Shinao

[Yes, this is me ranting since I think I’m just going to drop this for now, I know it’s a LOT of yapping, I need to remind myself the reasons why I dropped this if I forget why later on.]

It’s completely fine if you like this, I seriously don’t care if you do, the art is exceptional and Black Apricot has their credits as the author of “Legs That Won’t Walk” and “La Mèche” but I personally do not know what the hell is going on in this story?.. And yes, that IS something that matters to me, especially since I liked the other two to some-type of extent and this story just doesn’t feel like the same person wrote it.

First of all, what the hell is going on with the chapters, holy translator wars.
Second of all, I did enjoy “Legs That Won’t Walk” and I especially liked “La Méche,” I read both of them fully and took my time to analyze the chapters, Black Apricot has amazing potential and I love their art style. … But “The Black Steed?” Dude, I read this twice just to try and understand it and I didn’t enjoy either read at ALL.

I can clearly see that Black Apricot is trying to have some type of world building and plot line here but I believe that they’re miserably failing. Like dude, if you’re gonna have so much SA and rape in your story just 10-20 chapters WHILE trying to make a grand scene where your characters are living in — that same exact SA and rape doesn’t contribute anything at all to your focus… genuinely drop the plot and focus on the porn or vice versa. The problem isn’t the SA or rape here in context of “The Black Steed,” I do not care if it is in a fiction, it’s the way they use it in their story and how relevant it is… because it’s genuinely useless and unnecessary to the other simultaneous task of building the plot. To use SA and rape as a part of your story not *just* because you want it in there as a fetish but because you clearly want it to be a core part of your porn WITH PLOT, you have the responsibility to make it make sense, especially to an audience you willingly are sharing with.

This story is so confusing right now, I have no idea what the hell is going on and hell, even the porn is confusing. It’s not even a “oh this is a very early part of the story where I’m gonna show you this out of nowhere yet it’s relevant and then it’ll be explained later on” like in Unchanged Man, it’s just a… sloppy timeline alongside really peculiar characters that have yet to have any proper description even if that description is just a *first appearance* description for readers to believe AT FIRST, once again, like in Unchanged Man or sayyyy… PASSION.

I’ll be honest, at first I was really intrigued in this story, hell, even ecstatic to see that it was by Black Apricot and what environment/world she chose for this story which I was even more hyped for seeing it was so medieval. I was excited about the teaser, the characters — especially because of their designs, and just everything about it…

I’m pretty disappointed and I hope I can pick this up again later if it actually molds itself into something not-so-all-over-the-place and scattered.

I genuinely read the main story expecting “slop” as many called it and it was just neutral, I mean it didn’t really stir up anything in me as I’ve read so much worse and people will enjoy/hate what they will; I read that main story with the straightest face ever and a bit of disappointment in the fact that the DIRECTOR was the one Hojoong ended up with since I was totally expecting Ricky due to his fascination with Hojoong from just one match in the ring…

THEN BAM! THAT WAS THE SIDE STORY. AND BY THE LORD, THAT WAS FANTASTIC. I REALLY DID NOT EXPECT THAT SIDE STORY TO BE SO DAMN GOOD?!?!? PUSHED UP MY LIST, PAST HALF OF MY FAVORITE BLS. THAT WAS GENUINELY *THE* BEST SIDE STORY EVER. The author truly put their ALL and I just have to express my strong emotions of joy for RickJoong beyond just putting it in my list They’re a match made in hell and it’s so awesome that we got to explore beyond a “raping game” to this complex fucked-up relationship that included impressive, realistic development.

I wonder what the next side-story is… I’m excited and terrified but I’m sure with their newfound passion for further developing the characters, HOPEFULLY it’ll be great as well.