you’re absolutely right! i got carried away by the part where seungho and nakyum had a liiitle bit of smoothing sailing but now you’ve put it into perspective for me.
I agree with both. If I didn't read this I would have easily been persuaded Seungho is changing. Stockholm Syndrome is a no no in my book
Thank you for seeing clearly what the artist has presented. The way BL readers are willing to forgive rapist characters they minute they go "soft" and call it "character development" is embarassing. The whole idea that anyone could consider "complex character development" a rapist becoming "nice" is...let's just be honest about what we're reading here.
Oh believe me, I also got blinded myself for awhile. As soon as Seungho acts like he always did when trouble arose and things started getting complicated he proved himself to be the same self centered man he was raised to be. I started looking back on previous chapters and it really becomes apparent that Seungho is only soft when Nakyum lets him do as he wants and even then it’s not always a given. I mean he started treating him coldly again when he thought to be in love and was absolutely appalled by the thought of loving a lowborn who doesn’t even reciprocate these emotions. He invited his other lovers and made a damn show out of letting Nakyum see that he doesn’t give a fuck when he kisses the other guy before slamming the door in Nakyum’s face. Which is hilarious because he forced Nakyum into a “relationship”. It’s not like Nakyum confessed and wanted to be his lover. So what was he trying to prove here? Seems to me like he was under the illusion that Nakyum would care and should be made aware of how replaceable he is. It’s narcissistic as hell. Did Seungho really think Nakyum would be under any illusions and put on airs because he thinks he’s special?? Why would he think Nakyum would think that when Seungho forced him into it in first place under threat of killing the guy he “loves”? This dude is really unaware how other people feel. Or did he think Nakyum would be grateful to be the “lover” of someone so high? Did he just assume that as his feelings grew, the feelings of his rape victim would naturally follow suit? Delusional as fuck! That also would explain why he acts all betrayed when he assumes that Nakyum fled. Remember the chapter his pride was attacked by this one guy taunting him about his soft feelings for a low born. What does he do? He drugs Nakyum and lets him be sexually assaulted by even more people. Even though he cut this short because of jealousy it shows even more that he views Nakyum as his possession and not a partner. I get the feeling the author is aware of Seungho’s flaws and selfishness and how utterly unequal this relationship was from the beginning. So I hope he will actually get some character development and self reflect. It just seems so obvious that Seungho doesn’t love Nakyum. It’s only about “me,me,ME!” with this dude. I hope this will be addressed and not be ignored with the generic bl tropes of “I had a bad childhood! Forgive and love me” or something similar.
I may or may not be a huge fan of Stockholm stories.. ooops ⁄(⁄ ⁄·⁄ω⁄·⁄ ⁄)⁄
Exactly. Of course readers want the main characters to end up with each other but I don’t see how this would be possible at all with how Seungho is acting. Nakyum is being reduced to some “love interest” for his rapist and that might be all he’s going to be in the end of this webtoon. Which i Hope won’t happen. I want to read about the Nakyum who had the balls to draw depictions of sodomy for profit to earn his living. This suggests that he wants more for himself, that he has aspirations for more. Not just ending up being strung along by some men in his life and waiting for affection that can be withheld as soon as he doesn’t please them anymore (Seungho, learned sir) . I hope he can flee and make something out of himself. I don’t really want this relationship to happen as of now. We would need like 200 chapters of Seungho reflecting and redeeming himself. He needs to let go of Nakyum. Nakyum needs to find himself. I want to see Seungho crawling on the ground and being rejected. There is some realism to this because of the time period and class difference between them where Seungho would think he can take whatever he wants. Especially him thinking he can do what he wants with Nakyum because he’s a low born. It just went too far for me to ever be satisfied with them ending up together. And realistically they would never be in a happy and equal relationship. Especially not after all what Seungho has done to him. I just want Nakyum to be free and happy. But I don’t see this happening at all because Nakyum also doesn’t get much character development. The only things he thinks about are Seungho and the learned sir. There is no outrage, no plans to escape, nothing to suggest that he is realizing that he’s only being used by those guys. Maybe towards the learned sir he finally sees who he is but this only falls under the bl trope “falling out of love with first guy and realizing that he sucks” which is followed by “I’m now falling in love with a guy who treats me even worse but at least is horny for me” trope. If it wasn’t like that, Nakyum would have actually had a moment of clarity regarding his learned sir and would apply it to other people as well. But no, he just doesn’t. At least I don’t see him thinking about any of that. He softens towards Seungho, which could be seen as him developing Stockholm syndrome but I don’t know if this will be treated in the serious manner. Or if it will be only another trope of “love conquers all/real love needs to suffer”. Let’s hope not.
What do we expect from a rapist and an abuser anyway?
