As a mere CHILD, Chang-geon was:
1. Chronically exposed to the elements i.e had no shelter
2. Chronically starved
3. Begrudged even rotten non-nutritious scraps to eat occasionally
4. Verbally, emotionally and physically abused regularly
5. Hung by the neck ubntil nearly dead, whilst forced to watch what was considered abnormal by society at large
6. Deprived of human company
7. Deprived of family
8. Deprived of affection
9. Held captive
ALL with the full knowledge of the entire court including, it seems, the crown prince, with no-one to speak up for him.
Blame the author all you want for subjecting him to so much, but you can hardly blame him. Junmo has the right if it. He wasnt just abused, he was horribly, repeatedly BRUTALISED before, during and after his formative years.
Do you think those dark circles are for fun, that insomnia is fun??? That is a soul in torment who has clawed back and is clinging to the one flawed ray of light he has ever known.
The worst of it js that humans do treat children this way. Still, today!
Sam-Myeong showed him human kindness, but did abandon him to live his life, albeit unhappily. Now he's acting like his misfortune is unbearable, unforgiveable?
I hope he is the man Chang-geon believes and needs him to be. He will not find hapoiness without Chang-geon
Sam was happy without Chang. Now that they’ve reunited the man has been sexually abused, drugged, threatened, raped, manipulated, held hostage, kidnapped, beat up in the street, gaslighted, and been through numerous suicidal thoughts/depression. Chang is not the only victim in this story, while yes he’s been through a lot it’s not an excuse to enable his abusive actions. You’re only highlighting Changs suffering but not the suffering he’s forced Sam to go through.
Maybe it would be easier to sympathize with him if he hadn’t also done most of those things to Sam-myeong. Also, Sam-myeong didn’t abandon him, you talk as if he was his child to take care of. He wasn’t his responsibility.
I guess we forgiving criminals irl then cause most of them have a rough childhood, fucked up parents and burdened by poverty. Society failed them. Is that right?
But, I'm rooting for MY.
Sad childhood??? Im amazed he's not a complete sociopath. As it stands, Mok Yeon was completely and utterly numbed by his childhood neglect and then toughened by his group home experiences. The art teacher was his saving grace, a real lifeline, but she never cracked that shell.
He had the talent to be a major artist, but chose self-defacement and the feeling of despoiling unsullied skin to make his mark on the world, be "seen", and lodge his personal protest with fate/destiny/karma.
Sunhwa took advantage of Mok Yeon's deep emtional damage, while providing MY with a human connection of sorts.
I'd love someone to explain Eunjo's fascination with Sunhwa, Because hes a genuine scumbag. But, make no mistake, EJ felt things when he was with MY. He was able to give up control and be himself.
Granted, theyre all twisted AF, but this is obvs a redemption story. Besides, Mok Yeon and Eunjo are suuuuuper-fiiiiine. So pretty, i love looking at them. Gorgeouss art.
So, please, give my Mok Yeon a happy ending now ....
Some of these BL conventions are vexing.
Waif-like ukes whose looks are more elementary schooler than feminine, with lank unexciting hair and wet personalities. Nice eyes though!
I love virtually all semes, BUT this author has taken the monster cock vs child-like cocksleeve a little too far with Jin X Jian.
So, of 142 countries included South Korea's 10.80cm (4.3") average is 134th of 142 in the world. North Korea is 141st and Thailand is bottom at no.142. Most of Africa resides at the top at just under 18cm, while most of SE/E Asia resides at the bottom. Pacific Islanders are varied.
The world average is 12.9cm(5.1" ) - 13.9cm(5.5" )
worldpopulationreview.com/coatuntry-rankings/penis-size-by-country
I guess this is why they're so pretty and Kpop is possible....?
So, please authors, I love a larger one, but please keep a little reality without flipping into dark fantasy. I hate having to cross and squeeze my legs while reading... And please can we make the ukes at least resemble adults? In some of the more extreme cases, it's almost like two different art styles/artists work on the top vs bottom....
I'm on ch63 and I really hope the resolution to the current insanity is within the realms of plausibilty, because I'm just straight up confused at the moment...
The author seems to have chosen too rare and little understood a condition, or simply hasn't thought through a fictional condition quite thoroughly enough, I think.
