Title: They Say I Was Born a King's Daughter Other Titles: Author: Bi Chu, Legna Kim
Main Character: Suhee Kim / Sanghee Kim Gender: Female Cheat: knowledge from her past life Transport: Death (Murder via stabbing by a jealous lover)
Summary: Suhee Kim is an inadvertent flirt of sorts, managing to attract the interest of all sorts of men who want to impress her despite her not trying and not even being interested. One day, however, this backfires on her as a would-be suitor, dismayed at her lack of interested and even being engaged, kills her in a sudden attack on the street. Suhee thinks that's it... only to find herself reincarnated as a baby in an entirely different life. Yet it's far from good news, as she finds herself in a world where women are viewed about as well as dirt... even if they're royalty. Now born as Sanghee Kim, she makes the decision to turn her circumstances around for not only herself, but all women- a plan that could potentially take a lifetime.
Pros: "Soft" Power, Politics and Jackasses, Strong Protagonist, Potential Older Gay Rep, Intersection of Vulnerability, Underdog, Humor
Not too long ago, I watched an interesting video that went into a concept South Korea had called "soft power". It was particularly in context of their makeup industry, which was both making a name for itself and being smuggled into its northern neighbor. Lacking the ability to be an overwhelming military powerhouse, such as the U.S.A., it was instead appealing itself to the world at large with its image of fun K-pop bands and appealing products. That was the "soft" power in contrast to the more military "hard" power. It's the power of influencing people's opinions and desires.
It's not surprising that this series, which is also from South Korea, seems to also reference this sort of power in its MC's tactics. While she is royalty in her own right with this new life of hers, she's at the very bottom of the pecking order. It's a new life, but it's a life without any meaning to those in charge. She has no magical ability, which dominates everything in this foreign society, and no magical ability means no martial talent... not that she has any knowledge of that, with her past life having been that of a normal civilian woman in South Korea. She could use her smarts but, because she's "only a woman", it takes work to even get it recognized at all, and her work could get stolen from her by unconvinced men trying to steal that fame for themselves. The MC, at the start of this story, has no other allies. Even those who are already inclined to her, such as her mother and her maid, feel beholden to the "rules" of this world.
So the MC uses the one thing that's left available to her: her personality and ability to read emotions. She immediately addresses that her main issue is that she has no allies, so she has to make some. If she's going to make allies, why not make allies of the most powerful people around? So we get to see the MC completely adjust her persona in front of literally any men, showering them with what seems like unconditional affection and attention. That might not seem like much in our reality, but in this setting where women can't even make eye contact for fear of retaliation? It's a rare commodity and one which really seems to affect her immediate male family members. That makes them more interested in the MC, because they're getting that rare emotional feedback, which in turn allows the MC to influence them. It's slow going, long and frustrating for our MC, but every little change is noteworthy because of it. Her journey is equal parts infuriating and validating.
In some ways, it's almost a power fantasy in its own right, if different from the typical male-dominated stories in the genre. It's a power fantasy that, even when things are at their very lowest, even if one is entirely alone, something could still be done. It's very ultimately an underdog sort of power fantasy.
Yet while the MC is doing her best to manipulate people's perceptions of her, as tiring and lonely a task as this is, she's still only human in the end. The men around her are also only human despite their magical, physical, and political power... which means they're often weird in ways that only people can be. Our MC can often read the guys around her like a book, but sometimes they do things that are outright bizarre to her. She's not a mindreader, after all. Add onto this that there are politics going on over her head that she's nowhere near privy to...
In other words, it all makes for some interesting and honestly hilarious political nonsense. Other people in this setting, men and women included, can't easily conceive of these high ranking men of royalty just... genuinely liking a girl or woman (even if her actions towards them aren't as genuine themselves). This leads to a lot of bizarre ideas that go through other characters' heads, from the government to the court to even outside of the kingdom. It's like a game of telephone, only no one is communicating, and everyone else is making wild ass guesses.
