This manhwa is appalling and has a very toxic fandom.
First of all, let's talk about the main characters' personalities.
Aria is an insufferable, entitled, egotistical freak who sees everyone else as disposable pawns so much you would think Light Yagami or Lelouch Lamperouge are presidents of the Salvation Army in comparison. You might think she is in love with prince Asher/Asterope Franz, but she even calls him her property in her head. She only treats people nicely not out of general benevolence, but only if they do her bidding, and always expects them to do something for her on return. She is also so
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hell bent on her revenge against Mielle that she does petty, middle school bullying-level things to her and rolls back time to get away with it. It looks so pathetic and childish I wanna laugh. But what is not laughable is that Aria intentionally harms people who have done nothing wrong to her. Take count Roscente, for instance. Aria in all seriousness hates him for the "crime" of loving and prioritizing his own daughter above her, the adoptive one. Everyone, and I mean everyone, are pawns to her. Even her love interest, whom she literally calls her property in one of the last chapters.
Prince Asterope Franz is much, much worse than Aria. He uses a fake persona in many of his interactions for some reason. He creates what can be considered a secret police, and personally kidnaps and tortures people he sees as enemies along with his knights. Aria herself barely avoided the same fate, and all she did was mentioning that the corrupted casino is going to be closed down soon. Asher is so wicked he always immediately rewrites the laws if the aristocracy finds loopholes in them to avoid things like double taxation, stages a food crisis, frames people for crimes they didn't commit, is prone to forgery, breaking his word and outright genocide. At some point, Asher explicitly says he doesn't give a shit about the well-being of the people, all that matters to him is his revenge against aristocracy. He even tried to execute the traitor to the aristocratic faction despite the latter coming willingly and disclosing very important information and all of the conspirators, saying that he deserves death simply for being one of them. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our male lead and hero-lover who constantly blushes like a little boy in the presence of Aria.
Mielle Roscente, the main villainess of the series, is a pretty stupid and narrow-minded girl, and is a total pushover. The only reason she won against Aria in the original timeline is because she was led by two smarter people, namely her nanny Emma and duchess Isis Frederick. And that makes her not even a very weak opponent, but a punching bag. In fact, if it wasn't for Emma and Isis, Mielle would have never taken ANY actions against Aria or anyone else. The only act of direct violence in the entire series on her part wasn't even done against Aria. Also, at the end of the day Mielle is in her own right for fighting against an ungrateful duo of a prostitute and her daughter for wasting the money and wealth of her family and wanting to take over the estate from the count and his legitimate children. And that was literally the goal of Aria's mother, Carin, from the day one. Midway through both the light novel and the manhwa, we even have a conversation between Aria and Carin, and they laugh about how they managed to seduce such important and rich people as count Roscente and prince Asterope Franz.
Duchess Isis Frederick is built up as some smart antagonist and a greater scope villain than Mielle Roscente for like half of the series, but she is just another moron. She doesn't have much bodyguards, her entire spy network can be counted by the fingers of just one hand from what we were told and shown. But what's worst is that Isis never even realizes until it's too late that there is no way in hell she can bend prince Asterope Franz to her will and that he is her main and most impacable enemy. She never investigates him, doesn't realize that some of her main allies are Asher's friends or inside men.
The plot is inconsistent and very idiotic sometimes.
Aria's deep knowledge about finances and economics comes out of nowhere, and it's not enough to just read all the books on business available and study like crazy like she did. Believe me, I did that and am still not a second Warren Buffett. It takes a certain amount of natural talent and luck. If manhwa had a situation similar to Gekai Elise/Queen with a Scalpel, in which the FL died, then reincarnated in our world, became a genius surgeon, died again and reincarnated in her original world, then yes, it would have worked if Aria managed to become some kind of successful Wall Street broker. But it wouldn't work the way it was shown in the series. Hell, we never even see Aria testing and failing her knowledge on economics, investment and business, she instantly becomes a pro with a 100% win rate because the plot says so. Laziest writing ever.
