Plot is kinda everywhere and the characters are boring and annoying no shade, which I could understand if the smut was good since that's the category but its also highkey mid....so.....
I started reading this in 2020 or 2021 when I was in middle school, or whatever year it was when it first released. I was there for the era where you'd be crucified for liking Cirrus, where everyone was debating whether this was actually a romance, or who Skylar would end up with because it was so unclear during season 1's release. I vividly remember seeing an edit to les by childish Gambino in like freshman year of high school that genuinely changed my brain chemistry and still makes me think of this stupid manhwa every time I hear it.
Season 3 ended when I was in senior year and I'm in University now getting my bachelors in Medical Science. I think it's mostly bias and nostalgia that leads me back to this story every time, though, because as much as I sympathize with Kim Pas' health issues that may have lead to some shortcuts here and there, the ending of this story truly did not meet my expectations and still makes me upset to imagine the impact, emotional depth, and general storytelling potential it could have had.
So much of my disappointment comes from the fact that I think stories like this are so rare in BL, not focusing on traditional aspects of relationships that define the genre of romance, like smut, fluff, or even romance itself, and rather focusing on building multifaceted characters that tell a compelling story. There is also a limit to how toxic a relationship can get, how far you can cross the line of non-con and abuse, before the reader starts to believe that the subjects are being romanticized or feels the need to drop the story altogether due to discomfort. Lost in the Cloud managed to tip toe and dance around that line, but never come close to crossing it for me.
It is truly an art form to write a story with subjects like SA/CSA, abuse, and manipulation, putting the beloved characters through immeasurable pain and making it difficult to press the next button on every chapter, and STILL gaining an audience that is willing to put themselves through all of that suffering, over and over again, because the story is simply that worth it.
It is for those reasons and more that I definitely do not regret coming across this, and despite my dissatisfaction with how the series ended and the fact that it ended at all, I'd like to say that it was probably one of the most impactful stories I've ever read.
Beautifully said, couldn’t agree more
lol I remember the days when the author had to go on Twitter to confirm cirrus was indeed the main lead bc everyone hated him so much
What happened to all the translator teams? It seems like desire scans is the only one working on anything ongoing nowadays. It's a shame their team is obsessed with paywalls and AI slop, better to read raws at this point.