Xinthefreefallx June 27, 2020 7:09 am

Its rare to see such a story done right in this medium. BLs have a habit of focusing on fetishizing gay men and glorifying toxic behavior in the name of "love". Instead, we are finally gifted with a story. It's not a "boys love", a "girls love, yaoi or whatever. This is a story about finding acceptance of yourself and others no matter their gender identity, sexuality or the way they choose to live their life.
Each character was fleshed out beautifully and the struggles they faced in everyday life. I couldn't find it in my heart to find one thing I disliked about them. Even when characters lashed out and said hateful things because they couldn't understand themselves, you could feel that pain that they were going through. Each character was beautifully human.
The art and the metaphorical portrayals are seriously masterful. This was truly a work of art and should be a must read for everyone.

Xinthefreefallx May 19, 2020 2:28 am

Possible Spoilers, beware.

So this one really disappointed me. I love body swap stories (come through 2003 Freaky Friday) and this story really set up a story that I wanted to be engrossed in. Main character is set up to be a pretty competent and strong main character, albeit a bit stupid so my expectations were set pretty high from the get go. Also, at the beginning I thought we were actually going to get a seme-led story since the main character portrayed some pretty normal seme tropes. And then he wakes up in the body of resident uke Han Siwon. While he still retains his personality and the things that intrigued me about such an upfront main character, he gets placed into forced uke tropes which is a bit sad.

Min Woojin, the psychotic asshole seme of our story is just... Eh. Insert obvious we were friends when we were little trope. That being said, I was intrigued by his back story. But, Min Woojins importance to the plot would. Occasional boil down to being the Seme to the Uke. Can we just some good Vers Boi recognition here? These two obviously dominant personalities could have shown some development by both being placed in situations where they had to let go of that dominance a bit.

The overall plot was really engrossing at the beginning, but started getting pretty messy towards the end. Trying to solve Han Jiwooks obsession with Min Woojin is a little vague. I get the whole I hate my twin because people thinks he better than me, but I guess the back story between why jiwook was so infatuated with Woojin was not explained well at all. Also, I forget his name but gang rapist dude is waste. Like literally not needed whatsoever. And his tie in at the end to the "plot twist" just seemed forced and messy. Like his involvement was never made clear.

Art was fantastic. While a few weird angles and stuff popped out to me, it was beautifully made. The color palette was soft which contrasted the harsh looks you would get from some characters. It was a nice balance.

Also, I feel like it should have been in the actual story, but like trigger warnings for abuse and rape. This isnt a fluffy love story and I get that, but some people can be triggered by that kind of stuff.

Overall, it was okay. Wished the ending was more fleshed out, but like whatevs. 3 out of 5 stars so it was an okay, average read.

Xinthefreefallx May 15, 2020 1:55 am

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:

I really wanted to like this manhwa and I definitely didn't hate it. I guess it left me a bit confused. A very common trope in BL is the power dynamic between the seme and uke. Obviously, the seme is the more aggressive and aloof character with the uke being naive. I feel like this manhwa brought in that trope and multiplied it by ten. Siwon and Jihan were both extremely toxic with their relationship with each other, especially Jihan. Jihan could really only express himself through verbally abusive onslaughts and occasional physical abuse during the first half of the almost 90 chapter long story.

Communication between the characters were just absolutely abysmal (another common trope but again done tenfold here) and no one wanted to express their feelings and explain certain situations which would clear up a lot of misunderstandings. Another common trope is bodily consent, which, again, was dangerously lacking. Siwon had almost no bodily autonomy, and it was borderline sexual abuse / assault in a lot of situations. The dynamic between the two main characters were completely 100% toxic. Of course, the story normalized the behavior by saying that forcing yourself on to someone to love you is okay as long as they give in to it.

The only saving grace of the story was the actual last half of the plot when you finally get a villain to this story. It was hard to find him truly the one villain when he was only a couple steps more abusive then the normalized abusive relationship that Siwon and Jihan already had. As I kept reading, I kept thinking to myself, "oh, here's Siwon getting sexually assaulted again". Major cringe fest.

That being said, the art was extremely well done and the overall plot regarding the stones and their duality was still the most interesting part of the story. On a narrative level, the story is well done and easily to read and understand. I give it a 3 out of 5, which is average. If you're into extreme power dynamics between your semes and uke's, then this read might definitely be more enjoyable to you. If you are triggered by abusive situations, I REALLY can't recommend this in good conscience.

    @screwhue_ (shmlss plg) May 16, 2020 6:44 pm

    Yes, thank you!!! I hated the "sexy" moments and the relationship Siwon and Jinha had. The lack of communication is extremely frustrating, too. There weren't any trigger warnings on chapters that involve serious stuff (suicide, child abuse, bullying etc). The scenes where Siwon is being assaulted/harassed are way too glamorized to ignore.

    I think this manhwa would actually be really good without the normalization of assault scenes and harassment and if at some point, they actually talked about those moments. It's like the author just brushed it off and continued w/ the plot.

    Jinha had NO character development and it was like he just jumped from one personality to another and suddenly he's a good person now. He always gaslights Siwon, he's toxic, manipulative, overly jealous, extremely possessive and selfish. I could not stand his character and I still think that Siwon deserves someone (or at least a version of Jinha) better.

    This manhwa had so much potential if the plot was carried on more carefully. This involves a lot of heavy stuff and the way it was potrayed was decent (except for the literal attempted rape scenes) but the lack of trigger warning/disclaimer is quite disappointing. Could have been better.

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