Webcomic / This Isekai Maid is Forming a Union!

This Isekai Maid is Forming a Union! is a metafictional fantasy drama webcomic drawn by Frostlight Comics.

It focuses on a maid character who has been reincarnated in every Otome Isekai web novel read by her alternate counterpart from our world, who, in contrast, is still alive, but more importantly, those webnovels caused her maid alternate self to be abused by many of the Otome Isekai protagonists. Now in her current incarnation as a maid named Bridgette in another Otome Isekai novel read by her modern counterpart called Momentary Duchess, she decides that she will no longer tolerate the abuse by the nobles (who also abuse her fellow co-workers) by forming a union against them.

This series is considered a meta-deconstruction of the Otome Isekai genre and is currently running on both Tapas and Webtoon.

---

This Series provides examples of:

• Accidental Suicide: At the end of episode 34, Lord Demeter is drunk and sleeping in a bathtub, as his previous self in his dream said to him.
  Previous Demeter: We have five minutes until you drown in your f*&#$ing bathtub.
• Alliterative Family: The Anders twins, Anette the elder and Agatha the younger. Episode 21 reveals that it's by 3 minutes.
• Amnesiac Lover: Episode 35 reveals that previous Demeter got his Anette to fall in love with him, by pretending that he lost his memories of his servant massacre.
• Animorphism: In Episode 36, Bridgette tells a story to her little sister about the three princes that transformed themselves into animals with a magical potion, so they could eat the others to gain their "power" as a Cannibalism Superpower, presumably the traits mentioned in the previous pages, a wolf's bravery, fox's cunning, or rabbit's speed.
• Armoured Closet Gay: Marinus is hinted to be bisexual. He discretely checks out men in balls and considers giving a man CPR kissing but when alternate universe Marinus snarks at his attraction, he explodes in denial and rage.
• Berserk Button:
  • As said in Episode 32, anyone who steps in and messes with Charlotte's stuff is going to pay for what they did.
  • In Episode 41, when Marina is holding off a thicket (which is conjured by Marinus) she explains to Anette that it is used to track someone including herself. Anette realizes she is being stalked, furiously rip the thicket into pieces.
  • As shown in a flashback from Episode 44, Agatha was going to secretly kiss her crush Rebecca during a summer gathering when Lady Eliza made an huge entrance with her horse and interrupted the moment. This caused Agatha to blow a fuse and shout at Eliza that she wanted Eliza to be stomped by her horse, which caused a huge shock to the people in the gathering and also Rebecca who later broke up with her.
• Closet Gay: In Episode 19, it is revealed that Agatha is a lesbian who has to hide her sexuality from her male suitors by poisoning them or else they will expose her to the nationalist league, which will lead her to her punishment.
• Confused Question Mark: When someone is talking about "different classes", Lord Anders's confusion is marked by three question marks.
• Cool Gate: Episode 34 reveals "portal docks", apparently doorframes that enclose portals to just walk without the intervening distance, one-person at a time.
• Cruel Mercy: Episode 54 reveals Emilie stepped in to prevent the mob from killing Phoebe during the rebellion, but only because she wants her to live long enough for people to know her crimes and what a horrible person she truly is before she gets executed.
• Death by Despair: In Episode 51, Phoebe reminisces about the story called Flowers Thrive in Autumn she read in her past life, in which Prince Dimitri fell in love with Clara (Bridgette's previous incarnation), who politely rejects him which causes Dimitri to commit suicide due to a broken heart. But in reality, Dimitri is a stalker to Clara and despite Clara trying to warn Phoebe that he is not the right man for her, Phoebe marries Dimitri in order to escape from her engagement with another suitor.
• Deal with the Devil: In Episode 25, Marinus made a deal with his previous counterpart and received a magical green stone, containing his previous incarnation's soul, that would make him unstoppable.
• Demon of Human Origin: According to the Author's tumblr Q&A, demons who were once human are manifestations of the magic within people that are not properly contained and are afraid of death, such as with Mr. Hughes, an antagonist of one of the otome isekai novels Bridgette's alternate counterpart read and Marinus Demeter's previous self from the previous timeline.
• Demonic Possession: Seeing that his current self is useless, Lord Demeter’s previous counterpart possesses him and controls his body.
• Didn't Think This Through: A recurring problem with OI protagonists in the setting. Many are so self-absorbed, they don't consider or care about the long term, wide reaching ramifications of their actions especially if it doesn't affect them or their love interests directly. This often leads to a Happy Ending Override when the consequences of their actions finally catch up to them.
• Dirty Cop: It is revealed in Episode 33, the Imperial Knights are corrupted when they only support nobles and not commoners who are considered undesirable to noble society. They even committed bribery and plant false evidences.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Episode 61 reveals Emilie was horribly whipped and imprisoned over Phoebe's youngest son innocently calling her "Mama" during her eldest son's memorial service, which Phoebe viewed as her wanting to disrespect said dead son.
