#manhwa opinions

[cherchersketch]

# Cher Reviews Manhwa

I’ve been reading an insane amount of manhwa recently so decided to compile a list of what I’ve read so far so that I can peer pressure encourage my friends to read some of these with me.

Grouping everything by ranking (and just plain alphabetical order in each rank) These are all my own opinion please feel free to like/dislike what you like/dislike. I also have a separate list for the meh to the DNF-ed since this is purely the good stuff.

Here’s a list of some terms I use in these Please mute “manhwa live reactions” if you don’t want spoilers to the ongoing ones since I occasionally have to scream

The ones in italics are completed series. Yes, most of them are ongoing ;w;

Loved this so much I spent real life money Another Typical Fantasy Romance Father I don’t want this Marriage First Night with The Duke For Better or For Worse June Peach Just Leave Me Be Leveling up my Husband to the Max My Secretly Hot Husband The Soulless Duchess The Villainess’s Days are Numbered Under the Oak Tree

Yes PLEASE READ THIS Amina of the Lamp Author of My Own Destiny A Villain is a Good Match for a Tyrant Beware the Villainess! Falling for the Enemy Flirting with the Villain’s Dad Here comes the Silver Spoon! His Majesty’s Proposal How to Win my Husband Over I became the Hero’s Mom I found a Husband when I picked up the Male Lead I’m all out of Health I didn’t mean to Seduce the Male Lead I’m the Tyrant’s Secretary I will be the Matriarch in this Life I will change the Genre I will Seduce the Northern Duke Karina’s Last Days Love Lies Marriage of Convenience My Mom entered a Contract Marriage Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom The Male Lead’s Little Lion Daughter The Reason why Raeliana ended up at the Duke’s Mansion The Villainess Lives Twice This Villainess Wants a Divorce Villains are Destined to Die

I enjoyed my time reading this A Business Proposal A Royal Princess with Black Hair A Wicked Tale of Cinderella’s Stepmother As you wish, Prince Becoming the Dark Hero’s Daughter Cheerful Countess Sisters Daisy - How to become the Duke’s Fiancee Duchess Crow Even though I’m the Villainess, I’ll become the Heroine! From a Knight to a Lady I am the Real One I confessed to the Boss I got Married to a Villain I raised a Black Dragon I raised the Beast well Into the Light, Once Again Iris: The Lady and Her Smartphone My In-Laws are obsessed with Me No More Nice Sis Observing Elena Evoy Perfect Marriage Revenge Priscilla’s Marriage Request Princess Shuden Raffine’s Plan: Save My Favorite Character Sica Wolf Side Characters Deserve Love Too Sixth Sense Kiss The Evil Lady will Change The Maid and the Vampire The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess The Newlywed Diary of a Witch and a Dragon The Northern Duke needs a Warm Hug  The Villainess is a Marionette The Villainess is Retiring Villainesses Have More Fun Villainess in Love Virtues of a Villainess What’s wrong with Secretary Kim Wicked No More When the Count’s Illegitimate Daughter gets Married When the Villainess is in Love Who made me a Princess Writing my Male Lead’s Happily Ever After

[boredmariedelline]

My (very personal) thoughts on Emily:

I’m officially back from vacation! This opinion has been sitting in my drafts for a good while now.

I remember someone, but I forgot who, was asking for an Emily-based opinion piece so here it is. This is my first time writing something like this, so here goes:

She's a meh character for me. Like, I really don't care much for her. I mean, she's there. She exists as a minor antagonist turned unlikely ally who somehow changes morals in a relatively short time span.

To me she's like a minor starter antagonist because, well, like a game, the protagonist has a starter villain, who is usually not the powerful, to practice moves and tactics for higher ranking villains. Emily is the first antagonist Siyeon faces literally from the moment she wakes up. Plus, the maid character is usually one of the first allies MC gets because of the proximity to the household, influencing them though her maid (See: The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass, a pretty good example of it)

Anyways, for the changing morals part, I have two theories. A. doesn't hold that deep of a personal grudge towards Penny because of herd mentality or B. had an epiphany while in jail for that short time.

