Korean - Animefangirl!

For My Derelict Favorite manhwa review (liked and hated it at the same time, ending spoilers included)

It’s very popular in romance manhwa to have a villainess going up against the original female lead (OGFL). Almost always the villainess turns out to be not so bad while the OGFL is not so good, so then you’re happy to see the “villainess” (actually a nice person) wins.

For My Derelict Favorite is a manhwa where the villainess is low key a real bitch who actively mounts a campaign to destroy the life of the OGFL who has done nothing to her personally, and succeeds in the end. If you’ve ever wanted to see a villainess act like a villainess and succeed and have everyone paint her as a saint in the process, this is your series.

Summary (from official Webtoon): What happens after the story ends with a “happily ever after”? When Hestia enters her favorite novel as a side character, she happily fangirls from the sidelines. Thinking she’ll return home when the story reaches its end, Hestia finds that the only thing awaiting her is the tragic death of her favorite character. Now miraculously restored to the day of the ending, Hestia decides that she’ll no longer spectate from the sidelines – instead, she’ll save her derelict favorite!

So it’s a series where the protagonist enters her favorite series and takes revenge on everyone who (in her opinion) wronged her favorite character. Everyone who has ever suffered from Second Male Lead Syndrome can relate to her feelings, if not her actions.

Since Hestia was not a character in the original novel, she doesn’t technically count as a “villainess.” Instead she is the ultimate fangirl who goes to great lengths to get “revenge” for her favorite character Cael who starts the series feeling suicidal after his crush Diana cuts ties with him because he murdered two people (!) and then marries his friend Helios.

In Hestia’s first experience in that world, Cael ultimately succeeded in killing himself. However Hestia went back in time and forced her way to become his wife, running his affairs until he gets out of his depressive funk and resumes his normal duties. She also uses her knowledge of the first timeline to pass herself off as a prophet, getting Cael and Helios to trust her by making predictions that come true.

Now, let’s get a few things straight so you can see how unreasonable Hestia was being.

Yes, Cael was in love with Diana, but he never confessed his feelings or even touched her. The whole country knows it, but he never said anything. For My Derelict Favorite paints the marriage of Helios to Diana as one big betrayal, but what were they supposed to do? Just not date each other because Mr. Can’t Speak Up will be hurt?
Diana was absolutely a hypocrite for using Cael’s love to her advantage by accepting a big gift and his service when it suited her. However she did not two-time Helios with Cael or even divide her affections. She didn’t lead him on and pretend they had a future together.
Diana was also a hypocrite for condemning Cael for murder when it is that murder that allowed her to become crown princess. It was a crappy thing to do to a formerly good friend.
However, it is undeniable that murder is a crime and a sin. Cael killed two people without following legal procedures, and got away with it too. As a saintess with deep convictions (at the time), you couldn’t very well expect her to go yay, whoopee over murder, even if it was ostensibly for the sake of the nation. However Diana’s condemnation could have been done with far more grace and understanding instead of coldly cutting him off while continuing to benefit from his misdeeds.
Nobody “owed” Cael marriage, nobody owed him a romantic relationship just because of all the sacrifices and silent service his offered. Nobody “drove him to suicide” except him and him alone. And to his credit, Cael comes to understand that pretty quickly. Hestia is the one who continues to bear a grudge long after Cael has made peace with everything that happened.
It’s doubtful whether Cael ever loved Diana anyway, as opposed to loving his idea of her, and what she stood for. The same goes for Helios. It turns out that none of them really understood her and all her flaws. Instead they painted a perfect picture in their minds, pursued that ideal and then were disappointed and abandoned her when they had to face reality.

All that to say, I really felt sorry for the OGFL Diana in all this. While she was initially presented as a perfect, caring saintess, Hestia mounts a campaign to rob her of her confidence and all her friends, including wooing away her one supporter in high society, while building up herself and Cael as the key figures in the kingdom, eventually inheriting the Dukedom of the people Cael murdered. How that’s for a villainess winning the game?

