I'm going to write a fairly long where I'll give my opinion on this manwha.. It's nothing new to see a completely toxic gay couple in manga, with all the girls rooting for them. But I think very often when women try to write manga, they completely dehumanize gay men. First of all, this is a "romantic" story between a twenty-year-old and a forty-year-old, student and teacher. That already sucks. It's a relationship based heavily on dominance: the teacher has control over Kim Garam because he's in a superior position, and obviously, Garam will do anything to receive compliments from him, like all of the professor's student want. The dynamic doesn't change. The teacher remains someone who uses his power over Garam. Furthermore, the concept that "love cures everything" is a concept so perpetuated by us women that it makes me sick. We women are constantly taught that with "our love" we can "cure" these sick men. Well, you can't. Yet here, apparently, it is possible. The professor becomes docile overnight. How is that possible? Apparently, with the power of love. Of course. Furthermore, this back-and-forth is boring: Garam gets hurt, acts offended, they don't talk and it end or with sex or with the professor plays the piano a bit, Garam says "with the power of music, anything is possible," and this is repeated OVER AND OVER. After a while, it's enough. Furthermore, the cherry on the cake is that the professor completely doesn't realize he's a piece of shit. In the reviews, Jeffrey it was criticized when is behaver is not different from the professor: neither of them knows he's a piece of shit, and they justify their behavior. They said "at least the professor knows that he is evil" because he doesn't know what he did wrong. But Jeffrey is a victim of the professor, and he do all of that couse he want the respect of the professor. The professor is a genius, frankly a child prodigy, and very often these people have a lot of problems relating to people, but that doesn't justify anything. Even the fact that he's described as "non-human" leads to a complete downplaying of what he does. And I'm sorry, but I immediately made a comparison to the domestic violence women suffer. Men who beat women, just a bouquet of flowers and everything is fine. I also find the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus quite distorted. Orpheus turns away precisely because he loves Eurydice; this is one of the key points of the myth. But if we want to make a comparison, the professor never turns around to look at Garam, because he knows he's following him, no matter what evil he is. Initially, I was hoping the work would take a more dramatic direction, like the two of them being together, but with the idea that they were together not out of love, but rather out of an obsessive need they have. Because that's what it is: obsession. The professor isn't "healing." The only one who can stand him is literally Kim Garam; without him, as we've seen, he's completely alone. I was hoping it would take this more tormented direction: a victim who doesn't want to heal and his tormentor. But I think it'll end up as a great, squalid romance. Too bad. It could have been a beautiful work.
Kind of funny how you say women are dehumanizing gay men while saying they are dehumanized because they are showing "women" behavior I think you projected too hard on this one
i definitely understand your points but about the toxicity; i think most readers are aware of the power imbalance between heejae and garam and their relationship is purposely abusive because of what heejae does in the relationship. As long as its fiction, people will read taboo dynamics whether they get together or not, people read because they are interested in the toxic dynamic itself. I also think manhwas with over 200 chapters are bound to be repetitive and theres a reason why they repeat it in here. Garam lets heejae's behaviour slide just bcs he sees the good in people and especially heejae, someone he looks up to, but within the next chapters, its obvious that he's not going to let heejae trample all over his feelings anymore. The story is very slow-paced and it probably will go on for another 100+ chapters. The characters in the story are shown to be mostly bad people (and part of it is stemmed from heejae) and a lot of the story is meant to be unnerving and uncomfortable, that is what makes it unique. The love that heejae and garam experience are abnormal and its all in their perspective, which is why the narrative seems more romantic than it should be. Also, about your point of heejae being docile overnight confuses me, because it takes garam to desperately beg and leave only for heejae to start reciprocating his feelings. It takes heejae three years to soften up to garam. The fact that heejae is described as non human doesn't downplay or justify his action, it gives a reason but its never an excuse. garam is very aware of the abuse he puts everyone through and many characters, (even heejaes manager) shows an obvious disliking to heejaes behaviour. Nobody is saying heejae is docile or kind to garam
About compton; Both sides are in the wrong but its clear that comptons behaviour stems from heejae, even now there is a mix of hatred and compassion for heejae and thats how he ends up doing following his behaviour even as a conductor. I havent seen any negatve comments on compton but its clear his trauma is rooted from heejae, and that he still deeply admires him almost on the same way that garam does, which is why he projects his feelings abt heejae onto garam.
About the Orpheus and Eurydice myth; Hades set a rule that Orpheus would walk out of the underworld while Eurydice follows behind + Orpheus isnt allowrd to look behind or he will lose eurydice. Yes, heehae wouldn't look back, but the point is that heejae is deeply insecure about people leaving him especially when he considers himself as a knife. He will end up turning around out of fear and possession. a lot of people question in the myth if Orpheus actually loved Eurydice or if it was the fear of loss. The same thing happens with heejae and garam, we as the viewer question whether he actually loves garam or if he's only scared of the possibility of garam leaving. (i am not welll informed on mythology, so correct me if im wrong)
Kind of funny how you say women are dehumanizing gay men while saying they are dehumanized because they are showing "women" behaviorI think you projected too hard on this one Perfumin
I thought the same while reading this long comment. Feels like commenter projected theirs triggers on manhwa and it's characters.
Also, in my opinion it's not a romance story it's a love story. The difference is the first one is an ideal representation of fantasy of love and the second one is the story of human relationships with all of it's ups and downs. There is no good or bad people in general, no black or white monochrome world. Instead we see people with their problems, the clash of their psychologies and different worldviews, especially in art, which is the central point of the whole manhwa.
