Mookhyang: Dark Lady

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[More info about my review style can be found on my profile]

▶Summary and recommendation: -----------------------------------------------------------------
❗It will be useful for the reader if they have some knowledge of the Cultivation genre. Which is a subgenre of Xianxia. Chinese fantasy. As that is where our hero hails from.

It appears as a Power fantasy at first glance, with a very powerful protagonist. However; the appeal of this story is not (just) the main character showing off how strong they are, but a complex political landscape in the world our hero finds themselves in. The setting and the lore is very well developed, albeit perhaps not extremely ... well explained at the start.

I recommend this to newcomers and fans of the genre with the warning that it may require you taking notes to be able to follow the story, or perhaps need a second or third read.

It is a breath of fresh air in this subgenre.

▶Story: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This author is attempting to tell a story that is a bit more mature than most in this subgenre. Quite successfully.
The lines between good and evil is not that clear and with an attempt at realistic portrayal of politics, international conflicts and morals. No one is entirely evil, and no one is entirely good.

Here I will be making a claim that is going to upset some people and make me seem like a pretentious stuck up asshole:
This Manhwa is too mature for most readers to handle.

I am basing this on the numerous comments complaining about "injustices" that happen to our main character as well as the choices of the main character. Angry comments when our protagonist ally with characters and factions that the commenters consider "evil".
Those coming in expecting a power fantasy and escapism might not be able to handle that. As things will not go the way you want it to.

Onto the actual manwha;
It has a somewhat unique premise. Where the protagonist who is from a Eastern Fantasy setting (Xianxia). Is transported into a Western Fantasy setting (medieval fantasy).

The intro is well paced with some of the most well hidden exposition dumps I have seen in Manhwa. The story has perhaps too many characters though. As no matter how good the story is at introducing them, I personally found that there are just too many to keep track of.

I also need to comment on the title of the manhwa. "Dark Lady". The reason it is called that is because this manhwa features "Genderbending", or as MyAnimeList weirdly calls it "Magical Sex Shift".
It is entirely pointless and irrelevant to the overarching plot. I can't imagine any other reason for it than that the author wanted a gimmick to put it apart from other fantasy series.

▶Characters: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The main character is brash, and much of the story is focused on him developing as a character. Which the story does a good job of.

Some commenters have noted that they found a lot of the characters surrounding the main character to be off putting, and unlikeable. While I do not want to comment on how much I liked each individual character; I think the intra-group conflict make for an entertaining and colourful party.

▶Artwork: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Similar to the story, the art feels like a mix of Eastern Comics and Western Comics. The result is gorgeous, with the character art being particularly great.
Action scenes are sometimes a bit chaotic, but it is otherwise very serviceable.

This manwha is quite the amalgamation of genres & themes, so I think writing a review to warn readers could help some people.

The main character is a 70 year old male from a murim world, who gets transported to another world & eventually turns into a female.
The MC is not brutal, he just likes fighting strong people. The main character is also often times sidelined in order to showcase plot developments & other characters. It's to the point you might not see him for a few chapters at a time. It's also more of a mecha than a martial arts manhwa, especially later on, and ... the whole show will slowly turn into you reading a lot of politics.

From my personal view:
I honestly never liked the characters or plot in this manwha. I kept going because I was curious where the story was going and was hoping to see some fun scenarios unfold. But I never feel like I got the payoff I was hoping for at any point.
I also never quite disliked it.