• Drowning My Sorrows: In Episode 34, Demeter after he realized that he is nothing but a fictional character, begins to drink a lot of wine bottles while wallowing in his bathtub in depression.
• Finish Dialogue in Unison: In Episode 42, Anette tries to figure out who summoned the thicket to track her until she realizes it was Marinus Demeter. Bridgette and Shellie who are in the same room with Anette said the same thing.
• For Want Of A Nail: Bridgette telling Anette off for her slapping her maids as a show of superiority leads to Anette both realizing Bridgette is a reincarnator and also having a huge moment of realization of what she became, which leads to events playing out far differently than they should have, especially because this allows for Bridgette to tell Anette about Lord Demeter's killing spree of Limpetta servants and only make Anette more determined to break off with him.
• Framing Device: Mixed with Sequencing Deception in Episode 13, we think that events are happening such as seeing Bridgette's tale from her version of Anette, but at the end, it's revealed that they're happening at the same time, as a prelude to massacre.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: The main Aesop of the story, plenty of characters have sad and traumatic backstories but that never excuses the harm they cause others and ultimately they can never escape the consequences of their actions.
• Funny Background Event: In Episode 27, Lavesque's knight bodyguards are giving each other looks as he is being accused of perversion by Bridgette.
• Genre Deconstruction: This series deconstructs most of the tropes in the Otome Isekai genre which are considered controversial, such as when the Otome Isekai protagonist slaps the maid for no reason when she was doing her job and why an Otome Isekai protagonist easily forgives the male lead despite the terrible things that he did.
• Giving Radio to the Romans:
  • In Episode 2, Bridgette mocks how the Isekai protagonists do this, putting Scare Quotes around "invent":
    Bridgette: They then "invent" technology by plagiarizing it from the future and passing it off as their own creations.
  • Episode 6 reveals that the idea of a workers / maids union is not new in this world, but later developments reveal that Nora Williams, still benefited from the Isekai protagonist knowledge by having such a woman as her mother.
  • Deconstructed in Episode 7 where it takes place in one of Bridgette's past lives as Muriel, a protagonist of another otome isekai series whose events apparently take place in the same world, named Delilah Angelica Rose who has written a few plays based on the ones she knows from her past life, but when Muriel begins to point out that one of her plays was actually Hamlet from our world, Delilah Rose slapped her.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: According to the "Q&A Answered!" chapter and Episode 62, one of Bridgette's previous life was maid to a driven-insane-by-timelooping Viscountess.
• Happy Ending Override: After their "story" has ended, it is shown that most of the Otome isekai protagonists are facing more problems. After Phoebe is married to the tyrant Prince Dimitri, she becomes a Noble Fugitive when the people of Kolt form a revolution against the royal family, leaving Phoebe and her child on the run as the only survivors. In the original Momentary Duchess timeline, Anette is strangled to death by Marinus while she is filing for a divorce.
• Head Pet: In Episode 13, alternate Shellie gets headpats like a dog from Anette.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": In Episode 20, Shellie is an ambitious author who writes short stories, hoping to submit them to some magazines. One of them is loosely based on her and her crush Charlotte, who is a co-worker.
• Heroic BSoD: Bridgette suffers this in Episode 46, when she sees the visitor who is staying in the Anders household is actually Phoebe, the person who brought suffering to her previous incarnation that led to her death. Bridgette begins to have an emotional trauma, worrying that she will once again die young like her previous incarnations.
• Hero Worship: In Episode 13, Bridgette tells Shellie about her role in Momentary Duchess, a personal servant to Anette who admires her as Anette rewards her by patting her on the head, Shellie doesn't accept this answer easily, because she feels like she is treated as a pet instead of a human being.
• The Homeward Journey: After breaking up with Marinus Demeter in Episode 36, Anette’s new main goal is to return to her original world as her original incarnation Iseul and reunite with her mother.
• Incompletely Trained: Marina was kicked out of magical academy due to discrimination and her own impulsive actions. Despite this, she makes use of what she learned to great effect.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Nora's biological mother, a reincarnator, accidentally conceived Nora with the male slave she bought to pose as a lover and decided to sell her off to a slave market so she could rejoin high society. Nora's father was furious and both killed the slaver and threatened her if she dared approach him and Nora again. When said mother attempted to retrieve Nora by force, she exposed herself as a willing human trafficker and was imprisoned for the rest of her life.
