I'm sorry, I can't help but laugh at Kyle seething in the corner.
I like him a lot but it really is nice to see him suffer a little.
Unpopular opinion maybe but I don't think either Rose or Lily are supposed to be likeable, but they are understandable to me. All three main characters are products of their environments and I quite like that.
Lily, as unloved as she feels, has been incredibly sheltered and has never had to fear not having a roof over her head or had to deal with people trying to use her for power. She's unhappy and has unmet needs but she's lacking in life experience, and in combination with her status that is a recipe for selfishness. Lily is too preoccupied with her own hurt to understand the implications of her actions and the pain she might cause others. No one has really told her about these things, and the only person who genuinely loves her is a person of a lower class who is very limited in what she can say and do, but also has an image of her that she can't control. And while Lily has the power to drastically change the fate of a person of the lower class, she has no say in what happens to herself. I actually don't hate her.
(Sidenote, we also know her father has some love for her, or at least feels guilty for sending her away, based on his tears when she leaves, but Lily herself doesn't feel that way, which is understandable given the clues we've been given about her life and the fact that her father is quite literally selling her off.)
Rose is also interesting in the sense that unlike Lily, she has power but society has taught her that no one values who she really is, only what she can give them. She tells Lily that early on, and she uses that show of vulnerability as a weapon, having buried the hurt of that statement so deep she doesn't know she's still feeling it. Since the world's caused her pain, she's long given up on having genuine love, but since she has power she gaslights, gatekeeps, girlbosses her way into getting the next best thing. She's an interesting character, if nothing else.
And Anna... Interestingly, she is the only one out of the three that has actually GAINED something emotionally, which is what also makes her more capable of giving genuine love. Lily provided safety and a roof over her head, and through her Anna starts gleaning what love truly feels like. But it's still not a complete understanding, especially with her trauma around sex. But Anna cares deeply about the person who saved her and will do her best to make her happy. Unfortunately her lower class prevents her from having a real healthy relationship with Lily, she's too aware of her position and knows how much she has to lose, should anything happen.
And unfortunately, Lily is not in a position to understand her, and Anna herself is preventing Lily from doing so by thinking she must shield her from sex and keep her pure. Despite what I said about Anna being the most capable of giving, her idea of love isn't healthy either, because she's put Lily on a pedestal, like an object to worship.
At any rate, on the surface this may seem like a clichéd drama based on misunderstandings, but I actually think the setting and characters are incredibly solid so far. If you put aside the intense emotions associated with romantic and sexual love and feelings of betrayal, if you look at the bigger picture it all makes sense. Hopefully the writing stays equally interesting in the future! But yeah don't expect this to be cute, this is absolutely going to be a complete trainwreck to watch regardless of the quality of the writing, simply for the fact that the power imbalances are doing their job. It'll be cool to see if the characters get to grow and unravel the emotionally tangled messes that are their lives.
I love both of these two a lot ;; Doha is pretty emotionally stunted and damaged from his life, it's not strange that he has trouble controlling his emotions, and Yeonwoo is such a lovely and gentle character. And the way they grow to care about each other is just so nice in the middle of the grimness of the plot.
Doha really needs someone to lift him up and see him for who he is, and Yeonwoo is that person. Meanwhile, Yeonwoo really needs someone who really loves him after his string of shitty exes. Sure, he picked up another weirdo, but unlike the others Doha's feelings are more genuine. They're an odd couple but they fit each other so well.
Imagine communicating so badly with your ex that you end up playing a worldwide game of cat and mouse with multiple national security forces involved, except the plot twist is the cat is actually trying to get itself killed by the mouse.
Imagine communicating so badly with your ex that you end up playing a worldwide game of cat and mouse with multiple national security forces involved, except the plot twist is the cat is actually trying to get itself killed by the mouse.
Don't read this if you liked this story, probably.
But yeah this was not well written imo. I went into it thinking it was going to be a psychological type of story given El's first life and all the rape. But in actuality all of the trauma and rape was just glossed over and suddenly they're living a happy family life? I get that El wanted to be loved and now he suddenly has three husbands, but two of them were the cause of his misery in his past life even if he never blamed the husband he married in his first life.
Basically my problem is this entire story lacks substance. We can GUESS the motivations for some of the characters' motivations in the first life but we never actually get to see them. And then in the side stories we suddenly get to see why the three husbands are in love with El, but he literally has no reason to be in love with any of them except his knight maybe.
His first life husband? Talked a couple of hours and decided to get married? Or at least that's what the timing of the comic made it seem like. Oof.
The black market owner? Apparently fixated so hard on El after meeting when they were children that he then tried to sabotage El's marriage in the first life (from what I can deduct, since that's never openly stated), and El doesn't even seem to remember him? Yikes.
Both of these men literally contributed to him taking his own life even if it was the first husband's father that was the driving force behind everything.
The knight is literally the only one who stayed faithful to him throughout both lives, but even he is an unrealistic choice given that he also raped El even if he wasn't aware of El's identity at the start of it.
Basically all of these could have been interesting storylines if they were more believable and were more fleshed out, but El falls in love with all three of them for no reason except they're now his baby daddies and he's dependent on their pheromones to be stable?
