I’m a Villainess, but I Won’t Live Like One

tristaliana

I was just rereading the first twelve chapters and I have to say that ML is a coward, hypocrite, and a murderer.
Murderer: We know that he’s a “war hero” but that label only applies because this takes place in his country. Outside of it there are probably dozens if not hundreds of people who want him dead because he probably killed their family member in the war. I know war is a “kill or be killed” situation and he probably had no choice, but he’s a killer. That’s the flat truth. Just because he has nightmares doesn’t mean the people he killed forgive him or will come back to life.
The only thing he does to alleviate his guilt is teach other little boys how to hold a sword. So that they what? Might become soldiers when they grow up and fight in wars like him? Or if I gave him the benefit of the doubt and said he’s teaching them so that they could defend themselves, I would have to ask against whom? Because they live in the capital so they are not likely to meet any foreign countrymen or anything of the sort. If he teaches those boys like that then only thing they can do now is attack each other. Because they don’t have mentors watching over them or any other sort of authoritarian body regulating their behavior. They are orphan boys so that means there is no one around to make sure they don’t use the skills they are learning to attack others. Which young boys are prone to do by the way. So this also makes him an irresponsible adult.
If he were really sorry about the lives he took, then he would have a political career in which he tries to negotiate peace between the two countries so things would never have to escalate to war again and lives could be spared in the future. But he’s not doing that. He’s going to parties and hearing people praise him for being a “hero”. He didn’t kill demons. He killed PEOPLE. He’s not a hero. Even if this story is trying to shove that down my throat I’m not believing it. Unlike the writer of this story, I can see things from both sides.
Hypocrite: He judges FL constantly for and on her privileges. Privileges that he is ALSO entitled to by the way because he is a nobleman. He doesn’t like her because he thinks she’s cold to others around her, but he’s not that much different. From what we’ve seen so far, he is just as cold as her. He’s not treating others with warmth. Yes, he’s polite to others, probably because he’s a nobleman, but she’s also polite to others. She treats others the same way he treats them, politely like their societal rules probably states they should. But he thinks she’s cold for doing that? For being the same way as him? He’s such a hypocrite. People seem warmer and more receptive to her and from what can be seen, nobody seems to be on warm terms with him. She’s probably the nicer one between the two, but he still has the audacity to say she’s haughty and a snob. He thinks that she looks down on people and treat them poorly but she’s treating people the exact way everybody else does. Maybe she’s not friends with her maids but they’re her employees not her friends. She pays them and doesn’t hit them. I highly doubt that everybody around him thinks he’s a bag of sunshine. He has even admitted that he has war trauma and that it makes it more difficult for him to connect with others. Yet being distant from others doesn’t make him cold? Of course not, because he’s doing it. So it’s not wrong for him to do it, just her. He’s such a hypocrite. He gets to go to the same parties she does, he gets a large home with food on the table, he gets to basks in others’ praise, but if it were happening to her, he calls her spoiled and selfish. He’s the worst sort of hypocrite.
Coward: He takes out his frustrations on FL. Their marriage was arranged by his parents and her parents. He gets to decide when to propose to her. She literally has no choice in anything regarding this marriage. It’s not something she wanted at first either, she knows as a noblewoman that an arranged marriage is something she must do. But it seems that throughout the years she has strive to make herself and her circumstances better. She was always trying to grow closer to him and she waited around for him, even after her debut and him going to war. She never badmouthed him or the arrangement in public. She was the one always making an effort. Yet, all he gave to her was his contempt. Why? Because this marriage wasn’t a love match. It wasn’t something HE picked. So he basically threw a temper tantrum and FL was the one who had to pay for it. In this entire arrangement, she was the weakest one, literally the one with the weakest influence and power. She was the one who had the LEAST say in it but she tried to make it work for years. He’s the one who kept brushing her aside. FOR YEARS. He didn’t get what he wanted so he just made her suffer quietly for years. He’s a coward for blaming her for something beyond her control. If he had any sort of empathy, he would have talked to her because he would have realized their circumstances are very similar. But he never did that. Because it’s easier to blame her than to take the time to look inside and see that she’s just as much a victim of circumstance as he was. He’s such a coward.
FL isn’t entirely blameless either. She has poor communication skills and is too concerned with her public image, which probably led to the misunderstanding that she’s selfish and vain. Maybe she wasn’t a good person, but she always tried to be better. And he’s a killer who never tried, so she is at least a person who was leagues better than he is. She wasn’t a good person but she wasn’t an evil one either. I agree that it was ridiculous that FL had to change to make the relationship work. But honestly I think she was always working hard to make the relationship work. It was him that was sabotaging it when he could. Making her wait and not even carrying out any conversations with her. He said she was power-hungry and arrogant, which I think are both true to a very small degree, but he also never took the time to understand her, while she took the chances she could to try to connect with him.
I hate that she loses her reason because he smiles at her or he gets too close to her, but she has had this idealized version of him in her head for a while. It will probably take her some time to break free from it. I hate her becoming so weak to someone who treated her poorly in the past. But like some commenter said before that humans are not completely logical creatures. While her behavior is frustrating to us now, she’s only human and she’s reacting that way because she’s never had that sort of gesture of affection from him, so like a lost man emerging from the desert, she’s taking every drop of kindness he’s offering, simply because she’s never had it from him before.
And to that one commenter: nobody ever claimed she was a perfect person. We can see that she’s imperfect, but we can also see that’s she’s a better person than him (he’s a killer!) and that she deserves better than him and whatever scraps he’s willing to give.
Well, I analyzed this too much. Now that I’m done I can see this writer is an amateur and probably a hack. I’m not sorry that I said that.
I feel better I got this off my chest.

