@pcj said in Villainess Level 99 Act 4 Discussion!:
As I was reading this part, I kept thinking "yay, we really did get the intelligent Yumiella back!"
She's still having her insane flights of fancy, but she's actually learned from experience that she's thinking insane things and catching herself before putting them into action. This is fantastic character development for her. And about two volumes overdue. On the one hand I want to think maybe she was using Patrick as a handicap so she wouldn't have to think. On the other, maybe the author had just lost their groove and now has gotten it back.
Tbh it feels more that the author is leaning heavily on the "Patrick is the Yumiella Whisperer and Keeper" schtick for low-effort Manzai comedy. It's a pity because it really makes Yumiella as a character come across as an obnoxious, impulsive moron with zero self control and really unlikeable and tiring in my view. I much prefer the Yumiella that acts mostly like a high-functioning independent person that doesn't need a handler to function in society.
In volume 3 I literally forced myself to keep reading through the garbage in the first couple of chapters and was glad I did because the story got (mostly) better from around chapter 3 onwards. In this volume I just quit after she met Gilbert because I'd skimmed through the first part again and was just tired of it at that point. It was really so much better before the author made Yumi such an addled mess.
