The Antagonist's Pet is a Korean webcomic originally authored by Seobo and illustrated by Harnenn. The webcomic began in July 2019 and ended in January 2022 with 13 extra chapters serving as the epilogue. The webcomic can be found in Kakao here
and it's localized to English by TappyToons here.
The Antagonist's Pet has the following tropes
- 0% Approval Rating: Payne's reputation in the kingdom is poor due to the emperor openly treating him callously and thinking of him as the child of a sinful woman from another country. Those working in the palace also treat him with disdain, with only the men under Payne's command being able to see Payne for who he is. One of Arth's gambit to overthrow Johannes's position as crown prince, and the emperor himself, involves showing the higher officials that Payne has far more capabilities and makings of a ruler than Johannes, who grew up heavily spoiled by his parents.
- Abusive Parents: A few examples occurred:
- In Sasha's first life, she lived with verbally and physically abusive parents and had to lower herself down to be subservient in order to survive beyond that. It's telling that even if her parents in her new life are not exactly good parents with their own trappings, Sasha takes it as an upgrade because they aren't physically abusive like her own parents from her previous life.
- Angela May, in her denial of her own death and obsession to return to her original world, was a horrible parent to Lilith in the name of ensuring that Lilith grows up to be just like the original Lilith from monitoring her meals, clothes and how she should act. Lilith's father tried to help but he does little to actually stop most of the abuse, something that Lilith resents.
- Agony of the Feet: Present in Captain Kalia's backstory where, as punishment for being too tall, her mother's feet were cut off at the ankles.
- All for Nothing: Angela May abused Lilith in frustration and her obsession of returning back to her original world and ensure that Lilith's own growth is on track and making sure that she stays similar to her original counterpart. Her abuse not only makes Lilith grow up differently as an individual, Sasha's involvement added onto Lilith's already differing growth of her own individuality due to Angela's abuse means that the story that the reincarnated Angela May had sought for no longer existed.
- Babies Ever After: At the end of the story, Sasha and Arth had a son named Arsha while Lilith is about to give birth to her first child with Payne.
- Bait-and-Switch: One of the common cliche's in Next Life as a Fictional Character stories often involve the protagonist suspecting that a canon character acting out of line from their canonical portrayal maybe a reincarnated person and Sasha suspects that Lilith maybe one as well. It turns out to be a Red Herring as the actual reincarnator is Lilith's mother.
- Becoming the Mask: Lilith admits to Sasha that while she initially approached Payne to spite her mother, Lilith grew to genuinely love Payne as a person over time.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Lilith does this to her Abusive Parents, especially her mother after she confided in Sasha about her pasts to highlight just how badly she hated her mother for all the abuse she put on her.
- Calling the Old Woman Out: Lilith does this and gets back at her mother for all the abuse she was put through in order to "follow the story" and disowning herself from her biological family for good.Lilith: Don't blame me! Do you still not understand!? Angela, you were the one who ruined the story! You destroyed your precious original story with your own hands! The book said that Lilith had kind parents! But, my parents weren't kind! I had monsters for parents!
- Chekhov's Gunman: One of the noble girls that Sasha initially befriended is Evie, who is engaged to the third prince. She ends up being instrumental in helping Arth to testify against Johanes and discredit his legitimacy of the throne.
- The Chessmaster: Arth is a genius but he is hampered down for most of his life due to being an illegitimate child. Much of the second season covers and showcases Arth planning to put Payne in position as the Crown Prince and future King instead of Johanes due to Johanes's incompetence potentially dooming the kingdom.
- Dramatic Irony: The reincarnated Angela controlled every single instance of Lilith's actions and activities to the point of abuse in hopes that Lilith will grow up just like the original Lilith from "Lover in Atalanta" and ensure that the story runs exactly per it's course so she can return to her original life. Angela choosing to do so only made Lilith to grow up as a Stepford Smiler who decided to play as the villainess of society who seduced the second prince to spite Angela. By abusing Lilith, Angela changed Lilith's past and thus destroyed the original story that she tried so hard to preserve.
- Dysfunctional Family:
- The result of the reincarnated Angela May becoming an Abusive Parent to Lilith turns the once happy and loving household in "Loved of Atalanta" into this as everyone else seems to buy onto her story of Lilith being fated to marry the First Prince while disregarding what Lilith truly wants.
- In her original life, Sasha has this as she lived with Abusive Parents and in her new life, while her parents are genuinely better and do care for Sasha in their ways, their greed for money and prestige often overtook Sasha's needs and Sasha only takes it because she believed its better than having physically abusive parents.
- Extreme Doormat: Sasha's way of surviving through the cutthroat medieval-esque era noble politics is to be a pushover and treated like a pet. Naska called her out at the extremes she went to lower herself down just for survival.
