damn's Topics (110)

ML is wack, this story is just rough shit fantasy but that one panel where it's a first person shot of his pelvis and up was new and was hot af I'm not gonna lie.

I was hooked by the cover however this really was a don't judge a book by its cover situation. I gave it a try for about five chapters before dropping it from how harrowing this was written.

What do you mean you had an exposé journalist main character that got delegated to a chief of.. whatever the plot place you in but none of it made sense and I'm aware you gotta put off some disbelief on fiction but you had such a good premise.

Child exploitation, a whole journalist character, a scummy organization and just bad government agencies and you did nothing and settled for.. a lackluster chemistry and caricature of tropes romance?

I honestly wouldn't be so disappointed if not for such an interesting premise that I could forgive the cat fishing with the art but having a journalist mc wail in distress at a laboratory experiment was the most cringe I've ever seen drawn this year so far.

I get it's the 'this agency is bad' moment but god it made my stomach flip in distain with how out of touch that scene was.

Jaehee was sentient at that point and them ending this game was basically just them terminating him flat when they get back to the real world and their session ends.

In a lot of BLs there's a trope with the MC being in debt which is especially prevalent in RICH X POOR stories we have on the genre. What gets me going for this while it's absolutely absurd, I think that's on purpose.

I don't mind the ya' because I'm already used to watching eastern asian gangster media in movies so I understand how these would sound. Anyway, We go through the same premise as other BLs have but this I think really excels in grit and being raw in the lens of comedic wit.

The MC is hilarious, personable and absolutely someone you wanna root for to get out of the mess he's in. I can see some people has a problem with the portrayal of the environment he's in but while this is dramatized, the comedic lens this series has doesn't take away from how absolutely nuanced it writes poverty, debt and sex work.

We have side characters who are living their life in this highly violent industry, It's actually confusing me why people think this is a weakness in the storytelling when it serves as a narrative to both the background and the situation MC is actually in.

Gio is not a good man, MC is aware of that throughout the chapters so far from early on. "I don't know why these bastards always sees themselves as good people" is an exemplary line and as well as the recent chapters portrayal of coercion and how his response to fawn might be more to the situation than Gio himself.

It is raw and gritty and it portrays people of this industry in this absurd caricatures that still stems from real actual actions that people like Gio do. I love that it doesn't shy away from that and while it does have some weak spot I appreciate a media going out of its way to subvert expectation and deliver something new to the game.

While, we have no idea where Gio gets his money yet, We know he's a dangerous loan shark and the themes of debt, violence and poverty in this manwha is a better written portrayal of it than "Oh, I'm poor but now a rich alpha CEO took notice of me and oh I'm gonna run away from him cause he's got a personality problem but oh wow I'm in love with him now." No shade.

He's a manipulative, love-bombing, piece of shit, yes. However, what I think they really tackle well with him is how he is processing his sexuality most of the time the ML and MC would just go through with it because 'it feels good' or because 'sex' makes them realize 'something more' which I feel is a cop out considering finding out you're queer is more nuanced than that.

I love MC but I genuinely love Yujae's character as well, he's working on his own phase, history, mindset and belief. The thing he's doing is easily chalked up to his anxiety and need for validation over genuine connections that he feel is fake due to his upbringing. He's only been predominantly straight-laced until the confession and even afterwards it wasn't until a few months in did he actually start exploring the idea of being attracted to MC.

Which most people can attest to especially when you grew up in a very conservative culture is daunting, he's traversing a whole identity he didn't even know he had to pick because he's losing the only sense of something real in his life and he can't wrap his head around on why—because he treats people with a superficial bond and a transactional look that he can't help but hang on to as a way to 'fix' problems with MC that are more complex than he thinks.

I personally like how he's written, he's more fleshed out than most ML there is out there and yes he is shitty but he's also the kind of shitty that you probably met once or twice in your life.

He's not perfect per say and he's not everyone's cup of tea but Yujae is definitely a good exploration in the psychology of someone so detached towards real connection and the effects of conservative and problematic upbringing to the character of someone who only wants to clearly be something to the person he genuinely wants.

Throwing down her cheating bf like it's an easy feat and then proceeding to pull out the strap because she's just THAT girl? HOLYYY CRAAAPPP

This is gonna be a hot take and people will take this the wrong way but the way some of the comments here act as if the world is black and white is insane.

The story right from the beginning has shown that the leads are troubled and clearly disturbed from their past and is still carrying wounds and mechanism they learned from those traumas that they use to defend themselves from further hurt.
It's a fucked up situation, yes! Acknowledging that these two characters are in a state of pure dependence and toxicity is the go-to because that's what the narrative wants to portray but the way some people chooses to count and balance their action on who did worse and who is right is as tone deaf and cruel as the adults who fucked up these characters lives.

I am aware that it's fiction but I question some of the morals you have when you can't extend your empathy over a complex situation from actions rooted from their past as the story portrayed for the past 3 seasons. It is actually insane like do you not hear how you sound when you do that? The whole point of this was that they're both fucked up in the head and makes choices based on the wound left by the situations and people around them it isn't a balancing scale of which one is more toxic because that's clearly not the point.

They're acting like fucking lunatics? Guess what people with trauma and unfortunate circumstances that fuck up their mental game do! Some of you need to grow the hell up.

I love ML's with personality issues because I can write about how bad they are in my head to fill multiple essays about it but I am on my knees and praying to every god available and capable of hearing me to make the endgame MC X Governor.

I know they're probably gonna try to justify MC's mother's death at some point but I cannot stomach having MC be with a person still responsible for her death. If that's not possible I hope MC is successful is avenging his mother even if his chance of being with the governor is cracked.

ML is a very condescending, stuck-up, selfish, idiotic piece of sexual deviant and I'm gonna enjoy seeing him grovel down and eat dirt when he doesn't get what he want because of his attitude.

It doesn't take much to get traction on BL series, you just need a very well drawn design and scene [18+] and people will flock around it no matter how obscene it might get (non consen)

What does take effort is writing a story that actually hits. Stranger in The Mirror isn't just AI x Human, it tackles topics of existentialism and what it means to exist and be sentient. It has hard hitting issues from PTSD and to actual well speculated psychological outcomes in very complicated situations (the side couple)

My favorite moment isn't when he finally broke the protocol, It was when he (MC) reached out to the Dalai Lama in the train and honestly considered his existence and purpose. What he was as a being that is 'aware'. There is much nuance is every character and you can have feelings over them and not support the actions they take but the fact that they're all feel like they're present and alive in this world is just SOOO much of a jump from qualities that this genre usually produces.

This story is the kind of thing that gets publish in books and discussed over what the grander scale of the narrative means. It's a breath of fresh air from the scent of cum, cock and balls that permeates in this site. (not that I'm complaining)