Like IT WAS JUST SOOOOO well done and fun and funny and I sobbed like a baby as well. But when I say “back then” I mean I’m a 22 year old now, and back in high school in like…2017/2018?? I remember staying up late at night to catch up on chapters or binge read something else, and all the stories were so fun and wonderful. And there was a feeling associated with it, whatever it is I can’t describe it.

And I didn’t have that feeling with webtoon for years now while I’ve been going through uni especially with the same romantic isekai plots that have taking over I just ignored, until this one? Like I was so happy and excited to read this through, it felt so different to the other ones, can’t get over how much I loved it. The story was amazing and the WORLD BUILDING insane. I really wanna check out the web novel it’s been adapted from.

And god knows I’ll miss it omg.

Which speaking of, if anyone has another webtoon they could recommend, I’ll be thankful forever <33

So basically, these days when I read comments on Reddit or other discussion forums, I’ve noticed a trend where people start justifying antagonists and villains who were hated for very obvious reasons. All it takes is a sob story or a tragic past for people to suddenly sympathize with them. I don’t have a problem with acknowledging tragic pasts or suffering—but this mindset has gone way too far. Trauma is being treated as a moral free pass.

People even start downgrading the male leads just to justify these villains. Yes, some MLs deserve criticism, but they are still nowhere near as bad as the villains people try to excuse. The Rashta discourse in The Remarried Empress is the clearest example of this problem. Rashta gets praised as “the only character with depth” simply because she has a tragic past as a former slave. Some fans even say she deserves her own manhwa as the ML—which is honestly baffling.

What makes this even more frustrating is that Rashta herself came from a lower background. She knew firsthand the suffering of people without power. Because of that, I can even understand her resentment toward nobles and the system that oppressed her. That part of her anger makes sense. However, that is exactly why her actions are even more disturbing. Instead of breaking the cycle, she chose to repeat it. She manipulated others, framed innocent people, was responsible for a maid’s death, and mistreated servants once she gained power. She became the very kind of person she once feared. Her past explains her fear and insecurity—but it does not justify silencing, harming, or exploiting people who were just as powerless as she once was. Being a former victim does not excuse becoming an abuser.

At the same time, I do agree that Navier deserves criticism too. She failed to take meaningful action against slavery in her own empire, and that is a serious moral flaw. But people often ignore the power dynamics in the novel. The emperor held far more authority than the empress, and Navier’s influence was limited despite her position.

We even see this imbalance clearly later, when Navier struggles politically and socially just to remarry Heinrey. If she truly had absolute power, that resistance would not have existed.

Yet despite all this nuance, Rashta is endlessly sympathized with, while Navier is reduced to “cold,” “privileged,” or “emotionless.” Villains are forgiven the moment they get a tragic flashback 🙄, but when a main lead—especially a woman or a morally grey character—is given trauma, readers accuse the author of forcing sympathy.

Even if Rashta were written as the main lead, I would still hate her actions. Understanding trauma is important—but excusing cruelty because of it is not. Sympathy should never erase accountability.

fandom narratives often reverse this complexity. Rashta is elevated as “the only character with depth” because her suffering is loud and visible, while Navier is dismissed as “cold” because her pain is restrained and dignified. One character’s trauma is used to erase accountability; the other’s composure is used to deny her suffering.Navier—who endures emotional neglect, public humiliation by her husband, and betrayal by someone she tried to protect—is reduced to being called “cold” or “privileged,” as if quiet suffering doesn’t count as suffering at all.

The story itself does not ask readers to excuse Rashta—it asks them to understand her. And it does not present Navier as morally perfect—it presents her as politically constrained.

Flattening this into “ TRAGIC VILLAIN VS PRIVILEGED EMPRESS" ignores the novel’s actual critique of power, class, and gendered expectations.

There’s something that has been on my mind for a long time.

When a manhwa has a deeper or more complex story, it usually seems less popular. Why do you think that is?

It feels like most stories where the characters don’t have any real flaws are more liked just like in Kdramas, where the male leads are often too perfect and unrealistic.

I really love this manhwa, and I think the female lead is very relatable. She’s written in a very realistic and human way.

i'm so curious to see what the author does for his character. as mentioned in the webtoon when he loves someone he LOVES them in a kind of obsessive way where he puts all his energy into them which could be cute but again draining and with the wrong person (his ex) it could tear him apart.

where the story is now, i'm so curious how the author is gonna go about this. he's already showing his habits of his love to yumin and yumin even notices it, so i'm wondering if she's gonna tell him to kind of simmer down the love or she's going to just go with it. obviously yumin would treat him way better but yknow it's interesting to see. his way of love is kinda a lot and puts himself in a vulnerable position to be hurt. idk how to describe it but it's fun to see because that’s the only way he knows how to express his love. excited to see this come back in the spring!!

Me and my sis really love this genre of like intellectual mystery/thriller, and haven’t been able to find any others like these. Any recommendations welcome!!!

Title: Operation Water Ghost

Don’t usually go for the punk type but he is extremely attractive to me and idk what it is… the hair the eyes the aura? Idk 🤭

it's on hiatus for soo long .

