Meeru's Topics (120)

Um... That's literally the worst thing that could happen.I'm already sad just thinking about it

And then Taku will play the white knight again so he could take a picture of Haesoo lamenting over a dead lover.

How about amnesia?

NOOO!! i can't even think about it. Its so depressing

Ily

Death of a main character isn’t necessarily better because it’s rarely done, it has to work with the story. The death in Shadow was foreshadowed many times and fit beautifully with concept of fragile and ever evolving nature of life and relationships within the seemingly glamorous world of speed racing. Killing Stalking had cruelest death curse imposed by mom come true, death pact fulfilled with a little prompting from a ghost, resulting in exquisitely tragic ending with some tinge of macabre humor.

Here, though? Killing Joowon off would be a cheap way out doubling as basic shock value for an ending.

I agree in that it’d feel rushed, especially since Joowon has hardly been in the story at all. I don’t think there needs to be growth or development of any/ all of the characters, though. I’ve noticed that the majority of manhwas fall in line with rigid moral codes and it can get tiresome. I don’t know what would make sense for an outcome here, but I don’t think any particular scenario is as obvious as audience seems to think. I really dislike Haesoo’s character, so it would seem plausible to me that he never has any growth and continues a life resigned to convenience and expediency.

I’m referring to the audience’s relationship with manhwas, being that there is typically an underlying sense of guilt that women/girls should have about this content. Take Walk on Water, for example. To be absolved for delighting in porn action early on in the story, the owner/main character had to give up his business to be with Ed(?)...this was the only acceptable path, for them to be together or for us to envision them, a tidy domestic union between 2. Similarly with private lessons or love bite, audience is to revel in the cheating sex and / or polyamory only temporarily, until the only decent outcome is monogamy and fidelity. As far as I know, there is no Korean counterpart to someone like Harada, unapologetically proceeding with stories and outcomes that don’t have to fit into societal expectations.
Your point about nepotism, I notice it, too. Glorification and normalization of the wealthy/privileged seems to be a confoundingly universal problem. Rape trope just seems like carryover from Japanese manga, hentai. Etiology of yaoi and the tropes is really interesting to me.
I could go on, but this is already so long!

The rape trope is hard to fathom in terms of appeal, and sometimes I catch myself getting annoyed with the seme / uke delineations. But I still feel like whatever Westerners bring from audience perspective, we are still tourists peering into another culture. Like maybe the rape aspect was an extension of straight hentai, at least initially, but its relative longevity makes it seem like there is more to it. I don’t have a single female acquaintance or family member who hasn’t been sexually assaulted or at least had assault attempted. What if there is a coping component to it, that is, your attacker didn’t really despise you, but loved you instead, or at least came to love you, and that’s why it happened. Coping strategy of the mind, so to speak; like you have value, vicariously through the attacked character. Also I think while their is that sexual attraction to men, there’s also fear and maybe even revulsion, which could be satiated at some level through fiction, alternating between perspective of “seme” or “uke”. Along those lines, I think Harada’s work can be viewed at different levels- critique of society and collective values, working through our most violent impulses (as women) that can’t be acted upon, and just straight up porn (and again, by women, for women, I just think it’s such an interesting phenomena). I’m looking at it as being not so much about gay relationships per se, and more of women see themselves in these characters, which I guess can be confusing because some do try to be more realistic. And then you get into the whole conundrum of whether it’s acceptable or valid for an author to tell a story about a marginalized group of which the aren’t part of (while still being in another marginalized group). It’s complicated. All just some ideas from a Western perspective peering through a window to another culture, though.

I guess the genre could expand or contract in diversity of ideas, viewpoints and overall quality, depending upon a variety of forces. I want a good story that draws me in, bonus for sexiness or romance, and no interest in any straight drama of any genre. I guess I’d say I haven’t read enough yet to get bored, but I can see a time approaching when that will be the case. I’m going to look into your recommendations for sure! I think I might have found momentum and a few others based on your comments in the past, so thank you!

I wrote another response under this Taku thread, but I don’t think I tagged you. just in case you haven’t read them yet, I’d recommend Ogeretsu Tanaka’s “Sabita Yoru Demo koi wa sasayaku” series of manga. I think you’d really appreciate them. (Not yarichin Bitchin club, which I’m sure is intended as a parody of yaoi.)

LMAOOO thank you for saying it