Mirai Saesang

I don't like or dislike her, I find her fascinating as a character. She's not innately evil in that she does not actively do bad things just for the fun of it, but she is definitely not good either as she will do and use whatever to serve her needs even to the detriment of herself if it serves a purpose. For her, her life is number one - if she can gamble with her own life, everyone else is fair game.

She feels like one those, if people left her alone, she would have been fine type deal. While she does have her nature, nurture definitely played a huge role in shaping her extreme character.

Her having some emotion makes her more interesting as a character. Sociopaths are not unemotional, they have feelings just very self-centered feelings.

Straight evil is boring.

It could be a mix of both relief and disappointment. Genuine relief that she didn't kill the grandma, and also disappointment in his belief that he knew her best...he is quite a complex character himself as well, his feelings for Ah Jin are as toxic and quite contradictory. He also needs tons of therapy.

The lifeline that she will use to escape the current situation. It honestly feels like life both loves and hates her. When she is starting to feel genuine things, she gets punished by the hope being taken away and huge reality check BUT when she goes full on survival mode "Me, myself and I", it just hands her a new deck of cards for her fulfillment....When she's good, things don't seem to go her away, in fact, they seem to get worse. Classic stick vs carrot here. From day 1 in her life, she was being molded into a villain. Someone said here that had she been a "normal" child she would not have survived her parents and it's true. Being the good child would have had her used and abused until her dying breath.

I saw it as a mutually destructive act, she was actually hurting herself by completely decimating what was left of the first good thing she had. This was an emotional act that came from guilt/anger at herself if not for the causing the string of events that led to the grandma's death, but at least for clinging to the hope that she could be happy when grandma accepted her - only for life to remind her that certain things were not for her. It was likely a mix of anger and guilt that triggered her self-destructive tendencies which made her implode the relationship like that. As she said, she was completely honest for the first time in her life and look what happened. I believe her when she told the grandma that she fell in "love" with In Gang (although I think his grandma was a huge part of that love), it was going to be their secret, she could continue being happy...only for the rug to get yanked in the next moment.

Girl's not looking for a relationship, she's looking for power.

Even when she attempts to trust someone, to maybe think she could be happy too, it really feels like life won't give her a break at all and snatches back the little hope she found

Abuse is one thing, a father actively recruiting clients trying to sell his daughter from such a young age is another level of evil

Yeah the ML's also quite manipulative, it really showed his hypocritical side with the relationship with In Gang. The fact that she could be happy with someone else or perhaps the reality of it maybe never occurred to him and when faced with it, he started acting out wanting to pull her back to his side. Had things not gone south and she had continued to be with In Gang, I wonder if he would have come to accept it or gotten worse. Also when he found out she didn't kill the grandma, it was almost as if some part of him wanted her to have done it, because if she had done it, that's one more thing he had done for her, one more thing he had "protected" her from.

I know right, I was holding out till it was complete, I somehow thought it would be complete this week so thought it'd be done by the time I catch up...I caught up in a night 😅

I think the same, it genuinely looked like she was happy and her reluctance to part with him even after she got what she wanted showed that just maybe it could have worked - but then that happened and in Ah Jin's mind it was as if life was reminding her that certain things were not for her. I also think there was some guilt or at least anger towards herself for setting up the chain of events that led to the grandma's death, and I think that on top of everything is what triggered her self-destructive tendencies which made her implode her relationship with In Gang like that...

