I totally agree. It also shows how desperate Ilia’s father to have him out of their country because of his nature. Who in their right mind allowed and even considered marrying a very much older man to a kid. Just plain cruelty.
OMG are ok now?? that's really sad I can't imagine going through all that
Exactly my thoughts.
I mean... yes and no? I actually don't seem to have any CPTSD or PTSD from everything, which surprises quite a lot of people. I think it has something to do with me being AuDHD. I am in a very healthy relationship, coming up on 6 years, and that has allowed me a lot of time to heal from things further. I used to have pretty intense abandonment issues.
Unfortunately, about 3-4 years ago, I developed a chronic vestibular migraine condition, if you don't know Google it cause way too many might be dealing with it and not know. That has pretty much limited what I can do as far as physical labor, which sucks because I like that kind of work.
So, yes and no.
I am a survivor of pedophilia. I was groomed from about 4-6, with molestation happening to me from 6-8. I was also groomed by another girl at 11, then SAd by her at the same age. I was also groomed online from 13-15 by several adult men online. Luckily none of those ended in assaults. I was also groomed into taking pictures of my aunt naked to send to her BF, with her convincing me to put on a really revealing swimsuit that I wasn't comfortable wearing, taking pictures of me, and then sending those her BF right after her naked pictures.
I was obviously groomed, very kindly, by my father, so that when he started touching me, I would be less likely to fight back. I was groomed by my mother, neither she nor father were together, to believe that being spanked with a wooden spoon for crying was normal, as well as continued swats if I couldn't stop the hiccuping sobs from being hit the first time. Those spanks would be followed be isolation tactics, by sending me to my room, and refusing to talk to me, with further groomed me to think that me being in pain wasn't a justified reason to cry. I was 4 at the time.
Grooming is an adult, older individual, or person with authority, acting and reacting in a certain way with children or other victims, to illicit a specific response. Some groomers want you to love them. Some to fear them. Some to hate yourself. The reasons and tactics carried out can be varied.
All that to say, I know, from experience, what pedophilia looks like, and what grooming looks like. This story's romance has none of that from MC to Kalid, but it does have grooming. The MC by his family and country into believing himself worthless and undeserving of basic human decency, Kalid by his family and country into a child marriage.
I don't blame MC, because he was not allowed the right to exercise his rights as a human. He was just property, which is how history treated women as well. He didn't want this, but had literally no means to fight it, without risking possibly his life.
This series is a depiction of two individuals, void of choice who understood and had to accept their roles. The king forced Kalid to take the crown, while MCs father forced him not only into marriage with a person he had no info on, but also to another country completely with no way to return. Hate the kings who normalized this, not the victims.