#mother doesn't even talk all that much about albrecht like

[girlbob-boypants]

It's weird to me when people defend the Deimos story cause it's about the class of people who organized your horrible fate as a child soldier being a family of people who actively abuse and torture each other and it's all portrayed as just mild misunderstandings that you can fix by doing their chores.

Meanwhile discussions of the heart and the infested are just nowhere to be fucking seen, making it terrible for worldbuilding and also just terribly unpleasant to experience if you have an ounce of critical thinking about what's actually happening

At least it's an infinitely better farm than the other two

[shiroandblack]

An unsolicited thought-vomit on the manhwa; A Stepmother's Märchen.

I love it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

This is one of those rare manhwas where the art is as excellent as the storyline. I will be approaching this as someone who has only read the manhwa and not the novel.

Some criticism I've heard of is that it's too heavy for some people and that it's slow at the beginning. I honestly think that's mostly because the political intrigue is a main plot instead of a side-quest to the romance. So at the beginning, the author and artist was definitely laying down the seeds for all of the things currently happening in the manga. The political intrigue is well done as well, it's not everyone vying for power like in asoiaf but a certain group of people who would definitely benefit from gaining more power like Theobald, the Crown Prince, and the Church (Cardinal Richelieu).

It's also addresses class difference through Nora and his friends. Nora as the highest of nobility is very privileged in terms of material wealth and social status compared to his friends who are humble townspeople. Nora himself has genuine care and relationships with them and while not "relatable" they can get on easily. This all comes to a head when they decide to go to Nora's house (more like castle) and that's when they're fully confronted by the fact that Nora is not like them at all. I completely understand the bitterness of one of his friends (the blond one) when he decided to end their friendship, because he has a point. The defense from the other friends that Nora's grandfather and father are heroes who fought valiantly in a war, is contrasted by Blondie's (I'm sorry, I can't remember his name) remark that his father fought valiantly in the war too, his father gave up his profession and livelihood and came back with an injury that debilitated his ability to do things like before. And where is the appreciation for that? Compared to Nora's family who are lauded as heroes and probably received things like land/titles from the emperor simply because they are nobility. Nora is angered when Albrecht (his father) tells him about the confrontation with his friends, to which Albrecht says that he shouldn't be hanging out with them in the first place. In the perspective of his friends, it's frankly insulting for Nora to wear less-fine clothes and hang around them (pretending to be them in a way) even though Nora has always been honest about his identity as a noble to them but they have never been confronted with that reality until they visited Nuremberg Castle.

The fact that Shuri time-traveled seems to be more of a sidenote than something of actual relevance. By relevance, I mean to say that she died horribly in her first life but she isn't really looking for revenge. She's looking to secure the Neuchwanstein kids' futures and also she genuinely wants a bond with them that she didn't have in her first life because ultimately, Shuri wants to love and to be loved. As much as I love villainess manhwa, I also love manhwa where the characters just want to happily live their lives.

Speaking of happily living their lives, I've seen Ohara getting hate for wanting to marry Jeremy for power/security. I think as a child who witnessed her mother being the love of her father's life, only to be discarded when her beauty waned to the point she died alone in her rooms affected her very deeply of course. Her mother straight up tells Ohara to not marry for love but for security, because love can fade but her title as the lady of the house will never and she's basically set for life and won't be as hurt as her mother was when her husband's love eventually fades. Ohara's dislike for Shuri at first is because of the power Shuri seems to hold over Jeremy. Ohara doesn't need to be the number one woman in Jeremy's life, she only requires him to treat her as such so she will not be degraded or belittled like her mother was. Her father seems to be very open with his affairs, considering one of his mistresses made the decision to 'introduce' herself to Ohara in a very public ball with the intention to humiliate her. Ohara doesn't want her or her marriage to be the subject of public scrutiny and while Jeremy's affection for Shuri in their first life was not obvious I think to the casual viewer, Ohara as someone who knows Jeremy and his ticks could probably see that easily. Her request for Shuri not to attend the wedding in their first life was a way for her to guarantee that they will appear as the 'perfect' couple in the eyes of society, because then Jeremy won't be distracted by Shuri. Also, the blame put on her because Shuri was murdered because she didn't come to the wedding is mind-blowing. Ohara was a 16/18 year old young woman trying to secure herself, she didn't plan Shuri's murder or something. In their first life, Shuri was going to get murdered either way whether she went to the wedding or not because the Church decided they were going to kill her and nothing Ohara said/did was ever going to change that because this 16/18 year old girl was not in on the plot to get Shuri killed at all.

I also really enjoyed the way the romance was written. I personally do not think that Jeremy's feelings for Shuri are not incestuous as Shuri is only 2 years older than him and she has never tried to position herself as a mother to him despite being his stepmother. As for the sibling incest vibes? Shuri considers Jeremy as something of a younger brother, but I don't think Jeremy has ever considered Shuri as his older sister/sister. One might argue that it's because he calls her 'sister', but in a lot of cultures (including my own) a girl who is older than you but with not much of an age gap between you guys, whether you are related to her or not is called 'sister/elder sister'. This is why Nora, who Shuri very much has romantic feelings for, also calls her 'sister' at least in the translations I have read.

