cigarette's Topics (132)

I dropped it at 50 bc I saw people saying the upcoming chapters went off the rails… and for all of the people saying ML was always a toxic red flag from the beginning, yeah that may be true— BUT 50+ CHAPTERS IN AND zero GROWTH??? We just turnin into a horror/psychological genre bc healthy character development in a BL doesn’t sell as well as toxic nonsense??? T-T

I agree with you, taking it this route was definitely unnecessary and it really shows the shallowness of a lot of stories (and readers who continue to eat it up) if this is the best we’re offered. Be more creative authors, not everything must be dramatic and abusive (⊙…⊙ )

'"Be more creative" is sending meee （/TДT)/ because you're literally asking for the exact kind of writing that makes JINX feel so emptyyy.
If anything, this is the story refusing to give you the JINX shortcut.
You don't have to like it, obviously. But saying the author "ran out of ideas" when the story is literally taking the established flaw to its logical extreme is… omg
And "zero growth" after 50 chapters?...character development ≠ becoming a better person Sometimes the development is watching an established flaw get pushed to its breaking point.
Calling that "lazy writing" because it didn't turn into a healthy romance is kinda telling on the reader, not the author (≧∀≦)

i guess its just fatigue. like why does everything need to be taken to its extreme? there are plenty of ppl who exhibit undesirable traits that cause conflict in their relationships without turning into abuse. and i dropped jinx too for similar reasons (even though the plot was very straightforward about what it was from the get go so thats on me). all im saying is that we dont always have to go THERE to establish that something is toxic, detrimental, and to create tension and angst.

i do agree that there was character development and that creating character development and complexity doesnt always mean going in a postive direction. we saw ml need for control over a situation, especially when he is technically doing something positive, materialize as they started living together which is development. i guess im just tired of being recommended or reading a story and at some point there is ALWAYS either dubcon/rape, imprisonment, (intentional) emotional abuse, etc. especially when i know for a fact they are gonna end up together (who cares if they work for it.) i also believe that certain story premises require certain characterization and context to fully work but thats another conversation.

I actually think your fatigue is valid, but I don't think it really applies to what the story is doing here, bcs if you're reading this particular kind of romance, then eventually you're going to run into the extreme end of the characters' personalities when love and the fear of losing that person collide. That's kind of the point of these stories: the feelings aren't meant to be casual or easily replaceable. When the attachment is absolute, the character's reaction to losing it is going to be equally intense.

And that's especially true for Taeseo because we're not testing a random personality here. We're testing a control-oriented person against the one situation where control fundamentally stops working: Yeomin choosing to leave. So what would you actually have him do instead?

Jealousy? That shows insecurity, but it doesn't really test his need for control.
Withdrawal? That would actually be him giving up control.
Arguments? They can create tension, but Yeomin is still free to walk away.
Emotional manipulation? That's possible, but it's still just another form of control and wouldn't necessarily push the character to his limit.
Trying to buy Yeomin back? That would fit his worldview, but the whole point is that money and status can't make someone love you.

Following him, monitoring him, interfering in his life, controlling who he sees, threatening people around him, those are all possible steps, but notice what they have in common: they're all variations of the same progression. The more Taeseo realizes he can't control Yeomin's choice, the more he tries to control the circumstances around that choice. And eventually you reach the most extreme version of that logic: if he can't make Yeomin choose to stay, he removes the possibility of Yeomin leaving.

That's why I don't see the imprisonment as the author randomly deciding that the story has to 'go there.' It's the character being pushed into the exact situation designed to expose his biggest flaw.

And this is also why I think your fatigue with these tropes is getting mixed up with the actual narrative question. You can absolutely be tired of seeing BL repeatedly use the same extreme dynamics, but if the story is specifically about a character like Taeseo, whose defining issue is control, then softer alternatives don't necessarily accomplish the same thing.

The story could have stopped at jealousy. It could have stopped at arguments. It could have stopped at emotional manipulation. But then we'd still be asking how far Taeseo's need for control actually goes. This arc is answering that question.

And I actually think your own observation about his control becoming more visible when they started living together is important. You already recognized the development. The current arc is simply taking that trait out of the comfortable environment where he could disguise it as "taking care of Yeomin" and putting it somewhere he can no longer rationalize it so easily.

Also, knowing they're going to end up together doesn't make that question irrelevant. If anything, it makes the eventual resolution more important. If Taeseo is going to love Yeomin genuinely, then at some point the story has to confront the difference between loving someone and believing you have the right to possess them. And that's why I'm much more interested in seeing where this goes than in assuming the extreme itself makes the writing bad.

Bcs yes, BL absolutely has tropes that get overused. But if you're going to read a genre where love is often portrayed as overwhelming, obsessive and all-consuming, then characters reaching the extreme consequences of those personalities shouldn't automatically be treated as the author failing to be creative.

I just meant be more creative in showing undesirable behavior and traits in people— like the need for control that the ML shows… why does it have to be taken to imprisonment like every other story out there? (That’s a generalization for all of the stories where the possessiveness or controlling behavior in MLs is shown as the most toxic extreme ik not every BL has imprisonment). Surely we can find a different route or path, because then we know the MC is going to end up with him DESPITE being imprisoned and having his autonomy compromised, simply bc the ML apologizes and decides he was wrong (if it’s not going the psychological path of it just being a twisted ending). I don’t know how I’m asking for the same type of writing that made Jinx feel empty— I read that one and it was underwhelming, but it’s bc the author had too much ground to make up for JKs “redemption” and rushed it and made it feel disingenuous. There were lines he crossed that he never even admitted to or apologized for ._.

Also, I guess I should have specified, but I did in fact mean POSITIVE growth, not just any old character growth at all. ML started out abrasive and controlling— but was it so wrong for me to hope that a romance novel started progressing romantically? And positively? That maybe there would a few brief moments when he considered “oh, maybe I do kind of care for him a bit,” or even something as shallow as “fine he can keep doing what he wants this time to make him happy” instead of going to the extreme of “I want what I want even at the cost of his bodily autonomy and I know this will make him try to leave me”. It’s just annoying, yk? T-T so terribly annoying… I don’t need a story to be a perfect little fairytale, but can it at least not be so unreasonably extreme just for the sake of it? Be more creative.

Bah meant to like

I’m pretty sure it was his blonde band mate… seeing that person doesn’t show his face ( on ch 19, he’s the only one getting covered in a feather. As well as 4 of them are still friends with eachother without the other person. )

yes i thought that when i got to the chapter when he meets up with the red head. i guess i misjudged him, he just seems to have a calmer demeanor.