Oh yikes. I'm fine with age gaps but only as long as they get together when they're all ad...

They didn’t do anything when he was a child, MC didn’t fall in love with him either and took care of him/ protected him — he just wished for his safety (from what I can tell)

Damn I meant to down vote. My bad. But like the previous reply said nothing happened between them. Uke is literally protecting him like he would the children of his country as he said.

Twins above me.
He got married to the kid. They met when he was a kid, and is showing him parental like protection - how can romance spark from this without it being nasty? Not to mention the kid is basically getting groomed by his parents/royale life to marry a strange man decades older than him. This is all weird, just cuz the older man has no bad intentions to harm the child doesn't mean thier relationship will be valid. Its still grooming/pedophilia, so Please revaluate your morals

Honestly, I think I could read a story with an age gap, maybe even with an arranged marriage, but it would have to make sense and under specific circumstances.

But the mc here straight up volunteered to marry the kid. He's, what 27?30? Maybe even 40 after the time jump. And we are shown the kid blushing with him in chapter four (which is as far as I've read so idk what happens after), and the mc seems to have a look of longing in the time skip when he realizes the male lead has come for him. So was there romantic interest before the 10 years? How old was he then?

And I caught a strange vibe in how the author writes/draws some scenes between them, like when they're holding hands or he crouches down. I was genuinely afraid they would kiss or smth. Why would you draw a scene like that like it's something intimate. And the kid is predisposed to see them as their spouse and care for them too. He loves him cause he was told to love him. Or will love, again, haven't read after ch 4.

I'm mostly concerned for the author, because this is what they *choose* to write. If you read it, you don't have to like what you read, but you do have to like what you write in part, at least if it's romance and you never portray it as something negative. And these grooming storylines are SO popular, too.

Wait omg the black haired guy VOLUNTEERED to marry that child knowing he was a kid??? Yikes
And yes i know the author is genuinely a weirdo, many of these scenes are drawn weird and have a generally weird vibe to them. Not to mention the kid isn't being drawn as a kid, its giving loli content.
Idk man, i dropped this I don't like seeing kids in dangerous situations, breaks my heart and is genuinely disturbing to me.

I mean he didn't seem shocked and he didn't say anything about it so I'm guessing

I don't want to outright demonize people who do like this cause I bet a lot of them are kids too and again, I do like some age gap content! Bingqiu and Hualian has my heart! But it's not the same.

Now that you say it, it *does* seem like Loli content and that's just...

Anyways. Thanks for being here and not making me feel crazy by the comments lol. And w pfp

Ahaa i see and no i get you, im fine with age gaps as long as they have met as adults and the age gap is reasonable and noone is being harmed by the power play

ikr i felt so invalidated until i saw your comment and thanks king hehe

Yes he volunteered but he didnt know that he was a child until they met in person. You can see the reaction of uke. Thats why in previous chapter he thought that the kid didnt want him anymore cause he called his righthand man back to the kids palace(not a kid anymore) .uke though maybe he found a proper wife to marry. Pls. Read the previous chapter. And fyi its not grooming. Read the story first

Hi twin.
I get where you’re coming from and I don’t want to dismiss how weird this kind of thing can be, grooming and pedophilia are serious and deserve to be called out when they appear.
That said: from what I saw in the story, there wasn’t any sexual or romantic behavior while the kid was actually a child. The older character acted protective, yes, but “protective/parental” behavior ≠ sexual intent. The romance (if you want to call it that) only seems to develop later, when both are adults. That’s a very different (and still uncomfortable to some) scenario than active grooming.
Also, accusing someone of being immoral for noticing that distinction isn’t helpful. People can be bothered by the premise and still want criticism to be accurate: call out explicit grooming or coercion when it’s visible, and criticize power imbalances when the relationship is between consenting adults who have a huge age gap.
I’m not saying the story is entirely flawless, I feel just as iffy, but lumping what I described with deliberate grooming/pedophilia isn’t an accurate read of what my comment was addressing.

Sigh,
i never said blackhair guy is grooming the kid sexually as obviously that didn't happen and will never happen (hopefully) since that is not in his intent. I think you misunderstood what im saying
The grooming is being done by the parents/royal life of the child;
He is being groomed into thinking marrying a stranger grown man is okay. Which (lets all PLEASE agree on this) a kid marrying a grown person is NOT okay in any context! (A kid cannot give consent)
Other than that; it is odd how the blackhair is presumed to start having a relationship with the kid after hes grown up
Its just weird to date a person when you've known them as a kid (like how can you even see them as a romantic option after that???)
Not to mention the blackhair was around the child for 3 years protecting him and im assuming forming an almost paternal bond

True! The distinction is important

I don't care about them meeting when one is a kid tbh, it's more about how it's already expected that they'll one day be a thing. So every interaction is tinged with that, especially by the artist.
Also, tbh, since we haven't read the rest, we can't really assume their relationship is paternal-like, even if he protected him.

I guess that makes sense especially since the story didn't progress that far (and im not planning on watching it progress tbh) but my thought process is; what other kind of relationship can a child and adult have in these 3 years if its not parental adjacent?

I think you’re mixing up what I was responding to. OP was talking about the ML himself and their age gap, thus feeling icky (from what I gathered), so that’s what my comment was about too. I wasn’t defending the parents or the royal system, that wasn’t even the topic. I was saying that the ML didn’t do anything romantic or sketchy while the kid was actually a kid.
Everything you’re bringing up about the family grooming him into an arranged marriage is a whole separate issue, i would agree, that part is messed up. But that wasn’t what OP was talking about and it wasn’t what I was addressing when reply to them and then you.

Yeah that's a fair assumption! Idk if you have a lot of kids around you, or if you grew up with a lot of adults in your life, but to me I can't really put children in a category? Or at least anything other than children. I'm quite close to some cause I babysit, but I don't feel paternal at all. I have to take care of them, so there is definitely a heavy amount of responsabilidad involved, but it's not paternal. Likewise when I was younger I had adults I was close to but they weren't my parents and didn't feel like that either. Idk if I'm explaining myself lol. Honestly tho talking about them in this context is making me queezy

Not really. I do mention him cause it's weird he didn't say anything even after finding out he was getting married to a kid. You would think he would have s bigger reaction, but literally nothing.

I know he's not a groomer. But it's still weird. My main gripe is with the artists and the author who choose to portray this kind of relationship like this.

I see where you are coming from, and you are right I don't have alot of kids around me except my husband's nieces and nephews that we only see to babysit or when we hang out with the fam
But what im meaning is how can this turn romantic after the child is grown without the blackhair being a total creep yk, its jsut icky

And tbh this convo is starting to make me hella uncomfortable so imma move on

Yeah I agree.

With everything you said. Maybe I should just delete this thread wish we could delete it off our brains

Sorry if I made you uncomfortable I was just feeling uncomfortable myself so I had to let it out but maybe I made it worse

Nah fam nws its nothing you've specifically said, its just an uncomfortable subject to discuss. Thats why i deleted my thread so people would stop commenting under it