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?

Abel Heylon from manhwa Author of My Own Destiny. A.k.a. DaddyApart 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!

Main characters Fiona and Siegren from the manhwa Author of My Own DestinyBut! 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.

He just simps over her for 54 chapters

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!

Warrior High School – Dungeon Raid Department: manhwa that hasn’t really started

I like the “Suddenly, monsters!” genre of Korean action manhwa. They all start the same way: everyone walking around in the city, suddenly a rift appears in the skies and monsters pour out. Waah, whatever will we do? But some people awaken powers and save the day, hurray, tralala~ It’s the same every time and I’m super here for it.

However, because there are so many in the genre, every series has to find a gimmick to distinguish itself. In the case of Warrior High School: Dungeon Raid Department, our subject for today, the gimmick is that there’s a… warrior high school. An exclusive high school for elite future adventurers. Our hero, Yoo Jaryong, badly needs money and items to save his ailing ex-adventurer father. A rich girl offers to fund him in exchange for Jaryong enrolling in Warrior High School to protect and party with her.

So far, so easy to understand. Except… I’ve been reading for 31 chapters and Jaryong hasn’t even taken the high school exam, much less enrolled, much less set foot in its hallowed halls. “Dungeon Raid Department”? What’s that, is it a food? I like a good, detailed setup, but come oooon now.

What’s been happening instead makes it look like the author lacks clear direction. First Yoo Jaryong is introduced as this super strong, experienced adventurer/smuggler… then no, he’s not actually that strong. This is to justify his need to enroll in a school and benefit from actual training. Fair enough.

Then we’re introduced to his background, his father, his financial issues. Also fair enough, so we can understand why he would need to trade his skills for money, and also why he would take the exam. Then he takes an unofficial exam, which is largely pointless except to introduce him to two former acquaintances of his father. Which IMO could have been done in a speedier way, because the excess focus on Yoo Seung (the father) makes him seem like a far more interesting and exciting character to follow.

He was so gloomy at the start of the series

Then finally, the exam….? Nope! Having been introduced as an aloof high-schooler obsessed with making money, Jaryong is now painted as an ordinary kid who enjoys gaming and kills time in a PC room where he just happens to make friends with an elite but lonely student from Warrior High School. The place he still hasn’t enrolled in or taken the exam but he totally will. I wanted to nitpick a little more on this, but his friendship with Tir/Cheolkang is pretty sweet and they make a good team, so I’ll let it pass.

Not that I have time to nitpick because suddenly! the place is attacked by monsters! And there are absolutely no adventurers nearby except Jaryong and Tir! Wao, what a coinkidink. But like I said, they make a great team.

And when all seems lost despite their efforts, suddenly! Jaryong awakens a super power! Noooooooooooo! I mean, yes, it’s the author’s right but nooooooooo. I liked him as a diamond in the rough, without the Naruto-style bloodline whatever hogwash attached. Waaahhh. And that’s around how far we got before I caught up to chapter 31. Oh yeah, Jaryong also found out the name of the enemy he needs to beat to save his dad, so that’s progress.

Long story short, it looks like Warrior High School is going to be a long story, not short. 30-something chapters just to take the exam to enter the titular school is the author’s way of saying “Get ready for the long haul.” I’m all on board for it, to be honest. I like Jaryong, I feel sorry for his dad, the other characters are not bad and the action is easy to follow.

The slow pace isn’t something I’m used to in these action manhwa, but I can make it work. That said, there’s no need to follow Warrior High School on a weekly basis. Checking in once every February should be enough. Binge-reading for the win..

I Just Want to Freeload on Your Luck – chinese web novel review (dropped)

I Just Want to Freeload on Your Luck is one of a sub-genre of Chinese webnovels where there’s a real daughter, who was kidnapped or otherwise went missing, and a fake daughter who was taken in by the original parents, and later on the truth is revealed and all kinds of dramatic hijinks ensue.

There are occasional variations on this, e.g. there’s no fake daughter, or the protagonist is the fake daughter, but usually it all plays out the same way. The family is initially hostile to the “real” daughter because they spent so much time with the fake, but over time she wins them over with her class and demeanor while the lowborn fake exposes her true colors and is eventually kicked out to meet a messy end.

