pardon me, thankyou

Because My Dearest does portray an incredibly strong woman and portrays her journey and doesn't become all about her romance (it is a love story yes, but it is as much about her and ML as separate people, as well.)

Why?

Our FL is not girlboss from the start. By that I mean she gets to grow and change and is not thrust on screen all knowing and all powerful. She starts out as a strong willed but sheltered lady living in a small village and not one with some amazing unique special skills - yes, she's smart and a survivor and strong willed but it's not like she has a cheat like time travel or some unique knowledge of blah or epic battle skills from who knows where or w/e.

And that leads me to the fact that she is BELIEVABLE as a person who could exist - she's smart and strong but she's not a genius never seen, a uniquely skilled warrior, someone with a hidden destiny or something. She is a smart strong period noblewoman.

Which leads me to she is a period woman! She does not feel like she dropped from the 21st century full of 21st century attitudes. She is unusual for the period but in a believable fashion (she, for example, decides that no despite the strict moral code that says a woman even touched by an invader on the hem should kill herself, she won't. She will not kill herself whatever happens.) But she's not out there advocating for democracy, chanting slogans for gender equality, or denouncing the class system. She is an 18th century woman!

There are failures and mistakes. She fails at things repeatedly and makes mistakes repeatedly - watching her survive, watching her pick herself up and learn, makes her not just relatable, it makes for a good narrative that is not flat.

There are stakes. The setting itself is a huge deal - it's during the invasion during King Injo's reign so she is often under danger of starvation, death, assault, and god knows what else. But there are also stakes for her on a more concrete level - because she is not OP, because she does not win easily, you worry for her (and sometimes she loses, she loses horrifically) - you do not know if she will overcome and that makes you sit on the edge of your seat instead of not caring.

She loves people, she hates people, she hurts and gets hurt. But also, the narrative understands no man is an island so yes ML saves her more than once (and she saves him too!) and there is zero speechifying.

Ultimately, she feels real, she struggles, she changes, she grows. She is complex and real.

And girlbosses of these tween fantasy narratives never are.