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  Julyfire

  72/100
  Is Roxana the New Exemplary Villainess Protagonist We've Been Looking For? Not Quite.

  CAUTION: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

  There's a lot of villainess isekai out there -- it's quickly becoming the new trendy thing people want to jump on board for, as there's a real limit on how many roles you can isekai the main character into. Why be a hero if you can be a side character, an extra who didn't even exist in the first place, or even better, the villain of the entire story? People are tired of The Chosen One stories and want some novelty. People don't want some goody-two shoes who's destined to save the world. Now we want to see people who are supposed to be bad take the leading role, because it's so different and so unexpected. But is it really?

  A villain in one story may be just that, a villain, from the perspective of the reader, because the story is told through the hero's point of view. But if you flip the script, that villain is the hero of their own story. It really doesn't change much, does it now? It is all a matter of perspective. When we're in the hero's shoes, we hate the villain and love the hero. When we're in the villain's shoes, we hate the hero (or other villains) and love the former villain-to-be. No matter what role they had played in the original story they had isekai'd to, the main character won't follow the same script, because villains never have happy endings. They are either killed, executed, exiled, or subjected to some such other horrible fate. If the villain had gotten away scott-free in the first place, there wouldn't be a story to tell, would there? So if you think about it, an isekai'd villain only has a limited number of options on how they should proceed once they've realized they have not been regulated into the most desirable of roles that they could have possibly landed themselves with.

  One, the villain will reject the original path of villainy and turn over a new leaf. Fate is no longer predestined for them, and they will ultimately change the entire course of the story, undeniably giving them the "True Hero" status because there's absolutely nothing left of the old evil character whose body they took over. Indeed, the male lead will end up falling for the now-reformed villain, completely ignoring the former heroine of the story. This is the most common way people tend to write villainess stories, and the most uninspired, since just tagging someone as a villain when they're anything but is just fooling themselves, and nobody else. When you remove everything that made someone deemed to be "Evil," how can they be a villain? They're just that in name only, and even if the original character was a villain, the new route taken by the isekai'd protagonist will ultimately upend that entirely. They know what will happen to them if they commit any wrongdoings, and having already died once, they definitely don't want to die again anytime soon, if they can help it.

  Two, the villain will be selfish and just do whatever they please without any regard for consequences, which may mean they'll end up being judicious and/or charismatic enough to gather a group of admirers who will follow them like little ducklings, ready to serve and please their new master. Usually, these types of characters still end up being more heroic if anything, despite their denial of trying to steal the original hero's spotlight, and still invariably end up falling in the "Good" category. A great example of this is Cale Henituse from "The Trash of the Count's Family." From the reader's perspective, this type of character doesn't actively help others, but they're not simply going to abandon people who they can help, especially if it will benefit them in some way later on. They're driven by practicality and materialism, and this makes them the most unique of isekai'd villains, and much harder to pull off properly.

  And three, the villain will be focused on getting revenge, veering to the side of "Chaotic Neutral" or more likely, "Chaotic Evil". Usually, these types of villains don't have many redeeming qualities, and you're just going along with the crazy ride to see how dedicated they are in eliminating all their enemies, sometimes in the most horrific ways possible. Their goal isn't to be likeable, it's to entertain the reader with violence and brutality, because more often than not, the isekai'd protagonist will have a special new power, and combined with the advantage of already knowing about key future events, they're easily able to overwhelm their opponents with brute force and little strategy, if any. There's no real development to their character, and they rarely form any meaningful relationships with others, preferring to see them as disposable pawns for their chess game of vengeance. It's difficult to emphasize with these types of villains because their stories don't dwell long on how they've been wronged, so their excessive violence towards their foes doesn't seem entirely justified. The exception to this sort of villain would be Aria Roscente from "The Villainess Turns the Hourglass," which I personally love.

  Roxana Agriche of "The Way to Protect the Female Lead's Older Brother" falls squarely in the third category of isekai'd villainesses, and she and her story are amongst the most insane ones that I've read thus far. You almost immediately forget that she's an isekai'd character because she's completely merged into her new role, playing the despicably evil woman she is supposed to be. It's very unnerving to see, as I can't imagine someone who is not part of the original world acting so in tune with a person that was not them. Sure, you can say that she's experienced everything the original Roxana experienced, which then warped her to the point of no return, but I don't think it's possible to fall so completely in line with the entirety of it all. Yes, the whole Agriche family is batshit crazy, but she doesn't need to be, since she knows how badly it will end for them if they go on like this. Yet she follows their terrible ways almost entirely, the only exception being that she's secretly working on saving the prince of the other family to avoid a disastrous demise for herself.

  The webtoon tries very hard to paint her as intelligent, but seeing that she reincarnated into this body from when she was a baby, I honestly don't think she is all that smart. She didn't figure out any clever ways to thwart the dastardly schemes in her own family, and she let her supposedly beloved brother die, fully knowing it was going to happen, and not doing anything about it. She also didn't implement any measures to prevent the key event from happening, which is the capture of the successor of the rival family. If she had isekai'd into this body more recently (as in, not from the beginning of this character's life), I'd commend her, but as such, she seems like she didn't take full advantage of her precognition about the future. Her attempts to twist the actions of people around her are half-hearted, and more emphasis is placed on her poisoning herself and controlling the all-mighty OP poisonous butterflies. Her method of control involves overpowering her opponents with a special task force that cannot question nor disobey her, instead of goading the fickle emotions of humans to bend them to do her bidding.