Theobald's feelings for Shuri on the other hand? Now that's some mommy issues right there. I could go on about this boy, but I'm not going to because he deserves his own post. I'm not unpacking that can of worms just yet because then I'll have to unpack the can of worms that is Ludovica.

Honestly, I can't wait for the second season and for me to binge it.

[stepmarchen]

Theories about who gave Shuri her necklace

temporary spoiler warning below

So first, some context. Before the timeline split, Shuri received a necklace and a love letter after her visit to the Parliament. Here's the evidence we have so far

Shuri deduced that the necklace must've come from somebody who saw her at her first Parliament meeting with Johannes

Shuri's second deduction was that the person may be trying to exploit the Neuschwanstein Estate

Confirmed attendees of that meeting include Duke Heinrich, Cardinal Richelieu and Wolffe, and Lady Bayern. Implied but unconfirmed attendees include Albrecht and Count Shweig.

The unknown creeper observing Johannes' condition worsening as he goes through a pneumonia lapse

The gift was an intricate red jewelry box with heart engravings, wrapped in gold and red cloth, holding a letter and a silver necklace with round gems and laurel designs

The letter talked about Shuri's pitiful situation as a soon-to-be widow in a loveless marriage and their affections for her

So first, I'm going to be ruling out a few people:

The Imperial Family - There's no evidence pointing at them nor any suggestion from the writing aside from the red symbolism associated with the Royal Family. In this case, I think the red points more towards symbolism of pending violence, blood, and evidence of a romantic affair.

Albrecht - I don't think he has any motives, as Johannes' and Shuri's friend. He's also in the rare position as a Duke, one of the few nobles richer than Johannes. Him leaving the Neuschwanstein estate in a rush the night of Johannes finding the necklace is strange but doesn't raise any specific flags towards him as the suspect.

Count Shweig - He wasn't mentioned at all during the parliament meeting and hasn't made any significant moves in the story besides being jolly and kind.

Cardinal Richelieu/Wolffe: The mysterious eye watching Johannes could be anyone, but ORKA has used that character to symbolize Richelieu and Wolffe multiple times (not to mention Wolffe's crazy eyes even in daylight). As suspicious as they are, they didn't seem to regard Shuri as a threat during her early days.

The suspects:

Benjamin Bayern: Lady Bayern's adoptive son kissing Shuri's hand to Shuri getting freaked out by his gaze raises some flags for sure. But there isn't much we can go off on so far, as he only came up once for half a chapter. While he could've heard the parliament news through his mother, evidence pointing against him is that we don't know if he was around at that point in time. He appears for the first time AFTER the 3 year timeskip, where Shuri meets Lady Bayern again. Lady Bayern gives Shuri the "good news" which suggests that he was adopted some time during those 3 years.

Duke Heinrich: At this point in time, Duke Heinrich would've already cheated on his wife with his mistress. According to Ohara, her father is an active social climber actively searching for ways to the top, even using her mother Claudia as a tool for his success. He has a reputation for seducing women for his personal gain, which checks off boxes for the contents of the letter. However, at this point in time, Jeremy and Ohara would've already been engaged. So I'm not sure if Heinrich would've done something so rash.

Viscount Solingen: Shuri remembers meeting the Viscount in the 1st timeline on her way to a parliament meeting. He made a comment about Shuri being the new head and that it hadn't been long since Shuri got married. He invites her to dinner after the meeting, suggesting that he's also a parliament member. Like Benjamin, not much has been revealed about him but Shuri seemed to be suspicious of him and we should be too.

[feral-lore-creature]

Last ask I promise!

Got any Albrecht headcanons? If so I would love to hear them!

Okay! Sure! And don't worry, I don't mind at all, lol.

You can imagine these in whatever part of Albrecht's life you want. If he ends up being chill, then this goes for Post-Duviri him as well.

1. Despite his rather somewhat stern, relaxed, almost cold nature, (like most Orokin had) he's incredibly chill. He's a ton less stoic than Teshin, and doesn't feel need to hide his emotions much. (I believe that comes from his privilege of being Orokin/royalty, he was allowed to express himself more)

2. It can be VERY hard to get him away from whatever he's looking into, researching, experimenting with, etc. He kind of just goes into like an autopilot mode, and doesn't really stop until someone forces him to. He doesn't have the feeling of needing to get this done out of pressure, he just gets very excited over the small discoveries. (kinda sounds like an addiction, lol)

3. I was previously thinking about the relationship dynamic between Albrecht, and Grandmother. Albrecht is the technical, experimental guy to talk to about theories, and fun facts with. He's wise, but maybe not in the way Grandmother is. Grandmother is the more mother-like, wise, "let's sit down and talk about our feelings over tea" type of person. The two contrast each other, but never go against each other.

4. He is 1000% mentally ill. Depression? Anxiety? Yeah, he's got it. He get frustrated because it gets in the way of his work sometimes. He might even have some PTSD around some parts of his work, or places he used to like to visit in the Entrati house.

5. He is very much a family man, he just gets more emotionally/mentally distracted than Grandmother does. He tries, he does love and care for people, it's just hard to give it time to show itself when he's busy all the time.

And I think that's all I got! (for now, at least, lol) It's a pretty long read, hope you don't mind! Thanks for asking! :)