somnia's manga / #villainess(69)

Another one of those manhwas where FL possesses the neglected Empress and is being treated like shit by her husband + evil stepmother trope. I can't get behind the romance here tbh.

I think story-wise this gets worse and worse as time goes on. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy MC's character and how tropes (as well as more unique aspects) are tackled, but the way everything's structured gets boring after you get used to it. One issue is tackled, then the next, then the next, with some more important plot nuggets in between. A checklist of things to do and overcome. It was nice when it was applied to MC's family issues (bc it felt like MC was intentionally tackling one thing after the other to help her family), but then you get to broader, more public events outside of MC's control and this rigid structure is still there. Also, I feel like the whole thing about her falling in love and getting engaged was way too rushed. Nvm, literally everything after her "soul unification" felt so meh to me. I was ready to indulge the OP trope for the sake of having a furry-loving MC who has 2 souls, but not like this. I still hope things will heat up when the game protag enters center stage but for now, the plot do be mid.

MC is a strong-willed woman, who lived an independant life. Just like the villainess of a novel she read, she wasted a good portion of her life on a man who didn't deserve her. After she dies, she finds herself in the skin of said villainess and proceeds to slay- as in "yas queen, slay"- while avoiding the bs her and the villainess had to drag themselves through bc of their own stupidity. Honestly, it's pretty much a power fantasy, but I think even people who dislike those can peek in and enjoy. It's less about FL getting everything she wants and needs, and more so about her dealing with the undesirable obstacles that are her fiance and his lover, aka the og ML and FL of the novel she was yeeted into. They are genuinely a pain and it's satisfying to see our homegirl beat down on them whenever they (mostly the og FL) try shoving her around. It's also nice that our FL has a consistent character, and it's not like she was just another weak-willed office worker before turning into a dom mommy noble all of the sudden- her character's consistent, which makes the story for me. Other than that I'd describe this as your standard reincarnated into/possessed the body of nobility of another fantasy world story.

It's not bad, it's readable if you ignore things here and there. The backstory of FL and her bully from school being reincarnated as the villainess and heroine from a book FL read is interesting. But honestly, it gets kinda boring for me. I thought she wanted revenge, but she seems to forget about that in the latest chapters and just does whatever? She isn't taking advantage of her knowledge about the novel contents, and so far she only used it to brag about it to her hubby. I don't understand why she has to wait for the Emperor and Noel to fall in love either. Dahlia could've stomped on her sister's (aka bully reincarnated) reputation long ago, but she never even tried to do that (or even acknowledged that she could) and just passively accepted Florre's salt while expecting the novel to develop the way she read it, and I guess she's waiting for whatever moment happened in the novel to sabotage, ig? We don't even know where in the novel we are, and Dahlia doesn't want to think about that either. And ngl, the characters have little to no depth- mostly just FL and her reincarnated bully. The first few chapters FL was a bit edgy and insecure bc of her past life trauma, but she just seems to forget about that and slips into being the perfect aristocrat smile wearing confident and smart villainess in no time at all. Her being fragile/sickly is also portrayed badly imo. I don't expect her to go cough up blood every chapter, but I literally didn't even know she was sickly until ML mentioned it. Also, why is Florre so out to beat Dahlia (aka FL) down and get "revenge" before she even knows about the novel and the roles they play? Would be nice to get more of her perspective in general tbh. She just feels like a mean girl, and not even a worthy rival bc her flaws are so obvious and her motives shallow af. The whole focus of Dahlia getting revenge also starts to feel lowkey petty bc of Florre's attitude. The story is set upto portray this grand revenge against the bully mean girl that made FL commit suicide, but feels kind of all over the place to me. Maybe it'll change in later chapters, but rn the novel is just finding excuses to make FL and ML be together while being lazy with story progress.