it just wasn’t good but not because of rape

i’m so conflicted about this webtoon. i don’t think it was good, but not because it focused on rape, had a lot of violence and abuse, the ml was the worst, and other shit people here get upset about. i genuinely think the plot was just not good, even when the idea for it actually was: an obsessive individual with no remorse and no empathy, but a lot of power, sets his eyes on someone and will do anything to make that person his possession, including completely breaking their spirits and mind. but the actual plot and its structure are all over the place, especially after hyunjae’s betrayal. everything after that is centered around breaking junghoon completely, but even this doesn’t feel that well developed between one rape scene and another (and even during them).

junghoon as a character also feels underdeveloped. there was some exploration of his feelings and trauma after getting his men slaughtered, but to me it just wasn’t enough. there were many moments where he could’ve slipped deeper into his thoughts, reflected on everything that had happened and done some meaningful narration. but half of this time is instead spent on him thinking about hyunjae and what he could be possibly doing. and speaking of hyunjae, i just couldn’t see what made junghoon fall in love with him. i could deduce it, since hyunjae took care of junghoon after all the gangrapes (which he had caused in the first place but anyway) and was somehow nice to him compared to the other guys, who either wanted to fuck him or kill him, or both. i knew it was because of that, because i saw what the author was going for here. but i just couldn’t actually see it in the story. when i was reading killing stalking, not only could i understand why bum still had feelings for sangwoo (given bum’s past and mental illness) after all the things that happened, but i could also see it with my own two eyes: all the small affectionate moments between them, sangwoo’s sporadic but seemingly genuine kindness and at times some semblance of normalcy in their relationship, or even the way bum understood sangwoo and empathized with him, and it made bum’s love for sangwoo not only more understandable for me but also way more believable. but here, junghoon’s emotional state just wasn’t shown well enough for me to believe he actually fell in love with hyunjae (and it wasn’t just the author trying to convince you he did), especially after the betrayal. there was some actual potential to make their relationship deeper and more engaging, because despite how twisted, toxic and fucked up it was, it still could’ve been actually entertaining to witness. and for a story with 54 chapters, this potential feels just wasted.

hyunjae also feels kind of underdeveloped. we see his past and childhood (something even junghoon, the main character, wasn’t allowed to have) but it’s just not enough to make his character really compelling or at least interesting. every attempt at making him, or actually any other character, deeper and more fleshed out was rushed. and it’s just so sad to me that the only time we see junghoon’s past is right before he gets raped by some random guy that he conveniently happens to have met before (as a form of introduction for the rape motive) and in singbin’s stupid ass flashback at the end of the side story. he’s barely treated like a character here, and he is supposed to be the main one.

and the ending was just so out of place, both for the actual story and for the side story. all of this stuff with police suddenly materializing outside the gang building was not only rushed and out of nowhere, but simply not explained at all. they just appeared there for some reason and decided to take down the gang members in the moment that was the most convenient for the plot. and no one can convince me that the sudden backstory of junghoon’s men (namely sungbin) in the literally last two chapters of the story (so after what? 30? 40? chapters since they’d been killed) was anything else but a cheap trick the author tried to pull off to make the story even more miserable. this could’ve been done earlier, even at some point after the betrayal when junghoon was recovering from one of the gangrapes, and to escape the reality of what had just happened to him, he could’ve reminisced about the past when everything was better and he was happier. and why was sungbin even the narrator of that flashback? wasn’t he dead? or did he just raise from the ashes to make the ending even more bleak with his sappy ass love story and then died once again? sorry, but this is just lazy ass writing.

this is just my personal opinion, but if there was really a need for this whole drug subplot in the side story, i think that the ending could’ve hit much more and would’ve make more sense if junghoon succumbed to his drug addiction and hyunjae couldn’t do anything to stop him, and was absolutely devastated because of that. after all, he’d done everything he could to keep junghoon by his side, and now that he had him, junghoon wasn’t really there because he got addicted to the drugs (that hyunjae’s guys had given him in the first place), and could literally die at any moment, either from overdosing or from withdrawal. i just don’t understand the sudden shift in hyunjae’s thought process to feed junghoon these drugs as if otherwise junghoon would run away from him. like where? he already decided to stay with you, everyone he ever cared about is dead, and he’s already brainwashed to the point where he really wants to have a “normal” life with you. there’s literally no point in making him even more miserable.

and maybe it’s just my personal preference, but the chibi pseudo comedic panels were actually pissing me off. they kind of made sense before the betrayal, where the general tone and atmosphere of the story still weren’t as heavy and dark, but after that they were absolutely unnecessary and managed to ruin any kind of tension i felt every time they appeared. like i remember this one particular moment when junghoon was still held captive in that basement(?) and started reflecting about the gangrapes and hyunjae’s motives, and i was genuinely excited to see him potentially coming to some meaningful conclusions, just to be hit with a panel of a chibi version of him shaking his head and saying “no, wait, it actually sounds like i’m in love with hyunjae!!!” or some other similarly sounding nonsense, and i just genuinely lost it at that moment, because are we in a romcom right now? where did it come from? how are you thinking things like that in your situation? and i just can’t help but think this was also the author’s lazy attempt at setting up this whole “junghoon’s falling in love with hyunjae despite everything fucked up that happened” thing but it was just so stupidly obvious and not subtle at all that i had to laugh.

and i guess everything i just said could be countered with “well, but that’s the title of the webtoon, there’s no reason for these things to happen and they just happen”, but to excuse anything that doesn’t make sense or doesn’t add up, or just generally feels lacking is nothing more but lazy writing. i agree that there could’ve been no reason as to why hyunjae chose junghoon in particular to keep as his “possession”. but when the characters and the plot don’t have a lot of integrity because the main theme of the story is “no reason”, then why even make a story in the first place? it wasn’t trying to break some rules of storytelling and reinvent them to make a unique reading experience, it just seemed to ignore them because there’s “no reason” to stick to them.

at last, i actually really enjoyed the artstyle and most of the rape scenes (esepcially when i forgot about the plot at large) for what they were: just rape porn with an additional flavor of mindbreak. i really liked the dark and oppressive atmosphere, and the violence, too. the general premise and the first few chapters were also really good. everything else, however, fell short.