The Villainess Is a Marionette

Description

I woke up as Kayena Hill, the novel’s villainess, praised as the greatest beauty in the empire. Who knew that her story would catch my attention because I was her in my past life? Destined for terrible ends, I’ve died twice—but I refuse to die a third time as a pawn in someone else’s scheme. I’m no longer the vain and naïve princess. Now that I know how the story will unfold, I’ll turn the tables around and have everyone dancing to my tune. This time, I’ll be the one pulling the strings.

Original Webtoon:
Daum, KakaoPage

Official Translations:
English, S.Chinese, T.Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai

Type

Manhwa

Associated Names

A vilã é uma marionete

Aku Bukan Boneka

Angnyeoneun Marionette

Boneka Marionette

Kẻ Phản diện chỉ là Một Con Rối

Kẻ Phản Diện Là Một Con Rối

L'antagoniste est une marionnette

La Méchante est une marionnette

La villana es una marioneta

Penjahat Wanita Adalah Boneka

Ác Nữ Là Con Rối

Злодейка-марионетка

Лиходійка Маріонетка

Хорон санаат утсан хүүхэлдэй

شرور عروسک خیمهشب بازی است

นางร้ายหุ่นเชิด

恶女不做提线木偶

恶女是提线木偶

悪女はマリオネット

惡女是懸絲木偶

악녀는 마리오네트

Groups Scanlating

Latest Release(s)

c.110 by Gourmet Scans 3 weeks ago

c.109 by Gourmet Scans 1 month ago

c.108 by Gourmet Scans 2 months ago

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Status in Country of Origin

111 Chapters + Prologue + Review (Complete - Axed)

S1: 45 Chapters (1~45)
S2: 35 Chapters (46~80)
S3: 31 Chapters (81~111)

Completely Scanlated?

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 7.4 / 10.0 (260 votes)

Bayesian Average: 7.29 / 10.0

18%

19%

23%

13%

Last Updated

April 28th, 2025 10:20am PDT - 2 days ago

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Genre

Drama Fantasy Romance Shoujo
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Odebu Akujo ni Tensei Shitara, Naze ka Last Boss Ouji-sama ni Shuuchaku sareteimasu

Father, I Don't Want This Marriage

The Villainess Lives Again

Renia, the Crazy Princess

The Brocaded Tale of the Girl Si

Recommendations

N/A

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Serialized In (magazine)

KakaoPage (Kakao)

Kakao Webtoon (Daum)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

IZE Press (2 Volumes: Ongoing - Print)

Radish (Expired)

Tapas

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #363

(-25)

Monthly Pos #270

(-46)

3 Month Pos #423

(-125)

6 Month Pos #529

(-151)

Year Pos #540

(+168)

List Stats

On 1480 reading lists

On 364 wish lists

On 62 completed lists

On 88 unfinished lists

On 451 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

IF Ending can be changed?

by burntubby9
2 months ago

Rating: 1.0 / 10.0

Art is so good but enough to make people give 1 rating (including me) Why : Your rejected by the boy you liked and then you become something that boy taken an interest and now want make you his and you just give in him. even though there are better candidates for ML. Story be like : when your poor you got ignored and rejected and when you become rich the one who ignored and rejected you come to like you and you also like him back again even though there are characters who truly loves you instead you choose that trash as ML. Ending is also trash.

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Don't like it

by Xiao Jin
6 months ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

(in previous life) FL keep pushing ML and he dont give damn and marry someone.(in second life) ML keep pushing it and FL give in to him. because of ML and his cringe love so many people droped out. it will be far better story if there is no ML or she just marry some side character. we can't deny that Rezef is more beautiful and handsome than anyone in manhawa including ML. He is more suited for ML if he just not FL brother. Rated 4.7 because of the Art otherwise it's trash.

... Last updated 6 months ago

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didn't intrigue me enough to continue

by Ziggyzag
7 months ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

rated 7.5/10 until chap 80, but i couldn't get pass it. art is beautiful, but..

not sure if ill pick this up again.

... Last updated 7 months ago

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Gorgeous yet Superficial art and spineless story

by LienHoa
7 months ago

Rating: 6.0 / 10.0

Even though the art is immaculately gorgeous, breathtaking and sparkling with all the details of the gowns, the hair and the architecture, together with endless attractive characters (almost everyone is beautiful or handsome), sadly, most of it are just subtances.

This is one of the few stories i don't skip the politic part, and eventually it doesn't worth it.

The manhwa starts off interesting with a lot of potential. It made me curious Why did Rezef and Kayena's relationship turns mold, while they were so close and precious as kids—like, they only have each other in the cold blooded environment of the palace?

As the story goes, especially when it reaches it peak,

which is about Rezef's real parents , it starts to get dramatic and interesting, and then bOoM, [spoiler] the Chaperon Kayena loves is killed by Rezef, and they're not on the same team anymore.

Read 26/2/2023

... Last updated 7 months ago

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Boring puppy ML

by Fidzius
8 months ago

Rating: 6.0 / 10.0

Calculating FL that went through harsh experiences, learned form them and uses cunning tactics to go against the many opposing forces surrounding her.

And then there's this dumbass, that while having a "condition" seems to randomly overcome it and become a bimbo lap-dog.

That caused enough cringe to put the reading on hold.

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Boring, the only good thing is the art

by Akira Ryuji
11 months ago

Rating: 1.0 / 10.0

Originally rated 8.4

... Last updated 11 months ago

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Expecting the plot and got a typical shoujo romance

by Velrost
1 year ago

Rating: 4.0 / 10.0

Just another case where MC regressed to take another chance in life but stupidly asks why things are different from before when they deliberately took a different route.