A. Not that Deep of a Grudge

To me, her initial grudge rate towards og!Penelope before Cha Siyeon was around 60% for all the tantrums and stuff. It's more than half but it's not by that much since she had a form of getting her resentment out, which unfortunately is through the rotten food, needles and the cold water. Personally, I think the needle marks were supposed to make them think Penny was on drugs to emphasize her madness??? (that goes into the semi-crack theory bin)

I'm guessing she's roughly around the same age as Penny considering her looks and demeanor. She's childishly stupid in a way, since she is pretty obvious in her antagonism towards Penny (needle marks, seriously?! Almost all of Penny’s outfits are short-sleeved and the rest are ¾ sleeves, making them very obvious, since they’re concentrated on the forearm but makeup exists) and didn't really care for the possible consequences of her actions (so did the rest of the household). 

B. Epiphany while in Jail

Emily pretty much had a reality check when Penelope stood up for herself. In the manhwa, Emily realizes it when she comes back after jail but in this theory, it's during jail. So it could very well be possible that Emily had an epiphany. She probably realized something has changed within Penelope and she’s terrified of it. Emily realizes that it’s better to stay close to Penelope as an ally rather than an enemy since this new Penelope could ruin her and her career as a maid at an instant. 

Basically, it means that Emily recognizes Siyeon as Penelope now has leverage against her and can use it at any moment. 

In most households there is a hierarchy and when there's a hierarchy there is leverage against a lower rank like position and money. In this case, Penelope can use the incident as her leverage against Emily thus making her subservient through fear. That is kinda mean of her but the author makes everyone morally ambiguous so it’s up to the reader’s discretion. 

In conclusion, I believe that  both of the theories I’ve presented work out in both ways, but I’m leaning more towards the second one. Gwon Gyeoul presented almost all of the characters as morally ambiguous (except maybe Cedric and Marianne) and their alignments are up to the reader’s discretion and I decide that Emily is still meh but she still had her reasons in both ways.

Reblogs are appreciated especially if you’ve got thoughts on this.

[clara-licht]

Shall we add to my complaints about Dominating Aura? Shall we?

Now THIS is how I envisioned DA would look. At the very least.

Cale looks very menacing here, doesn't he? A glare with dark red surroundings, and the blood-like splatter at the bottom?

And yet this isn't a DA scene, nope! This is Cale talking about the mages in Whipper Kingdom.

My point is,,,, it's very doable to make Cale look intimidating. To make him look Dominating. So with how the scenes with DA have been handled so far, well.... I'm quite disappointed.

[mae-i-scribble]

I'm doing a very slow reread of orv with some friends, but since I can't talk about my spoilerous rambles with them too much I have decided to make a post here to get my thoughts out. Up to chapter 25, I've been surprised by the amount of little hints we're already getting for larger plot points and the things that are recontextualized now that I'm looking with hindsight rather than experiencing it for the first time, which really speaks to how phenomenally written orv is on a fundamental level. By the time we get to the 3rd scenario, we've had Dokja mention his mother once, when he briefly worries over her safety. Then we get this line:

"I looked around at the people. The first scenario was original sin. Thus, none of the people here were innocent. That made it more disgusting. Those who trampled on someone else to survive, who couldn’t even bear responsibility for their own life."

Of course it's firstly talking about the lack of morality in this world, when faced with the truth that between the major and minor groups of Gumho station, one fact makes them equal: they are all murderers. The use of the phrase "the original sin" caught my eye because when looking at Dokja's life, murder is his original sin- the murder of his father. That is what sparks the events leading up to this point. It is the true original sin of this world. However, that being followed by "That made it more disgusting...who couldn't even bear responsibility for their own life," is rather hypocritical in that regard. We have no way of knowing exactly how much of that night Dokja remembers at this point of the story, so there are 2 ways to interpret this in regards to his father's murder. 1) Dokja does not remember that he murdered his father, but remembers that his mother had taken responsibility for her crime and served her sentence. In regards to here the people of the minor are far inferior because they cannot adapt the way Sookyung did to their crime. 2) Dokja does remember that he murdered his father, and this disgust is equally leveled at himself, because he knows his mother is innocent but that she took responsibility from Dokja. Thus Dokja of back then is just like these people, unable to take responsibility for his crime.

Then, later on, we see the text, and Dokja specifically, focus on this particular pairing in the minor group.