Only two men seem to understand the genuine feelings that are being directed towards the MC, warped in this bizarre culture as they can be, and I find it interesting who those two men are in the story. One is her oldest brother who lacks magic power unlike most men and has essentially been made a political hostage of a neighboring country. The other is the MC's elderly tutor, both coded and in-universe rumored to be gay. It hasn't been gone into deeply yet, as of my reading, but I do find it to be very interesting that the two men who are actually unconditionally fond of the MC and understand the more secretive emotions directed towards her are both... unconventional men, in the setting of the series.
I'm not going to lie, if this sounds like a lot, that's because it is. The misogyny in this series' universe can be pretty heavy, especially in our current political climate. The trials the MC has to struggle through can feel exhausting. Fortunately, like many of the good series I recommend here in this list, it manages to help ease off the burden by including breathers and humor inbetween the distressing or dramatic moments. A lot of it is enjoying the MC's spiteful determination, and her secret true feelings, both things which she demonstrates fairly early on in her new life. The image above is a good example of that, taken from a scene where she meets her father. She already has nothing but disdain for the man, yet she still has to put on a good cute adoring baby show. That doesn't mean she still won't try to cuss him out with "asshole" or "scumbag", however... words only made intelligible because she's a baby who doesn't have the proper vocal chords for it. Moments like those can feel like hilarious "The Office" moments, secret in-jokes between the reader and our MC as we mock the jackasses she's taking advantage of.
It's not only the MC who's funny, however. A lot of the male characters migh be people we'd love to see either change or get their just desserts or both... but they practically live on a different planet with how bizarre their logic or lack of communication can be. That can lead to hilarious exchanges like below:
"Punch me." "But I don't want to hurt you!" "It's fine, I have a six pack."
It really makes you wonder, inbetween the laughter and snickering, just what kind of moon logic is being followed here.
Cons: Romance, Queer Subjects
These are a little more complicated than outright cons to the series, but I do think they bear mentioning, especially as a recommendation of the series.
The first thing is the romance angle. Our MC is engaged at an extremely young age for her new life (even if her mind/spirit is that of a woman), although not expected to marry for many years, and her fiance is a teenager. It's essentially a political marriage... or it would be, if her new fiance didn't ~mysteriously~ look like the fiance she had in her past life whom she loved. Thus, there's some tension that happens between them. Again, she has the body of a young child, so it can possibly be strange for other people to see this happening, so I'll leave it to others if this is something they can deal with or gloss over. On the bright side, the series does seem aware of the situation, and nothing really happens between the two while she's still a pre-adolescent child. It even seems to poke fun at her fiance, where he and even his friend wonder what the hell is up with him over a little kid he saw once. A lot of his interactions with her at this point are just tension between both of them, and him being confused and lashing out as a result.
Secondly, this isn't a con so much as this is an intense interest on my end, but I'm left wondering how this particular misogynistic society handles queer individuals, both in sexuality and gender. Men having romantic feelings for each other doesn't seem to be too much of a taboo, with one character declaring himself a rival and the above-mentioned elderly character rumored (but not in an unkind way) to be gay... but the series has yet to go into depth on this subject matter, or any others. I'm really dying to know exactly why gay men wouldn't be seen as an issue, or romances between women. I'm especially interested in what this sort of setting would mean for trans and nonbinary characters.
That would mean subjecting them to a shitty world... but if we're already seeing a simple straight cis woman going through hell, then that leaves me personally in a more prepared mindspace for other things. I can't stop thinking about it when considering the setting as it is. I would really like to see it handled, and handled well. Considering that it hasn't treated its elderly gay character too badly, I have tentative hopes on that front.
