Twelve Nights
Twelfth Night

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What a refreshing revenge story. You expect it to go down the cliché tropes of things turning out for the best at the last moment and everyone gets their own happy ending, alas…

Once I started reading this, I thought this was meant to be a comedy with a story, because the first season is riddled with misunderstandings that could rival a soap opera. They all have the same source, more or less, with the main 3 characters not knowing the true identity of the other characters and thus, missing important details. It honestly gets hilarious the more you read the first season despite the more ... serious background of usurping and reclaiming the throne. So, it is natural to expect that the rest of the story will follow the same path and then a solution will appear to everything, everyone laughs, maybe there is a loss here and there, but there is a happy-ever-after.

Yet the story never came down that predictable road as it made those silly misunderstandings into real problems and situations that the characters could no longer escape from and it is a bit astounding that it managed to keep up with it. The main triangle of characters consists of the fallen prince who wants to avenge his family, the childhood friend that treasures a past memory and sticks to the third character, the emperor, who is irresponsible with many childhood issues. The balance among them is so fragile, but none of the 3 really understands it until it becomes too late. How far can you follow your goal while ignoring your heart?

The supporting cast brings the entire kingdom to life and it truly becomes a war behind the scenes with politics becoming a very important facet of the story. The creator had said that due to length, she had to cut down some characters and I assume that meant the focus on existing characters, which in the end turned out for the better, because the subtle history of some characters were enough to give flavor to the story and make it more whole. You do need to explore everything at the same amount to have a good story.

Then comes another surprise as the ending provided a double unexpected twist, which covered some holes in the story that weren’t important enough to truly think they were on purpose. However, it only meant that thought was given to details that were half-hidden to not raise any suspicion.

Art-wise, the webtoon is fully coloured, yet the design is both simple and detailed enough. Almost every character is distinct with different expressions and details, yet somehow the general look lacks detail. The backgrounds are surely simple, it almost feels like everything fades away in a sense, probably because the colors most of the time are not so vibrant, but it is still pretty pleasing to the eye.

All in all, a very surprising historical drama that managed to escape the usual mold and albeit a few convenient flaws, it provided a solid story with some very tragic characters that do not always get a happy end but a satisfying one.