  • Almost all OI protagonists suffer from this as the consequences of their actions catch up to them. Alternate universe Iseul ends up strangled by Marinus. Reincarnator Phoebe ends up deposed, most of her children killed and her final daughter disowns her the list goes on.
• Long-Lost Relative: Marinus' biological mother Nahla was Marina's mother's older sister, meaning that the two are actually maternal cousins, although only the previous Marinus is aware of this.
• Love Cannot Overcome: After she learned from Bridgette earlier that Lord Demeter killed a lot of servants who are Limpetta in Momentary Duchess, Anette breaks up with Lord Demeter at the ball and tells him to never come to her again.
• Media Transmigration: Subverted with Bridgette herself, as she is always a fictional character but was reincarnated in every otome isekai story, including Momentary Duchess read by her alternate modern counterpart from our world, who is still alive and has received the knowledge from her through dreams.
• Medium Awareness:
  • Bridgette and her previous incarnations are aware that they live in the world of every otome isekai novel read by their modern alternate counterpart from our world.
  • After being reincarnated in Momentary Duchess, Anette is aware that she is in the world of her favorite novel Betrothed to the Grave and must make sure to make her life better.
  • After his death, Demeter’s previous self gains the awareness of Momentary Duchess as he is about to explain its premise to his current counterpart.
• Mental Time Travel: Episode 20 reveals that Phoebe received this, reviving into a younger version of herself after her death in the "future".
• Münchausen Syndrome: In the Momentary Duchess timeline, Previous Demeter poisons his daughter with a non-lethal poison in order to make her dependent on him.
• Mundane Utility: Marina uses her magic skills to make and sell magical items for everyday use - heating water, communication.
• Necromancer: Not in such words, but in Episode 39, it's revealed that reincarnators are known to nobles as possessors and such, and talking to the dead is forbidden.
• Never My Fault: Agatha fully blames Eliza for ruining her relationship with Rebecca, despite the fact it wasn't Eliza's entrance more than Agatha's overreaction to said entrance that caused Rebecca to break up with Agatha.
• Next Life as a Fictional Character: Otome Isekai protagonists reincarnate into Bridgette's worlds after dying in their modern world. And not all of them are better than what they were before. Episode 7 shows that Deliah Rose was different and at least neither violent nor interfering, better than what the reincarnator did with her body after taking it over post-coma. The original Phoebe likewise was a far kinder person than the person who took over her body after her death and Bridgette hates what the reincarnator has done to the point she's overridden everything of the original Phoebe.
• Noble Fugitive: After her husband King Dimitri and her family are killed by the Kolt revolutionaries, Phoebe and her child flee to Teffrah and remain in the Anders household, which acts as a safe house.
  • Episode 50 reveals that the ancestor of King Dimitri (Phoebe's late husband), the son of Emperor Dimitrious and his governess, fled to Kolt on the day after his father was executed, where he later grows into a young adult and is married to the daughter of the royal Kolt family, becoming King of Kolt.
• No Periods, Period: Averted. One version of Marinus who is a woman has no issues with grinding up the gem to absorb his magic power because the headaches from that are nothing compared to period cramps.
• One-Hit KO: In Episode 67, Daemeon Nightwolffe grabs Anette and forces her to come along with him, but Anette, who doesn't like being with strangers, knocks Daemeon out with a single punch to the face, injuring him in the process.
• Orphaned Etymology: Episode 15 has Bridgette use the term "workplace abuse", which reincarnator Anette is very surprised about how that phrase is known.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Marinus Demeter has a hatred of his previous self, especially when his previous self possesses him.
• Our Demons Are Different: Episode 24 has a webcomic based on some smut novel called The Rain Falls Gently On The Villainess where demons have infested a manor and at least one demon can disguise itself as a handsome man.
• Parental Substitute: Phoebe's child, Claire Tree (originally called Little Dimitri) , clearly indicates this, as she prefers Emilie over her mother, having even called her "Mama" on occasions in the past. Emilie also affirms Claire’s gender as trans. Phoebe doesn't care about her own child Claire, whom she views as soulless as the "fictional" people in this world.
• Penny Among Diamonds: Unlike most of the Otome isekai stories that focus on wealthy nobles and the higher class, this series focuses more on the commoners and the lower class who work as domestic servants for the nobles. The main protagonist of the series Bridgette is one of the commoners, who works as a maid and has been so under many different lives.
• People of Hair Color: Implied in earlier stories but confirmed in Episode 13 of Limpette's people according to Anette.