Lol. Not much honestly. I’m not opposed to reading or watching stories about extreme people. Otherwise the entertainment industry would be quite dull if we were only presented with mundane and dull stories about mentally perfectly healthy people and their “hallmark movie” type relationships. What bothers me though is how often abuse in relationships, like rape, stalking and possessiveness is being romanticized and turned into an example of what “real” love is supposed to be. Further, slapping some sappy backstory onto the abuser, which absolves them of all accountability and responsibility for their own actions is very disrespectful for real life victims of abuse and quite irresponsible of an author or director. But we see this type of “conflict” resolution for toxic relationships all throughout the media. Its rare to see a toxic relationship in fiction presented as just that. There is always some excuse. Like bad childhoods, or victim blaming, where the abuser is presented as misunderstood by side characters which influence the opinion of the MC. One of the most annoying tropes is “your love changed me”. Which is just lazy.
The point of being an artist is being able to express yourself and your inner most fantasies which also means kinks. If romanticizing rape is their fantasy they should be able to use it as creation in their work because the reader should be at maturity enough to see that it is fiction an to not act on it, and/or expect it in real life. Same for murder thrillers, same for child soldiers (Naruto), gang affiliates, ect. Writing toony stories is NOT a self help book, NOT a seminar, it’s NOT trusted advice from a friend. Therefore shouldn’t be held to any standards of reality. You don’t blame the gun, you blame the gunman.
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P.s. LOVE can absolutely change people for the good.
Sorry for the late reply. I agree that authors should be able to write about whatever they wish to. My problem is that it’s always handled in the same boring and predictable manner. As i said before, reading about extreme people is interesting but it’s mostly handled in a repetitive recycling of tropes we are all familiar with. It becomes predictable as it’s always the same. Guy becomes obsessed with another person. Treats that person like dirt because “childhood trauma, cheating ex, revenge because a relative of the love interest did them wrong”. That in itself is fine as I expect a reason for the ML to be an emotionally immature asshole. But how it’s handled over and over again is eye roll inducing. The other person always falls in love while being abused by the ML, especially after hearing about childhood trauma. The ML is always forgiven after showing some “kindness” and then we get a “Happy End”. Of course I want a main couple to end up with each other but I’m annoyed that a ML (or FL) never has to take real accountability for their actions. Or that the object of their affection just forgives them immediately. I want to see more drama resulting from the ML’s behavior and face certain consequences.
And I have to disagree with you partly on “love can change a person”. I don’t think it’s that simple. An abuser can probably be inspired to want to better themselves, but for a “victim” to suddenly become solely responsible for their partner's behavior seems manipulative, especially if it’s voiced by the “abuser” like “I want to change for you, don’t leave me”. The want to change can only happen if the person wants to change out of an inner desire. It comes from within but is of course often influenced by negative reactions of outside forces. And I can see how a partner who is hurt and leaves, could become a motivation for the abuser to maybe self reflect. But it becomes unbelievable if that person only changes for the sake of love for their partner. I think it takes a lot of negative consequences for a person to change their ways. And that only happens if that person isn’t an utter narcissist. It would be nice for the author to explore this here.
When I think about it honestly, Seungho didn’t have any character development at all in the middle. I know one can say “but he treated Nakyum more softly and protected him” and all that jazz but this really didn’t have anything to do with character development or soul searching. Before he ever met Nakyum this guy was already a “fan” of his art. When he finally saw that Nakyum was a young and nubile boy, he became fascinated by the contradiction of his character. On one hand this is the artist who draws depictions of sodomy so well it turns Seungho on and on the other hand this kid is a shy virgin and probably not at all what Seungho pictures in his mind. He also gets turned on by Nakyum refusing him and not falling over him like the other guys. All this leads to his obsession and fantasies (that he fights) of being in love. But when you look at his actions, he’s forcing everything on Nakyum. He doesn’t care for his opinions, aspirations and thoughts. He only cares to own him. That’s just not love but a rather selfish greed he wrongfully thinks of as love. It’s only his “feelings” that make this “relationship” happen. It’s not reciprocated. Nakyum mentally seems to have given up and might have warmed up to Seungho showing his softer side but it really shows that he doesn’t trust this man. That’s why he doesn’t say the truth about the assassin. This is really telling to me that Nakyum, even though he started to “enjoy” those attentions, he’s very well aware that he can be discarded at a moments notice. This relationship is doomed. And I’m not really surprised that Seungho still acts the way he does in the newest chapters. We’ve only seen him being softer because Nakyum gave in and wouldn’t put up a fuss anymore. As soon as Seungho’s fantasy doesn’t align with the reality of things, he shows how callous and selfish he is. He immediately lashes out and punishes Nakyum by raping him and treating him like a hole. This guy didn’t develop at all. Nakyum is merely put on this obsession pedestal because he’s beautiful, didn’t run after him and is in love with that learned sir prick, and the artist who produces drawings of things that turn Seungho on. There is no real heart felt emotion. At least, I can’t see it. This can be a masterpiece if the author actually makes Seungho look into a mirror to see how ugly he is inside, reflects and changes. And not the usual “your love changed me”. Or “you are cruel and raped me but I fell in love with you and forgive you because of your childhood trauma”. I really hope it doesn’t go into that direction as the art is amazing.