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I was hesitant about this due to the negative comments here, so now that I’ve read this I’d like to address them for anyone else wondering too. There are quite a few comments very upset with the FL’s backstory… basically she was a war lord that became an empress in her past life, and a very competent one at that. IMO how she learned all these skills she needed to become empress and some random history fact thrown in about her people isn’t necessary to scrutinize, and most transmigrate / reincarnate / whatever manga have FL backstories that are similarly glossed over and to be taken at face value. Also not sure why people were upset at the reincarnated version of the FL looking the same as she did in the past. Isn’t there other literature out there where that’s what happens?

Anyways, as far as the manga goes.

The art is great, no complaints.

The female lead actually matches her backstory! She actually acts like an old competent empress! This is very refreshing to see! And it makes sense, when there are so many of this type of manga where someone was like twenty five but they end up acting six once they’re in the body of a six year old. A common theme with reincarnation is usually how the character reconciles her past identity with her present identity, but looks like this story is circumventing that with the FL regaining her memories when she was three and for all intents and purposes she is her past identity just with different friends and family in this present setting.

In contrast to a great female lead, the male lead sucks. Because the FL entirely acts the age of her past self, I don’t see how she would fall for the male lead who has the mental age of a child as someone who was isolated from society until he was twenty. I feel like realistically, how it’s gonna happen is just that he’s going to be really kind to her and because he looks good and is kind she’s going to fall for him. The male lead has pretty much no merit other than being a decent guy with good looks.

All we’ve seen of him so far is him act childish and selfish and unreasonable despite his age. It can be explained by his background of isolation sure, but you’d think such a strong woman would deserve a strong, capable man. Not a guy who blushes like a child at exposed skin (when she’s in a regular nightgown, not anything provocative), and the problems in his thoughts aren’t about anything important like his curse, but rather fixate upon him having a crush on this woman. It’s like crushing on a celebrity or something where of course he likes her because she’s super cool and competent and a shining star in society, whereas like what reason does she even have to like him. None, except his face.

It’s such a poor and disappointing match up. I’ll continue reading this, but also might drop if the ML acts more childish than he is already.

Update: I dropped this after finishing the first season. Like oh my god, all the FL has done is save both him and his duchy and help everyone, and because she doesn’t have feelings for him the ML sulks and actually throws a fit. When the author is capable of writing strong, reasonable, characters, why in the world did she choose to make all the men in this story weak and annoying.

... Last updated on November 9th, 2021, 8:33am

First off, let me say this: if you want to see something realistic, go outside and take a walk instead of reading a fantasy manhwa. It’s called fantasy for a reason.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’ll give a fair review. This story does a good job of maintaining a magical, slightly mysterious, fantasy type of mood. It does this using curses, reincarnation, story within a story, etc, but making those things very subtle and a good symbolism or supplement for the internal feelings of characters and metaphysical state of things. This is not like Natsu Dragoneel whipping whipping out a fireball to p@wn his enemies kind of magic, this is magic that barely appears and is based on emotions rather than on strategy. The female lead is strong, obviously since she took over a whole empire in her past life. She is also well characterized, and her character is not solely based off of her physical and intellectual abilities. The author does a very good job of painting the thoughts of someone in her situation. The other characters are equally well done with their thoughts, like the thoughts of her sister, the male lead, and members of the court. The characters are not just there to fill a role and have their own separate thoughts and emotions. Therefore, their interactions are also multidimensional. The sadness of parting from the female lead’s family, the way the court came to the conclusion to do what they did, and the treatment towards the curse in the story are all sentimental. The romantic tension between the two main characters is also well done. This story also has comic relief, however, and the comic relief is well blended with the rest of the story. As for the plot, it is a mixture of the sentimentalism, comic relief, and a lot of feel good victory. This plot is driven by the mental state of the characters more so than strategy or mystery and is a good read if you want the feels. Good for it’s genre and therefore rated 8.

while I agree with BiggusDickus2's comment about the setup being unbelievable even for a fantasy story, I liked everything else about it. It is also nice to have a solid strong female lead with elements of strength, intelligence and a bit of comic relief.

Just forget and be amnesia whenever you meet a backstory point because it'll hinder the experience... just like some reviews had pointed out and you'll be fine. but nooooo.... the author keeps reminding you that the future is totally tangled tightly with her backstory. Actually, if only the plot has the backstory to be completely erased, I believe the story would be 8/10. I believe the author can solidify the strength in FL's character without the need for backstory. the backstory here is the backbone of her initial strong characterization and that's where the problem lies. Just look up to BiggusDickus2's review.

