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shiroandblack · 10 months ago

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An unsolicited thought-vomit on the manhwa; A Stepmother's Märchen.

I love it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

This is one of those rare manhwas where the art is as excellent as the storyline. I will be approaching this as someone who has only read the manhwa and not the novel.

Some criticism I've heard of is that it's too heavy for some people and that it's slow at the beginning. I honestly think that's mostly because the political intrigue is a main plot instead of a side-quest to the romance. So at the beginning, the author and artist was definitely laying down the seeds for all of the things currently happening in the manga. The political intrigue is well done as well, it's not everyone vying for power like in asoiaf but a certain group of people who would definitely benefit from gaining more power like Theobald, the Crown Prince, and the Church (Cardinal Richelieu).

It's also addresses class difference through Nora and his friends. Nora as the highest of nobility is very privileged in terms of material wealth and social status compared to his friends who are humble townspeople. Nora himself has genuine care and relationships with them and while not "relatable" they can get on easily. This all comes to a head when they decide to go to Nora's house (more like castle) and that's when they're fully confronted by the fact that Nora is not like them at all. I completely understand the bitterness of one of his friends (the blond one) when he decided to end their friendship, because he has a point. The defense from the other friends that Nora's grandfather and father are heroes who fought valiantly in a war, is contrasted by Blondie's (I'm sorry, I can't remember his name) remark that his father fought valiantly in the war too, his father gave up his profession and livelihood and came back with an injury that debilitated his ability to do things like before. And where is the appreciation for that? Compared to Nora's family who are lauded as heroes and probably received things like land/titles from the emperor simply because they are nobility. Nora is angered when Albrecht (his father) tells him about the confrontation with his friends, to which Albrecht says that he shouldn't be hanging out with them in the first place. In the perspective of his friends, it's frankly insulting for Nora to wear less-fine clothes and hang around them (pretending to be them in a way) even though Nora has always been honest about his identity as a noble to them but they have never been confronted with that reality until they visited Nuremberg Castle.

The fact that Shuri time-traveled seems to be more of a sidenote than something of actual relevance. By relevance, I mean to say that she died horribly in her first life but she isn't really looking for revenge. She's looking to secure the Neuchwanstein kids' futures and also she genuinely wants a bond with them that she didn't have in her first life because ultimately, Shuri wants to love and to be loved. As much as I love villainess manhwa, I also love manhwa where the characters just want to happily live their lives.

Speaking of happily living their lives, I've seen Ohara getting hate for wanting to marry Jeremy for power/security. I think as a child who witnessed her mother being the love of her father's life, only to be discarded when her beauty waned to the point she died alone in her rooms affected her very deeply of course. Her mother straight up tells Ohara to not marry for love but for security, because love can fade but her title as the lady of the house will never and she's basically set for life and won't be as hurt as her mother was when her husband's love eventually fades. Ohara's dislike for Shuri at first is because of the power Shuri seems to hold over Jeremy. Ohara doesn't need to be the number one woman in Jeremy's life, she only requires him to treat her as such so she will not be degraded or belittled like her mother was. Her father seems to be very open with his affairs, considering one of his mistresses made the decision to 'introduce' herself to Ohara in a very public ball with the intention to humiliate her. Ohara doesn't want her or her marriage to be the subject of public scrutiny and while Jeremy's affection for Shuri in their first life was not obvious I think to the casual viewer, Ohara as someone who knows Jeremy and his ticks could probably see that easily. Her request for Shuri not to attend the wedding in their first life was a way for her to guarantee that they will appear as the 'perfect' couple in the eyes of society, because then Jeremy won't be distracted by Shuri. Also, the blame put on her because Shuri was murdered because she didn't come to the wedding is mind-blowing. Ohara was a 16/18 year old young woman trying to secure herself, she didn't plan Shuri's murder or something. In their first life, Shuri was going to get murdered either way whether she went to the wedding or not because the Church decided they were going to kill her and nothing Ohara said/did was ever going to change that because this 16/18 year old girl was not in on the plot to get Shuri killed at all.

I also really enjoyed the way the romance was written. I personally do not think that Jeremy's feelings for Shuri are not incestuous as Shuri is only 2 years older than him and she has never tried to position herself as a mother to him despite being his stepmother. As for the sibling incest vibes? Shuri considers Jeremy as something of a younger brother, but I don't think Jeremy has ever considered Shuri as his older sister/sister. One might argue that it's because he calls her 'sister', but in a lot of cultures (including my own) a girl who is older than you but with not much of an age gap between you guys, whether you are related to her or not is called 'sister/elder sister'. This is why Nora, who Shuri very much has romantic feelings for, also calls her 'sister' at least in the translations I have read.