  Granted, she has some great moments here and there, but I cannot classify her as a strong female protagonist, at least from what I've seen from her so far. There's a lot of missed opportunities, and she lacks real agency, which is why the initial pacing of the story is rather slow. She wanders from place to place, doing pointless things, and often passes out from poisoning herself. She doesn't let anyone else in on her dangerous plans that may very well kill her, preferring to work alone and in secret. I feel this is done to forcibly invoke sympathy from the readers, showing her at her most vulnerable, with no one to care for her, besides the prince of the enemy family, Cassis Pedelian, who conveniently has the power to detect poisons and heal her each time she's in mortal danger.

  Personally, I don't think that a character who is constantly and unpredictably fainting, for whatever reason, should be called "strong," because that's clearly the opposite quality trait, isn't it? It's always women who do this, regrettably perpetuated by all those television shows and movies where the ladies all pass out from shock upon hearing some bad news. I'm not saying that passing out automatically makes you weak, because even the strongest of people will faint, depending on their physiological and emotional state. It's just impossible to think of someone who can't ever be trusted to not fall flat on their face as strong, just like Aideen from "Aideen," and Roxana is no exception. This quickly regulates them to damsel-in-distress status, because their frail condition makes them more pitiable to both the reader and the male lead, who will swoop the unconscious girl up in his arms to make everything all better. The only instance in which I've seen constant fainting used ingeniously is with Aria from "The Villainess Turns the Hourglass," who carefully calculates the timing of when she should pass out for maximum effect to wreak havoc.

  The fainting spells are detrimental for Roxana's characterization, because instead of dealing with her near-lethal mithridatism alone like what a real villainess who cannot trust anybody would do, she seeks out Cassis to save her, making her irrevocably reliant on him from that point onwards. It's not even a calculated move on her part, she just ends up coincidentally passing out in front of him because she wandered to his room by mistake. While you could argue this humanizes her, I respectfully disagree. Showing the enemy who rightfully shouldn't be trusting of you your ultimate weakness this early on, without the proper lead-up to this very moment, is a grave misstep, and consequentially, Roxana is no longer of equal standing with her pretend pet. Ideally, their partnership should be near equal, or leaning towards her favor, so that she can stand on her own as the mastermind who will single-handedly orchestrate his brilliant escape, cementing her as his indispensable savior. But now, he can simply opt to not save her to make her do what he wants, instead of the other way around, because now he has a trump card to play against her. Yes, without Cassis's help, Cassis himself would have never been able to break free from the terrible labyrinthine Agriche fortress.

  Fortunately for Roxana, Cassis is a pure-hearted fool, and her mistake has no ill consequences, but it also has zero impact on the development of their budding relationship, either, which seems so wasteful, if you're going to make her unnecessarily trip up like that. The reason for the static nature of their alliance is that she hasn't opened up to him, and he hasn't reciprocated her goodwill with his own, so they're still just complete strangers who know next to nothing about each other. They're tied together with the same goal in mind, which is to ensure his successful escape from the Agriche household, but they have no emotional ties with each other whatsoever. It's hinting at a possible romance between the two, but no proper time is spent on focusing on their interactions with one another, outside of her coming to visit him for trivial or banal reasons, including for the obligatory poison purification. There's absolutely no reason for Cassis to spare her life when he rejoins his family, because she's still evil and part of the wicked Agriche family, and she hasn't shown him a different dimension to herself to persuade his own family otherwise.

  Roxana also hasn't demonstrated any real ability to manipulate people, other the stupid half-sister, which was actually done by proxy by her half-brother Jeremy. I suppose this is why she's failed to win the heart of the most important person to win over, Cassis, whose death was supposed to have been instrumental in bringing about the downfall of the Agriches in the original story. Saving his life isn't enough, because it wasn't done out of sheer goodwill, it was done for a purely selfish motive, and poorly at that, too. She puts on a cold and stoic facade in front of everyone, when ideally it should have been eased up for Cassis, letting him see through the cracks in her practiced image to have him know that she's not as irredeemable as her family members. When all's said and done, and Cassis has safely returned to his home territory, there's not much he can say to stay the hand of the vengeful Pedelians who will no doubt be thirsty for Agriche blood.

