Lol, Riftan haters never cease to amaze me. Even with all these happy fluffy moments, him ...

yeah no I'm not going to romanticize an abuser

Oh no, what am I going to do with this immature person who can’t read or understand complex stories and characters, and think everything is either black or white? When they don’t have the mental capability to handle heavy plots without crying “toxic” and “abusive” every damn time they see a realistically flawed character they can’t understand.
Meanwhile, drags others who actually have the critical thinking skills to dissect a character and look beyond surface-level flaws, and still hold them responsible for their actions, while still understanding them and not hating.
At this point, y’all can just go read Peppa Pig or your little fairytale stories with unrealistically perfect, non-toxic MLs who fit your standards and come save the poor innocent FL from the wicked witch. How boring and one-dimensional can you be?

girl, there's NO gray zones when it comes to abuse. Abuse is abuse, no matter the reasons behind it, no matter the context and the backstory, mistreating the person you oh so love and care about is not acceptable, I don't care wether you are hurt, you have trauma or whatever, and you know who else doesn't care? THE LAW And if your so called critical thinking can't see that Riftan has been phychologically abusing of Maxi in many ways then you should at least go look what you country's Law says about his behaviour, cause in mine (and in the entire Europe at least) that's considered a crime ^^

WHERE TF HAVE YOU READ THOSE "FLUFFY" MOMENTS?!?!? Bruh if you call him saying he loves her and wants to dress her in jewelry while he hugs her "fluff" you need to go read other things ASAP, cuz all I see is the typical "princess treatment" abusers do. The classic "I'm gonna treat you right (for now) cuz I don't want you to hate and leave me for everything I've done to you" so, once she forgives him, he starts acting all the same. And that, is abuse, and yes, when it comes to abuse, there's only black or white. You either treat your partner as a fellow human being and not your beautifull encaged bird/sexual doll or mistreat her.

Ofc I don't expect him to be emotional intelligent after all he's gone through, ofc I don't expect him to be prince charming, ofc is understandable he doesn't know how to manage his emotions and have anger issues. That's why i kept reading this story past the 20th chapter! I'm always ready to read a story about two hurt people growing and healing together. But this is not that story! This is a story of a girl trying to heal from her terrible past while improving her severe stuttering and trying to make a future for herself, learning and finding happiness in helping others, all this while the ML keeps bringing her down, stopping her from doing what she wants (oh and in the process of it gaslighting her saying "alr you can do whatever you want" but when she does he gets mad at her) and NEVER EVER trying to improve, in fact, he only gets worse. Tell me, please, in which way has the Ml's behaviour changed from the start of the story, 150 chapters ago??? Cause the FL has grown so so much, but him? he hasn't changed a tiny bit, he still wants to isolate her the same, he still has that terrible anger management issue and he still acts like a completely egocentric brotherline narcissistic fucker. "But he had a terrible past it's normal he acts that way" yeah no, the moment he started mistreating her, his behaviour stopped being excusable.

After all he has made her gone through (in case your "critical thinking" fails: severe isolation, constant verbal abuse and degradation, instigating fear through threats and punishments -keeping her from leaving the room/house- and freaking kidding her own miscarriage from her) no amount of tears and pleads could make his behaviour forgiven. And if you think you or someone you know has or could forgive that please look for help, and I'm serious, cause romanticizing this type of 'toxic relationships' (atp it's not toxic is straight abuse) can be INCREDIBLY dangerous, I'm not saying this in a sarcastic or insulting way, I'm dead serious, this type of behaviour, no matter if it's in real life or in fiction should never be glorified, nor even understood, because no amount of trauma will ever excuse mistreating someone in any manner, as I said, it can excuse a bad temperament, a toxic conduct or of course having a mental disorder, but never ever will excuse the harm you cause others.

Lastly, in case you or someone else thinks to themselves "oh but come on this is a historical manhwa, people acted this way / this behaviour was normalized at those times", yes but remember this story is not only representing 'those times' this story is romanticizing 'those behaviours', this story is trying to convince people (and it's working with many) that "it's not THAAAT bad" "not everything is black and white" "each person has their struggles" blah blah.