  Anette: It is described as a country of barbarians, known for their brown skin and distinctive population of people with blue and green hair.

• Plot Armor: In Episode 8, Bridgette points out that the "plot armor" is a literal Male Lead superpower.

  Bridgette: Male Leads are almost always invincible no matter how many hits they take.

• Power Crystal: Magic Stones are introduced in Episode 4 as some of Marina's creations, one of them is used as a sleep-enhancement spell.
• Produce Pelting: In Episode 36, one of the protestors furiously throws a rotten egg at Phoebe during her wedding.
• Properly Paranoid: Previous Marinus reveals that there are alternate versions of him that looked Limpetta who ended up being raised by his maternal aunt's family. He doesn't know much about those timelines because said aunt upon learning he was approached by a dead man offering him something immediately used various means to ward him off and hammer home he should never accept anything from a dead man. Considering what said previous Marinus ends up doing to the present Marinus, said paranoia is well justified.
• Purgatory and Limbo: The Door room is introduced in the latter half of Episode 17. It is an area that exists between time and space and between life and death. Bridgette's previous incarnations use this when they enter the next life or reminisce about their previous lives.
• Reduced to Dust: Episode 23 reveals that magic can reduce at least a sword to dust.
• Reincarnate in Another World: Otome Isekai protagonists who died in their modern world have been reincarnated as female noble characters like Anette, for example, except for Bridgette as it's revealed in Episode 6 that she didn't reincarnate in a different world each time, but the same one for at least four different lives.
• Running Over the Plot: Episodes 13 and 31 reveals how Iseul died, by being hit by a truck due to talking on her cellphone.
• Savage Spiked Weapons: In the Series Announcement, to ward off a slap from Annette, Bridgette shows off a spiked gauntlet labeled "Union".
• The Scapegoat: Frank ended up as this when Agatha (who orchestrated this scheme in framing Bridgette and blackmailed him to do it) lied that Frank planned the whole thing up by himself.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Episode 21, two maids quit their jobs after they witness a brutal fight between Anette and Agatha, but not before they leave their notes to Bridgette and friends about the reasons why they quit.
• Secret-Keeper: Shellie ends up as this in Episode 11 when Bridgette reveals the premise of Momentary Duchess to her.
• Shout-Out: In Episode 37, many of the Disney Princesses like Snow White, Cinderella and Frozen’s Anna and Elsa are mentioned.
• Show Within a Show: The world in which Bridgette and her incarnations lived has its own fictional works, like Lover in the Night in Episode 35.
• Spit Take: Episode 24 has Bridgette give one when Nora Williams's mother's name is revealed, because she knows the mother was a reincarnator.
• Struggling Single Mother: Gender-Inverted in Episode 24, where Nora reveals that she was a daughter of an otome isekai protagonist and a male slave she bought from a slave market to become her pretend lover and to eradicate the demons in the household. When the job was done, they gave birth to Nora, as her mother (who wanted to rejoin high society) suggested that the baby should be sent to the other place (the slave market). Nora's father didn't agree with this suggestion, so he killed his slave trader and fled the household with his child, leaving Nora's mother to be imprisoned for her involvement in slavery while Nora's father took care of his daughter by himself. Nora does ensure everyone that despite the hardships, she was happy living under her father's care.
  • Sadie, a maid who is hired by Lord Demeter, is raising her son (a baby) by herself due to an affair with a noble clergyman. She later sells her child to another couple instead of the orphanage reserved for Limpetta children for xenophobic reasons.
