#Literally inventing the Doomed Yuri trope

[silverthelovebug]

God Damn you Chariclo Arganthone Cupid and the fact you’re not even human in any way possible.

[vampkomori]

im watching The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady and it makes me go insane so i have to write about my feelings on it and twts dead and the character limit is not enough so im doing it here

im going insane. it is that good. heres why 1. its yuri (literally) and 2. ITS A GOOD ISEKAI.

i watch a lot of isekais (unfortunately. i enjoy the concept bc a lot can be done with it Very many Interesting things can be done with it but all of them are shitty harems or a carbon copy of one another and. its tough out here.) and this is like one of . a handful. that actually. LIKE. ITS GOOD. ITS A GOOD ISEKAI YOU DONT GET MANY OF THOSE

i still havent explained why its good. basically heres a lesson on current isekai culture(?) (<- guy that cant get to the point)

theres exactly 2 kinds: one is the male fantasy where a guy reincarnates into a fantasy world and gets all the waifus. the second is the relevant one, the Reincarnated Villainess Trope which is SOO LOADED YOU DONT GET ITTT

the reincarnated villainess, to my knowledge, started with My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom aka hamefura (the jp abbreviation, henceforth refered to as such) and summarized, its about a girl that reincarnates into a fantasy otome game as the games villainess and bc the girl is a weirdgirl she basically derails the plot by being weird funny and endearing and everyone falls in love with her and she has a harem consisting of boys AND girls (in the first season. the girls side is unfortunately not taken seriously afterwards) 

and magirevo (The Magical Revolution of the Reincar- you get the gist. isekai names are long) is very similar in that the protag is a #weirdgirl but theres no harem this time and its gay for real.

where was i. basically hamefuras Thing is that its a “subversion” of the “villainess is put on trial by the crown prince who publicly annulls their engagement and accuses her of wronging the otome protagonist and also sometimes shes either killed or exiled” trope except its not a real trope. bare with me this is hilarious. its not a real trope but everyones feels like it is bc it feels familiar but there isnt a single existing example of this trope, its like a fake trope. theres certainly villainesses especially in older animes, but otome games very rarely ever even had a rival and this specific situation has literally never happened. just a fun fact. this is irrelevant to the discussion. but ill call it the fake villainess trope bc its not real but every villainess isekai “subverts” it. theyre subverting a fake trope. thats great. i could write an essay about this (already has)

anyway2.0 the point is there are literally so many. SOOOO MANY manhwas/mangas that base their story off this fake trope. some subvert the subversion some kinda follow it some deviate a lot more etc. but there always tends to be some flavour of “villainess is put on trial by the crown prince who publicly annulls their engagement and accuses her of wronging the otome protagonist (and also sometimes shes either killed or exiled)"

magirevo does this as well but in such a roundabout way you dont realize its doing the trope until its happening bc the protag, the crown prince’s elder sister, entirely does her own thing. she invents magic technology and tries to fly and tries to gain magic bc she doesnt have magic etc. so she Literally crash lands into the villainess’ trial and, in a fit of writing brilliance which i can only describe as bordering on genius, only vaguely implies that she knew it was going to happen (aka that the world shes in is a game) and literally whisks the villainess away on a whim (which in this case isnt even a villainess, shes never portrayed as one and shes not misunderstood, but as previously mentioned this is a common trope and euphy would be in the position of the villainess here) and now come the insane parts

euphy (stand-in “villainess”) is shown to have the worries/anxieties/issues that, logically, the villainess in the trope would have. i have to derail again for context on why its brilliant, the fake villainess trial trope in its most pure form is that the villainess was for real bullying the FL (the “female lead” of the otome game) and the FL/crown prince reveal this in public for revenge, in this the FL/prince are in love and portrayed as the side thats in the “right”. in the subversion of this, its literally flipped. the villainess is Wrongfully accused by the prince and “FL” (who at this point is no longer the protag of the story, but still is the protag in the original otome game which the reincarnated person.. knows about.. its getting complicated) who team up to, for never explained reasons, publicly ruin the “villainesses” image (my personal input would be that its so the engagement can be annulled more easily, its kinda like divorce where its easier if you can prove the other person was cheating. sort of. also palimony. there is technically one specific subversion that has the reincarnated person be a lawyer who helps the villainess get palimony- im getting carried away. i read a lot of these)

