Revenge of the Iron-Blooded Sword Hound

People must really have low standards if they think this is a 10/10. I wouldn’t give it more than 7.5/10. Just the MC being a Marty Stu character drops the story down to 8/10.

The story is pretty cliche and the story beats are pretty predictable. That in itself isn’t much of a problem, but it’s writing of the characters that bother me the most.
MC is a cold, calculated and overpowered character that thirsts for revenge and it’s executed in a pretty inconsistent way.

MC is supposedly cold and lacks empathy towards others, focusing solely towards his goal of revenge. Even his good actions are but theater to fool the masses. But then at some point, he does the cliche action of healing and freeing a slave. Did he have some sort plan for the slave? Nope, he just had a sudden urge to be kind, which completely goes against the established trait of the character. And lo’ and behold, that slave turns out to be someone extremely important.

The writer choose the worst way to write an “intelligent” character, which is how much of his plans relies on contrivance. I’m willing to give that a pass, but then for some reason, the only thing he isn’t calculated on is his revenge plan. You know, his ultimate goal at the beginning of the story. And he doesn’t actually formulate any sort of plan until chapter 60+ which he only happened upon by pure chance, and it’s the most pathetic plan ever.
He’s also very short-sighted for someone who is supposedly smart. Delving into light spoilers here, but it turns out later that his revenge target was supposed to be someone else. Because while his death was caused by Hugo, there was someone else pulling the strings. Yet it’s only in chapter 60+ that MC starts remembering this extremely fishy guy whom he trusted that was oozing villain energy. This teeny, weeny, incredibly important detail seemed to have been forgotten by MC until he suddenly remembers it.

Take in contrast the revenge in the “The Count of Monte Cristo” where the MC actually plans his revenge by first determining “who betrayed him”, the “why” of their betrayal, and most importantly the “how is he going to ruin their lives”.
Meanwhile, Vikir here has done none of this, not even 1. Remember, he didn’t decide on his revenge in a fit of rage, he had several years to think and plan while growing up.

Finally let’s talk about the love interest. Either these girls (2 so far) are utterly boring and like their men devoid of personality or Vikir is excreting pheromones that makes him irresistible.
Vikir’s whole personality (if you can call it that) is that he wants revenge and he’s strong. He’s not charismatic, he’s not a charmer, he’s dense as all hell when it comes to other people’s feelings, he’s not funny, he’s not kind, he’s not even interested/trying to form any sort of relationship with these girls, yet they fall head over heels for him. It’s this Marty Stu problem where the love interest fall in love with him because he needs a harem and the writer couldn’t be asked to have any sort of chemistry between them.

He is slowly becoming softer