Okay so I read the first part here and thought “okay that sounds cool, I guess the story is gonna be alright”

Then I read the second part and all I’ve gotta ask is “what kind of crack was the author on when they took things in that direction!? If that spoiler is true, then that sounds like one of the stupidest ways the story could go. I definitely ain’t sticking around to see this story shit itself into oblivion

Hear me out, it does sound really stupid on paper, but the execution is actually pretty well done. It was certainly surprising to suddenly jump into sci-fi territory, but Inori managed to pull it off in my opinion, and it made the story more memorable to me than most of the other fantasy isekai yuri stories IFtV and Please Bully Me, Miss Villainess! are two of my favorite isekai yuri stories, mostly because of how they create their own identity in the genre by trying new things. IFtV with the Revolution setting and story 2 twist, and PBMMV with the use of the "villainess system" that forces the MC to act villainous against her will (but which mostly ends up creating misunderstandings and really cute situations between her and the heroine)

last edited at Mar 11, 2022 2:08AM

Otherwise... hrmm. I wouldn't call Claire tsundere per se but her character progression is classic tsundere. Maybe take a break and come back in a couple of years when she's more deredere?

Claire is practically a walking tsundere stereotype lol, but that's part of her charm (at least that's my impression). She becomes a bit less tsundere in the Empire storyline, but she never loses that part of her character. There's even a short story in the official version of book 4 where Rae and Claire's children start copying Claire's tsundere personality, causing problems for the family

last edited at Mar 10, 2022 2:15AM

It sounds like the scene in the book made a whole lot more sense. But I'm not sure if I understood this correctly: did they agree to the plan at first and then wanted to back out? (and that was when they threatened to kill Lene?) Or do you mean that they were approached with this threat from the very beginning (which doesn't really seem to be the case, at least not in the manga)? Cause if it's the first, then I don't think it makes them all that more sympathetic.

To my understanding, they were approached with the threat from the beginning. Neither of them are the type that would want to see anybody get hurt (which again makes me a bit miffed that they made that change and put the knife in Lene's hand). Yeah, they haven't explained it much here, but hopefully we'll get a better explanation next chapter. It was sort of a, "Do what we want or we'll kill her, but if you succeed we'll give you a reward." kind of scenario.

last edited at Mar 9, 2022 12:02PM

Are we supposed to feel sorry about Lene and her brother...? Cause they literally made this whole scheme with the goal of killing all the nobles there in mind, Claire clearly included... Oh, but Lene was so sad when their eyes met...! Almost made me tear up

Also, weren't they planning to leave the country to get married? So they didn't even actually care about the revolution? I'd say that Claire is giving Lene too much credit here by blaming her attitude for this lol

I don't think it came across as well in the manga as in the LN, but they didn't come up with this plan. They were forced into it by the figure in black, who told Lambert that they'd kill Lene if he didn't go through with it (in the book Lene shows up with two other men that were guarding her/waiting to kill her if Lambert backed out, and they're the ones who have a knife pressed to Claire's neck; I didn't really care for the change, as it makes Lene look less sympathetic), while also promising that if Lambert completed the mission their agents would help the two of them run away to start a new life together where nobody knew about their secret. Rae sort of glosses over all that pretty quickly here; hopefully the next chapter goes into it in more detail when we hear Lene give Claire her explanation.

I'm sort of bummed to see so many people saying they're dipping out because the story shifted from being a school centered story. IMO, the Revolution setting is what helps set this story apart- especially with Claire's character development over the course of it- from the dozens of slice of life/school story yuri novels (as much as I love those stories). Book 2 is where the story really shines, and we haven't even gotten there yet! But, to each their own.

last edited at Mar 8, 2022 1:26AM

IrishBlend posted:

Tbf, I never said Rei is a psychopath. There’s a significant difference between psychopaths and sociopaths.

This is flat out wrong. Psychopathy = sociopathy = anti-social personality disorder. They're just terms that succeeded one another due to psycopathy and, eventually, sociopathy becoming more associated with serial killers than general sociopaths.

It isn't wrong, there's an overlap but they're still two separate things: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-sociopath-380184#:~:text=The%20Difference%20Between%20Sociopath%20and,when%20it%20suits%20their%20needs.

Or another article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7236162/ which has a segment that says, "Psychopathy is characterized by features that are not diagnostic criteria for AsPD, such as lack of empathy, arrogance and excessive vanity. Thus, not every psychopath necessarily has an antisocial personality disorder, but the construct psychopathy may include different traits of various types of personality disorders."

last edited at Jan 29, 2022 4:02PM

I’d argue that’s it’s not that Rei feels bad about anything she’s done in that part she feels upset, confused, and hurt that Claire would make such an illogical (in her mind) choice to die a meaningless death instead of trying to find happiness in a new life after the revolution (preferably with Rei by her side, although I think Rei was mentally prepared for that to not happen, but would be fine as long as Claire was safe). Her entire plan basically blows up in her face, and she can’t understand why at first. I don’t think that’s the same as feeling bad about what she did, more upset that what she did didn’t work.
But I mean that’s what I love about fiction, we can all interpret it in our own ways and I don’t think anyone’s interpretation is necessarily invalid.

