us readers to believe the progression of any relationship here.

It’s so frustrating how she is ultimately trapped in every angle here by people who proclaim they would rather have her dead but then keep her alive. Of course, I understand the politics here and how she can’t do much but narratively we are going in circles with this torture. It doesn’t have to be a revenge fantasy but we need things to pick up.

This can be a problem if the story has no narrative progression and she’s still in this loop of house-hopping while being whipped. At some point, it can become stagnant. Also, I feel like it flattens the characters— everyone here is awful and toxic but it’s not nuanced as one would like and you don’t get every’s pov so you ultimately have to chalk up a lot of their hatred for Just Because. Awful people don’t need a reason to be awful but Awful characters need the story to eventually justify their awfulness in any capacity.

Anyway, interesting story— I heard the father becomes the ML and honestly outside of the Sylvian he’s the best looking to me. I just can’t believe he’s that much of a hoe to sleep with his daughter. Men are so easy and disgusting lol.