I hate those kinds of stories. Obviously I don’t hate them enough not to read I just want to Freeload on Your Luck, but I do hate it because it’s always poorly done. The original parents always come off very badly because they can never find a way to balance their natural affection for the one they’ve raised all these years with their guilt/feelings for their biological child. It’s always one or the other.

In the end all of the adopted daughter’s failing will be written off as her own bad genes – even if she has been raised from babyhood by those parents, and even if they never saw anything wrong with her behavior until the real one showed up. And meanwhile all the real daughter’s successes and triumphs and good behavior will be credited to her good genes, even if she was raised by wolves 2000 miles away for the first 20 years of her life. It’s so hypocritical, and it really makes me feel bad for the adopted child.

Now, on to the main topic of I just want to Freeload on Your Luck. The real daughter is Zhao Mingxi, the fake one is Zhao Yuan. The gimmick is that Zhao Yuan is super lucky, while Zhao Mingxi is super unlucky and gets even more unlucky the closer she gets to Zhao Yuan. Having died miserably once and been reborn, Mingxi decides to attach herself to lucky characters in the series (except Yuan) to soak up some of their luck (hence the title) and thereby avoid a messy end.

The first half of the story, and the only enjoyable part, is how Mingxi decisively makes a break with the Zhao family that has been treating her poorly for two years. She moves out, cuts all ties and focuses on her studies and getting luck from her seatmate.

The Zhao family is a little pathetic here, because the author strongly implies that Zhao Yuan’s supernatural luck makes it impossible for them to think straight or evaluate matters fairly. It’s only when Mingxi leaves and builds up her luck to an appreciable level that the “spell” is somewhat broken. And then they all begin to turn on Zhao Yuan, which is honestly a little sad because she’s just a kid they all spoiled and doted on for 17 years and suddenly they’re all so cold and hostile to her. It’s not her fault she has that extra luck, and she’s not even aware of it.

It takes about 30 chapters, but the Zhao family eventually gets the hint that Mingxi is well and truly done with them. Well, not really, they still think she will come around eventually but at least they’ve backed off for now. Once the initial source of drama is gone, the story takes a serious downturn to the point where I completely lost interest and dropped it.

Remember when I said Mingxi was absorbing luck from her seatmate? His name is Fu Yangxi, and he somehow gets the idea that Mingxi is in love with him. Then he is heartbroken and depressed to discover she is not and begins to distance himself. Honestly he’s another pitiful character because this is not his fault. Mingxi behaves completely like she has a crush on him, to the extent that an adult male would be fooled, much less a naive, hormone-addled 17-year old. She takes punishment for him, she insists on sitting next to him, she brings him snacks every day, does his homework, worries about him, holds his hand for several minutes, etc.

Unfortunately for him, she barely sees him as human at that point. Her (understandable) goal is to avoid dying of brain cancer at age 23. To that end, she doesn’t care who she hurts or misleads – in fact, it’s not even that deliberate. Do you care about the feelings of your Wifi router? As long as it’s working, you don’t even think about where it is or what it’s doing.

That’s how Mingxi is with Fu Yangxi until he stops “working” and starts avoiding her, then suddenly she starts feeling lonely, following him everywhere, even working her way into his apartment without knowing what the problem is. Meanwhile Fu Yangxi has his panties in a twist because he’s assuming Mingxi was with him to make her old crush jealous, which is absolutely not true but he doesn’t straight up ask her and keeps on assuming. And keeps on running into her and old crush in all kinds of situations which just makes the whole thing worse…

The whole Mingxi-Yangxi thing dragged on so long that I completely lost interest in the series and dropped it. In the first place, I don’t like series where former adults act like kids. Just talk to the boy already! All that beating around the bush is frustrating.

Secondly, I don’t buy Fu Yangxi as the male lead. He’s not a bad guy, but he’s way too immature and has a lot of growing up to do and issues to resolve before he will be a credible romantic partner. Which means either things will end unsatisfactorily or the series will drag on much longer.

