again i can’t help but feel bad for jaekyung, like everyone else he was just a scared little boy. but he’s such an asshole and this barely excuses all the shit he put dan through.
I CANT WAIT FOR THE GROVELING ARC
i don’t know whether to be mad or glad i took so long to read this…. this might be peak
wait the thing that makes me love this sm is that the sunbae is usually like an asshole and really is just using the other ml. but in this story they r like so sincere w each other and u tell that the sundae is already super into the ml and not just regarding his looks like he’s really into every aspect of him ITS SO CUTE
i think the thing that pisses me off the most abt taehan is that there’s not an ounce of sincerity in his actions or behaviour towards mc like literally all he does is on a whim or to fulfil his own needs
no.. this sob story isn’t gonna work on me… i won’t gaf … i swear… but im an empath dammit
i know the general consensus around letio is that he’s annoying me crazy and a sociopath. & i’m definitely not disagreeing with that, like hell i totally have the same feelings but i cannot help but feel SO BAD for him
first of all, what do we know about letio as a character? we know that he’s the empress’s lost son and the original protagonist of the story but in this story he’s also deeply loyal and in love with selena. but i have always been confused on why??? like from what they showed us at the beginning, selena saved him from drowning and that it. they didn’t show anything about the conversation they had or the context of why he was drowning in the first place, till we were super deep into the story already, with both only being revealed when he met the empress for the first time and when he found selena again after she ran.
because of this, his character and motivations throughout the story is so shallow?? like really all we knew about him is that he’s obsessed with selena just because she saved him once. i just feel like he was never given time to grow and have depth as a character.
him falling in love with selena because she saved him after he had given up on everything, living a horrible life with no reason to really live. but selena saved him and promised him that one day he too, will have a happy ending. like this is so interesting??!! this shows us so much more of the reasons behind his motivations and actions and why he is so obsessed with selena.
and then his confession scene where he was begging selena to not leave him because she was his only hope and light. — we never once rlly saw that letio viewed selena as someone he was living solely living for. like yeah he killed a bunch of ppl for her and all but he just felt like the typically shallow obsessed 2nd male lead, it didn’t feel like that was rlly any motivation behind it besides “letio loves selena = must kill those who hurt her” but in the most shallow way possible
maybe i’m just a big empath but i felt so bad for him when selena was rejecting him. like yeah don’t get me wrong he’s insane and everything he did was crazy and definitely WRONG. but is it crazy if i say that he literally doesn’t know better?
idk these r just my thoughts. i feel like a lot could’ve been done w his character and his interactions with selena and the people around him better. take my words w a grain of salt! maybe i should read the novel to see if anything was changed
Ooh! That's a good take. I don't hate Letio's character at all. I know he's crazy and obsessed but... I understand why he's so obsessed with Selena. Well, I think I do (人 •ᴗ•)
It's because she told him that there's another way to live. I mean, he's lived in survival mode, at the mercy of everyone when he was young. So, it's only fitting that he saw Selena as his savior. I don't like thinking that it's a shallow kind of love. She gave him hope. That's a really powerful motivator.
And yeah, I agree! He doesn't know how better, and he doesn't know how to express love at all. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind that he loves her. He knows her, keeps her secrets and helps her behind the scenes... He's like the stalker that doesn't plan to hurt you? Ugh. That sounds bad, but that's what he is. And Selena knows that he's crazy, that he's the original protagonist, so she doesn't see him as a love interest at all.
Anyway, this is just my opinion too! (*˘︶˘*).｡*♡
I personally had connected the dots from the way the saving scene was portrayed in the beginning = him wanting to end his life and her being his saving light even if we didn't know why he wanted to khs or why she became his hope. I don't think us judging if it was reason enough would change anything.
Even if he was annoying, I still think his character had lots of depth (even if less than the main characters obvi). And I felt really bad when he was rejected for 2 reasons:
1. Selena genuinely accepted his feelings and very clearly rejected them (whereas it's usually the MC dismissing/belittling the feelings), the tone of the story was grave and serious
2. We were shown that Letio's feelings were not superficial (maybe even too important lol) and that it was his sole reason for living. Thus the rejection being devastating.
