The King is too obsessed with power, to the degree that it’s destroying his country. Honestly the king is a shitty, yet interesting character. He obsessively clings to power even as his actions continuously destabilize the ruling forces of his country, thus ensuring that he will still have to keep fighting. He feels threatened by both Lawrence and Cedric and constantly tries to play them off one another, always dangling the prize of the crown prince title.
Lawrence has never been an ideal prince, but he is useful to his father. The king never raised him or taught him how to be a person or a ruler. Lawrence’s mother wasn’t a paragon of virtue, so it’s not exactly shocking that he would grow up with character flaws. The king was always more interested in using his child’s behavior than correcting it, and then when he grew up into an opportunistic adult capable of seizing power, he felt threatened.
He named Lawrence as Crown Prince, but then he needed a counterbalance to hamper him and essentially used Cedric, whose family he has exploited and discarded before, as a rival. Then when Lawrence screwed up, was politically harmed by his mother’s actions, and demonstrated poor/threatening character, he pivoted to Cedric.
Even with Cedric, who is generally honorable, who married his stepdaughter, who is a father to a child blessed by god as a Crown prince, he still can’t let go of his paranoia. He tries to bring back Lawrence, who he now knows to be power hungry and duplicitous.
He sees the position of successor as a lever to be pulled to manipulate potential usurpers, but can’t tolerate the idea of an actual successor to hand off power to.
Spot on!!! May I add that there were moments when the king had epiphanies about his son. Especially when he realized that Lawrence never once visited his mother when she was captured and his sister when she first realized that she was sick and pregnant. The king was disgusted, but I was like “that’s the monster you raised
It’s such a common thing in fantasy stories. The father, especially if he’s the king, spends zero time raising or bonding with their kid(s), models a crappy relationship with their mom, and basically leaves them to their own devices, and then gets shocked, disappointed, and outraged when the kid is ineffective or has character flaws.
Just because you found a woman attractive enough to sleep with one or more times does not mean she is well suited to single handedly raise and nurture your child into a functional adult and ruler.
What makes this king different is that he never intervenes when his lovers or children behave poorly, but he does use those outbursts to his own advantage. He ignored and enabled his lover’s aggressive, violent, and psychotic actions because it gave him excuses to use her as a smokescreen to attack potential enemies and consolidate his power.
But it never occurred to him that such a person might have a significant negative influence on his growing son, because he really never gave much thought to either one of them beyond his own interests.
By the time Lawrence’s callous behavior started spilling out onto his mother and sister, it was to late to intervene in any effective way.
I can’t help but compare this slightly to the game of thrones… I did not watch the whole series because it was a bit too much on the mind
Too many plot it got lost
This is such a political game and it rolls that people play are just too much at times it interesting to see how this plays out
I think people are being overly harsh on MC. Even if he had dodged the needle, it wouldn’t have ended there. He essentially snuck into a drug party, and the people there would be extremely suspicious of anyone who refused to take any. It would have been like announcing he’s a cop. In actuality, undercover agents may have to do drugs to maintain their cover or avoid losing the trust of criminals depending on the situation. In the US it gets reported to your superiors and then the agent goes to the hospital ASAP to detox and get some care.
If anyone is at fault, it’s MC’s superior’s for running such a trainwreck of an operation. They sent a brand new agent into an incredibly dangerous mission alone, with no weapons or resources, and without any guidance or oversight.
It’s clear they offer no support, so MC is now in desperation mode, trying to close the case before the criminals get suspicious of him or his bosses find out what they did to him.
He also now knows that he likely won’t be able to get in without taking drugs again, so he’s trying to get it all done in one shot. He’s basically been backed into a corner by both the criminals and his bosses even though he followed protocol
Actually I think the bosses are more at fault than MC
1. This is his very first assignment, so he is completely inexperienced, which is an important part of properly gauging and reacting to potentially dangerous situations. He has never been in the field before or gotten the chance to learn from more experienced agents (idk about Korea but that’s usually how it’s done in the US)
2. He has literally nobody watching his back, no partner, no handler, no coworkers. Nobody monitoring cameras or audio to make sure he’s safe, give advice, or exchange intel. If he had died the first time he got in, literally nobody would have known where he was or even where to look.
3. He doesn’t seem to have any weapons or digital resources usually utilized by agents (this isn’t uncommon for undercover agents, but combined with all his other disadvantages, makes for a bad situation).
