somnia's manga / #drama(121)

40/ Our MC, Helga, is the young lady of a powerful Dukedom. Her real mother, a maid who served the family, swapped her and her half-sister Hyllian out when they were infants - which was eventually found out by the Duchess. As you can guess, Helga went through hell trying to endure this family. Once Hyllian returns, they expect Helga to just quietly switch identities and give up all her accomplishments. Hell no, to put it kindly. Honestly, I feel this is one of the better "I may be fake or real, but I'll become a menace either way"-shoujo stories. The focus of Helga's revenge isn't Hyllian, despite her inner frustration and salt when they're together. Hyllian is more so a tool to hurt the Duchess. With that said, the bar isn't that high either, idk if I still need more info, but some cosmic coincidences just line up too perfectly sometimes. I have 2 questions: Why did the Duchess not hunt down her real daughter asap instead of waiting however many years? And how did Hyllian find out that Helga and she were gonna switch names/identities just by being told that "Hyllian" is getting married to the Prince? Also, thank god they both ended up looking similar enough to be confused as identical twins, Anime DNA is amazing. The Duchess would've looked even dumber otherwise. There was this annoying voice at the back of my mind, every time Helga brought up her escape plan. It just said "if she did it another, the easy way you wouldn't have to sacrifice your fortune and love interest for the sake of one last petty comeback", over and over again. After she succeeded and escaped I found it hard to keep on reading. At that point you kinda know what everyone's deal is and what side they're on, so guessing the outcome is easy. Despite that, I still appreciate this one for not pitting the sisters against one another, and treating their feelings for each other with respect and depth. Update: So after 100 chapters you can scratch the whole thing about Helga's sister not being made the ultimate bad guy. The author turned her into an opponent after all. As I said after Helga leaves her family the story's quality decreases rapidly. At this point stuff only happens for the sake of something happening, and every plot thread feels useless af.

109/ MC is yeeted back in time after having been betrayed by her fiance and half-sister. She sacrificed herself for her lover and family and, of course, all of them end up being huge, clout-hungry losers who stab her in the back. And this time around she is dead set on never getting engaged to that particular loser, while making sure to get a sweet, sweet taste of revenge. Let me say this. The drama here is should be spelled out in bold letters because god damn it, there's so much of it and most of it is frustrating af. Anyway, the characters have some spicy developments, but I feel like sometimes everyone's feelings are just a bit too dramatic and given too much pov. Why do I need to read about Isabella thinking she's the shit 24/7 when I already know she's just shit and no one asked? Also hate how the author made her some vain little hoe but Ariadne's literal murderer, the man who exploited her and threw her away, gets to have twilight with his boo-hoo-trauma-please-sympathize background AND is the 2nd male lead. Like eh? Can we not for once? Either way, I grew tired of the drama tbh. Ari been working at it, and I like the tension between her and the prince, but otherwise all these crazy people are turning me off. TLDR; Too much delulu yapping and too little screen time for people I actually want to know about.

MC is a mysterious woman with the ability to tell lies and thruths apart. Additionally good luck seems to pile onto her like crazy before something bad is going to happen soon, which is an interesting mechanic. Anyway, MC is a professional gambler who traveled around and made a name for herself sweeping casinos. One day, she rescues a boy from trouble and takes him home. They become close, bond and go gambling together. But after her ring, which she recieved from a dummy mage, flares up, she ends up 10 years in the future without the kid.. or even her house. So, the thing with the whole gambling pov is that you get a thrill because of the uncertainty of whether the MC will win or not - the higher the stakes the higher the enjoyment for those reading - but this MC wins almost every time, and when she doesn't? It's on purpose or just doesn't affect her much. If she doesn't care, why would you? The story itself is kinda cliche. Stuff is constantly happening (mainly gambling, people cheating while gambling, just bad ppl getting in the way or fluff scenes with male main leads), but the thing that keeps you reading takes its sweet sweet time. The thing I am refering to is MC's dumba** realizing that the kid she took in before her time skip is mortal, able to age, and looks literally the same as the duke dude who's getting close to her now. The story lost its focus somwhere within the whole cruise ship "arc". It's clear that finding him is important to MC and she thinks about this lost chance more than a few times, but the fact that the author themselves avoids it so much to get more chapters out of it, just makes the plot TIRING and EMPTY in the end. I skipped right from FL's first visit to the Duke's (btw her outfit in that chapter is horrid, just to add extra salt) to like chapter 50-something. That's like 30+ chapters and she still has no clue. I'm dropping this.

