I couldn’t have said it better! Seriously people need to grow hearts. I can’t believe how some readers toss aside all the horrible things that was done and try to justify it. Thank you so much for sharing those articles and sending a message through art. I really appreciate what you said about trauma transcending time, it really resonated with me. I definitely would love to see more of your reviews in the future ❤️
Oh, this was revived again? Uhn... Let's see... Mate, I'm quite literally the most active person in this entire forum, and by a gigantic margin. I deal with trolls regularly and I honestly don't mind it, but if you think I'm trolling because we disagree on a novel opinion, then you're just plain dumb, seriously. Grow up. Not everyone that disagrees with you is a troll. You don't seem to know the basic definition of what a medi-fantasy setting is. I suggest you look it up. This is unquestionably a story on a medi-fantasy setting and should be analyzed as such. Yeah... Author didn't do that. Author had abuse for a small bit before turning back time and leaving the abuse as a backstory kind of thing, and left the entire healing process as something that happened off-screen. The author showed abuse and used it as the setting to start up a time travel story. It's not a story focused on abuse. And honestly, I couldn't care less if you dislike the story because of how it handled the abuse that was empowered by magical drugs. By all means dislike it all you want. My discussions on this thread the whole time have been about how the characters and the story as a whole make sense and were well-written. I don't care if you dislike the story, by all means go ahead and dislike it. I dunno what to tell you if you think a story with 200ish chapters is focused on abuse when there are like 10ish chapters that talk about abuse and 190ish chapters that barely touch on the abuse happening. This is not the focus of this story.
You are very kind, Asterik (Or Blue? Any nickname that you're cool with, I'll use). Moreover, thank you for taking the time to read my response! It's really quite long, so I didn't really expect any replies or anything. Speaking of articles...if there is anything, a book or article or whatever, that you have liked and may be willing to share, I am always more than happy to learn. I am just one person, so the more the merrier, as they say!
Hello, Alice! Bear with me here, I don't really know how to add quotes like you do. It's a process, and I'm figuring it out along the way. Firstly, thaaannk you for taking the time to give my comment a lookover. I am unsure if you read it all, but if you did, thanks a bunch. All right then, my good hoe; shall we? Whether or not I disagree with you, I was not referring to every post you've made. Was it not you who said, some time ago, that you were farming for messages? Genuinely, was that not you? If that is the case, I'll edit my original post. Farming for messages is troll-like behaviour. "If you think I'm trolling because we disagree on a novel opinion, then you're just plain dumb." Bloody hell, mate, did the milk pouring get to you? Or do you secretly want more~ Medi-fantasy. Okay. So... does that not stand for 'medieval fantasy'? Well, sure, whatever; I could be wrong. Searching 'medi-fantasy' didn't bring me immediate results, but I did get something off of Aesthetics Fandom: "Medieval Fantasy is unlike Fantasy in that it specifically pertains to or is influenced by the Medieval period of European history, which was from the 5th century to the 15th century." Do you agree or disagree with the aforesaid quote? If affirmative, then eh, maybe I was too harsh to completely dismiss it. Let's go down a list and check some things off. Knights: Check, we do have knights... who wear very distinct uniforms and no armour. I'd judge the lack of artillery, but that doesn't matter here. Anyway, knights survived the medieval period. Attire: Yeah...no. No semblance. Palaces & castles: Check! We do have them! The main palace, though, does not bear a close resemblance to a medieval one. Towns & commoners: Ding, ding ding! Check! Look at those happy, innocent people...who still existed long after the medieval period. Heraldry: Oof...yeah, it might need work (novel reference). Empires, kingdoms, yadayada: still extant today, but if you really want to get technical, how the empire is described in this bloody series is akin to a large kingdom. Science (for funsies): an antidote for a poison that someone in an earlier comment described as mercury poisoning? Huh. Must be made from the piss of the High/Great Priests, then. By the by, when someone thinks 'medieval fantasy', they think of Labyrinth (2012), they think of the TV series Merlin, they think of The Witcher, they think of The Princess Bride (specifically, farm boy). Ew, I'm diverging. You dare distract with such a point, dame Alice? In the end, though, it does not matter. But since you're so hung up over this, the similarities are so few and so standard across all stories like these that it isn't worth changing the scope in which I analyse this story. It's not even medieval, either! But again, what matters is that they, the characters, all bear modern perspectives. I will therefore argue this story via a contemporary lens; and even then, even if it was set in the medieval period, you can still take issue with rape & the portrayal of abuse. Both existed and still exist, and some chronicles do give some hint