Thats a good comparision. Painter in the night is so popular while this is so hated. Only difference is one has a main male charaction being shit while the other has a female
Because in Painter of the Night, Seungho's behaviour isn't normalised. His rapey, aggressive, vindictive traits are subject to change and although that doesn't justify it, it shows that those qualities are undesirable and a lover should ideally be none of those things.
Bro... Duna literally DOESN'T change, in fact, her rape isn't even classified as rape by the author since she doesn't give trigger warnings for Duna's assault scenes or those stupid "graphic bdsm" tags she gives for Wookyung's. The only reason a monstrosity like this was so confidently written IS BECAUSE DUNA IS A WOMAN and her crimes are seen as justified/redemption since she was "wronged" in the past (and somehow assault is the only way she could get her back). Potn is equally disgusting but atleast we see Seungho change, we expected the same from Duna but lol. It's not about misogyny guys.
Thanks for bringing that up Hasty, that's also a good point. I agree that Duna's behaviour is normalized, and thats a problem. My only issue is that as a primarily yaoi reader, i often see similar toxic behaviour being portrayed and normalized in many popular yaoi but it doesnt recieve even half of the hate than Ive seen this series get which i found surpriisng. Its not that I disagree with people calling out toxic behaviour, its a good thing that people aren't letting it slide, but maybe we hold yaoi and hetero stories to different standards. Also I really feel for minho and seeing him contemplate suicide was heartbreaking. However his suffering doesnt change the fact that hr was also a toxic character, and in real life, he likely would be an abuser if his partner was not someone like duna who could stand up to him. But that doesnt mean that he deserves any of what he went through, duna and woo should be in jail for the things they did. Anyway these are just my thoughts
A serious question because this work is analyzed from a realistic point of view, and other works that the protagonist sees himself as a sensual protagonist, despite how cruel and abusive he is, example seungho of painter night.