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Reviews tagging 'Torture'
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System 人渣反派自救系统 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
20 reviews
rafacolog's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Torture, Gore, War, Child abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment
46jjsg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
- 7/10 Worldbuilding
- 7/10 Main Characters
- 7/10 Side Characters* I just love sqh and mbj.... but mostly sqh.
- 9/10 Pacing
In depth review will be added when I re-read this novel with the 7seas editions.
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Homophobia, Child death, Transphobia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Kidnapping
Minor: Abortion
97reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Torture, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent
evitak's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I really liked all the characters, the story was interesting, I really appreciated its humor and the tone shifts never bothered me even if it goes from really sad to really funny to really sad very fast at times. I feel like that's more of a feature in the book rather than a flaw. There were many characters I truly thought I would hate, but by the end of the book I really liked them, and one of them ended up being my absolute favorite character in it. It does a really good job showing the many different sides of the characters, and why they do what they do, regardless of whether or not they are justified.
As far as the story goes I have much less to say, it requires a specific level of genre and geek (/anime/internet/whatever else you want to call it honestly) culture knowledge that many may not have, and in that case chances are it won't be as much appreciated. For those who do possess that knowledge however, I believe it's a very fun book that gives the reader a very good reading experience. Though on the surface it looks like a joke-y, funny kind of book, it gets into very dark and serious subjects as it progresses, and for the most part it does treat seriously what needs to be treated so.
It's for sure not for everyone, but I do feel it's often judged too harshly by comparing it to the author's later works, when on its own it's a very fun read, regardless of whether it's your cup of tea or not. On that note, there are some pretty heavy topics in it, and I do feel people need to heed the warnings before reading. I would like to add that contrary to a very frequent misconception, the "uncomfortable" scenes found within it were never really... not meant to be that? You are very much meant to feel uncomfortable at what is happening, because so are the characters in those situations.
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Child abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, Emotional abuse, Body horror, and Slavery
Minor: Confinement
itshardizzy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence, War, Torture, and Body horror
caladbolg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
Graphic: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Xenophobia
Minor: Abortion and Torture
daisy923's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I told myself i wouldnt read it bc i hate teacher/student relationships but I did end up caving and like read it so I’d at least have some idea what ppl were talking about bc I do like a lot of the fanart of it I see. Basically it was so incredibly mid that I couldn’t tell you like anyones names off the top of my head except the main ones, or like 60% of what happened and I just never had the motivation to write a review about it, but I do now ig and I love complaining/reviewing things so yeah.
Like tbh 80% of it was kind of boring or made me uncomfortable so really I did just skim a lot of it but I did have fun with the other 20% lol ig.. but to start with the bad.. like as i said I hate teacher student relationships so for really a lot of the bingqiu scenes I was skimming and pretending that all it was was just platonic. Like I do like sqq I think he’s funny and I know he’s too dense to figure out that he’s not straight but reading him call lbh (his 14 year old student!!!) a little sheep all the time and babying him and then knowing how it goes just! Makes me uncomfy! Like not everything has to be a romance and it would be much more interesting and not weird to me if this wasn’t a romance between them, even if they only get together when they’re both adults. And don’t even get me started on lbh. Like again. I like him. But he is just a walking red flag like I don’t think there’s anything wrong with writing characters who aren’t like. Healthy perfect people obviously but just idk I don’t like, think it’s cute or funny or whatever to have a character be like you’re mine and no one else’s and that possessiveness is just treated as a joke and something for sqq to just have to accept in the end. just kinda wish that were addressed. And a lot of the scenes that didn’t make me uncomfortable I was just so incredibly bored. If you asked me what happened in any given arc I could honestly not really tell you 80% of the time.