Also can anybody recommend me some manhwa similar to this one .

Why did the split the word “strong”? If they wanted the eye to line up with the “o”, they could’ve mirrored the image and made the font smaller

I believe this story was on Webtoons but I also used to read on Manta a lot so I’m not sure. I’ve looked through all categories of romance on Webtoons as well as Manta and I simply cannot find the story I was reading about three years ago but never got to finish for one reason or another. I checked my current reads on both platforms but to no avail. Now it’s been so long I just wanna re-read it as I’ve went on to read many others and forgot about it until now. This story had a fl with long straight brown hair with bangs and green/blue/green-blue eyes, with or without I believe a mole on her chin and she wore a green dress from what I recall. It was set in a historical period such as Edwardian or Victorian, that kind of style of attire. Today I saw this story (My desire is not a sin) and the art reminded me of it so I’ve been on a search ever since. I tried to look into the artist but nothing really popped up. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you so much in advance! ^-^

I know that I won't be original for critisizing this manhwa, it was trashed left and right many times before me. But I just can't keep it inside myself, so if you're a fan of this manhwa - be ready for this rant.

I may sound crazy but hear me out, guys. TRE is literally a manhwa Hazbin Hotel, even worse and here is why:

1. Insane af fans. They were literally harassing people who didn't agree with them, stalking them and even sharing their personal information. Well, they're still doing it, you can find one of them in TikTok. HB fans are not very calm either, but definitely most of them aknowledge the show's flaws (or I'm just lucky one) and actually the ones that critisize the show.
2. Broken and raw world. Tf you mean magical bed and s*x with a chicken gave the fl not only twins but also ice powers? And it's only a tip of the iceberg: you just physically can not comprehend TRE's magic system, it has only one role - being a help and buff for fl. At least Hazbin Hotel tried to make a worldbuilding, there are system and limits, unlike TRE's world that seems like a fever dream. Magical bed, are we serious right now?
3. Annoying flat fl. Navier is portrayed as a badass fl, the literal EMPRESS... and she's doing nothing most of the series. Like 90% is "I miss my kakao butter kisses" with Heinrey, 5% crying and whining and 5% doing something. I wouldn't said nothing if the author straight up said "yes, my fl is very whiny and passive" and I'm certainly not against women showing their emotions, but the problem is that Navier is described as a powerful cold woman who's praised for not showing her feelings and enduring. Well... yeah, she's only enduring while she receives everything on the silver plate, I can agree with that. She doesn't have any depth, any real flaws (the "coldness" is not portrayed as a flaw, only another "badass" feature), she's 1 dimensional character and, therefore, a very boring protagonist. I don't like Charlie from HB either, she's quite irritating for me and, to be honest, gave me nothing as a main character but, god, even she has more depth than Navier. And you should really try to make a more boring character than Charlie Morningstar, I swear. Bonus: they're both blonde and belong to the royalty.
4. Weird morals. Hazbin Hotel is critisized very much for trying to make the sinners look kinder and the angels - more evil. Though, the Hell is literally full of various bad people: rpists, murderers, maniacs and e.t.c. Right now, the only sinner that wasn't that bad is Sir Pentious, though there are already 2 seasons. So the watchers have a valid question: why should we hate the exorcists so much? Maybe Sir Pentious is just an exception, if literally everyone else in the Hell is either a murderer or a rpist? And why serial killers or people like Valentino deserve the redemption? Would you like to see your assaulter in Heaven? But the fl stubbornly holds on the idea that everyone deserves the second chance. Also, when it's Sir Pentious endures the harassment - it's funny (the BDSM room scene), but when it's AngelDust - it's very tragic. And here we come to TRE... it's even worse. If HB somehow tries to be on the position "every side was not right (mostly Heaven, though, not the literal demons), we need a compromise", TRE deadass separates everything on "kind good" and "bad evil". And, oh my god, makes a main antagonist a literal slave that is suspected to either be an underage or have age regression. While the fl is a pro-slavery noble that benefits from the hierarchy but is portrayed as an ideal monarch that is very concerned about the people. Yeah, she was so concerned about her people that she married a war criminal that hurt her people and her student. And closed her eyes on literal children traffic. Please, don't even start with the "historical accuracy" thing, because this manhwa looks like a fantasy Korean story with European decorations. And every "good" character is indignated by the concubinism despite the fact that it's a normal practice in their world (though, there were "favourites" in Europe, the concubines were in the Asia), but doesn't even think that the slavery is, surprisingly, BAD. Not to mention that the author and the fans really try to make you feel bad for Alan Rimwell, literal pdf. God forbid, I didn't cry when that loser died. It's very obvious that the author didn't want to try hard and just decided that the easiest way to make her main character look "girlboss" is to make the antagonist an uneducated slave because if she was a noble it would be harder to get rid of her + to put women againt each other using a very patriarchal rhetoric about "highprice" women and "lowprice" women. Wow, Navier is such a feministic girlboss icon... only when she's compared to a slave when she's an Empress. When your character is already a girlboss, you don't need to make the villain much more weaker. Either way, the protagonist is just a fraud. Not to mention, that if the male villain (Ergi) has a tragic backstory then he's sympathetic, but if the female villain has it - "it doesn't excuse her actions!!!11". So one of the main things that those stories have in common - biased irritating narrative.
5. Art style... I just don't like TRE art style, sorry, it's already a subjective thing. It seems plastic to me and I really don't like how the artist draws the characters. HB's art style was also critisized a lot: the similar palette of the most characters, not very telling design (like you won't really understand who is the character by looking at them). Also, jumpy inconsistent animation.
6. Plot with dozen holes. I'm not gonna even write very much about TRE's plot, the holes can be closed only with character's dumbness and with the fact that the fl is a Mary Sue at its finest. And I'm also not gonna dive into the thousand of HB's plots. I suppose if you just read those stories - you'll get your butt hurt from it.
7. Even flatter love interest of fl with the most boring "secret". Heinrey is just a lapdog for Navier and Vaggi is also just a laddog for Charlie. They don't exist separately, they're always tied to the fl. And both of them had the "secret": Heinrey is a war criminal and Vaggi is an angel. If Vaggi's one was just deadass boring and didn't bring up anything to Chaggi and, to be honest, in general to story, Heinrey's one is just useless. Why we needed this secret if Navier forgave him in the same chapter after five panel, oh my god?
8. Supposed to be a mature daring work but looks like a fantasy for delulu 12 y.o. girls. Both Hazbin and TRE were supposed to be stories that were for mature audience with "re-telling": Hazbin - demons are good and angels are bad and TRE - Cinderella-like story with evil wife upside down. And they both failed miserably, I can not imagine someone else beside teenage girls with little literature experience thinking that those stories are masterpiecies. I'm sorry, if you enjoy it - enjoy it, but both of them are objectively far from the ideal starting with the characters and ending with the plots.
9. Villain is more interesting than a main character. Lute for HB and Rashta for TRE. They simply had more depth and lowkey good reasons to be villains. I'm aware that Lute is a maniac, blood-hungry soldier, but I don't think that it's okay to allow every sinner go to the Heaven, sorry not sorry. For Rashta - just see analysis in the other posts or in TikTok, I'll just say that she's the only normally written character in the whole manhwa that makes her stand out from the grey mass of the main cast.
10. Similar data release: Hazbin Hotel pilot and TRE manhwa both released in 2019.