And of course, as opposed to the flawed Diana and the confused, diffident Helios, Cael is absolutely perfect, can do no wrong, is only ever sinned against, never sinning. So smart, so handsome, so everything. Unfortunately he’s pretty likeable so I couldn’t hate him, but gosh dangit, that’s a Gary Stu if I ever saw one.

So back to Hestia, who basically loves and worships Cael so much that she wages a campaign to bring Diana down while elevating Cael and herself. And it must be said that part of the reason why she succeeds is Diana’s own weakness. It turns out the personality traits needed to be a good saintess (purity, strong convictions, backing of the temple) are liabilities when she becomes the crown princess and has to learn to compromise, flatter others, pander to the nobility and so on.

Honestly I blame the King and the Crown Prince Helios for Diana getting into this mess in the first place. She was just a random village girl with special powers. That did not inherently make her fit to be crown princess. At the very least she should have undergone a LOT of training before the marriage, which would have quickly exposed how unfit she was for the position. Instead they rushed into the marriage, and I believe part of this was to take advantage of her popularity the ordinary people versus Helios’ shaky position. Otherwise there was absolutely no reason for the crown prince to rush into marriage with a commoner. They should have known how much opposition there would be to Diana, and yet both Helios and his father failed to provide the necessary support, correction and education to help her succeed, and then threw her out once she inevitably made huge mistakes.

What mistakes, though? Apart from hosting poorly planned lunches and being a bad hostess, Diana doesn’t do any of the evil deeds you usually see OGFLs do. She doesn’t plot against Hestia, doesn’t try to kill her or turn society against her, nothing. Her big mistake is to stubbornly make investments in a fraudulent company with money from the temple and the crown. A huge and terrible mistake, but not one that couldn’t have been overcome if Helios stood by her, kept her out of society’s eyes, and helped fix her mistakes. Unfortunately once her popularity and powers are gone, his love (or “love” shall we say) for her quickly disappears as well, and he divorces her and later marries someone else.

Of course let’s not pretend Diana was completely innocent in all this. The only reason she made that investment was to spitefully stick it to Hestia, who she despised because Hestia made it a point to needle her at every opportunity and point out her hypocrisy on occasion. Diana was even warned repeatedly to not do the investment. She was also the first to withdraw from Helios and even try to get Cael to love her again, so I won’t say Helios was completely unjustified in moving on.

But again it boils down to point #6 I made above, which is that neither Cael nor Helios ever bothered to know the real Diana along with her insecurities and tendencies. Helios and Diana never built up a relationship of real trust, and that is what doomed them and allowed events (and Hestia) to come between them in the end.

In all this, I haven’t said much about Hestia herself. TBH she’s quite annoying, always squealing and blushing over Cael while plotting against Diana for daring to not return her sweetie’s affection. Despite her prophetic powers, she also does not try to save a ship full of people she knows is going to sink but instead uses it in her plot to oust the crown princess. What about all the families that lost fortunes due to the fraud? And what about the people in the capital who died just so she could prove that Cael’s territory had better hygiene? Ha, like she cares about anyone except herself. Hestia is toxic to the max.

And she proves it when there’s a long period where she refuses to accept that Cael is genuinely over Diana and over his heartbreak and ready to move on with his life. It brings up the question, when is a victim allowed to stop being a victim? Sometimes people are so fixed on getting justice for someone that they stop considering what the other person genuinely wants.

The “derelict favorite” quickly stops being derelict and returns to his former self, and Hestia is forced to confront the difference between the pitiable victim she has in her mind and the actual red-blooded male she is married to who has more than a passing brotherly interest in his new wife. Fortunately for her, unlike with Helios and Diana, the ‘real’ Caelus is smart and wonderful and funny and all the other things I listed above, so Hestia gets her happy ending with three obnoxious kids while Diana is sent penniless back to her village to be bullied by random village girls.

