I Shall Master This Family - Vol. 4 Ch. 177

[SatansBestBuddy]

Your fashion sense? weak
Your spies? weak
Your threats? weak

 

[Unzareh]

Guessing it's diamond jewelry in the box?

 

[Kynnath]

Why am I this invested in a story about politics?

It is good to see that the Empress is shown as generally competent but lacking the context she actually needs to win. Not knowing about the MC's out of context knowledge, it really would be hard to out maneuver her.

A lot of people in the comments make fun of the Empress, but I would like to point out that in the original timeline, the empress did suceed in taking over Lombardi. And a lot of Tia's success comes from knowing key events about the future. It's a testament to the empress's political acumen that even knowing the future, Tia has to be careful around her.

As a reminder, Tia was a reincarnator in the original timeline as well. So she already had the understanding of an adult from the moment she was born. She just didn't know the future. So she was brilliant, and ultimately earned Rulac's respect, but too late to save the family. She couldn't outmaneuver the Empress without knowing her plans in advance.

On the other hand, Perez became crown prince once the emperor fell ill, so not everything went as the Empress intended. Her son was just too incompetent, even with the ruined Lombardi's support.

 

[Kynnath]

Makes me wonder if her treatment isn't average or her family's just old-fashioned... A lot of the women in the series seem well-respected and hold decently high positions---wasn't the former Sershaw head an old lady?---but many of them revolve around Tia, so it's hard to judge what's normal.

I think it's fairly standard in the society, and the women in high positions are outliers. Consider that Shananet's divorce caused her to go into seclusion, for example. Also, Tia was Rulac's aid since she was fifteen and for four years until Rulac fell ill, and yet in those four years she couldn't even become a "real" Lombardi, not even gain inheritance rights, because her mother was a commoner and Rulac didn't acknowledge her until it was too late and the position of head had already passed to Vieze. So even in Lombardi, that is merit based, women start at a disadvantage.

 

[oui_je_danse]

Seeing the empress get so outwitted at politics keeps me wondering: at what point will she resort to violence? When she really has her back against the wall, I guess.

She uses physical violence constantly. She always has the emperor's mistresses and bastard kids killed and Perez is her only failure, right? She's abusive to her servants as well. The empress is just saavy enough to know when/how she can get away with it.

Back against the wall will be so satisfying because it's when she'll start making foolish mistakes and (hopefully, for the drama) more publicly embarrassing ones.

 

[ayka06]

Spoiler: can't wait

can'twait for the hunting arc.

well, technically this is a spoiler, ig
coz who would've known there'll be an arc like that lol.

but kidding aside, the gasp that I gasped expecting a spoiler about that jewel box
only to open the tab and found not even one thing about the box lmaoo

 

[Meo]

The Empress is a pretty decent villainess at least compare to most. The problem is, she's pretty alone and everyone else is pretty useless. Maybe she antagonized everyone due to how easily she toss away pawns.

I mean her son alone is such a huge handicap. He's so useless and he doesn't even want to help her at all because he thinks he can do everything on his own but he's even less capable than her.

Her pawns are useless too because they're so selfish. Like take Viese for example and his wife. The fact that the chocolate cake was for Laurel would only be known if there was a competent mole inside the house. But I doubt Laurel's immediate family even knows what her favourite food was cause they're selfish and self-absorbed.

 

[wilddeath]

A lot of people in the comments make fun of the Empress, but I would like to point out that in the original timeline, the empress did suceed in taking over Lombardi. And a lot of Tia's success comes from knowing key events about the future. It's a testament to the empress's political acumen that even knowing the future, Tia has to be careful around her.

As a reminder, Tia was a reincarnator in the original timeline as well. So she already had the understanding of an adult from the moment she was born. She just didn't know the future. So she was brilliant, and ultimately earned Rulac's respect, but too late to save the family. She couldn't outmaneuver the Empress without knowing her plans in advance.

On the other hand, Perez became crown prince once the emperor fell ill, so not everything went as the Empress intended. Her son was just too incompetent, even with the ruined Lombardi's support.

Spoilers incoming with this question:

---

Spoiler: Spoiler

Wasn't that "original timeline" just a very long and detailed premonition tia had? Like her mother had several premonitions which is why she said such prophetic things to gallahan but tia only got the one vision and it just happned to be so powerful she got to see an entire lifetimes worth of events?

or no?
Edit: uh... where is my question? why isn't the spoiler tag working for me?