And remember, if you ask most abusers: yes, they loved and wanted the best for their partners. And that's why we don't ask for the opinion and feelings of the abuser until they are in prison. Even the feelings of the victim herself aren't considered that important in many cases like THIS one when it comes to judging the abuser.

When you have to insult someone to make your point, it invalidates whatever else you have to say.

All this long ass comment, just to say bs lol.
First of all, nobody said abuse suddenly becomes “okay” because a character has trauma or a bad childhood. That’s the strawman you built so you could lecture people for five paragraphs. Explaining why a character behaves a certain way is not the same thing as morally approving of it. Fiction has always explored flawed, unhealthy, toxic, obsessive, destructive, and complicated people. If your only framework for engaging with stories is “good people vs evil people,” then yeah, every morally messy relationship is going to look the same to you.
And the funniest part is how you keep screaming “there are NO gray zones” while literally describing gray zones the entire time. You acknowledge his trauma, his emotional dysfunction, the setting, the intention of the story, the complexity of both characters, but then immediately erase all of that because you’ve already decided every interaction fits neatly into a black-and-white moral box. That’s not critical thinking. That’s reducing fiction into courtroom language because it makes you feel morally superior.
You also throw around therapy-speak and legal terminology like they automatically make your interpretation objective fact. “The law says this,” “Europe considers this abuse,” “abusers do princess treatment,” etc. Okay? Fiction is not a criminal trial. People are discussing narrative dynamics, character writing, emotional complexity, and thematic intent, not filing police reports against drawings. Acting like readers need psychological help because they can separate fiction from reality is honestly more concerning than people enjoying flawed fictional relationships.
And your entire argument relies on pretending the story is saying “this behavior is perfect and romantic and healthy,” when a huge part of the story is literally built around trauma, miscommunication, insecurity, emotional damage, and gradual character growth. You don’t have to like the relationship, but pretending the narrative is mindlessly glorifying abuse just because it doesn’t stop every five seconds to give the audience a PSA is shallow analysis.
Also, the way you dismiss every softer or affectionate moment as “manipulation” no matter the context just proves you already decided your conclusion beforehand. Once someone reaches the point where literally every action a character takes is automatically interpreted in the worst possible light, discussion becomes pointless because the interpretation is no longer analytical, it’s ideological. At that point you’re not reading the story anymore, you’re trying to prosecute it.
And honestly, the biggest irony here is that you accuse others of lacking critical thinking while your own argument boils down to: “toxic relationship = abuse,” “abuse = irredeemable,” “if you understand it, you support it,” “if you enjoy reading it, you need help.”
That’s not critical thinking. That’s just moral absolutism dressed up in a very long comment

Yeah, like I care, Maybe tell that to the other person too and then make the world a better place lol

moral absolutism LMFAO alr now I understand why you love Riftan's character sm, you have no reading comprehension.
BTW I said what I said based on the end of the novel, so massive/necessary/short spoiler below
























Riftan will actually SA Maxi for days, she will get pregnant from it, by the end of the novel, he didn't have a redemption arc, Maxi simply forgave him. And that's just the tip of the iceberg fro what's to come. So yeah, it's romanticized

I never insulted you

Calling it “lack of reading comprehension” just because someone disagrees isn’t an argument, it’s deflection.
Nobody is saying abusive behavior magically becomes okay. The issue is your refusal to separate understanding a flawed character in a story from endorsing their actions. Those are not the same thing, no matter how many times you repeat it.
You’re flattening a complex fictional dynamic into “abuse = no complexity allowed,” then acting like anyone who reads it differently must be excusing real-life harm. That’s not deeper analysis, it’s just moral absolutism with your low reading comprehension also.
Even the novel ending doesn’t change that. It still doesn’t turn a character study into a courtroom verdict, or erase the fact that people can interpret emotional complexity differently without “supporting abuse"

Yeah I didn't insult you either lol