Meanwhile the author tries in vain to make us sympathize with Hestia by arguing that the reason she’s so fixated on revenge is because if she lets go and admits her job is done, then she will have no reason for being in that world and being next to Cael. But again, it’s all about her isn’t it? What she wants, what her future is, what her place is in that world. If she has to destroy Diana and hundreds of lives because of her crippling anxiety, so be it. Like I said, Hestia is totally toxic.

Let that be a lesson to you, Diana. Maybe next time you’ll think twice before calling out murder when you see it, and you’ll marry the guy who never asked you out versus the guy who loves you and who you’ve been dating for a while. Actually it’s a lesson for all of us: everyone in the kingdom knows that Cael murdered Duke Letona and his daughter, but no one says anything, and the only one who gets in trouble and ends up unhappy is the one who calls it out. The moral of the story is, when you’re benefiting from someone’s misdeeds, just shut up and enjoy it. Or else.

Lastly, since I’m spoiling everything anyway, it turns out the goddess of the world is the one who summoned Hestia there, because the goddess was a fan of Cael and didn’t like how things played out. So she wrote it in a book, scattered it in the multiverse, and summoned the biggest Cael fangirl to help her change the ending, and even reversed time to make her try again when Hestia didn’t perform to her satisfaction.

It’s very bizarre that the goddess had the power to do all that but no power to change the ending herself. In fact, I wager she had more than enough power to intervene, but enjoys being a voyeur and spectator much more, watching the characters move around and suffer for her amusement. How very sad for Diana, who even after the ending spends a lot of time praying to a goddess who doesn’t give a fig about her or about anyone except Cael, and who gives and withdraws powers at a whim. The goddess is the real villainess of For My Derelict Favorite, if you ask me.

Long story short, should you read this? If you’re a fan of romance manhwa, absolutely. It’s short, it’s complete, the art is nice (the bishies are suitably fine), and the main couple gets a happy ending (undeserved IMO but whatever). But plenty of series do the same thing. What makes For My Derelict Favorite much better is the complexity of the supporting cast. They’re not black and white good or evil people and that leaves the reader with a lot of “What ifs” and “Why didn’t theys” that ensure the series will live longer in your memory than the usual isekai romance manhwa will. It left a rather bad taste in my mouth but I won’t forget it in a hurry, at least.

The main series is concluded, with ongoing spin-offs, but they’re mostly about Hestia and Cael crowing triumphantly at the reader because of their perfect lives, so I’m done here. It’s a controversial series with readers, so I’d love to hear your thoughts about Hestia (boo!) and Diana (also boo, but kinda… you know?) if you’ve read For My Derelict Favorite. Until next time!

Becoming a Magic School Mage (review of manhwa season 1)

Season 1 of Becoming a Magic School Mage (written by Writingmachine and illustrated by aptx) finally ended after 121 chapters. This is probably the longest first season I’ve ever seen for a manhwa series. Usually they go on hiatus every 40-50 chapters, sometimes never to return (wah, Monstrous First Day). I’ve even seen a series take a break after as feww as 30 chapters, so 121 is low-key blowing my mind. Well, that’s all good and nice, but how is the series itself?

Summary: Ehan was a stressed-out graduate student who vowed to never attend school again, until he was reborn as the third son of a noble family of mages. But since he isn’t the sole heir, he has to make his own path by enrolling at Einrogard, the best magic school in the empire. And although everyone expects much from him, Ehan’s time in academia has taught him that getting easy As is the best way to get through school. Despite his lack of ambition, can he graduate as a full-fledged mage? (source: Tapas official site)

Of course he can. He’s so wonderfully talented and smart with a nearly bottomless pool of mana that all his professors can’t help but like him… and show that liking by giving him extra work and challenges. Although Ehan is more or less your everyday “overpowered Korean manhwa protagonist,” a few things keep him from being annoying or generic.

The first is his background as an overworked and stressed PhD student, which helps him shmooze with the faculty in ways that can be very funny to watch. He knows just what to say to make the professors happy, but unfortunately making them happy often backfires on him because they show their favor through extra work and responsibilities.

