You're sooooo right. I was really disappointed bc it went the usual way of "MC loves him bc he's family but he's utter TRASH" when it really could've been more complex. Imagine the brother trying to juggle between his illegal work to support both of them and the guilt of what he's doing. The author could've even kept his ambition, but instead frame it as "I had such a shitty life and evil people are living without worries, why can't I have it? Why can't my little brother have it?". Imagine the big brother being scared of being left behind by the only family he has!!! Instead no, it's all about him being a greedy, controlling asshole. Lost potential, and it's a shame bc I really like this story
ikrrrrrrr like bruh ure not even real to me if all u gaf while dying is ur own ego, like i can't even hate you when ure as dimensional as a paper cutout. if we saw the fear of him being left behind, or like, the fear of him just DYING, he would be at least a human in my eyes.
also, i have such a rant about how the brother's dumbass is ruining MC's character by association, so like, ignore me if you don't wanna read it LMAOOO i realized how much i typed only after i finished it, teehee.
but it's also disappointing bc his brother is so obviously shallow, that it makes MC look kinda shallow or ignorant over real friendships given how hung up he is his brother. like i get his inability to move on from leaving someone behind in a fatal situation, regardless of your relationship with that person. but the issue I have with MC is that he's SO hung up on his brother, that he's dedicated his whole life to him. it's one thing to be unable to move on, but MC is moving and experiencing new things everyday but has 0 internal desires or motivations other than finding his brother, who has the personality of cardboard. in all the chapters we've seen flashbacks of them, MC has not once talked about the brother like a family member, and rather, talked about him like someone who would admire a local celebrity. we never get anything that's actual evidence of how his brother was a good brother outside of just being nice and friendly back when they were kids. the only evidence is MC telling us that they were super close, which just feels impossible since he seems so unaware of his brothers' lifestyle and true character, when in a lot of those flashbacks his brother appears sleazy and blatantly manipulative once they've gotten older. and MC, even after realizing his brother is doing all of this, doesn't really ever change his narrative that his brother is his only family who he's the closest with, which i think is so weird because like, i think i can list 20 more things i know about my landlord and her lifestyle and beliefs than MC could list about his brother. and that's because my landlord actually feels like a real person, while his brother has like 0 hobbies other than being on a powertrip. the brother has like, 3 main personality traits and MC still probably isn't aware of 1.5 of them up until their reunion.
like i get that MC is so attached to him because obviously he's sentimental and they grew up in the same orphanage so obviously MC considers him special to him, but like, there were other orphans (if i remember correctly) and you're telling me not one other kid was friendly and outgoing as well? or MC didn't make one other friend or familial bond with the same group of kids he grew up with and ate food with and had the same background with, as wel? and MC and the brother were separated for a period of time, as well. it's like strange to me that everything suggests that MC doesn't know his brother super well and really isn't close with him and didn't even see him super often during a chunk of his developmental period, yet this brother becomes MC's sole reason for living the way he does despite it being clearly unstable with no future prospects. i get that younger siblings idolize their older siblings, but it's like MC literally dedicated his whole life to doing what he does for this brother who he doesn't even know if he's alive. and it just feels so flat how MC doesn't fondly reminisce on activities, locations, or specific character traits associated with his brother, and rather, just describes him like i would describe an extroverted and popular guy who was nice to me. like it's one thing to be naive, but MC's insane dedication to this dude combined with the brothers' lack of dimension just makes MC appear empty rather than naive. naiveity is showing kindness to those who may not necessarily deserve it, but MC literally is unable to set down social roots or a sense of self-identity because he's doing illegal activities to find his brother. but the author has shown over and over again that MC is a pushover, someone who is likeable by everyone he's come across, and someone who wouldn't want to ever intentionally hurt others. but you're telling me this pushover hasn't made a normal friend who he'd feel bad about leaving behind (especially since everyone else is such a dick, that there's no way he could treat a normal person with good intentions badly)? like he has so much social credit that it doesn't make sense to me that he hasn't encountered one other person who just like ML, wants to befriend MC. and given MC's career, he's probably intervening in circles that depend on connections that could find him, even if he tries to run away. and given how MC has enough social skills to infiltrate circles with under various backgrounds, how is it possible that he has such a colorful background and personality, yet no other things to live for? like you're telling me your brother who you haven't seen for most of your teenage years and only have sentimental memories of when you were really young really is the most engaging thing you've come across up until now? like he doesn't have any other hobbies, interests, or desires outside of his brother, and i get that guilt and loyalty are main aspects of MC's genuine and sincere personality, but like, his brother's 2D ass is so unengaging, that it's actually making MC look bad bruh.
tbh seeing ML's relationship with his sisters make me think about how MC's relationship with his brother had so much potential, and i'm not saying my opinion is better than what the author chose to do with it, but i just can't help but wish they took a deeper route w MC and his brother.
imagine how fire things would've been if the MC's brother wasn't going to spiral into that deranged obsessive trope. i honestly think doomed relationships are so well done when it doesn't focus on smth like objectification or a type of possessiveness based on that, because those things make their relationship kinda boring since that ultimately means that relationship was always toxic and not smth i'd root for if they lived another life. bc we can see that the brother had a sense of overwhelming selfishness from the start, but it was never really balanced out with a sincere sense of love for MC, or at least anything emotionally deep for MC, so i don't gaf about their past relationship or their current one now, or how the brother's betrayal would feel or even MC's since the brother has never been a good influence on his life. like the brother is such a 2D villain who has no ounce of redeemable interactions with MC, that there's no emotional turmoil as the reader. it' unlike how we understand taeoh's anger towards his sisters, the sisters' coldness towards each other, and the dad's mental and behavioral spiral, as well as how tragic that they turned out so strained and toxic to each other despite the reality that they only turned out this way due to the cards that they were dealt with.
tragic relationships, especially between childhood family bonds are always SO good when you can tell there was always a genuine sort of intimacy between them, and how good they could've been for each other if their lives were still overlapping, but due to circumstances they just cannot be together in any way. especially when it comes to siblings. idk, i just feel like. the brother being a piece of shit even before the betrayal just made me have 0 emotional investment in him, and his reason for being upset was MC leaving him behind made him SO boring bc wdym ur last thoughts were about MC not following your orders?? like bro ure dying, ur brother is clearly going to be TRAUMATIZED by this, and you are in deep shit and so are your friends because of you, and that's all you can think of? like i get that it points to him being a shitty and irredeemable character, but those characters aren't the ones that we are going to care about because there's nothing to be invested in. there's no potential positive networth to his interactions with anyone in this story, and we don't like him enough to care if he ruins his own life, that i just wish the author went a different root with him. like if the brother had insanely complicated feelings of remorse, regret, but also anger and guilt for what he got MC into and what he and MC did to each other would've made me so investedddddd.