Just my 2 cents. I am not sure if others share the same sentiment but I do see the sex scenes to be beautiful - for different reasons/perspective. Some were because of how resilient Geom is - he shines through the depravity. His strength just pierces through the scene. Some were portrayed as the client's perspective - Geom is beautiful. Some are just Geom processing his grief and emptiness - which is beautiful yet sad all at the same time.
But I never thought it was beautiful for the sake of glorifying the act. In the end, it made me feel proud of Geom because of how beautiful his 'soul' despite being trampled over and over.
And I understand, as you stated, you see Geom as a person beautiful, because that's true, in the whole series we can see how his strength keeps him alive and stands out above all the corruption he's stuck in, the desire to break free from this misery, because Geom is a powerful human being, who despite that whole abuse for years still had the strength to fight and even at some point wanted to return to his one and only love, as that's also partially kept him sane all that time, since even when his body was tormented by others, his heart was always only Wooyeon's.
What I'm saying is that people find sex scenes/rapes themselves as amazing and beautiful, what is wrong, as some cannnot see the rotten hell and Geom's suffering in all of that and are captivated only by an art and disgusting lust. Even Geom himself said by the end, when he was finally in peace next to Wooyeon, that only now with him it's his first actual sex, as everything before was just a disgusting abuse and misery, because that's what these scenes were, full of abuse and destruction, with Geom and his beautiful soul stuck in the middle of that madness.
Wow dude did you just say that you find RAPE scenes BEAUTIFUL?! So what, when you see someone being raped you find that beautiful because of a victim's beauty? You cannot be serious! What a broken person you need to be to state something like that! Obviously author did a terrible job showing these overly graphic and dragged rape scenes in a way to give even a hint of sexualization and as we can see a damn fap material to all these rape fetishing degenerates! Rape worship is alive and well in BL because of such readers! Always when I think that nothing can surprise me anymore! So disgusting!
Wow thank you for ignoring everything I said. Good job. Literally said it's not rape per se that I find beautiful but portraying Geom's resilience is. The perspective is of how grotesque the scene is depends on how Geom processes the situation. The first gang rape that was videotaped, the first CH party and the rest of the scenes before Geom ran away are all different from the scenes Geom was already the director.
The former was all graphic and horrifying because that is how Geom viewed it. He was not desensitized by all of it yet. Geom as the director, the scenes are drawn delicately - portraying his desensitized state and resilience. It was the art of numbing himself and he glowed from them because not only he was worshipped but at the same time, he rises above the pain and darkness, which is the complete opposite of what is actually happening. They were not supposed to be sexualized but the author properly portrayed them from a character's perspective. The art is DIVINE. And the illustrator did a GREAT JOB showing perspectives.
You might have forgotten the timeline so you only remember the delicate sex scenes and forgot the graphic ones. Of course I do not find the sex scenes earlier (pre-Director Lee) to be beautiful. They were not portrayed that way in the first place but it's easy to assume to make yourself feel good and morally superior, I guess? Good for you.
That's true, we can see how Geom learned how to survive in this madness through years, and like you said, he was purely terrified at the beginning (as that was horrible what was happening to him in general), and at some point he just became numb, somehow as a survivor mode, even when still was suffering and in pain, as there was no change in events themselves, he was still going through hell, but he was above that, not letting these terrible things and people around to crash him! I think we can see that also in that prosecutor's residence as a next step, where Geom was playing a role, when everything was being taped for evidence, same the scene in the underground garage where there were security camera, it was a role, he wanted to end everything and get out of this hell! Of course, it doesn't change the fact that everything what happened to him starting from the past up to last abuses in garage scene were totally horrifying and terrible sexual abuses, nothing to sexualize, there is no doubt about it (my whole point in my comment was to emphasize that there is nothing beautiful/sexual in all these rape acts themselves, how many people were saying in comment section when I was reading on an ongoing basis - even commenting as 'it's not a rape as Geom looks like enjoying it', 'he wants more' and other shitty statements - where OBVIOUSLY it was not like that at all, and reading how people can see such horrible acts in such a way was truly disgusting and depressing), but when you see that from Geom's perspective and how he had to grow in this hell to survive and later once he finally step out from this madness we have a change, of how he's truly letting go and can be slowly himself next to Wooyeon and finally enjoy the moment, it's even visible in a way how sex scenes with Wooyeon are showed, Geom is in that moment as a whole, with his body, heart and soul, and that's amazing!
I mean if what you meant are comments saying that then yeah, they are fucked up.
I really like how the story gave multiple tones when it came to the sex scenes. For the violent sex scenes, they were properly dark. From the step father attempted rape to before his escape. Lots of dark tones/colors and a whole lot of red. It was consistent up to when he was first beaten to death. The CH initiation party where he ran from room to room, coloring wasn't particularly dark but it was graphic. Geom was not colored to be glowing/bright (compared to when he was a Director) because he was literally being beaten down physically and mentally. His clients at the time, were not seeing him like some goddess but simply as a tool/toy. Just pure rabid lust. Which to me, the author already fulfilled the responsibility to portray rape and prostitution as wrong, filthy and demoralizing.
After that escape and torture, the author kept making Geom stark glowing white, rather made his surroundings and everyone else look dull in color. It's contrasting how bright his life like in college, even the scenes with his mom were relatively vibrant. To me glowing Geom portrays how he was almost dissociating from everything, or how everyone else saw him (looking like a goddess, captivating and inviting). He was also drawn really sexy - not for the audience to fantasize but to show 1) why depraved men go nuts and 2) Geom was a dangerous vixen as well. He was often in a trance and those scenes were my favorite, and find beautiful. The author portrayed his mental state and multiple perspectives really well.