"The people started to move. All in all, they were people who had already killed. “M-Mother!” “Dayoung, come here! Do this! Just like what you did on the subway with Mother!” Children and mothers."

Then in Chapter 25 we have:

"I honestly admired that the mother and child survived the bloody fight. If she had that much strength, they might be able to survive without going with us."

The English translation doesn't exactly lend itself to identifying the gender of the child, and I am miserably monolingual so I'm not sure if the original text specifies Dayoung's gender, but for thematic reasons I'm choosing to imagine them as a mother/son paring. In that regard, Dokja choosing to notice them out of everyone else, when he's an extremely apathetic person in these early chapters who doesn't care much for those not directly related to him or the story/his survival is very notable. I can't help but think he sees himself in that, as both the son of a murderer and a murderer himself. It's also notable that when complimenting the pair, he only focuses on the mother's strength. Which like. The subconscious projection is so real. To Dokja the child didn't do anything it seems, it's only because of the mother's strength that they will be able to live on. I'm sure I will be back to add more info on this as I trudge through the novel because Dokja and Sookyung's relationship makes me mentally ill all the time but for now I shall simply lay down and ponder(tm)

[jade-len]

nothing says family bonding time like binge watching a kdrama for over 5 hours straight with your mom till 5 am when you were supposed to be studying and both asleep at least 3 hours ago ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[roseadleyn]

jennette margarita;

❝ do we ever think of each other at the same time? ❞

❝ you didn't go through all that for nothing, and neither did i. so let it hurt, and then let it go. ❞

tagging; @histxricaldrama, @amxto, @lxdymoon0357, @that-one-pretty-bitch, @d10nsaint, @hmerus, @izumi-astra-123, @erebus0, @hadiacake, @writerig, and @fuoon.

[rusquared]

Then again. That's why they love you.

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT IM ALREADY DOWN ON MY KNEES THROWING UP (please never stop i love u)

[startwi-light]

PENELOPE JUDITH

[lloydfrontera]

What do you think would happen if manhwa javier meets novel lloyd? (or manhwa lloyd meets novel javier)

would you believe me if i told you there's an au exactly about this from like. back in march aksjdklsfsd

mostly i just think they'd be very unsettled about the differences between them! manhwa javier would find novel lloyd way too calm and playful compared to what he's used to and manhwa lloyd would find novel javier weirdly obtuse.

i do think manhwa javier would find novel lloyd a lot more tolerable than novel javier would find manhwa lloyd. like. m!javier would slowly get attached to this version of lloyd who teases and jokes around with him and while he still would want his version of lloyd back a small part of him would definitely be like 'can i keep him tho?'. n!lloyd would be a little unnerved over how cold and dry this weirdly minty javier is with him tho, he's not sure he would put his life on this guy's hands tbh asdksdl

meanwhile n!javier is ready to kick m!lloyd's ass back to his own dimension, please give him his own lloyd back right now this one makes weird faces and is mean all the time he doesn't like it >:c

[pan-gaa]

My problem with the BL industry -part 1-

Where do we draw the line?

I want to start this by saying I myself have been a BL fan for many years, I just want to share my thoughts on the issues cultivated by this industry in the eyes of a queer man. I want to focus on the sexualization of “toxic” more so abusive relationships that are portrayed. Because the manwha Jinx is one of the most popular BLs at the moment and it fits as an example of my point, I’ll be speaking a little bit about it.

What was the purpose of the BL genre? Well for women it was a media that served as escapism since most mature media was very much male oriented. Women could not feel connected to the characters portrayed only to please men’s disturbing fantasies. Between the impossible body standards and the clear lack of regard for the woman autonomy it isn’t a surprise that women felt quite disconnected from 18+ media. That’s when an adult genre came to fruition, 18+ media for women by women but no woman was portrayed in these stories in fact the main focus was relationships between 2 men. The disconnect from societal pressures helped woman enjoy 18+ content without feeling guilt or disgust. But how a genre created to disconnect toxic attributes in media became just that but for another demographic? Now the people on the other end of this discomfort are queer people, not only gay men. Romanticizing dangerous power dynamics, dubious consent, sexualizing toxic stereotypes,infantilization ect. The list goes on of all real life issues that the queer community deal with but are nothing but entertainment within this genre.

