The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System is a satire of prevalent male-oriented harem fiction. It’s a commentary on the nature of commercial fiction, criticizing authors and readers alike. It asks the reader to pick up on subtleties that are not blatantly explained. It rewards you for your effort by delivering an unconventionally satisfying story and relationship.

As for the plot, Shen Yuan (MC) transmigrates into the novel Proud Immortal Demon Way. Once a fan, he hated the unsatisfying ending. Soon after finishing it, he perishes unexpectedly and is transmigrated into the story by the inexplicable "System," which restrains him to the role of the titular scum villain: Shen Qingqiu. The original was an abusive master to his disciple Luo Binghe (ML), who eventually blackened and returned for revenge. This new Shen Qingqiu resolves not to be harsh and is a compassionate shizun to Luo Binghe. Inherently, Luo Binghe bears a shine to him. Even after a sequence of mishaps and misunderstandings, a half-blackened Luo Binghe still desires the recognition and acceptance of his shizun—and perhaps something more.

Shen Qingqiu is a clever main character for this sort of narrative. What he tells is equally as significant as what he doesn't express. He's an unreliable narrator and serves as our witty and clever guide to the world and our lens into the psyche of a fan-turned-critic. But given the power to change a one-dimensional story, he does. He turns it from a generic yet over-the-top male wish-fulfillment fantasy into a living, breathing world with complex, multi-faceted characters. The characters aren't just characters; they're people. Much like in our world, everyone has a story to tell, from the purportedly one-dimensional initial scum villain to the equally one-dimensional protagonist of PIDW—which brings me to the said "protagonist," aka the love interest, Luo Binghe.

He’s an atypical love interest, for sure. On the surface, he’s easy to write off as obsessive or downright yandere, but the novel's point is that he isn’t. More than anything, he wants answers to why things had to go the way they did. He only wants to be accepted for who he is—demon and all—by Shen Qingqiu, the one person Luo Binghe genuinely believes loved him. He desires, at least once, for Shen Qingqiu to pick him. At the same time, Luo Binghe is wickedly clever—willing to play crybaby to get what he wants, generally kisses and praise from his shizun. And while Shen Qingqiu pretends to be exasperated by this, the truth is that he’s hopelessly charmed (and he’s just a big tsundere) ~

Along the way, Shen Qingqiu realizes he genuinely feels for Luo Binghe. They have a lot of miscommunication between them, but it’s all believable. Shen Qingqiu is acting on prior knowledge of the original book, making assumptions that Luo Binghe is out to kill him and operating out of sheer self-preservation. This initial knowledge serves to be less of a superpower and more of a weakness to him. Eventually, he realizes that while avoiding the grievous sins of the original Shen Qingqiu, he also has made many mistakes and deeply hurt Luo Binghe himself--just in a different way. Not until Shen Qingqiu puts aside his preconceived notions, listens to Luo Binghe, and seeks to make up for that can they move forward together.

Furthermore, that’s when things start to become apparent. Gone is the nonsensical wish-fulfillment plot, replaced by a fleshed-out world filled with complicated characters because humans (and their relationships with each other) are complex. Nothing is the same as it was—it’s different, it’s better. And in the process, Shen Qingqiu realizes he’s made the story much more aligned with something he would have liked to read. Better yet, SVSS is a narrative that the original author would have wanted to write but had been scared and incapable of due to the strain of selling copies. Now free from those constraints, the world is more satisfying, yet messy and complex—because that’s just reality. And the best fiction has always been a reflection of reality.

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System is worth a read, and it exceeded all my expectations. You'll certainly be entertained from Shen Qingqiu’s hilarious inner monologue, and constant memes to the heart-wrenching pleads of Luo Binghe. It is deeply satisfying to watch the two of them understand their shortcomings and see them grow from their mistakes. I couldn’t give it a perfect score because some plot holes are left unresolved, and the pacing is sometimes slightly inconsistent. But as I said initially, it is a very satisfying read. Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Latest chapter: COMPLETE

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