RainyShadows's manga / #shoujo(168)

Chapter 8 Reminder of what's going on: Two guardsmen just tried to kill the queen. Zen (loyal knight protector who has been forced away from Queen by potential traitor/usurper/overthrower wannabe/may be actually innocent of all this- Lowen) has just been blamed for the crime. Thoughts: Really hope Lowen whatsisname is the culprit just so I can see the epic revenge for harming her precious Zen-sama. The suspicions were noted/pointed out in text: Maybe purposefully injured to fake loyalty to the queen, keeps trying to force the queen to abdicate, highly ambitious, the one person who was in his way of marrying the queen has now been arrested for conspiracy to commit murder... Then again, this could be a huge giant con of some sort... who knows?

Well this was just creepy/infuriating. Not something I'm going to read again. Pros: 1) I do like the art. 2) The dancing is lovely. 3) Love the subplot with the supernatural overtones (whooo snakes). 3) Blood brother actually showing understanding of consent (compared to what I'm assuming will be the main love interest). Cons: 1) What happened to their personalities/character development? - I'm not feeling anything for any of the characters . 2) Can we not use attempted rape as a plot point when the repercussions of that action is just brushed aside? I spent the rest of the chapters mentally yelling: Why are you close to him, he tried to rape you. You worried that the guy who tried to rape you is angry with you? Seriously? 3) Even without the chapters being in the wrong order I'm still feeling like I'm being bounced from scene to scene. 4) What's with this damn need to protect her. You know what? Let's give her a war fan. Then she can protect herself from everyone. Gah. Just gah.