Trying to take my preferences out of the equation, I think the development of Mono and Leg...

Trying to take my preferences out of the equation, I think the development of Mono and Lego’s relationship absolutely influences the way in which we read Mono and Baron’s relationship. And while I don’t mean to endorse any immaturity or hate towards another opinion, I think that there is merit to the feelings of readers that dislike Baron’s relationship due Mono’s relationship Lego. I don’t believe the character deserves hate, but I don’t think the negativity towards him is totally unexplained.

If you reread the series, like several Mono x Baron shippers are fond of suggesting, you’ll notice that there are a number of instances that would suggest Mono and Lego would develop a relationship, the majority of these being rather sexual encounters. It isn’t often you see a manhwa or manga introduce such a relationship (initially free of romantic rivals) only to not have it pan out. Of course, it isn’t that Mum isn’t capable of deviating from the norm, but it’s perfectly reasonable for fans to anticipate Mono and Lego’s relationship heading in that direction.

Looking at their scenes together, you’ll notice that despite what Mono tells Lego in Ch. 49, there is little to suggest that Mono truly dislikes Lego. Though he’s certainly caused him trouble, Mono’s actually shown a great deal of concern for him. I’d like to think I’m reasonably good at interpreting facial expressions, even when they’re illustrated, and none of Mono’s expressions came across as disgust or distaste when he engaged Lego on a more intimate level in late Season 1 or early Season 2. Of course, he didn’t seem to be head over heels in love either, but there was a sense of amusement, that he was teasing Lego to an extent, but certainly not maliciously. It seemed more flirtatious, as is within Mono’s character, but to a degree that was not seen with other characters. I’d like to say Mono has a sort of begrudging, if not fully acknowledged fondness towards the boy. I doubt that he would go out of his way (willingly) to help Lego time and time again, if he didn’t care, at least a little.

The combination of these things naturally would lead readers to expect something to come of this set up, which made Baron’s introduction as a love interest a little jarring. It very much felt as though we were being asked to suddenly drop a character we were already attached to and root for his romantic rival. I think the hints of Baron’s arrival were too subtle for the average reader, myself included, to perceive the first time around,and this makes his addition feel very forced. And, quite frankly, I’m not sure how persuasive I find them. Personally, when I read a story in which some former romantic interest has caused a protagonist a lot of emotional hurt because they abandoned them, I’m not looking for them to get back together, I’m looking for the protagonist to move onto a healthier relationship. From the tragic first love angle, maybe it works, but I have trouble seeing how Mono and Baron could reconcile the fact that Baron is married with a child without it being Really Weird. I think it would also be very troubling to me if it winds up that Lego was being emotionally manipulated by Mono the whole time. Again, I think it would be very out of character and very inappropriate, considering he suffered through a similar experience himself.

In the end, an author will always have certain intentions, and as much as we’d like to understand those, none of us really know where this story is going, so its difficult to speak about the work in absolutes about Mum’s plans for her story, and I apologize if I am doing so.

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TLDR, Baron isn’t compelling enough for me to jump the Mono/Lego ship, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to finish this series.