nanayoung's Topics (21)

You've played yourself.

Honestly, I don't think the head maid should be getting all this hate. From her perspective, it makes sense for her to want to keep Alejandro and Ibee apart since they have completely different social statuses. It could cause Alejandro a lot of trouble down the line if people find out that he's in love with his maid after all.

I'm not saying that her behavior is right, I'm just saying its completely understandable. The head maid wants to do what's best for the Dukedom, and she believes that Alejandro and Ibee's relationship will only cause more problems down the line.

Now, do I think she could have gone about it a different way? Yes.

Going behind Alejandro's back like this to try and convince Ibee to do something about their relationship -- when it's been mostly Alejandro seeking her out -- is a bit of a wrong move. Not only will it piss Alejandro off, but it's not like Ibee is in a position to deny Alejandro anything, considering her status as a maid. If the head maid wanted to really put a stop to this relationship, she should have talked to Alejandro first. Not that it would have done any good considering how head over heels Alejandro currently is, but it would have been a smarter move.

So I've noticed a bit of a flower motif in this story that I wanted to talk about because why not.

So flowers. Flowers hold a specific meaning to the Duke's family. Upon proposing/marrying their fiance, the head of the Duke's family offers a garden full of flowers to the woman as a show of their love. This is a tradition that's probably dated back for some centuries, so it is pretty well established and a pretty important part of the "lore" so to speak.

Alexandro's late father gave Alexandro's mother a garden full of roses. Roses are typically represented as a form of deep love in most stories, movies, books, etc so you'd expect their love to be just as deep as the roses the Duke gave his wife. But in this story, the Duke and his wife fucking hate each other. They regularly cheat on one another, can barely seem to stand to be around one another, and maintain the fact that their marriage was purely political with no sense of attachment whatsoever. This sort of disdainful apathy even extends to their son, who they couldn't give any less of a fuck about.

As a result, roses take on a different kind of meaning in this story. It represents the illusion of love, a false love that gives off the pretense of being real. And this sort of representation extends to Alexandro's love for Elenora in the original story.

Whenever we see Elenora in this story, her image is surrounded by white roses. There are white roses when Elenora and Alexandro meet after so many years apart, white roses whenever she's brought up, and white roses whenever Ibelina flashes back to the original story and Elenora and Alexandro's relationship. White roses are a big thing with those two, so it would be right to assume that Alexandro offered Elenora white roses when he first proclaimed his love for her.

And here's the thing about white roses: they're commonly used as a symbol of true love. A pure sort of love, untainted by corruption and hatred. Happiness and perfection, all rolled up into a single flower. And initially, that's what Alexandro's and Elenora's love seems like. Elenora used her pure love to open Alexandro's heart, made him into a sweeter, more kinder man, and also used it to undo his curse. Her love freed him of the taint that had cursed him ever since he was young, giving him new life and purpose.

But here's the thing: a white rose is still a rose no matter how pure it may seem. Alexandro and Elenora's love seemed perfect and true, but -- just like the white roses that signified their love -- it was just an illusion. Elenora never loved Alexandro the way he wanted to be loved; she loved Deigo and probably thought of Alexandro as a friend or even brother. Alexandro believed in the promise of the pure love Elenora provided, never realizing how false it was. He continued to believe in it throughout his entire life, until he rebelled against the crown and died as a rebellious traitor, alone and unloved.

Much like how the false love between the Duke and his wife turned them into unsympathetic assholes, the false love between Alexandro and Elenora turned Alexandro into a desperate traitor willing to do anything to get a woman who probably never cared about him in the first place.

But then there's the love between Ibelina and Alexandro in this story.

During Ibelina's or Alexandro's dream sequences, we get brief flashes to the future where an older Ibelina and Alexandro are shown frolicking through a field of sunflowers, happy and content. Ibelina even mentions sunflower seeds, saying that they're her favorite snack. So its safe to say that the sunflower represents the love between her and Alexandro.

Sunflowers represent adoration, longevity, and loyalty. To give someone a sunflower is to bring joy and happiness into their life, lighting up their world and giving them some much needed warmth -- which pretty much defines Ibelina's and Alexandro's relationship to a tee.

Alexandro's life before Ibelina was pretty shitty, what with the curse and the asshole parents. Moreover, no one really cared about him or what he was going through, seemingly washing their hands of him the moment the curse started to go bad. She was the only one who ever made an effort to try and give him a good, joyful life, the only one to stay with him during those trying days when the curse seemed like it was going to kill him, the only one to truly seem him as adorable even with his curse and bratty attitude, and the only one who showed that she loved and cared for him even when everyone else did. And she did all of this despite believing that her actions would have no affect on his life; that he was destined to fall in love, be rejected, rebel, and get executed and that nothing she would do would ever make a difference.

The sunflower motif between Alexandro and Ibelina represents a different sort of love compared to all the other flowers. It is not the "deep" love of the normal rose or the "pure" love of the white rose. It is instead a sort of "realistic" love -- a love that is built up over time, through trust and affection. A love that starts out rocky, has a few bumps and obstacles along the way, but nonetheless is more tangible than any other. A love built on truth and trust, rather than an illusion and false promises. A love that can actually last, instead of falling apart.

Bitch: *smirking*

Heroine: What am I supposed to do?! What --

Heroine:*gets possessed*

Villainess: *smirks right back* I'm about to end this bitch's whole career.

Aw man, the director seems so sad about Doyoon not being too thrilled about the whole relationship thing.

Who knew passive aggressively blackmailing your significant other with the loss of their only source of income in order to force them into a relationship with you would make them upset?

Seriously, what a shock.

I find it interesting that upon finding out that Youngmin is supposingly engaging in prostitution, theiir first instict was to talk behind his back and spread the knowledge far and wide. Not talk to him and ask if he was okay, not to see if he was in trouble or he really needed money for some reason, not to try and understand the situation and see if they could be there for him while he was obviously going through a rough patch -- you know, like true friends would. Nah, they just instantly dropped him like a bad habit and started talking shit.

What great friends, huh? Seriously, if only Youngmin's good taste in boyfriends rubbed off on his friends somehow.

This chapter was interesting, because it raised some questions as to how Yuri was able to so easily influence those four guys.

Mimosa outright says that before here they acted befitting of their status -- and yet after meeting her they became lovestruck idiots. Despite acting like a child 90% of the time. The manga lists this as a fantasy, so perhaps magic is the reason? Maybe she's drugging their food/drinks? Some sort of pheromone effect perhaps?

...they looked dead. Lifeless.

...am I the only one who thinks the kid with the glasses looks like Iida from My Hero Academia?

Can I just say that -- besides the awesome sex scenes -- I love the fact that the uke has his shit together.

Like he's a hard worker, he studies, he's planning for his future -- totally not dependent on anyone else at all. In too many yaoi mangas the uke is just a pretty freeloader, or helpless and need of help, or just useless in general. This guy though, he can stand on his own. Which makes him all the more attractive in my eyes.