진이's manga / #historical(72)

ugh, dropped around ch. 90 and then read the last couple ch. (it ends how you think, happy ever after completely devoid of any feelings; like literally, all i got was that they're a thruple now except not a single one of them wants to be there) -the plot was interesting but i personally just did not like the mc; he's annoyingly unloyal to literally everyone but one dude, who does not seem to care about him (or maybe he does, idk he's written w/ v unclear motives and the author and i both dc about him except as a tool for the mc lol like.... he's had maybe 10 speaking lines) -there's an unfortunate dichotomy between mc being a slave and doing literally anything and everything to survive (god pls stop murdering and scheming for one second) and him being so fucking greedy for things to go exactly the way he wants, to the point that he's like "wah wah no matter what i want nadan and i to escape and live happily" and literally EVERYONE, EXPECIALLY NADAN is like "dude stop, nadan doesn't want it, figure out something else" but mc refuses and refuses until nadan is literally a pulp which like ??? you're so greedy that you supposedly HAVE TO BE with this guy, but you're maiming and killing him and don't rly care? (and not in a yandere way, like you genuinely don't even express that you care about nadan other than doing these things that he doesn't want that gets him hurt, and nadan has also not expressed any care for you yet so...) -i think if the story were about suu and nadan this plot point might be ok, but it's literally not. nadan is a side character with so few lines and appearances that we don't even know how he feels about suu. maybe he secretly likes being tortured and permanently disabled for suu, who knows? we don't. -sahara the dragon is an interesting half-child half-ancient being that has the wisdom of uh the child... lol but he's fine but also relatively powerless except for when he mass murders all the servants all the time -and jin suryeon is supposedly "evil and bad" according to just about everyone and yeah idrk what's going on with his character b/c he's soooo ambitious for the throne that he's trying to make this whole dragon thing work, yet he hates the country, hates the imperial palace, cursed the dragon, and killed his mom by proxy? i'm assuming this will be explained later but jesus at 90 ch. in and none of the characters have redeeming qualities other than "they're doing what they need to do, incl. shitty stuff, actually mostly acting shitty, to survive" like... what actually is there left? -any "romance" is suu with his onesided... something for nadan, sahara needing suu to eat, and suryeon needing suu so sahara can eat. feelings where? nowhere.

i genuinely don't like this tbh. it's waaaay too much drama written in that shitty frustrating way that's just trauma after trauma with no payoff. the mc just eats shit all the time for no reason. i can tell this is going to go on for way too long and it's just not a good story. -so donghwa is 17 and so fucking closeted that he's homophobic, and sungwoo confesses to him (which he has desperately wanted b/c he has a crush) and then donghwa goes right around and betrays sungwoo publicly b/c he's a coward (which, ok, sure. it happens. donghwa sucks but he's a scared kid. ) -but then 5 yrs later sungwoo sends donghwa a copy of a shitty smut novel he wrote that's literally mc donghwa getting raped over and over again b/c sungwoo apparently did not get over the incident (which i also get, but jesus dude rly? who does that) -donghwa gets run over by a truck (siiiigh) and isekai'd into the novel, but acts like an insane person and flips out when he gets there, attacking people and claiming he's from the future (which maybe would be a natural response? he's still a dumbasd 19yo ig) -in the novel he's the son of the late baron, and his stepmom/stepbro have apparently been trying to kill him for fucking ever -donghwa attaches himself to jin, who is obvi sungwoo's self-insert who looks like sungwoo but isn't him, and is also fucking stepmom for cash -btw the cover is a lie b/c while the butler cares for him it's not romantic at all (yet ig) -the maid who was having an affair w/ stepbro winds up murdered and put in jin's room -turns out stepbro killed her and butler put her body in jin's room to try to get rid of him, and everyone fucking knows but no one cares about justice literally not one -to clear jin of the crime donghwa and jin pretend to be lovers as an alibi; they get "married" ish by grandpa and jin treats donghwa like shit b/c he doesn't know what he's feeling -investigator literally doesn't care and still tries to arrest jin -yeah also all this is done w/ the bg of imperial japan occupation so some nice frustrating racism great -whatever, shit happens, donghwa gets kidnapped and photographed and attempted murdered for like the 100th time -he survives, jin starts to feel something, donghwa rly wants to fucking die (i get it bro, this world sucks and if YOU feel like it sucks then imagine how the readers feel christ) -a random servant gets blamed for the murder but then b/c the author's a weakass HE gets run over by a car

ugh dropped at ch. 12 (a new record) -so basically a terribly written trauma dump for the ml (which feels v cheap and poorly done; it's just trauma after trauma all for the sake of going "yup he's a serial murderer, but it's ok b/c you saw all the trauma he went through!") -mc is reeeeally awfully written. completely devoid of any character, irl and in the isekai novel, besides crying over this villain. yes, even irl that's literally all she did. like, you didn't even bother to give her a backstory or a single personality trait???? she doesn't have fam/friends/a life that she cares about, in EITHER world?! only this ml, which she knows to be fictional? as in not real? and she became obsessed with this dude after reading a poorly written romance novel where he's a side character?? girl touch grass holy shit. -mc's frustratingly passive so she just... doesn't talk?? has not explained a single thing to anyone?? and she doesn't have a personality at all so like... what is she expecting the ml to get from her? "i'm the only one who can save him! i have to save him! except i can't save him b/c i have this crest that determines my soulmate and according to my daddy who MURDERED THIS DUDE'S PARENTS our cresties don't match :( and there's literally NO WAY i could help him just as a fellow human since our crests don't match :( so i'm going to lie and uh literally run to him in the middle of the night like a lunatic and demand he stays by my side at all times while giving him no explanation and just expecting that everyone will be ok w/ that." :he ONLY lines mc has had so far are "don't go" x 50. literally. we get it, he can't leave you (according to you). WHY? even the ml is like "why tf am i doing this?" except then ofc the writing is awful so he's like "i don't know, but i feel compelled" yeah you don't know you idiot b/c there's literally no reason any person would listen to her and you two just met 1 day ago for 20 min.

