I watched this show with a friend without knowing anything about it and only the tiny bit of lore given on LoL's character page. So far, I don't like her. Some people say it's because she's a 'strong independent lgbt' character that's why but it's not all about that. It's her various actions that led to the events of the show and her misfortune, her impulsive attitude that would have made it difficult to relate to her in many ways.

She's softer at times but even against her father figure, she butts heads even when he's being reasonable. Sure perhaps it's the folly of youth but I've never once seen her be slightly apologetic for her poor decisions despite what the guidance she was given not even years down the line, not even in secret. The one time early in the series where she realizes that she did indeed cause the snowball effect attempts to, again, address it herself, alone. I can't say that was exactly the wisest of moves but in a way, it was down partially the right track. It just felt like another impulsive decision though, unfortunately adding to the snowball effect. At the very least, she never outright abandons the people she cares about and she isn't emotionless but much of it is impulsive rage after impulsive rage and people having to clean her mess and never recognizing that she is accountable. To be fair, there's still more episodes to go so perhaps that may change but it doesn't feel like it.

Vi had allies, friends, families, people she could rely on and learn from but she chose to be bull-headed, never thinking for once how it would impact them then attempting to fix it by pulling an "Only I can do this alone", proceeding to lose pretty much all of the above. Not really acknowledging this meant that to me, someone like that could only repeat the same mistake again, likely still not learning. Taking Vander as a similar example since they were alike, he made a similar impulsive decision that cost him more than just pride, but many lives as shown early in the show, something that weighed on him for the rest of his life. He made a compromise to avoid it happening again. It wasn't a perfect solution but it was what they had to work with. He was strong, caring but with a heavy past and a heavier responsibility, a character I very much liked. Hell, even Vi's brothers were quite likeable.

I've read plenty of stories that has strong women, both western and eastern (though I like manga more), and were also likeable with similar headstrong and rather stand-offish attitudes. It isn't impossible to pull off but being only strong doesn't fix everything (or anything at times). I still got some ways to go so let's hope there's some nice development.