Didn’t Love You Enough Chapter 45 Discussion

This story feels like g*ooming. An emperor was betrayed by everyone in his harem except one ger who sacrificed his life. The emperor goes back to when he was still a crown prince and vows to protect the ger who saved him.

However, by this point, the emperor has lived a full life once already. He r*ped the ger, but this is a story set in ancient china and he is the emperor, so I guess that's how things were. The ger gave birth for him, but the child became a casualty in the harem politics. Then the ger was basically isolated. The emperor didn't know this ger at all until after the ger had died. Then he became obsessed with the only person who didn't betray him, but you can't fully understand someone after they've died. At best, he is constructing a fantasy in his mind around this poor ger.

Then, the emperor becomes a crown prince and strategically puts this ger into a position where he can marry him. The ger starts at 13, and the crown prince keeps an eye on him through shadow guards until he can take him as a concubine at 14. He sneaks into the ger's room at night to kiss him, and makes sure to set up frequent run-ins. Then when he finally takes the ger as a concubine, he doesn't have an*l penetrative s*x, but he does do a lot of touching, kissing, and some blow jobs. It is basically s*xual g*ooming to get the ger used to touches and intimacy.

This is all while the ger only knows him as a crown prince with near ultimate authority. Never does the prince/emperor really try to understand his ger's thoughts and feelings. He conducts background research, and just assumes from there. He never asks the ger directly what he wants. While he does dote on the ger, it almost feels like he is keeping a pet, not a living human being with thoughts of his own. This little ger basically exists to please the emperor.

The power imbalance is far to strong both with the age and with the face that one is a royal, and one is barely a servent. The author does nothing to rectify this imbalance or at least try to make them equals in any way. Because of this, this relationship is in no way consensual.

Again, this is set in ancient china, so the dynamics are different, but I can't read this as fluffy, which the author clearly intends for it to be, without taking into consideration all of this periphery. Even if you ignore the rebirth, this is still a royal taking advantage of an unbelievably innocent and naive ger.

All of this is not to say that I liked the character of the ger much. He is essentially a door mat. Had he been a real person living in ancient china, he culould not survive anywhere, much less the emperor's harem.