What It Takes to Be a Villainess

Description

With a broken heart, Hwayoung falls headfirst into the river by accident but wakes up as infamous villainess Satiana Altisee Kaylon. Coming to terms with her new life as sole daughter of House Kaylon, Satiana is soon chosen as a candidate for the next empress! In the palace full of schemers and liars, she must become a cold-blooded villainess to win her royal seat by the crown prince - or her new family will face grave danger! Will being perfectly evil really be enough? ‘Cause even villains need love!

Original Webtoon:
KakaoPage, Daum

Official Translations:
English: TappyToon, Tapas
S.Chinese: BiliBili, KuaiKan
Other: French, Japanese, Thai, Russian

Type

Manhwa

Associated Names

Agnyeoui Jeongui

Cerminan Jiwa

Definicion de una dama malvada

Definition of a Bad Lady

Definition of a Wicked Girl

Kötü Kadının Adaleti

La justicia de una dama villana

Méchante malgré moi

The Justice of a Villainous Woman

The Justice of Villainous Woman

Định nghĩa mới về ác nữ

Определение злодейки

Правосудие женщины-злодейки

ขอโทษที พอดีไม่ใช่นางเอก

恶女的定义

悪女の定義

악녀의 정의

Groups Scanlating

Latest Release(s)

c.163 by Sawateam 4 years ago

c.162 by Sawateam 4 years ago

c.161 by Sawateam 4 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

163 Chapters + Prologue (Complete)

S1: 60 Chapters (1-60)
S2: 50 Chapters (61-110)
S3: 36 Chapters (111-147)
Side Stories: 16 Chapters (148-163)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 7 / 10.0 (283 votes)

Bayesian Average: 6.93 / 10.0

11%

13%

19%

24%

12%

Last Updated

August 18th, 2025 6:54pm PDT - 6 days ago

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Genre

Comedy Drama Fantasy Historical Romance Shoujo
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

I Became the Squirrel That Saves the Villain

The Villainess's Princely Predicament

The Fake Saint of a Reverse Harem Game

I Thought I Tamed the Villain

Materialistic Lady

Recommendations

Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady With the Lamp

Miss Not-So Sidekick

The Abandoned Empress

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Serialized In (magazine)

D&C Webtoon (D&C Media)

KakaoPage (Kakao)

Kakao Webtoon (Daum)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Tapas

Tappytoon (163 Chapters - Complete)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #758

(-50)

Monthly Pos #1240

(-565)

3 Month Pos #2402

(-479)

6 Month Pos #2962

(-579)

Year Pos #3656

(+1098)

List Stats

On 999 reading lists

On 235 wish lists

On 507 completed lists

On 85 unfinished lists

On 346 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

…

by Onism
1 year ago

Rating: N/A

Lasted longer than most but ultimately got bored after 100 chapters (just the start of season 3)

Predictable happy ending (marriage, kids)
The kind, innocent lady is actually the villain
Social drama
Slow burn romance
Plot driven
Not well (2D) developed allies and villains
Crown prince is confusingly hostile
FL outsmarts the everyone/ earns their respect trope
FL always wins in the end
Single POV (FL)
Ch 85: switches to prince’s POV/recount
Misunderstanding up to ch 110. Easily resolvable
Queen is a villainess
Accused of poisoning rival

They punish slaves for selling themselves for money because it’s illegal?! On top of that, it was during a bad drought and near economic collapse. And as punishment for becoming slaves, they’re forced to do labour? I can’t tell if it was a joke or not…

🍂 Satiana Altisee Kaylon

cunning but exasperated, comedic
supportive parents
cutting towards enemies
blushing/flustered in sexual/romantic situations

👒 Irene Lufon Staena (villain)

innocent, kind persona. Resentful inside.
low ranking. Wishes to be empress to surpass others
not really a mastermind but persistent.

👑 Crown Prince Leofred

Cliche (confident, excelling, cutting to defend others, cavalier)
ignorant to social influences/bad judge of character (often causing inflammatory social problems for others)
focussed on greater empire issues (Drought)
initially mean/dismissive towards FL
begins to respect FL for her insight
Blessing of Llywendana (enhanced senses)
petty (plays with reputations and safety of the two women and their families while intentionally harming one and watching the ensuing chaos out of curiosity and jealousy!!)
jealous, controlling (looking through her magic communicator calls without her permission/knowledge then questions her about her calls. Then he says he wants to know who she meets/ talks to and she blushes like that’s romantic?!)

