They make these beautifully interesting stories with wonderfully compelling main characters but they aaaaaalways always always add this weird incest twist and it’s gross. Like idc how much the text looks down on incestual attraction on the surface, it’s weird by virtue of constantly showing up. They’re obsessed with this dynamic of an abusive brother interfering with this disinterested mc’s love life and the inability to cut off a sibling relationship without humiliating themselves in front of a parent and creepy tragic incestuous SA and… god it rly sours the whole read.
It so easily could have been abt the brother doing psychological warfare as part of a power play and Dojun’s ego that’d been demolished over years of being used by other alphas to make themselves feel like they’ve got the upper hand, and the doctors careless reinforcement of that bc he uses Dojuns emotional volatility as a trump card in any disagreement regardless of whether he’s right or not.
And it would have been so much more satisfying for Dojun to end up in a place where he realises that by abandoning the societal competition to be the best Man, by forfeiting a game he was never in a position to win and refusing to play, those remarks can’t hurt him anymore. “You are a failed Man,” “Sure, and? Maybe that matters to you, but I’m free.”
INSTEAD we go in a big circle where the doctor is this enormous asshole the entire ride and stumbles into the realisation he’s in love without any active agency from Dojun at all, every demeaning and insulting implication abt how Dojuns a child is vindicated, Dojuns constantly ambushed by his creepy brother who Sucks, and any emotional development is totally blurry bc all you can see is the hideous Incest Elephant in the room.
Yes to all of what you said. They could have had Dowha being mean to Dojun by not knowing when to stop teasing him, taking it too far and interfering in Dojun's love life because he cares about Dojun and wants him to be happy (like the flashbacks of them as kids). They could have had him realise how bad it got at the end and then he could eventually change and they could have a good sibling relationship (which seems to be what they always wanted). Instead we got incest. I can see where it got twisted into that, but we didn't have to have that at all.
Poor Dojun, he has Dowha messing with him, Dr is a jerk, and Doyun - who he always wanted to protect (and who was always protecting Dojun) - was always pushing him away.
Like first of all, I don’t think this is especially well translated or written. The doe-eyed teary flushing uke bit feels tired and frustrating. BUT. It’s actually kind of compelling when you look at the broader strokes of their relationship. Like let’s be honest here, the Seme IS ABSOLUTELY pulling some bullshit. Are his feelings sincere? Yeah. Are his gestures meant to be kind. Yeah. But Yohan is like… surprisingly the coherent and down-to-earth one in the relationship, trembling wet eyes aside.
He was brought to the house to mock Hubert, he’s been dragged from place to place at the whims of a man who resents him for attraction Yohan is COMPLETELY not responsible for, he’s constantly verbally abused and told he’s dirty, ugly, uncultured and common, and this rich prick has been expecting him to act like a sugar baby from day 1.
Like old mate got yohan to fess up to liking him after throwing a fit, slept with him, LEFT without a word of reciprocation, demanded yohan stay in a bedroom until he got home (didn’t say how long, yohan had to call and check), WAS THREE DAYS LATE WITHOUT WORD, came back and threw another fit when yohan wasn’t there, got yohan FIRED, threw yohans dead parents memorabilia in his face, MOCKED HIM for saying money can’t buy everything when hubert thought it could… Like i’m sorry yall if i was yohan at this point id be the uke joker.
I’ve never had more fun standing in an angry mob with a pitchfork tbh. Truly the most perfectly engineered loathsome top/feeble but sincere bottom drama of all time. Our boys a damn saint who took a risk opening his heart to someone who never ever deserved it and got it ground to dust underfoot. His mans a big dumb brute with an ego who couldn’t switch off long enough to realise what an angel he’d found. Our boy got pushed away and he left quietly and never stopped doing right by him, despite everything. Now we’re in for a full season of that shitheel reaping what he sowed and oooooohhh godddd yesssss!!! This is TELE. VISION. BABES. Scratches that primordial itch of wanting to see a shit boyfriend Eat His Words!!!! YESSSS
I love subversive stories and interesting character growth as much as the next guy but i personally am NOT too good for an entertaining dumpster fire. This isn’t high brow entertainment it’s ’baby please take me back’ cheese and i loooooooove itttt… If he earned his redemption arc more then i wouldn’t get to enjoy watching him sufferrrrrrrr~
I can’t say with full honesty that I liked this story, but I can certainly say it was interesting. I found their chemistry to be absolutely STIFLING which was a big surprise, because I usually like introspective and honest MCs paired up with a dishonest lunatic. Something about it though… maybe the entire philosophical premise of lying to yourself about feeling secure in a relationship just to make it work is a bit depressing? Like yall met and went from ‘interested in one another’ to ‘married 10 years and only still together out of habit’ in a MONTH. Got a bit lost in the cyclical internal monologue spirals that never went anywhere satisfying, but were certainly thought provoking at times… yeah just a bit of an odd read.
I’ve said it before but i’ll say it again, I really like the direction the webtoon adaption is going in. Tonally it’s a more comedic than the novel, which makes the dark absurdist comedy a LOT funnier, but it also manages to keep one foot solidly planted in the bleak dark fantasy. It’s a really fantastic adaption that feels like it’s doing its own thing.
And I’m even okay with the sexual themes being less explicit, though do I wonder how they’re going to manage some of those later scenes… we’ll have to wait and see.
SAMK is the goat
I don't know why it never occurred to me that they would eventually end up in pound town with each other until this comment. Do you have a link to the novel??