If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love 4 Focuses on Processing Trauma
While it is primarily a fantasy shojo series, If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love also includes some darker elements related to parental abuse, PTSD, and bullying , and the fourth volume highlights the kinds of dangers and breakthroughs that can come from a victim attempting to face that too swiftly. In this case, we see a major mystery start to be revealed as Brigitte Meidell pushes herself in the name of progress in the fourth volume of the manga, and the results are both unsettling and satisfying.
Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for parts of volume 4 of If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love manga below. There will also be references to parental abuse and both physical and verbal abuse.
One of the main plot points in If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love is that Brigitte comes from the Meidell family, which is known for making contracts with powerful fire spirits. However during her own ceremony, the priest determined she’d contracted with a minor, weak, no-name Spirit. The devastating part of that is that it completely enraged her father. He dragged her out of the temple in front of the priest, manhandled her at home, and massively verbally abused her in the house. As part of that, he grabbed her hand and forced it into the family fireplace while her mother and him agreed and mocked her, disowning her. That set her down a path of being the “villainess,” as despite being engaged to the kingdom’s prince as the story began, she was bullied and despised by most everyone but the “villain,” another noble named Yuri Aurealis.
Image via Yen Press
Now, throughout the manga until this point, we’ve seen suggestions that maybe people were mistaken all along about Brigitte in many ways. She’s got a budding and healthy start of a relationship with Yuri, though that hasn’t turned officially romantic yet. She’s started to form friendships over the past few chapters and volumes. More importantly, there are suggestions her spirit is actually something special. Both reactions from other spirits and certain situations seem to hint at its power and influence. The third volume even closed out focusing on that.
Which means that volume 4 of the If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love manga begins with Brigitte approaching that knowledge and attempting to solve it in an unhealthy way. After visiting the Aurealis estate, she runs into someone who looks like Yuri’s younger brother and his older brother. The younger explains that her spirit is masking itself and its identity because of her fears and PTSD, out of concern for her. He offers to assist her in awakening it. Now she doesn’t really bring this up to Yuri in a way that could offer extra insight. Instead, Harunadon’s story decides to go with a more brute force approach.
While this does lead to some scary situations and us watching Brigitte deal with some additional trauma, I actually appreciated the way Harunadon handled it and Chiru Ukai depicted it. The boy, who then shows up at her estate and agrees to be referred to as Blue, suggests a method akin to exposure therapy. Brigitte is afraid of fire. Put her in situations with it. Now, the initial concept and idea doesn’t seem bad. When Carson, the home’s chef, is making a dessert, Blue and Brigitte watch. Brigitte even comments internally that her servants were kind enough to limit fire usage to keep there from being too much exposure. This goes well and seems like an okay sort of step.
Except then we see the more drastic move of Blue asking Carson to reveal his contracted fire spirit in front of Brigitte. That… goes poorly. It’s a harrowing moment. It leads to a moment in which we, as the reader, watch as she experiences a massive panic attack, passes out, and relives the events that led to her abuse, dismissal, and trauma. It’s even uncomfortable to read. It feels raw and realistic. This isn’t taking a typical shojo manga approach where suddenly Brigitte would “get” it and be fixed from that exposure. It shows an actual breakdown and realistic reaction to being suddenly hit with a trigger.
For the sake of spoilers, I won’t go over everything that happens next. But we do see this plotline lead to results and progress in the mystery regarding the identity of Brigitte’s spirit in If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love. However, it isn’t 100% because of that situation Blue suggested with Carson. It comes from Brigitte taking time to think things out. To reflect. To be in a space space with someone she trusts as she works through things. Now this part doesn’t seem as realistic as the depiction of trauma, but it is satisfying nonetheless.
If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love doesn’t shy away from dark elements and trauma, even though it is a shojo manga. While it might sometimes feel like it is played up for the sake of drama, the situations in the fourth volume feel a little more like realistic depictions of someone with PTSD dealing with their triggers and confronting their trauma. It might make it difficult to read. However, it also comes across as a more realistic approach to addressing that kind of pain.
Volume 4 of If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love is available now, and Yen Press will release volume 5 of the manga on April 28, 2026.
The post If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love 4 Focuses on Processing Trauma appeared first on Siliconera .
Popular Content
Explore Topic
