I Became the Terminally Ill Tyrant’s Doctor Chapter 88 Discussion

Updated review, short version: 3 stars up to chapter 68, 2 stars for chapter 69 - 88.

This was a nice interesting slow romance story with a ticking clock and pleasant cast of characters, with the author being inconsistent in a few aspects. However, as of the recent chapters, this isn't the case.

1. The lifespans. Astria and Sena, the empress and doctor, both have less than 80 days to live at the start. The way Astria's lifespan is treated is fine, as it's illness related: if she follows Sena's treatment, it goes up and vice versa. It adds some nice drama as she won't follow the treatment to maintain her image (mostly) unless Sena is around which he doesn't want to be.

Sena's lifespan is the real issue here. It is presented as fixed, and can't go up by any means currently in the story. This is where inconsistencies come up. For detailed examples: Spoiler

In chapter 57, he has 60 days left. He gets locked up in Chapter 59, and Astria is anxious about doing so but says he will be held until tomorrow. In chapter 60, we get a two-in-one, Sena's maid saying her majesty will be visiting today and Sena's jailer asking him to stop trying to escape as he hasn't slept in two days, this is Sena's 10th escape attempt, and Astria knows this isn't the first try when visiting. In chapter 61, it is early dawn and he has 59 days left, with the cliffhanger last chapter happening at least 5 hours ago after eating. Either an eventful day, or poor storytelling.

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That may seem circumstantial, so here's another one: Spoiler

In chapter 63, Astria kisses Sena to share a cure all potion. This takes place the same day as 61, so he still has 59 days left. Chapter 64 opens with Sena feeling better physically, but his lifespan specifically is still the same and he remarks Astria isn't bothered by yesterday's kiss. At this point, he has 59 days left. Chapter 65 opens with him have 68 days left the next day.

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2. The character's age and how they act. Sena is 21. For Astria, she's 12 when she claimed the throne, years passed before she fell ill and she's had multiple doctors working years to weeks under her before execution upon failure so its more vague there. She is mentioned to be 21 once, but 12 is the more consistent age benchmark used for Astria and other inconsistencies makes the 21 number uncertain. These characters are late teens - early twenties, yet they act like 13-15. It's hard to think of them as adults when Sena eats a baguette with both hands, using the silent treatment as intense anger, is physically light and tossed around or lifted by the nape. Astria isn't safe from this either, eating nothing but pies and sweets for dinner, and thinking handholding = making babies. I get that Sena being extremely light and Astria being ignorant is caused by him being close to death and her having nobody to actually be a parent, but 95% of the time that isn't the purpose of this. It is very jarring as they will flip flop between this, and acting as mature an empress and doctor should be. Spoiler

This becomes even stranger as after Astria learns about how babies are actually made, there is a lot more kissing and attempted interc**rse which leads to a question: Is the author trying to create an image of two (shorter) adults getting intimate, or an adult and a child doing it? Needless to say, this isn't a question that should need to be asked about the main pairing in a romance novel.

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3. Relationship spoilers Spoiler

Sena and Astria's relationship. This is more nitpicky, but the author can't decide what Sena feels for Astria. He repeatedly states Astria is unforgivable, he hates her, etc but has unrecognized romantic feelings for her. It doesn't feel like a tsundere thing either, as his distaste is stated after she treatens war, "babymaking", the livelihoods of others for his affection or just killing them for bumping into him. Very legitimate reasons to not like someone, and it's meant to be taken seriously but gets forgotten 2 chapters later.

Also, it's heavily implied in Chapter 61 that Astria gave him a hickey, yet when it happens again in Chapter 73, it's somehow the first time. So my faith in the continuity is shrinking. Nitpicky, even for this section, ik.

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None matters compared to what this story becomes, as this is no longer a slow romance with a ticking clock. What it is now is Spoiler

a bland adventure novel with two not-lovers, Sena and Astria, with a random numbers pretending to be Sena's lifespan.

This doesn't mean their relationship advanced naturally. What happened was Sena decided being forcibly kissed and almost SA'ed was enough to debate his feelings for Astria.

This, along with the author cutting 25 days from Sena's life (52 -> 27), makes it feel rushed as if they didn't know what to do with the plot. Sena decides to return to his hometown, but Astria comes along with him without complaint.

Sena himself mentions he will need the full month to make it, and with her, he very likely won't. Yet he does it because he wants to show Astria the world outside despite knowing how little time he has.

This is no longer a story about escape, or even one with a time limit on it. There is no character development that would make the romance semi-believable. [collapse]

I tried to keep liking this, but this novel isn't worth the time. Only read this if if you're a fan of limited lifespan or yandere stories and stop at Chapter 68.