General Warnings: hardcore misogyny, emotional abuse, bullying, rape culture, attempted sexual harassment
Slavery: Yes - And not the "sexy" kind by any means Fanservice: 1 - Despite the misogyny of the setting, sexualization via forced fanservice outfits is not one of them Harem: No
They Say I Was Born A King's Daughter
Title: They Say I Was Born a King's Daughter
Other Titles:
Author: Bi Chu, Legna Kim
Main Character: Suhee Kim / Sanghee Kim
Gender: Female
Cheat: knowledge from her past life
Transport: Death (Murder via stabbing by a jealous lover)
Summary: Suhee Kim is an inadvertent flirt of sorts, managing to attract the interest of all sorts of men who want to impress her despite her not trying and not even being interested. One day, however, this backfires on her as a would-be suitor, dismayed at her lack of interested and even being engaged, kills her in a sudden attack on the street. Suhee thinks that's it... only to find herself reincarnated as a baby in an entirely different life. Yet it's far from good news, as she finds herself in a world where women are viewed about as well as dirt... even if they're royalty. Now born as Sanghee Kim, she makes the decision to turn her circumstances around for not only herself, but all women- a plan that could potentially take a lifetime.
Pros: "Soft" Power, Politics and Jackasses, Strong Protagonist, Potential Older Gay Rep, Intersection of Vulnerability, Underdog, Humor
Not too long ago, I watched an interesting video that went into a concept South Korea had called "soft power". It was particularly in context of their makeup industry, which was both making a name for itself and being smuggled into its northern neighbor. Lacking the ability to be an overwhelming military powerhouse, such as the U.S.A., it was instead appealing itself to the world at large with its image of fun K-pop bands and appealing products. That was the "soft" power in contrast to the more military "hard" power. It's the power of influencing people's opinions and desires.
It's not surprising that this series, which is also from South Korea, seems to also reference this sort of power in its MC's tactics. While she is royalty in her own right with this new life of hers, she's at the very bottom of the pecking order. It's a new life, but it's a life without any meaning to those in charge. She has no magical ability, which dominates everything in this foreign society, and no magical ability means no martial talent... not that she has any knowledge of that, with her past life having been that of a normal civilian woman in South Korea. She could use her smarts but, because she's "only a woman", it takes work to even get it recognized at all, and her work could get stolen from her by unconvinced men trying to steal that fame for themselves. The MC, at the start of this story, has no other allies. Even those who are already inclined to her, such as her mother and her maid, feel beholden to the "rules" of this world.
So the MC uses the one thing that's left available to her: her personality and ability to read emotions. She immediately addresses that her main issue is that she has no allies, so she has to make some. If she's going to make allies, why not make allies of the most powerful people around? So we get to see the MC completely adjust her persona in front of literally any men, showering them with what seems like unconditional affection and attention. That might not seem like much in our reality, but in this setting where women can't even make eye contact for fear of retaliation? It's a rare commodity and one which really seems to affect her immediate male family members. That makes them more interested in the MC, because they're getting that rare emotional feedback, which in turn allows the MC to influence them. It's slow going, long and frustrating for our MC, but every little change is noteworthy because of it. Her journey is equal parts infuriating and validating.
In some ways, it's almost a power fantasy in its own right, if different from the typical male-dominated stories in the genre. It's a power fantasy that, even when things are at their very lowest, even if one is entirely alone, something could still be done. It's very ultimately an underdog sort of power fantasy.
Yet while the MC is doing her best to manipulate people's perceptions of her, as tiring and lonely a task as this is, she's still only human in the end. The men around her are also only human despite their magical, physical, and political power... which means they're often weird in ways that only people can be. Our MC can often read the guys around her like a book, but sometimes they do things that are outright bizarre to her. She's not a mindreader, after all. Add onto this that there are politics going on over her head that she's nowhere near privy to...
In other words, it all makes for some interesting and honestly hilarious political nonsense. Other people in this setting, men and women included, can't easily conceive of these high ranking men of royalty just... genuinely liking a girl or woman (even if her actions towards them aren't as genuine themselves). This leads to a lot of bizarre ideas that go through other characters' heads, from the government to the court to even outside of the kingdom. It's like a game of telephone, only no one is communicating, and everyone else is making wild ass guesses.
