Being moral is good and all, but when you are living in a dying world with resources that runs up quicker than you can say kumbayah, only the ruthless makes it to the end. Every hero is seen as a genocidal maniac from those that they've overpowered, even in modern times, a lot of those with psychopathic/sociopathic tendencies achieve greatness in life.
I find this development to be a good one, instead of making the ML a flat, strong but sensitive type of generic lead, author actually gave him backbones that make sense to his character profile- he's the leader of a dystopian group, for goodness sake, when everything is messed up and scarce, people do tend to go to the extremes just to survive, also what was he supposed to do? if he spared him at the last minute, that would be showing favor which would 1. decrease loyalty from his followers who tried their best to adhere to the laws themselves, 2. create animosity for the spared "criminal" from the other townsfolk (because why was he spared and not the others?) and 3. show weakness to the leader - if he can do it once for someone, then others could just pull a sob story and use it to justify going against the law.
Everything's cyclical anyway, once this extremity reaches a boiling point it is bound to pop. Maybe the kid will take revenge, maybe the MC will lead a rebellion against the ML, maybe they both lose their minds in the end. This story can go multiple ways and I find that's what makes it really interesting so far.
It has great tension and it's also good at edging you that maybe, just maybe the Seme is finally gonna get his karma and will suffer for all his trickery, but NOPE everything in the plot goes his way even at the last minute, never had an ounce of character development lol. Uke found out that he was being tricked? zip him back into hypnoland; finally got him doing the nasty consciously? have him believe that doing it with yo bro is a-ok; oh no older bro got himself a bf? don't worry said bf was already pre-planned for hypno-ntr with another dude; Hyung would like to get away after finally realizing that what they're doing is messed up? pull him back by pulling the 'I only did it coz I wuv u UwU' wildcard; got stabbed? survive and then get your happy ending for god knows what reason hahahah.
I've read several psychological works where the intent of the story is to give that trapped feeling where the MC just can't catch a break to the very end or gets mindbroken, I get what the author was trying to do, but this work didn't do it for me, I much prefer the og short one-- it was shocking and left a lot to the imagination without going around in circles
When I was still actively reading this, around 60-70 chaps, I saw a comment from someone who said they already read the entire thing in its novel form and that we should prep because it's going to drag A LOT. Basically they said there would be too many unnecessary drama and that the main couple would be on and off multiple times throughout the story so much that you as a reader would just beg for them not to be together anymore lmao. Anyway, I just remembered it coz I got an update to this and apparently it's still ongoing at 200+ chaps, crazyyy
When I started this, I was mainly intrigued coz the author is known for recycling the same type of trope in their work (forced prostitution + angst) which tbh still works somehow? probably coz it's a bit psychological and well, angsty; this one was different, the beginning was fun and seemed different from their other works, I was genuinely interested, but now it looks like author just can't escape their roots and is spiraling back to it again, grinding the same boring and basic ass toxic tropes which fr does not work in this one AT ALL considering how they established the characters in the first place. The actions are so random, I'm starting to think author is really just rolling the dice on their existing prompts and then goes with whatever it lands on lol.
I like the way the author did the smut scene, how they're both so into it and how intense it looks, a nosebleed from feeling too good that wasn't played out comically- now that's something else, really amps up how hot and heavy the top must've felt that in that situation, it's not something one can easily fake lol.
Also I think the author is trying to criss cross vibes throughout this work, it could be somewhat psychological with a top who has ulterior motives, or it could really be that he's an amnesiac who will grow extremely dependent on the uke. The title might be a red herring, where you assume the character reference is for the seme, but being crafty and witty in solving things might become uke's role in the future plotline too, and the "hounds" is really just the seme or something. Still curious why he looks like that tho and that slip on that previous chapter.
If ya don't know him, he's a real life adult content creator who does things with his partner, Ryota (they're a bdsm couple too!) I swear the creator took HEAVY inspo from him based on his general appearance and behavior, even panels 26-28 on ch12 is a legit scene that you can see from one of their actual videos lmao. If he was also driving a jeep and is into designer stuffs, or if the bottom's older by a few months (at least based on hardcore fans who knew them way back) the creator could be plagiarized for just using him in this work lol. I'm surprised they didn't put that disclaimer for this one.