March 29, 2025 at 10:01 am

32 Comments

kimyona

@tristaliana
He can also donate to the orphanage aside from teaching the kids swords… when fl donated the director said they can now repair their building and buy the kids clothes which means ml might have never donated and only offered to teach them killing.

April 21, 2025 at 8:47 pm

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shady guy

@tristaliana
brother i need you to be my WN editor . even 10 mins. of your time every day will work

April 20, 2025 at 7:14 pm

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Ramonaluv

@tristaliana

this is such good writing 😭😭

April 11, 2025 at 6:28 am

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chica1

As frustrating as it is to see the FMC continue trying to hang onto something that she knows will end with her death when she could have just broken up with him sooner but I have to say, this is probably the realest situation I’ve read in a regression/transmigration story. Because this is what true, real character development looks like. She has a lot of pride, arrogance and selfishness like the typical noble would. And while she has gotten a second chance at life, it’s not like she did a complete 180 in her character but rather a gradual realization that she is flawed and is trying to make changes without completely changing her entire personality and it shows because she clearly still has thoughts about mistreating Maria. It’s nice to see her grow in a such a realistic way. I’m just glad she finally decided to break off the engagement and of course it happens right when the ML has become more curious about her.

April 2, 2025 at 5:30 pm

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Plsbefrrn

@tristaliana Amazing analysis!!! Put all my thoughts into words

April 2, 2025 at 2:18 pm

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EvalleB

I don’t want to get too involved. But I copied and pasted that really long comment into a word counter. It’s over 1300 words long. Then I put it into a word document. With 2.5 cm (1 in.) margins and double spaced, it comes out to about four pages. In both A4 and American letter. It’s about the length of some high schooler’s report.
I am not going to agree or disagree with it but I am honestly amazed at the length of it. I thought it was really interesting that it was so long. Phrasing. Boom. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

March 30, 2025 at 6:59 am

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Solomon3212

I love this. Bouts of the emotions of the original despite seeing it as “objective” normally. The original hated that girl so those emotions seep into her mind, corrupting it.

March 30, 2025 at 4:48 am

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Davycity 24

@tristaliana dude you should be author of a script writer cos analysis wording are so will thought out like damn I feel dumber when compared to you man Bravo’s 🙌👏

