||CC Thread #8|| ||Exploring the Greys|| ||Invites Only|| - Page 27

Okay, so I have gone through the plot and here's how I felt...

The FL seems nice but it's generic as she's supposed to be the central character. What I loved is that she isn't stupid and carefully planned her steps.

Precisely. That is one thing that I absolutely loved about her. She knows what steps she needs to take to turn the tides in her favour. She doesn't even hesitate to resorting to underhanded means to get rid of her enemies... Yet she makes sure that no innocent is caught in the crossfire, not even by accident.

The same goes with the ML. I enjoyed that he's a very well-written character and supported the FL throughout.

Yeah. He is actually a very well written character. In fact, he also uses his brain quite well. He knows the FL is planning something and is able to guess what exactly she wants.

But the best aspect of his character is that he is a prince for the people. He hides his identity and works in the charity hospital started by the FL to help poor people. He even proposes the establishment of academies where poor but deserving commoners can enroll and receive the same high quality of education as the children of the rich. He treats everyone equally and doesn't discriminate between anyone. He is a wise and just ruler and knows when to use strict rules and regulations if it means that there will be peace and happiness in the empire.

But for me the most interesting part was the FL & her fiance's changing dynamics. You see, in Indian subcontinent we are fed this idea that you can only love once and it's eternal. But falling out of love is equally natural. Specially exploring the fact that she knew he wasn't wrong yet her hurt was so deep that she just couldn't love him anymore - that was a fantastic plot twist and honestly, I think I would have rooted for the fiance rather than the ML.

They could also choose the path to unite them but ONLY after working through their issues. But this route makes sense as well and with proper writing, I believe you had a wonderful time reading it.

Precisely. The FL and her fiance's changing dynamics was the most interesting part for me too. And it was indeed a great plot twist.

Honestly, she did try to have a happily ever after with him in the beginning. She tried to rekindle those feelings but every time she faced him, she could only remember how he insulted her, locked her up in the dungeon and all that. She literally had a panic attack when he tried to touch her after she was kidnapped. He had tried to reassure her that she was safe and the first prince managed to save both her and the other kidnapped lady but she had a flashback of him throwing her inside the prison and she had a full blown panic attack there only. She did feel heartbroken that she couldn't even manage to hold his hand despite being childhood besties.

The way these changing dynamics and the emotions were written, I just loved that part... In fact, I literally re-read this entire section at least thrice. 😅

Precisely. That is one thing that I absolutely loved about her. She knows what steps she needs to take to turn the tides in her favour. She doesn't even hesitate to resorting to underhanded means to get rid of her enemies... Yet she makes sure that no innocent is caught in the crossfire, not even by accident.

@Green Now that's interesting.

Yeah. He is actually a very well written character. In fact, he also uses his brain quite well. He knows the FL is planning something and is able to guess what exactly she wants.

But the best aspect of his character is that he is a prince for the people. He hides his identity and works in the charity hospital started by the FL to help poor people. He even proposes the establishment of academies where poor but deserving commoners can enroll and receive the same high quality of education as the children of the rich. He treats everyone equally and doesn't discriminate between anyone. He is a wise and just ruler and knows when to use strict rules and regulations if it means that there will be peace and happiness in the empire.

That's nice.

Precisely. The FL and her fiance's changing dynamics was the most interesting part for me too. And it was indeed a great plot twist.

Honestly, she did try to have a happily ever after with him in the beginning. She tried to rekindle those feelings but every time she faced him, she could only remember how he insulted her, locked her up in the dungeon and all that. She literally had a panic attack when he tried to touch her after she was kidnapped. He had tried to reassure her that she was safe and the first prince managed to save both her and the other kidnapped lady but she had a flashback of him throwing her inside the prison and she had a full blown panic attack there only. She did feel heartbroken that she couldn't even manage to hold his hand despite being childhood besties.

The way these changing dynamics and the emotions were written, I just loved that part... In fact, I literally re-read this entire section at least thrice. 😅

Well, that's reasonable enough. I believe it was on the writer to choose whether he/she would want them together or not.

My last FF that I shared with you, I did try to explore this plot but obviously I knew I wanted the protagonists together. So instead of completely breaking them up, I was introducing situations where they teamed up and eventually got over their issues. Even with that they were left scarred. Because I feel when you have gone through such trauma - it's impossible to come out of that with a snap of a finger. It's about time and cooperation. And since both my protagonists had a troubled past, I made them vulnerable at times and then showed them stepping up for their partner when it was required.

