Call me Atlas

Absolving responsibility and emotionally gaslighting your reader base

(‼️Spoilers for Book 2‼️)

1.) At that time Thalia was the only child between her and the Emperor which means in the event of her husband's death, Thalia would be her only horse in the running for the crown. Had Senevier already been pregnant with Arthros, there would be no guarantee he would survive to the age of 18. 30 % of infants died before their first birthday, and a further 20% would never reach adulthood. In a world where a woman gives birth to 23 children and 16 died, the spare held much more importance than one would assume. Should the spare turn into the heir, then you wouldn't want the next ruler of the Empire against you.

2.) For a woman in the medieval world their children are what gives them power. The life expectancy of kings is not high, he could meet an early end because of illness, die in a military campaign or become the victim in an assassination, which would make you a widow with the whole court turned against you. Or worse: one day your husband might grow bored of you and cheat on you like he had cheated on his previous wife. Once you have fallen out of his favour anything could happen to you. Divorce, exile, beheading. By losing your lover's interest you are also losing his protection and once you lose it, the countless enemies you have made will smell the blood in the water and enact revenge. It is important to have loyal children in respectable positions and clever marriage alliances who would support you and create a pushback, if necessary with their husband's army and the pope behind them.

3.) The abuse was lowering Thalia's value. As a potential heir, as a bride, as her brother's knight or her mother's pawn. Prolongued childhood abuse can lead to disabilities and mental issues. Who would support a histronic princess with anger managment issues over her angelic sister who is the very image of the late queen that everyone loved? Had the abuse continued, Thalia's beauty would have faded before it could bloom. Who would want to marry an ill-tempered ugly brat? Nobody wants a wife who has a bad personality and bad looks. Senevier could tie powerful allies to her, had she invested in Thalia's education and looks. A daughter is not worthless. A daughter means powerful marriage alliances. It means having a concealed weapon everyone will underestimate. She could have groomed her child into her tool, into an obedient, intelligent woman that would outwit, outplay, outcharm everyone to help her family reach the top. Like a lannister queen Senevier should have cared about the cohesion of the family. Imagine Thalia and Arthros inseparable, as close as the twins Gareth and Ayla. Arthros had confessed he had been longing for sibling love. Would Senevier rather the future king started looking somewhere else to fill that hole? Would she want someone outside of her family who would take advantage of such longing and through this connection gain power over the future king?

4.) It's bad PR. If Thalia looks malnutrited and ill, Senevier cannot play the good queen caring for her happy daughter. The image they made would not look like a picture perfect family. Especially when Thalia was still small and cute, Senevier should have milked that situation for what it's worth.

Alternatively she could have played the caring mother doting on her sickly daughter. The royal children lost their mother, and she, a mother might lose her child to a mysterious illness. She would compete with her stepchildren for the sympathy of the public and steal their spotlight with her dramatic act. Since the child mortality rate is high, the tragedy of the new queen would feel personal and relateable to the commoners who went through the same. The people would hold back with their criticism of the affair and remarriage and instead would try to make mother and child (who will die anyway they think) feel more welcome.

Then when Senevier feels like the story was getting old and she had profited enough off it, she could have made a public reveal of the servant's abuse and pretended like she was also a victim and garner sympathy. People are always weak to the suffering of a beautiful child. It would also give her an excuse to replace the servants who were loyal to the old queen with servants who are loyal to her.

Kim Suji is just fucking JJK's Megumi.

A lot of fucking potential waste so many times, because when they write some things are really good but when they write another things (people who has read their novels know what I mean) is absolutely trash.

Their biggest sin is they forget they are writing a fucking ROFAN NOVEL, you know ROMANCE and FANTASY NOVEL. They try to write reality just to

1. Fill their ego. As "Look I am the only one who writes dark and deep novels, I am depicting the reality of medieval times"

When their novels aren't that deep and just uncomfortable. If people want to read reality, they just read a Biography of past royals.

2. Cause Shock. Those SA and the ambiguity of some are just there to make people talk about the novel, after all bad propaganda is still propaganda and people will go to see if it is so bad as they say.

I genuinely think Kim Suji can write, because there are moments where they can put emotions in their text very well and do it in a simple and easy to read way, nevertheless Kim Suji decides not to do it. Without mention after the fiasco is Under the Oak tree Goodreads reviews you would think they would have learned but no.

I mean why would they? Under the Oak tree for some reason is still recommended as one of the best Manhwa and novels, with excellent numbers and a fandom that defends UTOT as it is the Bible.

Now with Spoon being the artist for the forgotten meadow the story will repeat themself when we reach the point of "OMG Kim Suji did it again" and "No, no what are you saying? This is not SA, that's how it was in that time and she was pressure and he said the words"

Yeah because Kim Suji sometimes doesn't see men as men but as animals. Like what do you mean with "Say me to stop now because I won't stop after this" again Broo, what are they? Fucking Dogs in heat?

As I said before, Yes, it was SA. Yeah Thalia was pressured in her fragile stage of mind but still she did it and used her power and her higher rank on him, saying he can't say no because it is his duty. Both of them were disgusted and traumatized by that, it was fucking messy first time that.... We don't talk again about that because they pretend nothing happened and they started fucking like rabbits. The only Good thing it was a few chapters and the story is not smutty before and after that.