Thirdly I’d prefer Zhao Mingxi to focus on her studies and her future like she wanted to instead of getting sidelined with high school romance. 99% of high school romances don’t go anywhere in the long run, and a 23 year-old is old enough to know that.

And so I ended up just dropping I Just Want to Freeload on Your Luck. I’ve read enough, Mingxi has absorbed quite a bit of luck and changed her fate, things are looking up, it’s better to quit while I still have some fondness for the series. I tried to look up ending spoilers but didn’t find any, but I’m sure Zhao Yuan will come to a miserable end and Mingxi and Yangxi will live happily ever after like they always do in these series. The end.

Update on False Confession (Korean manhwa) – Still going nowhere fast, spoilers up to chapter 64

Long title, but it summarizes everything I want to say about False Confession even after it came back from a long hiatus. You can refer to my first post about False Confession, in which I said it was promising but sluggish and not satisfying because of the extremely long-drawn out pace. 18 months and several chapters later, my opinion remains the same.

Even worse, the previously nice art has devolved significantly, especially in the case of the hero Cavert, so it is much harder to get excited about the future of the relationship. You can talk all you like about lookism and egalitarianism, but it still remains a fact that beautiful people attract more eyeballs than plainer ones.

Look how they massacred my boy

Fans of the series are already familiar with the premise. If you keep reading regardless, you have to get used to the way things are in False Confession instead of wishing it was something else. There are other series with more decisive heroines or more attractive male leads, better art, faster paces, etc. That’s why this will be my last time whining about a series I choose to read, and one that has clearly shown that it is a deliberately slow and meandering and wishy-washy series.

But since this is my last time whining, and I’m gonna have a good and proper whine. Priestess Renesha is soooooo annoying! They might as well have titled the series, “Renesha learns to say no,” because eventually she will learn to express herself clearly, but for now it is super irritating.

Blush, then indifferent, then blush
  • She doesn’t love Cavert. She has some affection for him, and there’s some part of her that feels she should like him because he’s so obviously into her, but no, she doesn’t like him yet, much less love him. It’s only at chapter 64 that she claims to have some sort of romantic feelings for him, but it’s more because she was frustrated he didn’t kiss her than any other reason.
  • Nevertheless, because of her inability to clearly say no or turn anyone down, she is stringing him along and giving him false hope. This is by her own admission, that she is just going with the flow until some other lady appears for him. But how will any other lady appear when you are firmly occupying the “lady” seat, going on dates with him, visiting his home, being his escort to parties, etc? It’s just cruel.

  • She keeps entertaining the shady Prince Elviniraz even though she can tell he’s up to no good. She does this because she’s still attracted to him and flattered by his offer of an affair (she says otherwise but it’s obvious) so you have to watch this girl officially date Cavert but get all blushy and flustered around Elvin. Pick one, girl. Or pick neither. Or heck, both. But PICK!!!
  • The rest of the story isn’t going anywhere fast either. The Imperial family is still being shady and trying to recruit Renee. An unspecified threat is out there in the world and there’s going to be an expedition (yes, another) but at the rate it’s going it will take till 2025 for them to go. Meh.
  • Even worse, another expedition will mean having to watch Renee in close proximity with Prince Elviniraz again, acting all confused and upset when he flirts with her, then all weepy and trembly when Cavert confronts her. It was annoying enough the first time so I am not looking forward to a second dose.

TL;DR False Confession is irritatingly slow. The romance isn’t going anywhere fast, the rest of the story isn’t going anywhere, the art has dropped in quality and is getting worse. I actually worry about the health of the artist, especially after what happened to the Solo Levelling artist. There isn’t any reason for me to follow this regularly.

That said, as I already mentioned, there are all kinds of series out there even in the genre of isekai romance with magic and politics. Some may like a faster pace, some like Mary Sues, some like more flawed characters with more room for character development. I’m not sure what group I fall into, but I do know I get pretty impatient with slow series, so I think False Confession will be one of those series I catch up on once a year and binge-read. That’s for the best.