Now we come to the second half of my essay...

Here, I will talk about the villain Angela and her family.

First, I'll start with Angela's mother due to whom she became obsessed with power and money.

Angela's mother was a friend of Jayna's mother and the Empress. She fell in love with Jayna's father before either of them got married but Jayna's father was in love with her mother. Her marriage was fixed to Jayna's father's best friend by the Emperor himself and of course, she couldn't refuse because at that time, you just don't say no to the Emperor. But throughout her life, she was unhappy because she had to leave the capital and her luxurious life. Add to it, her husband turned out to be an abusive one. She used to constantly tell Angela that if Jayna and her mother died (and her husband too), they could replace them and lead a luxurious life. She died later on due to the constant abuse she faced at the hands of her husband; which also gave Angela a lifelong trauma.

Now, let's come to Angela.

All throughout her childhood, she saw her mother being abused by her father. Since her mother fed her ideas of replacing Jayna and her mother in Jayna's father's life, she literally concocted a plan to kill them. She used to take lessons on medicine from the local doctor since childhood so she had a decent knowledge on medicinal and poisonous plants. When Jayna was 12, she and her mother visited Angela's house with supplies for the villagers and because her mother wanted to rekindle her friendship with Angela's mother. While Jayna was out searching for Angela, her mother while talking with Angela's mother realised her true intentions and decided to leave. Angela had come to the house through another way and had gifted Jayna's mother cookies made by herself. Since Jayna's mother didn't feel right in directing her anger towards a kid, she accepted the cookies. The two stayed at the inn for the night but Jayna didn't eat the cookies as she had eaten a lot. Her mother ate the cookies and died because they were poisoned. Jayna was so traumatized that she lost her memory of the incident. So, Angela actually murdered Jayna's mother too. She later on killed her father and forged a letter in his handwriting asking Jayna's father to take her in.

In order to become the empress, she corroborated with the current Empress and offered her the FL's family in return of marriage with her son. The Empress too agreed because she was actually from the enemy nation and was pretending to love the Emperor because she and her father wanted to destroy the Empire. Jayna's father was the head of the millitary and so unless he was removed, the millitary power wouldn't have come in the hands of the Empress.

Last but not the least, Angela's father.

This is one character for whom I have complex feelings. He was initially a perfect gentleman who respected elderly and women, who treated children with care and treated everyone fairly. Heck, he even donated a large share of his riches for the betterment of the people of his territory. He actually loved his wife a lot.

But then the war happened. He saw the enemy country invading the border territories and mercilessly killing men, women and children. He saw the amount of bloodshed that happened and that gave him PTSD. After the war, he used to suffer from nightmares and insomnia and so on. He couldn't even have a peaceful night sleep. This drew him towards alcohol. Then he quite literally went mad. He was suffering from mental issues and needed immediate psychiatric help but he didn't receive any. It wasn't clearly explained in the story as to whether it was because his wife didn't realise he was suffering from mental issues or because she didn't care. All in all, because of all these mental issues combined with alcohol and stress, he became the very man he hated the most. In the end, he was killed by Angela.

At this point, I feel more pity for Angela and her father to be completely honest.

Of course we can't forgive them completely but it's understandable how their traumatic life turned them into the very people they hated the most. It's simply heartbreaking, that's all.

Originally posted by: Nush_Rat

At this point, I feel more pity for Angela and her father to be completely honest.

Of course we can't forgive them completely but it's understandable how their traumatic life turned them into the very people they hated the most. It's simply heartbreaking, that's all.

In all honesty, in my case I do feel bad for Angela but I pity her father more.

Yes, he was abusive but at the same time, he had issues he needed medical assistance with. On the other hand, Angela while suffering under her father actually hated Jayna because she had a rich life. I mean she legit said that she hated Jayna for feeling bad for her losing both her parents and that her sympathy felt more like poison. I do feel pity for her because she never experienced familial love and her mother made her obsessed with money and status but at the same time. But she didn't hate being a murderer or someone who mind controls others. She actually hated Jayna for caring for her. So, while I feel pity for her because of the situation she was in, I have more dislike for her than her father.

