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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.

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.

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.

Update on Divorce Me, Husband after a year (spoilers up to chapter 59)

I told you guys to remind me to check back in six weeks, but before I knew it a whole year had gone by. I recently started catching up on Divorce Me, Husband, or rather the much-better officially translated version, “Let’s Get a Divorce, Husband.” I like the fan title better, but everything else is superior in the official version.

So, how did things fare for Claude and Aila (Ayla in the fan translation)? Well, in terms of plot, the series is still rather mediocre and slow-moving even after 59 chapters. On the romance side, things are slightly better. First, and most importantly, Aila has decided to stay with Claude and to actively use her knowledge from the book to change his fate. Whoopee!

Secondly, Aila has realized that she is in love with Claude. I don’t know why, he’s only been very sweet and kind and protective and generous and respectful and caring, nothing more, right? But she doesn’t know if Claude loves her back. And actually, I don’t remember if he has said he does? He considers her precious, he wants to keep her by his side and protect her and all that, but does he actually love her or does he only fear losing her? And what was the real relationship between past Aila and past Claude?

Apart from the romance, there is some other stuff going on, quite slowly but still progressing. We have met the big bad of the series: surely the Emperor is going to be the one. Or possibly someone possessing or controlling him We’ve met Aila’s deadbeat father. We’ve discovered that the original hero, the second prince, is most likely just putting on an act and isn’t as lazy, rude and incompetent as he pretends to be. There are undercurrents in the royal family that require him to act out to survive.

Most importantly, Aila has become the owner of a sacred relic that insists it’s her duty to “restore order to the world.” She also met the “god” of their world, Lahas, who brought her to that world. In many isekai/transmigrated series, the heroine never finds out how she ended up in that world, so at least there’s a bit of closure on that score.

The story is that bad people are summoning demons into the world and creating rifts, so it’s Aila’s job to do something about it with the relic bracelet and its divine power. Simple enough in theory, though it’s not very convincing because Aila’s life has been so plush and shiny so far. Her life is pretty closeted, so she never goes around town or anywhere near the hoi polloi. It may very well be that the world at large is in turmoil and the people are suffering, but you wouldn’t know it so look at the glitzy lifestyles of the nobles. The biggest threat is directly from the Emperor himself, who doesn’t take kindly to people who will not follow his orders.

But anyway, stopping the bad guys is somehow linked to saving Claude’s life… and living happily ever after with him? Where did original Aila go? What happens once fake Aila/Baek Hayul completes her job? Why her? Lahas conveniently runs out of power before he can explain the most important bits, so we’ll just have to keep reading, haha.

That said, this is a pretty optimistic and positive kind of series, so it will all work out in the end. The only question is how? And when? Will I have to wait another year for closure? Hope not, but a year comes faster than you think, so I’ll just keep reading.

Before I end this update though, let me say one thing I absolutely LOVE about Let’s Get a Divorce Husband: Aila actually tells Claude whenever she notices or encounters anything shady. Not always immediately, but before very long she tells him what’s going on, they discuss it in a mature and reasoned way and come up with a plan together. None of this “Must be just my imagination” or “I don’t want to worry him” or “I can handle it by myself” nonsense that leads to so much unnecessary drama in romance series. Claude is also pretty open with her whenever she asks about things. That alone makes this series a breath of fresh air and makes me want to keep reading it.

Well, that was your yearly update on Let’s Get a Divorce, Husband. See you all in 2023, God willing!

Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe? (Korean romance webtoon I want to like but don’t)

Ever read a series that you know is good, objectively speaking, but for various minor reasons you don’t like it as much as others do? That’s Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe for me. On the face of it, the heroine Dylan is funny and likeable, the nominal male lead Cedric is… not completely terrible, but still detestable. Yeah okay, only three sentences in and I’m beginning to realize why I don’t like the series. But first the usual summary:

Summary:

Our heroine Dylan finds herself reincarnated as the villainess in a novel she read before. The twist this time is that her little sister is doomed to be cannon fodder who dies in childbirth after marrying the male lead Cedric. In her determination to keep her sister and Cedric apart, Dylan somehow ends up marrying him herself… Hilarity may or may not ensue depending on your sense of humor.

Whether you like Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe will all depend on what you find funny. If you like seeing the female lead subtly and snidely mocked and disrespected a lot of the time, this is the series for you. Personally it made me angry and uncomfortable much of the time. The problem is that Dylan doesn’t want her sister to marry Cedric, but she doesn’t want to marry him either. He only wants to marry her because of some family promise to her grandfather.

So the first 20 or so chapters are all about the creepy old Grandpa manipulating and emotionally blackmailing first Cedric then Dylan into marriage. All because the creepy Grandpa wanted to marry Dylan’s Grandma but was rebuffed. Forced marriage by proxy, so creepy.

But Cedric isn’t any better. Screw what Dylan or any woman wants, as long as Grandpa is happy, right? On the face of it, he treats Dylan with a certain amount of respect, but in actual fact he’s always gently sneering at her, teasing her, mocking her simple rustic ways. Almost every chapter has him laughing or smiling at her, quite apart from all the sarcastic comments he directs her way because he thinks she’s too simple to get it.

