Sky's Topics (202)

Base in sb spoiler, it seemed like he really manifested it

Hm, the way I see it, it feels like the narrative played it up in the beginning. Like maybe there were rumors that he had been sleeping around but not as much as is being said. Not that it justifies the fact he still did it. But it was kinda like a tantrum since Ines would heavily ignore him. He sought out her attention at first after she decided the engagement and tried being a decent fiancée. That’s how I see it at least from my perspective.

The story seems like it likes to use unreliable narrators to throw the audience off. And as you read more of it, the more context you get to certain past actions. For example, in the first couple of chapters where his infidelity is shown, we don’t even know the fact that when ines chose him she was mentally a grown women or that she purposely chose him to use him as a pawn in her plan from the beginning.

I believe it feels “downplayed” now because we are getting more and more context showing us that it’s not as simple as carcel was in the wrong, the end. Ines was clearly involved from the very beginning.

Plain and simple. It’s because the manhwa left out a lot of information and nuances in the beginning. In the novel, both Ines and Carcel were criticized by novel readers for their flaws and shortcomings during the engagement. Ines was cold, rational and selfish in her thoughts (quite frankly, there are readers who dropped the novel because of her too) when she was introduced. Carcel seemed nonchalant, vain and flighty. They both were just recounting their lives during the engagement from their perspective and yes, they were unreliable narrators especially Ines.

Then the shift came where we as readers got to truly know Carcel and Ines as we begin to follow their lives starting from just before the wedding through their married lives. It’s the manhwa team, inside and outside, that plays up Carcel’s past. No manhwa reader would believe how much Carcel’s past have not much to do with 99% of the story. In the first place, Ines doesn’t care and hates it when Carcel express any regret about his past. Why? Because Ines accepts that she failed as a fiancée as well and had ill intentions from the beginning. It’s an issue that will not be swept under the carpet especially since Carcel now understands he was chosen to be used and dumped. What’s next? It’s time for Ines to address the fact that she chose him to use and dump. So, both characters will address their fault during the engagement period and move on.

1. Referring to your first paragraph, based on the reactions of novel readers, I believe that the manhwa adapted it quite well because I also had dropped this manhwa due to both characters being flawed and honestly, unlikeable due to the behaviours you stated. I've never read the novel so I'm just basing this off of what you said about the novel readers who dropped it. But happy to hear that everyone agrees they were unreliable narrators.

2. Does this mean that the novel doesn't talk about Carcel's debauchery nearly as much as the manhwa?

1. The manhwa did not adapt it quite well. I remember reading a casual novel reader’s point of view and she said she prefers the manhwa because she found Ines very unlikeable in the novel. I wasn’t surprised because the manhwa stripped a lot of what made Ines unlikeable from the adaptation. So, I do think the manhwa took a different approach by making Ines more sympathetic because she isn’t really sympathetic from the beginning in the novel. She was cold, selfish and indeed a bit unlikeable for me so maybe more unlikeable for sensitive people. However, I still prefer novel Ines more because she’s very real and interesting. She’s more Valeztena-like than manhwa Ines. Novel Ines is also a fighter. She curses too. lol Like actually uses profanity like Carcel. She has a sharp tongue and can be merciless in her speech. It showed more why she’s a Valeztena and why she said she has a bad personality because, as she says, she takes after both her parents who are bad-tempered in different ways,

2. As to Carcel’s past, his introduction in the novel is basically done in the past tense except for the part where Ines meets Carcel with some widow who was trying to have a one night stand with him and one other incident. (Even the fact that Ines showed up in front of Carcel when he was with the widow was a premeditated move in Ines’s point of view. She was there to guilt-trip him into remembering they need to get married because they’re already 23 years old and she needed to start her plan for divorce) So, the reader is told about Carcel’s past but not really shown. In fact, one would be hard pressed to put a name to any woman he was supposedly messing with because they are absolutely nonexistent for the next 575+ chapters. The bulk of the main story covers Ines and Carcel’s marriage and some of Ines’s past lives which focuses significantly on Oscar. Even so, most of the novel centers on Ines and Carcel’s married life and later on their families (Valeztena & Escalantes) are included as they show up more regularly.

So, yes, it’s the manhwa team that keeps dragging Carcel’s past into it. Either it’s for drama or advertising purposes (Koreans like regretful male leads) but as a novel reader, I find it in poor taste because it’s already been a year since Ines and Carcel are married and there are other cute stories they could have adapted from the novel as additional information for manhwa readers. All of their chibi comic strip is focused solely on talking about Carcel’s past and having Ines treat him like a nuisance or a fool rather then giving the manhwa reader more information from the novel that was cut from the regular manhwa chapters.