pluviophiliac's manga / #power elite(294)

LMFAOOOO, I’M DYINGGGG THIS IS FUNNY AS FUUUUCK!!!

A. LITERAL. MASTERPIECE. genuinely haven’t felt this turned on from a manhwa since i first discovered “jinx” or “the ghosts’s nocturne” or something of similarly epic proportions, lmfao. i’ve loved every aspect of this story thus far!!! i now regret only having browsed through the first couple of chapters initially… didn’t mean to stick around; was only supposed to have a look at the art and got played by the author’s skill-set. edit: i decided to reread this once the raws for season two started getting released (reading it PROPERLY this time), and maaaan, now i fully know why i grew so attached to these characters in the first place. <33 goddamn, the sexual tenting is PALPABLE. this ML of ours is such a green flag, too. i’m so turned on right now, heeeelp.

now THIS is what i’d call originality, man... it’s freakin’ hilarious, too, lmao! man, it’s awesome. i don’t think i’ve ever seen anything like this before. pretty damn epic!!!

ahhh, new face!!! love the originality and overall creativity of the manhwa. i’m having a blast reading this story! jaeju is one awesome main character, too. super entertaining and just naturally cool!!! unfortunately, it’s missing a couple of tags on here as well… but it is what it is. ;p also, popoi babies. <33

wow. i actually grew to really love this one. truly didn’t think i would. gorgeous writing, man!!! and excellent character development, too. absolutely enthralled by the bond these two developed throughout the story, omfg. i genuinely didn’t think i’d come this far; i originally only wanted to check out what the smut was about, lmfao. i’m glad i stuck around! things just kept getting better and better by the chapter—not just the plot, but the art as well. ugh, i love emotional complexity. <33 not totally surprised by the mediocre reviews, though. i probably would’ve agreed with them if i’d ended up dropping this like i considered doing initially, but oh well. these characters grew on me, clearly!! (which is also kind of surprising in retrospect, haha.)

this is clever. very intelligent writing! emotionally complex individuals, too!!! it’s overall great, i love it. it’s been awhile since i read anything like this.

goddamn, this is creative. i’m thoroughly enjoying this!