to what we now call PTSD. That's the entire point, Alice. I'm arguing that the author (and people like you, not just you) have minimised and rationalised Monique's abuse to make & accept the couple despite who they were. Moreover, to use abuse purely as a plot point is vile, and is akin to those—yeah, I'm gonna say it—Chinese CEO stories which begin with rape for no reason save for just having it. The healing process happens off-screen? Alice, my favourite muppet, you have got to hear yourself once in a while. Firstly, because (a) abuse is mentioned constantly, from neglectful parents to the abuse inflicted by Ruve on Monique; and (b) why bother having such a hurtful & emotional start only to have the healing period explored off-screen? Gawd, these are the comments that end up feeling so bloody troll-like. Full on rage-bait, and I'm falling right into it. Factual, dude. I'm going to come clean here, okay? The truth is that I've been masturbating to you every night since I first found your comments. Hell, I even built a shrine dedicated to @AliceShiki that I pray to each morning, place a yellow flower next to your framed profile picture, then jump three times and step out of my room with my left leg first. It's a ritual, lemme tell you. I care very little about your overall views of the story. I plucked a few of your comments that amused me and crafted them into a mocking tale. However, this isn't about you. You took it personally—indeed, having one pour imaginary milk onto your head will ruffle some feathers—but it was never about you. My, sweet, sweet lil muppet. The abuse Monique faced was the literal drive for her wanting to get out of the engagement. The abuse & neglect faced by others is also mentioned. It's supposed to be a coming-of-age story, where she learns and heals and finally embraces herself and appreciates what she couldn't after she was repeatedly trampled on in the past. What the tits did you think this story was about? Is this more rage-bait? Have you engaged with trolls so much that you have become a troll? I feel so goofy having to reply to you, knowing full well that a few of my past brothers/sisters/cousins chose to engage with the same petulant broken record. But, well, I do like hearing my own voice.
Author could have solved this by just not using the butterfly effect for a love story between a pathetic workaholic and an abusive royal brat tbh.
Well said. Honestly I'm still not sure how I feel about all this timeline shenanigans nonsense to exonerate abusive/toxic ML's for their deeds. Somehow its seems the abuse apologists authors have evolved their methods. you never see the female mc alter counterparts in these other realities going full Hitler, do you? they have to remain consistent with their morals or principles (virtues) as least as the core being of who they are. even if everything else in their reality is different. That's called character consistency. Ruve will always be someone capable of raping Aristia in my eyes and thats not going to change. If it happened in ANY timeline, then it happened too many times and is a no for me (seems super convenient for the dude too, while the girls live with PTSD and trauma of the event for the rest of their lives) I can't see her ever wanting to see the man face again, realistically.
Yes, pretty much. A story that is set on a fantasy setting that resembles medieval times on broad terms is a medi-fantasy story. This is a very broad category and totally fits the story. You should think of the characters as characters that live in something similar to medieval era and have appropriate mindsets for that era. It doesn't matter if the audience is modern, the story is medi-fantasy, and so is the mindset of the characters. The readers may use a modern perspective, but the characters do not. No, it's just me spending time on my hobby, which is browsing forums. Me farming for messages means I am replying to a dead thread instead of just ignoring it altogether. Especially when discussing with people who have clearly shown that they have no intention of having a proper discussion (not necessarily your case, for the record, since I haven't interacted enough with you to form an opinion, but totally the case with some people in this thread). It's just me making use of an opportunity to get closer to 40k posts in a dead thread instead of ignoring it. That's what I mean with farming messages. When did I minimise any abuse? The abuse is there for anyone to see. The character just went back in time and had no choice to do anything about it because the abuse had stopped existing for anybody but herself. She was also dealing with somebody who had power over her due to the family positions of the setting, so she didn't even have the right to avoid Ruve due to her trauma. She just had to find a way to deal with her trauma, in order to force herself to be able to handle Ruve... And this process was handled entirely off-screen because it was not the focus of the story. You can dislike it if you want, but if the healing process of a traumatic abusive event is done off-screen, then this event is not the focus. This is a second chance romance story. The abuse is just the background setting that the author chose. I'm not minimizing anything. I'm saying that it was not the focus, and was treated like a small unimportant part of the story... Because it was. Sure, for somebody that cares about abuse being properly depicted, this can be annoying, but... That