dan please get your knees off the fucking ground i am begging
If I see any replies saying "don't like, don't read", get the fuck out of here.
But onto my actual point, is anyone else incredibly sick of these BLs that are so obviously gonna pair the main character with the asshole love interest? Especially when said love interest does things that are borderline or actual sexual assault, and it's just glossed over because of their "sexy arrogance" or whatever. Furthermore, the trope of these "hopelessly defenceless" bottom characters makes these stories a lot harder to deal with when you've read enough of them. I don't wanna use the word "overdone", since there are people that will eat it up regardless, but shit.
(NEXT PARAGRAPH, SPOILERS FOR ANOTHER BL YOURS TO CLAIM! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)
An example of this is a BL by a different author called Yours to Claim. The bottom MC is in a type of love triangle with a literal asshole, and a literal golden retriever of a guy who, as far as the story is right now, has never mistreated him ONCE. Meanwhile, the asshole love interest has harassed him, demanded things of him that he isn't owed, gotten jealous and tried to intervene when it wasn't his place, and the list goes on. Yet still, as any BL veteran would know, the story plot is so obviously set up to have the MC and the asshole character be endgame that it's almost sickening.
But like I said, people will eat these tropes up regardless. But that's just my opinion. Cuz it's infuriating to see this character be constantly mistreated, and have literally every source of his every problem be this one person, and even after ALL OF THAT is revealed, they still end up together. Like sir, please kick him in the throat and find another man.
TL;DR: Stop making bottom characters pushovers all the time. There are other tropes available without milking the shit out of that one. It's infuriating to see a character get mistreated for the entire book, then have the one mistreating them have a stroke of humanity and they end up together. Especially if there's another character that was treating them better the entire time.
I COULDNT HAVE SAID IT ANY BETTER
Unfortunately, all bls are like this nowadays.
nowdays?? it's been like this since the dawn of time
Take this as you will, but this is my opinion on the story:
1. Too much was left unaddressed. Lowell had chapters upon chapters filled with lies and manipulation, and River never brought it to light, nor did anyone who had even an inkling of what was going on. Bringing that up as a conflict would not only have filled those holes, but also add more to the story as something for them to get over.
2. Why did Nathan suddenly stop liking Scarlett? I get that he was spending time with Lowell a lot, but I find it a little hard to believe that if his sole purpose for being around Lowell in the first place was to get the girl, that his feelings would dissipate so easily. So either there should have been something revealing that Nathan's feelings for Scarlett were only surface level, or there should have been way more development with him and Lowell.
3. Were the side characters just there to mess with the readers or something? I thought this was going to be some kind of harem where all the characters in question pined for the MC until he chose someone, but if they already had someone they liked from the start, what even was the point in those halfway romance interactions with Nathan? I find this strange especially with Mr. Qiu - reason being, the others weren't really aware of their feelings for other people by that point, but Mr. Qiu always knew that he liked Gareth, so why was he teasing Nathan like that?
4. The endings for the side couples felt very rushed and sloppy. Sure, Nathan and Lowell as the end game couple would have the most screentime, but there was practically no content showing the side couples and what really happened with them. There was no sort of 'realisation of his feelings' scene with River, who has been friendzoning that guy literally the entire time he's been present. Suddenly pushing them together for conclusion convenience felt a little forced, even though it was expected from the setup of the two characters in the first place, and it's disappointing that more wasn't done with both couples.
5. Last but not least, having Scarlett be this knowing character at the very end who somehow just knows how all of the characters end up feels weird when she didn't really used to talk to any of them apart from the Mr. Qiu, since he was the art teacher. Especially considering that her entire existence was a key propellor in the story from the beginning, being the literal reason Nathan met all of the main characters.
This is a bit long, but if you read this you can agree with me or not. I know there was obviously an element of melodrama throughout this entire comic and the scrutinisation can be taken with a grain of salt, since it can just seem like I'm nitpicking. But even so, these are a couple of things that took away from the experience of the comic to me. I'm not going to comment about the characters' actions or personalities, since that it entirely up to the author, like how I think that Nathan is annoyingly so much of a pushover when it comes to Lowell who is constantly trying to mess with his head and ask him who is more important between him or his crush. No, saying things like that goes nowhere. What makes these stories disappointing sometimes is that these behaviours are never addressed, and makes the character ending up with the one who acted that way entirely frustrating.
This is hella long, so I'm done.
TL;DR:
1. Too many things left unaddressed.
2. Why did Nathan just suddenly not like Scarlett anymore?
3. The side characters messing with Nathan, then to reveal that they actually liked someone else from the start, is a confusing plot point, because why have them mess with him like that in the first place?
4. Side couple scenes felt rushed and sloppy.
5. Scarlett's 'I know how everyone ends up' ending was disappointing with how she was just deemed the supportive bystander.
Final paragraph: Don't critique things that should be within the boundaries of the author's creative vision, critique elements of the story and execution that you consider flawed, and point them out for adjustment and/or possible future improvement.
Wow it would have taken so long for you to type all those but yah I totally agree with you ... I too felt that the story was somewhat incomplete and rushed ....
We made it guys. Finally. A confession. 302 chapters in and we've made it. How are we feeling?
we are so back