🛡️Kayledin Obse Percalonin (2nd ML)

blunt, kind, straightforward
treats FL kindly from the start
close with brother
doesn’t give up on the crush after they get together

CONTENT WARNINGS
Classism, verbal abuse, bullying, defamation, slavery, starvation, sexual assault (ML kisses FL, she pulls away and he thinks it was great!?), strained familial relationships, verbal abuse, child abuse, whipping a child (orphanage, single frame. Ch 88), human trafficking (mention), blackmail, assassination, kidnapping, forced stripping of outer clothes, execution (off-screen), suicide (off-screen)

... Last updated 1 year ago

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Cringe and basic

by Y_Sasuke
1 year ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

Art is below average, the story tries to be intelligent, but fails at it misreably and so I feel embarrassed for the author. Characters are two-dimensional.

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Simple Story that lacks a little touch to be good

by BATMAN THE GREATEST
2 years ago

Rating: N/A

Every ml in this had were having a flaw to be a good interest Fl it's more like very love interest even as a joke had one of the seven sins like envy with main love intrest, pride with the childhood knight friend, and my most favourite love intrest 5th prince had sloth of not growing backbone to confess even it was understandable in his case so morally he was right in most if these love stories our favourite love intrest don't have backbone to approach in this story the 5th prince is the one even so I think fl love intrest should be slightly better everyone gets behind by slightly one point because of having one terrible quality or sin with them which is kind of irritating the more you think the more irritating it gets the story itself could have been better with more effort I get what story they were trying to do but it felt the efforts made into completely different final product which does have some great moments but not what you expected I think they should have nit shown the flaw in the main love interest then it would have been worked better I think the author wanted us to show his flaw like every human has but it just back fired and made us think the fl is way better for anyone in the story which is mostly the case in every stories like this even show I won't really recommend it for someone who wants a strong or intelligent fl the fl is average that makes mistakes,correct those not exactly a deep thinking one like it tried to do but it felt more like how a average human would react and think and make silly mistakes in exams like that and also it's exactly a very evil villainess story either it's more like a misunderstood villainess that lived again type of story in that perspective I have given it a generous rating cause of tried and failed types of effort!

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Cute at time but overall generic and boring

by StellaStar1
3 years ago

Rating: 4.0 / 10.0

I can't say this was a complete waste of time, there are some good points, but overall this is an uninspired, boring, genetic shojo. When I digged into it, I was hoping, hence the villainess title, there would be a bit more... Ahem, as we say, hard edges stuff. NO! Not one last bit. While the art is cute, and the story actually starts of in a promising tone (a Korean woman transmigrates into the body of a spoiled aristocratic girl who will soon become a candidate for the Empress, but who was woefully unprepared for such a role, and now she has a chance to set things right), pretty quickly everything goes south. The plot makes no sense, the FL's actions, while well meaning, are completely illogical, the antagonist is pretty predictable (pretends to be a goodie two shoes but is a ruthless schemer underneath), the ML is bland as porridge, other character act in very weird ways... Nothing to keep me interested. In the very beginning, the way FL tries to make something out of the situation was even okay, but she absolutely lost me the moments she starts to act like she was a Victorian virgin who never even heard the word sex. She's engaged to the ML, yet still when he wants to share a bedroom, she freaks out and starts acting like she never saw a man before! I noticed this in several other manhwa, and this irks me so much! These are modern day girls who have easy access to stuff like porn and adult movies and books, and even if you don't have a boyfriend (and she did, in Korea, which makes this stuff all the more idiotic), and then they get offended by THIS! ARGH!!!! Grow up people! No really the manhwa lost me there (chapter 45), and I am just giving up. On to more interesting stuff!

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Flat characters, unrealistic solutions, and BORING

by MorganaReads
3 years ago

Rating: 3.0 / 10.0

I want to give this the benefit of the doubt and assume this was written for a audience younger than me. Maybe if I was 16 or younger, this would have been entertaining and seen it as clever. However, I'm not, so the high ratings confuse me.
Underdeveloped characters that do not grow. FL isn't particularly smart, and her solutions to problems end too serendipitously. Her arguments and proof leave much to be desired, but somehow everyone thinks it's iron clad. Her actions are immature (see spoiler regarding 2nd ML below), despite the title being "What it takes to be a Villainess" she acts nothing of the sort besides acting like a brat occasionally, and her irritation with the other Regina thinking she's spoilt is not justified.
The other Regina doesn't know it isn't the OG Satiana. The OG Satiana WAS awful and privileged. The girl grew up adored by both her parents, was treated respectfully by the servants, and she was still a selfish brat. She was HORRIBLE to the other girl for so long, so yeah, her hate for and rudeness towards Satiana is justified, as well as thinking Satiana is not fit to be Empress.
Also, found the ML very annoying. His infatuation with the FL seems abrupt with little reasoning, and his jealousy is not cute (like getting mad at her own BROTHER for spending time with her😕 Ick)