was not the focus of the story. It's normal to push stuff that isn't the focus to the sidelines. It's not the author's job to focus on every part of the story that the reader's care about. The job of the author is to tell the story they want to tell, and this story was a second chance romance, not an abuse-focused story. You just don't see anything related to how the MC got proper support to heal. You don't see how she managed to handle the trauma. You don't see how she managed to accept being near Ruve... You see nothing. At one point she just starts being able to handle Ruve's presence and that came out of nowhere. The healing was all done off-screen because the author didn't want to spend any time focusing on it. If you wanted to read a story that focused on the abuse and on the healing process, that is understandably annoying, but this was just not what the part that the author wanted to focus at, so it was shoved to the sidelines. Yeah yeah, sure. And I'm totally not replying to you either. This is totally not a discussion thread where you reply to people specifically about their comments. ... Look, you gotta try harder if you seriously expect to get an emotional response out of me with this kind of silly attempt. I've been dealing with this kind of thing for way too long to fall for this kind of bait. You're in a discussion thread. You're replying to people's posts and making a discussion. Your replies to me were all about my points. Like my replies to you are all about your points. This is not rocket science. The only difference is that I am mature enough to not throw a bunch of insults to the other person while pretending to have the moral high ground like you do. Seriously, grow up. Standard Second Chance story with a romance element. MC dies and goes back in time to fix mistakes of the past to avoid her death. As standard as it can be. Author pulled a twist by putting abuse at the start, then decided to pull a plot point about how she wants to avoid the engagement to avoid the abuse instead of to avoid death to be a bit different from the standard. Then the author proceeded to give up on this plot point and make the MC feel fine being with Ruve in no time and quickly started showing her falling for him again because they already gave up on the abuse plot point that made their story different from other Second Chance novels. But the part of her wanting to become a knight had already been established and couldn't simply be ignored entirely, so the author gave it a small amount of highlight, then promptly shoved it to the sidelines again to focus on the romance and on the stuff with the Korean girl and the evil duke... Because well, Second Chance story, gotta show how she avoids her death. And then you get a magical poison thrown in just to get rid of the abuse plot point entirely, because now we can justify the abuse of Timeline 1 Ruve with Magical Poison, so even in the first timeline nothing was his fault and he is now the perfect pairing for the MC and there is nothing she can blame him for. Of course, trauma doesn't need blaming to exist, but as the MC healed from her trauma off-screen, we just end up with nothing left to talk about in regards to the abuse, because it was promptly ignored and thrown away by the author. You can dislike it if you want, but it was clearly not the focus of the story. The author just put an abuse plot point there for a bit to hook people up, as their Second Chance novel was different than other Second Chance novels... Then as soon as they got enough readers, they got rid of the abuse plot point as quickly as they could and went with standard romance stuff.
Dimension!!! Thank you, I do like a lot of what you've said in this thread as well. Yes, by the large, I agree with your sentiments (I bolded the stuff I really liked). The only reason I don't like tackling the timeline argument full-on is because it is inherently unimportant to my arguments and isn't strictly specific to TAE (i.e., all types of reincarnation/isekai deal with timelines, in a way). That's why I like to weigh the crime that was committed instead. Moreover, it's very easy to diverge from whatever points you lay out when talking about the two TLs, because what-if-isms can be thrown around as a distraction. It puts too much emphasis on the timelines—which is exactly what the author wants—and puts less emphasis on the actual problematic themes TAE juggles. One can still discuss them, obviously; I just feel like it's easier to fall into the snare of the defenders that way, who can and will jump through loops for the sake of TAE. You have no idea how insanely happy I am to see someone equally as passionate about this story as I am. I loved it so much in the beginning; the scenes where she rejects god and where she solidifies her resolve to become head of her house, respectively, were my favourite parts. Now, I do plan to upload one more essay-comment about why a lot of smaller details in TAE made fuck all sense, but that'll have to wait. I'm still busy collecting some quotes from the primary source (read: the novel). I have a very, very intolerant view toward rape & rapists. You do, too. That is why I discussed it. Rape is a crime, it is volatile. So yeah, I stand with you here, and forever. Any recommendations for stories like TAE but don't follow the path it took?
My only recommendation is Angelic Lady. Xylade also posted a recommendation titled ' Knight of the Frozen Flower'.