The hourglass's existence (as such) is also never explained. We find out that after it is used to roll back time, it takes its toll on Aria's body and she has to sleep for 24 hours or even more. Also, it ages her after each use. So basically, Aria used it so extensively that she looks 25-30 by the age of 15. But we never learn about how much it ages her per one use. Or why did it appear out of nowhere only when Aria was dying.
Also, the hourglass makes Aria almost completely undefeatable, but what's worst is that it makes her a cheater that achieves or gains something mostly through this cheat plot device instead of her own knowledge and skills. It's basically save scumming at its finest.
In the manhwa, it is never explained who was behind the assassination attempt on prince Asterope Franz in the past, only the light novel explicitly names the guilty party, and I hate that such an important information is absent from the manhwa for no explicable reason.
It is said that the aristocratic faction is evil and influential, but we barely see them actually doing anything against prince Asterope Franz and his father who we never even get to see in the manhwa. You might end up thinking that the only people who actually wanted to take over the empire were duchess Isis Frederick and her parents, and also Mielle Roscente. I don't even know why they should be considered villains if all they do is resisting a psychopathic prince with totalitarian tendencies. The only real aristocratic criminal that we know of was viscount Louvre who ran the casino nominally belonging to the prince. And we are fed some crap about other influential aristocrats being just as guilty as him only because they are shareholders of that casino. This doesn't make any sense, but since it's the Villainess reverses the hourglass we are talking about, we the readers simply must take this at face value, otherwise the entire house of cards of high-octane complete bullshit would crumble down and be set ablaze.
The aristocrats are also so hopelessly weak they can't even afford their own guards and troops, and have to rely on foreign mercenaries. And most of their bodyguards are former knights of the prince and still retain some loyalty towards him. From where I stand, the aristocratic party's power and influence are all sham and hearsay. We can't discount the possibility that prince himself created this notion to further his goals and to give himself a carte blanche against them to cary out a literal genocide by class. But they are as weak against him as Liechtenstein if it chose to start a war against Switzerland and Austria at the same time. And yes, the imbalance of power between the aristocratic party and prince's faction is exactly as bad as in the example I just gave.
Also, it's really funny, but somehow very few people among the aristocracy are able to recognize prince Asterope Franz despite him being a prince and all. Even if you take in account the fact he uses a fake persona, it still doesn't make sense. You might end up thinking that only the duchess Frederick knew how he looked like, and only since that party of hers that he crashed to confirm the identity of the girl he met in the town that aristocrats remembered his appearance. Utter nonsense.
Why count Roscente married a prostitute from the slums of all people and not some noblewoman, even the lowest one, is never explained. A true aristocrat would have never, ever done such a thing as it would tarnish his reputation forever. Once again, lazy writing.
The conclusion:
Aria Roscente and prince Asterope Franz are wicked, repulsive villains with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They are given everything on a silver platter because of their cheat abilities and plot contrivances. They are so boosted with everything that hardly anyone could pose a serious threat to them. And as such, any conflict ends with a curbstomp battle. The designated villains are not shown doing anything truly evil aside from trying to eliminate Aria (but not the prince), trying to protect their businesses and grab the power from an old and incompetent king that is barely mentioned in the series, and prince Asterope "Asher" Franz the psychopathic malefic that is prone to deadly violence at the slightest provocation. Also, these "villains" are laughably weak and stupid. The plot runs only on contrivances and deus ex machinas. The villainess reverses the hourglass is one of the worst manhwas and light novels ever.
Dec 12, 2023
This manhwa is appalling and has a very toxic fandom.
First of all, let's talk about the main characters' personalities. Aria is an insufferable, entitled, egotistical freak who sees everyone else as disposable pawns so much you would think Light Yagami or Lelouch Lamperouge are presidents of the Salvation Army in comparison. You might think she is in love with prince Asher/Asterope Franz, but she even calls him her property in her head. She only treats people nicely not out of general benevolence, but only if they do her bidding, and always expects them to do something for her on return. She is also so ... |
