astaroth's manga / #Revenge(3)

Based on the Korean folktale of the princess of Nakrang who sold out her kingdom to a prince from Goryeo, this is a historical epic. The complexity of the characters, the depth of their individual backstory and subsequent motivations, all add up to a winding tale that I don't even think we've gone through half of in 50 chapters. Knowing the folklore is knowing how the story will end, but it does seem like the author is certainly giving it their own twist, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they conclude such a multi-layered plot. The one criticism I've been seeing a lot of is how weak the FL is, and I'd just like to point out that she's weak to emphasize the struggle needed to truly change when stuck in unfortunate circumstances. I do think that a lot of fantasy series tend to gloss over the effort needed to gain any sort of skill, and that critiquing the ML's character as flighty or codependent is willfully ignoring the trauma she grew up in. All of her poor choices and subsequent effort to better herself, by the end, will hopefully add up to a payoff of her coming into her own power and agency that will be oh so sweet, but I get that not everybody has the patience for characters who only seem to complicate their own situations.