Spoiler Kill the Villainess - Helena

I'M CRYING. 6 whole pages dedicated only to Helena. How wonderful-.-

 

If I may put my two cents, I’m honestly giving Helena the benefit of the doubt right now. Her actions so far has been annoying, but not something that worth the cursing and condemn, I mean not yet anyway. May change my mind later if she did something more. But like I like Psyche from the beginning even when nobody likes her, and look what happens, almost everyone is fine with Psyche now so hopefully Helena will turn out the same and if not, I will join the club

 

Because this is about helena gurl. Even the thread named " Kill the Villainess- Helena" .

My friend: Helena got only a simple character background in this story and the readers put some depth on it. hmmm.

Me: interesting.

 

Um, Helena was close to a girl whom being forced into relationship, forcefully loved and adored for things she does not wanted and was hated by the one who has the right, the original Eris.
The only ones deserve to be hated were probably the author, and male leads who (especially the crown prince for having a cold feet, even when he was given chance to break their engagement) and lastly was that some who seemed not to give her a choice to say no or even speak for herself.

 

Lmao it's not that is just the 6 pages was originally from the Spoiler thread which is funny because there's more content about Helena than actual spoilers lmao

 

Helena is basic AF that hasn't done anything of note with no background that really stands out. She's vanilla. The stereotypical goody two shoe original MC with the perfect amount of tragic backstory to make her sympathetic that usually turn out to *eye roll* be a conniving horrible bitchy asshole that grabs the stupid ball at the worst moments the MC of these transmigration/reincarnation novels "fight" against. Really, a non-entity which doesn't warrant praise OR the levels of condemnation in that thread.

Helena doesn't stir up controversy because she's a great amazing super wonderful character and how dare you be mean to her but more the hate directed at her felt gross. The sheer level of hate over a generic female character that hasn't done anything of consequence in the handful of chapters that were out at the time (omg she didn't do anything when someone of extreme power who later is revealed to one-sidedly force his love and authority on her angrily slaps MC even though she did try to interrupt but got talked over) reeked of misogyny and the inherent need to pit two girls against each other that the novel made a point of trying to circumvent by not having the MC compete with Helena and highlighting that their "competition" is artificially manufactured by what society and the "MLs" tried to build up.

So yeah, Helena is whatever but the vitriol against her was icky ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

True. Shit like that makes me like characters more out of spite

 

what i don't like about helena is her character which is not her fault jwbsjshs the author did her dirty???? honestly, i think if helena's aware about her being a main character of a novel would changer her drastically but right now she's like that because the author made her that way.... lmao why is she built like that??? but yeah for me she is annoying as hell bc i freaking hate dense characters (IM SORRY BUT I JUST CAN'T!!! IM ALREADY DENSE AS A ROCK I DON'T WANNA READ SOMETHING LIKE THAT OKAY), i hate people who's kind but literally don't think about what they do i (i always see this that your kindness might be poison to others yknow idk bur that's what i feel abt helena wanting to be friends with eris despite all these shits happening) but PLEASE let us not look away at the fact that the thing with the ugly ass botch crown prince was forced on her and all these shitty things that is happening is all because of these stupid men

 

That's where you are wrong.

Helena expects someone who is being badly mistreated by her fiance would ever want to befriend someone her fiance covets, WHY? This is the same gripe I have with Maryjun from I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! and Sylvia from My Fiance is in Love with My Little Sister.

If I'm Eris, I'd be the same as the MC. If I could torture those shitty royals to infinity hellfire, I would. But, I don't personally hate Helena. Even so, DO NOT expect me to like Helena nor befriend her because I can't. Helena is powerless. No matter what she does, no matter how close we are, I would always be treated like shit while she will be treated like a princess EVERY SINGLE TIME which hurts A LOT.

It beats the purpose of having a friend. It beats the purpose of having a relationship.

Instead of feeling better, I would only feel worse. The best I could do is ignore her. If not, I really really want to bitch slap her every time she talks to me, the same way I want to stomp on the shitty crown prince's face. Yes, I'm bitter and there's nothing wrong with that. Considering the situation I'm in, it's only expected. Expecting me to be an angel instead, towards anyone in the trio no less, is among the worst, unrealistic, unfair expectation anyone should have.