Theobald's feelings for Shuri on the other hand? Now that's some mommy issues right there. I could go on about this boy, but I'm not going to because he deserves his own post. I'm not unpacking that can of worms just yet because then I'll have to unpack the can of worms that is Ludovica.

Honestly, I can't wait for the second season and for me to binge it.

#a stepmother's marchen #a stepmother's fairy tale #my opinions on it #i am my own target audience

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astargatelover · 11 months ago

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First of all 🐱 bonk

second of all - even though or most likely because I know what you'll be talking about: 🦐

😺 Bonk back!!!

Secondly: I was hoping you'd ask that! 🦐 :D

So, my current shrimp emotion story is (as you know) The Fairytale of the 12 Months, or Das Märchen von den 12 Monaten in German; a little German fairytale movie with just under an hour of runtime, loosely based on a Slavic folk tale of the same name.

The Months have actual human form in it, and I go absolutely feral for them, my heart is overflowing with love. ❤️ The temptation was there to just talk about my fave among them here, but I decided no, I love them all, I wanna talk about them all a little bit.

And here's the twist: The creators of the movie decided that 12 is a bit high a number of main characters (and I'm inclined to agree), so not all the Months have the same importance to the story. But because taking background and side characters and giving them life is exactly my thing, that suits me just fine. So, I'm gonna try to write each Month a short description here without making it possible to tell who is one of the (like 4,5, btw) main characters for someone who hasn't seen the movie. Let's see if I can manage to seem confident enough in the Months I don't have as good a grip on yet and hold back on the ones I already do know very well! 😆 Without further ado, here we go:

January: one of the oldest Months. a dignified lady; not fazed anymore by the crazy antics the others get up to. has her own mischievous side too, though.

February: a bit antisocial and grumpy. snarky, rude at times; deep down, tho, he feels underappreciated (and is he wrong? be honest, when asked to rank the months by favorite, where would February be on your list?); longs to be loved.

March: a go-getter; most tenacious problem solver of the Months. pretty, but practical about it. true to her status as the first month of Spring, she likes gardening and taking care of living things (including her Month siblings, in the broadest sense).

April: lives to honor his month's first day; a prankster, but never a hurtful one. nonchalant nearly to the point where it becomes a problem at times. happy-go-lucky, his motto is “Enjoying chaos keeps away strife”.

May: at peace with himself and very relaxed as a result; hard to perturb (April keeps trying). incredibly kind and helpful, enjoys being of assistance to others; does the majority of household chores at the Months' place because he finds it fun.

June: “full of himself” is underselling June's self-perception; vain, cocky, self-proclaimed most beautiful of the Months. stickler for the rules, highly developed sense of fashion; very focused on himself, the only one he adores nearly as much is July, his love. still cares about the rest of the Months and will fight for them when he has to.

July: just as fashion-conscious as June, but much less self-absorbed about it. fashion designer, very joyful and optimistic lady. most outgoing Month; quite unlike her boyfriend, likes to lend a helping hand whenever she can.

August: shyest of all the Months; very unlike her fellow Summer Months, especially. speaks very softly, if at all. loves nothing more than being out in nature on her own; expert flower crown weaver.

September: just as wild and stormy as her month; tomboyish tendencies. temperamental, brisk. cares more about doing what's right than what is correct (clashes with June especially often because of this, among other things).

October: bookish, curious, bit of a recluse. shy and quiet also, but in a different way from August, more of a shut-in than an outdoorsman (gets along splendidly with her, anyway). a painter.

November: grandmotherly vibes. the only Month older than January; overall very kindly and sweet, also likes making sure her fellow Months are well taken care of. knits and sleeps a lot, the latter not always voluntarily.

and last but not least,

December: calling him “jolly” would be an understatement; merriment personified. Warm disposition despite the coldness of his month. Impassioned interior decorator.

And here is the fam, all lined up in order:

That's all twelve of them! Whew, that took longer than I expected! Still, I'm happy with it. (See how I snuck in everyone's genders? Was surprisingly not easy.)

@people who haven't seen the movie: I'd love to hear your guesses as to who the main Months in the movie actually are! I'm curious how well I did.

And if anyone is interested in checking the movie out after seeing this post: It's available for free online and I've translated the whole dialogue into English! If you'd like me to send that to you, hit me up.

#fairytale #fairytales #german stuff #the fairytale of the 12 Months #das Märchen von den 12 Monaten #DMvd12M #truelittleblackstar #thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about this!#this was fun #asks #ask games #my writing #long post is long

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