  Sure, he pities her, but is mere pity enough of a reason to let her live, when he knows she's done plenty of awful things herself? Can he really trust her to not turn for the worse, and become just as wicked as the rest of the Agriches? Is saying "She helped me escape!" enough to convince the Pedelians to not slay her for fear of her retribution? If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't think so. There's a Chinese idiom 「剪草除根」 which literally translates to "Cutting the grass, pulling out the roots," or more simply, eradicate everything to prevent a malevolent entity from taking root and doing harm once again. As a Pedelian, all Agriches are considered to be evil, and each and every one of them should be eliminated, with no exception or leniency. Roxana herself has proven to be extremely dangerous, being a skilled poison master and able to control carnivorous and hallucinogenic butterflies. She has not shown any compelling evidence on why she should be spared, and she's not currently on a road to salvation in my eyes. You know it's common for an entire family to be massacred, even if some of the members were innocent, when only one individual has sinned, as punishment? This is in fear that any of these surviving members may come back in the future to avenge their loved ones' deaths. Roxana is just another snake in the pit of deadly vipers that compose the Agriche family, and as such, she must also be exterminated without fail.

  Outside of the central focus on Roxana and Cassis, the supporting cast fails to deliver anything else to help curry sympathy for Roxana. She's simply the lesser of many, many evils, doing nothing to fight against the prevalent stereotype that all Agriches are wicked. The environment she grew up in was hostile, and the patriarch encouraged his children to outcompete each other to win his favor. What the reward is for being his favorite isn't really all that clear, though. The one who consistently scores first place in these "tests" is Dion, Roxana's older half-brother, and he gets sent everywhere to hunt monsters and/or people, that's all. I'm not sure why they're all fighting so hard to be a busy obedient little lapdog, but eh, this family is beyond psycho, so whatever floats their boat, I guess. Obviously, with Roxana being such a perfect villainess, she scores second place each time, which seems to place her in the comfortable position of doing whatever the hell she wants with no real supervision from her supposedly wary and always-on-edge distrustful family. Nothing poses as a challenge for her, which boggles my mind when I see how long it takes for her to execute her escape plan. All her idle time is spent fussing about something or other, like she's forgotten what her main objective should be, or she's busy focusing her attention on the two men she is inferior to in status, using her valuable screentime to either impress them or mislead them.

  Basically, the father and older brother Dion are puppet straw man villains who do nothing except to act scary and serve as menacing fake obstacles, since they're only around to conveniently appear to temporarily hinder her plans. The all-powerful patriarch is easily fooled by Roxana at every turn because he doesn't seem to have an ounce of suspicion in his body, which makes me wonder how he got into this feared position in the first place. Dion is slightly more intimidating, because he implies that he's aware of Roxana's trickery, but he doesn't do anything to remotely throw a wrench in her schemes, nor does he ever ask his father to have Roxana relinquish Cassis over to him when he suspects that she's being easy on their common foe. So much for always being first place and being the exemplary Agriche, huh? That's just an empty title, because outside of acting like he's a viable threat, he's really a lame poser who hasn't shown any signs of intelligence or other plausible strengths which should make Roxana fear him as much as she says she does. In short, he's no rival, no L to her Light, and there's nothing to see here, so let's move along.

  The art quality of this webtoon was rather inconsistent in the beginning, but got better and better with each new chapter. The sudden and drastic improvement of the art is really quite remarkable to see, and I must whole-heartedly applaud the artist for their efforts. Character designs are striking and memorable, it's pretty easy to distinguish who is who. Roxana has one of the most beautiful designs, with her eye-catching expressive red eyes that portray more depth than she actually possesses, but nevertheless, I absolutely love all the panels that feature her face up-close. The artist makes great use of the webtoon vertical format to make very flowy panels, and the execution is just spot-on, with the creative transitions using butterflies and blood. Things aren't simply boxed in in the typical boring old rectangular panels, and they frequently spill out of the frames to heighten the sense of danger or amp up the tension.

  Overall, there's too much dichotomy with the evil family vs. the good family, and it's just unoriginal, hurting the overarching narrative. We have the villainous Agriches, who specialize in typical bad stuff like poison and monster breeding, and the obviously benign saint-like Pedelians, who can heal and cure illnesses. That's simply too on-the-nose, no? If their family rivalries weren't in such sharp contrast, it would be far more easy to see why Cassis might be willing to let Roxana off the hook, but it's not possible with them as they are here. The female lead is not a sympathetic character, despite the author trying to make us give her pity points whenever she faints. The key reason is that she doesn't have someone she deeply cares about in this entire world that humanizes her, and help ground her as a realistic character. She's yet another caricature of a sadistic villainess that does everything of her own accord; she's not actually forced to do any of these bad things. This is also not the type of story in which an evil character slowly comes to change themselves for the better by being shown love for the first time either...and if that was indeed the goal, you can't argue that was a real attempt on the author's part, since the focus just isn't there. There are some good ideas here, but also plenty of glaring flaws. However, this is one of the better isekai webtoons that I have read with a decent female lead who isn't head-over-heels in love all the time, so there's that.

  Update: The latest chapter introduces a new half-brother of hers that hasn't been mentioned before, Fontaine. Or perhaps he was, but I don't recall it. Either way, I don't look forward to this at all, because there's been a timeskip of three years, and there hasn't been a single story in which a timeskip was used that I've seen that was done well. So I guess it can only go downhill from here? We'll see.

  Overall Breakdown:
  Characters: 6/10
  Story: 6/10
  Art: 9/10
  Lore/Worldbuilding: 8/10
  Enjoyment: 7/10

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