4. His assignment is to not only locate, but infiltrate and gather evidence from a drug den/ring of indeterminate origin and danger…alone….with no weapons
5. When he first got in, he was doing everything right, but just didn’t expect someone to forcibly inject him with drugs. After that, he was essentially helpless, but even if he had physically stopped the guy, that might have made them suspicious as to why he wasn’t partaking, potentially putting him in even worse danger (undercover agents sometimes have to do drugs to maintain their cover, but in the US, they immediately report it in and go to the hospital ASAP to detox afterwards)
6. The department he works for must be unsupportive and unreasonable if being forcibly administered drugs by a criminal would be an immediate firing offense. Of course it’s not a great fit of confidence in MC’s skills, but not really his fault either. Now he has to hide that event, meaning that he likely won’t seek medical care
7. Now he’s in a sunk cost fallacy because he’s desperate to close the case as fast as possible without being further compromised, either with his bosses or the criminals
The structure of this investigation is so horrible, minimizes chances of evidence collection, and makes it so that if a single thing goes wrong, MC will be screwed with nothing or no one to help him. They put a green agent on a difficult and dangerous assignment with absolutely no margin for error
Sorry, but Dionel is an exceptionally mediocre ml. He’s entirely self centered and doesn’t give any thought as to how his actions might affect the people around him. He used and strung along Rosephine for almost two years and tossed her aside once she (understandably) got expectations. Her political and personal reputation took a serious hit from that, not to mention the emotional trauma. He was never serious, but she always made it obvious that she was.
And did he expect Daisey to wait for 10+ years at the pond, just waiting for him to visit? He was butthurt that she left, but it was ridiculous to expect her to live alone, doing nothing until it was convenient for him to visit or take her with him. I’m not saying he’s a villain, but in terms of relationships, he puts very little thought or effort into the other person.
If this wasn’t a fantasy, he would be the first boyfriend that dumps her for dumb reasons before she meets a better guy, after which he would come crawling back to no avail.
This is a classic development that really shows that Minchan is sexualizing and objectifying Taewook, but isn’t really seeing him as a full human. It’s very common in romance stories that the man (if it’s a straight relationship) or top demonstrate strong possessiveness despite a disinterest in relationships and unwillingness to commit to a casual partner. These characters consciously or subconsciously consider their partners to be their property., and apply a lot of double standards.
In many cases it’s the possessiveness itself that leads to the formation of a relationship rather than legitimate affection, because the person on the receiving end is irritated and a line gets drawn. You don’t get the privileges of being in a monogamous relationship without committing to the obligations of one. It’s a very entitled mindset very common in groups deemed to be most powerful socially. In this sense, alphas take the masculine role of entitled oppressor, while omegas take historically feminine role of oppressed, even within relationship dynamics
You ate that up
Left no crumbs.
You devoured I fear
Thanks guys
"it's the possessiveness that leads to formation of a relationship rather than legitimate affection". You literally ate with just this one sentence!!!! this has been one of my biggest problems in stories because I as a reader clearly see the distinction and see proof of what you just said in almost every other story. It's frustrating to see mcs fall for these types of characters when possessiveness is clearly what drives them to act the way they do rather than genuine feelings!
Yes, it’s so irritating. I try not to hold it against the “doormat” characters because in most cases they are written to accommodate or minimize the negative behaviors of their partner. They either have Jekyll and Hyde personalities that don’t make sense depending on whether they are with the main romantic lead, have built in physical, psychological, or financial dependencies that make it difficult to leave, or your classic blatant plot forcing where the story and everything around them is written to force them together even if it’s not healthy or doesn’t even make sense.
If Taewook didn’t have physical needs he couldn’t handle by himself, he never would have put up with Minchan’s bs long enough to develop random feelings that aren’t really rooted in anything (a toxic/mediocre bl staple). Still, he may be a little shit, but Michan still has time to become a better person, and I do love how nonchalantly Taewook handles him.
True, this trope is too overused.
I have to say, Qian is a true ride or die. He was only dating Rui for a couple months and he is all in. He’s now been taking care of Rui in his catatonic state for longer than they’ve known each other. That’s true love
IDK, the tree is giving off major colonizer vibes now. He moved to another continent and got attacked by the natives, but somehow it’s their fault for being “warlike barbarians”. Yikes
I’m fine with an acid trip plotline, but mc is a fucking rapist. Don’t waste your time
So ML:
1. Left her in the forest
2. Told her to wait for him but didn’t comeback for her
3. Got a publicly known fiancée for 2 years (and led her on)
4. Didn’t recognize her when they met again
And he has a self esteem issue? More like a common sense, awareness of cause and effect issue.