Overall, I actually read up until 80 chapters and skimmed through the remainder of the story (especially the epilogue, I have never not needed an epilogue to exist so badly) because I was so bored and fed up with the characters

I preferred the 2nd ML because he's not overly jealous and clingy like ML, and he stuck his neck out for FL when ML was being a jerk. And initially FL returned his feelings (she got butterflies when meeting him, thought about him when he wasn't there) but then suddenly she doesn't see him as a man😕 And she BARELY hints that she prefers the ML over him (honestly, I didn't even get that it was hint until FL said it was), and then feels uncomfortable and is annoyed around him because he doesn't get it? Her actions were immature for someone her age, and 2nd ML deserves better 😤.

... Last updated 3 years ago

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Review

by LiTCHT
4 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

Ending was really good.. loved it

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Flat Characters

by Pandoreye
4 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

The male lead is a dish rag. He is so boring he makes me want to slam my head against a wall. In fact, there isn't a single memorable character in this. I made it through 75 chapters, but I don't think I can take any more.

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Villainess to ruin

by HyperCaster
4 years ago

Rating: 1.0 / 10.0

Utter garbage.
The fl is boring as hell the plot tries to portray her as smart and witty but just ruins with the simplistic and boring techniques.
Th ml is a as*
The fl is a donkey
That's the best way to describe it

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Started somewhat decent, but gets boring

by ConstellationSeer
4 years ago

Rating: 3.0 / 10.0

I would not recommend. Despite having the word villainess in the title and description, by no means can the main character can be described remotely villainous or cold blooded. I would better recommend "The Villainess Lives Twice" as it fits better the description of a villianess.

The story follows our main character, Hwayoung, as she learns that her boyfriend and her best friend get together. Betrayed by the closest to her, she got drunk by a river and drowned accidentally. She gets transmigrated to the body of Satiana, the Duke of House Kaylon's daughter. She is forced to partake in the selection process for the next Empress candidate due to her family's status would lower if she would withdraw. Satiana tried to amend the past bullying of Lady Irene, another Empress candidate

who is the alleged lover of the crown prince . Despite her attempt, Irene attempts to undermine Satiana at any chance she gets. As the story progresses, the only villain-like thing Satiana would do is some bullying and throwing a tantrum ! at her ladies-in-waitng in order to figure out who is the spy for Irene. However, quickly, she becomes friends with her ladies-in-waiting . The crown prince finds Satiana interesting and different from what she was before. This sparks the crown prince's affection. However, Satiana attempts to avoid the crown prince since she does not want to be a lover stealer. ! It turned out that the crown prince and Irene only had a contract to appear as lovers and that her family would support the prince. Once Satiana learns this, the love between crown prince and her develops.

At a certain point in the story, Satiana's "super" knowledge becomes so unrealistic that it ruins the story. As well, the main antagonist lacks enough intrigue and competence to keep the story interesting.

When Irene's plot to poison herself to gain sympathy is revealed, Irene is removed as an Empress candidate. From that point on, the story is almost unbearable. It is total unrealistic nonsense, when Irene actually is able to kidnap Satiana near the end. Overall, it is better to treat this as a simple love story than a villain story. Even as a love story, there are many better ones.

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the one with the boat

by onionguy
4 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

Like other reviewers said, this one starts out promising. But the author totally loses the plot by the 60 chapter mark, and it becomes a chore to read.

There's a random boat plot point in the story that just KEEPS COMING BACK. At first it was cute, or whatever, maybe. She uses the existence of boats to portray her smarts and gain some respect, a little boat-talk for the sake of character development is fine, right?

BUT THEN IT DOESN'T STOP. Seriously, you would think the FL was Rose from the Titanic in a past life with the way that she obsesses over the fking boat. I can't stress enough how dreadfully boring the dialogue about the boat is. I'm convinced that the author is pulling a prank on all of us, or that that they were hired to write thinly-veiled boat propaganda to manipulate the masses. It's almost like this isn't an otoisekai at all, it's just a boat manufacturer trying to subliminally recruit people into the boating industry

I am not writing about this to be cheeky or funny, the boat stuff is just really that annoying.

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