The Lady and the Beast (Hongseul)

I like the story structure: the story takes its time until it reaches its eponymous setup, and FL and ML only meet face to face quite a while in (~c30).

However, I'm not the biggest fan of the ML and how the romance develops. (There's even alcohol involved.) I found it okay in the beginning, but eventually just found it grating, particularly the ML's incessant jealousy. The story also suffers from more general issue where stories with very strong female protagonists often have comparatively disappointing MLs, e.g. I didn't like how the one here was both possessive and manipulative.

Later on, the story leans into politics and scheming, and unfortunately that stuff is super meh.

A surprisingly big theme of the story is misogyny, with lots of unsympathetic or outright villainous characters who belittle women. I wasn't a huge fan of this theme here, though. Firstly, it's totally incongruent with the historical setup: after all, the protagonist is the reincarnation of Empress Martina, a swordswoman from 100 years ago who was strong enough to beat 200 men, and who conquered the entire continent. From that setup, it would make more sense for men to be suppressed than for women to be. Secondly, this theme makes conflicts too black-and-white; I prefer morality with shades of gray, whereas here almost all antagonists are evil men who discriminate against and simultaneously underestimate women. And thirdly, the misogyny theme feels rather detached from the romance story; the two themes don't go well together.

Incidentally, regarding this black-and-white morality, there's also an outright bizarre development:

Princess Isis hires assassins to kill someone who (unbenownst to her) is Astina's friend. Astina deters the assassination, then finds out that Isis was responsible. And yet Astina doesn't seem to particularly mind as long as Isis doesn't do this again...

Strongly not recommended, the story after 112 chapter was thrown out of window, pointless west of time on this shitty story

The ML is WAY too adorable! After reading Trashy OI MLs, this one is such a breath of fresh air. So different from the usual dominating, egotistic and toxic abusive ones. He is extremely competent and well read, yet he appreciates the FL is every way possible, and even acknowledges her superiority without an ounce of self-doubt. His confidence in his own abilities is juxtaposed against his self-doubt in matters of love. He makes for such an interesting character. And such a delicious package!
I LOVE the FL as well- she's talented, smart, strong and wise. I love how so many matters of politics and society have been interwoven in the story. Wonderful read!

I was hesitant about this due to the negative comments here, so now that I’ve read this I’d like to address them for anyone else wondering too. There are quite a few comments very upset with the FL’s backstory… basically she was a war lord that became an empress in her past life, and a very competent one at that. IMO how she learned all these skills she needed to become empress and some random history fact thrown in about her people isn’t necessary to scrutinize, and most transmigrate / reincarnate / whatever manga have FL backstories that are similarly glossed over and to be taken at face value. Also not sure why people were upset at the reincarnated version of the FL looking the same as she did in the past. Isn’t there other literature out there where that’s what happens?

Anyways, as far as the manga goes.

The art is great, no complaints.

The female lead actually matches her backstory! She actually acts like an old competent empress! This is very refreshing to see! And it makes sense, when there are so many of this type of manga where someone was like twenty five but they end up acting six once they’re in the body of a six year old. A common theme with reincarnation is usually how the character reconciles her past identity with her present identity, but looks like this story is circumventing that with the FL regaining her memories when she was three and for all intents and purposes she is her past identity just with different friends and family in this present setting.

In contrast to a great female lead, the male lead sucks. Because the FL entirely acts the age of her past self, I don’t see how she would fall for the male lead who has the mental age of a child as someone who was isolated from society until he was twenty. I feel like realistically, how it’s gonna happen is just that he’s going to be really kind to her and because he looks good and is kind she’s going to fall for him. The male lead has pretty much no merit other than being a decent guy with good looks.

All we’ve seen of him so far is him act childish and selfish and unreasonable despite his age. It can be explained by his background of isolation sure, but you’d think such a strong woman would deserve a strong, capable man. Not a guy who blushes like a child at exposed skin (when she’s in a regular nightgown, not anything provocative), and the problems in his thoughts aren’t about anything important like his curse, but rather fixate upon him having a crush on this woman. It’s like crushing on a celebrity or something where of course he likes her because she’s super cool and competent and a shining star in society, whereas like what reason does she even have to like him. None, except his face.

It’s such a poor and disappointing match up. I’ll continue reading this, but also might drop if the ML acts more childish than he is already.

Update: I dropped this after finishing the first season. Like oh my god, all the FL has done is save both him and his duchy and help everyone, and because she doesn’t have feelings for him the ML sulks and actually throws a fit. When the author is capable of writing strong, reasonable, characters, why in the world did she choose to make all the men in this story weak and annoying.

First off, let me say this: if you want to see something realistic, go outside and take a walk instead of reading a fantasy manhwa. It’s called fantasy for a reason.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’ll give a fair review. This story does a good job of maintaining a magical, slightly mysterious, fantasy type of mood. It does this using curses, reincarnation, story within a story, etc, but making those things very subtle and a good symbolism or supplement for the internal feelings of characters and metaphysical state of things. This is not like Natsu Dragoneel whipping whipping out a fireball to p@wn his enemies kind of magic, this is magic that barely appears and is based on emotions rather than on strategy. The female lead is strong, obviously since she took over a whole empire in her past life. She is also well characterized, and her character is not solely based off of her physical and intellectual abilities. The author does a very good job of painting the thoughts of someone in her situation. The other characters are equally well done with their thoughts, like the thoughts of her sister, the male lead, and members of the court. The characters are not just there to fill a role and have their own separate thoughts and emotions. Therefore, their interactions are also multidimensional. The sadness of parting from the female lead’s family, the way the court came to the conclusion to do what they did, and the treatment towards the curse in the story are all sentimental. The romantic tension between the two main characters is also well done. This story also has comic relief, however, and the comic relief is well blended with the rest of the story. As for the plot, it is a mixture of the sentimentalism, comic relief, and a lot of feel good victory. This plot is driven by the mental state of the characters more so than strategy or mystery and is a good read if you want the feels. Good for it’s genre and therefore rated 8.

while I agree with BiggusDickus2's comment about the setup being unbelievable even for a fantasy story, I liked everything else about it. It is also nice to have a solid strong female lead with elements of strength, intelligence and a bit of comic relief.

Just forget and be amnesia whenever you meet a backstory point because it'll hinder the experience... just like some reviews had pointed out and you'll be fine. but nooooo.... the author keeps reminding you that the future is totally tangled tightly with her backstory. Actually, if only the plot has the backstory to be completely erased, I believe the story would be 8/10. I believe the author can solidify the strength in FL's character without the need for backstory. the backstory here is the backbone of her initial strong characterization and that's where the problem lies. Just look up to BiggusDickus2's review.

The manhwa hasn't reached the final part of the story but based on spoilers about the novel the curse had something to do with her backstory.... so yeah. the backstory will keep giving you a round kick on the head

Recommended for: people who sucker for strong FL and Monster Love
Not recommended for: historical nitpicky nerds (like me), people who prioritize plot over characterization

6/10 maybe looks cruel to some people, but it's average for me. The big point for this manhwa is the insert comedy is good. No doubt from Hongseul since her nice point from all her works is she knows how to put a comedy in her works. And Lady and the Beast is a "serious" story so I appreciate a break of fresh air.

Then you've got one.

Well, if you're a fan of attack on titan, maybe not. Cause this isn't fighting giants or whatever lmao.

I'm TOTALLY not throwing shade at a certain comment here.

IN CONCLUSION:

MASTERPIECE.

Female lead is great (strong female lead, with her head on the right track, not weak). DON'T EVEN HESITATE.

Read it now.