Thank you! All of this! If I didn’t care about the characters and enjoy the story so much, this wouldn’t have been nearly as upsetting. I got invested. I wanted fluffy romantic comedy with some minor angst. I did not expect there to be a rape scene in this. Had I known that from the start I wouldn’t have read a single chapter.
This was character assassination of the highest order.
Literally!! If it were a webtoon with a chara that did bs like this from the beginning I'd be meh, but this is someone who's explicitly expressed his distaste for noncon...
- it's coz people enjoy reading about these characters that's why, and some do go into these works for the plot believe it or not, if it's just gay porn that you're after then just watch an actual gay porn-- it's efficient, direct to the boombayah and you don't waste time investing in the plot only to feel frustrated in the end. Only people who read this for the smut justify these "twists" as fine coz it's "only fiction", of course you don't mind coz the thing that you were after was not affected at all. And before you can say, it's just cartoons, so what? people get attached to specks on some random walls just coz it reminded them of a familiar shape or something, it's human nature to care, nothing absurd about that.
Different people have different reasons for being triggered too, some are just very sensitive when it comes to these topic, some felt betrayed by the inexplicable diversion of the character that they were rooting for, and some like me are just pissed for the sudden shift of the tone that in no way supported everything that happened throughout the story- had the author given even just 1 sensible reason why the naive ml would take that course of action, I might've still understood and justify it for the plot, say the ml did it coz he thought the mc was playing him for his body- this would make the motive sexual, so him SA'ing mc would be punishment based on what the mc was supposedly after (but in the story he only knows that the mc played him for money and for laughs), or maybe if the ml was actually an incel in disguise who's just nice because he wants something in return and when it wasn't given to him, he lashes out, sure that can be something, but again, in the story, even his standoffish side was still due to his sheltered nature, he's genuinely childish, no way could he have that malicious intent from the get go, he didn't even want to do it bareback coz he feared it would hurt the mc, and now he's suddenly thrusting into him until it bleeds? it would be more believable if he punched him to a pulp instead, coz punching someone is a common course of action when you're angry, so it could be something that he picked up and adapted.
All of these are why the backlash for this story has been strong so far, it's not simply coz there was a rape scene (although it is a big concern) it's also because the author disrespected the understanding and trust of their readers by pulling this crap at the last minute too.