#aria roscente

[sioanna]

You're a peak manhwa fan if you...

1-Know that Rashta is a complex and well-written character who was also a victim. Yes, despite some of her terrible actions, she truly deserved better. She was enslaved, raped, abused, beaten, and starved. Meanwhile, Navier is a bland Mary Sue rather than the "girlboss" many fans claim she is, especially considering that she defends slavery and is friends with a slave owner.

2-Recognize that some relationships are not romantic, but are actually examples of Stockholm syndrome or abusive victim–abuser dynamics.

3-Believe that both Eckles and Penelope are complex characters who were both at fault. Penelope manipulated and used Eckles for her own benefit, while Eckles betrayed and harmed his own people. You're free to love or hate either of them, but don't blame only Eckles while completely excusing Penelope.

4-Don't defend a female lead simply because the story is told from her point of view. Sometimes the protagonist is bland, poorly written, or makes mistakes while shifting the blame onto others instead of taking responsibility.

5-Don't defend a male lead just because he's kind to the female lead. Pay attention to how he treats other women as well, and recognize when his behavior is problematic.

6-Hold parents accountable instead of blaming their children for the adults' actions or failures.

7-Don't hate the first woman simply because the female lead or the new love interest entered the story.

8-Don't hate side female characters just because they "steal the spotlight" from the female lead. Instead, you try to understand their perspective and motivations.

9-You understand how problematic some manhwas are, despite their popularity.

10-respect other manhwa fans and their opinions, even if they're unpopular or different from yours. You don't force your views on others and can agree to disagree, as long as they aren't supporting genuinely harmful things such as rapists, abusive victim × abuser ships, or pedophilia.

(just some examples of unpopular opinions)

[pruneunfair]

Mielle Roscente. A villainess punished for the wrong reasons.

How is Mielle still considered more sympathetic than Aria when we as an audience have been demanding for more protagonists who had to climb their way to the top instead of being born into greatness?

let's find out why that is.

This post is dedicated to @dearuntoldruby I know how much they love Mielle so they might like to see an essay dedicated to her :)

Personally, I never cared for Mielle as a person but I love her as a character, as a villainess lover, I do appreciate seeing an antagonist who was born into wealth for a change in comparison to the majority of white lotus villainesses who were all maids, poverty stricken, and enslaved, I like the idea of what Mielle is supposed to represent, the usual case of a perfect and dignified noble girl forced to share her presence with evil poor people that you would see in a lot of manhwa nowadays. She thinks that she is naturally better than Aria in every way merely because she is nobility and Aria is not and as a result, I initially had fun hating her because she reminded me of all of those tropes I disliked.

The villainess reverses the hourglass may feel like it's nothing special, but for its time, it was. The remarried empress recently popularized the idea of rooting for protagonists born into obscene amounts of wealth and what made it stand out as well as the former was making fun of old school rofan protagonists and the cheating trope, an idea that quickly turned sour after classism stared to be normalized within the manhwa community. You had female leads like Navier justifying slavery with excuses that boiled down to "It's for the greater good of the country" You had I am the queen in this life boiling poor people down into barbaric and hungry beasts that could be tamed like pets, then you had villains are destined to die accidently popularizing the idea of female leads buying men as slaves when it was originally intended as a moment that showed the reader that Penelope is just as capable of evil as everyone else in the Eckhart family.

So, you can imagine that this particular manhwa all about a closed off noble society as the main enemy against a girl whose prostitute mother married into this same society would do well in an era where everyone is tired of the same disturbing plot. Mielle being the main villainess in question of course would symbolize the entire rich FMC trope, so you'd think everyone would love to hate her, right?

Well, that was the case when this manhwa was still ongoing and popular, but nowadays, Mielle's fanbase has been slowly growing while the hatred for Aria has become more apparent. Why is Mielle gaining the sympathy of readers as of recently when she represents the classism we have come to despise in most modern manhwa.

Let's start off with something obvious.

1: She is easy to feel bad for

At first glance, the idea that you can feel bad for Mielle sounds laughable when she's a privileged noble who had everything handed to her on a silver platter, and it is very justifiable to think that way, sad backstories aren't an excuse for class discrimination but it's still important that we start at the root cause of Mielle's behavior within the context of the manhwa.

Mielle's mother died during childbirth but at the time no one was thinking about that because we only have about three to four panels tops of Countess Roscente and none of them reveal her actual face.