Only two men seem to understand the genuine feelings that are being directed towards the MC, warped in this bizarre culture as they can be, and I find it interesting who those two men are in the story. One is her oldest brother who lacks magic power unlike most men and has essentially been made a political hostage of a neighboring country. The other is the MC's elderly tutor, both coded and in-universe rumored to be gay. It hasn't been gone into deeply yet, as of my reading, but I do find it to be very interesting that the two men who are actually unconditionally fond of the MC and understand the more secretive emotions directed towards her are both... unconventional men, in the setting of the series.
I'm not going to lie, if this sounds like a lot, that's because it is. The misogyny in this series' universe can be pretty heavy, especially in our current political climate. The trials the MC has to struggle through can feel exhausting. Fortunately, like many of the good series I recommend here in this list, it manages to help ease off the burden by including breathers and humor inbetween the distressing or dramatic moments. A lot of it is enjoying the MC's spiteful determination, and her secret true feelings, both things which she demonstrates fairly early on in her new life. The image above is a good example of that, taken from a scene where she meets her father. She already has nothing but disdain for the man, yet she still has to put on a good cute adoring baby show. That doesn't mean she still won't try to cuss him out with "asshole" or "scumbag", however... words only made intelligible because she's a baby who doesn't have the proper vocal chords for it. Moments like those can feel like hilarious "The Office" moments, secret in-jokes between the reader and our MC as we mock the jackasses she's taking advantage of.
It's not only the MC who's funny, however. A lot of the male characters migh be people we'd love to see either change or get their just desserts or both... but they practically live on a different planet with how bizarre their logic or lack of communication can be. That can lead to hilarious exchanges like below:
"Punch me."
"But I don't want to hurt you!"
"It's fine, I have a six pack."
It really makes you wonder, inbetween the laughter and snickering, just what kind of moon logic is being followed here.
Cons: Romance, Queer Subjects
These are a little more complicated than outright cons to the series, but I do think they bear mentioning, especially as a recommendation of the series.
The first thing is the romance angle. Our MC is engaged at an extremely young age for her new life (even if her mind/spirit is that of a woman), although not expected to marry for many years, and her fiance is a teenager. It's essentially a political marriage... or it would be, if her new fiance didn't ~mysteriously~ look like the fiance she had in her past life whom she loved. Thus, there's some tension that happens between them. Again, she has the body of a young child, so it can possibly be strange for other people to see this happening, so I'll leave it to others if this is something they can deal with or gloss over. On the bright side, the series does seem aware of the situation, and nothing really happens between the two while she's still a pre-adolescent child. It even seems to poke fun at her fiance, where he and even his friend wonder what the hell is up with him over a little kid he saw once. A lot of his interactions with her at this point are just tension between both of them, and him being confused and lashing out as a result.
Secondly, this isn't a con so much as this is an intense interest on my end, but I'm left wondering how this particular misogynistic society handles queer individuals, both in sexuality and gender. Men having romantic feelings for each other doesn't seem to be too much of a taboo, with one character declaring himself a rival and the above-mentioned elderly character rumored (but not in an unkind way) to be gay... but the series has yet to go into depth on this subject matter, or any others. I'm really dying to know exactly why gay men wouldn't be seen as an issue, or romances between women. I'm especially interested in what this sort of setting would mean for trans and nonbinary characters.
That would mean subjecting them to a shitty world... but if we're already seeing a simple straight cis woman going through hell, then that leaves me personally in a more prepared mindspace for other things. I can't stop thinking about it when considering the setting as it is. I would really like to see it handled, and handled well. Considering that it hasn't treated its elderly gay character too badly, I have tentative hopes on that front.
General Warnings: hardcore misogyny, emotional abuse, bullying, rape culture, attempted sexual harassment
Slavery: Yes - And not the "sexy" kind by any means
Fanservice: 1 - Despite the misogyny of the setting, sexualization via forced fanservice outfits is not one of them
Harem: No