The major difference between her and the poos, however, is that I don't hate her. Not personally. I just don't want to be with her any more than I do with those poos. Again, not because I hate her. It's just because minimizing the interaction is the key for me to keep my sanity and anger towards the unfairness of it all in check!

Unfortunately, she doesn't get that and consequently make my life worse thanks to her thoughtless action.

Had she actually used her head for once, there's no way she couldn't have known that no matter what actually happens and who's at fault, I would always be the villain. It's been happening for years at every interaction for God's sake! Yet, that surprise hug and slap event still happened. So how exactly can I bring myself to like her when spending time with her is actually detrimental to my mental and physical health? How can I bring myself to WANTING to be her friend when the whole situation is like this? I wouldn't be as spiteful and angry if not for this part of her.

So learn the differences, folks. I don't hate Helena per se. I hate her because her WILLFULLY IGNORANT attitude and THOUGHTLESS actions make Eris's life worse than what it already is. Just because she's innocent, doesn't mean she hasn't done anything wrong and doesn't deserve this level of hate.

Overall though, it's complicated. If only OG!Eris wasn't bullied by pretty much everyone around Helena, I bet they could have been good friends. Considering how the servants in her house actually love her and the way she treats her servants, I doubt OG!Eris actually cares about Helena's commoner status.

 

Helena lives by the guideline her mother taught her to ignore everything and smile. Even when her so-called friend was bullied, humiliated, mistreated and left alone to lick her wounds in front of her eyes. Helena continued to smile. It's also perfectly okay if she doesn't help her bully, but by her ignoring, she is at the same time participating in the bullying of Eris. Her looking away and failing to help - this may be a survival strategy, but it is also a very selfish trait.
If she really detested marrying the crown prince, she could have taken shelter in the temple under Hybris a high priest, like Hybris himself, who has been hiding from his father there since childhood. Moreover, before marrying the crown prince, she was elevated to nobility again. This was another way she could have resisted the crown prince. She obviously had ways and methods to escape the prince, she was just not willing to do anything and just watched with a smile as ogEris was tortured by the crown prince. Her ignorant behaviour was thus also a trigger for ogEris that catalysed ogEris' behaviour, as she was indirectly involved in Eri's bullying through her watching and ignoring. Even more so by seeking contact and making situations worse for Eris. As Mattis Dettmann said, "Ignorance is one of the most humiliating and hurtful weapons in the world, yet everyone uses it." Helena's ignorance is the best way she could punish Eris. Maybe she doesn't do it consciously, but she does. Which is why I can't accept or justify her actions on the basis of superficial excuses like status, childhood, environment, peers, education. Because she could have used all of those to free herself from her oppressors. She just didn't want to do anything to change her status quo.

 

Ok? I don't have any issue with what you said, nor do I disagree per se. She's not a character archetype I like nor do I defend her actions. My only issue is that the reaction people had to her with how few chapters were out, the sheer level of vitriol, was gross and reeked of the misogyny that you commonly see directed towards other female characters in stories that don't knowtow to the MC.

When the hate train started, it was even before the slap moment. When everything we knew about her was from the summary of the OG!story and how the Crown Prince treated her. She was literally a smiling cardboard cut out. Boring and annoying but not someone who should be drawn and quartered. And tbh if you set aside the intrinsic disdain directed towards "the other woman", the slap scene was a well written way to highlight her flaws i.e. helplessness, selfishness, ignorance and thoughtlessness, as you pointed at. It also sets the foundation for the reveal that she has always been a person who goes with the flow under the Crown Prince, not a positive character trait but it gives her more depth as a character.

I think those things actually explain why she wants to befriend Eris, most likely out of guilt and a feeling that it's the only way to "make it up" to Eris, by being friends because she cannot control the Crown Prince's actions so she wants to extend an olive branch. But this also highlights her naivety and ignorance, that it's not that simple. She probably doesn't value the Crown Prince's affection because she doesn't actually want it so she is also being thoughtless in not considering how hard it is for Eris to accept her friendship. These things make her stupid, selfish and a flawed person but also creates a different "original MC" character that general turns out manipulative and psychotic. She's not different from the OG!story's version, but it shows the issues the original character had.

