Spoiler Death Is The Only Ending For The Villain

It was genuinely nice to see them mend things slowly to the point where in the end (and side stories from how I read it throughout here) she was having Tea with them rather regularly and her daughter Judith loves being pampered to heck by Grandpa Duke lol. Also nice to see best Servant Kin-- I mean dad changing the rules so his daughter who has tons of power ( I mean inherited ancient mage power) will be taking the Throne. and with the Lei being destroyed .. I assume the curse on the Ancient mages is gone?

Spoiler

She travels through some of the Mirror her daughter brings to her when she breaks it (her daughter is 3 years old at the time) she travels to her own world [with her soul] she sees her family around her her body is a shell as her soul is of course over there...and the stomach issues she had, had have been cured. However she decides to cut the ties for good she does say Goodbye to her Father over there it wasn't forgiveness persay but I didn't feel like she hated him either it was more of a farewell and stop mourning and lets all move on with our existences etc etc They were all full of regret, and she herself 'ends' her old body.

 

Thank you
Can i also ask what part of the novel is this

 

side stories mostly - so a long while for the Manhwa (if it even does some dont do side stories sadly I mean Lady with the Lamp is a 'shining' example of failing to do side stories that make the story 10x more enjoyable in the epilogue)

 

Her Korean family never actually hated her, they just emotionally constipated (rolling my eyes). The father didn't know how to treat her, since she is good at everything so he just leave her all alone, the second brother want to get closer to her so he bullied her, she used to sneak out to eat like a rat, he throw the rice away in hope she would eat with them, the first brother give her a moldy apartment in hope she would return home, when she didn't, he even took away all the money the father allocated for her so she would call him for help, so she need to works 7 part-time job, all the stress, exhaustion, poor sanitation and malnutrition accumulated throughout all those years resulting in stomach cancer. The father even brought the best doctor from abroad for the surgery, it was a success, all her vital sign is perfect, but she never wakes up for 3 years, the doctor assume it was more psychological. When Penelope see them sleeping in the hospital, taking care of her like she is so precious, she think it was better for them to spit at her corpse instead. When she tried to peel off the oxygen mask, the brother wakes up, they beg at her not to harm their sister, they think it was the business rival, so they would give anything she want, she ask them didn't they wish for her death and lay all the fact, the brother started making excuse, then the father recognize her and he is kneeling asking for forgiveness. She didn't forgive them, but she didn't resent them anymore cause they mean nothing to her now, her family is in the other side, she told them to let her go cause she will never come back, she remind them it was their indifference and harassment who drove her to her death so live and repent for the rest of their lives.

 

I was actually surprise at how subtle the brainwashing incident was in the novel. Even Derrick ended up stabbing Yvonne eventually. No one really acted like a braindead puppet for long.

I feel like despite Eclise’s high % it didn’t exactly make him immune to Yvonne’s jedi mind tricks. When they first met, he did try to choke her to death. He wanted to get rid of her so she wouldn’t create problems for Penelope in the future but slick Yvonne knew all the right things to say to weaken his resolve.

His is a classic case of a tragedy or a crime of passion, wherein magical tricks is not even necessary to manipulate someone into doing hateful acts. Yvonne did try to use sorcery but what she ended up successfully doing with Eclise was utilize the power of suggestion to lead him astray and mess with his head by saying things like Penelope wasn’t choosing him since he lacks power or he can only be with her if he kills the Crown Prince, take over the empire yada yada. All that gaslighting didn’t exactly help him make better choices for himself and it was easy to add fuel to that fire since he was so desperate to be with Penelope.

He also explained at one point that what he is doing is not a betrayal, but protection because if Yvonne had sent monsters or another army instead of him then everyone(including hostages) would have ended up dead already. At first I thought this is BS since he keeps saying creepy things to her also (out of pain and anger perhaps), but in the end(main story) he really did risk his own life to protect Penelope.

