#My theory is this comic uses mass hypnosis and I'm immune

[zoobus]

Is there a piece of media that you absolutely detest? And I do mean detest, like, a movie or book or man(hu/hw/g)a (etc) that when you remember it's existence makes you go fricking ballistic (or the nearest negative emotion).

I've written this essay for at least different platforms but somehow not tumblr. Yes. One of the most popular otome isekais out there no less. And for once I'm going to put this under a cut. I know people browse the otoisekai tag for fun and aren't looking the beating I want to give this manwha. Also because this is a copy-paste-edit of something I wrote months ago on reddit and it's too long. Stale material gets the snip.

I hate The Villainess Lives Twice/Again. I hate it so much. tl;dr don't quadruple amputee your morally black heroine and have her draw a pentagram on a dirty floor with the bloody remains of her tongue in chapter 1 if you're not gonna follow through. I really felt like I was bamboozled into reading what was ultimately a generic contract marriage, saved by the hot duke romance, and I hate it. If you like this comic, don't click this.

I know TVLT is popular. I know it's well-loved and often trotted out as an ur-example of the genre. Why? I'm not really sure.

I hate it because on every single level, for any possible reason I enjoy otoisekai, it fails. All the charms of the genres it attempts end in failure. I hate it for lying about what kind of otome story it intended to be.

The concept? Great. Wonderful. I have a mighty need for writers to fill the gap on villainess characters that are actually villainous. I love otome isekai and stories where they let a girl-boss stay winning? They're the best. Let👏female👏protags👏be👏toxic👏👏👏

And here? Chapter one STARTS with our MC getting taken down for some crime she didn't commit and you know what? She can't even be mad, because what she's accused of pales in comparison to what she's actually done. Chapter one ENDS with our now limbless MC squirming across a filthy floor, dragging the remains of her sliced out tongue to form a pentagram so she can sacrifice herself and turn back time, knowing full well this alone could never atone for the crimes she committed for her own selfish gain.

The execution? oh my god, I hate this comic for hyping me up like that. Every single chapter after had me desperately searching for the potential I saw in the first. A peak into what could have been. But there's nothing. Why is there nothing.

1. Agency

Chapter 1 is essentially MC getting tortured for a wrongful accusation, with her noting the irony of this. She explicitly refuses to apologize or justify her actions. She knows there's no point in doing so. We're presented with a woman who knows there's no excuse for the innocent lives she's destroyed - no sad childhood or miserable backstory can make up for the evil she's puppeteered. She had choices and she chose evil.

Lol jk actually she has a tragic backstory that is vewy sad :,( and we're not saying you should feel sorry for this poor little war criminal lady, but she just wanted her mamma's love!

I can't tell you how much I despise the "cool motive, still murder" meme but it really applies here.

Chapter 2 is a slap in 1's face. After seeing her go to such lengths to own her actions, we get a frustrating and, frankly, confusing recollection of her terrible childhood (they suggest she's being starved, but that doesn't really make sense with other info given; MC doesn't have a lot of clothes but wouldn't that make her ambitious family look...bad? because nobles are always looking for weaknesses and you're intentionally sending a representative of your family name outside looking like a scrub? The emperor passed a law that only married people can have affairs - why?? What does this bizarre piece of law do besides marginalize our MC??? You think you're too good for normal concubines? These aren't spoilers, they're just weird details that add nothing or make things less coherent). Chapter 2 is a long way of saying "I know there's no excuse for what I did, BUT"

2. Dumbass's Machiavelli

Did you assume the mastermind-orchestrator MC would be equally brilliant and manipulative once she returns to the past? lol. It's a 1-2 combo of "plot conveniently happens to MC in a way she could not have planned but we'll pretend she did" and "MC does objectively dumb shit."

An example of the former -

MC walks downstairs, gets randomly slapped for no other reason than she needs a reason to lecture the slapper "you need to get your father's attention in a different way than throwing tantrums at his mistress's house." Said slapper is in her 30/40s with two kids, so uh. If she's still throwing tantrums, I don't see this being a convincing argument.

An example of her doing objectively dumb shit - hey, if you know you're going to the poorest area in the whole empire, why would you roll up in a noble carriage and put your black cloak disguise on after you step out and the beggars have already seen your noble-exclusive golden hair?

I can't even edit this screenshot smaller, you have to see this fucking framing in its entirety:

This fucking screenshot. This FUCKING PAGE. It throws me into fits, it turns me into an incoherent animal because there's SO MUCH bad, it throws off my numbered list format 1 2 3 4 THIS PAGE the depiction of POVERTY before a noblewoman gets PRINCESS CARRIED out of a carriage, complete with the pink glitter background because this is meant to be a ROMANTIC scene for an INTELLIGENT character by a KIND male lead AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THIS???

3. Fuck the male lead

That's him in that last pic. ML is stated to be the people's Duke, a duke who cares, a duke who is disgusted by the treatment of commoners at the hands of the aristocratic elite. Commoners should receive just as much valor for the efforts as us nobles!

"Riches aren't important," he says that verbatim. We, the reader, should root for his ascension to the throne because he's not like the other noble boys ;^)

He displays his unrelenting commitment to justice and commoners by:

Verbally attacking and embarrassing MC's bully at a party, despite the implausibility of sherlocking enough facts to recognize the bully is in the wrong (side note, I was #teambully - she points out MC has worn the same dress to six parties in a year, not even aware that MC is wearing her filthy clothes from the day before, when she was out in the sunshine cooking up a BO-storm. I know enough about historical garments to know that those layers heat up and that she did not wash them before the party). I got off-topic, I'm just saying I would not be comfortable with a guy who jumps to conclusions like this being my political representative - we know she's a bully. He could not.

Terrifying a visibly nervous butler for giving info the ML literally just demanded, which is treated as proof the MC has an abusive life, as there's no other reason a butler would say "Oh MC's at the ball" to the scary 6'5 war hero duke glaring down at him. Again, a noble second to the king jumping to conclusions without considering how his intimidating presence might affect how less powerful people perceive him is not actually a good look. I know you have a brain cell in there somewhere, use it.

Openly hostile to beggars living in what we are explicitly told is the most poverty-stricken part of town for having the audacity to ask rich people stepping out of a noble carriage for money.

😍 Dripping wet over being princess carried in front of the wretched poor before my boyfie whips his sword out in case one tries to touch me😍

4. "Banter"

Yeah so if you've ever seen the actual video where this gif comes from, the context is that the smirking guy is "roasting" the other dude with these bizarre quips that either aren't clever or make no sense, but his friends are going nuts anyway.

MC cannot banter. She shares personal info unbecoming of an alleged mastermind. Her jokes suck, like booooo get off the stage boooooo. I'm not even going back to screenshot them, they're too tryhard/corny.

5. Just say you hate fashion

The fashion is hideous, anachronistic, and at points, clearly traced from something else. I don't expect all otoisekai to care about fashion - it's a perk when they do, but I can ignore it when it's not - but all the clothes are noticeably from different centuries, at times it's super obvious the artist traced a stock photo, and the stylistic inconsistency is weirdly notable. I have never cared about this kind of thing before, but I guess you could say TVLT has a special place in my heart. NONE of these clothes are from the same period which would be fine except they're UGLY. How dare you.

tl;dr2 The Villainess Lives Twice is the worst OI I've ever read because they baited me with an MC who's literally willing to crawl in the dirt, to spill blood to get what she wants, a boss-bitch more than prepared to play 12th dimension human-chess.

And then those stakes turned out to be tripping over her own feet on prom night.

✌️Cliffhanger✌️