This gives the readers the idea that Countess Roscente mattered very little to the rest of the family. Her husband remarried to a prostitute, her son seemingly never thinks about her, and her daughter was only a few hours old when she passed away after complications during the birth. Mielle was already left without a proper mother figure, her father and brother may care for her, but Mielle is ultimately still a woman in a setting that has been established as rather sexist. The lack of a biological mother left Mielle with the next best thing, Emma, the maid her mother had hired for the role of taking care of her in the first place, a maid who also happened to be a fallen noble who had a miscarriage.

You have a naive noble girl trapped in a patriarchal society without a mother, and you have a fallen noble woman turned maid who never properly recovered from the trauma of losing her own baby, it's only natural they would stick by each other through thick and thin.

Of course, while this sounds like the setup to a beautiful found family story, it is anything but that. Emma did good by raising Mielle to be a refined young lady, but as a classist herself who was definitely not pleased with her new position in life, Emma projected that onto her surrogate daughter. She loved Mielle, and Mielle loved her too, but Emma's unresolved trauma over the loss of her friend and her child were pushed onto Mielle in the form of passive parenting.

Almost all small children experience the "Me Me Me!" phase since they aren't at the age where they can properly understand the concept of putting your feet in someone else's shoes, their outlook on life is simple, they don't understand why they can't have something when it's sitting right there in front of them and they are used to their parents tending to their every need, with proper discipline and boundaries put in place, children will outgrow this phase at age six at the oldest.

Emma clearly never put up such boundaries nor was discipline very regular, not only that, but she still enabled Mielle to graduate from a snobby rich girl to someone willing to MURDER the lower class if she finds their existence to be too "inconvenient" evidenced by the first life where Mielle baited Aria into acting out and escalating it to the point where Aria was tortured and eventually beheaded for her crimes she was set up to commit. Emma raised Mielle to have this overinflated ego as a mindset, to believe that she was better than 70% of the population because she was born with that sweet sweet divine right coursing through her veins. Mielle is capable of being respectful, but not towards those she finds unworthy of her respect, such as lower-class citizens. She'll be nice enough to coat her passive aggression in a sweet layer of honey but it's only the beginning to a long string of schemes and plots that will inevitably end with a few injured and a few others killed by a poisoned cup of tea.

But hey, we can't deny that they made the best mother-daughter villain duo of the manhwa scene.

2: It's hard to watch her suffer when you remember Aria's mental age and obvious plot armor

I'm going to try my best not to talk too much about Aria's character as that's something to discuss for another day.

By far the greatest flaw of the villainess reverses the hourglass is that it misses the point of its own story, that a certain surname or title does not guarantee that you are better than everyone else, the universe doesn't owe you magical time traveling powers just because you think that you're more important just because of the family you were born in. This manhwa throws that lesson out the window in favor of giving Aria a secret noble father with a higher rank than the Roscente's, and the disappointment doesn't end there.

It no longer feels satisfying to watch Aria enact her revenge when you realize that the only reason, she has the power to regress at all is because she has secret special blood from a noble father she didn't know about. Mielle, as despicable as she is, is still a teenager who never got to grow into an adult, Aria is mentally an adult thanks to her prior years being alive in the past, she is obviously going to be easily able to outsmart this little girl. This comic takes part in an infamous trope many manhwa and web novels have made fun of for years, the double standard of all double standards.

The cheating trope. A trope that claims that cheating on your fiancé is justifiable as long as the person you were engaged to is a massive bitch and the person you're cheating with is your "true love" Aria participates in this trope by taking advice from her mother to seduce Mielle's fiancé, Oscar.

Now, did Mielle actually love Oscar? Eh, I personally don't think either of them loved each other but that's still quite a scandal to get yourself into with your fiancé's stepsister. Even if the marriage is arranged and you just want to marry each other to seal some sort of deal or alliance, that's still something absolutely humiliating to put someone through.

(And let's be real, Mielle's imaginary wedding dress looks better than Aria's anyway)

And that's only ONE of the many steps of Aria's revenge that lead to Mielle being disgraced. The enjoyment of watching Mielle resort to more desperate and violent measures falters because it's all you're seeing every chapter dedicated to Mielle or her family, you inevitably get bored of watching everything slowly be taken away from this girl because she raises no stakes, she literally can't either because the only people who were helping her out are no longer in the picture, this was Mielle's weakness and it represents her struggles as a character.

