Red flag everywhere
thank you so much
Tysm for this
Thanks for this! Won't read it, it's clearly not suitable for my mental health
Thank you so much for this long extensive explanation! Really appreciate that. The artstyle is really tempting but i need to prioritise my mental health
bad life indeed, thank you for this btw!
Thank you (=・ω・=), i've read about 3/4 of the main story so far,intentionally skipped some very violent parts cuz they seemed too much,even unecessary detailed only for the melodrama to me though i understand many elitists are exactly like that due to their family and social status-powerful but degrading at best.This story is torturing but the writting is so good I start to be convinced this is written by a Western author cuz its very immersive with diverse cirscumstances n the characters is both questionable n relatable and the shit they are stuck in also responsible for make things seem like death is the way out .
Tho i must say the webtoon ver. here looks a bit too "bright" and dreamy for such story with deep twist and turns and diversity of life situations and veryyyyy hardcore
Where did you read it
I agree. The beginning of the story of the seems very historical and old money but the story afterwards is surprisingly very modern. The discrepancy in the beginning of the story between the end is pretty big, like Jerome was once torturing Raymond and chasing after him in his regal riding attire. Compared to the end he is living a comfortable life with an IPad. Also there are drag queens which I wasn’t expecting given the overall vibe of the story.
Yes the "arc" when Ray struggled with addiction living in the hood and his story w Christine feel like 70s-90s dark realist LGBT-themed movies criscrossed with dark occult sacrificial party of the elites w/o mentioning the entities they tryna feed torturing people like Ray,Chris,Jer,Stella crossed with revenge fantasy and spy-themed then up to ch19 its summer escape-theme w psychological twist and very chill and cute and Jer pretend to be a red neck trucker lmao,i havent read the ending yet but looks like ex1 is bonding and healing up in the mountain cabin like supposedly good-ending Brokeback Mountain. The range of Bad Life is crazyyyyy yet still managed to be linear, as i see Korean BL ought to be single focused, simple in set up and transition and they dont exactly try to blend their mindset with the culture they write the story about as much as this one.
Heres some more of my 2cents :'):
Personally i feel Anna's d**** can be avoided ,she had to pay for what she did to Ray in other way while still can be w her child,but she knew Ray can come to get her like this and its still make sene cuz the cirscumstance they are in is extremely cruel, Jer still very crazy during that arc as extreme occurence dont faze him,like he has defense mechanism on strongly and Ray is indeed his wild card but in the background we can see Jer' sense of value slowly changes bcuz of Ray too.
Some people said this have revenge but it's not enough he shouldn't have end up with anybody and this is worst than non zero sum well maybe equally, thank you for whole spoiler when i ask before in comments some people reply this have revenge better than non zero sum but for me it's same. I'm not gonna read it for my mental health.
Ohh My God, I underestimated both Jerome and Simon, they both Suffered because of Hugh, for start it says he was active and loved by all but in truth, he's a real Psycho who tortured both Jerome and Simon in fact Jerome had to do those disgusting things all because of him I'm glad he died in the Fire meaning he'll go straight to Hell
So what happened to the Donwell family at the end did they git what they deserved?
Thanks for sharing. In terms of how badly the MC is treated, ‘Bad Life’ is probably definitely worse because he loses a lot of people in his life that he deeply cared about as well as suffering the wrath of the Hugh’s group. In ‘non zero sum’, the MC does suffer but he doesn’t have as much loss as the MC in ‘Bad Life’ does. I think if we were to compare them in terms of depth in story, ‘Bad Life’ is definitely more intricate and well fleshed out in terms of plot, reasoning, story and character development. The main reason the MC in ‘nonzero-sum’ suffers is because his psychopathic crush is mad at him because he wasn’t able to take his virginity which then delves into him spiralling into a downfall. However, the MC in ‘Bad Life’ suffers because of the many multifaceted forces that oppressed him his whole life, not only by Hugh’s group. Also the abusers in ‘Bad Life’ have legitimate reasons as to why they made Raymond suffer (this still doesn’t excuse what they did of course). They (except for Hugh) suffered by the Donwell family which distorted their very human nature of compassion and reasoning, allowing them to commit the acts they did. Moreover, there is deliberate stagnant character growth in Simon (fitting his story) and rapid growth in Jerome (refusing to submit).
More SPOILERS:
The Donwell family lost both their sons Timothy and Hugh (Hugh younger than Timothy). Timothy is a very relevant character later in the story, but he eventually meets his end by being killed by ‘Christine’ in an act of self-sacrifice. ‘Christine’ after escaping from Hugh and George, ended up in the hands of Timothy where he was used in the ‘club’ as basically a glorified cum dumpster. Strangely enough, Timothy was in love with ‘Christine’ which is probably why he also died by being tricked by him.
Jerome later tried to get full revenge on both the royal family and the Donwell family simultaneously by connecting them to the wide distribution of the drug ‘kiss and embrace’. However at the end, Raymond was able to convince Jerome right before the revenge would happen and they left together. It’s presumed that he Donwell family just live as they did normally, but with losing both sons they had no future.