Muppet, expressing my feelings about TAE is my bread & butter. You encourage me to talk about this story, and that makes me happy. Unfortunately, you, as a person, make me sad. You are not good for The Mental Health™. I know now that you did not read the novel. I know now that you most likely skim what I write. You cherry-pick certain things without tackling other points. I'll (try to) keep my answers brief. Read below the quote you clipped. For the love of tits, you were so close. I explain why this story is not medieval. You are objectively wrong. If you can’t distinguish between what is medieval and what is not, there is no way you could possibly know what kind of ‘mindset’ medieval folks had. Not that that’s a good argument, anyway; you would have to really know what part of medieval Europe you want to tackle to get some semblance of their thoughts & feelings. This author didn’t do that. Since you are, apparently, the 'mature' one here, the 'grown up', own up to your mistake and apologise. You willfully misinterpreted what I said. You are a troll. You are insincere, extraneous, and inflammatory when you want to be. Indeed, I am not free of this myself; I have demonstrated provocative texting. You are annoying. "The abuse had stopped existing for anybody but herself." So. What. Actually, never mind. Thank you, Muppet; with this, all of the world's problems have been solved. My skin is clear, the sky is bright, and the birds are chirping. Ahh, power. Power over Monique, power over her house. So much subservience. I do genuinely wonder why the author made a big deal about that. Almost as if... so to ensure their couple interact, despite Daddy Kieran having the ability to help Monique not meet. The emperor did have a soft spot for him, after all. Off-screen. I addressed this earlier, my good bro. You hear but you do not listen. It was a huge focus. Monique was thinking about the past right up to the night she had sex with Ruve in the present. You do minimise the abuse. You say it's not important. It is. Well fuck me, I guess; second chance romance story, coming-of-age story… the second chance part was so obvious, I didn't see the need to mention it. Both are not mutually exclusive. Anyway, a huge part of TAE is Monique being able to experience life in a way she did not in the past (new friends, talking terms with not-so-very daddy, etc.). Whatever, this isn't what's important. Read: minimising the abuse. The author added abuse. The author then, according to you, was not required to talk about it because 'it wasn't the focus', because it ‘wasn’t the story they wanted to tell’. And yet, in the novel, Monique talks about her past abuse constantly. Even the webcomic addresses it often. If the author didn't want to talk about abuse, they should not have made it so bloody bad. They did anyway. I’m not implying that this is an abuse-focused story in and of itself. It’s just that abuse is a huge chunk of—oml, forget it. Fuuuuuuuuuuck off. You see how the author has Monique "accept being near Ruve", it was just badly done. Tis why I am here, after all! “You don't see how she managed to handle the trauma.” Well, now you're just making stuff up. "You see nothing". Indeed, I hope to not see you again after I post this. Very personalised. It must be me whom Nike is talking about. Nike is actively trying to get a rise out of me. I'm not, Muppet. I just don't like you. You're annoying, so I get curt. Congratulations, though; you did get under my skin. Must be something you picked up from all those after-school lessons you call your 'hobby'. "Your replies to me were all about my points." I was talking about my OG post, Muppet. I took excerpts of your texts because they were short and you talk a lot and they were things I could poke fun at. I wasn't engaging with the blocks of comments you made. You didn't even engage with my cringe Wattpad-knockoff story apart from the troll thing. :'( Afterward, when you replied to me and started going off on a tangent, then did I start talking to you. But the OG post? That was largely about Monique's rape. Which... actually, you explicitly did not discuss. Clever Muppet. Can't single yourself out as a blatant rapist apologist if you're not talking about it. Discussion thread? Golly jee, I had no idea. I thought this was a seminar about who has the nicest booty in all of showbiz (it’s Chris Evans, btw). “It's over Anakin, I have the high ground!” It felt very weird reading this section. It’s as if you almost (almost) see the problems with this story, but then turn around and go “well, it’s because of plot this, plot that, plot up-my-ass”. It’s like you’re trying to rationalise a story that you don’t even particularly like, and that isn’t even particularly well thought-out. The heck? “….[w]e just end up with nothing left to talk about in regards to the abuse.” 'We'? What's this 'we' shit? I bloody disagree. This discussion thread is 23 pages long for a reason. In any case, I didn't know you were on a speaking basis with the author. Could you ask her something for me, given that you're oh so very in tune with the author's mind? Does she think Charles the Bold was an exemplary knight? Or were his ideals of chivalry distorted? Peace out, Muppet. You’ve tickled my ass crack enough to the point that my nostrils are now slightly flared. Toodaloo.