With every adult practically failing her by either enabling her or brushing her off, Mielle couldn't think of anything successful herself, she had to rely on people like Emma and Isis as crutches to achieve her goals. The end goal of seeing Mielle forced to surrender her extravagant lifestyle in order to repent for her crimes as a maid just don't have the same feeling it could have had if Mielle wasn't constantly being pushed below Aria's level beforehand.

You don't get the satisfaction of watching Mielle fail because she failed so many times previously that you're just sitting there feeling bored, and you don't get the satisfaction of seeing the underdog win because that same underdog secretly had noble blood as the answer to explain why they were better than another noble.

And that's when it all started to make sense.

Mielle wasn't being punished because she was a classist, or because she was a criminal.

She was being punished because she was hostile towards Aria specifically, the female lead.

It wasn't about the classism; it was about protagonist centered morality. Had Mielle been on Aria's side, she'd probably would have still been allowed to be the same person she has always been, but now it's not a problem because she said she likes Aria.

Because why else would her final moments be spent on her wishing that she was nicer to Aria? As if the narrative itself wants to punish Mielle with an alternative timeline that presents her as a good person because she accepted Aria into her life with open arms, does accepting Aria somehow mean that Mielle would have stopped hating poor people out of nowhere? What if Mielle had a more reasonable reaction towards her new family members and was just nervous around them because they were strangers to her that were going to be living in her house? Yes, those visions of alternative timelines were just her delusions during her final minutes of life, it could easily symbolize that Mielle missed the point and still didn't understand what made her a terrible person and Aria does remark that there was no way they could ever get along but it still starts to feel off when Aria was being hailed as a girl boss when she started acting similarly to Mielle during the later chapters of the story, she was just sorry for being mean to Aria specifically, and that's what we should be crying over

That is why everything about the moral lesson of the villainess reverses the hourglass falls apart, because ultimately, it wasn't Mielle's classism that was the problem, it was that she was classist towards the author's favorite character specifically.

And this is why many readers are starting to show sympathy and even prefer Mielle to Aria, because this story followed the same mistakes as every other story. That noble blood is needed is you want to be "special" at all, and that ultimately nothing else matters as long as the protagonist gives the okay.

And there we have it, the end of Mielle Roscente's story. Nothing mattered in the end because Aria's noble blood was the reason she had access to a magical time traveling hourglass and thus Mielle's beliefs were unintentionally proven to be "correct"

Goodbye Mielle, I would say rest in peace, but I don't think your soul would have been going up even after you pass on.

Bonuses!

1: I didn't know how to include this in the actual post, but I want to share it anyway because Mielle is looking gorgeous in that light purple dress. Say what you want about her, but in almost every scene she was in, she was taking the spotlight and I'm just gonna say it, it's because her fashion sense doesn't take away the immersion of the setting.

2: My previous heavily elaborate essays (There will be more in the future)

The mentality of Ariadne de Mare (I am the queen in this life)

The beauty of women and the simultaneous hatred for them (Also I am the queen in this life)

[azalearosa]

Sometimes I feel like people defending Rashta just because it is trending/popular because why people still don't understand why Eckles's writing is problematic, why Layla's victim blaming is wrong and why Mielle's classism deserves the harted and Aria is a victim of one (even if I extremely disklike like Aria)

[lonelyghost123]

World can not describe how beautiful this is . Like fuck. This was how I originally thought mielle looked liked before tye manhwa adaptation

[dyinggirldied]

Characters with the same name in manhwa

(Tumblr gets funky so i cannot enter their names below but from top to bottom is Penelope - Jeremy - Deon - Aria)

[problematic-character-tournament]

ROUND 1 — Match 112 of 138

Simon (Iron Lung)

Problematic because: "He was involved in the destruction of entire space station, killing at least 62 people (which in the world of Iron Lung, is about 6% of the human population). It's also heavily implied that he's murdered multiple other people, and one of his nicknames is "The Butcher"." Propaganda: "I love how nuanced Simon is. He's a deeply troubled and prone to violent outbursts, but at the same time he's relatively polite and genuinely apologetic about hurting people."

vs. Aria Roscente (The Villainess Turns the Hourglass)

Problematic because: "Geberally manipulate everyone around here to lead her to kill her enemies and make her reach a different status" Propaganda: "She never hide that what she does is reprehensible and even if she have some kind of plot armor I just love to see her win"

Who should advance?

