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lastdaydreamer · 2 years ago

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Beware The Villainess

“A refreshing, unique villainess who’s been dropped in the world of a novel, only to overthrow it all! The reason why? She couldn’t just stand by and watch the female lead be manipulated by all four shitty male leads. The story of a pragmatic villainess who intends to throw out all the jackasses, the friendly heroine who is equally miffed at said idiots, and a wolf that only yearns for her!”Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Shoujo Type: Manhwa Released: 2020

General: 3/5 stars for story, art and concept

For me: 4/5 stars until chapter 72ish then 3/5

Recommended for people who like fashion, full casts of attractive characters, fantasy, romance and strong FL

The villainess stories have been popping up all over lately and are already becoming a bit cliche in the same way most isekai are.

You typically have a goodie goodie replace someone who is supposed to be a villain in a story. They usually have a pretty strong motivation to be good so that they can avoid some terrible fate that they are aware of because they entered the world with prior knowledge of the characters.

I like the idea of the villains taking the main stage and self aware MC but there are the same tropes are reused each time for these:

The main character is brought into a wealthy and privileged home where they ignore all the rules that define their class, adhering to them only when it’s convenient for the story. (like refusing to follow rules until their rebelliousness would make certain events and plot points not happen. Like going to a ball they don’t want to attend or wearing outfits that they fought against wearing even though they already have ruined reputations for not wearing those outfits originally and would gain nothing from wearing them after the fact)

Having a small band of over powered outcast friends

All the characters being in love with the MC but the MC somehow not noticing at all because she’s too focused on fighting the plot or just ditsy.

The MC not knowing when she likes/loves someone because she’s never been in a relationship and so somehow that translate to not knowing when you like someone....somehow.

The characters not communicating vital information with each other that would help avoid easy misunderstanding.

These types of things aren’t a complete deal breaker because I liked most of the manga. But it started to drag on for me towards the end. It lost it’s edge for me at the kidnapping. And I forced myself to finish it after that out of curiosity.

Where it shined:

The comedy, art and the FL are a breath of fresh air! You will find yourself cheering for Melissa pretty early on. She’s hilarious and the faces they have her make are flawless. I had plenty of chuckles at her reactions.

The art was beautiful and the outfits was to die for. If I could tailor those outfits, I would. Anyone looking for inspiration should flip through this one to check them out!

Yona. She is the maid who is everything. She puts up with none of the bullshit without extra pay and refuses to get caught up in the mindless devotion all the other characters have towards the FL. Her attitude is endearing and I felt like the story would have been even better if she had been given more of a spotlight.

I loved the role reversals! It was so exciting seeing Melissa being so gallant! It gave me Revolutionary Girl Utena vibes but better because the outfits were so hot. I was obsessed with her strength and declarations towards her both Nine and Yuri. It was refreshing to see the men be emotional and delicate. The female prince and the male princess energy gave me life.

Beware, there will be spoilers but the heavy spoilers are at the end of this post. Tread lightly.

Where it fell flat for me

Yuri baiting. I love GL stories and I thought that Yuri had a chance with Melissa. I was sad to see her feelings being completely ignored. I was hoping that if they didn’t work out that maybe another girl might step in but that never happened and Yuri just kinda ended up loving Melissa from a distance. I thought it was shitty that the plot said that Melissa was fighting the story for Yuri’s sake but Yuri became an after thought. I would have liked some romantic tension between them or for them to acknowledge that they were both aware that they were in a story. Never happened.

OP besties trope is tired. It wasn’t really clear to me what awakening meant for the werewolves but having Nine awaken and suddenly being a match for his brother was nonsense to me. If he had become emotionally stronger instead of just getting a random power up, I would have respected it more. Standing up to his brother would have been a more powerful moment without it. Yuri is already supposed to be a super powerful magician and healer. It sucks that she was healer in general when every other character seemed to have flashier powers but even then she was OP which made her conveniently able to fill in any gaps in the story using her powers. I think that would have been more impactful if she wasn’t OP but instead her abilities were a result of her having memories from her past life. She remembered all the magic she learned and it accumulated into her having a surplus of magical knowledge and training. Yona was perfect as she was. She didn’t have any crazy powers or unreasonable hidden strength.