started at the bottom; now we’re heeeere. i’ll be honest: i originally only came here for the smut ‘cause i was feeling momentarily horny… but this comic kinda caught my interest on a deeper level, so now, here we are!!! i won’t condone the abuse or the continuous SA or whatever, but i’m not gonna lie—i’m enjoying this more and more. what a toxic mess, sheesh… it’ll be interesting to see how their dynamics will change throughout the course of the story. edit: EWWW. fuck me, that’s horrendous. what kind of shit even is this??? i mean, jiskar’s OFFICIALLY deemed irredeemable. by me, if nothing else. i’m an overall tolerant, forgiving person… more so than most. (well, at least when it comes to emotional abuse and assault in relationships in the world of fiction.) but this is just completely fucking FUCKED, man. i’m soooo, so abandoning this sinking ship. i’m doing it enthusiastically, too. (good thing we’ve got lifeboats!) at this point in time, i just want our ray to be with christian, to be completely real with you. they click so much better, they LOOK much better together, and i also quite enjoy this slowly-growing relationship of theirs (aka friendship—at least for now). i definitely like it a whole lot more than all this… garbage, rapey jiskar-vs-ray objective, ugh. TRASH. what a fucking disgrace. sadly, i’m assuming that the things i’m wishing for won’t happen since male leads are rarely switched out in the middle of the story… but a girl can dream, no? i sincerely do hope i’m proven wrong. but, from my standpoint, there’s no light at the end of this tunnel, man… unless it’s a train with no brakes. BOOM. or, well, i suppose it also depends on whether you stand on the podium or the railway. perspectiveeees. ;) P.S. also, additional reasoning for christian OFFICIALLY being labeled as my favorite character as of chapter 33: whether he’s driven by guilt or genuine care for ray, he’s the only one who seem to gives a fuck and makes serious, progressive efforts to change things. i mean, he even went as far as to BETRAY jiskar & co, abandon his whole goddamn life and all of his responsibilities—just to get ray away from all these poisonous scum, as well as to find him someplace safe where he can attempt to revolutionize his life… to bring him HOME. truly, this has been my favorite development thus far! i’m just so relieved he got away… fuck, i hope it lasts. (for a little while, at least…) in any case, recent developments made me mark this story with a ♡ tag, so there’s that. i’m so goddamn satisfied with this progress. i have no regrets. #justiceforray P.S.S. oh, and then there’s also the fact that christian (somehow) managed to figure out ray’s true identity without him having to be told anything directly, and i just adore the mere notion of ray actually being seen for once. i find it so gratifying. even more so since it was christian, obviously. and even MORE-more so, i just feel so warm inside as i remember that look if solace on ray’s face the moment he realizes that christian knows and that won’t have to ’play pretend’ with him anymore. i’m seriously tearing up just recalling it now, omfg. the combination of relief, contentment & freedom is such a good look on him. i genuinely wish he finds peace somewhere, somehow… i hope they both do. i can’t wait to see where season two takes us! - - - - - - - - - - soooo… these were my manhwa reading notes. they’re fully up-to-date with the end of season one. i’m adding these here because i feel they summarize my ‘end of season one’ afterthoughts a lot more than i originally thought they would. in any case, i’ve been avidly reading this webtoon ever since a couple of weeks after its release, and the first season had just ended as i wrote ^ this. the reason i’m here writing this right now, despite the manhwa not yet being completed… is ultimately because of my deep desire to find out what really happened with these characters after said season-end. like the obsessed manhwa freak that i am, i felt like i couldn’t wait anymore. (i’ve grown strangely attached to these guys, too, lol.) so, with that being said, i ended up looking into the original novel. eventually, i found an extensive fan-written summary of the whole story—my patience wouldn’t allow me to patiently skim through the entirety of the novel(s)—which did, in fact, basically narrate their whole entire experience from beginning ‘til end. since i could vividly picture the whole thing as i read it, i felt like i was reading their story—even though i know i technically never read the ACTUAL novel. i genuinely feel like i’ve done so, though. anyway. i’m here to briefly summarize (looking at all this in retrospect is cracking me up, lol) my thoughts on the matter!!! initially, right after—as well as during—ray’s escape to strauss, i thoroughly despised jiskar for the damage he caused him; for DRIVING him to that point. he took ray’s independence from him. he took his pride, his self-esteem, his drive… and his will to live, really. i genuinely couldn’t imagine jiskar’s redemption, knowing all the emotional destruction he kept behind. but, alas, here i am nonetheless—about to eat my words publicly! actually having a proper overview of the story in its entirety now (including ALL the characters) has allowed me to understand these guys on a much deeper level, and i can now find reasoning and emphasize with their actions much more than before. jiskar did a lot of emotional damage, that’s still true, but by the time we’d reached the second part of the story, he was already severely reflecting on himself and desperately yearning for a chance to redeem himself. he was willing to do anything. after meeting ray once again, he was sincere in his apologies, and at the end of the day, i couldn’t find it in me to doubt his loyalty for ray anymore—nor did i think he’d ever do anything to ever (intentionally) harm him, ever again. as a matter of fact, these two had a complete role-reversal; jiskar became an absolute YANDERE for ray… or levenoad, as his original identity was, whereas ray (i’ll just go with levenoad’s old nickname ‘levi’ for simplicity from now on) quickly took advantage of the emotional hold he had on jiskar and utilized it to the best of his ability. this dynamic clearly worked out somewhat better for them than their original one ever could’ve! i mean, jiskar was content with being ‘below’ levi indefinitely (aka transitioning into being the emotional sub), and levi felt he’d regained some of the pride, dignity & control he’d lost before by becoming the emotional dom. levi found his footing; HE had the final say in this new relationship, and that was fundamentally different from the past. (side note: then there’s the also part of these two bonding with two dragons respectively—jiskar’s black dragon being the one to chase around ray’s golden one after that, wanting to play. once again—PERFECT representation, lol! that’s a whole other aspect of the story that i can’t be bothered to deep-dive into at the moment. it’s not all that relevant to the main plot.) sheesh… i don’t really want to do a deep-dive through their whole emotional journey, either (because it was one HUGE, extensive, mentally draining journey)… but by the time we’d reached the end of the story main, things were IMMENSELY different compared to how they once were the start. lots of important characters were introduced, but i won’t go into all that… (even though it’s technically a massive part of the story, lol.) levi