And I stand by the fact that she doesn't deserve the level of hate she received in the original thread. It's a level of hate you mainly see directed towards female characters who generally have not done anything to warrant the hate. She's annoying, selfish, naive, and inconsiderate but goddamned the reaction was gross AF.

Such an extreme reaction generally stems from inherent misogyny and I stand by that observation.

 

Why Is everyone ignoring the fact Eris harrased and abused her from a young age wtf. Its it causes its disproves the "OG eris was actually a victim", school of thought? Sure as hell Eris would have never helped her. Helena was already doing her a favor by bot speaking out against what she did to her but you want her to put herself into more trouble for soemone who abuses her?

And why why does everyone even like OG Eris? She is so not the victim to Helena that people make her out to be and she dosent have a good personality like other villanes do nor dies she have any likeable traits. I still think its protagonist bias

Are we finally at the point where were going "actually aristocrats are the true opressed class". Cause damn wow

And everyone keeps on going she could have freed herself

Well no she couldn't. Its been said in the novel by like 50 diffrent people I dont know why people so stubbornly insist on this incorrect statement.

This is the same thing as asking an abused victims "gee why didnt you just leave them"

 

Oh, I don't know. Maybe because we are not BLIND. I mean, we acknowledge the fact that OG!Eris and Helena were BOTH victims and that they were BOTH being bullied /abused/mistreated from a very young age after all UNLIKE some people who can only see Helena.

Based on the spoiler, we know that the shitty prince had it for OG!Eris from the start. Hence it's not hard to deduce OG!Eris doesn't like Helena from the very first meeting because she herself had been mistreated starting from that very same meeting. The major difference between them, however, is when they were in the same setting, OG!Eris was openly ostracised and bullied by pretty much EVERYONE while Helena only has one bully which is OG!Eris.

And, OG!Eris doesn't have a good personality or any likeable trait? Yeah, you're 'totally' right. That's why the parts where we can see how she treats her servant kindly and how her servants genuinely love her aren't actually there in the manhwa... Those parts are just imaginary dark pixels floating on top of the screen where only I can see and read them.

 

Oh wow her servants who get paid and are her employers like her wow omg shes the best forgive me I couldn't see that

OG Eris 99 percent of the time she spreads far in the novel harassed Helena and then acted sweet informed of the prince. What one might call a literal "white lotus", literally shes the exact type of characer readers would hate if she want the protag. Yet for some reason people need to defend her every action and try to excuse when in the begging they were hating on helena and saying just cause she had a sad childhood dosent excuse her actions

But now that we know Eris was literally horrible to Helna and made her life a living hell everyone shoes "its not her fault she had a sad childhood uwu"

Like go check 7 pages back. People said they didnt care if Helena had a bad childhood her simply daring to evrn breathe in Eris's vicinity was too big of a crime to forgive

Its hypocrisy at its finest. And it isnt the first time otome isekai readers have displayed it

I liteerally would have had no problem wor OG eris if the same peole who defended her wernt the same peole calling for the decapitation of Helena in the beginnng. Many times the fanbase ruins a character even if the character is perfectly fine

 

Duh, well, that's your problem, not mine. Who asked you to group everyone who hate Helena or like OG!Eris together? As if we are all hating on Helena or backing OG!Eris for the same reasons.

I can accept the human part of Helena as much as I do with Eris. They are both good people at heart. But due to unfortunate circumstances, it's pretty much impossible for them to be friends.

If there's any death I'm calling, it's for the shitty king, prince, OG!Eris's father, queen, and Helena's mother. All I want from Helena is for her to stay the fuck away from OG!Eris as long as those five are still alive.

By the way, if there's anyone who really thinks any employee can genuinely love and care for their employer just because they are being well-paid, it's pretty obvious that that person has never actually worked as an employee before, or at least not a low-level one.