You know the drill. A reincarnated girl possesses the body of the villainess in a BL novel, who is also said male lead's sister, as mentioned in the title lol. Instead of bullying him and making him an even edgier boy bound for heartbreak, she decides to be nice and change him so he can be happy with his future lover. Eh, yea. Starts off okay. And as you read more it's becoming very apparant how little the plot points actually matter. Only FL does. She doesn't do shit besides act cute with the Duke and ML in her childhood, nothing concerning their abuse and then it's just forgotten about after FL has her trauma moment. And from what I recall ML never got this acknowledged much unless it's from FL's commentary. Turns out she's a saint, color me impressed. I don't want to write another essay on this but let me just say this: what was author's reason for making the og story a BL? To fish for starved fujoshis? Sure, gay people exist and don't have to be tied to the yaoi genre but the implications of healing a broken gay character and making them fall in love with a straight woman is kinda questionable, you get what I mean? Nitpicking but still. I think that just shows what I meant when I say that only FL and her fish matter.

MC is reincarnated into a romance novel with the typical "blessed maiden from another world falls for the Emporer, kicks off the evil fiance, and fights evil"-plot. SHE is born as the 2nd ML, who turns out to actually be a woman in disguise. First of all. I like that MC isn't all over the novel plot. She worries reasonably and has yet to fall into that annoying pattern of overthinking and jumping to useless conclusions. Her body morphing through artifacts also makes it more believable for her to pass as male, not to mention the other interesting magic stuff she got going on. It's refreshing to not be stuck in the child POV for like 30+ chapters for once. The story gets done with what it needs to convey and moves on. With that said, the pacing is tight, but a bit too tight. Some things just went and left without enough explanation. For example, I was left with confusion when they clearly show the Prince not liking his fiance, but after one sentence and whatever many years later they're bickering like true friends, without really showing their relationship progress. The story's weak when it comes to character development in general. Anyway, there is also this potential of the whole "omg no homo, thank god" narrative. But I personally hope that they'll play up the "idc about your gender, I love YOU" perspective, that'd be better than tasteless homophobic messaging. And even though Enok is lowkey nuts, I hope he's the ML, at least he admires her while knowing she's a woman. That'd be more comfy for sure. As for the saintess, an originally good main character who turns sus bc the story pov changed is always welcome. I hope the pace slows down now that she's there to basically signal the start of the og novel.

Plot in a nutshell: FL was abused by her family both in her first life and now in her 2nd life as a minor side villain of a fantasy "biography"/novel. She was killed by her own husband for poisoning his sister. But now she is set on gaining everyone's favor, or at least her hubby's, to hopefully not be framed for anything and get away from her abusive family for good. Kind of spoiler, literally just me ranting: I love this so much, but I lowkey hurt from the angst that we got going on sometimes. At first it felt random for Ruby to be yeeted away by monsters so randomly, but in hindsight it was needed stress-relief for the readers. It wasn't that out of no-where too, since Ruby seems to have some kinda connection to monsters. Gotta praise the author too, it would've been very easy to find Ruby's insecurities annoying were it not for the amazing writing. I never doubted Ruby and never will, I feel.

Inés has relived her life more than once by the time she chooses to become the fiance of the most handsome future playboy. She now knows to avoid the slimey, filth-ridden rag, that is the Crown Prince... and hops on the Carcel (the playboy) train, when she is reborn far enough into the past to change her fiance. That's one hell of a rough summary. The story so far is so nice. The whole time reverse thing isn't anything new, but the story makes it up with the characters and pace. It isn't anything world end heavy plot-wise, but the journey still feels important thanks to Inés' perspective. Honestly, her experiences made me cry multiple times, and this isn't even supposed to be a tragedy. Herself and her relationship with Carcel are the main driving point of the story imo. And yea, there is no actual smut in here. You barely get to witness them breaking the bed, it's vaguely shown and more so talked about by the characters. In a worse story I might've complained about lacking commitment, but here these scenes feel less like smut for the sake of smut, and more so to show the couple's development. Looking forward to future chapters for now.

Chap 64 The amount of tension going on is killing me sometimes but in a good way. Honestly, I'm just kind of mad that the wish she made, in the beginning, was so wasted. The further I read about how much she already knew at that point, and just how wasted that wish was, the more mad I was at her. She has a good head on her shoulders but manages to f/ck it up, just bc she got distracted by the sheer weight of her brother's many disappointments. But yes, it does kinda fit in with the humor u got going sometimes, so it's forgivable. The rest of the plot points so far are very good right now too. Also, love MC's vibe. She doesn't crawl back to her father just because he began playing nice after years of neglect, and she doesn't try to be a saint with her bratty little brother. Love the paddle/mallet, excellent weapon of choice.