I love it whenever they exchange punches with each other it's so fun
I'M CRYING SHITTING "I'm at the point where I feel like I actually have to jump to meet everyone's expectations"
BROTHER
I was cracking up too
atp I'm just going to enjoy how messy they both are
I think what made this story feel satisfying to me is how the characters are treated as people who have the maturity to make the right decisions. They don't lean too heavily unto stereotypes and actually talk out about their problems like how adults should act in their situation. I'm glad this ended the way it did, it's a decent story.
FR
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 so agree !!! I'm so glad we're finally getting into his character, trauma and all that, and that it's finally getting discussed and acknowledged instead of seeing just small glimpses of his past. (At least from what I remember)
Right!! I really hope that the author does Sunwon's character justice
there's so much about his character to unravel. Depending on how the author treats the character, Sunwon could either be one of the well-written depictions of an SA victim, or the biggest fumble ever
Can we also acknowledge how Sunwon is literally taking an advantage of everyone else and used "faith" to coerce his faithful believers into thinking that sex is worship just so he could get off? I feel like nobody ever addresses how disgusting and gross that is. Even hes aware of the absurdity of it but only once he finally see how it looks for the Sun God of Ryeo to be doing it too. It was very predatory of him to do so and nobody seems to gaf about it
wait no, ty for bringing that up actually! It *is* absurd how it doesn't get acknowledged to the point it becomes brushed off.
I feel like a huge reason as to why that often gets overshadowed is because how the consequences of that is mainly only shown in the earlier chapters? And the narrative sympathizes with Sunwon, which made it incredibly easy to forget that he's also exhibited sexual coercion and a predatory mindset
and I'm no exception to forgetting that up until someone pointed it out again
I reallyyyyy hope that aspect of Sunwon gets acknowledged though, I think properly acknowledging that would work as a social commentary as to how abuse can be transferred from one past victim and unto another, and how being a victim does not disregard accountability of acts of coercion
THIS IS FUUNNN AS HEELLLLLLLL