And it’s not just him. A large amount of “humor” and “heart-warming-ness” in this series comes from looking down on Dylan. Other summaries make it sound like everyone in the Duchy comes to love Dylan, but honestly it’s more of the love one has for a clumsy, loveable Labrador puppy than for a human being one respects. Even her nominally supportive mother-in-law is on her side mostly because of her simplicity and naivete.

In a recent chapter, Cedric’s cousin Cecilia made the express trip to Dylan’s house just to mock and be rude to her, knowing she could get into it. The past ten chapters or more (34-44 as of writing) are all devoted to helping Dylan shape up a bit so she isn’t utterly disgraced when she goes to a banquet which is more or less being organized with the specific purpose of embarrassing her. The poor girl can’t catch a break.

The one saving grace was supposed to be the cheerful, indomitable nature of Dylan herself. Unfortunately, as the chapters progress, she is becoming more and more neurotic and anxious about measuring up and pleasing those around her. You’d think if Cedric really cared about her and her standing in society, he would have waited for her to get the necessary training before marrying her and bringing her into his house. But of course he doesn’t really care about her, or about anything except himself and pleasing his Grandpa, so why am I surprised?

So after all I’ve written, the reader will naturally ask, “Why are you still reading, then?” Good question. The short answer is that I’m not reading it regularly. Every once in a while it pops up in front of me, I read it, then I remember why I don’t like it. Hope springs eternal that the series might improve. Most likely though, it will “improve” by making Dylan a perfect lady who somehow inexplicably falls in love with the sneering Cedric and he with her, and I honestly don’t want to see that. So… yeah.

I don’t hate Is it a Fortune or Is it a Woe, and I like Dylan and feel sorry for her but… I’ll probably drop this one and catch it again when it’s finally all over. There are better male leads and less pitiful heroines out there.

Divorce me, Husband – Mediocre so far (Korean romance webtoon)

Divorce me, Husband is one of those series that are worth reading if you can binge them, but once you get caught up, there’s no point continuing. Actually I rather like romance series with arranged marriages where they later fall in love, like in The Evil Lady will Change that I reviewed last time. But plenty of other fans like the trope as well, which is why there are dozens of series with the same premise. Divorce Me, Husband is on the mediocre side both in terms of story and in terms of art, so it’s not something I’m going to stick with now I’ve caught up (chapter 20 as of writing).

Summary

She possessed the body of a supporting character who was swept away by her husband’s treason and was killed.

I’m trying to divorce my husband, Claude, to survive, but this guy won’t let me go. In the original novel, it was said that he was clearly a man with no interest in his wife, so why is he refusing the divorce?

Even if you give me the most expensive diamond in the Empire, I refuse to live in such a marriage. Because I want to live!

So please, please… divorce me, husband!

The heroine Ayla has good reason to divorce “her” husband after transmigrating into the world of a novel where she gets killed because of a husband who doesn’t love her.

The series has got all the usual cliches, like dumb servants who actually mistreat a duchess because her husband ignores her, petty nobles who actually talk down to a duchess in public for the same reason, the usual tea party full of snark, scheming royals and of course, the grand daddy of all cliches: “I’M MAKING ALL THESE CHANGES TO THE STORY, BUT WHY ISN’T EVERYTHING THE SAME AS THE BOOK?”

To Ayla’s credit, she realizes very quickly that some of the things she read in the novel are different from what she’s encountering. The original female lead is petty and jealous, the original male lead is a lazy, crazy and rude and her husband is actually a sweet and affectionate gentleman who was only avoiding her because he mistakenly (?) thought she was scared of him.

Claude is one of the brightest spots of “Divorce Me, Husband” because he is so open about his feelings for Ayla and his desire to be closer to her. The majority of these romance series have a male lead who is either super dense about his own feelings or super tsundere so he’ll never say his feelings out loud.

Claude on the other hand comes clean not just once but repeatedly and makes a sincere but cute and clumsy effort to win her heart by doing things she likes. He’s even man enough to apologize when he oversteps his boundaries by interfering in her social relationships. Honestly, he’s a complete sweetheart, so if you’ve had enough of neglectful male leads in Korean series or the abusive/rapey CEOs and princes in Chinese series, he’s a breath of fresh air. If I continue reading this, it will be largely for him.

BUT! There’s a problem with his relationship with Ayla. The problem is the original Ayla. If new Ayla hadn’t transmigrated and asked for a divorce, Claude would have ignored the original forever until dragging her to a messy end.

That’s one thing I really don’t like about transmigrated arranged marriage series. The implication is always that the bullied or ignored person deserved it somehow, and if only she would change herself, everyone would also change and start treating her better. Sure it’s not good to be entirely passive in life, but sometimes people treat you badly because they’re bad people, not because you deserved it by being quiet or scared. And sometimes it’s not possible to safely stand up for yourself, especially when those in authority are turning a blind eye to the bullying or even engaging in it themselves.