Menn, I wish they got Karma but why did Raymon stopped Jerome from taking Revenge anyway? Jerome had suffer because of them too
But what does it mean when you said with no sons, they have no future? What happened to those Women who got raped didn't they got pregnant? And didn't the Donwell family can use them?
From what I understood, Raymond stopped Jerome from getting Revenge so that Raymond could be his centre of attention. Throughout Jerome’s life, his sole focus was getting revenge on both the Donwell family and the Royal family, which meant he didn’t pay any attention to other things around him and regarded others as peripheral.
Raymond knew this, as so he sought out trying to get Jerome to stay with him and even tried to change their relationship into a union of hatred (which is the reason why Raymond killed Anna). However, Jerome later admitted that he was glad that Raymond killed her because of how Jerome was forced to rape her. Anna’s existence was a constant reminder of how Jerome was forced to hurt the people he deeply cared about due to the Donwell’s family control.
By Raymond stopping Jerome, he essentially changed the union from hatred into love where Jerome was willing to give up his entire life’s goal to share a relationship Raymond. It was final sentiment to Raymond from Jerome that he was going to prioritize loving Raymond as his life’s goal.
Raymond was also furious about being so seemingly peripheral to Jerome because the Jerome was a large reason of why his life was so upturned.
The Donwell’s family business cannot continue without descendants (their sons).
The Donwell brothers never raped any woman, I think you’re confusing them with Jerome. Jerome was forced to rape a lot of women and they may have very well gotten pregnant. However the existence of children to Jerome is never mentioned because they would be formed from abusive relationship that Jerome was put under. The story generally focuses more on him getting revenge on the Donwell family who had forced him to rape those women. Jerome had no interest in the women that he was forced to rape or the possible children that might’ve formed from the rape because they were just as much as a victim as Jerome was.
The Donwell family would have no use for children that were not their direct descendants. The purpose of forcing Jerome to rape those women was to psychologically abuse him. Any children formed from the rape would be of significance to them and would likely be seen as just a byproduct of the psychological abuse they put Jerome through.
Ohh so the Donwell Family just do it for Fun, God I wish Raymon never stopped Jerome they had Karma but it is what it is now, Thank You for the Explanation, and I'm sorry for asking too much and taking your Time
So I completed the novel and most of the extra chapters (events of daily life after the main story). The novel is really sad to be honest, but it’s really good at the same time because it’s well-written. Unfortunately the MC does develop this sort of Stockholm syndrome for both Jerome and Simon, however it’s not a submissive type of Stockholm and more like he’s willing to kill anyone to have them type. I’m sharing a list of questions that I had during the novel so you don’t have to wait an eternity or read the entire thing to get answers.
What is the relationship between Simon, Jerome, George and Hugh?:
From what I understood, Hugh is the main reason why George, Simon, and Jerome are attending the boarding school. Hugh is part of the Donwell family which is a huge manufacturer of a cigars or cigarettes. The Donwell family maintains a lot of wealth which means that Hugh is able to extort that wealth to control other people because he’s a sadistic psychopath. Hugh essentially controls Jerome but has tamed both George and Simon (George being his lover/pet and Simon just follows his orders). Jerome is the only character with a strained relationship with the rest of the group because he refuses to submit completely to Hugh.
Who is Jerome and why does he hurt Raymond?:
Jerome is a complex character. He’s the illegitimate son of Princess Mary (fictitious princess) and a criminal father who was sold to the Donwell family to hide his existence. The Donwell family wanted to keep Jermoe as because he was ‘well-bred’ (has Royal blood) which made him a valuable to Hugh. Because of his Royal lineage, he treated him as a ‘stallion’ (stallions are breeding horses). The Donwell family used him during ‘clubs’ (social gatherings with debauched people) to present him breeding with woman in-front of everyone. They were able to do that using a drug known as ‘kiss and embrace’ which is a complimentary drug to other drugs. They used this drug to make Jerome unable to resist and become sexually aroused to the point where he was unable to control his actions, resulting in him being forced to rape many woman. During this time he was also still a child and he was first forced to rape his nanny (someone he considered to be his family) and later reveals he was forced to also rape Anna (who might’ve been the nanny) which is the girl we see in the green blouse in the first chapter. Anna also had a daughter which might’ve been a direct consequence of Jerome being forced to rape her, however nothing is confirmed. Jerome was sent to the boarding school with Hugh as well as the others because Hugh wanted to form a his own ‘club’ because to participate in ‘clubs’ you had to be a certain age and Hugh was underage. Hugh was sent to the boarding school because of something bad he did (I don’t think the story every explicitly details what he did). Jerome is also an agent who is put through high stakes missions for purpose of being killed to prevent his existence from tarnishing both the Donwell family and the Royal family. He tries to get ultimately tries to get revenge on both but he is disrupted by Raymond.