Secondly, he’s strong and smart, but not to an excessive degree, i.e. he still gets into dangerous situations that he has to struggle through or use his wits to figure a way out of, and his professors are still way stronger than him. Although Becoming a Magic School Mage is very much a slice of life series about life at a magic academy, there are also hints and stirrings about a worldwide anti-mage conspiracy, and that puts Ehan and the rest of his friends in danger on occasion.

The third thing reason why Ehan is not annoying despite his talents is that not everyone likes him in the series, and he doesn’t like everyone either. Marty Stu he is definitely not, and none of the girls introduced so far have any interest in him romantically either. Everyone’s just trying to get through their crazy school days as best as possible.

That’s what makes this series enjoyable despite the generic “academy” setting. Some readers/commenters have compared it to Harry Potter, but honestly there are zero similarities beyond the setting and the four houses, so don’t even go there. The stakes are super low, no one is explicitly after Ehan’s life, he’s not an orphan or even poor, and all his professors love him/love messing with him, so if anything it’s the anti-Potter.

If I had to give two drawbacks of Becoming a Magic School Mage, it would be first that the cast is rather large, so a lot of people get lost in the mix and are quickly forgotten. It’s natural that a high school would have a lot of faculty and students, but it’s hard to care about people when they appear and disappear all the time. Not that Ehan cares about anyone except himself much either.

The second thing is the lack of a focused story. It’s okay if the author just wants to write a slice of life series. However he is dropping hints about larger issues out there that have not been developed yet. It’s giving “1000-chapter series” feels where the big issues are only going to come out when readers have stopped caring. But that’s something to worry about in future. Becoming a Magic School Mage just went on hiatus and won’t be back in the while, but it doesn’t end on any crazy cliffhangers. Definitely give it a try if you like comedy school series and/or magic.

Beloved by the Male Lead’s Nephew manhwa – Nonsensical but very charming (some spoilers)

Manga / Manhwa / Manhwa is a largely visual medium, so it follows that lovely art and designs go a long way towards giving a series popularity. I firmly maintain that Solo Leveling wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as it is without the slick art.

And the same goes for Beloved by the Male Lead’s Nephew, a romance series with a largely senseless plot that is all over the place, but with art that is so nice that fans are willing to forget everything and just revel in the art. I mean, look at the very first page:

Sasha-kun, so cuuuuute! So cute I almost forgot to include a summary of the series.

After being reborn as a stalker villainess destined to die for trying to kill Archduke Calix Elluiden’s lover, Charlize Lienta fled from the capital to stay away from the archduke at all costs. But her plan goes awry when she returns a year later and rescues a poor boy on the streets… because he turns out to be Sasha, Calix’s long-lost nephew! Given her infamous reputation as Calix’s stalker, will Charlize succeed in returning Sasha without raising the archduke’s suspicions?

…Of course she will. Okay, basically you should throw all logic out of the window and check your brain in at the door when you read Beloved by the Male Lead’s Nephew. In the first place, the timeline isn’t clear. At first she says the world she is in is from a novel where “Charlize” was executed as a villain. But then we get a flashback to her past life and she was a poor orphan in a medieval era who presumably never learned to read. So when and where did she read the novel?

And at what point did she become “Charlize”? At first it seems to be recent, but then she talks about being in the academy together with Callix. Has she been in the world for a while but unable to control her actions, or did she just reincarnate into Charlize’s body but somehow their memories have merged into one?

There’s a lot that suggests that Charlize is an unreliable narrator – for one thing, she says in chapter one the original Charlize was executed, but then she later remembers committing suicide. She claims that Charlize was an unwanted stalker who never spoke to Callix in the novel, but then remembers that they spoke once and original Charlize never forgot it. Plus in recent chapters, it seems original Charlize’s affections weren’t completely unwanted after all…?

Stop thinking so hard and just focus on Charlize’s ultra-long nails that change color with her outfits. I love them so much!

