I wish Camillia wasn’t so passive in finding Camellia Manhwa

I was excited when Yen Press announced it had picked up the manhwa series Finding camelliabecause the initial description made it sound powerful. It suggested that it followed a young woman who was stolen from her mother as a child by her father’s wife and forced to grow up and live as a young man as an additional heir, as she took back her power and became her true self again became. But at least in the first part, Camellia being such a passive character who was often relegated to the background kept me from enjoying the story.

Editor’s note: There will be spoilers for Part 1 of the Finding camellia manhwa below.

Finding camellia begins with Camellia’s kidnapping to turn her into ‘Camellius’. Her mother Laura was a maid in the house of her father, Marquis Gilliard Bale, who became romantically involved with him and became pregnant. The Marquis’s legitimate child, Kieran, is suffering from an illness that only seems to be getting worse. Laura even fled the house with ‘Lia’ when an incident made it seem like she was responsible for Kieran’s deterioration. So Gilliard’s wife Anastasia hunted down Laura and Camellia, kidnapped the girl and, considering a young woman useless, Gilliard cut off the child’s hair to raise her as a youngest son named Camellius.

It starts with the desperation that Camellia clearly feels. She would like to see her mother again and keeps asking. However, she is only twelve. She passively participates in the lessons. She is pushed forward and forced to learn how to fire a gun. We watch Anastasia and Gilliard talk about her as a stopgap in case Kieran doesn’t get better, even after he’s sent away to possibly improve by living in another region. Her servant Betty lies to her that ‘her ladyship’ is honorable and will allow her to return to Laura if she does as she says. Lord Claude Ihar, Kieran’s friend and another nobleman, intimidates and teases her. She is scolded and abused because of an accident that happens when she is forced to try shooting.

So for the first 169 pages of the manhwa I felt completely let down by the first part of Finding camellia. We don’t get to see Camellia’s inner monologue explaining how she’s going to fight back. There is no passion or fire on her part. It’s as if she’s a doll being tossed from scene to scene. acting as a plot device for other people. I guess I could see a reason for that. It certainly sets up a tragic backstory for her. Perhaps it was even Jin Soye’s goal to leave people frustrated and angry on her behalf.

But the thing is, I expected things to get better once I got to page 170 and time skipped to a 16 year old Camellia/Camellius. She is about to be sent to an academy in the city to study. Besides her initial feelings about this, she complains that she hasn’t heard from her brother Kieran or Lord Claude in recent years. It isn’t until page 192 that we see any kind of outrage or passion on Camellia’s part. It’s the first indication that she would actually do anything for her own good and strike back. But a few pages later, in interactions with Eddie, Camellia’s father Gilliard, Prince Wade and Lord Claude, we are back to the fact that she once again surrendered to the whims of others.

I can only hope so Finding camellia continues in later volumes, as Camellia is not given control at any point in the story thus far. It feels like other people are constantly making decisions for her and pressuring her, while none of her actions are actually decided for her. The lack of choice is annoying and even infuriating, and I think I would find it difficult to continue reading if things don’t change in the second part.

Part 1 of the Finding camellia manhwa is available now and Yen Press will release part 2 on December 10, 2024.