You know, this is going to be a disorganized post but hear me out! I’m a fan of folktales and mythology and I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia, especially on the In Popular Culture content section. And it hit me, while there’s a recent surge in reaction fic in TCF fandom, I haven’t seen a lot of outsider POV fics. Or at least, the one like the Wikipedia part mentioned above.
Like, give me a Wikipedia on the characters as if they are truly historical figures we learn about in history class. Or at least, something like the cultural depiction of that character (Cale, especially) in the future generation time. Because even as we readers have a more in-depth read on the characters’ journey and motivations and reasons, in-universe outsiders don’t. And this could be great!
Imagine, how some people might think and agree that Cale is a saint-like figure (courtesy of some crazy legend lunatic) who was so kind, heroic and must be protected at all cost. A more realistic mindset people might believe that this depiction might be exaggerated by history and countered back, using the original Cale Henituse’s drunkward actions, to show that Cale Henituse was not a perfect angel.
Other folks (descendants of the nobles who wanted to control the royal family and/or jealous of the Henituse family’s wealth) instead argue that Cale is a more ambitious figure since he managed to capture the attention of the back-then-crown prince Alberu Crossman and became ally with powerful people of all races. You can twist it into something more scandalous, I guess, by making it seem that Cale was a Helen of Troy sort of beauty. Some believe he had a beauty that made even the most beautiful race, like dragon, bewitched. That he seduced all of those scary, powerful people into fighting for the Roan Empire.
Yeah, I was reading Anne Boleyn (who was often depicted as a seductive vixen who convinced the King to split from the Catholism church) and Hurrem Sultan (a red-haired concubine who eventually schemed her way into becoming the wife of the sultan).
But that’s all. I will come back to this if I can think of more.
Bruh, from an outside view, Cale Henituse is a whole CONSPIRACY.
Like, this guy already emerged with a swordmaster by his side. The Black Blade Choi Han was said to be his bodyguard since before the Plaza Terror Incident. Cale Henituse had the worst reputation ever at the time. So why did the swordmaster followed him?? So sus.
The then-crown prince Alberu was understandable if he decided to ally with Henituse. He owed him for saving his people. Alberu Crossman was a ruler that genuinely cared for his subjects.
But then there’s Toonka. TOONKA. A barbarian that at the time, never had a single ounce of sympathy for the weak. He said that Cale was his friend, the only person that believes that the non-mage faction would win even when the civil war hadn’t even started yet. Many argued that Cale was the reason the war started in the first place.
The Jungle fire was the one with the most speculation. So Cale Henituse just happened to be in the path of no return, somewhere between the Whipper Kingdom and the Jungle, which is no where near Roan, while Queen Litana who just happened to be there, in a final effort to find a solution to an unusual fire that’s never been seen before? Yeaaahhh too much coincidences. Many speculated that Cale Henituse was the one to start the fire in the first place. He used the same fire in the Gorge of Death remember? Why does everyone conveniently forgot about that when singing praises about him. The whole thing was way too sus.
And the whales. The WHALES. So Cale Henituse saved the prince? Who was poisoned by mermaid poison? A poison with no known cure, even by the whales that have been battling them for generations????? I CALL SUS!!!
AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE WHOLE MOGORU SITUATION CUZ THAT IN ITSELF DESERVE A WHOLE BOOK AND A 3 HOUR LECTURE!!!
NO WAIT CUZ I JUST THOUGHT SOMETHING
Ya know, his past was pretty sketchy. No, i don’t mean that we-don’t-know-much-about-his-past sketchy, but something-doesnt-add-up sketchy.
He was the first born of one of the richest noble families in Roan. He’s someone that has the power and money to do whatever he wants, and to order people to do whatever he wants.
Why is this important? Cuz of what we know about him in general. Remember, he was the trash of the Henituse, he had a horrid personality, always drinking in bars and causing general chaos and discomfort, he always did property damage, etc.
But why did he even do all that? If the whole drowning in alcohol really was a grief response from losing his mother, why did he even need to go to bars and taverns if alcohol is what he wants. His house probably has better alcohol than any bars in the kingdom. He’s rich, why did he even need to spend energy to actually go somewhere? And for something lower quality than what he could get while lounging on his sofa?
And even when he was a jackass, the damage he did wasn’t really up to par with what you’d expect from an actual jackass. He never hurt anyone physically, he threw bottles but only at other jackasses, and even then it never hit. He causes property damage but it was never something important or life-ruining, always something replaceable like furniture or something. He’s an asshole, but not as big as an asshole that you’d expect from someone so infamous.
He’s so infamous in fact, that even foreign countries know that he’s an asshole. Let me repeat myself, HE’S RICH. He has all the money and power to keep people’s mouth shut. Enough family influence to stop rumours and stories from spreading, or at least dampen his trashy reputation at least. Why didn’t he? If anything, his trashy rep was kinda blown out of proportion. It’s like he wants to be known as trash.
So here’s my own theory. Let me ask ask you something, if you ever want to get to know the latest news and gossip, or to meet up and make deals with people, where would you go? *slams table* THE TAVERNS!!!!
Cale Henituse has been using his drunken outings as a cover for information gathering!!!!
No but LISTEN IT ALL ADDS UP!!! The Henituse territory had been a little too prepared for the war don’t you think? They had fortified their castle walls, gathered more knights and mages, made evacuation plans, gathering extra food and farming tools…
Those would need a couple of years of preparations. Are you telling me, that a small territory of the northeast, bordering a Forbidden Region, with no known route for any foreign invasion, had been that prepared for one?? Especially after only a couple weeks after the announcement by the Indomitable Alliance and only 3 days after the discovery of the wyverns?????
