In Top Yaoi Manga?

Rape porn and art. Mindless smut, bc let’s face it, after that many chapters, the plot got nowhere and no development at all. Even the author knows it, that’s why it’s filled with rape smut every fucking (literally) chapter.

If you take an objective stance, there’s actually a plot if you parse this webtoon/story from its ~90% rape content. Yes, at first glance I agree that the art is visually appealing, but there is more to this than “rape porn and art.” Ideally, the characters in this webtoon shouldn’t resort to rape for nearly every course of action...However, I cannot speak for the author’s intentions as to why she decided to include an immense amount of rape in her work, but it seems to cater or rather, garner support from the readers to receive a high rating.

I would hope that that they are able to progress and show a psychological manhwa next time, without relying so much on rape/assault. For the plots perspective, it was an important part in the betrayal of Kyung-soo and Yule's relationship, and an insight into Yule's psyche (he never considers what he does to be abuse, as he thinks he has a right, and it's twisted way of showing love) where he reduced Kyung-soo down to someone he felt ownership of. The additional abuse scenes with Dong-hyuk and Geon though were just over kill, and didn't have the same emotional purpose for the plot, it was just violence and more violence. As we already have discussed earlier, it's the smaller details that are the most profound and depressing, Kyung-soo looking into the face of someone he thought he could trust, holding hands which recreating a happier time, Yule's hands shaking as he gradually becomes more obsessed with his ex, Yule treating human relationships so robotically etc. I think there were some poor aspects to the plot, such as Geon's character, or for example the mother's death never being properly clarified, but the theme of the complexities of a dependent, abusive relationship was strong, it's a shame the focus wasn't just on Yule & Kyung-soo, with it maybe showing Yule being in therapy or eventually being able to understand, organically that his behaviour was cruel, rather than just parroting Kyung-soo.

Sigh...it is hard to come up with a response without sounding like a lecturer to the anonymous poster. I do understand where they are coming from: for an average reader, it does look like a rape story/manhwa/webtoon, but for us who are analysts (●'◡'●) of the story, it is more than that.

I think most readers initially thought that it was going to be a story of recovery from gang rape and trauma, but it turned out to be more ongoing rapes and at the end, they saw Kyungsoo and Yule greet each other, so they likely concluded that the story has come full circle and nothing changed.

This manhwa was created after the author's Food Chain, so maybe she thought that Food Chain wasn't popular with the way it was written and decided to include rape as an ongoing plot device? Of course, continuous rape would put off most readers, but maybe she thought it was effectual with this story? I don't know...

I agree with you that the additional abuse scenes with Geon and Dong-Hyuk did not contribute much to the relationship between Yule and Kyungsoo. It's like the author was just overfulfilling or overindulging with her fantasies, lolness.

Yes, I agree with you about the minute details that made this story profound, depressing, interesting, etc. It made me appreciate the story more. But I do not think the average reader would pay attention to those details, haha.

My disappointment with the story lies with several things we have already mentioned: unresolved issues with the mum's death, missed opportunities with the endings, why Yule orchestrated the gang rape, forced relationships, etc. Just the author isn't proficient with the narrative aspect of the manhwa. IMO, I thought she was incorporating every plot twist she could think of to hold the readers' attention for the sake of keeping the readers' interest. Yule's psychopathic? Guess what, his brother is worse. Dong-Hyuk's the likely saviour to Kyungsoo's predicament? Nope, he also ended up being mentally unstable. The author was just too indulgent in creating misery for Kyungsoo, like with every choice he made, there was always some bad outcome or consequence.

Agreed! I think it was a missed opportunity to really explore Yule's perspective and his motives. To have made it more a psychological drama, rather than just violence. The addition of the "extra characters" wasn't really needed, and I think the plot works better without them. The focus on the abusive relationship of Yule x Kyung-soo was depressing and substantial enough, without such deviation. Hopefully their next webtoon with Geon will have a better narrative, and not rely so much on sex scenes or violence, but personally I thought Geon was the weakest character. Dong-hyuk wasn't that great either he was immediately envious about not being Kyung-soo's first, and he ended up objectifying Kyung-soo also. This didn't seem fair writing, as Kyung-soo due to his abuse thinks that he turns people into violent rapists, and the character of Dong-hyuk just validated this for him, rather than offering Kyung-soo a sense of safety and a healthier relationship.

Yupness, but well, we have to accept what the author decides to show us or not. I agree with you, the author did not need to rely on the ongoing sex scenes/violence to build on Yule's character or the toxic/abusive relationship between Yule and Kyungsoo. I honestly thought that the author took an unconventional route with the open ending by empowering Kyungsoo with the ability to break out of the cycle of abuse that Yule and the other two created (well, not really Geon). Kyungsoo was moving on and starting to live for himself. These three "what if" endings backpedaled on everything Kyungsoo was trying to escape from.

Geon was indeed the weakest character. He was just introduced as fan service and to augment Yule's relentlessly cruel and manipulative personality. Dong-Hyuk, in a sense, received an unfortunate treatment from the author too. He was created to serve as a rival for Yule and to show the reader that he had the potential to be Kyungsoo's saviour, but well, the author had always intended for Kyungsoo to suffer for every choice he made. So, yeah, the author "ruined" Dong-Hyuk's character with the intention of furthering Kyungsoo's misery/endless suffering.

Haha, that's what abusers and rapists do: they persuade their victims into thinking that it was their fault and that their abuse was deserving. I hated Geon for pointing out that Kyungsoo was the cause of the three's actions towards him. So untrue, they were all already messed up in the head and Kyungsoo was just a "stimulus" that brought about their true natures. All three were wearing a "mask" of being arseholes and Kyungsoo's presence just allowed them to take off that mask and manifest their true, disgusting personalities/natures.

Putting poorly developed characters aside, the story itself is messed up too... Like really really messed up, so why does this manga has rating 8, 4?

Uh... well, to me it had a lot of psychological implications and it tried to explore the toxic and abusive relationship between Kyungsoo and Yule. I wouldn't give it a 5/5 though... more like 3/5 because there were missed potentials and other stuff, etc...

And uhm...well, the art?

I have to agree that the psychological aspect of this manga was guite interesting. Messed up in lots of ways but still interesting.