I legitimately despise this ml. I don’t necessarily think the fl is that dense so much as she has a lot of things going on and just doesn’t have the bandwidth to notice other stuff. She trusts him as his friend and she doesn’t have similar relationships to compare it to. This happens to women all the time, they trust a guy friend and don’t recognize the signs until they have to reject their advance, often causing the relationship to fall apart. He manipulates, lies to, and gaslights her whenever she tries to probe about anything. He’s had plenty of chances to confess, but he seems to prefer to puppeteer her into a position where she can’t refuse rather than risk rejection, because he knows she wants to be free. He knows exactly what the rumors and him gifting the necklace have done, and will continue to do, making it harder for her to avoid being connected to him. He knows why she’s angry but chooses to trivialize and ignore her response. He skillfully redirects to avoid dealing with the conflict. He is honestly just as insidious as Yuri once you really dig into his behavior, just in more outwardly subtle ways. It’s just becoming increasingly obvious that all the support he gave her was just lip service, and that he was always less concerned about taking off her leash than being the one who is holding it. It’s clear that he views her more like a cherished pet than a partner. Sure, he wants her to happy and safe, but he doesn’t tolerate it when she wants to behave in any way he doesn’t like. When she does that he doesn’t respect her autonomy, but trivializes her and obfuscates until he no longer has to deal with it. It’s extremely common for FLs, no matter how old, experienced, or worldly to be infantilized by the author, but even if she’s too dense to notice his feelings, that doesn’t mean she deserves to be manipulated, gaslit, and trapped into a one sided marriage again. It’s not like the ML is violent or abusive, but he’s such a horrible, disrespectful, selfish partner that it’s ruined the story for me. I think it just really hits home because you see this type of personality in real life, and actual relationships that involve a person like him almost always implode.
I legitimately despise this ml. I don’t necessarily think the fl is that dense so much as she has a lot of things going on and just doesn’t have the bandwidth to notice other stuff. She trusts him as his friend and she doesn’t have similar relationships to compare it to. This happens to women all the time, they trust a guy friend and don’t recognize the signs until they have to reject their advance, often causing the relationship to fall apart.
He manipulates, lies to, and gaslights her whenever she tries to probe about anything. He’s had plenty of chances to confess, but he seems to prefer to puppeteer her into a position where she can’t refuse rather than risk rejection, because he knows she wants to be free.
He knows exactly what the rumors and him gifting the necklace have done, and will continue to do, making it harder for her to avoid being connected to him. He knows why she’s angry but chooses to trivialize and ignore her response. He skillfully redirects to avoid dealing with the conflict. He is honestly just as insidious as Yuri once you really dig into his behavior, just in more outwardly subtle ways.
It’s just becoming increasingly obvious that all the support he gave her was just lip service, and that he was always less concerned about taking off her leash than being the one who is holding it. It’s clear that he views her more like a cherished pet than a partner. Sure, he wants her to happy and safe, but he doesn’t tolerate it when she wants to behave in any way he doesn’t like. When she does that he doesn’t respect her autonomy, but trivializes her and obfuscates until he no longer has to deal with it.
It’s extremely common for FLs, no matter how old, experienced, or worldly to be infantilized by the author, but even if she’s too dense to notice his feelings, that doesn’t mean she deserves to be manipulated, gaslit, and trapped into a one sided marriage again. It’s not like the ML is violent or abusive, but he’s such a horrible, disrespectful, selfish partner that it’s ruined the story for me. I think it just really hits home because you see this type of personality in real life, and actual relationships that involve a person like him almost always implode.