Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

PREFACE if there’s anyone that for some ungodly reason goes to my profile bc of this don’t expect many long reviews like this unless I have a fit of madness in which I can actually tolerate writing for longer than 5 minutes, this one is just here bc it’s basically copied and pasted from a previous fit of madness on my tumblr the night before I got surgery so it’s like??? I don’t normally write coherent things I have adhd and almost failed 11th grade English bc I had a breakdown during the poetry and personal essays units. Anyway:

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

leader of that demon invasion or whatever but the impression I got was that she was impulsive and stupid to do that anyway and she’s just a subordinate to like lbh and mbj

like I didn’t even get the impression that she was that important. And I’m not saying with this that all female characters have to be ~girlbosses~ like I know that’s not the pinnacle of feminist writing and I don’t WANT everyone to be “girlbosses”, like I love Jiang yanli in mdzs, despite her not being “powerful” and I think what little story she had was very nice

up until her fridging

, but like it’s just showing that the only female leaders there are are leaders over other women ONLY. But like basically. None of these female characters had any like story to me they were just THERE. (Except lbhs mom she was rly cool but even in that case still). Oh also like the funniest 🙄 thing was when they

went into so much detail during that little tournament thing they had during the demon invasion of the male fights and then they made the two girls fight against eachother (because god forbid a girl fight against a guy and win) and all that was said about it was like.. it wasn’t interesting at all so moving on. sqq your interest in the ladies is OUTSTANDING.

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.

While I do think Getting Possessed By Evil Sword And Slowly Being Corrupted And Goingb Crazy is extremely fun to read YOU DID NOT HAVE TO MAKE IT SEXUAL.

. Anyway. Moving on.

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.

Tho the dad is. A really bad dad if you can consider him a dad at all, but he’s interesting due to his relationship with lbhs mom and his love of humans in the past, (and also how he cares for snek guy hehe) which turned into bitterness when lbhs mom seemingly betrayed him, but then it was revealed that she really did love him and sacrificed herself to save lbh. Like I’m not a fan of the dead mom trope in general but I did really like her and idk this particular story just clicked with me more than others ig idk why. I liked it. And also since the dad demon was so absent from lbhs life up until then to me he just seemed like another antagonist instead of another Abusive Dad™️ Character, who I generally always hate lol. Kinda like how I see darth Vader you know? He wasn’t a good dad but I wouldn’t really consider him a dad at all tbh? Anyway yeah I liked those two they were cool.

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.

I was ALSO disappointed but not surprised to read that mbj was actually physically abusive towards sqh. Though, and I’m gonna be honest because I might not have read this super in depth and I might be misremembering things, but! There’s a but. The impression I got? Was that that’s just how demons treated subordinates? So it wasn’t really something personal at the time? It’s shitty of course but it didn’t have the same connotations to me as two people in a relationship would have and one was physically abusive then. And after sqh finally said enough and walked away, it seemed to me that mbj realized he fucked up and tried to be better? And I feel like all this happened before there was any feelings exchanged on mbjs end. which was pretty? pleasantly surprising? so still kinda have a bias towards them. also because hulking powerful intimidating demon man marrying a weird little guy™️ who also happens to be God is SOOOOO funny to me

punishment protocol - that was fucked up bro. Next

4) system and sqq - hilarious. Next.

repairing relationships that were originally sucky in the pidw thing. Idk it makes me feel good. Like sqq stumbling across Jiang cheng 1.0 in qi deviation and accidentally saving him and now Jiang cheng 1.0 is like. I Will Now Die For You. Idk I like stories of loyalty and where people are able to get along.

going deeper into the pidw characters and how the sqq just totally ended up fixing what was wrong with the pidw book and with his fix-it, it ended up being something that sqh could be proud of and what he originally wanted to write but didn’t because of the pressures of the audience. I thought that part of the ending was very satisfying and meta and wrapped up nicely

the chase/fight in that tomb and the coffin thing. The suspense of that part was fun

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

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teagstime's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

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

This is definitely one of my favorite books of all time— I read this Scum Villain unofficial translation back in January 2021 and have been obsessed with it for over a year now. It’s just a wonderful, hilarious, tragic story.

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)

His whole personality is another bag of worms altogether. The casual and blatant disregard for his own life? The way he locks up every emotion and vulnerability from everyone else SO HARD he even locks them away from himself? SQQ I'm gonna force you into a therapy session I swear to god

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??

Yes, he gets a little unhinged post-abyss, but wouldn’t you? If the first person to ever show you kindness & love suddenly condemns you as the worst kind of evil and throws you into a literal hellscape after stabbing you in the chest??? Sorry to Shen Qingqiu but I would also go a little crazy wondering why!

He’s calculated and terrifying and all-encompassing, and he decided to give his entire heart & soul to 1 (one) person and act a complete fool around him forever. King shit fr… Like seriously I care about this funky lil crybaby so much. I have kept it short here on purpose because this review would be 2x longer if I ranted about how much I love Luo Binghe rn… He gives me ALL the feelings. Shoutout SQQ bc I’m also having Binghe brainworms 24/7!

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.

Yeah, sure, he gets a cool demon sword that can cut open dimensional rifts. At the cost of the security in his most important relationship, with his special person. You’re now gonna feel insecure of your place forever and constantly fear being abandoned. On top of that, he has to deal with mental instability and bouts of becoming mind-controlled by said demonic sword— Like Xin Mo is literally poisoning his mind !! It will make you the strongest, but you will lose your sanity, leading to a horrible, slow death— and you’ll get to unknowingly hurt/kill the people you care about on your way out!! Because your sense of autonomy and comfort in your own skin is now forfeit! SURPRISE !! :)

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?

Despite all the ways Bingqiu miscommunicate & hurt each other over the course of the novel, they really do love each other. Just because things aren’t resolutely tied up with a bow at the end doesn’t mean they don’t! It just makes it more real and heartwarming to me. These are people who have misunderstood one another constantly, who have made mistakes and hurt the one they love… and they have to live with it. No do-overs. And they make the conscious decision to be together despite it all! I think it ends with a really heartwarming feeling, like!! They have a lot of work to do to be able to move forward after all this trauma and heartache, but they’re going to try and make it work! Because they are in love! And they want each other to be happy! It’s so sweet!! Even though Bingqiu are quite literally soulmates, relationships are never going to be easy— esp one with as much baggage as this— and the novel ends with them still having all these issues, but ! They’re going to try to face them ! And learn from their mistakes, together!!! That’s LOVE baby!!!

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

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wings_of_black_leather's review

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.25

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saikiren's review

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

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

loved that the system would constantly interfere within certain situations making them worse, or progress further in an unexpected way. Shen QingQiu's reactions were hilarious, there were many scenes that I couldnt help but laugh at or suddenly pause to reread since it was so unexpected. I still feel horrible for the original Binghe but was it necessary to have him in for just a couple paragraphs before he vanished away? and how was he able to transfer over to the current world into Luo Binghe's dreamscape in the first place? (im curious but im reading too much into this..)
I liked how everything clicked in place at the end though, Shen Qingqiu really did fulfill all plot holes and as the reader i was able to finally be informed on some of the character's backstories. it still didnt right the original Shen's abuse towards the og Luo but it gave an understanding of where his envy had been brought up from, and made me switch up my mindset about him a little bit. I love this book so much, its my go-to comfort novel

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