OMG THAT WAS SO PEAK THO.. sure some people are icked by the age gap.. Mc respected the ml...

Geniunely curious, what is grooming to you?

TO ME, from what I know, grooming is like an adult building a relationship with a child to abuse and manipulate them, can be sexual or not. Please correct me if I'm wrong or you know the specific definition of it.

Thank you for replying! :)

I see. I think I'm a lot more generous with its definition.

I see grooming as the general act of creating an enviroment that normalizes a romantic/sexual relationship with a child. This also includes the lead up to a romantic/sexual relationship with said child in the future, but not while they're a child.

Maybe I'm using the wrong term, but the idea is that MC doesn't set up boundaries between them, and doesn't teach the ML that their relationship is inappropriate, because despite their duties as the head of their respective families, they still are a grown ass adult and a literal child.

ML can be as mature as he can be, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still very young, the violence of royalty doesn't substitute for years of lived experience.

Sure, they can get into an actual romantic/sexual relationship when they're both adults, but it doesn't erase their time spent together as a 22 MC and a 9 year old ML, during which they were legally engaged.

Tldr: their relationship is based on grooming because it is a child marriage. Not doing PDA and not being sexually assaulted as a child doesn't mean you weren't groomed.

Again thank you for engaging in polite conversation instead of making fun of me <3

Okay I see where you're getting at. I'm not judging because I could be wrong too.

Please don't get me wrong but I do not support grooming since I have experienced it first hand. But I am sort of okay(?) about their prior relationship despite their age difference because the MC did not have any ill intention towards the child. MC was also not focusing on the relationship too at first because it's political relationship and he was thinking about the alliance between both nations. Yes ML did seem mature as a child and I agree that doesn't change the fact that he's a child. But if like it was like grooming, is it possible that the MC is unintentionally grooming the ML? Genuine question btw q q. Like what I'm trying to say, if it was grooming, it wouldn't be the MC's fault either because he didn't know he'd be engaged to a child and he's doing it for political purposes so he couldn't cancel the marriage.

Also it is fiction but of course doesn't mean we should just let it be or support illegal crap. But a big factor here is the timeline too! It's a historical manhwa so child marriages are common (even now, it is disgustingly still practiced by some country).

If it makes you uncomfortable, you should drop the manhwa. If not or not that much, don't think about it too deeply since it's just a manhwa. ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Yeah I'd say it is "passive grooming". MC isn't attracted per se to ML, but he does have an inappropriate attachement to him, kinda like a boy mom(?)

Also good on you for recognizing supporting problematic fiction is bad, many here wouldn't say that.

I started a discussion on this manhwa because of the fact that child marriages are still way too common to be waved off as just fiction or just a thing of the past. It is not. Many children as still being married off to adults, and it's sad that people are just ignoring this reality for entertainment.

Unfortunately this comment section has confirmed my fears. Many here do not understand how serious of an issue it is in our world. I'm a bit on the fence on continuing the manhwa, not because of its contents, but because of its readers who are completely uninterested in engaging with it critically. Sure, this is not the place to be preaching politics, but it's kinda sad to see how for many, gooning takes precedence over moral accountability.

One thing I'm happy about is that we get this story for free. Piracy is perfect for enjoying problematic content, so I'm not going to judge you, or the people who enjoy these kind of stories on these sites, because I think it's really silly for manhwa authors to feel so protective of their porn. I'm an artist so I get why they would be pissed if people reposted their content without the right credits. I also understand that its existence as pornography doesn't change that it is still art, but yaoi as a genre is exploitation. It is fetishization. It is profiting off of using gay men as sexual fantasies. So for these authors to cry piracy when they profit off the back of queer men (when they themselves do not stand up for LGBTQ+ rights in any capacity) is extremely fucking hypocritical and I will shed no tears for them.