Thank you so much for the spoiler! I was dying to find some spoilers. I can't wait to see the scenes! What about her family? Did they get their punishment?
Polly just banish them. Since the emperor gave Polly's country to her as present, Polly can do anything there. So she went to her old home and said 'get out, this place is mine now' and her old family like 'how can you do that to us', but the Polly said 'the emperor gifted this country to me, so everything is mine now, shoo'. Actually the chapter about her family is sad because Donau saw how she's treated by her family and Polly basically told him 'my family send me to die at the war'. First thing Polly do after she expelled her family is go to wine cellar and take some wine because now she can take some wine without anyone beating her.
I really like this webtoon. For the most part its very realistic to the period and I love how much empathy Polly showed the princess who had to commit suicide. Out of all people, Polly is very aware of the limited options womxn/girls have during this period and in the case of the princess, even though she did what she was told (without knowing her dad's plan) it still cost her, her life. It's the sad reality of war and the fact is, if she was allowed to live she would have suffered and if she had children those kids go start a revolt. Polly at least offered her a quick and painless way to die. She is hella kind. I am interested to see how she will get the King's court to respect her. In regards to the romance, the King obviously will fall in love with Polly, but I wonder how she feels about him? She respects him, but based on the spoilers, it seems she doesn't ever see him in a romantic light. Lastly, Polly is sooo hot!!! my queer self loves her so much!!!
I'll be honest. I had to drop I.lt I know its supposed to be historically accurate and all that but I just cant read on And is raping prisoners before killing them still so common even after paulina joined? And European societies did not kill every member of the royal family down to a naieve princess. This is not a CN manuha with "seven familial exterminations:
I kind of see her as someone who would marry the Emperor as a concubine only because it would make sense. She sees him so high up and mighty that, in her knightly brain, it more than makes sense for him to have those 3 wives and her as a concubine. Politically, it makes sense. She's his best knight and would stand together with him as a concubine, since, her political clout can only really reach up to that position. But, then, events unfold and those 3 wives aren't really that relevant anymore as one gets killed, one dies, and one goes through a divorce. Since that's the case, our girl gets elevated as the only 'wife' who, might I add, still retains her maiden name (or at least all the benefits attached to her maiden name) despite being the legal wife of an Emperor. Kudos to our female knight. Honestly, I don't like harem. More so, harems that don't make sense. In this case, I understand that it's part of a bigger narrative and I don't really mind it so much. Personally, the story is solid and I love her character portrayal. This is one of the stories I look forward to the most.
True. In one of the chapter she kinda half hugging Donau to protect him at the forest and that's really cool. So far that I read, they didn't mention any raping anymore. The army respect Polly very much. Actually Luxor didn't agree with that either because he's asking them to kill Polly, not raping her and kill her after that. And about killing the princess, it's not exterminate the whole family, but only the one that stay at the castle at that time. Then again, I read those from Indonesian version, so idk if english version got different translation.
I actually ship her with Donau (that child she has a frenemy relationship with). Although the king will have concubines, I liked that he love Paulina first. In that way, I can see him suffer in the face of Paulina's oblivious admiration. XD though I still wish the manwha will try a different route or at least execute it well enough to be digestible.
Me: *reading forum spoilers* Me: Ohhh no... Me: OOHHH NOO.... Me: OHHH LAWDDDD.... Me: HE DID WHAT?? Me: *Sobs* Time to put this on hold and reserve my judgement for later on y i k e s ....
I have a theory from reading chapter 37. It seems that Lucius has a brother who is in charge of managing the empire while he's gone off to war. If you can remember, Lucius' 2nd/3rd wife got pregnant and gave birth to a princess. From the namuwiki summary, it is said that the princess was fathered by a crown prince from Acrea. Now at this point, this confuses me because at the time that Lucius married the 3 wives, he was already the Emperor. Is it possible that his brother was the real father of the princess (seeing as he's going to be naturally considered as the crown prince since the Emperor still does not have a male heir)? So in the end, Pauliana is really the ONLY ONE Lucius has loved AND had a child with.