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

The manhwa hasn't reached the final part of the story but based on spoilers about the novel the curse had something to do with her backstory.... so yeah. the backstory will keep giving you a round kick on the head

Recommended for: people who sucker for strong FL and Monster Love
Not recommended for: historical nitpicky nerds (like me), people who prioritize plot over characterization

6/10 maybe looks cruel to some people, but it's average for me. The big point for this manhwa is the insert comedy is good. No doubt from Hongseul since her nice point from all her works is she knows how to put a comedy in her works. And Lady and the Beast is a "serious" story so I appreciate a break of fresh air.

Then you've got one.

Well, if you're a fan of attack on titan, maybe not. Cause this isn't fighting giants or whatever lmao.

I'm TOTALLY not throwing shade at a certain comment here.

IN CONCLUSION:

MASTERPIECE.

Female lead is great (strong female lead, with her head on the right track, not weak). DON'T EVEN HESITATE.

Read it now.

... Last updated on January 6th, 2021, 5:48am

An okay start moving on to a funny and entertaining story as our strong lead takes over the duchy and starts doing grand things.

I don't know why reviews have to be so complicated. I did laugh when I realized I was essentially reading a werewolf romance.

I'd say this series is good but not great. I'll give the biggest flaws and then what made me interested, and let folks decide for themselves.

The Flaws that detract from this story are pretty standard for this genre; the main character is simply too good at coming out on top of most situations. While occasionally she finds herself taken aback by an unexpected event, she is otherwise never fooled and is able to overpower most anyone despite her frame. A story like this could benefit from hurdles being overcome at a slower pace, and showing more trial and error at solving problems rather than being able to walk in and cure it all within days. I don't disagree with any comments about the opening to the story being one random nonsensical event after another. While realism isn't a huge deal with me, at least being moderately believable would be nice. I personally believe that the historical tag is not as appropriate here, as it is only relevant towards the amount of backstory and the timeline of the backstory being quite dramatic (long period between death and being reborn)

However, there are two redeeming features in this story through the first 30 chapters of the series. The author has a good sense of when to utilize comic relief and is good at picking the right moments to sneak it into the story. It goes back and forth between predictable punchlines and also sneaking these bits in when it is not as expected, and in general it appears that this author is more capable of this than some others in the genre. The other is that unlike many of these New World/Redo-the-Past/Reborn genre stories, this one is not entirely bent on the fact that the main character is out for revenge. It follows more closely to trying to make the most of the opportunity provided, while perhaps aiming at a similar level of personal achievement as her former self. She has kept much of her prior knowledge, and took aim at a young age with only her prior life's time as a leader figure at improving her political prowess via the education system in this new life.

All in all, i think this has more to do with what the reader wants to get out of it. Romance and Fantasy are the primary focus thus far, with historical being a very generous tag at best. I'm interested enough to binge a handful of chapters when looking for a change of pace given i do like some of the strengths of this, but as a whole it's probably middle-of-the-road as far as the genre it's in.

... Last updated on November 18th, 2020, 1:46pm

While BiggusDickus2's remaks have some merit (something not easy to admit from someone with such name), all the complaints are contained in the first 3-4 chapters... they are hardly relevant to the actual story and intended as a background story, a weak one true but still... by ch4 the prologue is over and the "story" actually starts, there ain't that much going on, a girl being sacrificed to pay her father's debts, hardly original but works somewhat. Regardless, what makes this manhwa good is the MC, strong, regal, decisive and so on, and also, the comedy, had a few good laughs which is more than I can say for most such stories.
Other than that I'll have too see where the story goes because so far there is no real arching storyline and thus it's not posible to know where this is going.
Overall, leaving that sub-par start, it's a good light read.

I would like to clarify that my rating may seem harsh, but for me a 4 is below average. A 8-9 tier story would be like AOT. I don’t know any 10 tier manga, but they have to be life changing. This story being part of the fantasy genre (I practically grew up with fantasy), I already have high expectations. Having such an unbelievable backstory ruins the immersion experience-and contrary to what PZcolo said, backstories do not exist so that it could be forgotten. The backstory here clearly establishes the character, and this story specifically, will reference her past life. We already see this with recent updates. It is hard for me to enjoy the story when I see the character and think of the plot holes.

