wait, before you come at me with the pickaxes, let me state this first; yes, the art is phenomenal. yes, Lilyca is adorable, and the Emperor is definitely a hot daddy added to the list of hot manhwa daddies. the thing is, and I say this with a lot of consideration, many plot lines in this suck. disclaimer: this post is made in regards to the manhwa version of the series that has up till today reached 25 unofficially translated chapters. (props to the translators btw, the typesetting is bomb.) The mother sucks. I know that this isn't the first time you've heard it, but you need to hear it again. that's right, she sucks. The pecuilarity about this manhwa, the fact that the mother is the one who transmigrated, is what sets its downfall for me. I love the concept, but you see, Lilyca's mother isn't a woman who has come back in time before she made all the wrong decisions. she came back in time before she ultimately got her daughter killed. in her previous life, she f'ed up her daughter and hers life and eventually got the two of them killed in what seems like execution for treason. she regrets her actions, and now she's given the opportunity to make sure that does not happen. this sounds like a noble cause if you're looking through her pov, but we aren't. Lily was still abused by her dead-beat mother for years, picked upon and beaten up by their landlord for rent, had to carry her family by labouring away as a what - 6 years old? 7 years old? she had to do that work for years, and had to put her mother as the top priority despite being a child herself. in the meantime, she kept hitting Lilyca and verbally berating her throughout her life to the point that the child started believing that she truly was the problem in their lives. then all of a sudden, one day, her mother stops hitting her. she tells her that she loves her, but does that make it all right? of course it doesn't. the pain and trauma faced by Lilyca doesn't simply disappear just because she has one moment of relief in her mother's arms. thing is, I feel like this theme is realised by the artist more than the author themselves. from what I've heard of the novel and even seen in the manhwa, this theme is brushed off in a chapter or two with "I'll do better." sure, the mc's mother works towards that goal, and everything takes it pace, but I believe my issue is more with the author and the audience. the audience seems to gloss over the fact that the mc's mother abused her because that's what they're used to with the recurring tropes in going back to the past type of stories, but the artist portrays the morbidity of the situation in a manner I was very impressed by. for example, look at this. in these panels, you can clearly see the childishness of Lilyca's thoughts. they might look funny, and at first glance, this might look like a hypothetical situation made up by a child's mind. but this has happened. Lilyca's mind is using comedy and fantasization of her situation as a way to cope with her current situation. All these "comedic panels" are basically mostly a defense machanism that her mind uses to protect her young mind. Lilyca mentions in later chapters that she was once beaten up by their landlord in her monologue. these panels are abundant throughout the story, and very subtly convey the way a child typically reacts to abuse. they make up reasons to justify it because they might be dependent on the parent who abuses them, or they can't bear to face the fact that their reality is actually happening. Lilyca does not forgive her mother. Lilyca just does not understand what there is to forgive. she loves her mother, and I hate, hate, HATE the fact that a part of it is that she's so pretty. the mother's man advantage is her beauty, and that goes for the audience as well as the story. The audience's blatant way of defending the mother when people bring up these points just shows that the author did a terrible job at not developing this aspect of the story, and these limitations bound the artist as well despite their obvious efforts. now, does the story justify abuse? no. could it have done a better job moving past that phase? yes. I have so much more to say, but I can't quite bring it into words. i think this conversation can only be worthwhile if someone adds to it, so I've posted it here. ALSO, the whole "if yall can forgive Claude for killing Athanasia, you can forgive Lilyca's mother too." Claude in this timeline has treated and raised Athanasia with all the love his heart could muster. he does not have any memory of what another version of him did. he hesitated at first, but she warmed up his heart. Athanasia did not know for a major part of the story that she was the original athanasia, and has no memories or trauma regarding this. they both start afresh, which is what makes WMMAP a pure read for the heart. Lilyca's mother was not under a spell, she hurt her daughter in this very timeline and her daughter clearly has trauma from her actions. she neglected, hurt and abused the daughter that worked to provide for their family while she sat on her ass and drank for years. they. are. not. the. same . ^^
I. THOUGHT. I. WAS. THE. ONLY. ONE. BESTIE when her mother said „You're still alive?” in chapter whatevertheheck I went „HELL. NO. YOU ABUSED YOUR DAUGHTER AND MADE. HER. DIE??? BYE”
AHSKSK I'M SO GLAD PEOPLE ARE AGREEING. This discussion needs to be had, because I'm not putting my words in the best way possible but I need people to understand that this trope is just so another example is those reincarnation manhwas - I saw a reel the other day that mocked a similar trope that was like "when the master doesn't beat you up, berate you and smash things at you just for existing after waking up one day " from the servants pov and i found it so funny that this is so common in manhwas. After suffering through all that, when they're shown basic human decency they'll pledge their allegiance like mam please have some self respect