As for why he hurt Raymond, unfortunately there isn’t a very a direct reason. The story implies that the abuse that he inflicts on Raymond is due to the oppression and psychological abuse that he received when he was younger. Overtime, Jerome just naturally become more demented as he was a ‘stallion’ for the Donwell family as he was forced to rape many women at a young age. The story also implies that he hurt Raymond because he was forced to under the control of Hugh (however some things don’t add up). Also, Jerome did it because he had a strange attraction to Raymond which he admits to Raymond that he had feelings for him since the day he saw him. Despite all the hurt he causes Raymond, he tries to make up for it throughout the course of the story by giving him chances to survive, allowing Raymond to almost murder him, and by helping him. By the end of the story, he says what he did to Raymond is unforgivable and that there is still not atoning for abuse he caused.
Who is Simon and why does he hurt Raymond?:
Simon is the grandson of a senator who is also an unwanted child of the family, which is why he was given to the Donwell Family as a child. The Donwell family tried to give the same drugs ‘Kiss and Embrace’ to him, but fortunately for him he had sexual dysfunction which meant that the drugs were very ineffective for him and often did not have as potent an affect on him as other it would other people. Because of this the Donwell family did not use him as a sexual tool as they did to Jerome, however he was still psychologically abused. His existence was ignored which made him unable to comprehend the feelings of others (people treated him as if he wasn’t even there). He adapted to this response and listened to the orders of the Donwell family by becoming their lackey. Because people ignored him, he didn’t know how to react when people looked at him (I.e. Raymond). This spiralled into him becoming afraid of Raymond when Raymond looked at him, he didn’t know how to react since he was mainly ignored all his life. He said that we he sees Raymond’s eyes, he doesn’t know what he’s feeling, he doesn’t know what he’s thinking, and he wants to cut Raymond’s wrists because he’s afraid.
The reason that hurts Raymond is to follow the orders that Hugh places for him. However, he also likes Raymond ever since the beginning and he is the first person to rape him on the first night that Raymond stays at the boarding school (Jerome is the second person to rape him on the first day). Also, Simon is only able to have sex with Raymond while he’s sleeping because that’s the only time Raymond is not thinking or feeling anything. Simon in my opinion is probably the most tragic character because he has fully submitted to the psychological abuse that he has endured since he was young, and there’s no salvation for him because his sense of right and wrong is so warped that cannot trust Raymond. He eventually dies at the very end of the story trying to kill Raymond because he cannot trust Raymond’s thoughts or feelings.
Who is George and Hugh?:
The story doesn’t explain too much about either Hugh or George. However, Hugh is the main reason for the suffering of all the characters and he’s also the reason for the suffering of previous predecessors before Raymond (George being one of them). Hugh is just a sadistic psychopath with the pleasure for the torture and abuse of others (he dies in the fire that Raymond starts). George is the pet of Hugh through being tamed, but interestingly enough he is also a high ranking official in some intelligence agency as a hacker. That’s why he’s always on the computer, because he was promoted from a young age to be the hacker for the intelligence agency. The psychological abuse that George goes through, through being tamed by Hugh is not explained but he comes out falling in love with him. Hugh was never truly in love with George (because he’s completely crazy) which is also why they try to get another pet to ‘complete their love’.
Who were the previous predecessors and what happened to them?:
The story never fully talks about what happens to the previous predecessors. There is a character named ‘Christine’ who becomes a drag queen but the story of abuse he suffers is never explained. For a large part of the story, it was assumed that Jerome, Simon, George, and Hugh were the abusers of the previous victims however it was only George and Hugh that did it. Both Simon and Jerome only hurt Raymond because they ‘loved’ him from the start which is why they were both the only ones to rape him first when he is sleeping.
How did Raymond end up at the boarding school?:
Raymond ended up at the boarding school because of Jerome’s assistant Anna (green blouse) because she was trying to save Jerome from Hugh’s wrath by using a substitute character (Raymond). He also ended up there because of strings that were pulled by Julia’s Assistant (John). Essentially, John wanted to get rid of Raymond away from Julia because he loved her and Raymond (being an illegitimate child) was a stain on Julia’s life. John knew what was going to happen to Raymond and threw him there anyways.
Does Raymond get Revenge and who does he end up with?:
Raymond ends up killing Hugh by burning the dormitory, however the rest of them escape but George ends up severely burned by trying to save Hugh from the fire. George takes the Alias ‘Mr. Acacia’ where he tries to avenge Hugh but ends up being killed by Raymond after a 5 year time skip by being hanged. He doesn’t end up killing either Jerome or Simon and ends up with both of them for a while, however it doesn’t really work out. Later on while Raymond tries to save Simon and Jerome (characters are about 35-36 y/o), he is almost killed by Simon but he wears a bulletproof vest. Jerome thinking Simon killed Raymond, kills Simon and then Raymond is deeply devastated. He eventually ends up with Jerome after everything and ends up settling up somewhere in the northern region of Canada with him. By the time the extras are finished, him and Jerome are about 39-40 y/o and it’s mainly about his daily life living with him and Raymond processing the lost of everyone over the past 15 years after he had left the boarding school.