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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!

Aldnoah Zero season two review [major spoilers]

As promised, I return with my thoughts on season two of Aldnoah Zero and of the series as a whole. Refer to my earlier post on the show for a summary of the story and a few thoughts on the first half.

All caught up? Cool. Instead of writing a proper review (yes, the title is a lie) I’ll just list random stuff I thought of, things I liked, things that bothered me. Starting with my wishlist at the end of the first season.

I’d like to see Inaho thaw a bit. But just a bit. It’s okay for him to be a stoic character.

They got this perfectly right. He softened up just a little bit, smiling a little more often and showing pain and disappointment at times. His sweeter attitude towards Yuki-nee was particularly touching. I think they’ll be happy together at the end.

I’d like to see the other characters take a more active role in battle. Too many red shirts die every battle to build up the enemy pilot so Inaho can crush him.

They did well with this too. Inaho is still the mech-crusher of choice, but other characters get some important kills as well. The Deucalion makes some great saves, especially. Fewer no-name pilots are killed off as well.

I’d like to see the enemies put up more of a fight. Things are too easy now.

A mostly forlorn wish, but there was one battle where even the mighty Inaho had to retreat so that was good to see. Of course he was only retreating so he could crush them better later on.

I’d like to see cooler mechs. Most of the machines so far are rather dumb-looking.

Inaho’s orange unit got a name (Sleipnir) and some cool upgrades in time for the final battle. Everyone else looked dumb until the end. Not that most mechs stick around long enough for you to admire their CG glory.

I’d like a resolution to Lt. Marito’s PTSD once and for all. It’s gotten old now, either get over yourself or stop wasting screen time.

He got over himself and became a helpful member of the crew. As for “how” he got over it, a Wizard Did It. No thanks to his useless doctor who actually gives whiskey to a recovering alcoholic though.

Thoughts about Slaine Troyard

Slaine was the cause of his own problems. First he killed Saazbaum off too quickly. He became a count too quickly without any plan. This forced him to spend time crushing the opposition and consolidating his power base when he should have been following up on his attack on Trident base. He should have waited and earned more fear and respect from the other Martians before taking Saazbaum out.
Second, he gave the princesses too much freedom. He was to all intents and purposes an usurper of power and he should have acted like it. Set guards on Lemrina at all times, keep Eddelrittuo and Asseylum under lock and key. Have spies everywhere who tell you everything everyone says in every corner of the base. Haven’t you read Dune?
He wasn’t ruthless enough. He should have made absolutely sure Inaho was dead in season one. He should have killed Asseylum the minute she recovered her memories. Instead of sending Stygis ships after her when she escaped, he should have shot her down himself. In fact he should have set a bomb on Klancain’s ship as insurance against such an escape. Read Dune, dude, they’ll show you how it’s done.
Basically he acted on emotion all the time but lacked the guts and conviction to follow through when it really mattered. And he lacked foresight and the ability to make contingency plans. He would have been better off staying as Cruhteo’s lapdog or Saazbaum’s hired gun for the whole show.

Thoughts about Aldnoah Zero’s ending

Slaine spending the rest of his life in jail is exactly what he deserves. War criminals have been hanged for less. It’s just too bad that the rest of the Martian warmongers and conspirators got away with it. Still I hope they can release him into exile at age 70 or something.
Asseylum marrying a third party and not Inaho or Slaine was perfect. It always bothers me when I read manga about nobility or royalty where the prince/princess marries a no-name commoner and no one objects. As long as Vers remains a feudal society, the Empress will marry for political reasons first and love second. Something could have been worked out if there was a King of the Earth or President of the World Federation but Slaine and Inaho are common soldiers. The ending is fine.
At the same time I’m happy Inaho got to confess his feelings to Asseylum and vice-versa. Even though a robot eye did it on his behalf. It’s a fond memory for them and they can both move on now.
Inaho looks pretty cool with that eyepatch. I hope he’ll be happy with Yuki-nee. I can’t support either Inko (too annoying) or Rayet (too angry and hypocritical).
I thought for sure either Harklight or Baohcruz would betray Slaine but they were loyal to the end. Huh. Sorry guys, I’m so suspicious these days. Their deaths were pointless though.

