Smity and Majesty

VibeCheckAug 11, 2026

This series actually reminded me a lot of Unlucky is as Lucky Does. It's a comedy following an unconventional duo of a chipper chatterbox and a stoic powerhouse different social standings on a quest that becomes more serious as the story progresses. Initially I really enjoyed it. The romance building between Vain & Valka was really fluffy and I enjoyed how both characters' deeper selves are explored. It was funny, the art was great, and it was fun seeing the different parts of this world. However, much like UIALD, the series took a nosedive as it went on. Whereas that series had a disappointing conclusion after its buildup, the buildup itself is where a lot of my issues lie in S&M. Vain started out as one of my favorite characters I got into this year, but I'm disappointed with the direction he's been taking. The evil being he's a vessel to drastically changes his personality and often makes his scenes with Valka uncomfortable. There’s a way it could’ve been better implemented while keeping his lovable personality, but the series just ruined him for me. Valka also deteriorated over time for me. I thought she seriously overreacted to Vain not telling her about the war when it was clear his intentions were noble—and then she just does a complete 180˚ and forgives in him the following episode??? My deeper issues lie with the other couple the webcomic pushes with Prysia & Galeno. I get the ship's appeal is that it's between a morally dubious rogue & the straight-laced do-gooder, but more often than not Galeno comes across as slimy and predatory. That unsolicited kiss especially made me uncomfortable. No matter how hard the series has tried to redeem him he still irks me. The ship just feels really toxic. There are other issues I have with the series, like too many conflicts being instigated by poor communication between the parties (which didn't make the villains effective), conflicts relying on tropes I dislike, dialog feeling unrealistic, reliance on CSP 3D models, etc. By the latest update, my favorite character became Cergas by default. Even so, I still get some chuckles here and there and some good character scenes, but man… I'm bummed.