Entry #6 - Scum Villain

Scum Villain Self-Saving System - Book 2 Cover

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu(MXTX) is a very well known author within the Danmei community, she has created many books(with adapted TV shows) such as Heaven Official's Blessing, and The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. Despite the success of her most recent series' many people actively choose to either ignore or belittle her first work, 'Scum Villain Self-Saving System,' (SVSSS for short).

SVSSS is a story about a man named Shen Yuan who has a passionate love/hate relationship with this book he is reading, he started reading due to the plot but then when the plot gets lost, loopholes appear, and logic stops making sense in the story-line he writes an(over the top) angry hate post about the book series. In his rage he chokes on his food and dies, when he wakes up he finds himself stuck in the book he once hated(loved) as the main villain. Chaos ensues. 

Scum villain is a book filled with bad jokes, a lot of hidden angst, and of course the best trope of all: Miscommunication!  This book is almost a completely different vibe from the rest of the MXTX Novels! MXTX fills her novels with all kinds of angst and will really let the reader soak up all the emotions within her novel, but in this book she gives the main character(Shen Yuan) a sarcastic personality and an incredibly hilarious inner monologue. However, despite the amount of humor this book has to offer, this book is more than just funny jokes. When faced with the world building and relationships of each and every character I have come to realize this book is a tragedy in disguise.

Within the original novel(before Shen Yuan was transferred into the villains(Shen Jiu's) body) Shen Jiu becomes the villain by chance, as Hannah Adams(a dedicated fan of the MXTX novels) had put it, Shen Jiu is the perfect example of a tragedy character. she described how he only needed one thing to go right, and only needed one person to care about him and he wouldn't have been such a bitter villain and ended up the way he did in the original novel, (pickled alive by the main character(Luo Binghe)). 

This book although is from the perspective of the wittiest character created(Shen Yuan) it doesn't fail t show between the lines just how sad of a story it could have been if it was from any other characters point of view. The 'main character' of the book world Shen Yuan was transferred to had immense thoughts and feelings that end up getting pushed to the side because we aren't witnessing it from his perspective. One of the biggest moments in the series was when the two main characters are fighting and Shen Yuan had sacrificed his life for Luo Binghe. Luo Binghe had been convinced throughout the entire series up until this point that Shen Yuan had hated him more than dirt on his shoe, then Shen Yuan casually sacrifices himself for him? Binghe's life practically flips over, he realizes he could have done more to find out these feelings before he died in his arms, before this tragedy came to be. 

Chapter 42/43, SVSSS Book 2

Long story short Scum Villain is an underrated series that people need to become more invested into, it has layers get through filled with tears, laughter, and heartache. Although I did mention some plot spoilers overall there is more to this book series than the snippets I added so hopefully the spoilers weren't too tragic if you decide to read the book.

(The images themselves came from the book but anytime I try to link it there are only links to buy the book, sorry)