- #1
Dropped at ch25. I had really high hopes for this series, as the beginning premise was really, really intriguing, along with all of the events that ended up happening along the way through the first half of Arc 1. Loren's background was quite good, and the depiction of his sadness about what happened was great as well, but that only lasted for a few chapters. It's like the writer suddenly decided that having an emotional connection to Loren was too much of a bother and then shifted focus onto Lapis and essentially turned this story into a woman manipulating a man, both financially and emotionally, to be with her for as long as possible, for HER own benefit, without even taking into consideration on what Loren thinks about all of this.But then at the very end, when Lapis shows her true colors, and Loren, who just goes along with this shit, completely lost me. Not to mention, even though the beginning started nice, after thinking about things for a bit, Loren and Lapis, along with every character that was introduced in Arc 1, are all literally one-dimensional characters that are only defined by the tropes that are assigned to them.Spoiler
Loren, the broke and super strong mercenary that literally gets walked all over by Lapis.
Lapis, the manipulative and deceiving woman who wants to tie Loren to her through financial domination because he's nice to her. Also is very strong and intelligent, and honestly has no need for Loren at all, based on inferences from what's been given thus far, but wants to keep him to herself because "reasons" that I don't buy for a second.
Sarfe's party who were all literal token trope characters that had no redeeming qualities to them.
Ritz's groupe who were all literal token trope characters that were plagiarized straight from Goblin Slayer, and written very badly in the process.
[collapse]If the first Arc turned me off this much already, I shudder to think how it's going to turn out after that. If you like manipulative women and doormat men, then this story is for you.Now to continue my quest for trying to find a story where a male MC doesn't take sh*t from anyone and actually feels like an individual (not an easy quest through the slog of shitty JP wn and ln, don't even touch CH wn and ln anymore).