by his morals, it wasn't violent. He even said he was chronically a machiavellian or whatever psychology word he used. The author portrays him as someone as beautiful and intriguing as he is terrifying and horrible. Most of us don't defend his violent crimes, we defend the logic in how his character is portrayed. If you want to read a book about redemption. This isn't the one, sorry. Why do you want to see someone commit countless acts of murder and violence get a happy ending when at the end of the day, he would only feel remorse towards one person? And he only feels bad when it gets in the way of what he wants. In a sense, you are excusing his behavior more than us. You want him to act nice and be liked despite who he is and what he's done
Also, if his empathy had a meter, it would always read "Dumbass, no reception"
I understand your point. I'm not mad because Ilay didn't magically become a good person, I'm mad because the writing completely ignored the character development he did have. There was -something- which was ruined just to serve another 'sexy' smut scene that caters to what's become normalized in certain parts of the yaoi 'community'. It reads as a typical trend in yaoi where non-consensual painful acts are eroticized under the guise of passion. That's what is bothering me. Maybe you're right and the author wants us to get whiplash from this to remind us who exactly we're dealing with - but where's the pain then on Taeui? Yes, we can read what he is going through but see it? Nope, it's as if it's supposed to not look like actual assault, but passionate sex. He is hurt and his pain is weirdly sexualised in that scene.
why didn’t u just respond to my comment if you’re going to be referencing it lmfao? i’m not defending ilay, im not even defending the scene. dude i dont even like ilay.
but you’re the one that’s wrong if you think that that wasn’t completely inline with his character. my point is that you’re all expecting ilay to turn it around and become some green flag to taeui, but that’s just not going to happen. you’re saying i’m just ‘consuming’, when you’re the one that took ilay’s one apology and forgot all of his past crimes of forcing taeui + harassing him and expected him to be above shoving his dick in. once again, im not defending ilay. i’m simply baffled by why there’s all this outrage that ilay is simply behaving how he’s always behaved. like twenty chapters ago ilay sucker punched taeui in the stomach and coerced him to have sex with him, and after one apology you think he’s done a complete 180? before you tell me to think deeper, practice what you preach yeah?
‘Bad tropes, bad writing’ brother again. 100 chapters in. why are you still reading? the tropes haven’t changed, the writing hasn’t either. i’ve read all of passion, dasim, and suite in the original korean text, and i’ll be the first to tell you that ilay gets better but he’ll never reach what you guys want him to be. thats not this genre, and thats not what the author wanted (and before you give yuuji too much shit she wrote this in 2006 lol). if you can’t handle the heat i kindly suggest you stay outta the kitchen
I didn't respond to your comment directly because I wanted to see how people agree/disagree with a more well written critique ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~ pure curiosity
"100 chapters and y'all are still confused'- yeah, because narrative growth from a character who literally just showed signs of emotional development is apparently too much for some of you to grasp. Ilay went from being violently self-centered to apologising, softening up, and actually being tender in the last intimate scene - so yes, it's perfectly reasonable to expect a CONTINUATION of that growth, not a complete regression into pain=passion pseudologic.
If you think that scene was consistent with his character, you're not reading carefully - you're just consuming. The fact that a "love confession" leads to another violent scene that throws everything out the window in favor of 'look how hot it is when he just shoves it in without prep or care?? What??'.
That's not passion, that's lazy writing. There's nothing sexy about ignoring someone's body and boundaries. Also, Taeui being drawn in a way that contradicts his inner and outer monologue and clear discomfort is not deep or edgy - it's manipulative storytelling meant to trick the reader into eroticizing something inherently non-consensual. That's a problem.
If your takeaway is 'lol that's just Ilay' maybe re-evaluate why you're so quick to defend a character's worst behavior just because it's been normalised for over 100 chapters. Normalised does not make it okay. Criticising this scene means refusing to excuse bad writing and bad tropes under the guise of 'character development". Sorry but that scene was trash and people are absolutely right to be critical of it. Try thinking a little deeper. (I'm pulling an all nighter, so I'm a bit emotional. Excuse me pls)