I agree and disagree with some parts of what you say. First, I agree that some people romanticize rape, but I’m not so sure if most are cheering the aggressor on, since some seem to be dealing with traumas of their own who are mostly interested to see how the one on the receiving end is gonna take back control… uh well, and eventually fall in love. Ok, that’s the tricky part, what I intend to ignore until there’s more development.
And second, I really like this story, not because ‘oh, there’s rape!’, but since it’s so complicated. I certainly didn’t expect it to go this path, until Enzo’s freaking out, ‘I should make sure not to kill him until he flies away’. That literally was all the warning the author needed to give for those who might want to drop it there. But people keep coming back and nag about a story they’re supposedly disgusted with. Personally, I’m not leaving these long-ass comments because I hate this story. And sure, if it were an opposite sex situation, I wouldn’t even touch it.
We talk about the power imbalance between Enzo and Rian all the time, but they’re both men with strong physical build, happen to have good intelligence, are connected to crime, with money and resources to back them up, and still, there’s a power imbalance between them.
However, I don’t think Rian is breaking down exactly, developing Stockholm syndrome, as you and some other readers put it. I think he’s being extremely cautious and calculative, while enduring the physical and mental exhaustion that comes with dealing with Enzo. Well, there could be a pattern, but I don’t see it yet. So, as long as he tries to fuck Enzo over, I’m cheering for him. And I think what happens after Rian’s next win will be very crucial for this story… I might even drop it if I don’t find it interesting. It’s that simple, I don’t like a fiction, I drop it. The same thing I did with Codename Anastasia, Killing staling and so many others after two or three chapters.
Well, as of yet, Rian’s not so hopeless, someone who has no control over the situation. He had already set up a meeting for Enzo after seeing/sleeping with Via only once, keeping that information to himself since he wasn’t sure if Enzo only needed the Connector once. Well, it’s gonna be interesting how he’ll do his job after this without using sex, while dealing with Enzo, but achieving his goals even if through sex was kind of cool. It gives the vibe that he knows what he’s doing. That's what I hope to see.
If they were women the series would be 10x more popular lol a lot of straight manhwa is terrible
Seriously, the garbage that men fetishize is advertised proudly, but hush, women shouldn't romanticize anything, or the world's gonna end!
yes! Romance tag manhwas nowadays are really declining in popularity.. and it is so stagnant!! like only reincarnation and modern life are the only ones that are available??
Two wrongs don't make it right. Also, It's interesting that in your original reply to me, you denied enjoying this work because you found its sexual abuse themes attractive... Yet here you are, two posts below, penning an apology for it :) And I believe that someone who truly cares about the depiction of women in media targetted towards men wouldn't simply use those same despicable specimens to justify their own controversial preferences... Alas, if you think that some readers getting upset at how this story turned into a rape fantasy, somehow undermines or threatens your freedom as woman, then I have nothing more to say to you.
Well, it seems you think they do… since you come here to preach about how much you hate a fetishized rape fantasy as you claim, to soothe your fragile morality on an illegal website you keep reading the fantasy you hate so much! Personally, I find those scenes very disturbing and mostly weird, but yeah, I do enjoy this story very much. There's a revenge I'm waiting for, and maybe a romance I could ignore some parts of the story for.
And you see that I used fetishize against romanticize, right? That’s what I was talking about in my earlier comment; some people might romanticize these kinds of stuff because of their own trauma and want to see how the victim gains back control. While more disturbing things are not even argued about when it comes to average, targeted male audiences, and it's not only the depiction of women, let's not be naïve, what a small range of women romanticize is always treated worse. But you love twisting people’s words, don’t you? Well, I'm kind of sure I don’t have any 'controversial preference' towards rape-related fictions, as this is one the few I've ever read, but now I'm kind of curious, so why won’t you tell me, since you sound like an expert on the subject?
This series had a fun, Bonnie and Clyde vibe at first but now it has sadly turned into another "Codename Anastasia" where the readers (and author) are romanticizing the rape, physical abuse and confinement while praying that the victim develops a trauma/Stockholm syndrom strong enough that he wouldn't dare to leave even if you held the door open for him. I don't believe stories like these are about romance at all. They are a twisted guidebook about how to break a person into total submission. If Uno/Taekjo was a woman, the author would have already dropped their series from the intense backlash it would have recieved.