Not all BLs are bad! Im very aware since again I am quite the fan of some but this is more me criticizing the industry per se. The problem is that toxicity sells, what companies want is to sell and that opens the doors for people to make more toxicity for whatever their reasons. All that moves us to where we are today were we have one the most popular current themes being Stockholm syndrome and how it is hot. I’ve been seeing myself how I have been dropping more series than I have finished, I kept getting hit with more and more of this toxic clichés. It was like I was playing bingo and hoping I didn’t win, I would get so excited for stories that did the bare minimum and yet those were hard to find which has made my current experience quite exhausting. Of course I’m no longer the teen who would let anything pass because “hot characters” and even more hot scenes but now as an adult that just doesn’t cut it anymore. Showing toxic situations in media on its own is not the problem but it is the context in which they are shown, these are not cautionary tales but “love stories” the intent is for you to root for those characters. Not only is the relationships an issue but the way they portray queer people overall, the disrespect for bisexual people, trans people and lesbians in some of these stories is quite appalling since these are suppose to be queer stories. I think this says a lot about the industry and some of the artists involved, before it could maybe be used as an excuse the lack of knowledge but to me that no longer holds in the age of the internet.

Now I’ll like to mention one of the stories I’ve personally been a little tired of seeing, Jinx. I was quite interested in the manwha when it was announced, as I’ve mentioned before I’m all about the visuals and seeing the improvement of the artist was endearing. I’m aware the BL is still ongoing but I have read BJ Alex which can add a little context on how the artist manages their stories. This is not a personal diss on the artist or those who are reading the story, I just think with all these kinds of popular stories we gotta ask ourselves, Where do we draw the line? Jinx is your typical story of the protagonist being someone that went thru trauma and has to spent their whole life trying to pay some insane debt, then comes the romantic interest being a famous rich person with an unchecked personality disorder that takes advantage of the power dynamic and uses the protagonist to his convenience. It is quite an overdone premise and in this story we see it as a black listed physical therapist and a famous athlete, the protagonist Dan appears to act like an Angel while Jaekyung keeps bullying him and using him for other acts. The story so far has been quite literally only this, and you see in the comments people hoping for a redemption arc for Jaekyung, at some point in this story readers have to realize that a good ending would be Dan leaving this situation but unfortunately I don’t have much hope for that. Jinx is not the only story doing this but it is one of the most popular at the moment, we also have stories like Painter Of The Night which is literally the love story between a kidnapper and his victim.

BL is a genre that can be enjoyed by anyone yet it seems like lately it can become queer stories but not for queer people but more so toxic fantasies put onto another group of people that also have to fight for their own respect. It’s perfectly fine to enjoy good ol 18+ media that is morally grey or maybe somewhat toxic but when an industry gains so much money on portraying real issues as unserious fantasies so continuously, I think it’s time we ask ourselves as the readers; When is it too much? When does it get disrespectful to the people it’s portraying? Where do we draw the line?

[arsonmurderandjaywalking]

