Ikemen Villain – William Rex
Synopsis
You have lived your quiet life as a letter courier in 19th century England for many years, dutifully delivering letters and finding joy in the smiles that the letters bring to the receivers’ face. One day while on a nighttime run for delivery, you stumbled upon a murder right as it was happening. You were whisked away to the hideout of the murderers even before you had the chance to run away. There you learnt that this group of men are part of the Queen’s secret service, Crown, to fight evil with evil. Each of them has been cursed with a special power and tragic ending. In exchange for your life, you agree to be their Fairytale Keeper, to record each of their sins as a report to the Queen. Will you be able to stay in the light even as the darkness of their lives invite you to join them?
Warning: This Ikemen series explores dark topics and should be consumed by mature audience only.
William Rex Story Route
William prides himself as the self-righteous monarch having inherited the curse of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. I had the impression that I would be in for a ride with a character who would be cold and heartless and probably a little crazy like the queen but I was quite surprised that William is modelled after the dark knight himself. Taking upon the evil of society by dealing them the harshest form of death to deter these scums from committing atrocious acts that violate basic human rights.
Yet when it came to romancing the MC, William is all sweet and encouraging, helping her to find her voice whether it be on her likes, wants, aspirations and desires. For a MC who has been denying her own will for the longest time, suddenly being able to find her voice and having the power to make a difference can certainly turn one giddy. This led to the really saucy one night stand after both of them got drenched in the rain walking home together. But will this romance die before it takes off given that William is destined for a tragic death?
The MC finally got a glimpse of the darkness in William’s heart. He is destined to die as ferociously as the punishment he metes out on his enemies. After witnessing a gruesome execution, MC realises that if she were to continue walking down this path, it will only result in a bitter ending where she would change forever as her judgement between good and evil will be blurred. However she is reluctant to let William go in her heart.
William is subsequently framed for crimes he didn’t commit in a bid by a secret party to destroy Crown. William plans to leave Crown to go into hiding and MC insisted on going with him. For the first time, he denied her request. Because just as he wants MC to live life according to her desires, he also wants to make sure he doesn’t rob MC of her happiness by being condemned together with him. Damn fatalistic view of life.
In the end William leaves without her. MC comes up with a plan to turnaround public perception of William since that is the only thing she can do for him now. Together with Harrison, Liam and Alfons, they breached the Tower of London to save the people who have been arrested and tortured to force them to falsely accuse William of committing those crimes. William arrives to save them and deal his justice on the corrupt police.
William knows that even if he frees the prisoners they would still be branded as his accomplices so he was willing to be killed by them to prove their innocence. Again very fatalistic. However MC got in the way and was stabbed instead, causing the mob to subside. After all the prisoners were freed, Bryan writes another article exposing the truth so William is now proven innocent.
After MC wakes up, she tells William that she’s decided that she will continue to protect him even if it costs her life. And that the only time he is allowed to die is after she dies protecting him. William finally relents and accepts her love.
Lord Grimsley the Privy Council member behind the framing and the mastermind of the drug houses which rob people of their freedom was ousted from the council. In his anger he vows revenge on William. Meanwhile the Crown members celebrate the return of William and MC’s recovery. However Victor soon delivers their next mission which is the assassination of Lord Grimsley.
Blind Love End
The Crown works together to lure Grimsley out. Fearing for his life, Grimsley attempts to flee to Bristol and the team arrives to intercept him at the train station. Grimsley has hired bodyguards to protect him and in his paranoid state he ordered his guards to shoot an innocent bystander. A stray bullet hit a young florist nearby, the very same girl that William had rescued preciously. MC laments the irony of this – William’s righteousness which haunts his enemies will eventually lead to them hurting those he seeks to protect.
The Crown members arrive to subdue the bodyguards while William and MC runs after Grimsley who has boarded the train. After MC jumps onto the moving train, she was immediately caught at gunpoint by one of the bodyguards. William commands the guard to let go but he couldn’t be controlled because Grimsley had drugged him and cut off his ears. What an evil person! While his bodyguard continues to point his gun at MC, Grimsley is free to hurt William however he wants.
Knowing that William will just let himself be tortured so that MC will not be hurt, she starts to goad Grimsley so that he would be distracted by her. When he finally turn his attention towards her, William uses this opportunity to stab a sword into his body, ending his life. He also quickly subdues the bodyguard. MC and William jumps off the train upon completion of their mission.
When questioned by MC on why he didn’t just let her die, William said that it is not yet time because he still wants to love her a lot more, to see her grow in perfection before her ultimate death which would utterly stain red his own destruction. Very poetic in some deranged manner. MC seems to have gone over to this dark side as she muses over the beauty of William’s love for her.
On the last day of the month MC is supposed to stay with the Crown, she made her decision to become a permanent Fairytale Keeper. This way she can stay with William until the day of their death. She would also have more time to get to know each and every other member of the Crown, to understand their curse and understand the darkness that permeate London. Victor gladly accedes to her request and thus begins MC’s days as part of the Crown, living and taking on William’s sins as her own.
~ Fin
Review
I like the premise of the plot which explores the underbelly of London in the 19th century. In William’s route, the focus is on drug houses which epitomizes the loss of freedom when one is consumed by the substance as well as the forced labour that is required to produce these drugs en masse. William’s mission is to free people to do what they desire. He does this in two ways – by helping the weak find their voice through support and encouragement, and also through the destruction of the evil forces that steal those voices away. Through William’s lens, one finds it hard to differentiate between right and wrong, good and evil, which is why he is called the self-righteous monarch. Sometimes to do the right thing requires you to commit evil acts, the ironies of life.
However when set in the context of an otome game where romance is the main focus, I find the whole concept rather twisted. While there is a part of me that wishes for a love that throws abandonment to the wind, that consumes you entirely such that the only conclusion is death, the rational and moral mind forbids me from doing so. Thus it is also a love story that I cannot empathise with. When MC bled all over William trying to protect him, instead of being filled with dread and concern, he ends up glorifying the act and admiring the beauty of her red blood staining his cloak. That I feel border on insanity but then again this is a villain route so I get it that the narrative has to be dark.
I find it difficult also to draw the link between William’s curse and his eventual death. The tragedy is that he will die by his own hands, a fate created by the actions he’s taken to destroy evil with evil. Because of that, William takes on such a fatalistic perspective of life which affects the decisions and actions he takes. It can be so frustrating to love someone like this. I enjoyed the romance between William and the MC right up to the moment when William was framed. When William chose to go his own way, to die in the process even, I felt that it screwed up the whole plot. MC was about to resolve the situation for William at the Tower of London. His appearance, her injury and his subsequent parade to free the prisoners all felt rather superfluous. Maybe it’s the writers trying too hard to be poetic.
William is described as the perfect gentleman with multiple talents and only seeks for the good of others, yet he is also fatalistic and potentially insane. I usually like the bad boys in otome games, but this one strikes out as a huge red flag. He will be someone I’ll be happy to admire from far far away.