"Trauma bond" is used correctly here.
Although I do think the term "trauma bonding" is not intuitive to what people think when they first hear it. ie. bonding over similar/shared/collective trauma.
I'm so tired of people defending Kloff, who did everything that makes a human a monster. He raped, beat, killed, forced pregnancy, abused physically, abused emotionally ,abused his power and knows what happened in the bottom so indirectly he let other abuse him the same physical of rape, isolation, hunger, physical, mentally, all under the excuse of revenge for his husband. I’m usually someone who sees both sides, but honestly, this comment blends everything criminal under the rug just because Aeroc’s POV was shown and we see he regrets his actions, not for one, but two lives.
He did spend his life regretting his actions. We don’t sympathize with Aeroc just because we saw him suffer; we also see how humans change due to trauma. You’re adding “trauma bonding” here without even realizing what it is. Trauma bonding happens when both people go through the same trauma with different people and find comfort in each other. There’s a trauma effect called Disorganized Attachment, which is what happens when the person you depend on is also the person you fear. The attachment system gets scrambled because the brain is trying to run toward safety and away from danger at the same time.
So yes, Aeroc did develop that after living in hell in the bottom. The situation you mentioned without an apology is also part of his trauma, caused by his father’s strict upbringing—where nobility didn’t show emotions, and if they did, they were punished. This is classic Disorganized Attachment: the victim has difficulty showing emotions and shuts them down. Later, Kloff’s abuse gave him alexithymia, where the victim is confused about what emotions to show or how to express them. He also suffers from PTSD, depression, anxiety, and learned helplessness, because he feels he deserves this abuse. So yes, readers are sympathetic because we see Aeroc suffer.
And now, Kloff “loved” Raphael? No, he didn’t. It’s canon in the second and third life. Even if Kloff in the third life admitted he loved Aeroc in the first life, he used Raphael as a substitute, showing off to him because of his inferiority complex. He abused Aeroc to drag Raphael into this. He may like Raphael, but that doesn’t excuse his actions.
Again, yes, Aeroc did terrible thing, but calling Kloff’s actions subtle in comparison and saying readers should sympathize with him indirectly justifies actions that are far worse. You expect we should be Cheering for Kloff for assaulting, beating, forcing pregnancy, lying to kids, and repeating abuse is ridiculous. Aeroc may have paid his price many times, but that is nothing compared to what Kloff did.
Kloff’s actions, which are some of the worst in the world, are being justified like: “Oh, he assaulted him, oh, he beat him, oh, he forced pregnancy, lied to your kids, gave them trauma—nahhh, Aeroc, you deserve it.”
I’ll argue two points, first that they did equivalent wrongs and second that kloff didnt like him and it was just trauma. What aeork did was wrong but the outcome was accidental. He wanted to frighten his cousin, but he was naive and had no real world experience so he couldn't anticipate what would happen. It completely freaked aerok out to the point he believed it was right for him to suffer. So it wasn't intentional as in the case with kloff. Kloff abused with purpose to make aerok suffer as vengeance. The extent of suffering was very much the goal. Another point id argue with is I do think kloff liked him but he was just the omegaverse version of homophobic. Most people dont seek vengeance by fucking someone and knocking them up six times. If he wasn't attracted to aerock kloff would have kicked his ass and left him in poverty or jail or idk challenged him to a dual or some shit lol another point I think alluded to kloff having feelings for him is that despite the fact aerok riled him up kloff went for an omega who everyone thought looked just like Aerok. I think it was intentional by the author. Raphiel was kloffs watered down more society appropriate version of aerock. I think had aerok presented as an omega earlier and been known as one in society he would have bagged kloff no problem. Which is another o i think this is all kloffs fault lol
CLOCK ITTT!!!
You hit the nail exactly. Thank you.
Im pretty surprised by the amount of hate towards the ML. I get that he was a piece of sht in the first timeline, but honestly so was the MC. I think the whole point is that theyre both kind of terrible ppl, and they have to learn to live with their regrets.
I also think there's more sympathy for the MC bc we see more of Aeroc's suffering, but Aeroc's faults are more subtle than Kloff, who violently acts out and is more explicit. We have to remember that in the first timeline, especially while Rapiel was still alive, Kloff genuinely loved him. He did not particularly care for Aeroc, as seen when Aeroc complains that Kloff never visited without a special summons. He was also genuinely distressed by Rapiel's passing. So to find out that your loved one, AND CHILD, was essentially murdered(and it was ok) by someone you barely knew, who wanted to take your partner's place, the resulting anger would be unfathomable.
Then years later, to see this person come crawling back with his head held high and not a single apology, i'd be pretty pissed too. Rather than love, the first season was more obsession/idolization on Aeroc's part and trauma bonded on Kloff's part. It doesn't sound very romantic but nothing about their situation in the first timeline is romantic. They were both shitty and left their lives with nothing but regrets. I think that's why the bond carrying over to the second timeline is so important, bc it helped them avoid the same situation.