What I’m getting at is that most of us would feel bad about lying to and manipulating a loved one, even if we believe it’s for their sake. Rei doesn’t feel bad about that at all, she sees it as a necessary part of her plan to keep Claire alive.

Tbf, I never said Rei is a psychopath. There’s a significant difference between psychopaths and sociopaths.
One of my best friends is a diagnosed sociopath. She’s on the lower end of the scale, but she’s described to me that one of the symptoms for her is that she doesn’t feel the difference between right and wrong; like she has no internal conscience that makes her feel bad about having to do something wrong. She knows the difference, because she’s been able to learn it over time, she just doesn’t feel it. That’s what I see in Rei. Like my friend, Rei is super caring and kind, but she’d also feel little to no remorse about having to lie, cheat, steal, or make sacrifices to protect what’s important to her. This includes lying to (or omitting the truth) from a loved one without feeling bad about it

me reading the spoilers in the comments REI IS WHAT?! And they are leaving me on a cliff hanger like this?! Someone point me to the LN I can not handle the anticipation

You should be able to find print or digital copies of the first three of novels online, which are the best translations! Books one and two cover the events of the [Revolution] game story and is a very self contained story on their own. Book three starts a 3 book sequel arc that delves more into the world as well as Rei's past. The English version of book 4 should be coming out soon, but after that you can find the last book translated on either the writer, Inori's Fanbox page (like Japanese patreon) so you can support her directly (and find some super special spicy material she's written for fans that support her page) or you can find the translations for free on the two linked wordpress blogs. The original translator stopped about halfway through book 5 so you'll have to continue from there with the next translator.

Inori's fanbox: https://inori-0.fanbox.cc/
Jingle translations for everything up to about the middle of book 5: https://jingletranslations.wordpress.com/i-favor-the-villainess/
Sephallia translations for everything after that, include a spinoff retelling of books 1 and 2 from Claire's perspective: https://sephalliblog.wordpress.com/author/sephallia/

last edited at Jan 28, 2022 11:46PM

Where I'm coming from with the Rei is "a bit" of a a sociopath ("a bit" being an important part of what I'm saying) is that in the web/light novel, she says that she doesn't really care about other people or even the commoner movement (although she agrees with their cause). She says that the only person who's important to her is Claire. Ultimately, given some stuff in the series later on, I can confidently say Rei would probably be fine with burning the world to the ground to protect Claire, but she would prefer not to. She cares because Claire cares, really. Although I do think LGBTQ+ issues are also important to her because of some things that happened to people she cares about from her past life. I hope they go into that stuff in the manga soon.

I've known a few sociopaths irl, and all of them have friends, family, and SOs that they love and care about deeply, they just don't have much regard for people outside of that circle. I think Rei has a bit of that in her. Not fully, or even much, but enough that it makes me think she's just a bit of a sociopath (warning, heavy spoiler for later series here) and enough that it could turn darker under the wrong circumstances...

last edited at Jan 28, 2022 10:53PM

I can clearly see her starting to fumble around a change for the better... but its more so like she's from what we understand pretty anti-commoner within the bounds of the original game, and rei's presence has been softening that. Claire is the villainess! of a story that sets her against the low class hero. So whatever version most likely retained that opposition to the very end unless like a tropey, badly written "oh ill help you in the end" turn which i dont have any indication to believe is the case? As like its more riffing tropey isekai rather than riffing otome tropes. It's that version that rei initially fell in love with which i take umbrage with, and her affection has preceded any significant character growth. And not like in a "liking bad characters means your bad" type of way, but rather like if you like the classist/racist/etc villain romantically that is a step further, and when you don't have an immediate objection to that once they've become isekai'd into a real person... yeah? Like a real person is absolutely is capable of changing those views and deserves a second chance after the verbal abuse / bullying (which rei seems to indicate was a recurring part of the original game's iteration of her).

I don't think it's too spoilery to say that Claire is indeed much more nuanced than she appears. I think at the point of the story we're at, Rei in the LN had talked about falling in love with Claire because she was so much more than the 'villainess' persona gave her credit for, but was only explained in material outside of the main game. I'm hoping that the coming chapters of the manga will start to delve a lot more into that. Claire's biggest issue is internalized classism; she was raised to believe that the nobility were inherently better than commoners and had a right to rule. But you can see in this last chapter that her beliefs are being shaken, and she's starting to open her eyes to the fact that the system she's been benefiting from is not as justified as she was raised to believe.

This is one of my favorite romance/fiction stories for a reason, I just hope the manga is able to do the story the justice it deserves without glossing over important stuff!

last edited at Jan 28, 2022 7:51AM

I'll mark this spoiler just in case, but Rei establishes later that she doesn't want to change too much because she risks losing her knowledge of what's coming if she makes too many drastic changes. This is also just a personal theory based on later parts in the series and the two books after this first series, but I also think Rei might be a bit of a sociopath. Like, she has empathy and people she cares about deeply, but would ultimately throw anyone under the bus if it meant protecting Claire. The real Rei is a lot more cunning and cutthroat than the goofy persona she's adopted so far would suggest.

I'm really excited that we're getting so close to the second half of the first story! For those of you who've only read the manga so far and not the novel, that's when the story really takes off and becomes next level stuff ^w^

last edited at Jan 27, 2022 10:22PM