Darn, it’s BRUTAL how many times he got battered by MChit hard on the head w/a magical mirror, even got hit by lightning, then made snack by Dragon but he still manages to tell her one last time that he loves her as he’s bleeding to death and that he only wanted her, not any title. His whole ordeal kinda reminds me of that Taylor Swift lyric “And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars”

Since their relationship is so unbalanced that it becomes toxic, it’s CLEAR TO SEE that Callisto is the most ideal for MC who often wallows in self-pity. He really helps her to get out of her head, stop that drama, and just live. Never a dull moment with them and he’s seriously flirting while she’s oblivious so it’s funny! Glad they were able to capture that mood and the cutesyy silly banter in the manhwa version also. Can’t wait for the new season!

Spoiler: Callisto and Penelope

 

I'm going to be completely honest, this story is very drama heavy and i dont think my heart can take it but seeing the discussion and threads sparks my interest and motivates me to read

Like ik this is a good story, it's just a me thing that I can't stomach the drama. I feel distressed? Is that the word? Idk but reading the spoilers just makes digesting a little bit better

 

Unsure if anyone replied to it but hey, I completed the novel and I really suggest you read it.

Unlike what the person speaks about, Penelope is not really a dislikable character to that extent. Sure she has her moment when she coldly abanonded Eclise, and I felt very angry at that time but it's understandable why she did it because Eclise was her hope. Her hope of surviving and getting out. And he ruined that.

But Penelope acknowledged her faults with Eclise. She didn't pretend to be a mere victim in their situation, she outright admitted that she ruined his life. And that's what I liked. And she didn't hate Eclise either. They didn't paint him as the bad guy and that's what I liked.

Penelope is a person who by any means wants to survive, she has her morals and lines she dosen't want to cross but she has to be shameless to survive at times but it's so heartbreaking at how much she suffers because she has feelings as well.

She's not a doll, she has feelings and emotions and it made me cry so much when I read this scene in the novel

Penelope is a very realistic and well written character and this is definitely a book worth reading.

Oh well it is dramatic but not sad enough to make you depressed sort of? But like I guess there are some things that just might be too heavy on the heart for some people, I feel like the story's drama aspect was very enjoyable but the last arc was very heavy so yeah I can understand what you may say. Even I at times felt a heavy chest after reading some of the scenes, like a suffocatingness you know? It's brilliant writing tbh.

The

Spoiler: MAJOR SPOILER

The poison-suicide scene by Penelope when she gave up hope, the scene with Eclise breaking down and begging for Penelope to look back in the prison cell, Callisto saying he would have died if Penelope actually went to her world despite telling her to go, the scenes with the Duke

Are some scenes that make the story very good but also some of the most heartbreaking scenes.

 

It's been a while since I made this post and corrected the error, but some people who read the spoiler thread misunderstood this again. ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶p̶p̶e̶n̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶I ̶j̶u̶m̶p̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶c̶l̶u̶s̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶j̶u̶d̶g̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶ (I really feel bad for him). So I will explain this point and how it is explained in the novel:

First, the previous thing I found on namu wiki (and that doesn't exist anymore) was that Callisto was never brainwashed in normal mode^
The following information is currently in the article about Yvonne Eckart (https://namu.wiki/w/이본 에카르트):
"하지만 시스템과 퀘스트의 영향으로 어느 정도 밑밥을 깔아놓은 페넬로페의 이전 행적 때문에 세뇌는 이전처럼 녹록치 않았고, 이클리스를 제외한 이들의 세뇌도 나중에 가면 전부 풀린다. 참고로 칼리스토 같은 경우에는 아예 통하지 않았다" (Followed by a reference note).
The reference note is this:
"마음 속의 허점이나 은밀한 욕망을 파고든다는 세뇌의 특성상, 칼리스토는 파고들 틈이 전혀 없었기 때문. 노멀 모드에서와는 다르게 페넬로페와 가까워지면서 마음의 짐을 어느 정도 덜어낸 칼리스토에게는 레일라의 세뇌가 먹히지 않은 것이다."

Translation:
However, the brainwashing was not as smooth as before because of Penelope's previous actions, which had laid some groundwork under the influence of the system and quests, and the brainwashing of everyone except Eckles would be solved later. For reference, in the case of Callisto, it didn't work at all.
Reference note:
Due to the nature of brainwashing, which involves digging into loopholes or secret desires in his mind, Callisto had no room to dig. Unlike in Normal Mode, Leyla's brainwashing did not work for Callisto, who had relieved the burden of his mind to some extent as he got closer to Penelope (틈이 was translated as room, but it also means time or chance).