not to be a hater on main but good god is the sweet home drama bad. I'm probably not even going to be able to finish season 2 because it's just been so fucking boring and just nothing. an hour per episode and they've somehow managed to make it feel like absolutely nothing and far too much happens in each of them. and I just hate so many of the changes they made to the manhwa in season 1. I just don't like yi-kyung as a character; eun-yu and sang-wook function as just entirely separate characters— the thing is, I think eun-yu getting more focus and being more of a foil to hyun-su could've been a really good decision if they hadn't dropped the ball so hard. changing sang-wook how they did was such a boring and obvious decision, though, and I will stand by that; they completely gutted ji-su and hyun-su's relationship which undeniably made the show worse, thematically; they removed maria from the sky, which seems like a minor nitpick but that in turn hurts both hyun-su and eun-hyeok's relationship and their individual characterization. they're loser nerds. please for the love of god let them be loser nerds; they removed hyun-su's snark. he could be fucking MEAN sometimes, and just had a base level of pricklyness throughout the whole thing. it was endearing; they completely changed eun-hyeok's personality. I didn't put him with eun-yu and sang-wook because he still fulfills a lot of the same roles in the narrative in the drama as he did in the manhwa, unlike them, but I still feel like it hurts his character. where's his snark. where's his loser nerd interests. where's his rpg references while explaining his battle strategies. he was a troll and a cheerfully enigmatic bastard. he was like half of the comic relief (which feels a lot like it was a conscious decision he made, in-universe) he's so serious now. it's boring. also they made him older, which also seems like a minor nitpick, but him being a literal high schooler adds such a level to him choosing to step up as the leader, as the person who makes the hard decisions no one else wants to make, and these grown adults just letting him; I don't like that they added more romance to the drama. this is actually a problem I also have with the manhwa, though to a much lesser extent. I really, really liked the fact that ji-su and hyun-su's relationship was platonic, I felt (and still do) that it was much more meaningful than them being romantic, and the romance also felt really shoehorned in at the last minute besides. but the drama was shoving it in your face from their first meeting that hyun-su and eun-yu were romantic and they just really did not sell me on it; THEY CHANGED HYUN-SU'S MONSTER FORM. still so pissed about this. he was a knight!! because he was hanging onto just enough of his consciousness to be able to protect ji-su!!! they care about each other the most out of all of what remains of this unfair world!!!! the knife arm, one-winged angel-imagery bullshit in the drama was so boring and had no symbolic significance. objectively a downgrade. literally one of the only changes that I liked was what they did with jae-heon's backstory, that actually added so much to his character

[cherchersketch]

A Wicked Tale of Cinderella’s Stepmother / I raised Cinderella preciously

My quest to binge all the ~isekai villainesses trying to DO BETTER~ series is constantly ongoing. And I also already love fairy tale retellings. I think the plot for this is really interesting, especially the ~*sibling relationship*~ between Cinderella Ashley and the 2 stepsisters.  It’s not... anything particularly *exciting* though. So I’m just reading it very very slowly through the free chapters on tapas. 

Summary Our main girl wakes up as the ~evil stepmother~ from Cinderella. She’s BIG MAD because no more internets ;A; but also it’s once again time to ~*be a better person*~. So now she’s raising the stepsisters and Cinderella Ashley as actual sisters together. Even though they’re all poor (in noble people terms), they actually all help out together. It’s so cute ;w; Since it’s a given that Cinderella Ashley’s gonna get the Prince, mama bear’s on a mission to help the other 2 sisters find suitors as well. (because of course things always go according to the original novel in isekais). And some sus Baron (who is totally not the Prince’s tutor or anything) seems to be trying to woo our main girl as well. 

Tropes   - isekai-ed as the villainess   - what do you mean I’ve drastically changed the plot the original FL and ML will definitely still belong together   - what’s this? 3-dimensional characters? in my fairy tale?

FL - Mildred Vans

- just trying to do her best - girlboss - Mama Bear - 2 marriages was enough no ML for me thanks - weird why is my heart going dokidoki when I’m with ML

Children - Lily, Cinderella Ashley, Iris

- I don’t know why her name’s Ashley and not some type of variation of Ella - Ashley clumsy af but she means well - people keep saying the stepsisters don’t look good in-story but they lowkey kinda cute (?) - actually nice to see them having a good sibling relationship - Prince dude is definitely falling for one of the sisters RIP original storyline

ML - Daniel Wilford

- kinda sus, but also understandable why he has to keep a low profile outside - I don’t know how old but Mildred keeps thinking he’s too young for her

Rating: I enjoyed my time reading this used to be “meh” but the more I read the more enjoyable it’s been. Just has a bit of a slow start.  Status (as of 9 July 2022) Ongoing. I’ve only read up to episode 16 (of 74) so far. Still haven’t really reached a point in the story where I feel the urge to *binge immediately* so I’ll just continue reading as long as tapas has the free chapters.  I finally caught up and the baron still acts kind of sus, for some reason, but his feelings seem sincere. This series is that “what do you mean I’ve drastically changed the plot the original FL and ML definitely still belong together” trope except it’s towards her daughter instead of herself.

Same Same but Different   - The Perfect Ending Plan of a Fairy Tale Villainess   - Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom

full rec list

[shesalewa]

Kayden Break is so full of himself. I love it.

He's also a great dad.

I love mentors who act like stupid dads.