 

I think you should read my statement more carefully before you criticize. I have very well acknowledged that Helena was bullied. But at the same time through her inaction she was also involved in the bullying of Eris.
But my text is not about the fact that Helena should have helped ogEris, but that she should do something. It is her own fault that she was forced into marriage with the crown prince, because she did nothing to prevent it. Since there were obviously ways and means to escape this forced marriage.
And also where in the book was it shown that she could not free herself. I can only remember finding ways which were shown between the lines! You might be not an attentive reader, but look at the example of Hybris, Eris' half-brother. He was able to escape his powerful noble father through the temple that gave him shelter. Why shouldn't Helena be given shelter, especially since the high priest is charmed by her?
One more small remark about your knowledge of history. There were very well kings/aristocrats who improved their country and population and did a lot of good while they were in power. You can't lump everyone together because of single cases, that is ignorant.
Remember the October Revolution. It only happened because the Bolsheviks were supported by the nobility. And what did they do with their supporters? Expropriated and murdered! But can I now say that all communists or even people from the working class with a left orientation are bad people? No, because that would be quite childish.

 

Saying her inaction is bullying is a real real big reach. It dosent make sense. She was again a maid a play thing for the prince. This has been hammered in the novel and said by the author over and over again

And you see eris half brother was a man. He is much safe then a female would be at that time and he has much more opportunities

Also Alot of stuff written about kings was taken from that time. Writers couldn't citzice the monarchy at that time so of course most of history would show them in positive light

And the bovehsikes were supported by the nobility? Gee Dosent that prove my point of how aristocrats poison everything they touch A system that lives on the exploration of lower class peole can never be good. And sure our modern system may do that too but in a monarchy that was enforced by law and encouraged

I dont know whay you mean by that? Are you saying a low level employee can love there boss? Well those are exceptions not the norm. And in a society with classism I dont see that happening

 

If you don't understand my response, do explain the meaning of this sentence of yours, maybe then I could explain better:

 

I meant employees lol

 

OMG... before she was a maiden, she was also a noblewoman by birth who lost her title of nobility because of a coup on the royal house, this was also said by the author.

just an example to exaggerate your opinion.... So if you watch a crime taking place in front of your eyes, and you do nothing to help the victim, this is called omitted assistance by law. This may not be seen as a crime per se in most countries, but it is not morally correct either. Extreme bullying takes place in front of Helena's eyes all the time. If she doesn't want to help Eris, that's okay. But if a person is being massively mentally tortured right in front of your eyes, can you just watch it happen with a smile on your face. I can't. And I don't wish anyone to get abruptly into such a situation, where he cries for help, but no one helps him and just silently looks away. The person who can do something like that is far from innocent. He only has an insanely high self-preservation instinct, which borders on selfishness, but not innocence.

What does taking shelter in the temple have to do with whether a person is male or female?
Many women throughout history have fled from their husbands, fathers, brothers and uncles and found shelter in monasteries. Helena can go on a date with Hybris, in a restaurant for aristocrats, but she can't go with him all the way to the temple? Your statement makes no sense at all!

You have probably never had contemporary historians' reports in your hand. There are many historians who criticized their emperors, princes and rulers, just look at the classical Roman historians. And, if it didn't happen domestically, then rulers were criticized abroad for their actions. Moreover, modern historians take these texts apart, compare them, evaluate them, so that they get realistic and objective contemporary reports.
Besides, most nobles, even kings could not read in the Middle Ages. Which is why writing and reading were limited to the clergy. And the Church was by far more powerful than the nobles in the Middle Ages. By a simple excommunication from the Pope, kings and noblemen lost their titles and lands and their lives were threatened by their potential successors. The Church was the most powerful authority in the European Middle Ages. It did not allow itself to be threatened by any power-hungry noblemen.

OMG... You better learn to think before you speak....And you should really study the October Revolution.... This is so condescending to the people who had suffered from these crimes under the guise of an ideology... that I am simply at a loss of words. To make such a statement alone shows low intellect. Alone that I discuss with such a fanatic is under my dignity, so goodbye!