yeah me too, hoping it would turn good
We also have the Toxic x Doormat trope in a big way. When authors want to write a relationship that involves a toxic/controlling partner while not portraying them as a villain, they have to dumb down the other partner.
The toxic partner usually just does their thing with impunity (and almost no character growth) while the doormat partner accepts it because they’re bubbly, clueless, weak willed, immune to trauma, and/or universally forgiving because they are just so in love with the toxic partner.
You also have cases where the Doormat partner flip flops, basically having two different personalities, one for when they’re with the Toxic partner, one for everything else. This usually leads to a jarring mismatch in behaviors that messes with the story.
In this case, it’s clear that Baekwoo doesn’t have his own personality for the most part. He’s written to accommodate the prince’s behavior without making him seem like a villain. He’s normal in thought process at the start of the story, but as soon as he meets the ml, all of his responses are abnormal and he no longer behaves as a real person.
i wanna be neutral at all times about the characters especially since the plot is still the "early stages" before it takes off and give readers something else to debate about... but i kinda disagree on what you said about Baekwoo not having a personality. it's the little things for me: him wanting to finish school (i like that his course was even specified), him not wanting anything to do with the royal family but still forced to, him running away and standing his ground with that other prince until he couldn't (coz freakin pheromones), him getting angry for his second gender being kept secret.... if anything it's the prince who lacks a personality for me. he's like the typical prince who grew up surrounded by duties and spent most of his life fulfilling those and not growing up like any other kids and whatnot. his "toxic" traits are bland to the point that i wanna get to know more of him first to actually agree with some comments saying he's toxic. can't really blame characters who grew up with a silver spoon. that's basically how they were made and you either love or hate them. and then there's the part that this story is also set in an omegaverse so it's really convenient for the prince to be an alpha, even more so an alpha whose dna is a "good match" with Baekwoo's recently revealed second gender so as it happens, everything is falling under that toxic and doormat trope quite fittingly. however as i said, i'm fine with the way things are coz i hope to see character developments on both sides. but again with omegaverse in the mix i just hope the focus won't only be in the second genders
people forget that with stories the characters usually undergo a character development as the plot progresses. isn't that the whole reason why we endure stories with so called "shitty plots" to see a better version of the characters and the story itself? i feel like some readers are already dropping the gavel on this manhwa just because some characters are being royal pain in the ass. personally i love the way the characters currently are coz that would mean there's plenty of room for character development especially with our MC and ML as they start to influence the other's good and bad traits. i'd actually be a lot more pissed if the story gets rushed and ends all of a sudden so i hope that will not be the case with this one