Tag: second chance fantasy

This story is 92 chapters of revenge, self-denying-relationship-dynamics, and a fear that a loving couple has no future because of flaws within each of their characters.

I endorsed this comic at chapter 71, and I endorse it still. It is suspenseful all the way through!

Book (Manhwa): I Tamed My Ex-husband’s Mad Dog by CMJM, Jagae, Jkyum – Books and Coffee

I Tamed My Ex-husband’s Mad Dog by CMJM, Jagae, Jkyumpublished by Tappytoon (71 chapters, in season 3, ongoing)2022 (?) – present

I’ve already described it, but can add that devoting one’s second-chance at life solely to revenge is not sensible. Also, self-loathing about the decisions one makes to have revenge can sabotage a relationship even more than stealing and mutilating a body together does. (Does this sound like a lesson that applies to you? If so, let’s NOT hang out!)

Beyond avoiding self-loathing, the story suggests that honesty, open communication, avoiding saddling your love with army-borrowing-related-debt, and perhaps even admitting to bearing your loved one’s children rather than hiding in another territory could all improve your love life. This… feels like solid general relationship advice. Fringe, yet accurate. While this story is marked with the “romance” tag of Tappytoon, such stories are usually more upbeat and don’t involve as many years of not speaking to each other or even being in the same region as this story does. (There is some realism in this, however.)

It is suspenseful – a character coming close to using magic to erase their life, inconveniently located cliffs, inconveniently deadly monsters, attempted assassinations, children running away with armies, a man bullying a younger man who may seek to avenge himself later, and the very real risk of a murder breaking a fragile, restored trust continue through the penultimate chapter. (Penultimate: a good name for a fountain pen shop, especially if it is second-to-last on a block.)

I truly enjoyed this violent, suspenseful, revenge-centric fantasy. This is a riveting adventure story of good people doing gory / bad things and suffering for it for many years before admitting their faults and choosing love. I continue to recommend it.

The Tyrant Wants to Be Good
by Ramguel, KAKON
published by Webtoon (80 chapters so far, ongoing)
2023 – present

Dorothea Millanaire had a rough life, but once she murdered her sweet-but-hapless brother to become the empress, she was certain things would go her way.

Consistent with the rest of her sad life to that point, however, things did not go her way at all. When her most loyal supporter offered to save her at her execution, she turned him down – she was too heartbroken to continue living.

Dorothea doesn’t take it well when she wakes up AS A BABY VERSION OF HERSELF. A pissed off, world-weary baby. Oh, the indignity of being snuggled by the toddler version of her doting older brother (whom she had murdered in adulthood in her prior life!)!!

Yes, this is yet another second chance novel, but the first one I’ve read in which the protagonist TRULY has to start life over – all the way over – IN INFANCY. With the full guilt of her misdeeds weighing upon her memory-filled mind, there is a poignant mix of humor (a frustrated toddler isn’t strong enough to kill people whom she believes deserve it), frustration (she is a neglected and unloved daughter again), frivolity (classic younger sister chafing at her clingy older brother feelings), and sadness (six-year-old Dorothea looking at the child-version of her past-life-dead-husband with such profound, age-inappropriate despair that he is haunted by it).

Unlike other second-chance stories, Dorothea isn’t especially determined to survive this life. She feels she must make amends, but expects no rewards, and still doesn’t feel she belongs. Her father still treats her with contempt, she is still mocked in society for not having <the superficial sign of power that her family uses to justify its authority>, and she chooses to hold her prior-life’s love at a mournful, adult-arm’s-length distance, even though this version of him appears sincerely fond of her. The same society that punished Empress Dorothea for trying to end dangerous child labor is going to punish this younger, non-empress version of her for the same efforts, proving it is hard to be good in a society that is so bad.

The difference in this go-round is that she has a handful of people who love her. Including one who loves her so much, he would support her in violently taking the throne AGAIN.

I started reading on a lark to see a vengeful baby with adult memories, but am now 80 chapters in, and the characters have aged into legal adults. This is another tale of a neglected child attempting to break a cycle of violence in a cruel, feudal world of extreme poverty and lavish palaces, in which the power of chosen-family love might not be enough to save anyone.

I’m the Queen In This Life
by Themis, Omin
published by Webtoon (106 episodes, ongoing)
2022 – present

Ariadne desperately loves Cesare, and will do anything to win his approval and become his wife – including regicide. She is also willing to wait, and wait, and wait for their engagement to lead to an actual wedding after her dirty deeds open the throne to him. Cesare and her half sister betray her, however, and as she lay dying, she asks for another chance at life… She is offered one more chance – WITH CONDITIONS.

Ariadne wakes up in her distant past as her desperate, 17-year old self, living on a farm in isolation from her powerful Cardinal father. She knows her father is going to send for her and pass her off to Cesare, which she can’t allow to happen. She also knows she can’t just live a normal life: this time around, she has to make up for the evil deeds she did last time.

So much is asked of second-chance heroines, and Ariadne gets this treatment at an unusual level. She has to be multilingual, pious, must bravely confront a heretic pastor in the national cathedral, prevent an assassination, survive her conniving and evil family, impress her highly political father, and NOT under ANY circumstance, wind up being handed off to Cesare like property. Oh, and be NICE, which isn’t something she had much practice in within her predatory surroundings.

Her efforts don’t always work out – she is actively being sabotaged by her stepmother, her stepsisters, jealous servants, Cesare, local gossips, and even assassins from a neighboring kingdom! People die on her. Plots succeed against her. Rumors swirl because of an issue with the color of her dress as a masquerade… Her new love is pledged to marry someone else. But she wearily fights on.

I can tell you that the title of this comic doesn’t seem like it will become true anytime soon 100 episodes on! But there is hope, and she’s going to keep fighting. (I want to buy this girl a drink and give her a hug.). There’s still a possibility it won’t literally happen, but she’s been through so much personal growth that she deserves a crown.