This backstory is incredibly unrealistic, even for fantasy standards. Anything in this story can happen, but the author seems to pick the events with the lowest chances of happening and incorporating it into her story. The end result is that it is hard to believe. Fantasy stories often have readers suspend their disbelief because it’s a fantasy. However, this story decided to mess with two things that are universal. Evolution and mathematics. If there are no explanation about the mechanics of the evolution in the fantasy world, readers apply their knowledge of evolution as they know it. Math needs no explanation; events with the low probability of happening should NOT be happening over and over without an explanation. We don’t know if she has max level luck of something because it’s never explained. Questionable events that happened:
———-1———-
A tribe of Gypsies becomes lighter over the course of 300 years. That is not possible, esp. with their circumstances. Maybe the remaining families were artificially selective towards individuals with light skin? No explanation. Maybe there was a rare mutation with that gene? No explanation. This would not have occurred naturally because they live in the desert/grasslands where it was naturally warmer than arctic regions. Northern Europeans developed lighter skin than their southern counterparts because they had to maximize vitamin d intake- and lighter skin absorbed more UV rays (Jablonski 2010 study)....and anyone with a functioning brain will know that red hair thing is beyond ridiculous.
———-2———-
Being a gypsy but having top tier level military and bureaucratic education. Not only did she have to be literate (inspired by time periods where the literacy rate was low), but she had to know swordsmanship, tactics, grand strategy, laws, how to govern effectively, the government structure, diplomacy, basic economics, international affairs, trade, etc. Of course she could learn about them along the way until she was 25 (even nowadays with the widespread globalization of knowledge and easy access to it, BARELY ANYONE knows this much at that age) but mind you she had to be learning this while managing a dukedom/kingdom and waging war campaigns. Great leaders in history like Augustus and Alexander the Great were educated at young ages; Augustus being a noble and Alexander being a prince. The closest comparison I could think of is Abe Lincoln; however, he was a lawyer and statesman before becoming president. MC here went from the bottom of the social ladder to being only below the royal family (and then ruler). Yes realistic.
———-3———
so effin inconsistent. So she somehow had a decent understanding of the military and civic disciplines before rising to power despite being a ostracized minority. Ostracized minorities will have limited access to education and jobs (them being Gypsies and wandering), hence why her tribe mainly specializes in entertainment. And she’s also a woman. Stories like this tend to be like our modern world (in hygiene, fashion (lol at showing legs and straight hair with curls at the end and high heels) and mentality) with a bit of a Victorian/ancient twist. Which is fine until you realize you seldom see women in educated positions (excluding magic). Doctors, professors, civil servants/buracrats, heirs of the royal family, company officials, statesman, scientists, and generals tend to be men. For a non-misogynistic world, I should be seeing more women in power. So she somehow received all this education when I don’t see any other woman in similar positions and being a Gypsy?
———-4———-
Reincarnated her looks the same as her past life. Literally in most other reincarnation stories, the reincarnated body and past life body looked nothing alike.
———-5————
A nitpick, but why is the textbook talking about the theories about the her relationship with Theodore, while mentioning nothing about possible discontentment with her rule, possible riots/revolts (how come there were like no revolts with all that conquering she did), policies, details of the war campaigns, negotiations/treaties, legacy etc. In fact, textbooks prefer the opposite, barely mentioning relationships and favoring the former. Also, textbooks aren’t all that reliable sometimes, as they could be subject to ~Historical Revisionism~ and ~propaganda~. Because a textbook is introducing the character to us, it sounds very objective and therefore mechanical. We aren’t going to learn about her values, goals, and motivations this way. She seems to just embody “OP character out for vengeance” as her personality. And as a result of her winning multiple lotteries, she appears unrealistic. 1) pretty 2) great affinity for learning and swordsmanship 3) natural leader 4) cunning 5) the underdog story (ostracized minority to Queen). Her only human moments we relate to is when she humiliated by the former King, and her mother is killed. They should have gone for autobiography if they wanted to highlight her legacy and show character development/depth. OPness doesn’t equal character development.

By introducing the character in this lackluster and poorly panned way, this just detracts from the reader’s overall experience. If you got this far, congratulations, you’ve wasted several minutes of your life.

... Last updated on November 19th, 2020, 12:00am