• The Multiverse: In Episode 12, Bridgette explains to Shellie about alternate universes in different tiers. The first tier (or in this case the highest tier) is where Bridgette gets her knowledge from, along with the premise of Momentary Duchess and where her alternate modern counterpart lived. The second tier is where Betrothed to the Grave takes place and is also where Anette's previous incarnation lived before she was killed. The third tier is where Momentary Duchess takes place, and the fourth tier is where Bridgette and her friends currently live.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Bridgette does this to Anette in Episode 15 and seen in the promotional chapter, when she tells her that she knows about her past life as a fired employee and asks her if she is really from the modern world when she is about to slap her over lukewarm eggs.
    Bridgette: I know you were hit by a car after you were fired for reporting a higher up in your company for workplace abuse. And somehow despite knowing how painful it is going through that you were going to hit me, your employee. What happened to you and your co-worker was wrong. But look at you, so eager to hit a maid over lukewarm eggs. Are you really from the modern world?
  • During his Villainous Breakdown in Episode 33, Frank blamed the Imperial Knights for giving him harsher treatment, promoted another knight to a higher position instead of him and even committed bribery and planting false evidence.
  • In Episode 56, Bridgette is so shocked that Marinus is stalking her and her friends that she rants to him that he's a person who cares only about himself.
    Bridgette: It's all about you, isn't it? It's all about YOUR pain and YOUR feelings! Just screw everyone else, right?! If you care so much about how other people feel about you, why don't you even TRY to become a better person?!
• The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Episode 35 has previous Demeter possess his current counterparts body as his current incarnation remains as the reflection.
• Traumatic Haircut: In Episode 25, bullies goad Iseul into cutting her hair, which causes her considerable distress.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: In Episode 35, Previous Demeter states that throwing themselves in despair and putting their life in danger triggers their magical potential. Marina mentioned to have activated her magical potential as a child, but no trauma has been mentioned.
  Previous Demeter: Throwing you into depression and putting your life in danger is the fastest method of unlocking your magical potential!
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: In Episode 12, Anette describes about the scenario of Betrothed to the Grave in her bedroom while swearing to herself that she won't fall in love with Lord Marinus Demeter. At the same time, Bridgette explains to Shellie about the premise of both Betrothed to the Grave and Momentary Duchess, only at the end Bridgette believes that Anette will still fall in love with Demeter anyway.
• Villainous BSoD: This happens to Marinus Demeter when he realizes he is nothing but a fictional character.
• What Have I Become?: After Iseul is reincarnated as Anette from Betrothed to the Grave, she like every Otome Isekai protagonist, slaps a maid like Marina to show her superiority until Bridgette, who knows about Anette's past life, stands up to her and shows her the error of her ways by asking her if she is really from the modern world. At first, Anette scoffed at this but when she noticed that the maids were scared of her, that is when she realized that she is becoming like the very people who bullied her back in her world when she was Iseul. This realization causes her to not end up like how she would have played out in the original events.
• World's Smartest Man: Episode 25 has Demeter’s previous self taunting Marinus who assumes that he has nothing of value, saying that Marinus thinks that he's the smartest man in the world.
• Worst Wedding Ever: Sometime after the death of Bridgette’s previous incarnation Clara, Phoebe has become Queen and married to Prince Dimitri. But many protestors yell at Phoebe for marrying the Prince because her family supported the Teffrah's invasion of Limpette (Kolt and Limpette were at one point considered sister countries), Dimitri orders a mass execution of the protestors by hanging and later cut off the social programs which are for him "a strain on the treasury ". These atrocities committed by Dimitri’s tyrannical rule led to the ongoing Kolt Revolution which later led to the capture and execution of Dimitri and his children except Phoebe who escapes along with her youngest child and fled the country.

---