Simon

Aria Roscente

Voting ended onJun 22

(Disclaimer: All text above was sent in by submitters and not written by OP.)

[lxdymoon0357]

Hey, first of all, you're an absolute gift for single handedly fighting the fanfic drought in the villainess reverses the hourglass fandom. I read all your fics about it and I'm not even a Lohan fan lol. I was hoping to request Karin (platonically) with a reader who's her stepdaughter like mielle but they actually have a good relationship. Before Karin's wedding, her and reader have a conversation and reader tells Karin that when she thinks of a mother, she thinks of her and it's a cute found family moment. And it's my first time requesting so if it's too vague or too detailed or anything please lmk!

(Oh m god, thank you so much!! This made my entire week, for a thank you, take this post extra early and extra nice. I worked hard. See? This is what you guys can get if you give me compliments, yes i'm an attention whore. No, I do not care.|| found family troupe? You're Mielle's sister too. Fem! Reader. ALSO FIRST POST OF 2025)

© Writing belongs to me, Lxdymoon0357. Do not plagiarize, but reblogging, liking and commenting is deeply appreciated.

Mum's bonus princess

Carin would be running around usually, doing something with Aria or something. But right now, she was being fitted for her wedding dress, so she was busy to do anything. Admiring the way the lace was being fitted, Carin wouldn't mind saying she was highly privileged to somehow get here and give her darling daughter Aria this sort of life.

But her mind did stray to her current husband's three children he had with his previous wife; Cain, the eldest son, Mielle, the daughter who was sort of stand-offish to her but still civil and bubbly, and finally you, Y/N..Possibly the favourite of your entire family, adored by your brother, Mielle, maids and your father.

She hoped you wouldn't be offended by Aria and her coming to your house. She knew the ideas of nobles had about commoners, especially ones like her who seemed prettier than most; you're either heavily blessed by gods and somehow luckier in life, or you're unluckier than most..

For someone like her, who has a child, it was the latter for her. Most people would simply blame her for being involved with a man, as if she was a seductress with her figure and beauty.

But Carin worked hard to give her daughter the life she wanted, and she hoped she could enjoy this life and her stepchildren would be civil with her.

Finally being done, Carin was walking out to the garden when she saw you giggling gently in Mielle's arms at the table with your father and brother, Mielle softly blowing raspberries on your cheek as you giggled, your hands dug into her straight and soft blonde hair and her fluffy collar-ed dress, while Aria watched from aside, as your eyes glanced at Carin before they were again brought back by Mielle on her face.

She immediately felt saddened, hoping maybe this situation might fix as she walked to Aria, patting her back, who kept watching Mielle play with you on her lap and in her arms.

"Why don't you play with them?" Carin gently asked, as you let out a particularly loud laugh as Mielle giggled, holding you close to her, as Aria looked down, "..Mielle doesn't want me near Y/N.." she said huffing as Carin sighed, her eyes falling on her husband.

Her husband looked at her, as she motioned with her eyes to make his children include her girl to as he shrugged, "Mielle, why don't you and Aria talk? You're two the same age and who knows you might find something in common?", he said as Miellee turne to Aria, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as your brother took you in his arms as you giggled, patting Cain's face, as you turned to your father with a giggle and the new mum.

Mielle moved beside to sit with Aria, of-course very standoff-ish and unapproachable but Carin motioned for Aria to try to make conversation and they got a bit dry conversation going which did make Carin smile as she sat down at the table, her eyes turning to you giggling and playing in your brother's lap as your brother and father watched you lovingly.

She got to know everyone, except you, but it was simple to say Carin was nervous. You were the literal baby of the family and possibly everything ran around your finger, she did not even get to talk to in public like this due to her own nervousness.

If you did not like her, you could end this entire marriage within seconds, so hopefully she begged that Mielle wasn't feeding you ideas that she was trying to replace your mum.

Of-course you slid out of your father's lap and waddled back to Mielle, you adored her more than anything, being so young..you had Mielle around your fingers too, Mielle only smiled, picking you up and placing you on her lap as she continued to converse with Aria about fashion trends going on in social circles.

"And baroness Herovi-"Hovii" you copied Mielle as she giggled, "Oh? You want to join elder girls now, do you?" she gently kissed your cheek as you squealed in happiness, pulling gently on her hair as Emma smiled, gently patting your back as you kissed Mielle's cheek, making her smile, Aria stood aside, smiling a bit outcasted, but happy at your cuteness as well.