I hope this truly the case. I can’t stomach man sleeping with other women other than the one he supposedly love no matter the reason. At most married for political reason but never touch the other woman. I don’t think political marriage demanded a baby/babies be born too right? I mean it’s not anyone business weather he impregnates those women too? Or is to that extent that there has to be some bedroom activity proof or something?
Actually a political marriage demand a child as well. A cocunbine/wife may have a fraction or a representative of a fraction. Why would a fraction support a woman, whose in history always have lesser rights? Of course it is for the sole purpose of having a prince to put on the throne. Depending on the depth that the author will take it, pressuring the monarch to have a son could go from silly to bloody pressures.
Hi all, been reading this thread after reading the webtoon and since then, eagerly searching the novels updates From the preview of the 3rd novel from Korean site (try to search back the link later so we can google-translated together ) the princess is indeed Lucius's child. But somehow Lucius seems nonchalant about it. Possible due to political marriage and the need of heir for the empire+ he still lovess Polly XD. But what surprise me that somehow our dear Polly is befriend with the concubines as she put some thoughts to Polly on the woman rights issue (?) - like how lucky she was can choose whoever to be married with.. etc etc. Oh, the princess name is Lumine (spell?) Claire and Polly's & Lucius son named Jared Winter - based on Namuwiki P/s - Its been a while i'm into forum and it seems i forgot how to use spoiler's tag..forgive me >.>
Awww, I was hoping this wasn't the case. Oh well, it doesn't change the fact that Pauliana is still badass so I'm going to continue reading. Thank you for the clarification!!
That makes sense. But the emperor can chose not to bed them right? Or pretend to, like goes to their room but do nothing. Though that would be not believable. If you gave a wolf a piece of meat, there’s no way he’s gonna leave it right? More so if that meat is “rightfully” his. It’s unfortunate that it’s actually easier to succumb to desire than against it. There probably very very little people who can stand against temptation.
That's why it depends on the author how 'realistic' or 'romantic' he/she going to get. If it goes on the serious note, it could get like >> because of the many conquered land and the long absence in court, the emperor's power faced dissatisfaction and oppositions, and must compromise with the aristocrat. In order to show unbias between the nobles and new nobles, he's pressure to blah blah blah. And to pass his new reforms, he must face different fractions. Or the author can just brush things of like >> the emperor has absolute control over the kingdom bloodthirsty army bathed in blood. Everyone is afraid of him so no one stands in the way. The emperor is free lols. Like really, it depends on how political the authors gonna get.
If this was really realistic his so called united empire would only last for a few years before falling into civil war and bloodshed all over again
Realistically, having one wife is better than having more than one. Especially if there are children from each wives. It’s a recipe for disaster. The wives will schemed against each other, who get more favor and what not, and the children will naturally see each other just not as competitors, but enemies. Then they’ll grow up killing each other to get the throne leading to civil wars and destabilization of the country.
True, but that really only works under the assumtion that that one wife gives birth to an heir. And that heir survives to adulthood. Even if she is very fertile, like Maria Theresia of the Habsburgs for example, who gave birth to 16 children, only 10 of them survived longer than 5 years and only I think 2 of them were men. One accident or battle, and you are left with a headless house, or you have to have a foreign person take over the reign by marrying one of the princesses.
I started reading the webtoon around 6 months ago and I couldn't wait anymore for the newest chapter!!! But after reading all the spoilers,I'm kind of left with an unpleasant feeling XD Poor Pauliana!!!! It would have been better if she never liked the Emperor in the first place! Being a Knight is better than being a concubine!! But being single is better than marrying someone you don't like! (I need to know, did she marry or just have a fiance?)
After reading all of the spoilers I'm just appalled, if the author wanted to keep this as a realistic novel while being feminist s/he could've just keep the leads' relationship as purely comrades, why create all those needless humiliation for paul, she deserves better than such a wishy washy man. I would've been still fine if the emperor didn't realize his feelings much later on but nope, he knew and even acted upon them by sleeping with her yet he still went ahead and f*cked around with his 3 wives, it's simply too disgusting for a novel that has a romance tag. I just don't want Paul to end up with a man, like at all, it's so annoying, UGH. I'm so freaking frustrated, what the hell was the writer thinking. Anyways whatever the manhwa turns out to be I'm done, at least I read the spoliers early on thank goodness.