Unpopular opinion

you're very much entitled to feel a bitter after-taste about carcel bc he is not very much a perfect man. but i would argue that carcel is more complex than "toxic turned green flag with the power of love". at the beginning, we're introduced to a young ines who declares that carcel will be her fiance (which catches the little boy off guard), and we see that in their childhood they did see each other often but grow apart after ines shuts herself in and CUTS ALL CONNECTION with carcel which leaves him hella confused bc this is his fiance and like she should be giving him a lot more attention and such. like bro gets shipped off to the barracks and waits to hear something from ines through letters but there's nothing. that's when he starts to "cheat" and meets up with women, all for it to spread and get the attention of ines and make her jealous (correct me if im wrong). i mean we also have to take into account, carcel is like in his late teens, early twenties, like this man is beyond stupid and is going to commit horrible mistakes. like he wanted ines to succumb to him as this woman has had control of their relationship this whooooole time and he just wanted to see her vulnerable with him at least which triggers his "i wont let u divorce me, and i wont give u a child so easily" mindset towards their marriage. like if anything i feel like carcel has been working really hard to be the man ines deserves and like not of this would be happening if (SPOILER)

the crown prince hadnt meddled in their first life and killed off ines, like this man has loved and yearned for ines in every iteration of their lives. like this is just a man who's been deprived of the attention from his fiancee for years and has come to regret his past behavior and tries to better himself for ines. and im pretty sure i read somewhere that he never really had intimate relations with the women he messed with, like just kisses or something but idk its been a while but idk i've very much enjoyed seeing carcel grow into himself bc he really was just a poor man who was deprived from affection from the one whom he love and now he's trying to drown himself if ines so much as gives him a glance.

like idk last of my rant but imagine being 6 and out of the blue u get proposed to all bc "ur pretty" but like after the whole ordeal they're just indifferent of u and like as u grow up u hear less and less of them and just bam connection cut off. like idk it would leave me hella confused, angry, and remorseful, i guess? sorry for the longer rant but yeah that's how i feel about carcel's character bc he's very multifaceted esp in the episodes centered around him

It’s what people refer to as “nuance” or “gray characters”. Authors that prefer to add realism to their stories tend to have a lot of characters like this. I feel like the reason why you, and many others, are having trouble digesting carcel’s character is because you might be viewing it from a bit more of a black and white perspective. This applies to manhwa readers that like to categorize their characters into green/yellow/red flags as well. You end up simplifying the character. Which doesn’t work with more complex characters.

There’s also the issue of self-inserting onto the fl. Not saying you’re doing it, but I’ve noticed people that do are unable to let go of their grudge towards carcel despite acknowledging all of the nuances in his circumstances.

Hey! First of all, thank you for your reply. :D The fact that you took the time to read my rant and replied to it made me really happy. And yes I completely understand what you mean to say. Infact when I first made the comment I had just finished reading the manhwa and was quite overwhelmed. But now after sometime has passed, I can see it more clearly. And yes you’re write. I understand that he’s not just a cheater who cheated in a loving committed relationship. The circumstances were very different and THAT changes everything. Anyway, Im glad we had this conversation :)

Thank you for the reply! :) I see where you are coming from. Infact I thought about it for sometime and I did realise that as I had just finished the manhwa, my feelings were quite strong about it. But now after giving it a thought, I completely agree with you that its wrong to categorise him any category as he is a complex character. Maybe I saw many comments justifying his cheating and putting all the blame of that on ines triggered me. Cause I thought “if the manhwa artist thinks he made a mistake and carcel HIMSELF admits that it was wrong of him to process his hurt or longing from ines in the form of cheating, then why are these people white washing it?”. Maybe seeing them so extreme and polarised in their opinion indirectly pushed me to the other side of the argument and I started blaming him entirely . But I get you, there’s technically no one to blame in this. You cant blame ines or carcel cause at the end of the day, it was the circumstances.
I would just politely disagree with your last para. No I didnt self insert here. (Not judging anyone who does. Its a form of self-expression while consuming media after all) but in this case, I just felt so bad for ines (of course to a big extent for carcel too). She has suffered so much that I wont self insert here. Infact if it was in my hands I wouldve given them another life with no crown prince no stupid characters. Just both of them happy and healthy :). Anyway Im glad we could have this conversation :D

Ik the commentd before made you change your mind but im currently on my 5th re-reading of the broken ring and I very much agree with your saying that there is 2 types of men in manhwas and the author tried to mix both which is why so many have a hard time to put Carcel in a category because it is honestly totally true
Anyone who read historical manhwas as you totally said know there is either the man who has never known women in his past (like the exceptions are Hugo from Lucia and what not but they weren't engaged to their wives) or the scumbags we absolutely hate (abuser, liar, killer, cheater) and they usually aren’t the ml and if they are then readers fuck up the manhwa (the abandonned empress)
All this rant just to say i totally see your point and agree and happy you brought it up. Carcel I will be honest is the first and last man who has cheated/not cheated that I will love and I dont consider it to be such a black and white thing because it is all about how much the concept triggers someone