Other random thoughts

Instead of Stygis mechs, the Vers empire should have mass-produced the self-replicating Kataphrakt that one Count owned. The only way to defeat one is to kill all the copies at once, which would be completely impossible in space or by anybody not named Inaho.
The characters of Counts Mazuurk and Klancain should have been merged into one. Mazuurk ended up playing only a minor role in the big conflict. And Klancain just swooped out of nowhere and carried off the girl and the glory. Fans would have howled much less if he had been introduced much earlier.
Poor Okisuke, almost nobody remembered him after episode 3. Thank you Calm for giving him a quick shoutout before the end.
How come Slaine was allowed to keep the Tharsis after Cruhteo passed? I assumed he left no heirs but it turns out he had several sons. No one asked any questions for 19 months?
Tharsis looked cool but it was useless after all. All it had was the prediction gear, the limitations of which were shown pretty early. The final battle was totally anti-climatic.
Not only anti-climatic but also unnecessary. It’s obvious the writers forced Slaine to go out there against his will so he could have an obligatory final showdown with Inaho. The outcome was never in doubt.
In the end nothing came of any of the other teased relationships like Yuki x Marito and Magbaredge x Marito. Eh, guess nobody cares.
Dr. Troyard’s research into Aldnoah and why he’s so highly respected among the Martians is never fully explained. I thought there would be some secret in Slaine’s locket but it was a red herring in the end.
The UFE should have asked Inaho to activate Saazbaum and Cruhteo’s Landing Castles. Even one of these would have been an invaluable source of intel and firepower. And it would be interesting to see the Martians hoist by their own petard.

What I liked about Aldnoah Zero

The battles. Yes Inaho stomps everyone, but it’s interesting to see how. He uses some very intelligent strategies sometimes.
Almost no fanservice even though they had plenty of chances to do so.
The body count is high but there’s little gore. It’s a fairly family-friendly show. Though the scene at the end of episode 12 is somewhat disturbing.
Asseylum finally realizes her helplessness and has the wisdom to ally with someone who can do something about it. Some might criticize her for it but she’s the one who saves the day in the end. Self-awareness is a good thing.
The second season fixes a lot of the problems of the first, as listed above.
The character designs are nice.
The wailings of disappointed Inaho x Asseylum and Slaine x Asseylum fans are sweet music to my ears.

What I didn’t like about Aldnoah Zero

The few unanswered questions like the true nature of Dr. Troyard’s research.
Slaine’s personality and motivations were all over the place. He was not convincing either as a good guy or a bad guy.
Inaho never admits his hypocrisy in his dealings with Slaine versus Rayet/Mazuurk. He could have spared the world a lot of trouble by dealing fairly with Slaine back in episode 7.
The monster-of-the-week format was good in season 1 but time-wasting in the second half.
The mechs and CG sequences were disappointing. Aldnoah Zero can never be a Gundam killer without cool mechs.
The Earth Forces never actually won the war. They got lucky with Asseylum being the peaceable type – which they almost scuppered by killing her themselves.
I didn’t like Inaho’s mechanical eye. I liked it better when Inaho was being cool and broken all by himself.

Final comments

I enjoyed the show a lot. I marathoned the first season in a day and watched the second very quickly, which is something I don’t often do these days. I might actually buy Aldnoah Zero on DVD or Blu-Ray soon. Just as soon as Aniplex has a sale, because their prices are too outrageous. I thought of it as Code Geass meets Gundam at the first, but it managed to carve out a niche for itself by the end.

The main characters are a bit of a problem – Inaho is too lifeless at first, Slaine is a mess from start to finish and Asseylum takes forever to get serious – but they all grow up in the end. Best of all, it’s all wrapped up in 24 episodes with no “Please buy the light novels” nonsense. If you like mecha/super robot shows and overpowered protagonists, definitely give Aldnoah Zero a try.

Review of Aldnoah Zero season one (spoilers)

I’m trying to make this brief because I plan to watch season two of Aldnoah Zero in quick succession. Then I’ll give my thoughts on the series as a whole. Quick blurb courtesy of Wikipedia as usual:

Human settlers on Mars discovered advanced technology known as Aldnoah. They broke away from Earth and founded the Vers Empire, which claimed Mars and its secrets for themselves. In 1999, a battle on the Moon’s surface between the Earth and the Empire caused an explosion that shattered the Moon and scattered remnants into a debris belt around the planet. Cut off from Mars, the remnants of the Vers Imperial Army established several massive orbital space stations within the debris belt and called a ceasefire. 15 years later, in 2014, an attack on the Vers princess during a peace mission causes the Empire and its 37 clans of Orbital Knights to launch a new attack on Earth, this time determined to conquer it once and for all.