Honestly, the thought that all this timey-wimey stuff will make sense one day (and the gorgeous art) is what encourages me to keep reading, because the rest of the story is all over the place and makes no sense. First Sasha is the legitimate prince and is supposed to take his place on the throne… but nothing happens and the usurper is still there, scheming against him (or actually doing nothing and the Empress does all the scheming). What’s the delay? Why a delay? First he’s confirmed to be the late Emperor’s son, then there’s an artifact that says otherwise, then no, actually the artifact was reacting to his divine power… it’s a huge mess.

Speaking of divine power and messes, there’s a divine beast that forms a contract with Sasha and supposed to protect him… then it suddenly loses all its powers off-screen and is reduced to a stone which is tossed in a lake and only shows up once to be a deus ex machina. What even is the point of its existence?

And speaking of more powers and messes, Charlize has the power to see flashes of the future when she looks into Callix’s eyes…? Or gets closer to him? She also experiences it with a side character, but it happens once and never again, another mystery. The plot is powered by these flashses, where Charlize sees something, works to prevent it, sees something else, etc. But the power has yet to be explained and is just kinda… there. I’m sure they’ll tell us why she has these powers eventually. Maybe.

I already mentioned the ineffectual Emperor and Empress who have their own thing going on, but mainly do… not very much to anyone. The Empress is easily fooled by the fakest acting even though Charlize has thwarted her plans over and over and over again by “coincidentally” being in the right place at the right now. The Emperor is presumably usurping the throne but barely appears and doesn’t seem aware of the Empress’s plans. He’s just kinda… there.

The Empress is in a hurry to have an heir, but that’s pointless until she gets rid of Sasha, but she doesn’t try very hard to get rid of him, just minor things like pushing him into a lake (where you can’t drown because it’s magic) and setting up a fake artifact. She rather spends her time terrorizing minor nobles… I told you, it’s a mess. I like her design though. The art really carries this series.

Okay, so we established that Sasha the nephew is adorable, Charlize has something interesting going on in her backstory, the villains are a joke, the story is a wash… what am I leaving out? Aha, the romance! And the male love interest! It’s easy to leave him out because while he is very handsome and a very nice guy (no yandere stalkers here), he’s also very flat and boring. But boring is good when it comes to manhwa male leads. Some of them can be completely insane, so a relatively normal guy is lovely. It’s just that he really needs to not be so passive because there’s a lot going on around his passive, good-looking head.

Seriously, he doesn’t really do much except dote on Sasha and be nice to Charlize every chance he gets. I’m very interested in Callix’s relationship to the original Charlize in the previous timeline. He seemed to merely tolerate her stalking out of pity for an abused girl who was pushing everyone away. But later on he seemed to feel more than pity for her. And we get a flashback showing he was crushed at her death, but was it because of love or just more pity? Will the series ever address that, or am I hoping for too much?

I’d also like to see what he plans to do with Sasha, because as of chapter 42 he just spoils him rotten at home. Which is cute, but doesn’t get us anywhere. I’m guessing he wishes he could just keep him safe and let him grow up as an ordinary child, but unfortunately the Empress won’t allow that. That’s why Callix needs to take a stronger stance about pushing for the Emperor to step down and Sasha to take the throne. But no, he would rather go on playdates and slowly get closer to present Charlize… Yeah aight, you do you, I guess.

TL;DR Beloved by the Male Lead’s Nephew is a series you read when you want to go “awwww,” and “kawaiii” and just have fun without thinking about things too much. I think it’s called “fluff,” though most fluffy romances do attempt to make sense. Also read it when you want to see nice art. I love Charlize’s nails, though fans have mixed feelings about those talons, haha. If I read to the end – and I have no intention of quitting anytime soon – I’ll write a follow up post explaining how things turned out. Until then!