The sex scenes with prosecutor Lee was also another color change, imo. As you said he was playing a role. He was not in a trance but he was determined. Colors around Geom were becoming less dull. He wasn't as glowing. Like Geom was going back to reality of some sort. I could go on but I really like the art style portraying the story.
Like I said, this is why this series was even harder to bear with for me, when I saw all these comments hyping and cheering those rape scenes, disgusting!
And exactly like you said, we can see since the beginning, when it all started up to escape part, everything is dark, because Geom's heart is dark, he was still fighting emotionally in this madness, it's like the stages of coming to terms with reality and losing your innocence, he was in denial and anger, later when he escaped, and whole that torture and up to the phase of being a director, we can say there is bargaining, and depression, he still cannot accept the situation, he's constantly suffering, but slowly is becoming numb, trying to isolate himself from everything what's happening around him, and later, once he becomes director Lee, we have somehow 'acceptance' phase, where Geom already knows how to separate his emotions from this sick place, he's still suffering, he's still violated, but like you said, he's in a trance there, he was above that madness, breaking through this depravity, he knows already how to play with those rapists and how to survive to not go insane, isolated in numbness!
Wooyeon appearance made a difference, we have 'fighting' phase, he somehow moved that innocence in Geom, which wanted to get out, brought back memories he hold dear, and he was struggling again, still playing the role, however like Wooyeon touched the strings of hope in him. And now Geom knew how to get what he needs form these assholes to gain the goal - getting out of that hell!
And finally, scenes with prosecutor, here Geom had already a defined plan, he knew this needs to be spectacular for recording, he's not numb anymore, not fully, as there is a defined goal, he knew he needs to play this part right to go back to his life, and reality!
And I love how later we have such a beautiful change in him, when after being almost beaten to death, Wooyeon found him and that moment when Geom's innocence which he kept all this time deep inside, finally found its release, he's again that delicate full of love boy, you can see how he's drawn in colors full of warmness and delicacy. He finally found peace next to the guy who always had his heart!
And trust me, I really appreciated how Geom's tragic story is showed, because it wasn't focused on acts themselves at all, but how Geom found a way to survive this hell, for years, his change, how he protected his innocence somehow closed tightly under the mask of indifference and numbness, he was literally playing a role all that time until he found the goal, to want to get out!
Because what he went through was awful, cannot even imagine the pain and amount of suffering for all these years, even when he managed to survive thanks to numbness, it was still hell (human trafficking is a damn tough heartbreaking topic).
I think that whole that toxic readers vibe just made it worse for me, because whenever I think about this series, it reminds me about all these comments showing up for months when it was in ongoing serialization, and I felt just extremely disgusted and simply dissapointed in humanity! Because this story is not about sexualizing or fetishing rape, it's about survival, how victim needs to develop coping mechanism to deal with that whole pain and find a way and courage to break free from this madness they're in!
The author/illustrator did a fantastic job in portraying everything and it's nuances. It's just that there are whole lot of people who are dumb. There are always a bunch of them in stories like these, where the plot and tone is portrayed more realistically than fiction. They kinda are like tone deaf where they can't comprehend how serious the story is or how themes are seriously tackled, compared to romcoms with assault thrown in.
To those who get it, the story was raw yet poignant. It was dark and depressing yet beautiful and still hopeful. And yeah, a story of survival.
This is a tough one, like jumping into the misery abyss! Story is really traumatic, one tragic event after another, what Geom went through is just devastating! Wooyeon is there to treat his wounds, but Geom is still in this evil circle of repeating hell trying to get out. Everyone else who Geom met on his way was only an another piece dragging him down into this abyss. He's tough, trying to survive somehow through all these years.
Storytelling is captivating, slowly we know more of the traumatic part and what brought him into this hell. Characters design is also good, interesting profiles and the way all these events affect them, even when only a few of these characters are likable, all other degenerates on Geom's path should rot in hell! Especially Prosecutor and Rieder, and not be even considered as any kind of sick 'love interest', disgusting pricks who are using people as tools!
There are ups and downs through the whole story, Geom forced to be an escort is making two steps forward, one step back all the time, but slowly trying to reach the freedom.
Honestly, my only problem with this series are really dragged and visual rape scenes, many of them truly unnecessary, not giving anything to the plot, but portraited as something 'sexual', I saw many comments stating that 'sex scenes are beautiful' here, where rape shouldn't be seen as something beautiful at all, the aim should be to show the tragic situation, how disgusting rape events were which broke Geom multiple times. I know real victims of similar events, and the way it's showed here... is just inappropriate. I know it's fiction, and I know sex sells, but I think authors are going into a wrong direction lately, and rape is getting normalized and standardized in BL series, unfortunately used as a tool to show smut and also fetishing rape what later distorts the view of many readers. Even Geom said by the end, that his first actual sex was with Wooyeon, everything before was just a disgusting abuse and misery!
Redemption part was clever, maybe not fully reached in some cases, I wanted some of these assholes to suffer more, they deserved that, but still better then nothing!
Geom and Wooyeon finally reached they happy together phase, treating their bruises and removing scars, finally together were they always wanted to be. So putting everything together, it was a satisfying ending, hopefully they will never meet any of these abusers ever again on their road.
In general, this is a good read, not for everyone of course, portraying a very dark side of life but also the path of getting out of the bottom.
Recommend to those who can appreciate the good plot, handle multiple sexual abuse content in series, understand the main message and not be bothered by some incorrectly portraited visually acts and overused SA, as it's very triggering...
but definitely not to reread...