Medi-fantasy is not a perfectly accurate depiction of a medieval setting. It just emulates a similar enough society and mindsets. This story absolutely does that. You seem to not understand what any of the words you just said mean. I'm not insincere, I make my points about what I believe. I don't even get what you mean with me being extraneous. I'm just replying to your points the whole time. And how am I inflammatory when you're the one insulting others? I'm just countering your points. The one thing I did that wasn't directly related to replying to your points was telling you to grow up. You do not seem to understand what a troll is at all. I'm discussing in a discussion thread. That's just normal forum behavior. The abuse is not given any meaningful amount of focus on the story. Abuse is an important topic, it's just not a focus on the story itself. Well, I guess it might have more highlight in the novel, maybe, I dunno. Never bothered with reading it. The webtoon adaptation that the author was directly involved in clearly didn't seem to care much about the abuse though, so it kinda shows how much the author cared about the plot point. It was not done at all. You aren't shown how she accepts being near Ruve. You aren't shown anything about how she goes through a process to slowly get less uncomfortable with his presence. You see her being horribly uncomfortable with him, then the next time they meet she stomachs him just fine. There is nothing showing how she learned how to handle her trauma. Curt adjective rudely brief. Muppet Noun an insulting word for someone who behaves in a stupid way. Okay, so... Are you going to admit to being a troll now or are you going to ask me to apologize to you again when you just openly admitted to arguing in bad faith? What are you talking about? You replied to my points, I replied to your replies. The rehashed stuff that was said a million times by now about the rape on past timeline that doesn't have anything to do with Ruve on Timeline 2 I ignored because it was not replying to anything I said. If you're replying to someone's points, it's natural the person will reply back. And sure, go ahead with your "rape apologist" nonsense... "Oh noes! Someone thinks that a story character shouldn't be held responsible for something he never did! They must be a rape apologist!" Is the weirdest attack I have ever seen, but... Sure, go ahead. Even if we were talking about Timeline 1 Ruve, the author just so happened to pull out the dumb excuse of "Magical Poison", so it's hard to even put any blame on Timeline 1 Ruve because he was at an altered mind and this was completely beyond his control (it is different from doing stuff when drunk, because you're the one who controls how much you drink. Magical poison was outside his control, so him being out of his mind makes it hard to fault him)... Which yes, is a really dumb plot point, and you can totally dislike the story for pulling that card out... But fact is, the story did pull the magical poison card, so even timeline 1 Ruve has little that you can actually blame him for, never mind Timeline 2 Ruve that never did anything like it. So yeah, if you wanna consider "Story pulled out some dumb stuff that makes a rapist actually innocent, and uses timetravel to make a character not be a rapist" as "rape apologist"... Then sure, you do you. Oh, and for the record, for someone calling me a troll, it's kinda funny seeing you openly admit you were trying to attack me from the start with your post "poking fun at my points", so uhn... Get better at this? I've dealt with better trolls before, and you're honestly disappointing. Or well, just learn with everybody else that disagreed with me on this thread, really. We disagreed, but we didn't insult one another, nor did we try accusing the other of trolling. We were just having a civil, but heated discussion. It's not that hard, really, and it's more fun than handling your immature trolling. It was entertaining enough. Not good enough for a re-read, but I had fun with it. Also not good enough to recommend to anybody, but I still enjoyed it. So yeah, it was fun. I liked it. That doesn't mean I can't see the issues with the story though.
While it is true that not every aspect of a story can be the main focus, it's essential to approach sensitive topics like abuse with care and responsibility. Trivializing or pushing such themes to the sidelines can be concerning for readers who prioritize accurate and respectful depictions of these issues. Abuse is a serious matter that affects real people, and it's important to handle it with sensitivity, awareness, and proper representation. While a story may have different focal points or genres, it's crucial to consider the impact it may have on readers, especially those who have personal experiences or sensitivities related to abuse.
To be completely honest, it's been so many years since I last read the story, that I might actually be forgetting how well abuse was portrayed in the story. I actually looked up some of my old posts in this thread out of curiosity, and I seemed to think back then that the portrayal of abuse was good enough, but the portrayal of the healing process in regards to the trauma was horribly handled, so... I'm not even sure anymore what I think about the portrayal of the abuse. The things I remember about the story were mostly pushing the abuse to the sidelines, but I may be misremembering. That said, I can understand your point of view. I do think it's important to touch sensitive topics with care when writing a novel, like... It's not tooooootally necessary, but you will definitely trouble a portion of your readers if you don't handle those things right. I'd definitely prefer it if the story handled those things better instead of making Tia end up with Timeline 2 Ruve, then adding Magical Poison justification to Timeline 1 Ruve to make his actions not look that bad... It actually gives off the worst possible message about abuse. Stuff like, "There must be something really harsh that my partner is going through. I have to understand their side", which is like... Yeah, no. Absolutely not. That's a horrible horrible message. So yeah, I totally get your point. I don't disagree with you at all in it. PS: Thanks for making a mature and well-argued post when talking about this. It's appreciated.
