Mother's Contract Marriage

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I absolutely love Mother's Contract Marriage.

I love some of this villainess genre histories, mainly The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen, but it's getting so much saturated that it's becoming the second isekai to me.

But this one is such a subversion of the genre because we are not following the person who goes back in time/enters a book/reincarnates in a noble society, we are following their daughter. Such a premise is interesting in itself but it's executed in a lovely way.

I love the main character, who is a real child, not an adult in a child's body, not a super genius child, just a child. But ... the thing that sets Lilyca apart of others in a special way is the optimism and trust that she can put in others. Between conniving nobles and the bottom of society she always use her childish imagination to keep her wonder and navigate through life.

If you don't care much about the deconstruction of the villainess genre and also don't care about such a refreshing and good main character you can honestly just look at the pictures, because they are the most dropping gorgeous art I've ever seen. Honest to god, I have no idea how the artist can pump these chapters maintaining such a good art level.

I highly recommend this one, even more if you have read some villainess histories and is getting tired of the genre.

Mother's Contract Marriage is absolutely adorable. As someone who reads a lot of Otome Villainess esque manga I find this to be a breath of fresh air. I am so used to transmigrator child protagonists that act as if they are 40 year old politicians. Scheming due to events that won't happen for hundreds of chapters (or lets be honest, won't happen at all). I thought this would be the same sort of thing, oh how wrong I was.

Despite being the protagonist Lyrica is not a transimgrator, her mother Lydia is. Lydia apparently came back in time from some horrible future where her daughter ... died and she was executed for supporting the wrong side of the rebellion. Again, it's a premise that I've seen hundreds of times, however the difference here is that this manhwa revolves around someone who has no clue that any of this is going on being the protagonist.

Lyrica is a hard working daughter who tries to take care of her terrible mother who constantly gets them into more debt. She dreams of her mother waking up and becoming a better person... and this happens. With Lydia coming back in time she is not a completely different person and watching Lyrica needing to adapt to this is fantastic. From Lyrica's perspective her mother woke up as a different person one day. The mistrust and yet hope in this new mother is enjoyable, Lyrica also acts like a real kid too. She may have grit and has been forced to be mature due to her circumstances, yet she still acts like a child.

Seeing her react to typical troupes such as contract marriages and tragic backstories is so much fun, from contract marriages to step brothers from the king's dead brother, it's a refreshing take on the genre. I always think about the whole "the king was [i]bullying[/i] your mother all night" exchange often. Lyrica acts like an actual kid and it's so much fun.

On the other side of this I think about her exchange with the explorer often. She wants to trust her mother but also knows her history with scams. She decides to take matters into her own hands and meet this guy to see who is tricking her mother. She ends up being so moved by him that she gives the silver coin that meant so much to her in the slums to be a charm to keep him safe. It's a incredibly impactful moment in a series that is otherwise slice of life comedy.

And of course I can't fully discuss this manhwa without mentioning the art. It's such a bright and unique art style that fits in with the story perfectly. It has so much character and is the kind of style that means you can easily tell any panel from this manga based on the art. Just had to mention it because it's a standout among it's peers.

Ultimately I love how genuine this series is. I don't expect it to become plot dense and honestly I'm fine with that. Seeing Lyrica interact with the king and her mother and her brother in the most innocent but genuine way possible is what I want out of this series. It's funny, it's cute and I couldn't recommend it enough.

The premise was interesting.The idea of the mom going back in time is interesting as we can see the MC struggle to believe that her mom has really changed. It's interesting cause it shows how jarring and unbelievable the sudden change can be from outsider pov.

The MC's character is believable cause she's an 8 yr old kid and wants to see the best of her parent. Lord knows how many times I've turned a blind eye to my dad's toxic behaviour cause I wanted to be loved.

Here though the good things end. The MC literally has no goals cause she's a kid who finally gets ... some peace and stability in life which she didn't have before. It makes sense that she doesn't have dreams beyond survival at first cause of her hard life. But this makes it very hard to continue reading about MC's fluffy life cause the other characters have so much more in stake. 

Overall I liked the outsider pov to a time traveling person idea.

Other than that it's meh