I'm glad more readers are seeing this manhwa in a more analytical sense rather than blindly thinking that the lack of regard- or at times romanticization -towards the rape and sexual coercion in the story is without consequences.
It's understandable to be uncomfortable with this story, especially with how it really *does* seem to romanticize those themes in the earlier chapters.
But Sunwon has been shown to have monologues that desperately tries to rationalize just how uncomfortable and violated he feels even back with that one scene he had with Vercion. One of his inner thoughts were something along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing here): "if I just make my self seem smaller and smile, he'll see me as less of a threat. This feels good. I'm enjoying this, I don't have to feel bad about it."
The reason why sexual abuse and assault feels romanticized at times in this story is because we are seeing it from the perspective of a rape victim, Sunwon. Because he's been sexually violated so many times, he had to come up with a way to make it hurt less- because who could ever blame him to not want his mind to break any further than it already has?
But when we see how Albis sees the situation, a perspective outside of the victim's, he is obviously disgusted with what Vercion did to Sunwon and is scared of it happening again.
Further showing how the narrative is warped due to the victim's psychology.
And I'm sooo glad that we're finally getting this acknowledged and explained in season 2.
This manhwa feels so relatable in terms of how Sunwon handles psychological trauma and I hope whatever closure he gets will be written with respect and reclaiming his feeling of autonomy in mind.
I'm glad more readers are seeing this manhwa in a more analytical sense rather than blindly thinking that the lack of regard- or at times romanticization -towards the rape and sexual coercion in the story is without consequences.
It's understandable to be uncomfortable with this story, especially with how it really *does* seem to romanticize those themes in the earlier chapters.
But Sunwon has been shown to have monologues that desperately tries to rationalize just how uncomfortable and violated he feels even back with that one scene he had with Vercion. One of his inner thoughts were something along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing here): "if I just make my self seem smaller and smile, he'll see me as less of a threat. This feels good. I'm enjoying this, I don't have to feel bad about it."
The reason why sexual abuse and assault feels romanticized at times in this story is because we are seeing it from the perspective of a rape victim, Sunwon. Because he's been sexually violated so many times, he had to come up with a way to make it hurt less- because who could ever blame him to not want his mind to break any further than it already has?
But when we see how Albis sees the situation, a perspective outside of the victim's, he is obviously disgusted with what Vercion did to Sunwon and is scared of it happening again.
Further showing how the narrative is warped due to the victim's psychology.
And I'm sooo glad that we're finally getting this acknowledged and explained in season 2.
This manhwa feels so relatable in terms of how Sunwon handles psychological trauma and I hope whatever closure he gets will be written with respect and reclaiming his feeling of autonomy in mind.