Someone watched Whiplash and said let’s make it gay.

i liked your comment by accident im sorry

i found it similar to whiplash in some ways too, like the car crash before the concert

I don’t even mind the downvotes because it’s very much the truth. It’s a story romanticizing a toxic codependent relationship between an older man with unresolved issues projecting his emotional hangups through control on a attachment starved young man who is both his student and dependent all while with a vast disparity in their socioeconomics, maturity, and emotional regulation. This is the dreaded daddy issues, assigned to young women caught in similar circumstances. Only difference is this is gay “Whiplash”. Made worse is this the type of actual age gap relationship of the worst kind that often very prevalent among gay men who came out later in life attempting to recapture their youth. And I say this as an actual gay man not an author who’s romanticizing this as “ true love” between generations. This is not the age gap story that people should be rooting for, especially when it will be conveniently made a happily ever after and justify the toxicity as growing pains of a relationship rather than two broken people who really should be very far away from each other.

I’d rather just watch Whiplash than continue to read this.

I agree. Like it’s nothing about the age gap or the top being older, like I love age gap stories. But idk, just something isn’t sitting right with me.

I know it’s fiction but I am genuinely getting sick of authors writing about queer men and every story I read is always the worst aspects of a relationship whether it be sexual violence, abuse, what have you and portrays that without the absence of women that romance between men will always have elements of toxicity. It’s not just angst, it’s that men can only express love through violence/ abuse of some kind and their love is equivalent to control and possession of some kind. And I am fully aware of the origins of BL and its use as both entertainment, sexual outlet, and proxy to female sexuality both bad and good and as well as its intended audience but in the year 2026 are there no realistic portrayals of both sex and relationships in the queer stand-ins that these authors and readers consume in leisure and in lieu of their own experiences both good and bad towards sex? And then if you question or point out hey this creates stereotypes or hey this is harmful, or this plot while fiction creates internalized ideas of a community already ostracized within the country of origin these plots are written. I just don’t understand how it’s not grasped fiction is fiction but fiction is also written from reference and then adds to societal norms and ideals. A story like this is perfectly fine but it’s also problematic to an extent, because it does every thing I’ve explained above, but point that out….

i agree with u that there isnt nearly enough healthy queer representation in bl, and that’s a valid criticism of the genre as a whole. w that said i think no more eurydice is a weak example to use for that argument because it reduces the story to its romantic relationship while ignoring everything else it’s trying to explore. the toxicity between heeje and garam isnt presented as an inherent trait of queer love but as the product of unresolved grief, trauma, exploitation, fear of abandonment, and the environments they’ve been shaped by. their relationship is one part of a much larger narrative about damaged people struggling to break free from cycles of abuse and control. you also can’t pick up a manhwa that’s explicitly tagged w drama and expect there to be no conflict or emotionally messy relationships, thats part of what the genre is meant to explore. the story isnt arguing that love between men is naturally abusive, it depicts two emotionally wounded people whose inability to process their trauma and express vulnerability in healthy ways bleeds into the way they love.

Wonderfully said! I can understand why people view heejae and garam’s relationship as having major power imbalances, but like you said, reducing the characters to just that isn’t doing justice to the story as a whole. What makes this manwha shine is how it utilizes this imbalance between the two, and making it very intentional as to show how the characters in the story approach love, loss, and loneliness. Unlike No More Eurydice, many other stories have it just to have it.

I fell in love with the premise because it felt like psychological horror. Once the romance began, the story definitely starts feeling romanticized. However, I think the romanticization is at least partly attributed to Garam's unreliable narration. The author doesn't shy away from depicting Heejae's abusive actions towards everyone, but because Garam doesn't react accordingly, neither do the readers. The story only feels romantic because Garam is the one narrating, the one waxing poetic about Heejae, the one telling us readers that he can see into Heejae's heart. I find that realistic, however sad, for a character to think the way Garam does in the situation. That being said, the author started with a difficult premise, and I'm not sure I buy the execution. Garam can view Heejae however he wants, but it's still fucked up. I also think that a lot of readers miss the nuance in the story because they expect a romance with a happy ending. A lot of comments talk of the characters and their actions as purely black or white, but that feels like the fault of the readership, not of the author. Either way, I agree with your issues on the actual student-teacher/age/power-gap dynamic. The story can be difficult to read sometimes, but I'm holding out to see how the author handles the finale of their relationship.

Personally, I think my issue with the story that, if you remove yourself from Garam's perspective, Heejae is just a musical prodigy who grew up too fast and never grasped emotional intelligence. His students are all scarred by his abuse, but he is only a victim of himself. The developments feel one-sided when Garam has to act with more maturity than he has for his age, while having to bear the brunt of Heejae's emotional immaturity. Together, you get a story that feels unfair in its treatment of the "wrongness" of the premise.