Beatrice - Vol. 1 Ch. 36

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Huh. What is Heidi’s deal? Is she jealous of Beatrice and Thomas? Or Beatrice and the duke? I hope she doesn’t become nasty with her. Thank you so much for this update!
 
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>author: has to show that the ML isn’t a completely evil and cold hearted man so they wrote in this scene
>me: 🙄

like, i recognize the effort but it’s not working. this is what happens when you write too strong a first impression
 
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I think I get what the problem here is. The author is too heavy-handed.

This is the oooooold trope of "cold-hearted man who warms up to a frail, gentle girl". Stories like this are a dime a dozen. But this author, like a few others, wanted to spice things up by making the male protagonist a cruel, blood-soaked, heartless warrior who condoned sadistic acts of murderous misogyny towards defenceless noble girls. They tried to window-dress it by making it look he killed that princess to save her the worse fate of being raped and humiliated before being executed anyway, but it fell flat.

And let's be honest, these authors don't give a damn to whether the setting makes sense from a moral standpoint. So long as the lead male is good to the girl, and shows some cheap notion of integrity, they can burn the world for all they care. This Elpasa Empire he fights for is clearly the aggressor in the first chapters. He might have stupid notions of achieving peace by unifying the continent. But it's bollocks. That becomes evident just by looking at countless series in which the heroes are actually the underdog country desperately fighting for their freedom from a conquering nation whose leader's ambition is… why, to unify the continent and ensure peace! They're self-evidently described as villains, and yet it's the exact same scenario as here, with roles reversed. Broken Blade is an example; Rain is another.

If this country still has borders that need this nonsensical ceremony to be protected, it means the goal of "long-lasting peace" hasn't even been achieved.

Cruelty is cruelty. Spitting on a man's face shouldn't warrant execution. War prisoners have rights. Etc. etc.

This guy is a murderer who sent many young foreign soldiers to an early grave and made many people miserable. His harsh childhood and feud with his father do nothing to relieve this. Chloe has every right to be irked by him.

But of course she isn't, because he "is harsh to the strong and kind to the weak". I wonder which the murdered princesses were. This story is made just for the sake of romance. It's not a big deal, others are, too, like This is obviously a fraudulent marriage where the male lead is basically a psychopath.

I guess the idea is that the more of a beast the male lead is, and the more vulnerable and at his mercy the female lead is, the greater the effect when she "tames" him. But if said taming is limited to their household affairs and life together, and at work he's still the same bloodthirsty maniac, well, it's still cringeworthy.

Sometimes I worry the authors underestimate the intelligence of their target audience. Do teenage Korean girls really think like this, dreaming of being embraced by Bluebeards who only they can control? I doubt it.

Still, the art is pretty, the female lead is resourceful (a hypocrite if she ends up falling for him despite everything, but who cares) and who needs depth and nuance when reading a brainless love story? They are welcome, but one can't wish for all authors to be gifted at plot and characterisation. Oh well.
 
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The author tries too hard...the male lead's smile looks so fake to me, it's out of character...really it's been +30 chapters and there's nothing in the story that makes me think "oh what happens next??" except for the art.
Anyway thank you for translating
 
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@Kendama
Sometimes I worry the authors underestimate the intelligence of their target audience. Do teenage Korean girls really think like this, dreaming of being embraced by Bluebeards who only they can control? I doubt it.
looking through the comments of this and the other chapters apparently so, him being a murdering psychopath doesn't even matter to quite a few of the readers they just see prince charming and nothing els.
 
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This entire chapter is just a lol bish what is you talking about moment
 
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There were many ways we could have had Chloe drop her guard against the duke, but it had to be him putting a bird back into a tree, smiling.
 
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The fuck is this sloppy "animal lover" scene, couldn't even copy paste in a clipart nest sheesh! Now I can only imagine the poor thing will fall from the branch later and break something. If the author was going for fuzzy feelings I can't say it warmed my heart at all. Between this scene and how he was gonna have his so-called beloved steed put down I'm starting to feel like he's the same as Hanekawa from Bake, just going through the motions of caring for animals to appear normal to others so they don't notice what an cold sociopath you are.
I think I'm just staying now to watch this twisted tale of the fl's fall into full blown stockholm syndrome.
Also lol @ this being aimed to teenage girls, more like bored housewives to go by all the ripped nude male torso scenes. This is basically a bodice ripper novel in Korean webtoon form.
 
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this was basically the cliche delinquent boy is kind to the stray cat trope that japanese shoujo manga loves so much lmao
 
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Suuuuurrrrrreeee he's a great guy. You know, so long as you're from his country and take orders from him. The guy can have good qualities, but at least acknowledge that he isn't some saintly man. An example would be like how in "Daughter of the Emperor" the MC loves her dad, but she'll be the first to admit her dad isn't a good person. What's the point in starting him off a ruthless cold hearted guy and then quickly try to paint over that and say he's mister fantastic, heart of gold, gentle to the weak and powerless? Its possible to persuade the audience to see a better side of him, that while they might not like how he always conducts himself, that it isn't the sum of his character. However, as someone else brought out, the author is throwing that conclusion at us too hard and too fast. If you have to have the FL repeatedly say what a good guy the ML is (especially when she should be the one questioning this the most), its a sign that the story isn't making that clear enough on its own.
 
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@Rula You're probably right, my bad for getting the age range wrong. Doesn't make it any better, though.

Just checked the Wiki, and only 57% of South Korean women were in the workforce in 2014. Sadly, that makes for a lot of bored housewives.
 

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