I Will Divorce my Tyrant husband (Korean manhwa) – Spoiler: no she won’t

This is a universal spoiler for Chinese/Korean romance series. The longer the heroine spends proclaiming that she’s going to divorce or break up with her horrible boyfriend/fiance/husband, the more inevitable it is that they will end up together in the end. And if the declaration is in the title, then they’re bound to live together happily ever after (see also: Divorce Me, Husband).

That being the case, the point of reading such series is not to find out “what” happens, but rather “why” and “how.” Why a divorce? Is the husband really so irredeemable or is it a misunderstanding? How will they overcome their differences and get back together? Those are the thoughts I had when I started reading “I Will Divorce My Tyrant Husband.”

Summary: I possessed the Empress in the romance novel. Isn’t that supposed to be good? But the problem is that this Empress is always pushed around by the deceitful Empress, beaten up by the Emperor, and she eventually died from an illness. However, unlike the original Empress, I cannot die in vain. I have to become a villain in order to divorce the tyrant husband.

Heroine Robelia is a woman from Korea who possessed an ill-fated Empress in a novel. However her husband (Alexsandro) is trash who has a favored concubine and treats the empress like dirt until she finally dies. In a twist, the concubine, Aisha, is also from Korea. Typical white lotus who cries at everything and tries to act innocent while causing trouble. She is so ineffectual and dumb at it that it’s pitiful to watch, though. You can’t really get mad at her like you could at Trashta in Remarried Empress, for example.

If you believe that, I have a bridge in Antarctica to sell you

Anyway, Robelia asks Alexsandro for a divorce, but he refuses and promises to give her anything she wants except a divorce. That doesn’t mean he’s sorry for neglecting and ignoring her or that he will necessarily treat her better going forward, though. He says so himself: he’s not sorry. Maybe one day he will be, but maybe not. And if she insists, he’ll apologize, but he won’t mean it. Again, he says it himself. He’s scum.

The rest of the series is consumed by Robelia trying to do mean and rebellious things to force Alexsandro to divorce her, while dodging the cutely pathetic schemes of Aisha and resisting Alexsandro’s attempts to get into her bed. Yes, he’s only interested in keeping her around, sleeping with her and having her manage the palace for him. Love…? He doesn’t love anyone except himself.

That makes it all the more painful when Robelia starts blushing and goes all heart-a-flutter whenever he kisses her hand or makes a suggestive comment. Girl, hold firm! He’s garbage! When garbage touches your hand, you don’t blush, you sanitize it! But no, it’s so obvious how this thing is going to go. Especially since Robelia is such a soft touch that she hasn’t done anything really bad to deserve a divorce. So basically she’s going to remain in this polygamous thing until Aisha messes up enough to be disposed of. Disgusting.

On the plus side, the character art in I Will Divorce my Tyrant Husband is gorgeous. I especially like Aisha’s flamboyant red hair and frequent outfit changes. This is how an empress should dress, not boring and dowdy like in 9/10 of other romance series. Everyone looks good, even– no, especially the scumbag jerk Alexsandro. And he knows it too, which is why every other shot of him features the biggest s**t-eating grin ever. So, so gross.

Alexandro the male lead from "I Wil Divorce My Tyrant Husband" Korean series — “I think I’m cute, I know I’m sexy”

TL;DR: I Will Divorce my Tyrant Husband is worth reading for the eye candy, and I quite like Robelia. But the male lead is just too filthy and hateful, so I’m not going to waste my mental powers on this series any more. (Psst: according to a spoiler I read, she does leave him briefly, but comes back right away because “he’s sad.”) Blergghh, yeah, I’m out.

Author of My Own Destiny manhwa review – Not my taste (spoilers up to chapter 54)

I don’t really get why, but I find it a bit icky when an author is reincarnated inside his/her own novel and starts getting romantic with the characters. Kind of like dating your own kid, you know? There are possible workarounds, like having the novel be a subconscious memory, but for the most part I’m iffy on it.

Which is why I wasn’t expecting much when I started the Korean romance/fantasy manhwa Author of My Own Destiny (also spoilerfully fan-titled “I Became the Wife of the Male Lead”). I mainly picked it up for the nice cover art, and boy did it deliver. Everything else aside, the face and character of daddy Abel alone is worth the price of admission. 10/10, would daddy again.