March 29, 2025 at 6:41 pm

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tristaliana

I was just rereading the first twelve chapters and I have to say that ML is a coward, hypocrite, and a murderer.
Murderer: We know that he’s a “war hero” but that label only applies because this takes place in his country. Outside of it there are probably dozens if not hundreds of people who want him dead because he probably killed their family member in the war. I know war is a “kill or be killed” situation and he probably had no choice, but he’s a killer. That’s the flat truth. Just because he has nightmares doesn’t mean the people he killed forgive him or will come back to life.
The only thing he does to alleviate his guilt is teach other little boys how to hold a sword. So that they what? Might become soldiers when they grow up and fight in wars like him? Or if I gave him the benefit of the doubt and said he’s teaching them so that they could defend themselves, I would have to ask against whom? Because they live in the capital so they are not likely to meet any foreign countrymen or anything of the sort. If he teaches those boys like that then only thing they can do now is attack each other. Because they don’t have mentors watching over them or any other sort of authoritarian body regulating their behavior. They are orphan boys so that means there is no one around to make sure they don’t use the skills they are learning to attack others. Which young boys are prone to do by the way. So this also makes him an irresponsible adult.
If he were really sorry about the lives he took, then he would have a political career in which he tries to negotiate peace between the two countries so things would never have to escalate to war again and lives could be spared in the future. But he’s not doing that. He’s going to parties and hearing people praise him for being a “hero”. He didn’t kill demons. He killed PEOPLE. He’s not a hero. Even if this story is trying to shove that down my throat I’m not believing it. Unlike the writer of this story, I can see things from both sides.
Hypocrite: He judges FL constantly for and on her privileges. Privileges that he is ALSO entitled to by the way because he is a nobleman. He doesn’t like her because he thinks she’s cold to others around her, but he’s not that much different. From what we’ve seen so far, he is just as cold as her. He’s not treating others with warmth. Yes, he’s polite to others, probably because he’s a nobleman, but she’s also polite to others. She treats others the same way he treats them, politely like their societal rules probably states they should. But he thinks she’s cold for doing that? For being the same way as him? He’s such a hypocrite. People seem warmer and more receptive to her and from what can be seen, nobody seems to be on warm terms with him. She’s probably the nicer one between the two, but he still has the audacity to say she’s haughty and a snob. He thinks that she looks down on people and treat them poorly but she’s treating people the exact way everybody else does. Maybe she’s not friends with her maids but they’re her employees not her friends. She pays them and doesn’t hit them. I highly doubt that everybody around him thinks he’s a bag of sunshine. He has even admitted that he has war trauma and that it makes it more difficult for him to connect with others. Yet being distant from others doesn’t make him cold? Of course not, because he’s doing it. So it’s not wrong for him to do it, just her. He’s such a hypocrite. He gets to go to the same parties she does, he gets a large home with food on the table, he gets to basks in others’ praise, but if it were happening to her, he calls her spoiled and selfish. He’s the worst sort of hypocrite.
Coward: He takes out his frustrations on FL. Their marriage was arranged by his parents and her parents. He gets to decide when to propose to her. She literally has no choice in anything regarding this marriage. It’s not something she wanted at first either, she knows as a noblewoman that an arranged marriage is something she must do. But it seems that throughout the years she has strive to make herself and her circumstances better. She was always trying to grow closer to him and she waited around for him, even after her debut and him going to war. She never badmouthed him or the arrangement in public. She was the one always making an effort. Yet, all he gave to her was his contempt. Why? Because this marriage wasn’t a love match. It wasn’t something HE picked. So he basically threw a temper tantrum and FL was the one who had to pay for it. In this entire arrangement, she was the weakest one, literally the one with the weakest influence and power. She was the one who had the LEAST say in it but she tried to make it work for years. He’s the one who kept brushing her aside. FOR YEARS. He didn’t get what he wanted so he just made her suffer quietly for years. He’s a coward for blaming her for something beyond her control. If he had any sort of empathy, he would have talked to her because he would have realized their circumstances are very similar. But he never did that. Because it’s easier to blame her than to take the time to look inside and see that she’s just as much a victim of circumstance as he was. He’s such a coward.
FL isn’t entirely blameless either. She has poor communication skills and is too concerned with her public image, which probably led to the misunderstanding that she’s selfish and vain. Maybe she wasn’t a good person, but she always tried to be better. And he’s a killer who never tried, so she is at least a person who was leagues better than he is. She wasn’t a good person but she wasn’t an evil one either. I agree that it was ridiculous that FL had to change to make the relationship work. But honestly I think she was always working hard to make the relationship work. It was him that was sabotaging it when he could. Making her wait and not even carrying out any conversations with her. He said she was power-hungry and arrogant, which I think are both true to a very small degree, but he also never took the time to understand her, while she took the chances she could to try to connect with him.
I hate that she loses her reason because he smiles at her or he gets too close to her, but she has had this idealized version of him in her head for a while. It will probably take her some time to break free from it. I hate her becoming so weak to someone who treated her poorly in the past. But like some commenter said before that humans are not completely logical creatures. While her behavior is frustrating to us now, she’s only human and she’s reacting that way because she’s never had that sort of gesture of affection from him, so like a lost man emerging from the desert, she’s taking every drop of kindness he’s offering, simply because she’s never had it from him before.
And to that one commenter: nobody ever claimed she was a perfect person. We can see that she’s imperfect, but we can also see that’s she’s a better person than him (he’s a killer!) and that she deserves better than him and whatever scraps he’s willing to give.
Well, I analyzed this too much. Now that I’m done I can see this writer is an amateur and probably a hack. I’m not sorry that I said that.
I feel better I got this off my chest.

March 29, 2025 at 10:01 am

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A-hole

WHY CREATE THIS DUMB MC’s ughhhh

March 29, 2025 at 9:31 am

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poutyyy

I think this comment section is seriously in need of touching grass lmaooo. Sorry to say this but it’s a fictional manhwa. Im not sure what people were expecting? But this is just one of those reads that are not anywhere close to reality. Which also means that a lot of the isekai stories (like this one) have characters that are easily swayed from a couple of gestures or conversations when the characters are ‘from a book’. If you want to be rational then yeah— It’s unlikely these characters are able to have deep thought out feelings right off the bat like you guys want them to have lmao. Again. Not that deep but to each their own? Maybe you guys should not be reading fictional stories and start with non-fiction instead.

March 29, 2025 at 7:01 am

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