I would like to clarify that my rating may seem harsh, but for me a 4 is below average. A 8-9 tier story would be like AOT. I don’t know any 10 tier manga, but they have to be life changing. This story being part of the fantasy genre (I practically grew up with fantasy), I already have high expectations. Having such an unbelievable backstory ruins the immersion experience-and contrary to what PZcolo said, backstories do not exist so that it could be forgotten. The backstory here clearly establishes the character, and this story specifically, will reference her past life. We already see this with recent updates. It is hard for me to enjoy the story when I see the character and think of the plot holes.
This backstory is incredibly unrealistic, even for fantasy standards. Anything in this story can happen, but the author seems to pick the events with the lowest chances of happening and incorporating it into her story. The end result is that it is hard to believe. Fantasy stories often have readers suspend their disbelief because it’s a fantasy. However, this story decided to mess with two things that are universal. Evolution and mathematics. If there are no explanation about the mechanics of the evolution in the fantasy world, readers apply their knowledge of evolution as they know it. Math needs no explanation; events with the low probability of happening should NOT be happening over and over without an explanation. We don’t know if she has max level luck of something because it’s never explained. Questionable events that happened:
———-1———-
A tribe of Gypsies becomes lighter over the course of 300 years. That is not possible, esp. with their circumstances. Maybe the remaining families were artificially selective towards individuals with light skin? No explanation. Maybe there was a rare mutation with that gene? No explanation. This would not have occurred naturally because they live in the desert/grasslands where it was naturally warmer than arctic regions. Northern Europeans developed lighter skin than their southern counterparts because they had to maximize vitamin d intake- and lighter skin absorbed more UV rays (Jablonski 2010 study)....and anyone with a functioning brain will know that red hair thing is beyond ridiculous.
———-2———-
Being a gypsy but having top tier level military and bureaucratic education. Not only did she have to be literate (inspired by time periods where the literacy rate was low), but she had to know swordsmanship, tactics, grand strategy, laws, how to govern effectively, the government structure, diplomacy, basic economics, international affairs, trade, etc. Of course she could learn about them along the way until she was 25 (even nowadays with the widespread globalization of knowledge and easy access to it, BARELY ANYONE knows this much at that age) but mind you she had to be learning this while managing a dukedom/kingdom and waging war campaigns. Great leaders in history like Augustus and Alexander the Great were educated at young ages; Augustus being a noble and Alexander being a prince. The closest comparison I could think of is Abe Lincoln; however, he was a lawyer and statesman before becoming president. MC here went from the bottom of the social ladder to being only below the royal family (and then ruler). Yes realistic.
———-3———
so effin inconsistent. So she somehow had a decent understanding of the military and civic disciplines before rising to power despite being a ostracized minority. Ostracized minorities will have limited access to education and jobs (them being Gypsies and wandering), hence why her tribe mainly specializes in entertainment. And she’s also a woman. Stories like this tend to be like our modern world (in hygiene, fashion (lol at showing legs and straight hair with curls at the end and high heels) and mentality) with a bit of a Victorian/ancient twist. Which is fine until you realize you seldom see women in educated positions (excluding magic). Doctors, professors, civil servants/buracrats, heirs of the royal family, company officials, statesman, scientists, and generals tend to be men. For a non-misogynistic world, I should be seeing more women in power. So she somehow received all this education when I don’t see any other woman in similar positions and being a Gypsy?
———-4———-
Reincarnated her looks the same as her past life. Literally in most other reincarnation stories, the reincarnated body and past life body looked nothing alike.
———-5————
A nitpick, but why is the textbook talking about the theories about the her relationship with Theodore, while mentioning nothing about possible discontentment with her rule, possible riots/revolts (how come there were like no revolts with all that conquering she did), policies, details of the war campaigns, negotiations/treaties, legacy etc. In fact, textbooks prefer the opposite, barely mentioning relationships and favoring the former. Also, textbooks aren’t all that reliable sometimes, as they could be subject to Historical Revisionism and propaganda. Because a textbook is introducing the character to us, it sounds very objective and therefore mechanical. We aren’t going to learn about her values, goals, and motivations this way. She seems to just embody “OP character out for vengeance” as her personality. And as a result of her winning multiple lotteries, she appears unrealistic. 1) pretty 2) great affinity for learning and swordsmanship 3) natural leader 4) cunning 5) the underdog story (ostracized minority to Queen). Her only human moments we relate to is when she humiliated by the former King, and her mother is killed. They should have gone for autobiography if they wanted to highlight her legacy and show character development/depth. OPness doesn’t equal character development.
By introducing the character in this lackluster and poorly panned way, this just detracts from the reader’s overall experience.
Why I wrote this review: The thing with the gypsies lightning up and getting red hair pissed me off so much (hence why it's the first point I made). Something like this is colorist af, and I saw some reviewers giving this BS a 10/10 like it's the gift of the gods. That made me even more pissed, knowing they'll say something like "well just stop reading then". Great news for me, not only does this have colorist trash remarks, but the story is also full of holes and a female power fantasy
(-62)
(+103)
