- #1
Pre-emptive review cause I'm following along with the translator's updates, but so far I LOVE this!!! So far, the relationship pacing is pretty good; the villian ML is still very much a villain, and doesn't nonsensically fall in love with MC right away, so you still get the vibe and understanding that ML is indeed a pretty scary and evil guy who has done and will do morally terrible things. Also, a little reassurance for anyone who might have been worried; MC DOES NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH THE CHILD-LIKE PUPPET!!! LAN LUO IS NOT THE ML!!! Ngl I was worried at first that the author wold pull some weird "Oh the puppet was actually possessed by ML the whole time so it's ok" or some other similar bullshit, because I have unfortunately been jump scared by similar story lines in the past TToTT. Nope, ML is indeed an adult human being who is actually a few years older than the MC, so no weird age gaps of kinda icky descriptions of a "beautiful barely-legal youth" here, folks!MC seems, on the surface level, seems like a bit of a bleeding heart and self-sacrificial person for innocents, but the longer you read you get more of a vibe that MC is much darker morally than he appears... it's really thrilling to read the prospective of a protagonist whose true feelings at times are a mystery to the reader as well.The other characters outside of MC and ML are well-written as well, and you really get the sense that they're fully fleshed out characters with interesting lives and interactions outside of MC and ML, plus so far the novel hasn't fallen into the trap of making MC (and ML) one of those moral paragon's whose brain waves are completely different from that of everyone else in the setting (like seen in some time travel or transmigration novels where the transmigrated MC is some kind of messiah for not being a misogynist/racist/ab*ser/etc like everyone else in the setting) ; you see other characters outside the ML and MC showing that they genuinely care for their puppets and treat them well, even though in this setting it's socially acceptable and normal for people to treat puppets like toys or s*aves. It really adds depth to the setting by showing that, even in a world where being shitty to a certain type of being is normalised, that there ARE people out there who will treat those beings well, even if they were born and raised in a society with that mindset. It's sort of a minor aspect to focus on, I guess, but I've seen too often in transmigration novels that the MC feels like the only person in the whole world who treats so-called "lesser beings" as people worthy of respect (common settings with these tropes being ger setting, zerg setting, ABO setting sometimes, etc). It feels more realistic so see people "naturally from" the setting still treating others with dignity and respect, and not like some mindless hivemind where everyone shares the same discriminatory mindset and behavior.