Neither character is acting characteristically. At 28, Chayoung was still pursuing Gyuha, based on his then past and present memories. Yet this 28 y/o version adamantly chooes NOT to feel anything? And why would no-one mention /Gyuha not be aware after of, 8 years together, such an important family occasion??? Why wouldn't each be asking questions And sharing thoughts with the other to try to fill in gaps And not memory??? Not just "why you like me?" like middle schoolers, when theres OBVIOUSLY so much more at stake. ... Like 2 baby humans separated from a stable family life And parental love!!
And, even if we accept these pretty convenient but weak, plot holes and plot devices, wouldn't Gyuha be snatching up that FACE-DOWN family portrait from Chayoung's desk, as he's been tolerating Chayoung's behaviour while missing his babies, and here's obvious proof that Chayoung has no intention of trying to connect with them as a family?
Nah! That face down portrait is fighting action!
I like these characters and the story by the end of S3 part1. This would have been bettered an AU or VERY SHORT side story..... Sigh......
The author seems to have chosen too rare and little understood a condition, or simply hasn't thought through a fictional condition quite thoroughly enough, I think.
Neither character is acting characteristically. At 28, Chayoung was still pursuing Gyuha, based on his then past and present memories. Yet this 28 y/o version adamantly goes NOT to feel anything? And why would no-one mention /Gyuha not be aware after of, 8 years together, such an important family occasion??? Why wouldn't each be asking questions And sharing thoughts with the other to try to fill in gaps And not memory??? Not just "why you like me?" like middle schoolers, when theres OBVIOUSLY so much more at stake. ... Like 2 baby humans separated from a stable family life And parental love!!
And, even if we accept these pretty convenient but weak, plot holes and plot devices, wouldn't Gyuha be snatching up that FACE-DOWN family portrait from Chayoung's desk, as he's been tolerating Chayoung's behaviour while missing his babies, and here's obvious proof that Chayoung has no intention of trying to connect with them as a family?
Nah! That face down portrait is fighting action!
I like these characters and the story by the end of S3 part1. This would have been bettered an AU or VERY SHORT side story..... Sigh......
Myreadingmanga and also yaoimangaonline
This is like a series of stills from the anime. I was hoping for a little more insight/ personal history here
My sweet Mignon suffers so terribly. But his sweetness will break your heart.
Doc Oh is made to seem less co-operative during union than in the manhwa, so I prefer him here...
Wow! He could have spared him years of pain by saying something cryptic, like, "Look for me in Yugyeol" or 10 years, or SOMETHING! He didn't spare or help that SUPER SWEET kid anything at all! What purpose? Author missed a trick, I think.....
I've just re-read the story, uninterrupted, from chapters 1 to 101 - no annoying breaks or hiatuses, and.... I get it! !!!
Despite loving BL, Yaoi and all the smut, one of the other things I love about the genre (and, i guess, manga/manhwa/manhua/webtoons in general) are the heart-wrenchingly beautiful chibi, child and baby designs. Think of any childhood flashback and half of the emotional resonance with the story comes from the deadly cuteness of those big heads and bigger beautifully designed eyes, so carefully rendered with top-class artistry.
This mangaka has brought us two increasingly attractive main characters... So, WHY, OH WHY was such a non-descript baby design, with literal dots for eyes, green-lit??? She is at the heart of the story, and even performs some critically-timed baby noises. Yet they expect us to warm to it just because the characters say she is cute?
She is not, and its super-distracting and doubly annoying as a tragically missed golden opportunity to raise the emotional appeal of this already wonderful story. If the mangaka wasn't confident in proper baby design, they really should have chosen to tell a different story altogether!
Does anybody know why the mangaka, or at least the editor, who really should have known better, made this terrible creative choice? Even choosing to keep the kid's eyes closed would have worked better, since its a common supporting character design detail.
But, its like they launched the story having forgotten to finish (or have) the damned baby meeting!
They didn't even use a "get out of jail free" option like, once she was named, her features would miraculously resolve to fit it. No, instead, they named a blob the most spectacular object in the Heavens! Is there no irony in their workplace?????
Its a crying shame....
Why does a baby have to be "beautiful" for her personality to appeal to you? She's a cute kid and just a baby, those exaggerated character designs for babies in manga are so overused it was a relief to see an actual baby being treated as such and still being a fashion icon.
