somnia's manga / #drama(121)

I'd like to believe that Rosha isn't gonna stay the way she is now. It's refreshing to have a character that's not totally level headed and nice to serve as a plain self insert. With that said, she better improve over time or I'll throw hands. There is nothing worse than a main character who is simply off the grid to make plot more dramatic.

Too early to judge this too much, but I like it. It pretty much falls into this shoujo manhwa niche where the MC is from a romance novel that takes place in a fantasy empire. Our MC is the typical villainess of "superior blood", who turns into a jealous witch after the FL of the novel starts outshining her. Through a sort of prothetic/magic dream, she gets access to this story and gains new insights and knowledge, which she uses to her advantage. The pace so far has been good, and it's entertaining imo. Our MC's character is consistent, and even though she is an OP magician, she still has weaknesses. It also helps that in most situations, using her head/heart is the go-to route, while magic is more of a convenient tool. Other than that, idk. I'm ready for more.

To summerize this bluntly: Imagine the typical shoujo scenario of the villainess condemnation, but with the twist that she actually just an innocent bookworm who is picked up by the demon king after being thrown away (and taken to library heaven). I can't do the storytelling justice here tbh - Just read and understand the vibes on your own. It's like just another shoujo villainess story but with this dark, whimsy, while at the same time realistic and down-to-earth tone.

Tatiana the youngest of 5 sisters, was raised preciously by her strict, moral bending mother for the sake of getting married to a 5 star michelin husband - just like her sisters before her, for the sake of their wealth/family. Turns out the supposed perfect fiance of hers cheated, so obviously Titiana is mad and wants to gtfo, especially when her mother tells her to pull through with him regardless. And because the only way for her to avoid that is to get another guy, she eventually proposes to the commoner war hero she had an encounter with in the past. Arguably their first meeting was love at first sight? Ok so, you think another contract marriage situation - kinda yes - but it's also a bit more than that. The story goes pretty in-depth into FL's family situation, the contract is barely brought up. A lot of thought went into FL's and ML's families respectively imo. I like how everyone's got a good head on their shoulders, besides FL's ex-fiance and his fling maybe. It's refreshing especially with Tatiana. She's almost set up to be this ignorant and arrogant caricature, but you see how much she values honesty, and is in that and other aspects very naive. At the same time she's smart enough to keep up with her mother and to get her new hubby cleaned up - some might scream Mary Sue but I feel the way she is makes for the best read. The ML mellows her proactiveness out kinda. They have this cute love at first sight moment, a lil crush, and while I don't see all that much instant chemistry, I like that their bond is based on mutual trust and sincerity. There's obviously also the common political shananigans, though it's tame atm, and I doubt it'll get all that heavy. Update: What did get heavy is the constant communication issues later down the line. I hate it when characters can't get their shit together and act like talking it out calmly in detail isn't an option.

Reading this up to like the halfway point was ok, but for the love of god this author does not know how to move their characters in a crisis. The writing gets really, really cheap after the Duchess goes rogue and basically becomes a terrorist. There is no suspense anymore, just the dumbassery of the main characters that outshines any challenge they're facing. They're all powerful people but can't manage to spy on their enemies, mobilize soldiers, research these sacred powers or look into the Duchess' past. And when they do find useful information it's disregarded if not ignored anyway. And then they have the balls to add some dumbass exposition priest to be like "we were all led here, this is fate". Stfu? Was a princess going out like a dumbass, when she was explicitly told to stay inside bc of a magic stealing witch, fate? How does that work? Did fate turn everyone into obedient little puppies that just run after the main villainess all of the sudden?

FL transmigrates into a noble lady character, experiencing the classic transmigration into a rofan novel cliche, only she doesn't know which one by virtue of having read too many and is desperately looking forward to making her rofan fantasies happen. Starts of kinda silly, honestly it's very embarrassing with how FL is constantly seeking some kinda role or romance to experience and failing miserably BUT it's only for a bit at the start. This gets really funny and also has some legit plot, this feels lowkey fresh too. Normally I can vaguely tell which direction this type of story will go in, but I have no idea here. Also also, it's really meta in a way. Like, (SPOILERS) she apparently has the power to make her wishes come true by virtue of being the mc, and yes true she literally is the mc.

First Timeline: FL and ML(prince) do love each other, but due to the schemes of the saintess she's pushed out of the fiance position. Basically everyone but her and her bf think he's gonna marry the saintess when he gets back from tHe war, and FL has no rep or rank to counteract that misconception/manipulation. FL is framed for a crime she didn't commit, no doubt in a bit to get rid of her before the prince returns, so she chills in prison. ML comes back from his war, with no arm, and basically everything's gone to shit for them... and then the homie stabs his gf? Turns out there's reasons for that. 2nd timeline: She's back to being a child, in fact so are two other characters but I won't spoil here. ML is being weird this time around and so is this other Gideon guy who used to lick the saintess' boots in the og timeline. He's getting real cozy with FL now, I WONDER WHY. Anyway, I like the story on a surface level but there's a lack of communication on FL and ML's part. They should openly talk about wth to do and what is going on in their head but there's none of that. In a way it feels more like the plot is moving their actions and emotions like chess pieces to whatever drama we're heading towards. MC feels like a doormat at times, and specifically their trouble with jealous girlies feels so useless in the face of more concerning 'troublemakers'.

Mel Sloppy (PFFF) is taken to the Heaven Dukedom because the demented family head mistook her for his long lost daughter. She makes a deal with her "brother" Damian - or more like is threatened - to play the part of Bleria Heaven, the lost daughter, to preserve the Heaven family reputation. And so begins a chain of what you can already imagine is a whole lot of angst for FL over her position. Her new fiance (aka ML) is taking advantage of her insecurities, using the truth of her identity as leverage to make her his obedient "doll". SPOILERS: Just like the title says the "real" Bleria is gonna show up at some point. But turns out she's just another fake who was prepared by an enemy of ML, to mess with his succession plans. Bleria is basically the key to inheriting ML's family's duke title of Allnight (l cannot with these names). And while ML &co are kinda aware and sus of the new fake Bleria (while becoming colder towards Mel - woops I rolled my eyes on accident there), Mel is left in the dark and convinced that she's gonna be exposed/disposed of. She fakes the suicide with, I think, Damian's help? Not sure about the details there, sorry, but she doesn't actually die. ML seems to be very hated by novel readers, he certainly earns it because in the first half of the story he's gonna be exploiting FL. He's gonna be more in love with how useful she is at first and have a more twisted-ish affection for how he made her the "real thing". After she fake-dies he'll realize he really loved her though and it gonna be begging at her feet for foregiveness when he finds her alive and well. He's recycled garbage, basically. There's a lot of tropes here that if you can't write and portray them well it's gonna start feeling cheap. BUT WE SHALL SEE!

5/ With this one you read first before looking at the rating. There isn't much, but it looks very promising already to me. The theme is theming.