Rest yes, it is definitely heartbreaking that she was trapped in that house for so long. Her mother had ample opportunities to ask for help but she simply chose to stay there and rant about how their life would have been different if she'd have married a rich man/married Jayna's father. Every month someone from the capital (mostly Jayna's mom) went there with medical supplies and such and she had an opportunity to ask for help but she chose to stew in her misery and poison her daughter's mind. So, I'd say that she is the catalyst for everything and in this regard, Angela is truly pitiful because neither of her parental figures were truly caring and loving.

Aside from this, she met a fitting end for whatever crimes she committed.

So, this concludes my first novel that I read. Now, I really have to curse another novel and it's writer... I just finished that and I am absolutely pissed off at the writer.

Well, for now, all I can say is - I agree with all of your points.

Rest, you can definitely start your ranting about the second novel.

Although, I'm gonna go now because I intend to upload the next chapter of my FF since it's long overdue.

I'll reply once I'm back.

Alright. So, this particular story is a straightforward one. A woman was accused of attempted murder and exiled. Years later, her daughter comes in the city to prove her innocence and convict the real villains. Simple, isn't it?

Now the backstory first... FL's mother was framed because she had enemies in two fields, love/marriage and business. First, she was set to marry the Duke who is the second most powerful person in the empire after the Emperor. And second, she was an exceptional dress designer and was about to open her own dress designing studio and her competitor knew that her business will be ruined if she starts her own business. So, she conspired with the woman who wanted to marry the Duke and framed her for attempted murder. The Duke who had actually slept with her and got her pregnant claimed that he "couldn't help her because all proofs were against her" and so she was exiled. The love rival married the Duke and the business rival stole her dress designs and became the most famous dress designer. She gave birth to the FL and revealed the entire story when she grew up. So, the FL decided to go to the capital to prove her mother's innocence.

All this was good. The hatred comes from the side of the MLs.

There were originally 3 MLs; let us say A, B and C. Out of them, C was a good choice because he was her childhood friend and stuck with her even when the entire city was against her for being the daughter of a criminal/villainess. He even went through great lengths to help her reach the capital and face the people there. He even agreed to pretend to be her servant/attendant/butler so that nobody realises her true identity as she was faking her identity to investigate. But he realised early on that she won't see him as anything else except her childhood bestie so, he backed off.

So, now we have A and B. Out of them, B is the best because he went through great lengths to help her gather proof, escape the traps set by the real villains unscathed and reach great heights in terms of her talent in dress designing. He helps her out at every step and even goes against his own family when they try to harm the FL thinking that since she is the daughter of a villainess she will be just like her mother. He is her biggest support system against the real villains and against the rest of the world too.

On the other hand, A is just a spineless coward who can't even stand up to his mother and refuse engagement with a girl he doesn't even like. I mean he literally sees her as a sister and his mother got him engaged to her. He can't even tell his fiancee that he doesn't love her and doesn't want to get married to her and sees her only as a sister. (Or course they aren't siblings). Throughout the story, he stays around the FL but he is never there for her at the time of need. Every time she needs help, B is there with her but A is like "I am sorry you had to face all this alone".

And she chooses A in the end as her husband!!! And the most hurtful point is that she was aware of B's feelings all along but kept him strung with her by not rejecting him clearly.

I so want to curse the writer for this thing!! Both mother and daughter fell in love with spineless cowards who were absolute losers.

he doesn't even hesitate to resorting to underhanded means to get rid of her enemies... Yet she makes sure that no innocent is caught in the crossfire, not even by accident.

@Green Now that's interesting.

Yeah, that was an interesting aspect. Let me give you an example. In the charity clinic, there was one resident doctor who fell in love with Angela. There happened one incident where the princess fell sick because she ate the seeds of a particular fruit which are actually mildly poisonous. Angela rushed to prepare the antidote but accidentally prepared the wrong one due to the misplacement of one ingredient (there were two similar leaves which could only be differentiated by special lines running on the underside of one of them). The FL was aware of the misplacement but didn't speak up initially because she wanted to use that opportunity to paint Angela as a careless one. The Princess' condition worsened and Jayna saved her in time because she knew where the correct ingredient was. Angela was punished for her careless and reckless behaviour but in order to avoid punishment, she put the entire blame of misplacing the ingredients on the innocent medico who was in love with her and was also responsible for the ingredients. Jayna actually knelt down in front of the princess to save the innocent medico and since she had no proof of his innocence, she was ready to be punished in his stead. So, we can see here that despite using underhanded methods (aka the opportunity coming in the form of the princess in danger and the medico being blamed) she still made sure that no innocent one was harmed.

