It was hard going back to the beginning and seeing just how bad their first interaction was. Literally his first time. He bled. Tae showed very little remorse. And I believe it was partly due to thinking Euihyun wasn’t a great person himself (you know, taking his baby brother with him into the ocean)….. it’s just rough seeing the later chapters and realizing how bad the beginning was. He’s lucky Euihyan began to feel anything at all for him. He did become a much better person after…..but those first chapters are rough
hmm i agree. taeju is lucky euihyun could look past his shitty actions and love him.
like no matter how good they turn out to be i personally can't see this happening in real life.
But mehh ig it's fiction and eventually it's euihyun's mental state and acceptance of taeju so how can I question. The actions Taeju commited were not ignored or automatically become ok. He had to do his share of repentance and beg for forgiveness.
Bar is in hell and the baby is cute so overall I like this story for what it turned out to be.
Bar is DEFINITELY in the deepest darkest dankest level in hell.
I appreciate being able to critique a story I truly came to love. Realistic? Fuck no. But in a fantasy world sure…pheromones and debt and rape and power imbalances can somehow equate to love.
It helped when Tae spoke with his dads and tried to understand him a little better. When he realized how frightening the world was from Euihyan’s perspective. But then he like, immediately fucked him so lmfao bar in hell indeed.
no fr this story is one of my all time favorites but i will always critique taeju and and i still think he shouldve done more to make up for it. but at the same time, it is realistic in that in real life you do get over terrible things and cope with what you have. its not a healthy relationship dynamic that anyone should get into, but taeju is fictional and his charcater is set to unconditionally love euihyun so it works out.
Fair, I see your points, but it still makes it a (repeated) rapist redemption story, and that's what makes it so shitty. We truly wanna see more stories where we get rapists who are either left and not given a chance, aren't loved due to redemption, get harmed in some way by the survivor (Id love to see a survivor revenge plot, where the survivor makes the rapist feel like his redemption worked just to stab him in the back metaphorically or not lol), or heck, they somehow die or are killed off, or even end up in jail (pure fiction, I know, cause it doesn't happen enough irl). But redemption? Stockholm syndrome dynamics? Ugh. Even with the background of mental illness (which make it kinda realistic and logical that there would be a trauma bond between the perpetrator and the victim), it's so overdone and it just goes to show how heteronormative dynamics are processed through BL imo.
Yk I'll be honest on why I like this story becuz I see many people putting their view of it.
I think this is ONE OF the most close to realistic depictions I've seen of rape. And that's a low bar btw cause I'm comparing it with manhuas where mc immediately falls in love like randomly it makes no sense.
Atleast I can say that euihyun did not love taeju for what he was the entire season 1&2. I'm sure he got attached but that's not the same as love. To him having sex with taeju was purely just a way to earn money. He did not magically become ok with taeju's rut and did not accept his confession as
"oh ok uwu u love me then ig it's fine (⌒▽⌒)...
So that gives it atleast somewhat a plus point.
It's debatable when euihyun started to really love taeju but my best guess would be after euiyoung rescue incident happened.
I think euihyun's criteria for love is just someone who would really care for him and his family. Taeju's actions that time must have atleast touched euihyun' s heart in some way especially the time when taeju used his WISH to make euihyun promise to love himself.
As someone who struggled with mental health issues legit my eyes watered a little reading that ch cuz that line literally touched me and I wished someone would have said that to me when I was struggling.
taeju at the start is an absolute
asshole which I can't defend nmw but he learns to regret and grows better. I can see the difference in when he has a panic attack over euihyun thinking of dying vs his indifferent to someone's pain self in ch1.
And he's becoming better as we see he quit his job as a gangster and now is working honestly.
There is so much more I can writeee about the character development of taeju like it's actually not ASSS badly done as people say it is.
It's actually gold compared to other shit once read...
And comparing this work to jinx is just
PS IM NOT ROMANTICISING OR DEFENDING RAPE NOR DO I THINK TAEJU CAN BE DEFENDED. What I'm defending is the argument that no development happened or that is was absolute shit