So yeah, poor original Ayla. Hope she found happiness somewhere else and not with a husband who completely ignores her for a year because of some pre-wedding jitters. Then says “I like this version of you better” when an imposter steals your body, so sad.

But the series doesn’t dwell on the unfortunate implications of this trope for long, so neither shall we. The long and short of it is that Divorce Me, Husband has a cliched story and a dense female lead who is resisting the advances of our sweetheart Claude because she remains convinced he is a traitor even though she has plenty of evidence that things in the novel are not what they seem. So whether you enjoy it or not depends on your tolerance for stubborn leads balanced with your love for puppy dog love interests.

For my part, I was going to firmly drop it, but the latest chapter (20) ended with Claude in a pinch, so I have to read at least one more just to make sure my boy is okay. Plus, even better, Ayla is finally using her knowledge from the novel to change Claude’s fate, though she hasn’t admitted it to herself yet.

I think the next five chapters will be the key to whether this series is worth continuing or not. Since the raws seem to be caught up with now, I’ll have to check back in about 6 weeks, but the next developments will be important. If Ayla successfully shakes off that pesky “It’s just a novel” mindset and commits herself to staying with Claude and saving his life, all well and good. Otherwise Divorce Me, Husband will just be another mediocre entry in the rapidly saturating field of Korean webtoons. Remind me in 6 weeks to check back again and see.

The Evil Lady will Change – Refreshingly sensible romance

I discovered that despite the Chinese raws, The Evil Lady will Change (恶女会改变) is actually a manhua based on a Korean web novel. That explains so much about the sheer decency of all the characters in it. This isn’t to say that all Chinese romance series have rapey male leads or comically evil female rivals, but… a LOT of them do. Enough that many fans reading The Evil Lady will Change were like “Wait… is this really a Chinese series?” It’s that surprising.

Summary:

Athanasia Cloix, a woman whose elegance and beauty is akin to that of a swan lake. Due to some rumors, however, people began to misunderstand and belittle her. As she suffered through these unfortunate events, she agreed to a political marriage with the Winter-comer who’s also known as the “Northern Monster”.

“As the Grand Duke, I will do my best to accommodate your needs and desires. But love alone is something I can’t give to you.” Unbeknownst to her, that very man will change her life and thus a new fate is about to unfold.

Yeah, you know the drill. Neither you nor I have ever read a series with an arranged marriage or “we definitively won’t fall in love” relationship where the main leads actually succeeded in not falling love. It’s a foregone conclusion, so the issue becomes watching the process instead.

The huge plus in The Evil Lady will Change is that both leads have very decent personalities, to the point of being Mary/Gary Sues. Athanasia (a.k.a. Aisha) is competent, kind and friendly, same with Ryan. They treat each other respectfully and maturely with no childish bickering or arguing. This isn’t one of those series where you’ll wonder what they see in each other.

As a double plus, they aren’t excessively dense about their feelings either. Yes, it does take them a little bit of time to realize their “won’t fall in love” pact is hokum, but once they do, it doesn’t take long for them to confess to each other and deepen their relationship after that.

What’s more, there are no credible love rivals wasting large swathes of chapters trying to make a relationship happen when it’s not going to. Both Aisha and Ryan have previous crushes which have helped shaped their personalities but which they have also firmly moved past. I enjoyed seeing Ryan put his old flame firmly in her place before she could even try something with Aisha/Athanasia. None of that nonsensical “maybe he still loves her and I’m still in the way” crap that some series spend ages on.

All this to say that The Evil Lady will Change is a great read if you want a refreshing romance with mature and sensible characters in a mature and sensible relationship. I hear there’s a happy ending as well, though that’s par for the course in these series.

Unfortunately there’s no perfect series in the world. There are a few downsides to this series, one of which is the terribly spotty quality of the translations. Which isn’t the source material’s fault, but is still a flaw anyway. I already explained at length how unfair a bad translation is to a good series, so you can refer to that post if you’re curious.

The second, bigger flaw is that the story doesn’t make a ton of sense. Part of it is the bad translation, but even accounting for that, it takes a while to get some clarity on what a “winter breaker” is, what the Arundi is, what winter actually works like in the series and why it needs to be sealed? unsealed? To be honest I still don’t fully get the plot or what the bad guys are trying to achieve and why. The series doesn’t focus on the main plot often enough, is the problem. So you’ll get a satisfying romance but everything else going on in the series will be ???

The final thing that bothers me is the disappearance of Aisha’s dumb little sister she was constantly compared to. I’m sure she’ll appear again eventually, but I miss her. She was so clueless and hateable and it was fun to see her true colors being recognized by everyone once Aisha wasn’t around to serve as a foil. Well I’m only at chapter 90, so she might show up again later. There are hints that something sinister was behind the excessive love she received from others before.

I’ll update this post once The Evil Lady will Change is complete, but for now it’s a satisfying romance to read with a couple you can really root for because they’re so decent. And eventually the story will make sense and we’ll get to see Aisha and Ryan save the world and live happily ever after. I’m looking forward to it!