Responses
Your words resonate so much with me. I hated winters guts and he will never be one of my favorite characters but i was able to forgive him. I literally could not have put it in better words tha you.
Thank you! I had been looking for a manhwa that shows people being people and relationships being a lot of work but also being a lot of fun, with a lot of affection in them. And how they get there and stay there is really organic too. I think this is one of there rare ones which pulls it off really well, and I love it for that.
At the beginning I was all on the bandwagon of 'Winter is shit, trauma doesn't justify his actions, leave his ass'. But the later chapters after she left are SOO GOOOD. THIS is how redemption should be done. Its slow burning, but its visible how much he regrets. And there are setbacks, neither of them go 'oh, i see where i was wrong now, and now on everything will be smooth sailing'. They both (but winter mostly, of course) really feel the weight of each other's misery and their own faults. Really doing justice to the title 'what it means to be you'.
I'm at chapter 122, and man... this is the most organic relationship I now. There are disagreements, grudges, differences in temperaments. But there is also banter, teasing, concern, and most of all, thorough loyalty and (almost) honesty at this point. It isn't just one or two interactions just showing a generic couple in a happily ever after (like most mangas and manhwas), they seriously think about each other, feel for each other, get angry, cajole, talk, show affection, anger and everything in between. To think that it could have been like this from the beginning if winter was a bit more open and willing to change at the beginning of the marriage, instead of hiding himself (due to his past of course). But this is one of the few where his redemption feels earned to me.
Bonus, I love how she didn't go back to him just wishy washy or just completely avoidant and oblivious of his actions of affection. She was reserved but open to communication, because she had found some peace and happiness in the time apart. It isn't being so stupidly in love that you easily forgive a terrible ML, but it also isn't unnecessarily torturous where she keeps avoiding over and over without any cause. She is really depicted well as a good leader.