- #1
Okay, I give up. I tried. I really tried. I really loved this story. I rated it a 5, I supported it on patreon for almost year. I ignored the first arc. But I just can't continue reading it anymore, it makes my blood boil so much.Pros:Translation is great. Ning Shu inner thoughts are interesting. She clearly progresses from weak to strong.Cons:This novel hates women. There I said it. Every other woman other than our MC is horrible and ends up suffering from violence, often sexual. The only women who get sympathy are the women that Ning Shu possessed. Also, the morals of the novel keep on flip-flopping. In the main character arc (my second favourite arc), Ning Shu sees for herself how horrible it is to be the main female lead who all the men are interested in raping and dominating but in the sadomasochist arc, she immediately victim blames the FL for not reporting her ab*ser to the police. This hit hard for me especially after Me Too as many women have talked about why they couldn't report their high ranking ab*sers. In addition, the police is ineffectual for r*pe cases against ordinary people not to mention the rich and powerful. Ning Shu is disgusted that the FL fell in love with her ab*ser after he killed her loved one. From my perspective, it's not that she fell in love with her ab*ser but that she gave up on escaping her situation. If even the man she loved who was trying to take her out of the situation she was in could not do, what was the point of escaping?I despised the casual colorism in the general arc. As a black woman seeing the narrative constantly deride the general's lover from the countryside because of her skin was disgusting and genuinely hurt me. I understand that in QT stories, the female antagonists will always receive punishment but the female antagonists often come across as women trapped in situations by the men and people among them and Ning Shu's slut-shaming, vitim blaming manner definitely doesn't help. Also, why are all the other character apart from the MC so s*upid?This novel also lets men off the slack more than women. I'll give two arcs as examples. In the princess arc (my favourite arc), the princess' husband is a piece of tr*sh. He is a rapist, an ab*ser and a wife beater. But the narrative doesn't seem to consider him to be one. Sure it tells us that this is who he is but it constantly mentioned how good looking he is and how well he treats Ning Shu because of how interested he is in her thereby implying that if the princess had been interesting, she would have gotten treated better ergo her own mistreatment is her fault. In the death soldier arc, Ning Shu gets placed in the body of a death soldier who stalks the FL on the order of a prince who attempts to r*pe the FL but from the very beginning, we are programmmed to hate the FL and ask why she makes Ning Shu's job more difficult. Of course she would, Ning Shu is the subordinate of a man who she has explicitly refused and who is determined to have the FL no matter what. If I was the FL of course I wouldn't want him or anyone to do with him near me. However, the story portrays this prince as if he is a childish, hilarious brat and he eventually ends up ruining the FL's reputation even though all she wanted was to be with the man she loved. In the end, nothing really happens to the prince and he ends up going to war with his brother (the FL's love interest) over her. Now is this FL perfect? No but she definitely is f*cking better than this prince and didn't deserve being stalked or having her reputation ruined. It is also this story that ended up making me hate Ning Shu because she enables the princes and slut-shames the FL in her head. She reminded me of Serena Joy from The Handmaid's tale.I really f*cking cannot. This story pretends to be feminist but it's the most NLOG victim blaming sh*t I've ever seen. So, I'm giving up and it really f*cking hurts because I loved this story but I cannot continue with a story that pits women together, employs the madonna-who*e complex and uses s*xual violence as a way to punish women. It's just not for me. The translation is very good and it was quite funny but I think this is where I will stop. I can't keep on reading something that enrages me every second I read it.