Despite all the stuff written above, Aldnoah Zero (a.k.a. ΛLDNOΛH.ZERO if you’re trying to be cool), is basically Gundam without the Gundams. Or rather with the Gundams, but it’s the bad guys who have them, not the good guys. Everything else from the idealistic princess character to the ship being chased and attacked every week to the female captain and her stoic female vice to the overpowered main character, and on and on, if you’ve watched enough Gundams, you’ve seen them all.

Which is not, I repeat, NOT a bad thing at all. Aldnoah Zero is highly enjoyable. Especially because of the twist it adds to the mecha combat. Imagine in Gundam if, instead of dying in a puff of pink smoke, the enemy pilots in their pathetically weak Zakus and Goufs decided to use their wits instead. “There’s no way we can beat a Gundam in a fair fight, but who says we have to fight fair? Let’s find an exploitable weakness or set a trap!” After all, despite the strength of the machinery, the pilot within is only human, and usually a mentally fragile, suicidally overconfident one at that.

So that’s what main character Inaho and his band of army survivors set out to do. It’s notable that Inaho never upgrades from his training mecha all season long. The enemy can’t be beaten with firepower, so maneuverability and familiarity will have to do the trick. And the trick is glorious to watch as our hero runs circles around the overpowered mecha that should rightly be making minced meat (or corned beef, to recall a certain Gundam) out of him.

The only problem is this reverse curb-stomping loses its luster the longer it goes on. First it’s nail-biting, “How is Inaho going to get through this?!” Then it becomes the norm, then it actually becomes boring. It’s kind of amazing how Aldnoah Zero can make a simple training mech look like the strongest robot in the world. I like that aspect of the series TBH.

Gripes about the characters in Aldnoah Zero (season one)

But eventually you start taking the battles for granted and your mind turns to other aspects of the show. That’s where Aldnoah Zero starts to fail, IMO. I don’t want to talk too much about the story since season 2 is next on my list, but I will make a few notes about the characters:

Inaho – Too impassive. More robotic than his mecha, and that’s saying something. By the time he finally starts showing some emotion the season is almost over. It’s okay to have a main character who is less emotional than usual, but then the rest of the show has to pick up the slack in drawing viewers in and I don’t think the show quite succeeded.

Not to mention he kind of caused his own downfall through his hypocritical approach to Slaine/Rayet. Slaine helped them against Femianne and got shot down without getting a chance to explain himself. They didn’t even go back to rescue the plane after they shot it down. How ungrateful can you get? It’s okay if you suspect this mysterious pilot, but that’s all the more reason to take him captive, not shoot him down and leave him to his fate.

Meanwhile Rayet outright strangled Asseylum to death and almost grounded the ship for good. Her reward? “You are not my enemy.” He even hands her a gun. And everything is hunky-dory. That’s crazy talk. Inaho deserved what happened at the end of the season.

Princess Asseylum – I thought she would have some spine and brains, but she’s just your everyday idealistic, optimistic, helpless little princess. They might do something more interesting with her in season 2 but I’m not holding my breath.

Slaine – Wasted character. The writers couldn’t quite figure out what to do with him until the end. He just ran around like a headless chicken back and forth until he finally made up his mind – screw these Earth people (I blame Inaho) I’m going with my princess. I want to see how he changes in season two.

Rayet – Champion hypocrite, even Inaho can’t compare. I was shaking my head the whole time she was whining about everything being Asseylum’s fault for coming to earth. No, you idiot, everything is your dad’s fault for trying to murder an innocent girl. And for what? Not for conviction nor any longstanding grudge, just for land and money.

I was waiting for someone, anyone to point this fact out to her, but instead Asseylum… apologizes? Whaa?! And in the end Rayet turns into some kind of heroine? Huhhh?! Ridiculous.

Looking ahead to the next season:

TBH the ending of the first season was pretty cool. Season two is unnecessary, in my humble opinion.
I’d like to see Inaho thaw a bit. But just a bit. It’s okay for him to be a stoic character.
I’d like to see the other characters take a more active role in battle. Too many red shirts die every battle to build up the enemy pilot so Inaho can crush him.
I’d like to see the enemies put up more of a fight. Things are too easy now.
I’d like to see cooler mechs. Most of the machines so far are rather dumb-looking.
I’d like a resolution to Lt. Marito’s PTSD once and for all. It’s gotten old now, either get over yourself or stop wasting screen time.

That’s not too much to ask for IMO. I’ll let you know how much of my wishlist came true, but I’m not too optimistic. We’ll see!