[manawari]

I also have "I Regressed to My Ruined Family" this as well.

Ohhhhhh

I haven't read that one 👀

[dontkissthejam]

ok ok, i know horus didn’t mean to r*pe set and that set came into his room intending to r*pe horus but i cant help but see horus as a good person. i really don’t like him and i want him to stay faaaaar away from set, like go to greece kinda far. never see him again. i just don’t feel that he’s truly sorry towards set, yes he says he will serve him but i don’t see his “loving” and “gentle” actions as those at all, it makes my skin crawl and to me it mirrors everything osiris did to set. It feels like he’s forcing his love onto set just like osiris did just less r*pey. I guess to me horus isn’t making up to his mistake enough. I feel like he could still be more gentle but set doesn’t really allow that does he 😓. Ik set is also to blame but… Argh. Anyways i still love Ennead and i just want to see Set happy with his son 😩.

Idk maybe i missed something in the story.

yes ik chap. 75 is not cannon.

[life-and-death-companions]

some (possibly) unpopular opinions pt. 2

It turns out my rant about manhwas that did not appeal to me were actually pretty fun to read, and since I am nothing but a jester for entertainment I have decided to make another one of these. I feel like I'll get flamed for some of my choices though 💀 doesn't matter, all in good fun 👍

Under the Oak Tree

The Beginning After the End

Solo Levelling

Beatrice

I Have Become the Heroes' Rival

How To Hide the Emperor's Child

Why Are You Doing This, Duke?

Beware of the Brothers!

Under the Oak Tree

Let me just preface this by saying that my complaint is not about Maxi's timid, soft-spoken nature. I understand that her fear to defend herself and her inability to communicate her needs properly is a result of years of cruel abuse, oppression and control. In that regard, she is very similar to Soru from Twilight Poem (Heeran Love Song), and I love them both. They both have a quiet strength evident by their capacity for kindness in the face of constant barbaric mistreatment - not to mention their resilience. Few people would go through what they did and still strive to heal or accept genuine human connection.

However, I am far less empathetic towards Riftan. With how often he gets it on with her, he's been classically conditioned to associated Maxi with arousal and sexual pleasure. Too many times has he initiated this type of thing when Maxi was only trying to express herself and communicate, which made for a frustrating narrative - and if I'm honest, after some time it felt like he was using Maxi as a sex toy, which enraged me like nothing else.

Most people liked the smut, some thought it was a bit overkill. I, for one, am proudly ace and so it did nothing to appeal me to the story when it was obvious their sex life was 99% due to lust alone, rather than any sort of connection. I kick my feet and screech just like any other person when I read about two people loving each other so much and finding refuge through touch and physical intimacy - but this was shallow sex. It got to the point where when Riftan would made advances I would start laughing because it was just that predictable and boring.

(Also! Their first wedding night! Stank! Of! Sexual coercion! It made me so enraged and it was so confronting that I honestly skimmed through the dialogue and skipped the scene altogether. "You're my wife so we must fulfil our marital duties" PLEASE I WANTED TO BARF. Nobody come at me about historical accuracy and context when this story has fucking wizards and shit.)

Also, I'm a bit of a man hater (we all have flaws 💀) so reading about a man who by all means solely holds the power in a relationship makes me dislike the story on principle. Maxi has been under the thumb of men from the moment she was born, so her marriage to Riftan felt to me like a simple switch from one type of oppression to another. I'll admit I was projecting a bit because I was seeing the many women in my life who've suffered because of the patriarchy through Maxi and resenting Riftan as a result. However, I still don't think my assessment is that flawed.

TL;DR: I hate presumptuous, inconsiderate men, and unfortunately Riftan fell into that category, but Maxi, sweetie - I love you with all my heart.

The Beginning After the End

Manhwa that is obviously intended for a male demographic are honestly a bit of a hit or miss most of the time. I loved The Return of the Mount Hua Sect, and the main character from The Return of the Crazy Demon has my whole heart.

