Back in the Enzo hater club

I agree with you ! We're only four chapters into Season 2, but I keep wondering how the chemistry they had in Season 1 seems to have vanished overnight ??! They were still enemies back then, but the sexual tension was undeniable and there was a genuine push-and-pull between them !

Now, with Rian constantly being threatened and pressured by Enzo, the dynamic has completely shifted. Instead of feeling like two rivals drawn to each other despite themselves, it feels more like a predator-and-prey relationship. The imbalance is so extreme that the tension just isn't there for me anymore...

I like Enzo in his own right (like outside the bedroom and his dynamic with Rian) but yeah my wish for Rian to fight back didn’t come true lmaooooo he’s become completely defanged. I think up to ch11 the dynamic was peak and why I got so invested, but Rian has been taking Ls ever since. It’s starting to look like the only reason Loren was caught off guard at first was because he wasn’t expecting it. With the element of surprise gone, he now has the upper hand at all times. IMO Rian revealed his cards too early but I guess he himself has learned that now.

The lack of consent isn’t even my issue. Honestly, Loren isn’t one to care for consent. He’s literally a psychopath and him becoming loving would be massively out of character. It’s more Rian’s characterization I’m taking issue with.

Till the rape happened they had a very push and pull dynamic, giving the illusion of two people chasing and outsmarting each other. Even though Rian is rich, he isn’t there in his capacity as a bored rich guy but as a spy/agent who is looking to extract info, and enzo is far richer and more dangerous. He’s veritable organized crime progeny, so they have never truly been equal, but it feels like that in the beginning. Enzo and rian were like a skilled hunter closing in on its prey but in a fun way. There’s anticipation, a sense of ‘when will things turn around/ how it will happen’. The fact that rian constantly seduces people for both work and pleasure and only ever tops men makes you wonder what about enzo will make him want to be both the bottom and be exclusively having sex/a relationship with him.

The reason rape changes this is bc rape is forceful dominance, violence and violation over the victim by the rapist. It completely changes their dynamic (even though rian refuses to dwell on it) because none of it is rian’s choice. Enzo from then on becomes even more possessive and pursues, captures and confines rian. It shows how much more powerful enzo by the amount of power he holds, and how rian cannot even hope to escape because enzo will be on his heel, and even has his friend confined as blackmail.

Another reason this feels so different is because unlike red candy where sihyeon starts sleeping w hajun to maintain his cover and gather info, therefore under some meaningful purpose and out of his own choice, in bad apple rian is forced to do this out of necessity/survival whether he wants it or not.