Summary (official):

Evil mage Fiona Green was destined to die at the hands of the protagonist couple in “The Emperor and the Saint.” That is, until the story’s author became Fiona herself! Though mistreated, cast out by her pompous family and thrown into the battle at Heylon, Fiona is determined to use her magic for good. But things take a rather unexpected turn when she rescues the male lead, Siegren, turning him from foe to friend… Will she successfully rewrite her fate without changing the story’s happy ending?

Apart from Abel, the male lead is also good-looking in a generic black-haired kind of way. Come to think of it, has there ever been a manhwa with varicolored hair where the black-haired male did NOT get the girl? Seems like black (or darkest color available) always wins and the other colors are just there to make him more “dramatic” or whatever. Random thought that just occurred to me…

Back on topic, the art is nice, and even the side characters are gorgeous, though heroine Fiona’s kiddy design is a bit… eh. However the plot and its development is unfocused and generic. Fiona and Siegren quickly bond, then just as quickly they grow up and the action moves to the capital. And then the series starts going round in circles with no clear trajectory.

Since Siegren is the bastard child of the emperor and the crown prince is an unpopular, perverted idiot, you would expect some effort to go into depicting court intrigue, key political figures and other events, but no. Siegren seems to have no interest in the throne, politics, business, nothing. He’s just a pretty face who doesn’t have a thought in his brain besides Fiona. Who also doesn’t have much in her brain besides living day to day. Not that I blame them, because the opponents are weak and pathetic and don’t make any serious efforts to dispose of them. Why wouldn’t you chill out and go to balls every day with “oppposition” like that?

However while there is almost no progress on the political side in the 54 chapters I read, there IS progress on the romantic front. This isn’t one of those series where it takes 100 chapters for the female character to realize the male lead likes her, and another 50 for her to reciprocate. Siegren asks Fiona out shortly after they arrive in the capital, she fully understands his intentions, and she accepts his confession!

But! Yeah, there’s a but. You know it couldn’t be that easy. Fiona may have accepted the confession, but she doesn’t love him in the romantic sense. She’s attracted to him on a physical level, but she’s doing that “protecting my heart so it won’t hurt when I’m dumped” and “acting as a placeholder until he falls in love with the real female lead” thing that Korean isekai manhwa overwhelmingly favor. Sooo annoying. Speaking of the real female lead, Eunice, she appeared once and never again. This is gonna be a long, looong manhwa.

So the story isn’t really going anywhere or making much sense beyond Fiona trying to navigate her feelings for Siegren while making sure she doesn’t have to die for the story to end happily. Which is pretty much what the summary says, so it’s almost like the past 54 chapters were unnecessary.

That said, there is one nice thing about Author of My Own Destiny: the female character is actually strong. I mean in terms of holding her own in a fight. You know how it is with romance series. No matter how much of a badass special-ops grizzled veteran the heroine is, she will almost always be much weaker than the male lead and will need saving in every action scene, because how dare she try to do anything ‘manly’ without being a man, right? *rolls eyes*

Well none of that in Author of My Own Destiny, at least not yet. The other main characters are no slouches either, but Fiona gets plenty of action scenes, takes charge and directs people in fighting off attackers and takes the fight to the source where necessary. She’s not afraid to use dirty tactics like torture or intimdation either. Props to her.

That said, this isn’t enough to make up for the meh-ness of rest of the series. The author put Abel on a bus because his awesomness was overshadowing Siegren and Fiona’s, so I can’t even see my favorite character any more. Instead I have to read chapters full of Fiona/Siegren making out and leaving hickeys on each other (just get married already!) while the most boring subplot ever takes place.

Normally I’d say I’ll check back in a year, but in this case, eh, I think I’m done. I have way too much stuff to read and I’m trying to simplify in 2023. For fans of nice art who want to stan Abel only!