So, what the past information tells us is that Callisto was not brainwashed due to the interaction he had with Penelope and also because "Yvonne" did not have the opportunity to brainwash him.

This part of the novel makes the previous point clear^

Also, I know that in the novel Callisto mentions that he was brainwashed to distrust others:

But as mentioned before, interacting with Penelope helped him not fall into Yvonne's trap. (B̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶P̶e̶n̶e̶l̶o̶p̶e̶ ̶(̶ ̶̶͡°̶ ̶̶͜ʖ̶ ̶̶͡°̶)̶ )

Now, the novel and the Namu wiki make it clear that brainwashing is fully related to people's hidden fears/desires.
During the novel we were able to observe how "Yvonne" brainwashed Eckles, Derrick and Penelope (these two were more through their points of view). In the cases of Reynold and Winter, we never saw it, we just assumed it.
While the main story was happening, we were able to understand why some characters were susceptible to brainwashing. We were able to understand why they ended up behaving that way, but we got little information of their behavior in normal mode.
In normal mode we only assumed that all the male leads were brainwashed, but it was never explained very well what their wishes/fears were during that time. We can only assume those fears/desires with the little information that the main story provided...

As I mentioned earlier, Callisto didn't trust anyone but it's not wrong to assume that because of this (and ironically), he actually wanted to trust in someone. But there is something else, a fact in the novel (when Callisto meet "Yvonne") that can go unnoticed but analyzing it thoroughly, it can be assumed how the brainwashing worked on Callisto:

if I remember correctly, from when "Yvonne" arrived at the mansion until that moment, she has never felt the need to cry in front of another male lead. So, is truly interesting to observe how she cunningly decided to cry and precisely hit in the nail on a deep memory that Callisto has from his childhood... And of course, we can assume that who Callisto was remembering was his mother, who coincidentally was the pillar that encouraged him to take the throne...
By the way, I remind you that "Yvonne" fully retains the memory of all the times she has tried to "destroy" the world, so it is not illogical that she knows the weak points of the male leads and the original Penelope.

So in my conclusion, all the male leads were victims of the brainwashing during "the normal mode" but they were also cunningly manipulated to "love" the true villainess and hate the real heroine. ̶O̶f̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶c̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶b̶u̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶h̶a̶v̶i̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶P̶e̶n̶e̶l̶o̶p̶e̶ ̶O̶G̶ ̶s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶"̶Y̶v̶o̶n̶n̶e̶"̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶o̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶a̶i̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶C̶a̶l̶l̶i̶s̶t̶o̶.

To be honest, I'd like to know more about what we didn't see during normal mode, but I hope that SUOL can clarify those points with the help of the novel's author.

 

Also to make one of the biggest things clear here;

Spoiler: Yvonne is not the Villain

“Yvonne” is not the Villain in any timeline of the story, because she was a child who couldn't bear it anymore after wandering the streets for months under the torment of Laila when she saw the Duke adopt Penelope. She thought they'd given up on her and her weak state of mind just allowed Laila to gain full control. Laila is the true villain here, after Penelope saw this scene unfold in the mirror with the young Yvonne, she couldn't tell the Duke about this particular part because she knew that the Duke would feel like dying if he learned that his action was what inevitably made him lose Yvonne forever. Because it was too cruel, to the Duke, to Yvonne.

I believe if they'd found the true Yvonne at that moment and still adopted Penelope, she would've been a good older sister to Penelope because she was just a kind child. Yvonne was older than Penelope. If only..

 

quick question who did the MC end up with at the end?

 

Spoiler

Callisto Regulus

 

thanks.

 

im at the part where callisto put all of them in their place for treating penelope terrible and putting all the blame on her all these years like its just crazy it took someone who's not even in yall family to make yall face the facts and reality that yall treated this poor girl wrong all bc she wasnt “yvonne”

 

The artist (suol-nim) had a live stream and she drew the cover of season 3!

 

not enough callisto

 

Who is the black haired guy?

 

That's Dereck Eckart

 

Thanks

he a waste of space

 

Yep, but i guess Suol is a fair Artist

 

sighhhhh
should’ve been her and callisto