Reading "The Barbarian's Bride" and it feels problematic
-
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series/v9ix5tf/hime-kishi-wa-barbaroi-no-yome
I can tell the author put in effort in world building but the premise of the story feels problematic to me. So basically, the premise is that the Kingdom of Illdoren has been waging wars of conquest for 700 years to claim land from "barbarians" and the barbarians have this custom of taking female knights prisoner and making their brides. And the MC is naturally, one such female knight.
That isn't the main problem however. It's the way the author shows how the women react to this situation. Apparently, they all quickly fall in love with the barbarian who takes them captive and willingly have children with them. To top it off, a lot of the female characters are high status noblewomen who supposedly fell in love with the barbarians holding them captive and willingly had children with them. They also quickly stopped caring about the people they left back home. One of them was even a princess, in other words, royalty with a claim to the throne.
Which is really not how it works. I dunno about you, but i don't know any women IRL who would quickly fall in love with their captor even if they are treated well. Historically, women taken captive by warriors cooperated out of fear and because they realised escape was impossible, not because they quickly fell in love with the man holding them captive. For a woman in a medieval setting to be held captive by a man who wants to make her a bride is probably the greatest nightmare possible.
I know this is fiction and as I said, the worldbuilding is solid and it's definately several levels above the usual "generic medieval kingdom where the MC gets cheats and builds a harem" isekai slop that makes up at least half of new manga these days. But i can't help but keep thinking "yea, this is NOT how a woman would react in this situation" as i read this manga. If you look at those otome stories where the MC is forced into an arranged marriage with some duke that is rumored to be "cold" or "bloodthirsty", they show a far more realistic reaction (although to be fair, the male lead is usually written to show no interest in the MC at the beginning).
In this story, the MC adjusts so quickly that within a week she has given up all thought of escape and is just chilling in the guy's house eating delicious food and having the time of her life. About two weeks later, she's so accepting of her situation that she willingly puts an engagement collar on. This is not believable and it comes across as "the author wanted to write a story like this but didn't want to look like a creep so he made the woman fall in love quickly with the men holding them captive".
The MC is never even shown attempting to escape, despite not being chained or watched. She could sneak out of the house at night any time and doesn't even try.
Infact, at the end of the official english licensed version of volume one, the author practically admits this story started as a sexual idea he talked about on Twitter. No surprise, he had to tone it down for publication. It probably started as "barbarians taking female knights captive and violating them". I actually think that would be less problematic because it wouldn't be trying to hide the author's intent, and this is something that frequently happened in history (not the female knight part obviously).