lost my train of thought. um. so the FL/prince are sometimes portrayed as antagonists in opposition to the “villainess”. who the reincarnated person even is kind of varies, sometimes its the villainess, and even then it depends on When in time she reincarnates (its not always since childhood) since some reincarnate during the moment of the trial, and in those the villainess was Actually a villainess, and the now-reincarnated-villainess (a wholly new person) takes this as an opportunity to do her own thing and rebuilds her life (whether in exile or not) but sometimes the reincarnated person is someone entirely unrelated to the trope, and in those cases the villainess in the trope is intead portrayed as a proper royal lady who follows etiquette very very closely. her “bullying” is mostly just telling the FL that it is inappropriate for her to spend a lot of time with the crown prince since Shes his fiance, and seeing him with another girl is very bad for his image. ultimately, the villainess is a kind person and is wrongfully humiliated/accused. magirevo does this, euphy is the perfect rule-abiding proper royal lady who only ever wanted to do right by her family and do what her father said (due to this her and her fathers relationships is strained, the anime actually touches on it . and parents are not given depth or show remorse in these things usually) so once shes whisked away by anis (magirevo protag) she suddenly doesnt have to fulfill any responsibility, has any expectations to fulfill, and is just told to do what she likes and what makes her happy, and she is not handling it well. once youre used to being ordered around and have etiquette ingrained into you its hard to just do what you Want to do and it becomes even more difficult to be able to Tell what you want to do. its very good.

anis is also an incredible protag but her whole deal isnt based on any sort of trope, so i wont go into it this time (also bc im only 5 episodes in and her thing is definitely going to span over the whole 12 eps so. refraining from commenting too early) but her BROTHER??? LETS GO TALK ABOUT HER BROTHER

as ive so eloquently and elaborately x paragraphs before (making fun of myself), the crown prince is portrayed as either the good side or the antagonistic side depending on writer, but ultimately tends to be a very paper thin one-note cardboard character that only exists for villainess angst and to hate him. which is a real shame bc theres clearly a lot of room for elaboration on motivation and just general. Potential. for a good arc. like, for real. the basic trope is just about the crown prince disgarding his fiancé for the (commoner) FL and thats it, but nobody??? sees the actions for what they are??? and magirevo does . its that the crown prince goes against his fathers wishes, against the rules imposed upon him by his royal blood and Does What He Wants and wants to be with the person he loves regardless of their status or his. thats good. thats insane. how has nobody banked on this. stocks are rising. so algard (magirevos crown prince) is that. he disregards the royal familys rules and wants to defy his fate, wants to be with the commoner girl he loves and is generally a very self-righteous person, which is used as the explanation for Why he accuses euphy in public, he thinks hes in the right for it (theoretically, bad means for good goals) and basically its portrayed as a sort of naiveté, bc hes the younger brother of anis, and still thinks the world revolves around him. zero consideration for others, doesnt think of consequences, gets manipulated by older nobles who use his self centric thinking against him, that sort of thing. plus hes a FOIL!!!! TO THE VILLAINESS!!! where the villainess is forcibly ripped from her responsibilities and now gets to live a life where she can do whatever she likes despite not having wished for it, the prince is forced to stay in his role as the crown prince and actively tries to go against the expectations placed upon him and cannot leave Despite Wishing For It (the “leave” in this case meaning the societal expectations, though its unclear if he still wants to inherit the throne at this point) and even Better, his actions and personality were entirely shaped by his sister, the protagonist, they used to be close as children with similar interests, but once anis invented magical technology (due to her knowledge from reincarnation) theres a growing rift between them bc shes heralded as a genius for her talents, and hes considered talentless. and even ! though ! anis is aware of this, and even revokes her right to the throne so that he can become ruler instead. theres so many misunderstandings in this royal family its insane. its the good kind of messy family drama. nobody knows how to talk to each other.

so im going insane bc isekais arent usually good or give any depth to characters and i feel like ive been given catnip. watch magirevo if you like weirdgirls and lesbians and like to see the fake villainess trope be explored in depth w motivations. yahoo