Ink., Sung. Cover Art, From a Knight to a Lady, Webtoon.
From a Knight to a Lady – Information
Author of Story: Hyerim Sung / Ink.
Chapter Count: 3 seasons, 178 chapters + 7 spin-off chapters
Status: Completed
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- Frequent depiction and mentioning of SI, SH
- Multiple depictions of SA, DA
- Blood, violence, death
- Abuse, illness
- Loss of loved ones
- Misogyny
- Disturbing imagery
- Trauma
- Topics relating to war
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
From a Knight to a Lady – Plot Summary
From a Knight to a Lady seems to have originally been a webnovel, which was adapted into a manhwa/webtoon. It follows the life of Estelle Schubert, leading commander of the third division of her country’s fighting forces, who fought bravely in a war of conquest. Her country, Ersha, went to war against the neighboring country, called Jansgar.
However, as she awakens in a soft, cushy bed, Estelle’s last memory is of her being killed by her second in-command and closest friend during the war. As she looks into the mirror and a maid comes rushing into her room, Estelle realizes she is no longer herself—but now lives in the frail body of a woman named Lucifela Adyn!
To make things even weirder, Lucifela is the daughter of a count in the country of Jansgar. Confused, Estelle (now Lucifela) begins asking questions, only to find that the country of Ersha was overtaken three years prior during the war!
Estelle is distraught, but decides to try and learn what happened to the knights of her division and why she was killed by her trusted friend. Unfortunately for her, she is in a much weaker body now, and the person who was once Lucifela had a very different personality…
The real Lucifela seemed a bit spoiled, and even had some sort of unfortunate romantic affair with the crown prince—which for one reason or another resulted in her trying to end things with a jump into the palace lake. Now, as Estelle has awoken in Lucifela’s body after this accident, she is quickly being married off to Jansgar’s first knight commander: Duke Zedekiah Heint.
This is awful news for Estelle, as she already knows of Zedekiah for his participation in the war against Ersha. They fought for different sides, and therefore are enemies.
Estelle’s new life has a quick and confusing start, and she doesn’t really seem to have time to wonder why she is suddenly in a different body. That doesn’t stop her from looking for answers about her death!
This webtoon had a much deeper and complex plot than I expected, and it was very enjoyable to see Estelle’s character grow and unravel the mysteries of her death. With the plot summary covered, let’s continue this From a Knight to a Lady review with some positives!
Why I Enjoyed From a Knight to a Lady
Plot:
The setting of this story is the typical manhwa reincarnation setting, where there are European influences of clothing and environments (that are not usually historically accurate but still very fun). Although this sort of setting is so common in manhwa and webtoon, the other stories I have recommended have come across incredibly different.
I feel like I often recommend humorous webtoons in this type of setting, such as For My Derelict Favorite, but the webtoon in today’s review is a bit more serious and full of mystery.
The romance in this webtoon is very much a slow burn. The two in question are both sort of tsunderes, who don’t often admit their true feelings or honestly speak their thoughts. So, they’ve got a few obstacles to overcome. Additionally, there’s more story than just the romance, and so it happens little by little over time. I personally love slow burn developments, so this is a plus for me!
I think it’s nice that the main female lead has goals that aren’t focused on romance, but still happens to catch feelings. I feel like many stories focus on a girl who simply wants love (which is okay, too) and sometimes it’s nice to see a different representation. In fact, the male lead is more like a typical heroine in this webtoon, since his main role seems to just be “the love interest.”
On the other hand, contrasting to Zedekiah’s romantic advances, Estelle is hilariously dense. I really enjoyed the switched personality stereotypes in From a Knight to a Lady.
This webtoon also has a nice focus and portrayal of the intelligence, strength, determination, and experiences of women. This is especially nice since the setting of this story seems to be a time period where not much is expected of women, as they have little rights.
The plot often shows the hardships, mistreatment, and inequality that women often face—making you lean in favor of characters you may not even like at first.
I really liked the main character and many other female characters in From a Knight to a Lady; they all had very good designs and thought-out personalities. They all experience hardships simply because of their gender—many hardships that readers will surely relate to.
I am happy to recommend this webtoon where the author shows complex emotions and experiences of a woman in an interesting, compelling story… with a little romantic bonus!
Characters:
The From a Knight to a Lady webtoon features a lot of characters who are all somehow connected throughout the story, but Estelle receives the most focus and depth. I really enjoyed seeing her character change and grow, but I won’t be able to go too in-depth about that aspect without spoiling—read the webtoon so that you can enjoy it, too!
Although Estelle was a very dedicated commander who really loved her friends, she still has feelings—so when she learns she was betrayed by one of her most trusted friends and even killed by them, the grief and disbelief eventually struck.
She goes a bit crazy, and has very emotional reactions to things at the beginning of the story. At the start, she doesn’t make very rational decisions, which makes sense considering she was plopped into a new body and “new” world.
However, as she begins to pick herself back up, we quickly see just how smart, strong, and capable she is. Her character is arguably better at regulating her emotions than you would think, although she is a bit snarky and feisty at times—both were character traits I thoroughly enjoyed, though.
She is also honest about her misconceptions of the world and society from her old life, and is willing to change her values and accept new views with an open mind.
Zedekiah Heint was another strong character in From a Knight to a Lady, at least according to his backstory—but we see this side of him less often. Instead, we mostly see Zedekiah in romantic scenarios where he is falling for Lucifela (Estelle) more and more.
He seems to begin growing feelings her very early in the webtoon, but acts like a tsundere in terms of his approach with her. He does continuously deal with her confusing personality at the start, so it’s obvious that he fell for her pretty hard (considering he still liked her regardless).