She's obviously not gonna fashion full eyelashes and huge creepy doll eyes bc babies aren't like that, it's unnecessary.
She's a baby. Beauty standards or pretty art style is not needed to adore her. She's doing her best. The way she is and how she's drawn captures what we see in her. She's an adorable fluff. Don't go shoving your standards on her. We all love her. She is the best.
If you READ my post and not leapt to judge the content, I'm expressing my OPINION and ASKING A QUESTION to try to understand the artistic choice, because my understanding was that there was a convention to these things, which I happen to enjoy on children, but DISLIKE on female and Omega characters. I love the cat-like slant of many a seme character, I guess depicting predator, vs the doe-like impression of their prey.
I asked, (and thought I was being funny... But, oh well), because I had not seen this choice before! I could write to the artist and bring attention to mangago, but that would be stuoid and self-defeating, so i thought I'd ask the community...
I am non-white and am sincerely aware of cultural misappropriation and the beauty standards of others being brutally imposed and enforced on MY people most of all.
I actually avoided manga and anime for YEARS, because I assumed the use of big eyes was a reflection of cultural self-rejection of (what I believe to be) the beautiful sultry single/monolid! It upset me on behalf of the bearers. Then, I realised that denying myself access to such obviously beloved media like manga and anime in ignorance was a personal contradiction. So, I ACTUALLY ASKED THE QUESTION, did the research, only to feel rather stupid.
It had been a conscious choice by the pioneers of manga, particularly Osamu "God of Manga" Tezuka (Astroboy [1952], Dororo, Buddha), to highlight facial expressions based on his love of and influence by Walt Disney characters Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop, and other pioneers of the genre. Others then continued the choice, turning it into a trend and then a marker of the genre as it was adapted to the Japanese style. Not only does shape and colour of individual eyes helps artists distinguish characters without the huge effort of reproducing countless other details, and as the widely held "windows to the soul", help express emotions without the work burden of drawing body language and poses, whilst "making the characters more relatable".
They can also distract from animation or background flaws!
Much earlier, since World War I, Yumeji Takahashi and Katsuji Matsumoto had used the convention in kawaii character illustrations, to POORER reception as vulgar.I
1990s realist mangaka attempted to modify characters, drawing smaller eyes... to POOR reception, as "lifeless"-seeming characters.
"Babies have big eyes, so humans tend to like big eyes..."
( https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/how-disney-influenced-a-distinctive-trait-of-anime-characters-2134208/; https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4748/why-do-anime-manga-characters-have-big-eyes; https://skdesu.com/en/big-eyes-anime-manga/; and so on...)
Babies and young children have proportionally larger eyes compared to their heads than do adults, so their eyes appear bigger in relation to their facial features ( https://birthworks.org/do-human-eyes-remain-the-same-size-from-birth-to-death-by-cathy-daub-cce-cd-bwi/)
SO...
A more intelligent and less rude response would have been that Korean manhwa does NOT generally follow the big eye convention seen in manga.
HOWEVER, it seems that Korean manhwa DOES tend to emphasise more realistic character proportions, and DOES tend to focus on facial features.... PARTICULARLY THE EYES (fact-checked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhwa). You could have given me examples of other manhwa where this style was used.
And who exactly is shoving personal ideals on whom, when you actually end your post with "WE ALL love her." without providing the results of your poll/survey of EVERYONE who reads this story, or actually agrees with YOU!I
You haven't answered the question of why the artist chose this style.
Good grief!
I just don't even know where to start with this!
I asked a question, which youve failed to answer, and have expressed an opinion, just as I did, based on inaccurate information.
My understanding was that there WAS a convention to these things, which I happen to enjoy on children, but DISLIKE on female and Omega characters. I love the cat-like slant of many a seme character, I guess depicting predator, vs the doe-like impression of their prey.
I asked, (and thought I was being funny... But, oh well), because I had not seen this choice before! I could write to the artist and bring attention to mangago, but that would be stuoid and self-defeating, so i thought I'd ask the community... Silly me!
I am non-white and am sincerely aware of cultural misappropriation and the beauty standards of others being brutally imposed and enforced on MY people most of all.
I actually avoided manga and anime for YEARS, because I assumed the use of big eyes was a reflection of cultural self-rejection of (what I believe to be) the beautiful sultry single/monolid! It upset me on behalf of the bearers. Then, I realised that denying myself access to such obviously beloved media like manga and anime in ignorance was a personal contradiction. So, I ACTUALLY ASKED THE QUESTION, did the research, only to feel rather stupid.