"Ri'.." you softly giggled, turning to Aria and catching her eyes, her hair was wavy, bouncy, not like Mielle's and you wanted to touch it as Emma held you back, making you pout and whine to remove your grip and touch Aria's hair.

but Emma kept a tight hold, she'd rather die than let her late lady' darling child interact with a commoner..

But seeing your distress, Mielle sighed, you were stubborn, no idea who you got it from, and she loved you..she promised herself and her mother to support you in whatever you wanted and supposedly, right not, you wanted to touch Aria's hair, so she swatted and removed Emma's hand from your tin, chubby wrist,

"Let them be, Emma" Mielle said, almost upset as Emma surprisingly stepped back as Aria gently waved to you as you reached out to her, Mielle didn't want to hand you over.

She loved keeping you on her lap, but as she turned, she saw her father motioning for her to let you bond with your stepsister..So she sighed,

"Keep your hands steady on my sibling, better not drop them"

Mielle hissed to Aria, who nodded nervously and held out her hands as you giggle and stayed in her arms, almost her size since Aria was such a small girl, despite being Mielle's age.

You gently dug your hand into Aria's hair and giggle, holding it up as if to show it to Mielle, who had arms crossed but nodded with a smile, "Yes..her hair is blonde, like mine" she smiled, gently rubbing your back while you were in Aria's arms.

Carin smiled, atleast Ari was being included, that's all that mattered to her. You spent a while in Aria's arms, babbling about everything and anything, which made no sense.

You were talkative, Carin and Aria learned.. After a while, Mielle again took you back into her arms, since that was more than enough for Aria's first time with you, as you giggle, holding onto Mielle's lacy collar as she gave you biscuits and broke them smaller for you to grab easily and not choke,

"Chew gently, okay?" she said, lovingly as she gave you a piece in your tiny fist.

The day spent, hour and Mielle, Aria and Cian had to leave for some lessons, leaving you giggling on you father's lap, as Carin watched with a smile,

as you gently turned to her, finally spotting her in awhile. You thought she was a bit scary, like evil stepmum from Cinderella but she got your gifts sometimes and Mielle liked her, so you were scared..but accepting her, somewhat.

You kept eyeing her, looking at her. She was so pretty, but was she nice?? Like Mielle or Cain or your father? Will she make you work in rags for Aria???

You couldn't tell, but you unconsciously reached to her, making your father and Carin freeze up in slight surprise before your father motioned Carin to take you, a bit upset she was leaving you waiting.

Carin immediately took you closer, holding you on her lap like she used to for Aria, your hands fiddling with her fan as you held onto the purple lace of her dress, while Carin smiled,

"So..Are you ready for your new mum yet?" your father asked as you turned to him and your cheeks formed a pout,

"No! I won't wash dishes in rag clothes!", "...What?"

you huffed, turning your head and flopping backwards causing Carin to hold you, why do children act like jelly when annoyed?!

"...Sweetheart, again..What did you say?" your father asked as Carin sat there, exasperated, already catching up to what you meant, "I won't be washing dishes and clothes in rag clothes with evil stepmum like Cinderella!" you huffed, crossing your arms.

Your father almost laugh but only chuckled and gently rubbed your back,

"no, it's okay. Your new mum will not make you work in rag clothes. She's just a new mum",

"like shopping bags?", "No-", "like dolls?!" you asked excitedly.

That made Carin hide her face behind her fan while your father awkwardly apologized to Carin, who brushed it off with a 'it's okay'.

"No, a mum", "muma?" you asked turning to Carin who gently pulled her fan down and nodded, "yes. I'll be a new mum and I won't be evil, promise" she assured you, making you uncross your arms and tilt your head.

"So...No cinders for me? No Cindered.....no CinderY/N?" you asked curiously making her smile and shake her head, "you don't have to be covered in cinders." she assured, as you giggled,

"Okay..New mum is amazing!!" you said excitedly, "Alright, time to sleep" your father said as Carin hugged you one last time because you wanted it and ran off to your father where your father took you away to put to bed.

Atleast Carin wasn't dying to call you CinderY/N or make you clean in rags..Mielle wouldn't ever allow it, but a bonus princess was nice. Especially if she was like you, preferably you.

[manhwafashionappreciationblog]

Manhwa: The villainess reverses the hourglass

Characters: Aria Roscente

Chapters: 40 & 41