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!
