I'm in Love with the Villainess - Ch. 55 - True Feelings

[someunregpunk]

With the lies and with just being in an actual relationship

It’s been said before that her goofy flirty behavior is a self-defense mechanism. She can’t be rejected if her feelings aren’t viewed as serious. But now they are serious and they are being treated as such. This is an actual relationship that she is being invited into and The thought of that is terrifying.

So that's what the thorns represent?

I just figured they were a sign to a future event where she thinks sacrificing herself is the only solution. And didn't want to leave her all discombobulated after her death.

This is a spoiler just because I have been banned guessing on stuff using raws and banned without using raws. I don't know the language in either one and was totally off the mark in both, still banned though. .... So to any mod, I'm discussing based on nothing.

 

[SierraComix132]

Okay, thanks. I know now not to read the actual LN. And since the WN is p. much the same, I'll just tell myself the story ended with what you called "Empire Arc", ending with "Fun times with Rei and Claire and the freaking adorable twins.

Spoiler: Spoilers for the LN up to the end of the final volume

To my mind, there's kind of three arcs. I think there's supposed to be 2, but I see as kind of 3. The Revolution Arc (Vol1 and 2 of the LN) which is revolution and the general main preimse the story set up early on, the Empire Arc (Vol3 and 4 of the LN) which is more grounded, less goofiness, more drama, and is about the Nur Empire and up to a point the Demons (Twins fleshed out here, I think they're introduced in the Epilogue of Vol2 but they get proper characterisation in this arc), and the "Finale" Arc (Vol5) which is indeed where things go completely off the rails and this turns from an Isekai into a mix of NieR:Replicant and the Xenoblade games in a way that I didn't find unwelcome, but is one heck of a shift and the thing that might be off-putting to to people that came into this series wanting nothing more than "Isekaied-into-a-fantasy-game Villainess GL"

LN5 is a doozy indeed, and I get where you're coming from! The reveal that Rae and Claire's relationship is a shadow of DQ's nearly ruined the series for me. Adapting it would require reframing that at least, for sure.

That said, my take has always been that the stuff beyond the LN2 epilogue is best kept an extra story for fans, with Act 1 as the core series. I'd be quite happy to see the manga cover through LN5, as would my friends- though I'd be perfectly alright with the anime concluding at the end of act 1.

 

[Ichigo69]

LN5 is a doozy indeed, and I get where you're coming from! The reveal that Rae and Claire's relationship is a shadow of DQ's nearly ruined the series for me. Adapting it would require reframing that at least, for sure.

It kinda /did/ ruin the series for me, which is why, for me, the story ended with the twins.
And they lived happily ever after, etc...

 

[ultrabread]

Rae's one of my favorite characters, she's simultaneously frustrating, yet relatable and at the same time disconcerting. She's a yandere archtype in reality, and that the author acknowledges this too is a rarity for isekai manga. She has a shallow, borderline psychotic love for Claire who ironically has developed something much more believable. The horror subtext in this series is the extra bit of spice thats not immediately perceptible, but its what separates it from a standard yuri love story. A horror of a body snatcher coming in with the ability of prophecy to forcibly act on their own will, with the world around them melting in response as if a meteor struck the fabric of its reality.

The only other isekai that really touches on this, is the speedrunner isekai in which the mc is effectively an eldrich beast who maintains secret knowledge of the true inner workings of the world to comedic effect.

 

[SierraComix132]

It kinda /did/ ruin the series for me, which is why, for me, the story ended with the twins.
And they lived happily ever after, etc...

Understandable. Though I will say, the fix for me was to interpret DQ and the past iterations of Claire as entirely separate people, more Rae and Claire's ancestors and less the sources of echoes.

After all, the message behind many failed relationships in the series is that an imbalance in power poisons a relationship. Manaria and her maid, for one. Rae and Claire don't really have that; Rae's entire thing has always been that she doesn't stay in her lane as a commoner- which is in contrast to DQ functionally being a god while dating the ordinary past iterations of Claire. But that's just my interpretation.

 

[Kisato]

Messy messy gays