Just do a simple skimming for one chapter and you can definitely say that the art is good. But this is the only good thing in this series.

The plot is quite decent. Just like the description said, MC is trying to avoid death by manipulation so she will pull the string herself. Common tropes like kidnapping, assassination, and blackmail were included as they normally would in royal settings.

The story is bad. In one sentence: Things just happened, don't ask how, and let's just talk about the future.
Some things were revealed suddenly that greatly influenced the main story. No clues or leads were shown before the reveal.

The characters are worse overall. MC tries to be manipulative but is always startled when things go slightly different from what she expects. She expects things to stay the same when she never does the same things. Like a typical harem manga, this manhwa has other characters to fall for MC in one scene.

... Last updated 1 year ago

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This is silly so far

by MatrixM
1 year ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

Reviewed @ch24

It's trying to execute a political drama ala The Villainess Lives again. Which would be great. I love political dramas.

But this one isn't believable.
Our main character was used as an ornament by her brother. JUST as an ornament. She wasn't used as a tactician, she wasn't used to do networking by proxy, she was basically useless and made to look pretty and be owned.
Meaning she gained no skills in that life.

Then there's her Korean life. Again she didn't do anything special here, just a normal job. She wasn't great at office politics, in fact she was a victim of it (and possibly sexual harassment, unclear). In this life she reads the book of her first life.
Then in her third life she's back in her first life, partway through...

...And now she's somehow a political strategist. How?? It'd be one thing if it were a result of her using her foreknowledge from the book...but she isn't. Most of her plans don't use foreknowledge, it's plans she's thinking up with skills she's never had but suddenly does?
And everyone starts commenting 'Oh wow, she looks so regal/mature/powerful we should keep an eye on her, she's different, what's with this aura? etc .etc .etc.' Why does she know how to carry herself so differently? She never learned those skills!

Not only that, in the first chapter we see her get her memories of her third life up to the point of the poisoning back, mixing with her second life's. But then she also reacts to memories from after the poisoning, i.e. from her first life...which she is never mentioned as having.
It looks like the author forgot his own framing device (maybe this was lost in transition to manhwa form from the novel, idk)

Furthermore, the male lead gets

over his issue way too fast cos for some reason the female lead is an exception , somehow?? Why would she be? It's just not believable.

Male lead doesn't have anything to stand him out except for that one phobia, which is handled abysmally to the point where he may as well not have it. So he's just generic male lead A

The Prince is a raging lunatic who has been threatened with assassination by the king if he steps out of line...but he's already done so many times before the story even begins so...why wasn't he killed? Prince doesn't bring anything great to the story, just 'Raging male lead B'. (also the dude is like 18 but ripped af somehow?)

Pretty much no characters are exceptional. The female led would be good if her skills were actually explained, meaning her entire backstory revamped. But, that's not how it is. (also her plans aren't that clever but hey, it's hard to write good political plans)

Idk how this is rated so damn high on manga dex... Or even have an 8 on here.

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Fell off

by twin12spica
2 years ago

Rating: N/A

The art is absolutely gorgeous. There's a noticeable change in style after season 1; although it didn't get worse, it just changed. All throughout the art is gorg despite this, so on that front, it's all good.

However, the pacing got terrible after season 1. At first it was intriguing, she has plans but even us readers aren't made aware until the incident will come to pass. But then things got more more unsensible. I'm not sure if it's just because there are nuances from the novel that got cut in the adaptation, but suddenly what seemed smart and cunning started to feel more like a cliche. "I one-upped you" - "I one-upped your one-upping" - "I knew you'd do this, so I actually have the upper hand still all along!" Like this. It felt... distasteful.

And then the

black garden magic arc happened, if I can even call it an arc. It's just so out of the blue like whaaat.? Yeah, it was mentioned that ! Olivia got ressurected from the dead via magic so we know that's a thing, but all the things in there are just 😕? And then characterization fell off the window, or maybe it did even before this part. Either way, it became hard to both follow and swallow.

I'm disappointed because I had high hopes for this manhwa. I hummed and hawed about reading it, then came across several tumblr posts that made it seem like the kind of manhwa that's right up my alley (morally grey, strategy that's more about moving pieces than simple word battles, and very very good art). So I read this. I wish I stopped reading after season 1.

Idk how to rate this. I don't want to be too harsh, but I don't even remember the parts I liked about this anymore besides the art. Maybe the novel will be better but this manhwa adaptation in particular I feel is a failure.

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Hard to keep reading

by Delicheese
3 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

The art is AMAZING but I don't feel a connection to any of the characters. All the characters feelings (admiration, love, etc) for the FL come so fast that it doesn't feel real or human? Like this person was supposed to have been a complete fool that everyone used to their advantage before and she only needs to do one impressive thing, or just look at someone a certain way to completely change their opinion about her? Also there is SO MUCH NARRATION. It feels like more than half this story is told through narration that explains background info and potential consequences. There's not much story told by the characters, it's like the writer can't trust the readers to put any context clues together and think for ourselves, so shoves all the information down our throats. I have picked up and put down this webtoon at least 5 times. This time I made it to chapter 38 (while skimming the narration cause it's very predictable) and I don't know if I want to continue.

Tldr. If the art wasn't beautiful I wouldn't have read this webtoon at all, so props to the artist.

... Last updated 3 years ago

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