I agree. but unfortunately, what's new in yaoi? 80%, if not more, of all the "stories" are full of rape and sexual assualt disguised as "love" or whatever the fuck they think it is. Having feelings for someone does not give you the right to violate a person's body and spirit just because you "like them so much" and can't contain yourself it's the most brain rot take on romance ever but I guess anything goes in the name of fiction.
the bar is in hell because this particular story isn't even half as bad as the rest of them. At least there's actual trauma.. compare to the ones where the character is raped, and suddenly they can't get enough of their rapist and boom they fall in love
the bar is in the deepest pits of hell you're so right it really sucks that i'm so desensitized to it now. the only manhwa i couldn't stomach was no returns after use. nothing has made me feel as physically ill as that one
I read this after my comment but I agree totally with yall. I’m very desensitized to things like this usually (no returns after use was nothing to me but corrosive bothered me, I might still read it if they actually became more loving) and the only story that has made me physically ill is indomitable champion bc it’s literally just rape without reprieve. People complain a lot about roses and champagne but at least we see that the character repeatedly forgives and accepts his psycho partner. I do hope there’s at least an actual apology given to huijae bc otherwise why show this trauma??
100% agree. Summing it up, the author doesn’t want as to hate the ml for the sake of romance. It could have been written differently because now I feel sorry for mc and I can’t get past what happened to him
ya'll are both stronger than me because there's a handful of stories that make me physically ill because rape and abuse is so minimized like it's just another Tuesday, and somehow romance randomly blossoms or the abusers are repeatedly forgiven... that's why now, I always check the comments before I start something to avoid the mental and emotional torture. I'm a completionist with OCD so I have a hard time dropping something once I've already started it, but there have been several that imo were bad enough for me to drop and suppress my morbid curiosity
Christ I WISH this was new. Rape has been engrained in yaoi since the dawn of the genre (as in, the one pioneered by straight women)
I understand this so much. I have a bad habit of starting stuff bc I like to “collect” manga. I had to force myself to stop reading stuff I didn’t like, and ultimately fortified myself for a lot of violence/messed up stuff. If they are in love at the end or there’s some lightheartedness/comedic relief I can justify continuing. If not I have to drop, bc I don’t like unhappy/mindbreak/violent endings
I hate to be that person but rape in any sort romance based genre in general is not new. It’s strange to point out straight women specifically especially bc we don’t actually know for sure the sexuality/gender identity of all the people who pioneered the genre. We have the privilege of being a bit more open now but women(straight or lgbtq) are still an oppressed group and not some sort of villain
I'm talking modern *yaoi* specifically. And I never said they were villains, but you cannot be erasing east Asian media history like that my guy. Or the very real reality of fetishization that has been going on till today. And let me tell you as a reader of all romance manga/hwa/hua, there is a concerning disparity between how often rape is depicted, brushed off, or the sheer level of violence depicted in yaoi.
And lastly sure, I don't know the specifics of the sexuality of every single woman to ever make yaoi/BL, but that doesn't take away from how fucked up it is and the damage that has been caused. It does sound like you're partially projecting though. Whether you believe woman yaoi authors are also queer, doesn't make it okay just because they're on the oppression scale, they're not infallible.
i really do love this story. i think the plot and characters are sweet and endearing. but the writing is so strange to me. i did read ahead in the raws because i couldn't wait for them to reunite again. the story is pretty predictable but what stood out to me was the fact that huijae was visibly traumatized by what happened at the end of s1.
huijae was raped. but the scene itself was framed as something that /wasn't/ a violation of his body. even the ml refers to it as "fucking" ("i'm going to fuck you one last time") instead of rape. the concept of saying "no" has become somewhat of a kinky/fetish thing in manhwa/hua/ga because i genuinely believe that most of these authors have forgotten what consensual sex looks like. like when characters say "noo, don't touch me, kyaaa (sorry for making you read that) but they're written as though they do like what's being done to them. there's just a very blurry line between the depiction of sex and rape in manhwa/hua/ga. i initially thought maybe that's what happened at the end of s1 but i was definitely mistaken.
it's obvious from s2 that huijae was traumatized by what happened to him. it caused him to be scared of people touching him. he suffered from very real repercussions of what happened to him. when they met again he collapsed on the ground out of fear. so the plot itself treats huijae's trauma like it is--rape. but the writing seems to dismiss the gravity of it for the sake of maintaining the romance. i don't think it's ever been to referred to as rape in this (i could be mistaken since i used google translate for most of it) and, while it looked as though the ml regretted his actions, the writing made it seem as though he believed it wasn't rape himself. a better way to say this is: the possibility that he raped huijae didn't even cross his mind because it wasn't rape to him. he was more angry at himself for treating huijae harshly with the handcuffs than violating his rights.
at the end of the day it's clear this story falls victim to the romanticization of rape. you can't make a plot that demands a character is traumatized by the violation of their body while also writing those same characters blushing bashfully when they interact with their abusers. that being said,,, i still do really like the story. i've unfortunately grown very desensitized to bad and problematic writing so i'll probably keep up with this until the end LMAO
sorry for the long comment. i'll stop yapping now