Long-ass review

I just finished reading the 80 chapters. To be honest, the story didn't satisfy me completely, but the comments left intrigued me to keep reading. But until the end it left me dissatisfied, honestly said.
The premise was good: very original themes and the amount of positive comments had raised my expectations.
This is definitely not a story for everyone, especially those looking for a wholesome romance. Covers very dark topics.
I must say that in terms of world-building, it's not bad. I don't think I've found any holes in this aspect. And the political situation inside the castle is also somewhat realistic in a certain sense.
What I didn't like a lot are the characters and the relationships between them + the fact that many things that were revealed in chapter 80.5 could have made the story richer and more interesting, and instead they weren't included.
But let's go in order.
First the characters. I'm usually the type of person who can empathize with any character, especially the protagonists. This time around, however, that didn't happen. Apart from the fact that although the premise of a complex characterization can be glimpsed, in the end the execution was two-dimensional.
Ryan, I think was the character that I least liked. His background is not original. A prince perfect in everything that he feels the pressure of having to continue to raise his reputation. A prince bored with having everything without even trying and finally starting to feel something, feel greed as he meets this little boy who won't give in to his words. At the end of the story I don't really understand what drove Ryan to fall in love with El. It seems to me to be more obsession and possession, to get what seemed unattainable, rather than love. The only gesture I can consider romantic is that of having given up the crown, which however he never actually wanted.
Then we have El/Noah. A boy who has always wanted to belong to something and someone, to feel wanted, to feel accepted and therefore free to be without having to act or do certain things, without having to fight for a place in that person's heart. And he found this in Ryan. I don't understand how honestly. They had sex a few times, Ryan fell in love with him and El just started saying "I like you" during their sex. Basically I don't think their relationship makes much sense. I see it more as an obsession, a way for both to get what they want through the other. It pains me to admit that, plot-wise, I preferred the second pair. The way their story is structured and told and the psychological side of both (always in relation to their relationship), I think it is better written. And I repeat, it pains me to admit it because regardless of whether it's better written, I hated Vichac and Ian together and hoped to the last that Ian would escape.
I can't feel any empathy towards Vichac. Although initially it seems that his behavior, his cruelty is due to his illness, in the end we understand that he's simply so. A man haunted by inferiority complexes, who wants others to suffer as much as he does, who falls in love with the only person who has ever shown him any real interest in his health and in him as a person. Vichac who ends up only torturing the person he loves, because he feels the need for Ian to understand the same pain he feels and at the same time continuously belittles the pain felt by Ian because it's incomparable to his. A small man who managed to become great only by getting his hands dirty with blood. And he preferred to get his hands dirty with blood hiding behind the excuse of doing what he was doing to get enough power to be able to be with Ian. An excuse, yeah. Because he could have done like the fourth prince or even like Ryan, give up the throne and stop killing and ruining lives like Ian pleaded, and just be with him.
For Ian, on the other hand, I had high expectations. I appreciated his mental strength, his trying to escape, his trying to change the cruelty of the man he loved until he stopped. First of all, I just can't understand how he can keep to love such a monster after all he has done to him and to the people who have tried to help him. A man who never asked his consent for anything. But these are things that also happen in real life and that actually cannot be understood if they don't happen directly to us, even if usually the victim isn't even aware of the situation they're in, contrary to Ian who instead I found a character with a high level of awareness of himself and his situation. In short, despite this inconceivable love for Vichac, I appreciated Ian as a character up to a certain point. He was the only genuinely good-hearted person, who nonetheless hadn't been tainted by the way things moved at court. I appreciated his mercy, his humanity, his promptness, his sense of justice. It wasn't until he started giving up on himself, until he started getting dirty just to be with Vichac. And as we could see, while Vichac felt more and more full in being with him, Ian instead began to feel more and more empty. In general, during the manhwa I noticed how more and more his character was getting closer and closer to being, existing only for his relationship with the prince. In short, he had potential, especially taking into consideration the fact that he comes from another dimension, but the author hasn't elaborated anything about it.
So much for the main characters. For the secondary ones, I enjoyed the twins, Bella and Pivach. I sincerely hoped that at least outside the palace, things could go well for them. Even if the fact that they end up sharing the same man leaves me a bit dumbfounded. Not that you can talk about morality or stuff like that with the characters in this webtoon.

One thing that seems interesting to me to point out is the contrast between the first and third princes.
Vichac incapable of everything due to his illness, haunted by his inferiority complex, with nothing in his hands, at the end of the story he gets everything for "love", to protect the person he loves, Ian. In contrast, Ryan, who feels at the top of a peak unreachable by others, so full of himself, practically the heir, eventually gives up everything he had to be able to stay and have El.
I appreciated this contrast, elaborated from the first to the last chapter.