Dex-chan lover
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sometimes all you need is a cute big ol' thigh with a cute tongue/popsicle.
SHY - Vol. 6 Ch. 48 - What is Light?
- Thread starter MangaDex
- Start date
The villains aren't one dimensional and that's what I like about this series. They're not 'villains' that do bad shit because they can, they're lonely/depressed individuals with misunderstandings while being under someone else's influence. They're like that one kid in school with follows the cool kids and do bad things even if they never really wanted to because they're the only people that talks to/influence them. Or that one kid in school that got bullied so much, they became school shooters. Pretty much the poor souls mankind's harsh nature will produce. It's only sad that, while they can be 'saved', they truly can't be saved.
Dex-chan lover
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Half of that is because they're often poorly done, half is because of people online not appreciating any solution in media that isn't violence. A lot of bad villain redemption plots just have the heroes forgive the villain for what they've done without ever holding them accountable. Oftentimes, the lives of innocents are outweighed by the personal drive of the redeemed.
A textbook bad villain redemption just happened in Mage and Demon Queen. Great comedy, author is not cut out for serious plots involving war, the setting was also poorly constructed for large-scale war. Without going into too much detail, a hero who's saved two worlds is on the enemy side. After a battle that's left over ten thousand people died, before they've had a chance to be revived at the mana tree, he fires a weapon that destroys the tree, condemning all of those who died to a permanent death. The mana tree is partially repaired, but revivals are banned to not risk killing it and destabilizing reality. All because he heard the weapon tears a hole in dimensions, meaning there was a chance he could get back to Earth. Another character tries to stop him from heading into a portal, but at the last moment decides to let him go. He jumps through the portal. He is hit by a truck, but a few chapters later we see he survived, though bound to a wheelchair, and gets a happy ending now knowing peace. Having a character kill thousands and cripple the only kingdom on the planet for decades, then have an ending knowing a nebulous peace watching kids play soccer as he sits in his wheelchair is a terrible redemption. He didn't learn anything, didn't realize why what he did was wrong.
Meanwhile, this isn't even a redemption of Kfufu, but instead a tender moment of connection. We see that she isn't as fanatic as we believe, or maybe that was just Pepesha being able to talk her down. Elements of her character introduced earlier in the manga are interwoven with Pepesha's own development, leading to a moment between the two that feels entirely earnest. We already know Pepesha will help out people who need advice, as seen in her first scene with Teru. Kfufu's drive to make people smile is brought down from its wild, wacky frenziness to the root of what she wants, which is far calmer and more vulnerable. Even Kfufu's own drive is a twisted mirror of Teru's, and here Pepesha recognizes that and attempts to realign it. It's a continuation of SHY's message, perfectly executed.
If you're looking for a silly yuri comedy, I'd recommend Mage and Demon Queen. I don't think the final battle is really all that good though. The comic attempts to take a more serious tone later on, but, as previously stated, the author just can't pull it off. Which is a shame, because comedies that later take themselves seriously are my thing (see School Zone Girls for a very well done example of this). Anyways, lecture over.
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