The Meaning of You - Vol. 1 Ch. 10

[MangaDex]

 

[Wennie]

Thank you for translating!!! 😊

 

[ElfBrony]

Good stuff. It portrays Koreans as lazy instead of the master race. Very different take

 

[Kal57]

I kind of understand her. She spent almost twenty years learning many things to be a part of the world, like reading, writing, speaking, maths, history, etc... And she get transported in this world without her consent, a world where she knows nobody and nothing, and where almost all the things that she learned during all these years are useless, and she now have to learn everything again. It's not surprising that it's a pain in the ass for her and that she wants to give up and do nothing.

 

[nivinator]

I kind of understand where she's coming from, but at the same time, I can't help but feel annoyed that she literally wants to do absolutely zilch, zip, NADA with her life. It's just not entertaining from a reader's point of view. Like, why would I want to read about an MC who has a complete lack of motivation and yet gets doted on because the prince had some bullshit "first love ooh la la" moment? She finally gets the second chance that she was fervently wishing for in her first life, but chooses to squander it instead. I continued reading for like 10 chapters because I thought I'd see character development, and for a second I thought it was happening, but it turns out nothing has changed. Don't feel like waiting another 20 chapters to see some actual changes (if there ever will be any).

Thank you for the translations so far!

 

[RedCat]

@nivinator Something I actually like about this series is how they actually tackle two things seldom seen in manga/manhwa: the psychological impact of suddenly finding yourself in a completely different place; and the recovery from depression. If you think about it, the MC does have a reason to be this way. Having unhealthy working conditions brought by the nature of Korean culture slowly chipped away from her confidence and positivity, and then whatever her coping mechanisms she had disappeared overnight as she arrived in this new world. Furthermore, upon arrival, she was forced to meet many people who expected her to have special powers and the Emperor denied her worth as soon as she was shown not to have them, reinforcing both the feeling of helplessness from being somewhere unfamiliar and destroying the little confidence. Her depression is warranted, and her behaviour coherent with it.

That includes her regression to her previous state (staying in the room all day sleeping). The room and the bed are places where she feels safe, and upon receiving a hit to her recovering confidence by realizing the size of the task at hand, it's normal for her to want to protect herself. Recovery is not linear, and the author does some great work showing what the Emperor does to help her by encouraging her, supporting her and getting her to exercise and keep an active mind. But I agree it does feel annoying since the author fails spectacularly portraying her emotions (the story is not nearly as personal as it needs to be for us to fully understand things from her perspective), or crafting a coherent ML to help her. If the Emperor had helped her out of pity, or out of realizing why she felt that way and wanting to help (like in "I gave birth to a Villain's Child) it be great, but simply making him love her for reasons and perfect at understanding how to deal with her condition simply makes the MC unlikeable, as she is the only character with any sort of flaw.

 

[nivinator]

@RedCat Yeah, it was definitely realistic. I imagine this is how many people would feel if transported to another world where everything they learned in their previous life was useless and everyone is disappointed in them. At the same time, when you make this aspect of her personality the sole focus of the entire manhwa, it becomes unbearable to read. Sure this is a realistic reaction, but this is pure overkill. The author could at least introduce other aspects of her personality to make the MC more than just depression personified. When it boils down to it, this IS a isekai/fantasy romance manhwa, and I feel like readers were expecting more than just this. And yes, you're completely right about the ML--he was severely underdeveloped and the "love at first sight" cliche is the laziest route possible. Overall I dropped it because there was really nothing I felt that was redeemable about the manhwa. There is absolutely no plot, so the manhwa relies on its characters and their interactions. But the only interaction here is ML waking MC up, MC screaming at MC for being lazy, MC not wanting to do anything, MC finally learning from ML, MC goes back to being lazy--rinse and repeat. Idk, I'm just bored personally.

 

[mukade]

Personally, I'm enjoying it because of how realistic her depression is getting portrayed. I feel like this is written by someone who has experienced it first-hand and I think this is very relatable to most people who have felt that crippling level of depression.

It's also the 10th chapter. It's not surprising that not a lot has happened yet lmao. It's also too soon to say if this is going to be a reoccurring sequence of events for the rest of the manhwa. I'd say it's not, because it's safe to say that the ML's issues with the church and that suspicious priest are gonna bring a lot of trouble in the future and that'll probably get the plot moving.

 

[NgọcTrai]

I was finding her apathy disappointing/annoying. But it makes more sense now. In fact, this is one of the more realistic transmigration mangas out there from a psychology perspective. She was burned out before she came, then she loses everything - EVERYTHING - and they’re telling her to start over. Her feelings of hopelessness and depression and totally valid responses. I hope she’s able to get better. ❤️