The reason why I dislike a vast majority of them is that they obviously cater to the idea that an ideal man should be cold, uncaring, callous, invulnerable and entirely masculine-presenting. The comment sections of male-targeted manhwa like Solo Levelling and the Beginning After the End are full of boys that look at all these MCs acting superior with their hands in their pockets and their arrogant smirk and think they're the 'goat'. Female characters are treated as incapable of rising to the same level of strength as the male main character, and indeed when they're confident in their skills the boys in the comment sections have nothing but derogatory comments to make about them.

In the comment sections of the Reaper of the Drifting Moon, not only is the MC under fire after their transformation to a leaner, more snake-like, curvy frame that appears more feminine, but the women he encounters are insulted in every way. Case in point:

I wish this was the worst among them, but it's not. I bet many other people can attest to the fact that comment sections like these are drowning in misogyny.

Arthur is in many ways that toxic masculinity personified. Always superior, always overpowered, always better, always smarter. Also, he's a thirty-eight year old weirdo that goes around having under-aged girls as love interests. If that isn't deeply disconcerting I don't know what else to say.

Solo Levelling

I'm so gonna get hate for this.

I also don't care.

Anyway, my issues here are three:

Jin-Woo panders to that ideation of an OP 'Goat' protagonist that I really don't fuck with personally.

The romance sucked. There was no real connection between him and Cha Hae-In. We had like one episode of them going to the amusement park. The whole "he-doesn't-smell!" premise was an obvious (and weird) attempt to force a romance subplot and give Jin-Woo a female love interest, perpetuating that image of him as desirable and flawless. She was, in a word, a prop.

The ending sucked also. It was one step away from the Protagonist Loses Their Powers And Settles Into A Life of Domesticity trope and I hated it. It was so unfulfilling.

The reason why I stuck around and read it in full was simply that it's fun. It's fun, sometimes, to read self-indulgent trash about OP main characters that solo every challenge. It just doesn't exactly make for a very memorable story or a likable protagonist, which is why I don't really care much for it.

TL;DR: The kind of brainless story you read when you can't be bothered putting yourself through the emotional and cognitive effort of connecting with complex characters and loaded stories.

Beatrice

I dropped this so fast I don't remember much about it, but I can say three things:

The fact that she was a slave and was basically rescued from hard labour because she was charming and cute was very much not it 💀 Why do all these girls that used to be slaves conveniently forget about slavery and its ramifications on others when their status is elevated and they posses the influence to do something about it?

LMFAO WHY DOES SHE LOOK SO HAPPY WHEN SHE'S SAYING THIS PLEASE-

In almost every panel, she looks dainty, petite and naïve to the point of appearing like a child, especially when compared to the ML's massive hulking rippling-pectoral figure. It made for equal parts ridiculous and creepy panels when they were put side by side.

LOOK:

ALSO CACKLING AT HIS POSTURE AND POSITION

TL;DR: Should have been classified as a comedy because I laughed more than I swooned over their apparently dreamy whirlwind forbidden romance.

I Have Become the Heroes' Rival

This story was so good and now it's rapidly going downhill. Claudia and Irene, my beloveds.

Felix - well, very questionable. When he abandoned her on the seaside after their first kiss and dramatically walked off into the ocean I laughed for hours.

And when he broke her bone during sex and the entire thing was romanticised and established to be proof of his inhuman verility I was actually gobsmacked.

"Don't provoke me because I won't be able to stop or control myself after" is the biggest fucking red flag to me. At any point during sex, Irene has the right to feel safe enough to say no or to change her mind. But whatever. The whole attraction of this story appears to be the kinky demon sex. I mean, judging from the comments and the fans it has garnered, I won't say this isn't successful.

TL;DR: Not my cup of tea.

How To Hide the Emperor's Child

I'm so tired of subpar, pathetic MLs.

Why Are You Doing This, Duke?

Some people thought the Duke's transformation from cold-blooded, cruel man to loving and kind to Nöel was funny and cute and a testament of the power of love.

I was uncomfortable with it. The overstated, grand gestures of love, the superficial nature of their relationship in the beginning, and Nöel's own focus on self-preservation to keep her position as the Duke's beloved made me uncomfortable. The Duke felt like a victim.

TL;DR: I don't like Nöel. I don't like the Duke much, either, from what I've seen of his real persona. That said, I did drop it, so I don't know how the story progresses with regards to that love spell and its origins.

Beware of the Brothers!

Sweet home Alabama~