Actually Bum gains more confidence especially during season 3, he becomes more assertive and takes initiative, but you have to take into account that he is severely mentally ill (an untreated BPD )and at a certain point of the story he has really no other choice. Also, being a lifelong victim of physical, mental and sexual abuse, he thinks he deserves it and Sangwoo is like the lesser evil, and his only chance to be loved
At least we know what Bum feels and longs for. I can admit that he is very passive especially during season 2, but you know what happens when he is forced to reveal his past, and you can clearly see the marks left by trauma in his body and mind. Can you say the same for Nakyum?
I honestly think Byeonduck deliberately copied Koogi, riding the wave of her success, but she is not as good as a writer to develop a story about abuse and mental illnesses. With the difference Koogi never drew three chapters straight of rape (depicted as hot rough sex) and the power imbalance was at least intriguing. Moreover, the misunderstandings between them happened for good reasons: they were alone, no one helped Sangwoo and Bum to escape their trauma. Bum was really alone for all his life and Sangwoo had to keep a fake persona but no one knew what he went through (this doesn't justify him, but he needed help when his parents died). The misunderstandings between Seungho and Nakyum are plain stupid, there are a lot of people around them giving them advice (mr Kim for example, speaking of which, what was the purpose of the cliffhanger of last week? ) and tbh the situation has becoming forced and unrealistic ( it started with that stupid assassination plot we all knew it would have ended in a failure)
Thank you so much for that extensive reply, I really appreciate the time you put into it. Though I didn’t write it to speak on my view of KS but the overlapping similarities on how I felt about PoTN.
I brought up that specific story for a comparative when it comes to how I was viewing abusive situations in manga. I think you may have missed the point of what I was saying and instead responded to the views I did give about KS, which we’ll just have to agree to disagree. As you pointed out Bum is ill, as they both are, still I do not see them as victims personally. That doesn’t write off the sympathy I felt for there situations and what not but that is how I feel. I’d actually love to talk privately sometime as it does seem like we got on the same train but arrived at different destinations if you will. However I don’t want to get in-depth about KS here.
I’m reluctant to agree with the emotional scarring of Nakyum but as you’ve pointed it out it’s hard to ignore the examples popping in my head. His character as a whole is your typically cry baby bottom who can’t do anything for himself. A harsh opinion to have especially when his character has gone through so much but it’s not like we haven’t read these exact same situations in other manga. The key difference being, those manga are usually less then 10 chapters and we’re nearing the 70’s with PoTN.
Writing skills,hmm I’m not sure. Koogie went for psychological thriller rather than your typical BL plot line where the key to the story is for the characters to fall in love and fuck. Because KS is not a BL it was not told as one and therefore could stand as a story with its own merits. Not riding off of love but rather the desperate situation of Bum and his survial. Of course it still had its moments.
I don’t think the Author is so much riding off of KS but on the BL genre as a whole. The art alone is enough to keep people around to at least see what happens and I do think they’ve done an amazing job of bringing out different emotions in people. Though that’s not saying much. Point being, this story line has been done before. I can see why you’d say they are copying KS, as I’m sure plenty of people have thought it at least once. We often get so many different tellings of the same stories it’s hard to label them as replicas when we don’t have an original.
Nakyum himself doesn’t have anyone, Mr.Kim is put there to appear as a helping hand but the only help he can offer is ‘do as your told’ he’s a reprieve for Nakyum and a friend but he isn’t going to help him out of the situation or even call Seungho out for his wrong doings. Outside of the ‘Master I’m not so sure about that.’ The authors done a fine job of showing how you can be surrounding by people and still be alone in both Nakyum and Seunghos case.
I don’t know why cliffhangers exists, I’ve seen the definition but it still makes no sense to me.
Ah yes, it’s the typically BL moment of conflict = more r*pe. I’m so curious how the author is going to turn this around, or if they are even going to at this point. It’s always interesting when they pull out that tragic backstory, like I knew it was coming. You don’t have the guts to make your character a monster by nature with little to no reason for why they hurt others.
I would have been understanding about the arc if Seungho had come to rescued him or maybe Nakyum somehow turned the tables and stood up to that worthless red head. Seeing now that it was just an excuse for more r*pe, clearly the first several times were not enough for this author.
You can DM me when you want, we can also talk about your last comment since I have no time to properly reply how I would like now.
I just want to say a thing tho: I think Kim genuinely cares for Nakyum and Seungho and it's too forced to me they feel alone despite his help, but i guess it makes sense for SH since he is a lord and Kim a servant so he can't see him as a clear father figure. But still, Kim (and the doctor) tried to be the voice of reason and for plot convenience Seungho didn't want to listen, and forbade Kim to help Nakyum
For the cliffhanger I meant the one about Kim in the last episode, and it didn't serve any purpose :/
Sure thing, I’ll do that now. I would agree he cares but I don’t think there’s anything he can do for them outside of emotional care which won’t happen when Seungho refuses to hear anything and Nakyums still being mistreated.
This feeling I’m getting is similar to how I felt during KS.
I understood Bum was a victim, with the mentality of one. I still felt frustration though, because he wasn’t verbalizing his feelings or any type of logical response to his situation. And it’s clear why he didn’t but it still leaves this area of unsatisfaction for me. I want to see the stepped on character rise up and overcome there situation. Even though I stopped seeing Bum as a victim a decent way through the story I was still steady hoping and waiting for him to finally take back his choice. Unfortunately that never happened, up until the end he was to far gone. (Though I must applaud Koogie for the most uncomfortable feelings she forced me to confront as the story went on)
I’m worried this is what’s going on here. I liked the KS ending. I was immensely happy when I realized both of them had... y know.
But with Nakyum, at least as far as I’ve read is still the victim to me and I don’t feel that he’s done anything to deserve or bring upon what’s happening to him. His only real ‘crime’ is his drawings and there’s nothing even wrong with that. He just caught the eye of an asshole, who yeah we can acknowledge his past experiences. Doesn’t mean I’ll make any excuse for what he’s doing at present day.
Anyway back to my point, there is a certain satisfaction a character gets from being able to say what they’re feeling as well as the reader. (I suppose the satisfaction is mainly for the reader) I know Seungho probably won’t listen or even reflect over the things he’s done to Nakyum. And we’ve read plenty of stories like that.
Is this torture porn at this point? I don’t think it’s up to that, man hasn’t even brought any toys into play.
I don’t know anymore, at this point I either want the plot to move on or for these two to just talk. Nakyum especially. I honestly feel as though nothing Seungho does or says will make him anymore than a r*pist in my mind. I may change my mind, it’s just at this point his ‘tragic backstory’ isn’t enough. Why am I reading this? I was genuinely curious in the beginning but yeah this is shaping into the type of plot line I should probably excuse myself from.
If it is heading towards a similar route as KS I believe I’ll be fine as I never shipped those two characters or hoped for there happy ending. The difference is that I was hoping for Seungho and Nakyum to reach that point. Now I’m stuck with this feeling of ‘is It even going to be worth it?’ And do I want them to be together. Honestly...no. I don’t think I do. This feelings subject to change but I’m not about to trust a BL author to do right by the ‘bottom’ character. So it comes down to a wait and see conclusion I guess.
（￣へ￣）