He was pretty much created as the ideal candidate for the heroine, with how much they had in common in terms of values and beliefs. The entire story is so obviously set up this way, but it wasn’t a dislikable feature. Lucifela (Estelle) is a very difficult woman to capture romantically, and poor Zedekiah seems to be more of a romantic—so he has a lot of obstacles to overcome!
And although he is head over heels in love, he isn’t a ditsy or ignorant character; so he is still likable. Even his brief tsundere-like personality wasn’t too extreme, so there’s nothing really to hate about his character.
I also really enjoyed three other characters in From a Knight to a Lady: Eozif, the second prince, for his mysterious, creepy, and calculating personality that was worthy of both hate and interest; Florence, a high-profile noble lady who makes an interesting comeback after her previous introduction and first impression; and of course Khalid, the antagonistic wildcard character who brings about all sort of questions and uncertainties.
Art:
The art of this Webtoon is not bad, but I do think it could be better. Lucifela is portrayed to be very pretty, but the love interest was outshone by her, in my opinion. Zedekiah looks rather plain next to the lovely Lucifela throughout most of From a Knight to a Lady.
Even the antagonist seemed to have more detail than Zedekiah. I didn’t hate his design or anything, but I wished he had a bit more detail during his screentime. I also think his hands were way too big in a handful of panels (lol).
I liked the outfits in this story—they weren’t always super intricately detailed, but they still changed often and looked nice (plus, Webtoons aren’t always super detailed when it comes to art).
However, I have an additional complaint about the art in From a Knight to a Lady. This webtoon uses 3D modeling rather often for props and environments, but I don’t really think it was done well. The models just look rather strange to me.
Thankfully most of the story follows the characters themselves which are presumably drawn digitally, but I really just am not a fan of the use of too much 3D modeling in webtoon.
I understand the demands of a webtoon artist are probably difficult and highly time-restricted, however I’m not really trying to pin blame on the author necessarily—just expressing my dislike for this form of artistic medium in webtoons.
Ink., Sung. Cover Art of Lucifela, From a Knight to a Lady, Webtoon.
Any Cons?
- One quick con I will note for some readers is that as I mentioned earlier, the romance in From a Knight to a Lady is a very slow burn—so beware if you aren’t into that.
- Additionally, some main parts of the plot shown early in season 1 are left behind for some time until season 2. So readers may be left wondering “what happened to …?” for a bit while reading.
- Aside from the main plot’s reincarnation trope, there are many names and people involved in this plot that are quickly thrown into the beginning, so for some, this story may be complicated to follow.
- There is a relationship mentioned (not the main relationship) that is between characters who are related. The heroine of the story acknowledges how strange it is, but that doesn’t make it any less gross to witness, so be warned.
- Lastly, this isn’t typically an issue with official webtoons (at least in my own experience), however I noticed quite a number of grammatical errors in this story—such as spelling errors or extra, unneeded words in speech or thought bubbles. This isn’t a huge issue, and it wasn’t extremely frequent but I was surprised to see this in the From a Knight to a Lady webtoon.
More In-Depth Review (Warning: Spoilers!)
Disclaimer: I’ve yet to read season 3. This will be updated once I catch up!
I didn’t think I’d have an in-depth review for From a Knight to a Lady, but it’s a bit deeper than I expected it to be. The plot actually has a lot of twists, and holds a lot of foreshadowing…
Firstly, the opera they watched where a man murders a woman when his romantic feelings are not returned foreshadows Khalid’s supposed reasonings for his murder of Estelle. His character is eerily calm for most of the series until he lures Estelle into his final trap to reveal his knowledge of her true identity. Truly a sick, creepy character. But, we saw it coming.
Next, the constant assertion by Estelle of “a knight’s duty” unfortunately felt like foreshadowing to the realization that she has in season two, where she discovers that she herself was not the sort of knight she thought she was.
Rather than defending a “country,” she should have focused on the needs of the people who lived there—unfortunately, she was a tool used by the king that put people’s lives in danger.
I also am wondering about the fact that Lucifela’s mother is from Ersha, and that Estelle’s mother was Lucifela’s mother’s sister! How will the fact that Estelle and Lucifela are cousins tie into the story? Will it answer the reincarnation mystery? Or something else? We’ll have to wait and find out!
Besides reincarnation, the whole identity crisis in From a Knight to a Lady is incredibly interesting. Reincarnation manhwas often take a few different approaches with this trope, and I like that this story shows the struggle of Estelle’s values—and how they are affected by the memories of Lucifela’s experiences when she was alive.
This webtoon does a nice job at portraying how Estelle’s values slowly change as she lives as Lucifela and learns about the life of a noble lady.
Many people wanted this to be a revenge story, but honestly I’m glad the author didn’t take that route. It’s a common storyline choice for the reincarnation trope, but it wouldn’t fit with how the heroine grows and changes throughout this webtoon’s plot.
Estelle accepts that in her past life, she was in the wrong and also a bit inconsiderate of those around her. Even if Khalid is crazy and makes questionable choices, Estelle knows that she wasn’t doing what was truly right for Ersha—so she doesn’t go on a vengeful rampage.
Most importantly, she grows to accept a new version of herself along the journey, so there’s no need for revenge of a past life.
Final Thoughts
From a Knight to a Lady is a very interesting webtoon with a complex plot and very likable heroine. I really enjoyed her character and seeing her learn of a new way to fight through the role of a noble lady. The romance is slow but rather sweet, even if the poor male lead is left a bit clueless for some of the story, haha!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this review for From a Knight to a Lady. If you have read the story, feel free to leave your thoughts on it below!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Sung, Hyerim. Ink. From a Knight to a Lady, Webtoon. 2021.