Also that as you said Carcel is almost other worldy perfect like he told god that he wants ines to have a chance in love but asks to love ines in every lifetime so when a man like *that* talks about debauchery... well what the author made she made it and if Ines wasn’t so broken he would have never cheated since one look in his way would have been enough (was, enough)
It is also true that Ines doesn’t care and if she had he never would have cheated (the feminist inside of me hits me whenever I defend Carcel's cheating omg) since that's all he wanted and the hatred for carcel very much comes from self insert of 'if I was Ines I couldn’t have accepted that' but again Ines is mentally 42 lives 3/4 lives and is completely broken from her past so Im also like it DID happen because she made him cheat so why hate him but- its totally a circle its 1 am and im rambling because you seem kind

Girl it's a story and fictional too! Take it as one. Honestly this expectation of ours actually ruins the plot. If you want to read a loyal ML then go read other stories we have plenty. I understand what carcel did is not right and no one is denying. But Carcel had his own reasons and Ines did not give a flying fuck if carcel cheated on her in fact she wanted carcel to cheat. In real life we have men who's worse than Carcel. Maybe take your anger out on Oscar that's a living example of a real life dude.

Perfectly said. Even Oscar is not portrayed as purely bad. Reading manhwa readers pov about him, they hate him to death and want the worst for him. However er, while Ines does hate Oscar, the remarkable thing is, she also recognizes the innocent parts of him in various phases of time. She also never denies their early years of marriage were good nor denies their good memories.

When I first read the novel, I had mixed feelings because this surprised me but I found it so real and couldn’t help admiring the author’s style. Ines would never deny her jealousy over the times Oscar cheated on her. This shows the author chose a realistic approach to the characters and their thoughts.

Heya, thank you so much for reply. I’m so glad you got what I meant and understood me. I was NEVER hating on carcel. As I said in my original comment I was just getting a weird feeling like a bitter after-taste. As per other commenters on my comment, I was probably trying too hard to categorise him. Maybe that’s true. As you said I was unable to digest “that” level of devotion from a man who cheated earlier ( to put it bluntly). I now do realise that its not a black and white story. It has many layers. If it was carcel and ines and it was their very first life and he cheated inspite of things being hunky-dory? Then yeah, I’ll rightfully call him a scum then. No need for me to even ask people for their opinions. But its not that simple is it? There’s trauma of past lives, other characters like the crown prince who participated in that trauma and the initial plan of ines to try to lead carcel through that path. I think these circumstances do allow us to show our dear carcel some grace. This is what I realised after reading all the replies and thinking by myself too. But does that mean he’ll be “THE BEST MALE LEAD TO EVER EXIST”? No. There are mls in other manhwas who I will always place above him. (Again! Thats my personal opinion. Carcel superfans please dont mind! I love him too and I’ve already raised the white flag ). I just think that if carcel existed in real life or if I was a random extra in the manhwa’s universe I would’ve said that “He’s a good guy. Sure he was a bastard in his early ages. But his heart is in the right place. And he IS a good husband now.” Thats it. I dont think we need to white wash him and in the same breath theres no need to put him through the guillotine either. Anyway thank you once again for engaging in a healthy discussion with me. People might call it a waste of time. But we are just discussing nuances about a form of media we like to consume. As far as we all are polite we should keep on having such discussions about complex characters like carcel :)

Hey, thanks for replying. However I have a feeling you must have misunderstood my intentions from my original comment. I dont hate carcel :) and I dont hate the manhwa, infact I do love both! And yes I do hate the crown prince rightfully. Secondly, I do understand its fiction and not real life. From my previous replies to other commentors you must’ve got to know that I now understand why I was feeling uncomfortable with him as a character, and now I do think of him as a complex but Good character. However I dont agree with “ ines wanted him to cheat so its ok he did that.” (Im not saying you said that. Its what Ive read many people saying this thats why I brought it out). Carcel should take accountability for his cheating inspite of circumstances which he DID and honestly that makes him a Good man! I just want to say that instead of saying “then leave if you have so much problems! Ugh!”, when people try to express their emotions after consuming a piece of media, we should try to engage in a healthy discussion with them, see where they come from and LET them see where you come from too. Its a form of media and healthy discussions should always be encouraged! When I made the original comment I have added in the last line that Im open to discussion. It was not a “dare to change my mind comment” infact it was “please change my mind, help me figure this piece of media out better as these are currently my opinions and I may be wrong”. Im not that good with words so that intention must not have come across :) anyway thank you for replying.