Agreed. I'm not a fan of everyone falling in love with the MC trope either cz most times it's for dramatic effect but in this context there is so much going on with seoin and yw that this truly does feel unnecessary. I too would have enjoyed if he was non romantic figure trying to protect someone he's stepped up for. Adding to that it would've been great if the desire to protect yw came from guilt of his failure to protect yw when he was a kid and how he by proxy contributed to yw being abused in the first place. Guess we are asking for too much
Yes, I completely agree. The guilt-by-proxy narrative fits seamlessly within the heavy layers their relationship already carries. Given the history, all the author had to do was lean into what we, as readers, already know. Instead, it feels like they sold themselves short on this one.
no i completely agree at first I liked unc but now with how things turned out myeehh
I think bl manhwa creators are just never confident in a non romantic subplot in an overall romance narrative. At this point it's why so many BLS just lose flavour and become monotonous. Also the creators will just make the secondary love interest for fan service even when it contributes nothing to the narrative.
I’m honestly tired of this trope where the person who “steps up” or plays protector inevitably catches romantic feelings for the person they’re protecting. It’s so overused that at this point it just feels like lazy writing. You can see it coming from a mile away.
The second the hyung was introduced, I was like… here we go. And as the story went on, I kept hoping it wouldn’t go there. I really wanted it not to.
Because honestly? It would’ve been way more interesting if their dynamic stayed non-romantic. Like…imagine if he saw him as a younger brother instead. He’s overprotective, maybe too overprotective, and there’s this internal conflict where he knows he has no business feeling that way because that’s not actually his brother. But given their history, and the Mc becoming openly vulnerable with him despite his nature, his brain categorizes him that way anyway. And that tension, knowing you’re crossing an emotional line you shouldn’t be crossing, even if it’s not romantic, that! is complex. That’s something you can actually build on.
Instead, we get the predictable turn into romantic feelings, and it just flattens everything for me. It removes the nuance and replaces it with something we’ve all seen a hundred times already.
I don’t know, man. Maybe it’s just me. But I really feel like there was a much more layered relationship sitting right there, and they took the easiest route instead