A clown for an Emperor, paired with the perfect villain. An Empress with a heart of gold and a prince who flies away with it.
Poetic…I think so.
But if that had got you curious a little, then you have to check out The Remarried Empress, read it here. But if you still need a little more convincing for why you should use your time to read this rather than watching cat videos on Youtube this quarantine, hopefully, this review will convince you otherwise.
- Title: The Remarried Empress
- Author & Artist: AlphaTart & Sumpul
- Overall rating: 9.5 out of 10
- Story: 9 out of 10
- Art: 10 out of 10
- Status: Ongoing
- Genre: Drama, Romance, Fantasy & Historical (Alternate Reality)
*Overall rating might change in the future depending on the future chapters. Since this webtoon is currently on-going.
The simplest way I can explain the whole story is that it is a royal drama. A giant royal drama. And I mean it in both ways.
The story is based on a Korean web novel with the same title. The web-novel Remarried Empress or Jaehon Hwangho ( 재혼 황후) is written by AlphaTart. And was released on Naver Series and Web Novel in November 2018. Later with its rise in popularity, it got turned into a webtoon. The art for the Webtoon is done by Sumpul. I have linked the web novel above if you want to check it out. There is also an audio drama, made of it in Naver AudioClip,. Though it is in Korean just like the web novel.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any official English translation of the web novel.
There is also a video game revamp of the story. Though I have yet to check it out. At the beginning of 2020 Studio N announced a Drama adaptation of the web novel. But we have not information about the cast or release date yet.
The webtoon Remarried Empress was officially published first in South Korea-October 24, 2019. It became super popular on Naver and was decided to be published in the English version of the app, Line Webtoon. On September 5, 2020, it was available for all international fans to enjoy. Currently, it has 70+ chapters available to read.
By now you probably have understood that the story is very popular. And it is. So what it is about?
I hear ya’, so let’s get into it.
First the official synopsis.
“Navier Ellie Trovi was an empress perfect in every way — intelligent, courageous, and socially adept. She was kind to her subjects and devoted to her husband. Navier was perfectly content to live the rest of her days as the wise empress of the Eastern Empire. That is, until her husband brought home a mistress and demanded a divorce. “I accept this divorce… And I request an approval of my remarriage.” In a shocking twist, Navier remarries another emperor and retains her title and childhood dream as empress. But just how did everything unfold?” – LineWebtoon
Like the synopsis says the story starts with the Emperor and Empress getting a divorce. And that is the first chapter. From there we go back to the past to see how Emperor and Empress- who have known each other since childhood and were friends even before they got married – came to such a point in their relationship where they had to divorced each other.
The story follows the Eastern Empress Navier. And we follow her as she figures out ways to handle the new problems caused by the mistress the king brought home.
What really is interesting about the story is that just by changing the perspective the author has turned a very common and cliched story into something new. Just by changing the character/protagonist, the author created a brand new perspective for us to see from.
Because now we get to see how the mistress is affecting this Empress and her life. As an Empress, she had it all but this girl is competing not only for her husband’s attention but for her people’s as well. And how it has affected her.
If we change perspective from the queen’s to the mistress and we will have the same ol’ story of a girl, who the king has taken a fancy off after seeing her radiating beauty and innocence. And they want to stay together but the evil queen is just getting in their way. Fighting the society for his love for the girl, he divorces the Empress and makes her his queen.
Such a cliched story. Something we have read millions of times. But just by switching the perspective, the author created something new and something exciting. And I am enjoying it, Oh! so much!
There is a sense of maturity in the story. Especially how Navier holds herself. The way she is always calculating and thinking ahead, we stan an insightful queen. That being said the Emperor is the dumbest character I have ever read. While the other characters excel the Emperor often times acts like a 12-year-old.
While surfing the web I came across this comment about the Emperor and I couldn’t agree more. “His stupidity as a normal man doesn’t make sense, let alone as the emperor. Where’s his education?” – You can read the whole review by Cindy-Uchiha on The Remarried Empress here.
The other characters are likable. With 70+ episodes out we have met almost all of the important characters. There is a chance more will wind up but the characters we have met so far, The Emperor is the only not so bright one. Especially during chapters 30-50…wow he was annoying.
And the villain, oh the villain of our story! She is cunning, manipulative, and a big fat liar. And I love her because of that.
She, Rashta is so far one of my favorite villains. Her character is so beautifully built. From the very first moment, she was introduced you just know that she is bad. It is definitely the author’s genius mind that created this baddie.
There is another character about whom I can not talk about as that will be a major spoiler. Just know that he is the real mastermind behind Rashta.
And she makes the story so much better. Rashta as a character made me realize that a good villain is just as enjoyable as a good protagonist. They spice up the story with their unique flavor. And I am enjoying it so much!
As you notice I am only talking about the two side characters. I purposely don’t want to talk about our main characters. Because I won’t be able to shut up myself from spoiling you about them.
But I will try to be vague. Navier is one of the strong female leads that I had read in the Webtoons. She is feminine and all grace. And she uses words as a weapon when someone *cough* Rashta *cough* attacks her. Often time people think that a strong female lead means that they have to be tomboy-ish and hot-headed who goes around fighting with people and whatnot. And Navier being nothing like that is a breath of fresh air.
Our second main character/Navier’s future hubby – not spoiling since it is written in the synopsis – is head over heels for her. The funny thing is even though he is the main man of this story we know very little about him. This is something the author will get onto later in the story – I hope. But also because of how that will affect his and Navier’s relationship since she has come from a loveless marriage to marrying someone else to get back her title. She knows very little about him. So it will be interesting to see her getting to know him more, his secrets, and actually find love.
Also, Queen has the cutest reactions ever. And I am not talking about that queen. You will know which queen I am talking about once you start reading.
The art is absolutely gorgeous. Detailed and very expressive. The backgrounds are so beautiful. The dresses are so pretty! It’s just stunning overall.
I really, really like the art.
Right now the webtoon Remarried Empress is updated every Sunday. It used to update twice a week but since it reached the number of chapters available on the Korean site, we are back to the usual once-a-week update.
Personally, if I had the choice I would have waited a little bit more before started reading. A lot of cliffhangers and so much DRAMA. And binge reading is more fun. But with 70+ episodes, starting now you can binge few major cliffhangers and be part of the upcoming MAJOR arc!
If you are a fan of historical drama or romance then this is definitely something for you. It has 70 chapters available as I update this review on April 24, 2021. So you can binge a lot of the chapter if you start now. You can read it here.
Enjoy the trailer by Webtoon, while you are here.
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Muchas gracias por el artículo del blog. ¡Muchas gracias! Impresionante.
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