the boy seeing him covered in blood and now realizing that he might have fallen in love w acrooked guy is alone enough to throw angst in their relationship. not only is he a loan shark, a group of people that have contributed greatly to his traumatic childhood, it also seems that he may be in the drug business, there might be mafia involved etc. thats enough to cause a riff, decent angst, and heartbreak in the relationship: falling in love with a guy, seeing he may not be what you thought he was, trying to figure out who the real him is? great story and the set up was working perfectly until the last few panels. at most this scene should have been a "ima say some mean shit to you so that you stay away from me and then let you go". im tired of authors acting like rape/sexual assault isnt a very deeply traumatic thing to inflict on a person, especially when its done by somebody that you trusted/love/care about. and im supposed to just ignore how fucked up it is. rape is so common in these stories it doesnt even hold the emotional weight and impact it should for the audience and thats so annoying to me.
i think what would make this occurrence a lot less annoying is if these authors leaned into the shittiness of it all more if that makes sense? like idk how to explain it but dont make the ml do shitty things and then try to gaslight me 10 chapters later. thats why i feel like possessive,obsessive behavior and even borderline abuse, while still bad, comes off alot "better" in the darker, gritter, more noir-like stories where the characters are navigating heavy grey area and the author doesnt shy away from that. instead u reading a pretty light story, expecting light to medium angst and then BOOM: rape.
the boy seeing him covered in blood and now realizing that he might have fallen in love w acrooked guy is alone enough to throw angst in their relationship. not only is he a loan shark, a group of people that have contributed greatly to his traumatic childhood, it also seems that he may be in the drug business, there might be mafia involved etc. thats enough to cause a riff, decent angst, and heartbreak in the relationship: falling in love with a guy, seeing he may not be what you thought he was, trying to figure out who the real him is? great story and the set up was working perfectly until the last few panels. at most this scene should have been a "ima say some mean shit to you so that you stay away from me and then let you go". im tired of authors acting like rape/sexual assault isnt a very deeply traumatic thing to inflict on a person, especially when its done by somebody that you trusted/love/care about. and im supposed to just ignore how fucked up it is. rape is so common in these stories it doesnt even hold the emotional weight and impact it should for the audience and thats so annoying to me.
i think what would make this occurrence a lot less annoying is if these authors leaned into the shittiness of it all more if that makes sense? like idk how to explain it but dont make the ml do shitty things and then try to gaslight me 10 chapters later. thats why i feel like possessive,obsessive behavior and even borderline abuse, while still bad, comes off alot "better" in the darker, gritter, more noir-like stories where the characters are navigating heavy grey area and the author doesnt shy away from that. instead u reading a pretty light story, expecting light to medium angst and then BOOM: rape.