After the Tyrant Differentiated into an Omega Chapter 227 Discussion

review written for chapter 227 and below

A surprisingly decent sci-fi omegaverse novel. I wouldn't go in with expectations of romance, however. Because even on chapter 227, there's been very little mutual hints at it. Most of it is one-sided lust.

What to expect?

• There's face slapping but it's not egregious

• If you like infrastructure genre aka basically the MC re/building a city or whole ass country, dealing with governance, etc., then you might like this novel. There's a lot of that here.

• There's also a lot of mecha action.

• There's also zergs, which is a genre I'm not too familiar with personally. I've managed to guess that it's something akin to omegas from the ABO genre except they're aliens??? Possibly "bug" aliens??? With emphasis on pregnancy???

• If you like love pentagons? (penta for 5?) this might be up your alley.

• If you like jealous suitors, you'll absolutely love this.

• If you've got a weakness for bodyguard and/or knight romance stories, you may or may not like this. I loved it--the closeness they have, how he always (physically) carries the MC! Spoiler

  Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of their romance "arc" since it's mostly about ML's lack of control and MC's complete lack of social awareness. It's mostly written for comedic effect. But after a certain point, it kinda just becomes pathetic and pitiable, and then frustrating because the author just won't stop. And imo, I wanted more backstory for this ML--backstory that doesn't involve the MC, since the "bodyguard program" they have for him (and the other bodyguards) isn't at all healthy. He felt less like a character and more like a "bodyguard" and "childhood friends" trope all-in-one but without ever fully committing to it.

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• There's also comedy and generic romcom stuff (?). I liked the author's sense of humor, but I didn't find the latter funny. I can't find weaponized incompetence and male jealousy funny, not when it's constantly thrown in your face and not when it's the MC (who's feminized because omega stereotypes not only within the story but by the author via their descriptions of the MC) who has to pay for and endure their incompetence. Frankly, that's far too close to real life for me to find funny.

The novel starts off as very different from typical ABO novels, but past a certain point--especially around the 200s--it really dives straight into those ABO tropes that I hate. So it turns out to be your typical ABO novel but it just has a little more thought put into the background stuff and the focus for much of the novel isn't the romance.

CW: racism

Spoiler

There is an uncomfortable undercurrent (actually, it's pretty blatant if you know anything about racism) of racism in regards to another ML: Asaga. He's dark-skinned, huge body/muscles, has a big dick, is not very intelligent (when first introduced) (he's actually very intelligent but emotionally dumb)... He's the giant with the heart of gold and is often written as "cute" by the author (his body is also sexualized later on (and iirc, without his knowledge/consent)).

But he still must be "civilized" by the MC.

And then there's the master/s*ave dynamic they have that is also blatantly pointed out in the text. To be fair, I think their master/s*ave dynamic is written more as D/s relationship. But that doesn't change the fact that he was once ens*aved and that it's Asaga who seems to prefer that dynamic. The MC only plays into it once he realizes that's what Asaga wants/needs from him. This could've been explored in a trauma-informed way, but the author isn't interested in that so, unfortunately for Asaga, it has some unfortunate implications when mixed with everything else.

The fact that he's part zerg further adds to Asaga's "otherness".

And lastly, predictably, the author spends the least amount of time with him compared to the other MLs.

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About how the author writes the MLs: after a certain point, they come off as very one note because the author seems to love writing about male jealousy. If the ML's attempts to gain the MC's attention resulted in an interesting scene, perhaps these scenes wouldn't be so boring and frustrating to read.

Considering the backstories the author created for them, this is very unfortunate. I think the story as a whole suffered because of this, because all the MLs had so much potential for more. But I also think that if the author had spent more time on the characters, it would add too much on the author's plate. Maybe the author shouldn't have written a love pentagon and just focused on a few characters. Or maybe the author should've reworked the plot to fit it all in.

Am I expecting too much of the author? I guess I am. I feel that the author was ambitious but maybe got scared by the huge amount of work involved. It's an entertaining enough novel without the "romance, " but the loss of details and concentrated attention could unfortunately detract from the overall positive experience.