- Freudian Excuse: The reincarnated Angela May was originally a young high school girl who had a normal and happy life until she died and was reincarnated as the mother of the original Lilith May from "Lover in Atalanta". She did not react well to having her happy life being ripped away from her and is obsessed with wanting to go back to her original world and old life. That said, her tunnel vision of focusing on the original story led to her becoming an Abusive Parent to Lilith, with Lilith, Payne, Arth and Sasha having little sympathy for Angela due to the abuse she put Lilith through and treats her eventual passing from illness at the end of the story as a footnote and not worth mourning for.
- Hates Their Parent: With Sasha's encouragement, Lilith was finally able to get the courage to stand up against her abusive mother and admit that she hates her for her abuse and also her father who did nothing to stop her.
- Irony: In the original "Lover in Atalanta", Lilith is said to be associated with white lilies and had a white Color Motif to symbolize her purity and kindness. However, due to the reincarnated Angela's abuse on her, Lilith is anything but in contrast. When Lilith arrived at the capital and get some leeway of freedom, she deliberately changed her image out of spite and had come to associate herself with the color red.
- Next Life as a Fictional Character: A young Korean woman reincarnated into Sasha Tartt, an obscure extra in the novel "Lover in Atalanta" and used some of her knowledge of the original story to survive. It later turns out that she wasn't the only reincarnator as Angela May, the original heroine's mother, is also reincarnated.
- The Not-Love Interest: The summary and early chapters hint to a potential of Sasha and Rebecca becoming a couple but as the story continues, Rebecca's relationship with Sasha is shown to be that of friendship with Rebecca being the Deuteragonist of the story and Arth, the tritagonist, being Sasha's love interest instead.
- Point of Divergence: Sasha's influence changed much of the plot beats and flow of the original story, "Lover in Atalanta".
- Sasha befriending Rebecca led to Sasha comforting and convincing Rebecca to abandon her position as the fiance of the crown prince due to Johanes's incompetence and casanova ways, soon deciding to focus on inhering the Dukedom.
- Sasha also befriends Arth, Johanes's advisor and she was able to help Arth to be true to himself. This led to Arth falling in love with Sasha and eventually proposing an engagement with her.
- When Lilith, the original novel's heroine, debuts the first time, she instead appears wearing a red dress and acting far differently from her original novel counterpart that Sasha pegged that something is wrong and how Lilith maybe a reincarnator like she was. Or so it seemed...
- Instead of Lilith, Sasha meets Naska the dragon when he entered the town and befriended him instead.
- Due to Lilith never actually interacting with Johanes and approached Payne, Johanes never got a Character Development to grow as a person and Atalanta runs a risk of being brought to ruin should Johanes rule the land. This prompts Arth to plan and dethrone him from the crown prince position in favor of Payne.
- Red Herring: Due to Lilith acting out far differently from the original "Lover in Atalanta", hints pinpointed to Lilith being a reincarnator like Sasha was. However, Lilith later confessed and clarified to Sasha that the reincarnator was not Lilith, but Lilith's mother.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Downplayed in that Sasha isn't as benevolent as she looks, but she otherwise wished the best for her friends and people she cares about.
- Ship Tease: A few examples:
- Sasha and Arth. Arth was the first person to see through Sasha's "Pet" facade and grows fond of her with Sasha growing comfortable in his presence.
- Lilith and Payne, the second prince. Despite her initial impression and playing the "villainess" image to spite her mother, Lilith has a loving relationship with Payne and is supportive of him with Payne loving her in return.
- Sins of the Father: Invoked by the Emperor on Payne and this was why Payne's reputation in the kingdom is dirt poor. Payne's mother was married to the Emperor in a political marriage and the Emperor treating Payne's mother poorly instead of treating her hospitably due to their political marriage is what caused her to lash out at the Emperor and Empress. And the Emperor puts all the blame of it on her own son than to consider that he has a part in it.
- Spoiled Brat: The core personality of the crown prince Johanes, beyond being a flirt, is this as he grew up with heavy doting from his parents. This is unfortunately a Deconstructed Trope for Johanes as his spoiled upbringing means that he lacks the wisdom and aptitude to be able to rule the country. His spoiled upbringing also means that he is too used to have people doing things for him that he lacks independence or the will to do things by his own. This became one of the factors that led him to be discredited from the throne by the councilors as part of Arth's scheme to overthrow the emperor to put Payne in position of being the next emperor.
- Show Within a Show: The novel "Lover in Atalanta" is this to the story due to Sasha reincarnating into the novel world.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Naska is the only one willing to call out on the lengths Sasha pulled up her Extreme Doormat tendency to survive, asking why she is willing to put herself down so much.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: This is ultimately why the reincarnated Angela May's tunnel vision and desperation to make sure things stay the same as the original "Lover in Atalanta" doesn't work. In most Next Life as a Fictional Character stories, many of the protagonists are bound with the You Can't Go Home Again stigma and hit with the fact that the new world they are born into is no longer fictional. Angela May's denial of her death and desperation to return to her old life only ended up changing Lilith's past of having a happy family to a Dysfunctional Family instead and thus, the reincarnated Angela May changed the story that she desperately wanted to preserve in the first place.
