Nen's manga / #fantasy(113)

I don't know if it's the pacing of the story, the translation or what, but I found the story super confusing despite kinda getting the plot points (broadly). It's a shame because the art is very cute and I think I would've loved the storyline if I actually got it properly.

Never has a manhwa started off so well and ended up so rushed and bland. It's like after Helena and Caesar declare their feelings, the rest of the chapter are just there to "let things end". The characters, so dear and interesting, become dumb caricature of themselves; the empress and the church of Draco, both set up as powerful and intimidating villains, are defeated with simple tricks and "the power of friendship" and we don't get to know any of their motivations for what they do; plot points previously established are just forgotten or tied up with ridiculous ways (her reincarnation? The count who resembled Caesar in her past? Again, the fucking church of Draco and the symbol Helena gave Julika?). The first of this work is so charming. The FL is a refreshing character, funny and so ridiculously strong you can't help but cheer for her. Her family is supportive and overprotective, always losing their mind at her shenanigans. Caesar is wonderfully complex: at first ridded with cautiousness and fear at first that he covers up with arrogance, he falls in love with Helena because she's the only person who looks at him in the eyes and tells him "you're gonna sit on the throne and people will always try to kill you but I'll protect you. I'll make you an emperor"; childish and mischievous, his dynamic with Helena is funny and heartwarming. The subplot was intriguing and the supporting cast so solid as well. And then? All of this is forgotten in the rush of the latest chapters. Helena is relegated in the role of the slightly-smarter-than-average heroine, Caesar disappears and only shows up to be a bland doormat, side characters are forgotten in favour of new characters who are brought in just to be a Deus-ex-machina and rush things along. The comedy is entirely discarded and the romance is as well!! Even Helena's proposal is victim of the sudden frenzied pace and doesn't excite, doesn't tug at your heartstrings... It simply lacks substance and it's put there as perfunctory, obligated "oh they get married". The resolution to the whole dragon mystery is laughable. Actually, it isn't even that because it's just NOT THERE. The mystery remains unsolved and we are just made spectators of the most half-assed, ridiculous resolution they could possibly come up with. Even the plot with the Empress and Julika isn't salvageable, because how come the second most powerful person in the empire is brought down with such a utterly stupid method? "Oh, we just found a piece of paper where you explain how to poison the Emperor's tea" fuck off!! And Julika? Clearly she was set up to be a complex character, a typical noblewoman raised to became crown princess but with a peculiar interest in magic that set her apart from the others. CLEARLY she was meant to be torn between her loyalty for the empress and her budding friendship with Helena. CLEARLY she was set up to be manipulated and used by the Empress, only to surprisingly revolt against her and frame her together with Helena. But no!!! She's the only character in the entire series that is EXPLICITLY pointed out as a magic nerd, but who reveals to Helena important informations about magic? A RANDOM DUDE WE HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE THAT SUDDENLY ARRIVES AT HELENA'S HOUSE WITH EXPLANATIONS. Julika changes from a naive girl, scared but genuine and only trapped in society's expectations for her, into some utterly brainless puppet who just happens to have kept some important letter from the empress (who would have thought!! The child you have been manipulating for her entire life, who entirely depends on you for her survival, who follows your every order like ghospel, actually KEEPS YOUR CORRESPONDENCE!!! Incredible!! What a surprising twists of events!!). It's just... Damn, the decline of this manhwa is so sudden and steep. The first part deserved 4 stars (that could've easily become 5), the second one deserved 2. Rating it 3 stars is a compromise I'm unwilling setting on simply because I can't forget how genuinely good this was at its beginnings.

Calypso and Ulysses but make it gay