somnia's manga / #villainess(69)

You know the drill, FL gets reincarnated into the young body of the future villainess and tries to avoid death flags. Honestly, it doesn't stand out from any other of the 100 or so shoujo isekai so far (besides the pretty art maybe)... but am I still gonna read the shit out of this? Thank you very much, I will. I like that the storyline doesn't get stuck on chewing through FL's entire childhood like a boring daily sidequest and has a decent flow to it. Like, we are cutting right into the meat, which should tell you that the plot is gonna be at least decent and thought out. The only thing I want to complain about is FL's blindness to having ML crushing all over her for probably most of their childhood together, and home girl being blind af to that, despite clearly retaining the mind of a woman who lived during the 21st century. For the love of god, I hope the author doesn't make the mistake of leaving FL dumb af in that aspect for decades like other similar shoujo manwha that shall not be named now. I swear I didn't mean for this to turn into a call-out post/vent.

/39 MC possessed the villainess, who's fated to be executed by the novel's ML because of crimes and stuff, you know the drill. But in this case, MC went back in time twice. Both her attempts ended with death by execution, all sponsored by the shitty Prince ML. Suffice it to say, she not only hates his guts her third time around but also stops caring about her "role" entirely. It's the classic "now that I'm me, I'm way more lovable and got all the fishes hooked"-type of vibe. I feel that while the first few chapters started strong, the rest of Season 1 got lost in the sauce if you will. The writing on the friend group's bond and dynamics is weak AF, so you have a hard time seeing them as more than some classmates who coincidentally hang out with each other while following MC. They have no spice, and (besides *maybe* Luke) it doesn't feel like they can exist independently of MC. 2 out of 3 clearly develop romantic feelings so that ain't feeling like a secure friendship anywhere. You can still get invested though, and I feel like it pays off in the 2nd season. The stakes got raised as MC has to face the Prince again. And this is where this manhwa is at its best imo, when MC fights against her suppressors/executioners and explores secrets beyond the novel's veil. And since I'm already on it... MC's insecurity about novel business is tiring. It's been done so many times, and it feels like an excuse that keeps her from any substantial character development; I thought she didn't care anymore?? Also, every time MC is holding out for her friends — or nvm just struggling — it's Luke doing all the heavy lifting while og FL and other sub-ML just emote lmao. Why don't you write on his forehead already, in all caps: "I'M GONNA BE HER ML!!". TLDR; Story would benefit from a tighter pace, and the treasured friend group dynamic feels weak.

The beginning is kinda meh- it's your usual revenge story and the only thing that's driving you to read on is seeing MC beating up that one annoying character who betrayed her big time. Other than that I can't say it's all that good or outstanding tbh. There's little realism to the story, it feels surface level. It's especially noticable with the little timing errors here and there. An example from the first chapters: MC is laying on the floor, clearly looking sick af out of nowhere bc she was poisoned by her sister's cheap ass tiara - but the ceremony isn't even over and seems to be somehow just going on (and ending) while she is all woozy on the floor??? Also, after the time yeeting she's at the ceremony again but runs away... and when she's back after talking the ML over to her side, making a marriage/lover's contract, and dragging him along with a bunch of knights, the people from the venue and the sis are standing there like homegirl was gone for 2min..? Listen, I think the whole MC vc female family member or close friend stabbing them in the back drama so old already. This whole women being pitted against each other bs (in this case it more so perpetuates that kind of narrative/mindset ig) is really really old... unless you do it right, but I don't think this is it considering I didn't even realize that MC's sister was unaware of being seen through until they hugged, despite the title hinting that MC is trying to keep it lowkey. Don't get me started on all the other questions I have floating through my mind already, even though only like 16 chapters are out.

Another one where time reverses and MC is out for revenge... Though idk what to think about this for some reason. The art's good and all in all everything is making sense- it just feels like sometimes the story throws out random details midway, or forgot to hint at or mention something. The whole thing about, SPOILER?, Maribelle's cousin being envious of how loved Maribelle is and that being the reason for her distaste kinda came out of left field. I never got the feeling that Belle was getting more attention than her from what was shown from their childhood. All we got was that Belle lost her parents and lived her life happily naively loving her cousin, while her uncle took over the household. Oh, but later on it's shown very well how Maribelle is loved so much by everyone. Her seduction must be leveled out bc damn I cannot understand why some of these people like her so much for reasons you cannot see. (ANOTHER SPOILER) This one dude fell in love with her after 3-ish mediocre conversations, while her main hubby loves her so much even though she betrayed and basically killed him once. She reeks of Mary Sue so bad. People just call her pretty and smart but besides the pretty I don't see it, really. It more so feels like she is going with the flow- like at the start you think cool, she is gonna get away from the trouble aka her uncle's and counsin's shenanigans, and ofc she wants revenge, but oh wait, she doesn't do much at all to avenge herself and just reverse cards their verbal harrassment here and there. She pointed her finger into their direction and her emperor hubby and his 3 minions yeeted into that direction without second guesses.

Very interesting to say the least. Our FL is the childhood friend of a spoiled princess who was destined to die young due to her illness. A person so breathtaking, when she died and a look-alike appeared, she became the center of attention for all the men who used to admire the original tragic beauty. That look-alike is the main character in an otome game FL played before she got reincarnated that is. See where this is going? The set-up is appealing but honestly I just love FL herself so much. She has such a sincere attitude about her and you can tell the author thought for more than 5 minutes about all the relationship dynamics. There's not much going on plot-wise though, right now it seems to center completely around the characters and their emotions and relationships, but I'm not even mad despite how plot thirsty I usually am. I want more chapters. Sadly the story lost it's appeal, at least for me. Maybe I'll revisit this when it's closer to the finish line. Either way, at the moment I just do not want to keep up because all the love interests are either a piece of work or of shit - none of them truly respects FL and her wishes.

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.

First you think the premise is good. Like, FL is the daughter of a villainess hated by a lot of people and has to live with that reputation. Ofc, she has memories of her past life, where she read the novel which tells the story of the main power couple and their kids. With these kind of stories you normally look forward to a lot of salt being given out, but honestly it's just FL being a punching bag for a few chapters and then turning into a sensitive flower that refuses to the least bit of brutality or revenge. By the time I was at chapter 17/18, I was rolling my eyes because it started to reek of basic Mary Sue who refuses to recall any other details (or interesting personality traits) from their past life, besides the plot of this one shitty novel she reincarnated into. There are some cute moments here and there, but honestly it doesn't stand out from any other of the dozen basic I-was-reborn-into-xyz-stories. Characters that exist can be categorized as followed: 1. Bullies who hate FL's mom and therefor FL. 2. good people (mainly her family rn) who support her. And 3. the important people from the novel she read which are on either side of the spectrum.... and the only reason why they get their own category is because they have a backstory unlike everything else. BTW, the unreasonable violence from strangers is just not explained, like why FL's mother was hated by literally everyone and stuff. Magic also just happens, no system, no nothing. It's just chain thing magic circle summon here, hypnosis mind spell there, fuck it, figure it out yourself and goodnight. Maybe these will get explained later, but this is basic stuff that typically requires an explanation or some form of attention right away to give readers a deeper understanding of the world and the story. Honestly, the whole villain mother thing just feels like an excuse to make FL an uwu abused woke baby archetype. You'll be satisfied by this if you just want to project yourself onto an FL who was off bad and then spoiled to death by her loving adoptive family.