It literally the main issue. It's the reason why, despite being an absolute scum bag in the first timeline, he can't be called out in the second. It's also the main factor in why Tia has to just get over it. I'm hung up over it because it's painfully obvious why the author used it as a major plot point. It's an easy way for her to have her cake and eat it too.
The notion that the butterfly effect justifies the actions and behavior of the male lead, and that the characters should simply "get over" the abuse, is wrong or problematic for several reasons: Minimization of abuse: By suggesting that the characters should move on and let go of the past, it can minimize the impact and severity of the abuse experienced by the female lead. It overlooks the long-lasting effects of trauma and the complex process of healing. Lack of accountability: The butterfly effect argument implies that the male lead is not responsible for his past actions because they occurred in a different timeline. This can be seen as avoiding accountability for his abusive behavior, which is not a healthy or responsible message to send to readers. Romanticization of abuse: The idea that the characters should overcome the abuse and be in a romantic relationship without addressing the underlying issues can romanticize or trivialize the seriousness of abuse. It can give the impression that love can conquer all, even in the absence of addressing and healing from traumatic experiences. Insensitivity towards abuse survivors: The dismissal of the impact of abuse and the expectation for survivors to quickly move on and be with their abusers can be insensitive and disregarding of the experiences of real-life survivors. It fails to acknowledge the complexity of trauma and the need for proper support, healing, and accountability.
I think you and Nuzlocke are arguing through different perspectives. You're arguing through the perspective of the message portrayed by the novel. Nuzlocke is arguing based on the perspective of the novel itself and the interactions of its characters. Your points make sense when talking about the message that the novel gives to the readers, but it also has nothing to do with what the characters themselves in the novel were doing/feeling. Ruve in the 2nd timeline didn't abuse Tia. That's how it is in the novel. The message this portrays can be bad, but as far as Tia cares, she just has to accept it for what it is. That Ruve in this timeline never harmed her.
While it is true that in the second timeline of Abandoned Empress, Ruve does not abuse Tia directly, it is important to consider the broader context and implications of the story. You said that Nuzlocke's argument seems to focus on the perspective of the characters within the novel rather than examining the potential problematic aspects of the narrative. However, it is essential to remember that literature, including novels, plays a significant role in shaping societal perceptions and influencing readers. The portrayal of abusive relationships, even if it occurs in a different timeline, can still have an impact on readers and their understanding of abuse dynamics. Romanticizing or trivializing abuse can send harmful messages and contribute to the normalization of unhealthy relationship dynamics. It is valid to question and critique narratives that handle abuse in a way that minimizes its impact or fails to address the consequences and healing process adequately. Recognizing the potential harm in romanticizing abuse is an important part of promoting healthy and respectful relationships in fiction and real life.
And I feel that's basically the crux of the issue. Readers can't accept what the author is trying to do, because they literally saw Ruve abuse Tia back in TL1, and her just "getting over" that trauma makes them feel wronged. Ruve in TL2 did nothing wrong, but Tia still experienced that ordeal. She basically gets no closure or whatever. It doesn't help that the setting basically FORCES her to get together with him. There's a word for this, but I don't remember what it is.
*INSERT MEME* LOOK HOW THEY MASSACRED MY GIRL This made many people so bitter including me with what they did to her. What Pioneer of Destiny? What happened to defying Fate? What happened to all that bold talk at the temple about how she'll forge her own path? What happened to all the rightful hate against the so-called god, Vita, who played with her life? Around the last chapters she acknowledges that Vita was right all along . That was so painful for me to read. I swear, Vita must've been smirking at this. Why did HE have to be her Fate. Didn't she say it was all because of Vita. So why did she choose the Fate he made for her. Tia was never the abandoned empress. No. She was an imperial concubine in the first. And in the second timeline at the very end (in the novel) she says that she is The Beloved Empress now because of Ruve's love for her. Jieun was the real abandoned empress. Tia's character hurt more than anything. What did they do to her?. They threw it all away. And made it all about ✨true love✨ that surpasses two timelines. I'm so mad about this. . This story could've been so much more. It shouldn't have been just "second chance love". Author-nim decided the greatest honor for her would be to become the first empress to meddle in state affairs. And also Ruve was named the romanticist of the century. And their son became the greatest emperor ever. I couldn't care less. She could've been so much more and not just some damsel in love. It's beyond disappointing.