I'm going to write a fairly long where I'll give my opinion on this manwha.. It's nothing new to see a completely toxic gay couple in manga, with all the girls rooting for them. But I think very often when women try to write manga, they completely dehumanize gay men. First of all, this is a "romantic" story between a twenty-year-old and a forty-year-old, student and teacher. That already sucks. It's a relationship based heavily on dominance: the teacher has control over Kim Garam because he's in a superior position, and obviously, Garam will do anything to receive compliments from him, like all of the professor's student want. The dynamic doesn't change. The teacher remains someone who uses his power over Garam. Furthermore, the concept that "love cures everything" is a concept so perpetuated by us women that it makes me sick. We women are constantly taught that with "our love" we can "cure" these sick men. Well, you can't. Yet here, apparently, it is possible. The professor becomes docile overnight. How is that possible? Apparently, with the power of love. Of course. Furthermore, this back-and-forth is boring: Garam gets hurt, acts offended, they don't talk and it end or with sex or with the professor plays the piano a bit, Garam says "with the power of music, anything is possible," and this is repeated OVER AND OVER. After a while, it's enough. Furthermore, the cherry on the cake is that the professor completely doesn't realize he's a piece of shit. In the reviews, Jeffrey it was criticized when is behaver is not different from the professor: neither of them knows he's a piece of shit, and they justify their behavior. They said "at least the professor knows that he is evil" because he doesn't know what he did wrong. But Jeffrey is a victim of the professor, and he do all of that couse he want the respect of the professor. The professor is a genius, frankly a child prodigy, and very often these people have a lot of problems relating to people, but that doesn't justify anything. Even the fact that he's described as "non-human" leads to a complete downplaying of what he does. And I'm sorry, but I immediately made a comparison to the domestic violence women suffer. Men who beat women, just a bouquet of flowers and everything is fine. I also find the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus quite distorted. Orpheus turns away precisely because he loves Eurydice; this is one of the key points of the myth. But if we want to make a comparison, the professor never turns around to look at Garam, because he knows he's following him, no matter what evil he is. Initially, I was hoping the work would take a more dramatic direction, like the two of them being together, but with the idea that they were together not out of love, but rather out of an obsessive need they have. Because that's what it is: obsession. The professor isn't "healing." The only one who can stand him is literally Kim Garam; without him, as we've seen, he's completely alone. I was hoping it would take this more tormented direction: a victim who doesn't want to heal and his tormentor. But I think it'll end up as a great, squalid romance. Too bad. It could have been a beautiful work.
Sorry for the English is not my first language
https://youtu.be/yWdeYTcgB5M?is=15kbra8TBlndjPU9
You know, of all the comments here, yours comes closest to the title of pseudo-intellectual, and I appreciate that.
Kind of funny how you say women are dehumanizing gay men while saying they are dehumanized because they are showing "women" behavior
I think you projected too hard on this one
i definitely understand your points but about the toxicity; i think most readers are aware of the power imbalance between heejae and garam and their relationship is purposely abusive because of what heejae does in the relationship. As long as its fiction, people will read taboo dynamics whether they get together or not, people read because they are interested in the toxic dynamic itself. I also think manhwas with over 200 chapters are bound to be repetitive and theres a reason why they repeat it in here. Garam lets heejae's behaviour slide just bcs he sees the good in people and especially heejae, someone he looks up to, but within the next chapters, its obvious that he's not going to let heejae trample all over his feelings anymore. The story is very slow-paced and it probably will go on for another 100+ chapters. The characters in the story are shown to be mostly bad people (and part of it is stemmed from heejae) and a lot of the story is meant to be unnerving and uncomfortable, that is what makes it unique. The love that heejae and garam experience are abnormal and its all in their perspective, which is why the narrative seems more romantic than it should be. Also, about your point of heejae being docile overnight confuses me, because it takes garam to desperately beg and leave only for heejae to start reciprocating his feelings. It takes heejae three years to soften up to garam. The fact that heejae is described as non human doesn't downplay or justify his action, it gives a reason but its never an excuse. garam is very aware of the abuse he puts everyone through and many characters, (even heejaes manager) shows an obvious disliking to heejaes behaviour. Nobody is saying heejae is docile or kind to garam
About compton; Both sides are in the wrong but its clear that comptons behaviour stems from heejae, even now there is a mix of hatred and compassion for heejae and thats how he ends up doing following his behaviour even as a conductor. I havent seen any negatve comments on compton but its clear his trauma is rooted from heejae, and that he still deeply admires him almost on the same way that garam does, which is why he projects his feelings abt heejae onto garam.
About the Orpheus and Eurydice myth; Hades set a rule that Orpheus would walk out of the underworld while Eurydice follows behind + Orpheus isnt allowrd to look behind or he will lose eurydice. Yes, heehae wouldn't look back, but the point is that heejae is deeply insecure about people leaving him especially when he considers himself as a knife. He will end up turning around out of fear and possession. a lot of people question in the myth if Orpheus actually loved Eurydice or if it was the fear of loss. The same thing happens with heejae and garam, we as the viewer question whether he actually loves garam or if he's only scared of the possibility of garam leaving. (i am not welll informed on mythology, so correct me if im wrong)
I thought the same while reading this long comment. Feels like commenter projected theirs triggers on manhwa and it's characters.
Also, in my opinion it's not a romance story it's a love story. The difference is the first one is an ideal representation of fantasy of love and the second one is the story of human relationships with all of it's ups and downs. There is no good or bad people in general, no black or white monochrome world. Instead we see people with their problems, the clash of their psychologies and different worldviews, especially in art, which is the central point of the whole manhwa.