quickly began to settle into strauss and managed to slowly, and steadily, spread his influence as levenoad’s son—whereas the truth would be revealed to those wholly loyal to him; both to those from the past and those in the present. (yes, i know that it sounds like i’m just brushing over every single thing that happened in between—which i kinda am, not gonna lie—but in actuality, there’s soooo much i could go on about, and i really don’t have energy to go through every single important aspect of the story. there were A. WHOLE. FUCKING. LOT.) something i ought to divulge into, however, is the true complexity of jiskar and levi’s strange relationship. jiskar was always loving, devoted & considerate towards levi (AFTER their reunion, is what i’m trying to say!!!) and was 100% upfront about his feelings for him, as well as the constant worries about levi’s true loyalties. levi remained reluctant to emotionally ‘accept’ jiskar for quite some time despite that… through the majority of the latter half of the story, pretty much. levi knew it mostly stemmed from jiskar being a man (which is also something he confessed to at some point, if my memory serves me correctly), and since levi was extremely prideful in nature, he genuinely struggled to express any sort of affection for jiskar; knowing it went totally against his inborn feelings & beliefs… and he was also worried about his royal family legacy as levenoad as well. he didn’t want his bloodline to die out, and i suppose he wanted his ‘spread his seed’ and have his children challenge & conquer each other for the throne or whatever like a true strauss would—which could ONLY ever be accomplished through marriage with a woman and finding himself an empress. buuuut, despite all of that (having already forgiven jiskar’s many discrepancies), he tried his best to sooth jiskar’s worries about all those things through positive affirmations (without being too emotionally affectionate, though, ‘cause that’d wound his pride as a man and a ruler), as well as though the continuation of their sexual intimacy throughout their time together in strauss. even though he was unwilling to visually ‘indulge’ or verbally express himself, his body spoke VOLUMES… especially during sex. he didn’t want to give that up… so, they had lots and lots of sex… and lots and lots of pillow-talk… kind of like an actual couple, really. levi was contradicting himself on the daily, for sure! (if emotional unavailability was a person, lol.) as we reached the story’s climax, certain things happened… and jiskar was able to fully prove just how devoted to he was by sacrificing his own safety and well-being for levi’s health. this is what ultimately made levi want to embrace jiskar in full, and also what drove him to actually ‘make things right’ for everyone, for the lack of a better expression—both emotionally and physically. in the end, jiskar went back to being the emperor of el pasher, and through the course of a couple of years (of levi being the active crown prince of strauss), ray fully assimilated into levenoad body and regained his past physical appearance. eventually, he also ‘re-earned’ his title as the emperor of strauss and ruled over his empire—just as he always should’ve done, and what he would’ve BEEN doing if he hadn’t been killed in the first place… and just like jiskar wanted him to—believe it or not, lol. i told you i wouldn’t dive into all that, but i suppose i sort of did nonetheless. this part right ^ here, though, is mainly how jiskar finally earned levi’s full devotion. by choosing to let him go and set him free, he made him want to be with jiskar all the more, because he felt wholly respected and cared for now. there’s a lot more complexity to this, too, but meh… man, i’m tired. anyway. after all of this stuff went down, jiskar and levi continued to meet up whenever and however they could (two emperors sneaking around like teenagers, lol), and they were as devoted towards each other as ever. if anything, it was kinda amusing seeing levi becoming the more openly affectionate one out of the two with jiskar being flustered over being on the receiving end for once, haha. it was a refreshing change! (like i said—COMPLETE role reversal.) jiskar even claimed he was willing to give up on being emperor himself if it meant he could become levi’s concubine in strauss. personally, i’d like that development very much. i’d be very befitting of the current nature of their relationship, and i believe this would make an awesome side-story for the manhwa later down the line as well. at the end of the day, they only had a couple of days together each year, and so they always missed each other dearly. before i put an end to this endless… ‘madness’ or whatever, i just wanted to say that i really liked the callbacks & parallels to jiskar and levenoad’s past; the novel ending with levi telling jiskar exactly what jiskar once told levenoad during their past meeting… right before levenoad was killed. the story welt full-circle, more than once, and it’s not often one gets such a satisfying ending. heh. i might come back here and edit a few things once the manhwa’s been completed, too, but for now, i’m more than pleased with this!!! i genuinely haven’t written a review this detailed and intricate in… i don’t know how long, lol. FOREVER. it’s a nice change of pace, though! i’ll also be sure to add both the reading dates for both the manhwa and the novel—even though they’re technically two separate works and shouldn’t be jumbled together like this. still, i couldn’t find two different books (which is rather inconvenient), but since pretty much everything in the comic has gone the same as the novel did thus far, i believe it should be okay! P.S. oh, and to sum things up like i normally would: I. ABSOLUTELY. LOVED. THIS. STORY. despite how dark and depressing it was most of the time, i still feel it was extremely well-written and well thought-out. it contained great (and realistic) emotional dilemmas with realistic (albeit sometimes twisted) conclusions, and the character development was excellent overall. the majority of these characters grew on me after having read the extensive summary i’m basing this review on—which is something i genuinely didn’t expect. people who were once useless trash has now become recyclable trash with fine emotional growth. that’s impressive, to say the least! i know i didn’t mention christian at all after my initial review of the manhwa, but i still liked his character by the end of things. he had romantic feelings for ray (which were revealed in the latter half), and i think they could’ve been a good match as well under different circumstances… but since jiskar and ray’s reunion happened and all those changes they went through—especially with jiskar growing and maturing the way he did—he was definitely a better match for current-day levi than christian would’ve been. overall, i’m so pleased with this ending!!! even though it was kinda open and somewhat bittersweet (since they couldn’t be ‘together’ together—at least at the ending’s point in time), it was executed very well, and i can’t seem to find any remainder plot-holes bothering me, either. alas, i might actually have to read the novel properly in order to do that. oof! goddammit, i’m still here. ugh… i’m done now, sheesh. now THAT’s a review, haha! my own diligence in writing this even surprised myself, lol. anyway, maybe i’ll see you next time! maybe i won’t. you never know! :)