The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne Chapter 2 Discussion

Yeah, I'm not going to be polite, I couldn't read past the second chapter.

The MC gives off major, "WOW look at me, I'm the protagonist so I'm overpowered and everything I do is going to work, even if it doesn't make sense" vibes.

I had to drop it when we got to this scene in the second chapter. I'll put an obligatory spoiler warning here, but it's only the second chapter so I don't count it as one personally.

Spoiler

So the basic overview of it is that the MC shows up at the only unaligned Duke's house and tries to gain his support for his little brother.

So he shows up in his Silver get-up and basically just waltzes up to the main gate and is like, "Hey, so I'm Silver. Yeah, the super-powerful adventure that's known for never leaving the capital, but for some reason, I'm here to visit the Duke, so take me to him."

Are we supposed to believe that? I'd react the same way as the guard, "No dude, that makes no logical sense, I'm NOT letting you, a very suspicious individual, near the guy I'm supposed to protect."

And he gets ridiculed for it!??? I understand that the MC tried showing his identity to the guard, but he refused to look because he was "arrogant".

Listen, I can't even begin to list my problem with that in a concise review. So I'm not even going to try to shorten this.

The first issue with this scene was that the MC didn't tell the prince that Silver would arrive. So he just showed up, out of the blue, with no warning, and expected to be treated special because "he's SOO powerful". You do understand that you can't possibly receive a guest that's supposedly so nation-shatteringly important, and expect them to have a guest room ready for you. It's a common courtesy to tell your host that you will be arriving before you do so. So this wouldn't be a show of how arrogant the guard is, it only serves to show how crass the MC is, and his blatant disregard for the Duke.

My next problem, in the first chapter, the MC is established as having the reputation of a lazy, no-good prince, and that even the lower-ranking officials and nobles ridicule him openly. So why in the world, does he think that the Duke would respect him. We know that the Duke is from a prominent household and that officials ranking lower than him can insult the MC with repercussions from the King, so why would the DUKE of all people, PERSONALLY receive him?

You could argue that it was a sign of respect to the MC's younger brother, but none of them had any problems disrespecting him before, so again, I ask you, why in the world would the Duke respect him???

Next, the butler Sebastian, proclaims that the MC is a good strategist because he could have sneaked into the mansion, but instead he chose to go back to the capital and ride over here again to kick up a fuss about them ignoring the suspicious dude in a mask who claimed to be someone important.

1. This doesn't work because, again, his reputation is in the dumps as we have established. He doesn't HAVE to be respected so the whole "acting arrogantly" thing doesn't reflect well on his character. Now he's seen as a useless good-for-nothing, who is ALSO rude and arrogant just because he has his little brother's backing. When a subordinate does something bad, it reflects badly on their boss, the same principle applies here. If I was the Duke, I'd just go and support one of the other candidates for the throne.
2. No, he absolutely could NOT have just sneaked into the mansion. You're trying to get his support, not make him get a heart attack when a mysterious masked figure comes jumping through his window in the middle of the night. It was stated that the Duke couldn't make the trip to the capital to visit the MC, so we can assume that he's fairly old and in poor health. So a scare like that might actually end up doing him in. Not a great look to the next in line, being the guy who killed his dad.

And then the Duke is SCARED?? What? Of this supposed tr*sh prince? He could tattle to the King and it'd be donezo for the MC.

Then we have the metaphor. Oh, the metaphor. The MC compares his little brother to clean water, saying that fish cannot survive when the water is too clean, so he must pollute the water for him.

Uh, no. There are SO many things wrong with that analogy.

If you said that your little brother is the clean water, then you can't pollute the water by messing with his reputation. To "pollute" the clean water that is your brother, you'd have to make him less naive, maybe some actual personality other than, "I'm a nice person."

And, what kind of fish can survive in polluted water, but not clean?? I've heard of fish that can only survive in water with a certain level of salinity, but not pollution. The salt content in water is very different from the pollution levels of water.

I just can't stand it. I'm sure I've forgotten some of the things I hated while reading this, but honestly, I'm done thinking about this novel. 0/5 Do not recommend.

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Disclaimer: All the things I've stated so far have come from only 2 or so chapters of reading it. It probably took me longer to write this all out than to actually read it. I'm diffidently NOT changing my stance on the novel. However, I do feel the need to point out that this IS a translated novel and therefore, some of the metaphors probably made more sense in the original language (whether it's because of translational or cultural differences, I just don't understand it ad a native English speaker). I realize that I probably could have included more constructive criticism of this novel, but also, it's late at night and I'm tired, so you get ranting.

No hate intended towards the author or translator, glad they're doing what they love, but it's not for me.