 

[favine]

well, technically this is a spoiler, ig
coz who would've known there'll be an arc like that lol.

but kidding aside, the gasp that I gasped expecting a spoiler about that jewel box
only to open the tab and found not even one thing about the box lmaoo

the box is now, no need to spoil what we are about to see soon. LOL.

 

[mgRdr]

well, technically this is a spoiler, ig
coz who would've known there'll be an arc like that lol.

but kidding aside, the gasp that I gasped expecting a spoiler about that jewel box
only to open the tab and found not even one thing about the box lmaoo

That's what in the jewel box - spoilers about what the next arc is going to be. Which is very insidious of the empress

 

[unime]

Ah, yeah. That'd explain why the empress jumps to Gallahan* as the next family head, not Shananet or Tia. She can't comprehend a woman going so far on her own merits.

Makes me wonder if her treatment isn't average or her family's just old-fashioned... A lot of the women in the series seem well-respected and hold decently high positions---wasn't the former Sershaw head an old lady?---but many of them revolve around Tia, so it's hard to judge what's normal.

*Once again, it's really funny to me that Laurels (is that the name?) doesn't occur to the empress either. That poor second child.

Honestly I think it's just her family using women as pawns. The empresses was essentially pressured into the position even though the emperor is incompetent and refused to relent. Then there's her cousin or whoever who is married the Tia's uncle, also used as a tool in the marriage alliance.

 

[Kynnath]

Spoilers incoming with this question:

---

Wasn't that "original timeline" just a very long and detailed premonition tia had?
or no?

Couldn't see the question until I clicked 'reply' (removed the more spoilery bits). You messed up the formatting, the content of the spoiler has to go between the spoiler tags, not inside the spoiler tag. So [spoiler]content[/spoiler], not [spoiler=content][/spoiler]

To answer the question: Is there a difference? She experienced her whole life "normally" with no knowledge of future events until the point of her death, then woke back up as a 7 or so year old (forget the exact age). From her perspective, it's not possible to distinguish between having lived a full life and reincarnating and having a detailed premonition. We could also ask if she really reincarnated as Tia or if her life in the modern world was also a "premonition" she had before being born.

Her current self has knowledge of timelines that no longer exist in her reality. Wether that is from one kind of supernatural ability or another is somewhat moot.

 

[letmereadmangas]

Empress, let me also gift you something; it's called a requiem...

 

[glitxxi]

Ah, yeah. That'd explain why the empress jumps to Gallahan* as the next family head, not Shananet or Tia. She can't comprehend a woman going so far on her own merits.

Makes me wonder if her treatment isn't average or her family's just old-fashioned... A lot of the women in the series seem well-respected and hold decently high positions---wasn't the former Sershaw head an old lady?---but many of them revolve around Tia, so it's hard to judge what's normal.

*Once again, it's really funny to me that Laurels (is that the name?) doesn't occur to the empress either. That poor second child.

May be because there's still a capable son to inherit the position, so she wouldn't think of shanet or a granddaughter even. Matriarchs I assume, tend to go into their position by "luck" such as becoming a widow with no capable or old enough sons and just being formidable enough to swat away the nephews etc like sershaw.
but she should know shanet is currently helping the head with running everything so it's still strange in that respect.

 

[wilddeath]

Couldn't see the question until I clicked 'reply' (removed the more spoilery bits). You messed up the formatting, the content of the spoiler has to go between the spoiler tags, not inside the spoiler tag. So [spoiler]content[/spoiler], not [spoiler=content][/spoiler]

To answer the question: Is there a difference? She experienced her whole life "normally" with no knowledge of future events until the point of her death, then woke back up as a 7 or so year old (forget the exact age). From her perspective, it's not possible to distinguish between having lived a full life and reincarnating and having a detailed premonition. We could also ask if she really reincarnated as Tia or if her life in the modern world was also a "premonition" she had before being born.

Her current self has knowledge of timelines that no longer exist in her reality. Wether that is from one kind of supernatural ability or another is somewhat moot.

oh my god thank you for showing me how to fix it. I have no idea how that happened.