Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong (Novel) Vol. 1

I have never binged a series so fast in my life. My love for this is like LBH’s love for SQQ — burning from the abyss and laden with the perpetual urge to slap the shit out of everyone.

I’d been putting off reading SVSSS because I heard it was MXTX’s worst and most problematic series. So I went into this expecting to hate it.

Boy, was I WRONG. Because yes, while this is not nearly as polished or romantic as the other two, this ended up being my favorite series of hers because it is funny, the characters are so damn likable, and —above all —it forces you to think about EVERYTHING.

This book is not what I would call MXTX’s most prolific or subtle writing. She hammers home, to a sometimes annoying degree, that nothing should be taken at face value. While the book certainly bears the trappings of a debut writer, everything she writes carries a deeper criticism, and she uses satire to do it, which I think is why I loved it so much even when I found the prose and the pacing lacking. (And it’s a translation, so I’m sure a lot of the nuance is lost.)

This series is full of characters that explore problematic BL and harem novel tropes, power dynamics, internalized misogyny and homophobia, and consent issues. And that’s the point. At its heart, this series is both a criticism of toxic masculine tropes AND terrible romance tropes. SQQ and LBH both embody and subvert the tsundere and yandere trope pretty well, and even as ostensible characters in an “uber-masculine” setting, they exchange gender roles and tropes frequently.

From the get go, MXTX lays the groundwork for a satire narrated by an extremely online internet troll who is, in reality, an unreliable and closeted gay guy. I have seen criticisms that Shen QingQiu is not in love with Luo BingHe, which are baffling to me, because his obsession (with the character, at least) is blatant early on, to the point where he is criticizing the other “love interests” for the way they interact with LBH and getting defensive about his own intrusive thoughts. And yes, their relationship starts off sketchy because it’s built on the idea that SQQ sees LBH as a book character without agency, not to mention a questionable teacher/student power dynamic.

I thought I would hate SQQ, but he is so damn lovable, even though his internalized homophobia is fucking annoying.

I’ll not spoil it more, but if you’re looking for an unproblematic comfort read or a heart-wrenching romantic drama, look elsewhere. But if you’re willing to sit with discomfort and analyze the text and have a fucking amazing time while doing it, this might be the series for you.

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graceskate's review

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adventurous dark emotional lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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drtx_bwt's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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thanatoserini's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I think I found my favorite book series 😍

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tamo's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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adhdru's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A metastory – or more specifically, transmigration – by MXTX was bound to be excellent and so far, it has not disappointed!

I found the main characters easy to love:

Shen Qingqiu (Peerless Cucumber) with his 'anti' attitude toward the book and the author, always criticising the logic of events or naming within the novel, and always bantering with the system and his absolute (unconscious) weakness for Binghe
Luo Binghe being a real 'white lotus', remaining kind-hearted after all the abuse and pain he suffered in such a short life, even going beyond forgiving his Shizhun and completely devoting himself to him after only a couple shows of kindness (or plain human decency, to be honest)

This book touches on deep subjects like bullying, child abuse, socio-economic injustice, etc., in a way that – in my opinion – both acknowledges how important and terribly wrong they are, while still staying hilarious for the most part.

One thing that bothered me a lot was the sexism painted all over the novel portraying women – with a couple of exceptions – as weak and vain and in need to uphold absurd standards of purity and propriety lest they be undesirable to men... Which, unlike many of the things within the novel, did not strike me to be written in an ironic or mocking fashion, but rather in an unchecked internalised sexism kinda way.

I do wish, however, we'd gotten to see a bit more of

17-yo Luo Binghe before he was sent off to the Endless Abyss. Don't get me wrong, the bits we got from him as an older teen were great, seeing him being flirty and jealous was both funny and endearing, but we don't get much more information about his development beyond that, since the rest – being endlessly selfish, reliable, willing-to-put-his-whole-trust-and-devotion-on and in-need-of-the-approval-of Shen Qingqiu – we had already seen after the OOC was activated.

There's obviously the hint of a developing romance between the leads which could be disturbing for some as it's technically an adult/minor relationship, however, nothing of a sexual or romantic nature happens between them yet. This is really just setting the ground for what's to come, with the only signs of characters being conscious about this aspect coming from the minor (Luo Binghe) and not the adult.

DO READ CONTENT WARNINGS BEFORE PICKING THIS UP, ITS THEMES AND TROPES ARE DEFINITELY NOT FOR EVERYONE

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conifercone's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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