Yeon Yoo-young has been residing with his father and sister in the countryside's Yongsan castle ever since his mother was unjustly accused of theft and subsequently beaten to death. Subjected to relentless torture and abuse by his own family, the young man has grown frail and thin, and is considered mute due to his inability to speak properly. One day, he makes the decision to jump off a coastal cliff and end his life, but instead, he encounters Crown Prince Jinbi Hyul and experiences love at first sight! Yeon Yoo-young finds his will to live once more, but his sister soon schemes to win the prince's affection for herself. However, Jinbi Hyul is notorious for his cruel disposition…
Original Novel
Original Webtoon: Ridibooks, Bomtoon, Lezhin, Naver Series, MrBlue, Peanutoon
Official Translations: Traditional Chinese, Thai, Japanese, French
Often, to an unbiased viewer, characters seem unconsistent nervy and if their background and psychology isn't well done, and their action seem out of sync. I believe this happened in this manhwa, and I suppose that the novel is better. The whole premise of th enovel, since there is no court intrgues, no moody atmosphefic panels, and no complex political background, hinges on having realistic, flesh and blood characters. And I think they have failed in this regard. Why? Just from reading the manhwa, I couldn't get the proper feel of the very fucked up psychological setting. The seme is a absolutely perfect crown prince, a man so good at everyting, and so sued to having all, that his life is actually empty and devoid of any satisfaction. And being very perfect, he sees himself as a demi-god, but it's only a coping mechanism for a spoiled child that never learned to live and enjoy life, just living trought the notions and boring himself to death... But I hardly get this from the manhwa. I had to paste this info from other reader's comments and bits and pieces of the novel... The manhwa shows him strangely one note, inseatd of a wonderfully f*cked up, complex individual who can't really deal with his emotions and find himself completely lost, he's shown as a evil Kievel char. So thin, so
The uke... Oh my. What to say. I dislike yaoi where the disparity between uke and seme is huge in the mental/intellectal sense. And the uke here is... Too meek. And his background doesn't go his justice too. I needed more padding on how the uke becomes such a doormat, there is some, but they needed to hammer this way more for it to really work. This way I was angry at him for so many times at his meek, unfitting responses to wild situations.
In a nutshell, more characterizations, less smut and torture. But still, I did devour it and the art is stunning, especially the robes. I didn't like the char's faces, but that's my own personal preference. But still worth reading!
I loved the seme, one of my fav red flag characters. He was effin hot too. Long black haired seme who is dominating, possessive, obsessive etc…experiencing emotions which he had never experienced before and that flustered his cold, apathetic heart. It was all because of the one boy. Loved the uke too: he was physically weak but not mentally; innocent but not dumb. Characterization was good. Even side characters 👍. Imperfect, complicated characters, characters with flaws are my fav., it makes them unique, real and interesting. I loved their interactions. And psychological factors and historical setting are my fav too. There are many favorites of mine in this.
Uke’s devoted love and seme’s obsessive love…
I wish to read the novel but there’s only machine translation out there which I abhor. And There are bunch of details missing in the comic/manhwa., so I really want to read the novel too.
I just keep reading in order to see how all people who treat so bad to uke ( at beginning) get what just deserve BUT...
I love art and I love the plot. An emperor who demonstrates strength and responsibility for his people. until he met a weak boy. the boy fascinates him so much that it makes the emperor appear weak. The emperor himself does not understand this weakness that he has for the simple boy. He wants to get rid of him but becomes obsessed with the boy. Why is it the simple boy who stirs up and confuses my feelings.
…could ever redeem the seme. He’s that horrible of a person. And the uke…with his history, I can somewhat excuse his naïveté, but c’mon not even once does he question the way he’s being treated by the seme without thinking it’s his fault.The only reason I rated this a 2 and not a 1 is there are a couple of good side characters that I really liked. Otherwise, no thanks. I finished season 1 but definitely won’t be continuing.
Man.........what the heck were those first few chapters of the uke meeting the seme...literally could had so much potential if it had take a different approach (for example cold hearted, ruthless leader meets kind soft cute servant who is being treated horribly by his family, so the leader takes the uke away to his castle, he treats everyone ruthlessly except is kind to the uke and wants to protect him) BUT NO was just absolute dog shit the first few chapters.