I’m usually pretty good at still being able to sympathize with characters when they do extremely flawed things, but like they glazed over the cheating so much? Like it should’ve been a much more important part of the characters.
Like he got back together with his ex SO EASILY that’s it’s like why did you even cheat in the first place? What was the point? You should’ve just broken up after the first time or broken up when you first realized you liked him? It’s so hard to sympathize with a character when he’s struggling with his feelings with his ex and the fact his ex has a gf WHEN HE JUST DOESNT CARE ABOUT HIS BF FOR 5 YEARS?
There’s like 2 ways this could’ve been made better: the first is just don’t have the bottom cheat at all (or even just break up IMMEDIATELY after the first time he cheated). I feel like his anger for his ex was really played up anyways, like he didn’t really fuck him over when they broke up, I feel like after 5 years the mc jsut wouldn’t have that much resentment? The ONLY reason they wouldn’t get back together when reunited is bc they’re both in a relationship, mc should’ve rejected the ex a lot more and made him chase him more but still uphold the integrity of his relationship. Then he rather regains feelings for ex and decides it’s not fair to go on with his bf and just break up before cheating, or if they had to sleep together once in a moment of weakness it should’ve been the tipping point for mc to break up with his bf right there. Then he makes ex have a bit more of a chasing arc and break up with his gf.
The second if you really wanna have a story where he continually cheats on his bf. MAKE HIM MORE GUILTY? Don’t play it down, make it a REALLY gritty story and ACKNOWLEDGE how fucked up that is and just paint MC as an extremely flawed character. Make a MATURE and NUANCED story. No “oh I don’t know who to choose” when there’s literally no chemistry between him and his current bf or “oh he’s just gonna go back to Tokyo with his gf!” For a really hypocritical and shallow jealousy arc with his ex. Like really GET into the character development. We can still root for characters who do horrible things, liking a character who does terrible things is a sign of great character writing, but it’s very delicate. And this story doesn’t do it well. Make it a mature story where it really explores every detail of their relationships, it would be more believable that he wouldn’t wanna leave his current bf if you actually gave them development? Make him guilty, give him ACTUAL conflicting feelings. Don’t downplay it.
I’m usually pretty good at still being able to sympathize with characters when they do extremely flawed things, but like they glazed over the cheating so much? Like it should’ve been a much more important part of the characters.
Like he got back together with his ex SO EASILY that’s it’s like why did you even cheat in the first place? What was the point? You should’ve just broken up after the first time or broken up when you first realized you liked him? It’s so hard to sympathize with a character when he’s struggling with his feelings with his ex and the fact his ex has a gf WHEN HE JUST DOESNT CARE ABOUT HIS BF FOR 5 YEARS?
There’s like 2 ways this could’ve been made better: the first is just don’t have the bottom cheat at all (or even just break up IMMEDIATELY after the first time he cheated). I feel like his anger for his ex was really played up anyways, like he didn’t really fuck him over when they broke up, I feel like after 5 years the mc jsut wouldn’t have that much resentment? The ONLY reason they wouldn’t get back together when reunited is bc they’re both in a relationship, mc should’ve rejected the ex a lot more and made him chase him more but still uphold the integrity of his relationship. Then he rather regains feelings for ex and decides it’s not fair to go on with his bf and just break up before cheating, or if they had to sleep together once in a moment of weakness it should’ve been the tipping point for mc to break up with his bf right there. Then he makes ex have a bit more of a chasing arc and break up with his gf.
The second if you really wanna have a story where he continually cheats on his bf. MAKE HIM MORE GUILTY? Don’t play it down, make it a REALLY gritty story and ACKNOWLEDGE how fucked up that is and just paint MC as an extremely flawed character. Make a MATURE and NUANCED story. No “oh I don’t know who to choose” when there’s literally no chemistry between him and his current bf or “oh he’s just gonna go back to Tokyo with his gf!” For a really hypocritical and shallow jealousy arc with his ex. Like really GET into the character development. We can still root for characters who do horrible things, liking a character who does terrible things is a sign of great character writing, but it’s very delicate. And this story doesn’t do it well. Make it a mature story where it really explores every detail of their relationships, it would be more believable that he wouldn’t wanna leave his current bf if you actually gave them development? Make him guilty, give him ACTUAL conflicting feelings. Don’t downplay it.