THIS IS MY ROMAN EMPIRE MY TOXIC AND SURPRISINGLY NOT DOOMED OLD MAN YAOI the fakeout had me scared but oughhh so happy with this ending the old man yaoi... truly truly PEAK i actually like how this "romance" resolved instead of the typical mindbreak falling in love blindly, we still see Ilic fully acknowledging all the terrible shit Sa-yan has done to him but also coming to admire Sa-yan for his greatness as a leader (and his pretty face) and coming to care for him (even if not truly pure romantic love) after spending most of his life with this man.
I love power imbalance and toxicity and Ilic navigating this imbalance and Sa-yan accepting the nature of the unbalanced relationship and how he truly does not expect reciprocal love, and liking Ilic exactly for who he is since he is indeed a bit twisted... Ilic's push and pull of loving vs hating the pleasure and his struggle with internalized homophobia (which is a v interesting separate can of worms--is ilic actually purely het, and has just gotten used to all the gay sex or is he bi and in denial? The concept of sexuality as a fluid spectrum etc. Much to ponder....)
Also found it v interesting that Ilic is hung up on Sa-yan's proclamations of love and thinking Sa-yan's bullshitting him, like thats what bothers him. Thats the one thing that kept coming up, and made it feel like Ilic maybe possibly had some affection for Sa-yan, since he kept trying to convince himself the ILUs were a lie. And it feels like at the very end he finally accepts that it must be actual love from Sa-yan and lets his guard down, and reciprocates what affection he can even if its not true full romantic love. It felt so bittersweet and realistic, and they got to grow old and become hot GILFs together like imagine having such a big heavy brain so full of wrinkles u dont give into the ez route of "i love you" ending but still giving us the consistent characterization with some growth ughhhhh the talent... the brain is braining isso good (and the art is some of the most top tier art goddammnnnn)
THIS IS MY ROMAN EMPIRE MY TOXIC AND SURPRISINGLY NOT DOOMED OLD MAN YAOI the fakeout had me scared but oughhh so happy with this ending the old man yaoi... truly truly PEAK i actually like how this "romance" resolved instead of the typical mindbreak falling in love blindly, we still see Ilic fully acknowledging all the terrible shit Sa-yan has done to him but also coming to admire Sa-yan for his greatness as a leader (and his pretty face) and coming to care for him (even if not truly pure romantic love) after spending most of his life with this man.
I love power imbalance and toxicity and Ilic navigating this imbalance and Sa-yan accepting the nature of the unbalanced relationship and how he truly does not expect reciprocal love, and liking Ilic exactly for who he is since he is indeed a bit twisted... Ilic's push and pull of loving vs hating the pleasure and his struggle with internalized homophobia (which is a v interesting separate can of worms--is ilic actually purely het, and has just gotten used to all the gay sex or is he bi and in denial? The concept of sexuality as a fluid spectrum etc. Much to ponder....)
Also found it v interesting that Ilic is hung up on Sa-yan's proclamations of love and thinking Sa-yan's bullshitting him, like thats what bothers him. Thats the one thing that kept coming up, and made it feel like Ilic maybe possibly had some affection for Sa-yan, since he kept trying to convince himself the ILUs were a lie.
And it feels like at the very end he finally accepts that it must be actual love from Sa-yan and lets his guard down, and reciprocates what affection he can even if its not true full romantic love. It felt so bittersweet and realistic, and they got to grow old and become hot GILFs together like imagine having such a big heavy brain so full of wrinkles u dont give into the ez route of "i love you" ending but still giving us the consistent characterization with some growth ughhhhh the talent... the brain is braining isso good (and the art is some of the most top tier art goddammnnnn)