It had been a conscious choice by the pioneers of manga, particularly Osamu "God of Manga" Tezuka (Astroboy [1952], Dororo, Buddha), to highlight facial expressions based on his love of and influence by Walt Disney characters Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop, and other pioneers of the genre. Others then continued the choice, turning it into a trend and then a marker of the genre as it was adapted to the Japanese style. Not only does shape and colour of individual eyes helps artists distinguish characters without the huge effort of reproducing countless other details, and as the widely held "windows to the soul", help express emotions without the work burden of drawing body language and poses, whilst "making the characters more relatable".
They can also distract from animation or background flaws!
Much earlier, since World War I, Yumeji Takahashi and Katsuji Matsumoto had used the convention in kawaii character illustrations, to POORER reception as vulgar.I
1990s realist mangaka attempted to modify characters, drawing smaller eyes... to POOR reception, as "lifeless"-seeming characters.
"Babies have big eyes, so humans tend to like big eyes..."
( https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/how-disney-influenced-a-distinctive-trait-of-anime-characters-2134208/; https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4748/why-do-anime-manga-characters-have-big-eyes; https://skdesu.com/en/big-eyes-anime-manga/; and so on...)
Babies and young children ACTUALLY DO have proportionally larger eyes compared to their heads than do adults, so their eyes ACTUALLY DO appear bigger in relation to their facial features ( https://birthworks.org/do-human-eyes-remain-the-same-size-from-birth-to-death-by-cathy-daub-cce-cd-bwi/)
SO...
A more intelligent, more factual response would have been that Korean manhwa does NOT generally follow the big eye convention seen in manga.
HOWEVER, it seems that Korean manhwa DOES tend to emphasise more realistic character proportions, and DOES tend to focus on facial features.... PARTICULARLY THE EYES (fact-checked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhwa). You could have given me examples of other manhwa where this style was used.
Oh, there are 13 thumb downs and counting, admittedly out-numbering 2 thumbs up, at time of writing.But you didn't even think to hit me with that.
All these citations you're showing are just bases for character design, not unbreakable rules (I would know bc I'm an animation student).
As I told you before, she's a baby and her character design is meant to be simple bc the focus of her whole being is her personality. Her eyebrows and her clothes are the main point of interest visually, her face is not meant to be exaggerated but simple and fun to contrast with her parents.
You refuse to see the point and say I didn't answer your question, but my first answer was just simple and direct.
At the end of the day people perceive characters differently, I'm not going to tell you what to feel about the baby I can just explain why she's designed like that.
BL/YAOI started in 70s Japan amongst female mangaka for female audiences. Observers/academics have theorised that whilst female fans love to see love and intimacy between beautiful boys and men, the repeated/widespread inclusion of emotional and sexual violence is a reflection of the female hetero experience superimposed onto the characters they create.
Understandably, male gay observers have not been hugely impressed, since they feel it is their experience being misappropriated. I guess as they were not the primary target audience, things have been slow to change, plus "Bara" was their antidote, with, at least initially, mainly male (+/- gay) mangaka for male gay audiences.
Ive read that there is still. a degree of misogynism in East/SE Asia, so this may also be why female mangaka continue with this tone.
Now, years later, the audiences for both are more mixed not only in gender, but also in sexuality and region, and the personal morals of readers are more easily expressed and communicated.
I guess, if there is any "answer", its to read what you want to, and avoid what you dislike. I avoid shotacon, so I'm supremely uncomfortable when artists draw what are supposed to be consenting uke.adults with childlike proportions/faces/bodies.
Then again, one of the most attractive things about manga/manhwa/manua is the art, which can be mesmerising in any sub-genre, like it is here. How beautiful are Hunter and Yujin????!!!
Thankfully, guys, its just fiction (?)
While that theory holds and i do agree, the same reoccurring taboos seen in yaoi like rape, teenage school boys and incest are common in bara too. It’s just presented less angsty and instead like pure fetish in bara. I think seeing abusive dynamics portrayed pornographically but also trying to be emotionally provocative at the same time is what puts a lot of people off including gay men who consume the same themes in bara just more lighthearted without the insisted trauma or drama.