It’s giving woman written by a man in a big way. Very much catered to male fantasies and patriarchal ideals. He basically exploits her in her time of need while pretending to help. He capitalizes on her kidnapping, financial hardship, and family medical crisis to get her to agree to be his baby factory/sex doll for embryos made with his deceased wife, but his obvious selfishness and lack of genuine care for her well being are fine because he lets her live in luxury, and she caught feelings, thinks he’s hot, and is happy to alleviate his sadness “even a little bit” by acting as his live in sex doll and selfless tradwife…
Yeah you should definitely look at the author’s insta discussing the story. She clarifies he isn’t even the set the ML and that this is just the backstory to the actual main story. This is all flashbacks and not current time
That’s fine and all, but I’m reading the story in real time without extra knowledge of the author’s intentions or any plot spoilers. It reads like a permissive story that tries to gloss over how shitty he is, whether he’s the endgame ml or not
But the point is, it isn’t glossing over how shitty he is lol. It’s showing the parts clearly to show how shitty he is, and why the FL would want to move on. I don’t know how you’d get to that conclusion unless you saw the ending where he’s forgiven and accepted or you just project other stories with similar plots, assuming it will be the exact same case as this one. The author is very aware of such plots and from what I’ve seen, she likes to develop the characters thoroughly.
Yo y u keep defending this story under people comments. If they not feeling it they not feeling . You extra defensive, chill your just assuming things the op never said.
And why do you care about what other people are talking about lmfao. Reading is essential, please try it out again and maybe you’ll see that I’m giving more info about the author’s intent. Not talking about how much I hate or love the story. You didn’t even understand anything I said LOLLL
I get what you’re saying about the author’s intentions, but my point was that the story doesn’t actually read that way. And it exists as an independent unit, so if the author felt that the actual art and storyline were insufficient to convey the meaning of their story they should have included the extra context with the chapters.
The author didn’t include it because that context is pretty much spoilers, so only for people that want to know who is the lead. She provides spoilers on her account for reader’s who really want to know and if they want to continue reading knowing who the male lead is.
I’m just reassuring anyone that chances are, the dark haired guy may not be the male lead. And it isn’t supporting the toxic ML trope. It’s likely leading up to the set up of the story is basically like a book series. The first arc/volume being the FL’s past, trauma, and showing the events leading up to why she is who she is now. The second arc/volume is the current time, moving on from the painful past. Cause without showing the painful part, no reader is going to understand the stuff she went through or would think it’s a big deal
I’m glad if that’s the case, but if the story doesn’t read right without spoilers, it means there are some conceptual problems
No you're spoiling the story because you think that'll make people like it better. Nobody needs hints that the author is giving. We're reading the story as it is now and it's a 2/5.
Writing paragraphs for this book you have to be the author or u know them smh
LMFAOOO you cannot seriously be this pressed because I’m giving more info. If you wanna bitch about a story, be my guest- Idgaf anyone hating the story. All I’m doing is clarifying stuff people didn’t know and assumptions. My replies were never about people’s opinions, it was about adding info that they can then see if they want to continue reading or not. I never even disagreed with anyone, I just corrected what people thought the author’s intent was.
Make your own complaints in your comment instead of whining about shit that others didn’t have any issue with. Take the stick outta your ass and carry on with your day. It’s saying something when you have more of a problem than the people I replied to LOL
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I’m sorry are you incapable of writing more than two sentences?? Using the “writing paragraphs” insult is an easy way to show how your brain can’t comprehend past a certain limit, or you think everything is too big to read LOL. Do you enjoy indirectly telling people you don’t like that they can write more than you?
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You seem to get triggered and offended easily, no one even came at you for your opinion, you just wanted to be involved where no one needed your extra input.
You're so mad that you're cussing
Yeah, seems like Trinitymoon hit the nail on the head
Are you 5? LMFAO do you think you can only cuss when you’re mad?
But anyways, thank you for showing me you ran out of things to say.
I said ur projecting because the only one who seems triggered and easily offended is u choco. The rest of my comment got cut off and ur super extra .
You started and replied to me because you were so bothered by me talking to other people lmao. All your comments just show you didn’t actually care about anything I said, you were just a troll who was bored and wanted someone to talk to
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Anyways I said everything I wanted. You should go find some friends to whine to next time! I can’t imagine you acting like this every time anyone wants to give more info. You started getting sooo offended thinking ppl cared about your opinion enough to change it.
I also salute u sir for not writing another 4 paragraphs over explaining and repeating what u said 6 answers ago. I'm so proud of u keep up the good work.
Also a 5yr def could have written 10% of this then their 14yr sis wrote the other 90.
I'm also going to stop replying because the only thing u were right about is this being under someone else's post. Blowing up their nots is kinda rude, my bad Witchery.