-stepchild aria who was previously manipulated by her sister mielle into being a villainess turns back time at her execution and gets revenge on those who wronged her -aria's mother was a prostitute who married the count (her stepdad), but the count and his kids never accepted her low-born status -aria starts by bringing maids over to her side by treating them well, studies hard, and uses her knowledge to get ahead so she can anticipate mielle's moves and not fall for her schemes -she gets close w/ her etiquette tutor sarah b/c she knows she'll become the future marchionesse (but ends up actually becoming near-sapphic besties

omg OMG -reincarnation of the first mad emperor x reincarnation of his male lover who has retained his memories of his previous life -we learn the full story through flashbacks as the emperor/head eunich/mc's brother remember their past lives -100 yrs ago the first emperor fell for the architect son of the ok family, who he subjugated, and who was to design the imperial palace -mc was being coveted by his half-brother, who assaulted him and gave him trauma -the emperor and mc became close, but b/c of his trauma mc rebuked the emperor -after seeing that the older brother had given mc kiss marks, the emperor went mad -this began a life of the emperor being completely obsessed w/ mc and only showing it through abuse; he was a tyrant who killed a shitton of people and animals as lessons to mc for minor things, limited mc's ability to escape as much as possible (crippled him, got him addicted to drugs), and ultimately just wanted mc to love him back but obvi was failing [BUT more context: the emperor has a condition where he cannot feel pain, so he did not completely understand how he was affecting mc; and as he did each bad thing to mc and learned that it hurt him, he vowed to never do those things again

-isekai -bina transmigrates from korea to another world and is picked up by a duke -turns out she was raised by him to be sent to the palace in place of the duke's bio daughter -she's met w/ the emperor, who's gross and a perv, and on her connsumation night the emperor is murdered by an assassin who is obviously the prince lol -he makes a deal w/ her to keep it a secret and to become his queen to thwart the empress' schemes -a toooon of shit happens, but basically they fall in love and bina decides to stay in the new world and they outwit the empress

omgg -rachel is a girl who was isekai'd into the ml lucian's sister after leaving a flame on a bl webtoon after it ended w/ the mc noah and ml both dying -og ml was cruel and obsessive towards the mc, and the og rachel was a vapid sister who mistreated her brother and pets -now rachel has been adopted after her parents died in an accident by her godfather (mc's abusive father), who "loves" her b/c she looks like her dad, who he was in love w/, and hates his own son b/c he looks like his own dad, who abused him for being gay -rachel tries to get close to lucian, but he's under a strict schedule and abused by his dad, who doesn't want him getting close to rachel -but rachel persists and slowly gets closer to lucian, while lucian warms up but also still has some of the og obsessiveness peaking through -also he has this like demon wizard thing talking in his ear and telling him that he needs to let it take over and destroy everything -at one point rachel gets pets, who are actually werebeasts, one of which was og 2ml, but acter an incident her father makes her get rid of them so she sets them free -2 yrs pass and lucian has his first meeting w/ noah as it happened in the novel, but doesn't seem to have feelings for him (and it seems like noah is scheming smth??)

demon x human w/ soul of an old priestess

half-demon(?) son who's being punished by being sent to earth and living as a puppy during the day and a human at night x crown prince who's closeted and plagued w/ ghosts who molest him at night -the demon son can only return when he makes a human fall in love w/ him; also as a half-demon he must consume humans' yin spirit (sex, usually) to survive -the prince had a near-death experience and can since see ghosts, which neg affected him in childhood so his mom secretly brought in a monk to cure him w/ dark magic -it worked and he got better but this bitch (who sees spirits but is crazy malicious) told on her and got her executed and became the new queen -since then the new queen has been cursing the prince -a shaman who shared that the current queen (when she was a child) sees malevolent spirits was then targeted by her, and she killed her whole family; now she's a malevolent spirit and is trying to work with the demon to take revenge on the queen, and on the way save the prince; she's tasked the demon with finding out how the queen killed the 3 ghosts that currently haunt the prince to try to use them against her -the prince enters a contract w/ the demon that he gives him yin energy and he gets to be relieved of ghosts

-emperor jiskar x slave ray -ray is the reincarnation of the previous emperor of another nation who was betrayed by the kid he saved and raised (got poisoned and reborn as ray) -ray was given to the emperor, but since ray has all his old memories he reacted wildly and the emperor became intetested in him (also b/c he looks just like his past self, who the emperor was also intetested in) -jiskar brings ray to his palace and he becomes jiskar's favorite concubine -jiskar openly favors him partially d/t falling for him and partially to cut off the empress' family's power by showing that she and their son have fallen out of favor w/ him -it's a big political battle w/ ray in the middle, and the kid totally hates ray but is also 15 and immature and wants to be liked by his dad but his dad rly cannot let him succeed the throne for political reasons (and b/c he's not fit to be a ruler) -the knight christian seems to be developing a protective urge(?) for ray (and possibly remembers having met his past life), and the other knight is also growing closer to ray -ray is allowed to learn swordsmanship but not magic (buuut if ray gets access to a stone he'll be able to regain all his power from his past life) -political drama, w/ warring factions and power wars -they're on an annual hunt rn and the kid just got taken by an orc; jiskar was gonna let him die (b/c that's ultimately what needs to happen) but ray spoke w/ him and now jiskar's decided yo save the boy