If anything, Glen and Ed would exalted in society.
This was a shit manhwa!
Also i liked that you called out that she took away Ed's dream. That's such a garbage ending -- people get depressed and worse when they enter the mindset where life is just a routine and there is nothing bigger than the every day or just having a relationship is all they need for happiness. It's really sad but a lot of people see it as unproblematic.
Secondarily, the fact that Bruce Lee stood for so much for Asian Americans in America and how he was a beacon of hope for Asian people wanting to make it big in Hollywood and she has that symbolism of having Glenn throwaway the poster with Ed's dreams is really too heavy. I guess most people don't care because they don't want to see race or think Asians don't care, but as an Asian person I do care and that really broke my heart.
Also the xenophobic demonization of Chinatown was uncomfortable. Like she's from Korea but she's not Korean American and she doesn't know what it feels like to read a story about your home and have it be portrayed as this shitty place that just exploits people. :( still sad over it
She’s sadistic. She literally did everything to destroy her main character who had already suffered so much, was so pure and kind, and did not deserve that. What did he (and us) get out of this story? She took his family, she took the only person that ever showed him love, she took his only support who he considered a brother and made him mentally and physically abuse him and then if that wasn’t enough rape him. She took his dreams and not only crushed them, but then told him he wasn’t allowed to have dreams anymore and that he’s going to settle for the rest of his life. She took the porn industry and made it ruin him. She made him into an unwilling prostitute and a criminal. She took his job, his friends, his coworkers, his perfect boyfriend, his self confidence and self respect. Sure he has a boyfriend now But that man is ruined on the inside. He thinks he is nothing and thinks he deserves nothing which is what I think she feels about her characters. I’m so angry and hurt for a character I’ve never met and the worst part is she made him so real. She told the story so well. For what? To romanticize rape? To destroy someone in front of our very eyes? To tell us porn is bad and that everyone in it is fucked up in someway and ends up being a prostitute? I hate her man. I hate the author so much I can’t contain it.