Binged in a night, it's not everyday such an interestingly complex characters like this shows up, especially in an FL. I legit think she was happy with In Gang, his grandma and all, it was interesting to see Yun Seo showing his own toxic traits trying to muddle the waters to pull her back to him. It was stark difference from the other guy who was felt bad for acknowledging that she only calls when she's in trouble and was genuinely torn between wanting her happy, but also wanting her to need him so she calls him (which inadvertently means that things are going bad for her)...and then she went and attracted an even crazier one

I mean she was not actually aiming to destroy In Gang, just use him, shit just happened that made it go out of control. Like even she didn't anticipate it going so off the rocks like that...so it's more 'manipulate to use' than destroy

Yep that's from the novel

It doesn't seem like the show is going that path...In the novel, the last breakup happens because JBZ married Princess Tianyi while hiding it from Ming Yi - actively deceived her and got everyone around her hiding this fact from her for quite a while. The reason he married Tianyi was because her father (Jingxi Emperor who's dead in the drama) would not give JBZ permission to lead the troops without the marriage, so JBZ not thinking marriage was a big deal agreed and married Tianyi, it was only during the wedding that he started to feel that it wasn't right to do it but he still continued. His plan was to divorce Tianyi after the war was over and then explain to Ming Yi (?)...Ming Yi only found out later, after the war was over and JBZ was successfully crowned as Emperor of the six realm, naturally everyone around them was going on about Ming Yi would be his Empress and when she was just getting excited about it, Princess Tianyi to shows up, publicly insults Ming Yi calling her a mistesss who did not know her place and such, slaps Ming Yi, basically pours ice-cold water over Ming Yi....after this Ming Yi lost interest in the relationship and decided to simply have a subject and ruler relationship with him, she went back to Yaoguang mountain where she was now the governing ruler and continued governing her people, later announced she's getting herself a harem. All this time JBZ was pouting and also ignoring her because she ignored him feeling she was being unreasonable by treating him like that, after all he was now the Emperor - he did divorce Tianyi right after her encounter wih MY though, their marriage was always just for show - don't remember if he launched war against Jinxi after this, my dude was always looking for a fight, even almost begging people to revolt so he had a good reason to stretch his muscles. Anyway, it wasn't until he heard she got a harem that he knew pick himself up and go do something before he loses her - although at first he thought she was just doing it for his attention, it wasn't until she was actually going to sleep in the harem that he took it she was serious and so he began setting fires whenever she goes to sleep with her consorts trying hinder any encounter. Although she simply amassed 10 scholars and useful people in her harem, gave them official positions, she treated them well, and many probably truly fell for her, but while she slept with them, she was never intimate with them - Situ also joined her harem as well. There was 1 she gets particularly close to (other than Situ who she always treated like a brother), and honestly, if JBZ had left it alone, she probably would have truly moved on - she was dead serious about simply being his subject - what's worse than anger is disinterest - he had to work his ass off to get her interested again. After she lost interest in romance, she fully poured her whole herself into the benefit of the welfare of the people of the realm, thinking this life mission was most important, particularly in improving the lives of women. Quite a lot happens before they get back together and I don't think the drama's remaining 6 episodes will be enough.... also given how Tianyi is in the drama, I don't think they are going to do it.

I know right! I thought it would be all out by the time I caught up, was not expecting to binge it all in one go! 😭😭😭

Yep, she is! The plot around her identity is even thicker....involving Bo Ji Zai as well

He didn't seem to be a villain in the novel, although I only started reading from halfway - he remained a true ally for Ming Yi until the end, even standing in as her family when she gets married later, but the drama can be different - he's been giving tethering on the edge of evil descent vibes 😅

I know right, they had zero battle plan....imagine if Ming Yi wasn't there, how long could they have lasted? They wouldn't even have lasted at all without the umbrella shields, would have been an outright massacre....I'm hoping they know to be grateful in the show, because the novel future I read shows this Jingxin and Princess Tianyi in particular causing problems for them down the line.

Her sister is small fry compared to the real bad...I was surprised how little relevance her sister had in the whole story. They are not even sisters; she was some random girl on the street whose father was about to sell her off to pay his gambling debts, and she rescued her and took her home. Then the B***ch had the audacity to set fire to her village to murder her family and everyone in there just to please the mentally screwed up female antagonist to show she can do anything to rise up in the world. They were literally sacrificial offerings...