I didn’t like when the story started to get hypocritical and typical. Melissa gripped me because she was ready to fuck up the MLs for being shitty but she never gave them the chance to change. The reader watches them grow from her actions towards them but she wrote them all off even then. The only one who couldn’t be redeemed was Peacock because he was a monster. Watching the other boys trying to be better and seeing her continue to write them off stung a little. Especially since she was able to sympathize with the original Melissa even though that version of her never really changed, she just basically decided that dying and letting the new Melissa have her body was for the best since no one loved her. Melissa said that people didn’t get to be shitty just because they had a sad life but she only let that rule apply to the MLs.

I really wanted her to build a relationship with them but all she did was bully them into submission. Nine’s twin deserved it but after a while, I wanted her to have something other than just aggression. Carrot and stick style is more interesting to me than just stick after stick. It’s something that I see in teen novels a lot that I always hated. There’s always just OP characters or some ex machinga plot armor that protects them from the consequences of using your influence to crush someone else into submission. They make a point of gaining power only to use it in the same exact way that it was used against them. At someone point, OP aggression and bravado was all she used. Even in the final showdown with the god of the book world. I don’t even understand how she won.

Disclaimer: She doesn’t owe them shit and isn’t responsible for their mental/emotional/physical well being. I just don’t like someone using abuse to counter abuse. It’s funny and well deserved at first but when they are trying to grow, they should be given the space to do that without the constant berating. Like she hated that her brother didn’t acknowledge her but when he kept trying to, she’d attack him. If he’s building the bridge that you acted like you wanted, then stop trying to burn it down!

Which brings me to the unanswered questions that took me out of the story. How did she beat the god? Why was she in that world? When she finally dies, won’t the story start over with the original cast and the original problems? Why does Yuri have any memories of her past lifetimes in the book when no other character does? If Yona is the one that god loves, then why does the god stay with Yuri for most of the story? Did the real Melissa just die or is she aware of current Melissa’s actions?

That last question made me really sad and opened my mind to how shitty it must be for all the villainess characters in this genre who lose their entire identity to some random person who usually ends up getting everything they wanted but couldn’t have because they were who they were made to be. It’s tragic and cruel in nature. I felt bad for original Melissa who had to realize that no one loved her and never would. They would only love the person who stole her body and life without every knowing that she was gone. Having her cheer on her body snatcher made it even sadder to me. I would love to read a comic that really dug into that.

SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO DON’T WANT TO READ IT BUT WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS. SOME MATURE THEMES

For sure this manga has a happy ending. Melissa ends up becoming the duke (yes Duke) and becomes a popular celebrity and hero to all. She marries her werewolf companion, Nine, who has a big dick(the writer made this canon not me!) They have a child who isn’t there’s by blood but who they love dearly. They can’t have kids because they are different species so this is a nice alternative. She was noble’s child who was unwanted for not important reasons and kinda just tossed in one of the many epilogue stories.

Yuri falls in love with Melissa but Melissa never notices this. Yona and Nine do but they never bring it up to her. Nine because he’s jealous, Yona because she can’t be bothered.

We find out that Yona was going to be a Saint because she was “loved by god” but she didn’t want to take the position because she knew it was basically just her being a prisoner to the church her entire life. She meets Yuri for the first time her and gives her one of the two sacred crystals balls she found in the church. This allows them to stay in contact with each other, which they do for years even though Yona is very standoffish towards Yuri. A wizard who cares about the acting Saint wants to free them both but the ancient Saint refuses. He helps Yona escape and they stay together for a few years until he finally goes back for the Saint. She asks the wizard to kill her and he does which gets him arrested and stripped of his magic. All the money Yona has been gathering is to get him out of jail. We don’t know his ultimate fate since we never see her get him out or even tell her story to Melissa who could probably help.

(this really made me love Yona even more. She is the only character who is resolved to solve her issues on her own, but I still feel sorry that the person she cares about is in jail and how hard she has to work for his sake)

The MLs all end up with their destinies altered. The prince dude still become emperor, the werewolf ends up co-leader with Nine’s twin brother(the brother was supposed to die in the fight against Melissa but Melissa stopped Nine from killing him. I was hoping they would end up a couple -sigh-). Peacock gets out of jail but becomes a nonentity. Melissa’s brother stops being a stalker and just kinda does it job in-between mourning his gun.

They all are better people at the end (except Peacock).

The other couple is a female knight who teaches Melissa how to swordfight and Yuri’s older brother, who is also a high class magician. They are also a role reversed couple and are very very very cute. They end up getting married at the end of the manga.

#beware the villainess #review #manhwa #manga

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