Anyway, for this title you'd really expect some whack-ass, rapefest, cringe work with a toxic seme, but so far this has been really good. The communication and consent is *chef's kiss* and realistic btw- real sadists who are into the game don't just ram it into the sub, there's ALWAYS aftercare and prior agreement (as it should) because a huge part of it is trust, so both know that eventhough it's rough and brutal, it is intentional and the other party will never go to the extreme (ie. actually killing them for real), plus you want to do it again with that person right? so why dafuq would you give them a traumatizing experience in the first place? Those red/black flag semes could never, only people with dreams of landing in prison pull what they're pulling fr, I hope other creators take note of this, and I hope too that the author of this continue to have a good character and plot development for this one, since it's likely that we're still halfway through season 1 (unless they intend this to be just a short work).
-I'll turn off my brain a notch for now and think this guy's really just stupid and couldn't read between the lines. So far it was shown that he lacks understanding on how his fetishes don't work for others like his co-actors in the stage play or his previous lover who just became scared of him. He might've genuinely thought that the top did agree to do the boombayah when he took his hands and came with him, still iffy though coz in a normal sense, the situation is still SA. But then again, the action does align with his character, I just hoped it was transitioned well instead to a better plotpoint. It's still 2 chapters in tho, I'll see some more if this will develop better coz this MC's interesting so far.
tbh it really took me by surprise on the later chapters when the ML was acting all innocent and naive coz his action and vibe on the first one (1-2 ch?) was like those unhinged characters that's barely keeping their insanity inside, also not to judge by the cover but it doesn't fit him lol, nothing against green flag MLs either specially those who are well written, but they can get a bit boring and flat at times, so this was starting to escape my radar.
This twist just peaked my interest on this work again- like why is he acting, what's his motive? what things are they hiding in that village for reals? If he's going for the play now, regret it later plot then I hope this will have a good chasing arc, specially since on the calendar where they were first featured he seemed so whipped for the MC too- here's to wishing a good "he fell first, but he fell harder" trope with this one
- it's coz people enjoy reading about these characters that's why, and some do go into these works for the plot believe it or not, if it's just gay porn that you're after then just watch an actual gay porn-- it's efficient, direct to the boombayah and you don't waste time investing in the plot only to feel frustrated in the end. Only people who read this for the smut justify these "twists" as fine coz it's "only fiction", of course you don't mind coz the thing that you were after was not affected at all. And before you can say, it's just cartoons, so what? people get attached to specks on some random walls just coz it reminded them of a familiar shape or something, it's human nature to care, nothing absurd about that.
Different people have different reasons for being triggered too, some are just very sensitive when it comes to these topic, some felt betrayed by the inexplicable diversion of the character that they were rooting for, and some like me are just pissed for the sudden shift of the tone that in no way supported everything that happened throughout the story- had the author given even just 1 sensible reason why the naive ml would take that course of action, I might've still understood and justify it for the plot, say the ml did it coz he thought the mc was playing him for his body- this would make the motive sexual, so him SA'ing mc would be punishment based on what the mc was supposedly after (but in the story he only knows that the mc played him for money and for laughs), or maybe if the ml was actually an incel in disguise who's just nice because he wants something in return and when it wasn't given to him, he lashes out, sure that can be something, but again, in the story, even his standoffish side was still due to his sheltered nature, he's genuinely childish, no way could he have that malicious intent from the get go, he didn't even want to do it bareback coz he feared it would hurt the mc, and now he's suddenly thrusting into him until it bleeds? it would be more believable if he punched him to a pulp instead, coz punching someone is a common course of action when you're angry, so it could be something that he picked up and adapted.
All of these are why the backlash for this story has been strong so far, it's not simply coz there was a rape scene (although it is a big concern) it's also because the author disrespected the understanding and trust of their readers by pulling this crap at the last minute too.
I read a comment saying that the reason why the rape "plot" was pushed's coz it's so normalized in k-fandoms/stories? I read the raws for this work on a k-site before coz I wanted to see the author's note if there was one (none yet at that time), and so far the comments that I saw were also pissed off by the direction that the author went with. I could just be wrong coz I only used a translator app, and maybe they were using slangs, i dunno, but can anyone confirm if this is true? is that really what the market there demands? SA plotlines? just seems lazy and a complete waste of talent if so.
- but one that's more in line with the author's other works, or better yet make it a full blown psychological one, bitches like that should be fucked senseless so they know what it's like to be treated like that, seeing him descend to a complete mind break would be so satisfying. I don't get why authors use nice bottoms who are actually likeable in their SA plots, when they could very well use trash characters like this one.