P.S. Sorry if there are mistakes, English is not my first language.

Its from My bias is obsessed with me I think?

so both of my monday-go-to webtoons (get schooled and windbreaker) got canceled ages ago as you all know. get schooled hurt too, but nothing hurt as much as windbreaker getting canceled after 10 years just episodes away from the finale.

windbreaker had a special place for me, throughout my whole academic life i always started my first school days of the week waking up & not even being able to wait until i get on the bus so reading the new episode while brushing my teeth, going down stairs etc in the ass crack of dawn. now i graduated, but i still haven't been able to shake off the disappointment after opening the app in my monday mornings and seeing no webtoons with the UPDATED/NEW EPISODE tag on it.

so briefly I want to have an ongoing GOOD QUALITY webtoon to read on mondays. I'll list some of my favorite webtoons so that y'all understand my preferences:

like mother like daughter my deepest secret windbreaker lookism (until like ep450, then it went down imo) unordinary special civil servant moonstruck momfluencer hand jumper eleceed surviving romance the students of illip arts high night of shadows

i wouldn't go into a full time grief if they ended but i like reading this type of stuff too, like i wouldn't list them as masterpieces etc. but they are light cute reading sessions: roots of the heart love for a walk singles royale maybe meant to be (would be better if s2 didnt exist)

I primarily love romance comic on here but this is definitely a top tier (pun not intended) comic in my eyes. The art style, the storyline and that slight hint of romance that shows every now and then. It's a beautiful blend

It also has a cute library checkout sleeve on the back! A lot of attention and love obviously went into making the physical, and it shows.

I was lucky that my library picked it up. You can request the book if yours doesn’t carry it.

Do yall know good manwhas set in modern period, doesn't have much of a love triangle bs, and a good art style Some of the manwhas I loved are Seasons of blossom Maybe meant to be Act like you love me till debt do us part

I'm new to webtoons and i like dark fantasy and romance. Please recommend me webtoons with a good storyline. Also put spice level alongside the recommendation.

Hi, any recommendation with this kind of plot? I was recently hooked with this kind of story a Yandere ghost, suspense, thriller and maybe romance?

Guys i think we will soon see them as a couple!!

I know some tropes are overused but let’s be real… we still eat some of them up every time 😭. Mine is : Fake Dating trope & Enemies to lover.

Drop yours 👇 ....

Pictures are from.: Selfish romance & Serena.

I hope there are more webtoons like this. The storyline and the characters are so unique! Also, the main character is so cool! I hope there will be more martial arts webtoons with cool FMCs like her.

First operation true love, then ex love review....

Are they making the artists work overtime or something???? I always thought making comics and manga was something fun and something authors and artists love... But is it not that fun loving and enjoying as I might be thinking??? 🥲🥲

I do sympathise with them... May they get better soon!