⚠️ Warning: this review assumes that you read the manhwa (and know the characters' names)!
First of all, and before talking about all the great things I have to say about The Lady and the Beast, I cannot empathize how unequal the quality and pacing of this story is. While the beginning introduces the universe beautifully, not much happens until the capital is reached. Then chapters ~90 to ~140, the core of the manhwa, are magnificently written. After 20 to 30 more chapters that are pretty much a nothing burger of recycled angst, you finally get to the conclusion of the story that is alright: I didn't get neither all the answers that I wished for nor all the scenes that I would have enjoyed (a wedding, or Arthur's confession to Jessie, for example), but the bare minimum is done and it's done well.
Note that I have been complaining about the writing, and you might be concerned about the art. I am not an expert, but I feel like it is really good overall. Extra care is taken for the most important moments and in no frame are characters ever completely massacred. While mess is still bearable now that it's completed, this must have been terrible to endure when the manhwa was still releasing. Now that that's said, let's get to the good stuff.
I really, really like The Lady and the Beast. The characters are so beautifully written: from Terriod's obession with Astina, to the armor around Astina's heart slowly and painfully tearing apart, to even the surprising complexity of some secondary characters like Isis, the author really likes and understands every character.
Let's take Astina, for example. She is smart, always a step ahead and it's supposed to be like that: she has already lived an entire life as an empress, she experienced anger, lust, and treason too. Astina is not a 19-years old girl from the low-nobility. She's a conqueror, she's strong, she's killed thousands of people, and acts like it. More often than not, authors fail to encapsulate the complexity, cleverness and experience of such characters.
Additionally to the two main characters, I'd like to highlight how well Isis is written and how well her internal conflict is depicted. But really, more generally all characters have some depth and it is easy to begin caring about what happens to them (and thus, caring about the story). Even more stereotypical characters like Primo or Arthur stay understandable but hard to predict throughout this tale. Unlike the pace, the characters stay consistent, and smart. They are not here just to occasionally make the story progress: they have emotions, anger, they make mistakes, they get angry, jealous, and they sometimes come to their senses too.
More than anything, The Lady and the Beast story gave me what I deeply crave for in any romance: a hurtful, angst-inducing, melancholic story. Tina & Teo is the 4-person script of two souls who are at the exact same time dying to love each other and . Imagine a single lance piercing the hearts of two beasts - or two humans, for that matter. Anything - moving or staying still - means suffering. Moving away from each other would irremediably kill one of the beasts and getting closer would pain both horrendously.
« If it's painful for us to be together and also painful for us to be apart, we might as well carry this burden together. Then it won't feel as painful or lonely. »
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