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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!

False Confession – Promising series that went nowhere

False Confession (잘못된 고백), now sadly(?) on hiatus, is a romance manhwa that promised much from the start but didn’t go anywhere except hiatus in 45 chapters. I honestly feel like I wasted my time reading the whole of Season 1, but maybe Season 2 will finally have the story/awkward romance we were all expecting when we picked it up.

Summary (from the Tappytoon official site)
“I think I’ve fallen for you.” With a single drunken confession, Renesha’s plans to live a comfortable and uneventful life were shattered. Somehow she confessed her love to the wrong man: the Grim Reaper of the Battlefield, Duke Cavert Willard! It’s the worst thing to happen to her since she woke up in this fantasy universe and discovered her divine powers.

In the midst of a war with a neighboring country, Renesha must balance her duties as a healer with her feelings for two alluring knights. When romance blooms on the battlefield, who will be victorious in the battle for Renee’s heart?

I don’t dislike this manhwa trope of accidentally confessing to the wrong person, usually a very scary person. It would be horrible and awkward in real life, but that’s what fiction is for, right? And it usually makes for a sweet and fluffy romance with a huge gap between the guy/girl’s perceived tough image and actual thoughts and actions. I like it.

BUT! We didn’t get any of that in False Confession. The problem is the way the series is structured. It starts with Renesha falsely confessing to Cavert in chapter one. Then it goes on a veeeery extended flashback covering the next 35-36 chapters, showing how they went to war, Renesha fell in love with another guy, they won the war and then she got drunk and confessed.

If they had done all that without the “spoiler” of chapter one, then it would be okay to sit through the whole thing and see how she messes up her love life by confessing to the Duke instead of the Prince she had a crush on. But as it is, 35+ chapters are waaaaaay too many to sit through when you just want to see the confession and the aftermath.

You sit through many, many chapters of Renesha squealing in terror because she’s scared of the duke, complaining about the tough march, gushing and blushing over the prince, and it’s all kind of meh because you know where it’s leading. You know they’re going to come back safe from the war, you know she’s going to get with the Duke, so why all the time wasting?

Plus, Renesha is really annoying. She’s acting all scared and cautious around the Duke when he hasn’t done a single thing to hurt her or anyone she knows. He’s been a little rude, but very supportive and even saved her life in battle. But no, he’s somehow the object of sheer terror. I’m not saying she has to fall in love with him because of that, but why is her fear of him played up multiple times in the series when it’s completely unfounded? It’s annoying.

Nevertheless, despite the slow progression and Renee’s paranoia, I still sat through week after week of minor update after minor update. Then finally, finally, we got to see the false confession and the aftermath… uh, not really. Just when it seemed the whole war arc was over and normal life was about to begin again, the series went on hiatus! 8 months ago! Yipes!

Rumor has it that False Confession will resume between January and June 2021, but we’re already halfway into that period with no resumption in sight. Apart from That Girl’s Damn Wild or whatever it was called, most of the romance manhwa I read that went on hiatus did come back eventually. At the same time, an 8-month hiatus is unusually long, so I’m a little worried.

After all, all the negative comments I’ve made are coming from a place of disappointed expectation. The series is pretty promising though it has yet to deliver. I like the art, I really like both of the male leads though I prefer Cavert. Fans may rage about the uselessness of Renesha in battle, but I thought her struggles, paralysis and depression were pretty normal for a teen from a peace-loving country. It’s weird when normal kids from Korea/Japan/China suddenly become master strategists and gods of war in isekai. I was also looking forward to seeing the power struggles and political intrigue that would revolve around Renee’s healing powers and relationships.

So despite the letdown that was season 1 of False Confession, I’m still hopeful for the next season. Let’s hope I won’t have to write another negative post about it when it finally comes out. See you then!

Update: False Confession is back! In Korean raws and in (mediocre) fan translations, at least! As of June 30th, chapters 46 and 47 are out, and it seem the author is determined to destroy any feeling of “Second Lead Syndrome” in the readers. Not that I ever felt any – Cavert all the way! But no spoilers here. Wait for the official translation, catch up and let’s discussion this again at the end of Season 2!