The kids are adorable but the whole going from misery, trauma and rape to a happy family life without any of the processing required is kind of nauseating. Like, I don't believe that sort of trauma even could lead to a happy family life with the very people who hurt you in the first place, for the most part. But IF it's going to be that plotline, at least try to make it somewhat believable and include all the ugly emotions you need to process to make it work, and the fights and forgiveness at the end of it.
And then their kid's story? At least his partner had a reason to love him and an interesting story, but damn if Lionel didn't trust too easily after finding that letter. Also how old is Lionel at that point?? From what I remember his siblings were born when he was still a small kid, but THEY'RE still small kids by the time this relationship happens, which makes the age implications uncomfy to think about.
Listen I'm saying all of this fully appreciating that it's fictional, and I do believe in people's right to write what they want even if it's bad/not to my taste. So I respect this story's right to exist. BUT I also do want a discussion around works like this because more impressionable people need to understand that these behaviours are not normal or ok. This trivialises rape to an uncomfortable degree.
"I promise to never feed you my cooking again" -
Why does that feel like the most romantic thing this guy has said the entire time T__T (Ch. 23)
Ahh I love them, this chapter was so tender ;o; though it sure ended in an anxiety inducing way
I don't care what anyone says, there is no straight explanation for this entire story :)
Excuse me but who the fuck talks during a live performance like that, even if it's more of a rehearsal than an actual show.
Tbf hosts are often really shady and tbh Shinya hasn't exactly been the most well adjusted individual or made himself look particularly trustworthy outside of the home bit, so it's not that strange that Ginji's words made Haru start doubting. I mean, in the grand scheme of things Haru doesn't know either of them that well. I will say that between one single host and a warm family who took care of the cat you couldn't, I know who I would trust more. But at the same time Ginji is also Mel's fave, so that's bound to add some weight too, and Haru's experience with getting abandoned is probably making him want to cut things off before there's even a chance he could get hurt further, so he can't see the bigger picture.
If Haru cooled down a little he could have tried to gather more information before doing anything drastic, but he's just a young an emotionally inexperienced guy who knows the dark sides of the world he's in.
Ultimately Shinya and Haru both kinda suck at communicating and both act reactively in different ways. They never talked about boundaries or what their jobs mean to them. They're both young, emotionally inexperienced people in a harsh adult world full of exploitation.
This was a pretty painful chapter :( But I hope it leads to them actually talking
I feel so sorry both for Rosie and Maythan, good lord. Rosie on a more serious note, but Maythan because god knows how exhausting it must be to be caught up in all that chaos lmao
I'm only about halfway through and all I can say is it's funny but I sincerely dislike both the main characters. Bongsoo doesn't quite have a handsome enough face to be a himbo, but he could have been in the same genre and I would have loved that. But actually, the combination of his stupidity and pushiness is kinda the worst. I would hate his guts irl.
But meanwhile, Jiwon isn't much better. He expects Bongsoo, who's notoriously stupid, to conform to his own standards without communicating a lick of what he really wants in the beginning, and refuses to be clear when Bongsoo tries to define their relationship, and as he progresses to being aware of how serious Bongsoo is about him, he basically lets him be because he's cute and he wants to sleep with him without the strings attached. And yeah it's on Bongsoo to not put himself in that situation too, but you can't say it's not shitty to use a person who has feelings for you.
Jiwon is the type of person you'd warn your friends not to get involved with or at least not to expect anything from, if you care about their emotional wellbeing.
BASICALLY both of them put their own needs above the other's in an unhealthy, uncommunicative way, except for when it doesn't hurt them to consider the other person. They're not in love, they just wanna have each other. Or that's what it looks like to me at least. Maybe it gets better though, idk.
But once again, it is funny. I'll give it that.
How to use the omegaverse dynamics to their full potential ;___;
The thing that makes this so deliciously bittersweet to me is Ukano knows his instincts are dangerous for Sachio, and did try to put a stop to the relationship for that reason. But on some level I think he probably realises that if Sachio wants to be with him, he is still the better option compared to the alternative, because if he's around at least he can also help protect Sachio from other predators. But if he did succumb to his instincts, he probably wouldn't be able to live with himself even if Sachio has accepted the possibility of being eaten one day.
And Sachio is such a lovely character too, with the way he genuinely thinks of other people and their pain even when he's been put in danger. He's a bit too trusting but he accepts people for who they are and the flaws they can't help.
In the end it feels like a story about one person no one would blame for feeling broken by the circumstances but chooses to make the most out of the situation (Sachio) and one person who should logically be on top but whose burden is immense because he cares so much about fighting back against his nature (Ukano). And they're never going to be perfect, but they both make each other's worlds a little bit better when they're together.
Listen words cannot describe how much I love Seiichiro, he's a workaholic dumbass who's lacking in fear and has no regard for his own well-being, but he's got his heart right and genuinely does his best to make everything better. And he's also the sole real ally of the saint when no one else asks for her opinion or has her best interests at heart, even when she doesn't understand him.
...And he's like a wet angry cat with Arash. He's so cute.
And this is why people don't go to the police with these things. Absolutely horrible.
I hurt so much for Lapis ;; And Binari is an angel
Of all the things why was it the neglect "play" that got to me though :'(