Well, that's reasonable enough. I believe it was on the writer to choose whether he/she would want them together or not.

My last FF that I shared with you, I did try to explore this plot but obviously I knew I wanted the protagonists together. So instead of completely breaking them up, I was introducing situations where they teamed up and eventually got over their issues. Even with that they were left scarred. Because I feel when you have gone through such trauma - it's impossible to come out of that with a snap of a finger. It's about time and cooperation. And since both my protagonists had a troubled past, I made them vulnerable at times and then showed them stepping up for their partner when it was required.

In this case, the writer actually focused more on Jayna's revenge and keeping her family safe. Romance was actually a sub-plot here. In fact, the romantic interactions of the couples aka first Jayna and her Fiance and then Jayna and the ML were sporadic. Major focus was kept on how Jayna achieves her revenge and reveals the true face of the Empress in front of everyone and how the ML gets his justice... Although the last part was a big disappointment because despite the truth being revealed, the ML still didn't get a proper justice.

Also, in this case, the writer couldn't have created situations where the FL and her fiance could have worked together in order to resolve them because both of them were literally on opposite ends. There were two princes in the kingdom. Jayna and her father supported the first prince while her fiance's family was a staunch supporter of the Empress and the second prince. If her fiance would have tried to side with her, his family would have landed in trouble with the royal family. So, circumstances couldn't be created where the two could work together.

Hello there bahen!

I'm sorry for gayabofying.

I had to attend a seminar at my varsity in addition to checking the midterm answer scripts. So last few days have been quite hectic.

Also the holy month of Ramadan commences from tonight. So I'll be a bit less active. But I'll definitely log in and keep replying to your Mahabharatas at the earliest.

Now, coming to the pending replies...

Yeah, that was an interesting aspect. Let me give you an example. In the charity clinic, there was one resident doctor who fell in love with Angela. There happened one incident where the princess fell sick because she ate the seeds of a particular fruit which are actually mildly poisonous. Angela rushed to prepare the antidote but accidentally prepared the wrong one due to the misplacement of one ingredient (there were two similar leaves which could only be differentiated by special lines running on the underside of one of them). The FL was aware of the misplacement but didn't speak up initially because she wanted to use that opportunity to paint Angela as a careless one. The Princess' condition worsened and Jayna saved her in time because she knew where the correct ingredient was. Angela was punished for her careless and reckless behaviour but in order to avoid punishment, she put the entire blame of misplacing the ingredients on the innocent medico who was in love with her and was also responsible for the ingredients. Jayna actually knelt down in front of the princess to save the innocent medico and since she had no proof of his innocence, she was ready to be punished in his stead. So, we can see here that despite using underhanded methods (aka the opportunity coming in the form of the princess in danger and the medico being blamed) she still made sure that no innocent one was harmed.

That's really awesome!

In this case, the writer actually focused more on Jayna's revenge and keeping her family safe. Romance was actually a sub-plot here. In fact, the romantic interactions of the couples aka first Jayna and her Fiance and then Jayna and the ML were sporadic. Major focus was kept on how Jayna achieves her revenge and reveals the true face of the Empress in front of everyone and how the ML gets his justice... Although the last part was a big disappointment because despite the truth being revealed, the ML still didn't get a proper justice.

Also, in this case, the writer couldn't have created situations where the FL and her fiance could have worked together in order to resolve them because both of them were literally on opposite ends. There were two princes in the kingdom. Jayna and her father supported the first prince while her fiance's family was a staunch supporter of the Empress and the second prince. If her fiance would have tried to side with her, his family would have landed in trouble with the royal family. So, circumstances couldn't be created where the two could work together.

Well, I agree and also disagree to some extent.

You see, I totally agree with your first statement. The basic premise of the novel is Jayna's revenge so the writer gave the utmost importance to that. But what I disliked is that sometimes when they introduce a romantic angle just for the heck of it, it rather degrades the quality of the fiction. Personally, I would have preferred the ML and the fiance to be good friends with Jayna rather than this forced love triangle. This has always been my issue with Naruto as well but we'll talk about that some other day.

Now where I disagree a bit is that there was no way for the fiance to be united with Jayna because of the political background. As cliche as it is, there have been many novels and movies where heroes have gone against their families to ensure justice.

So I believe it has more to do with the writer not focusing on the romantic aspect and highlighting Jayna's journey.