Now let’s get into the ✨misogyny ✨ like I know that’s a given with this genre and author but it’s still annoying. Like I was prepared to really like the little demon girl and the girl with the veil and the other girls but they were just like. There ig. Like HONESTLY….. the best female character imo was lbhs mom and she wasn’t even PRESENT in the actual story. But anyway. One thing that annoyed me is, that they only have one (1) female sect leader, and one (1) female head disciple in the 12 peaks, but they don’t even have the dignity of competing against men to gain these positions, mxtx does the cowardly thing and just makes them heads of an all female sect. All the other sects, which are presumably coed (tho iirc nyy is the ONLY female disciple of sqqs sect and I don’t remember there ever being any female disciples of Jiang cheng 1.0’s sect) are all led by men and their best disciples are boys. It’s so incredibly lazy and annoying. And this female sect isn’t even ranked highly on the peaks either. Like what’s the ranking criteria and why are they ranked so low? Huh? Mxtx? Like I get this is a satire of a really bad stallion novel but seriously? Mxtx? You couldn’t even include one female character in a position of power without also being a servant/subordinate/lower ranked to some dudes? even in sqq's fix-it version? Bc the whole point of the book is to fix pidw but neither mxtx or sqq as an extension of her seemed interested in fixing the rampant misogyny. Anyway and bc like that demon girl was
Also the constant feminizing of sqq. Like again. I know that’s a given with this genre but it’s still so annoying.
Now the WORST offender. That™️ sex (read: rape) scene. No. Bye. Completely skipped as soon as I realized what was going on. Spiritually barfing the entire time.
And to the things I liked. in no particular order:
1) lbhs family and backstory: I rly liked the story of his parents. not sure if some of this counts as spoilers but ill just put it all under spoilies just in case.
2) mobei jun and shang qinghua. Okay I went into this liking moshing from all the fanart and the idea of god marrying the dude he created in the image of the perfect guy while being a weird little hamster of a man himself is super funny, also the demon tits. anyway idk where I was going with that, but! I was rather disappointed that they were barely in the book.
3)
4) system and sqq - hilarious. Next.
5)
6)
7)
8) snek!! He was cute
9) and of course.. airplane bro and cucumber bro. I love them. Everything about them. They’re such clowns.
Anyway 4/10 at best probably bye
Graphic: Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent
bakatan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, and Torture
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Child abuse, and Abandonment
Minor: Genocide and Ableism
teagstime's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Shen Yuan/Qingqiu is a brilliant unreliable narrator. Pretty much everything he thinks is undermined by his actions (e.g. insisting he thinks of everyone as simply characters in a novel, yet grows to care for them and constantly puts himself in danger for the sake of others)(albeit he still does have many problems recognizing their agency as living people, but that’s another story lmaoo). Any time this man denies having an emotion, which is often, he’s probably having TOO MANY— but we would be none the wiser! Because he’s so good at disassociating from his own body and feelings, he Also thinks he’s telling the truth! It’s concerning! I wanna k word this man so bad (affectionate)
Luo Binghe is also just. So good. This is a man who truly has All The Trauma… The ‘hurt/no comfort’ tag embodied. I feel like he gets misunderstood by a lot of people, which is incredibly upsetting to me, because he is so interesting and tragic and great??
I think this novel also has a really neat relationship w its tropes, because mxtx wrote SVSSS as a commentary on harem/stallion novels and many of the plot devices they- and other things in the romance genre- tend to use, as well as things like transmigration stories, internet trolls/redditor-type dudebros, and male power fantasies in general! There are so many takes and subversions in this book that I just ! Care about so much !! And find so interesting to think about !! For example, with Luo Binghe’s power as the protagonist: unlike your typical male action hero / Shonen protag, he gets severely punished for powering up.
Another aspect I really love (which I’ve seen some hate/uncertainty toward) is Bingqiu’s relationship itself— I guess I can understand if there’s tropes that aren’t your thing, or if there’s dynamics in their relationship you find toxic or unhealthy. However ! Concerning the toxicity/unhealthy parts of their relationship… a lot of it stems from mxtx’s commentary on harem tropes and male power fantasies? Those stories are damaging and gratuitous and horrifying, especially for the love interests, who are often just there to be put in traumatizing situations and papapa’d better… And the all-powerful male protag is often just.. overbearing and entitled and arrogant and creepy. No relationship’s gonna come out of that kind of environment unscathed!
Imo the tragic & horrible parts of their relationship just make the ending so much better?
Anyway! Christ,, , I did not mean to make this a novel on its own OTL I could and would keep talking, but… I will cut myself off lmaooo
TLDR; I care this book a lot
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Death, Rape, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Body horror, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Cursing, Bullying, Chronic illness, and Confinement
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism
My advice: do NOT read this book without looking at the trigger warnings. There is graphic, disturbing content and it's rated for adults for a reason (the suggested reading age from some stores is literally 22+) !!!!moonmagister's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I personally really enjoyed this novel, despite flaws in plot and translation. I’m looking forward to continuing the official translation in the following months!
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War