So yeah, I believe empathy played a role but also media literacy (understanding ppl are not white or black).
Yeah. I don't really get why others think his love is shallow. And I imagine young Letio decided to try to khs because he was driven out basically, forced to survive on his own. It was mentioned that after being driven out of the palace, assassins after his life continued the pursuit. I bet he's so tired of running and surviving. He's supposed to grow up as a prince, but he was raised by assassins and learned their way of life.
Also, people who make other people their world exists in real life. It's quite an easy trap to fall into, especially when you've felt invisible/miserable all your life. Haaa. I feel so sad that I pray he gets a good ending too. .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.
Ah, empathy always plays a role (and media literacy/reading comprehension/contextual understanding, sure!). It's so important that we get a refresher about it at work ( ◜‿◝ )♡
I never thought his live was shallow, that he was crazy deranged obsessed and low key needs to be locked up? Yes absolutely. But it’s specially because he was so crazy and obsessed with Selena while also being a total psychopath. I think his lore background and tragedy make him a great antagonist and evil second male lead lol. His love was barely still love at the point when he finally reunited with Selena, it was obsession and toxic, at the point where he confesses the affection he has for her at that point go beyond a healthy love and even a proper love for her but with this idea he’s probably created of her, because ultimately he didn’t want what’s best for her, he just wanted her, if you do not care about your loved one’s life and autonomy do you actually love them? Or are you obsessed with having them and keeping them and the idea of them? So yeah I’m sure he did love her, but his love was not normal, not safe, and at the point of delusion that you could hardly consider it love anymore, she was basically an object he needed to posses because he could no longer see her as an autonomous person with a life, family and things she loves and wants to do herself. I think for the life he lived and the way he’s been treated and raised, he’s still much more on the saner side, so I can respect him for the fact he could very much be so much crazier than he is now, he does a pretty good job of reigning it in because I think there’s still a part of him who respects Selena and her decisions and sees her as a person. I don’t think he was born that way, as most psychopaths aren’t, there’s just a certain amount of trauma a child can take before their emotional intelligence is stunted or forfeited in exchange for survival, but I do think he was predisposed to having such temperament/ personality dysfunction if you take a gander at his family anyway, just like how the ML very much had the capacity to end up the same way, not to mention whatever is wrong with Letio’s mother . But I digress… I think yeah it’s tragic how he’s only lived for Selena but that also exposes exactly what is wrong with his love and why a relationship between them will never work and will always be unhealthy or an unhealthy dependence, that’s why Selena took his confession so seriously she needed him to understand it could never be even if she like him back being together will not help either of them, that he needs to live for himself and that he needs to find his own light and happiness because you cannot find that in someone else, anyway he makes a great antagonist because of everything y’all have said, because it’s so tragic, because he cannot help himself, his ignorance is literally what makes his character perfect for his role, he does not know any better, he couldn’t have made better choices, he is tragically ignorant and deranged, and because of all that he cannot learn or do better which is ultimately why it will never work out for him or allow him to be with Selena (Selena also understands all of this and understood it to begin with, she gave him the room to learn and he couldn’t so she ultimately had to give up on him). Anyway I wish I could’ve worded this better but basically he’s the perfect tragedy.
I also mean perfect tragedy as in, as much as you want to feel bad for him, want to wish him a better life, you cannot do anything to help him, just as Selena learned she cannot help him, she cannot fix him, he cannot be changed, you have to accept him as he is and that means accepting the fact that he is a dangerous threat to her and her loved ones and the public in general lol, he is ignorant and may not be capable of learning right from wrong, which means you have to give up any pity you feel for him, plenty of serial killers lived tragic and pitiful lives but ultimately they irreparable destroyed other lives without remorse and are not capable of learning what they did wrong or changing who or what they are. Selena mistakenly thought she saw hope that maybe he was still reachable in the beginning, and learned he wasn’t after what happened with her brother, aka he’s the perfect villain specially because he’s tragic, fundamentally and irreparably flawed, your pity for him can only go so far before your just making excuses, he cannot be saved or fixed, and he simply does not and will never know or understand better.
peak is back