They contributed a third, A THIRD, of the funds needed for the Ubarr Navy Base. They contributed as much as the royal family!! And for what?! THEY WERE A TERRITORY KNOWN FOR ART AND CULTURE, NOT MILITARY. SO WHY??????!!!!
Even Marquis Ailan, who actually known as a military household, was not as prepared for the war as the Henituse. How the heck did the art nerd with no known connection to the outside world could predict the war even better than the actual war jocks??
Okay, let’s just step back a little. I know that it’s highly possible that the Henituse just had more money to buy better information than anyone in Roan, and it might not even be Cale Henituse at all, maybe it’s just HENITUSE in general.
But remember the start of all this. Remember the Plaza Terror Incident. Remember how the mana was disturbed just as the terrorists was trying to detonate the bombs, remember how the bombs flew over and detonate at the mountains, like someone had transported the there, like someone had deliberately prepared to counter the attack, that someone had been ready.
Cale Henituse was there instead of his brother Basen. CALE Henituse attended, when his brother had been attending the functions for the past 2 years. Why? If it is a Henituse operation, Basen Henituse would have suffice. No need to make a change that would draw eyes to them. But CALE Henituse was there. Like it needs to be Cale. Not Henituse, but CALE.
Perhaps we never really know who Cale Henituse was before his rise to being hero. At least, nothing that wasn’t what Cale Henituse himself wants us to know.
Trash of the Count’s family 백작가의 망나니가 되었다 is the webtoon adaptation of a famous Korean web novel of the same name. This novel won the grand prize at the 2018 Korean Web Novel Contest. It is an ongoing series with 600+ episodes.
It stared with Kim Rok-Soo who possessed the body of an extra villain character of the fantasy novel he was reading. As a trash of the Count’s family, Cale Henituse tries to avoid his destiny (being beaten miserably by the novel’s protagonist) by changing the story a little bit, but he ends up being caught in big events on a continental scale.
Since last year, I’ve been in love with Korean web novels. I started with Korean fantasy sub-genre called “RoFan 로판 (Romance Fantasy for female readers)" such as Who made me a princess 어느날 공주가 되어 버렸다 or The Emperor and the Female Knight 황제와 여기사. However, I was getting tired of similar settings and plots, so I moved to the fantasy sub-genre for male readers. Even though it was originally designed for male readers, there are a few novels also favored by female readers, and one of them was The Trash of the Count's Family 백작가의 망나니가 되었다.
For reference, the following is the “Four most popular Korean fantasy novels among Korean female readers” (4대 판소).
Omniscient Reader 전지적 독자 시점
The S-Classes that I raised 내가 키운 S급들
How to live as the Enemy Prince 적국의 왕자로 사는 법
The Trash of the Count’s family 백작가의 망나니가 되었다
Omniscient Reader 전지적 독자 시점 (Completed) :
The biggest bestseller among existing Korean web novels. The largest fandom with almost equal preference between male and female readers. Many BL fans as well as many general fans. It became more popular after the webtoon’s release. The representative work of the Korean fantasy sub-genre called "Constellations 성좌물”.
The S classes that I raised 내가 키운 S급들 (Ongoing) :
The 30-year-old protagonist is the weakest F-class hunter. He decides to go back to the past five years ago, when his younger brother loses his life while trying to save him from a dangerous monster in a dungeon. The 25-year-old protagonist reconciled with his brother and awakens his unique skills as a ‘caregiver’ and tries to save the world by discovering and raising S-class hunters. It started as a typical male-oriented fantasy novel but I’m sure almost 90% readers are women right now. The original novel itself contains strong homosexual tension of almost BL level, so it has the support of enthusiastic BL fandom. No webtoon is released yet. One of the representative work of the K-fantasy sub-genre called “Dungeon raid” (or “Hunters”). Solo leveling 나혼자만 레벨업 belongs to this genre as well.
How to live as the Enemy Prince 적국의 왕자로 사는 법 :
The protagonist is the second prince of the kingdom destroyed by the neighboring invasion. When he opened his eyes, he realized that he was in the body of the youngest prince of the enemy country a few years before being killed. To stop his half brother from invading his kingdom in the future, the protagonist tries to understand him and gradually saves everyone around. I personally love this novel, but the author died of a chronic illness a few months ago, so we can never see the ending. No webtoon is made yet.
I think I’m back!!!! I’m sorry for disappear without saying anything. Life was just too much. Here are Cale Henituse FA I’ve drawn for practice my skills on.
my god im having a boomer moment LMAO, even though i had tumblr for years,, i wanted to reply to your submission but i didnt see an option?? so i hope you still see this,, oh wait i think i can tag you? @just-a-sleepy-person ajhdajshd anyway thank you for the submission!!
“Originally, the twenty years old Kim Rok Soo was pretty useless. However, as he passed 25, 30, and then 35, Kim Rok Soo became a decent person.”
Reality: KRS survived the monster apocalypse on his own while starved without any powers, joined the most impressive team in the Company with no combat abilities, became an invaluable member of the organization, came out alive from fighting against multiple unranked monsters, overthrew multiple corrupted guilds, gained an ability that let him transcend time, and lead his team for years with 0% casualty rate Me: … Me: That’s it. I am nevertaking KRS talking about himself at face-value again
*pats on the back* Well sister, you ain’t the only one
Me: *sees one (1) TCF meme* Huh, I wonder where this came from One week later: Me: *obsessively researching* So wait, exactly how many times did Cale faint the novel??
Can we all just sit back and appreciate the fact that since Alberu’s last name is a pun – Crossman being literally the name of gun selling company – it means our dear Author-nim planned to give him a gun since the start? *chef’s kiss*
