Even the Villain Has a Story Chapter ~150 Discussion

Keep in mind that I'm not a huge BL fan, I'm a straight guy who readers novels that look interesting when I'm bored and I don't want to skip over genuinely good stories bc I'm going "ew gay" at the tags lmao. That being said, I really did not like the romance in this story. Which is a shame, since I genuinely loved the MC and really enjoyed watching him fail and grow as a human. I love a well written traumatized protagonist, and this novel definitely hit on that point well. I felt delighted whenever the MC was succeeding, especially because of how compelling his misery and mood swings were.

The ML though?? I'm sorry this man is boring and bland as ass. The dude's done absolute sh*t all to have me wanting him to end up together with the protagonist. If anything, I'm cheering for the MC to have a healthy break up arc where he confronts his feelings and firmly separates from this loser ML. Like the ML gives me the vibes of one of those cheap, mass produced tower-genre protagonists, like the f*cking meme of all the anime harem men that look the same and have the exact same personality.

(Early) spoilers for one of the main reasons I dislike the ML/his relationship with the MC:

Spoiler

In general, the troupe of someone really talented quickly outclassing their mentor is one that I'm always wary of. I'm not saying it can't be done well, or that it's a turn off for me, it's way too common for that to be the case. I just always sympathize deeply with the character whose being basically told their entire confidence and self-image is founded on bullshit, and while it's not the other character's fault that this happens, I enjoy seeing that aspect of a relationship explored with respect.

In this novel, I think the author does really well at depicting the MC's reaction when he realizes the fast growth of the ML. It feels raw, it feels realistic. However, I don't think that, in the parts that I read at least, it was ever adequately resolved to the extent that a romantic relationship wouldn't feel uncomfortable to me. Like, putting myself in the MC's shoes for a second, the way I would spend every waking morning full of passive aggression towards my partner and actively having to fight that instinct, maybe along the way redirecting it towards self-hatred, is insane.

Because I enjoyed the protagonist so much, and because his suffering felt so honestly described, this dissonance was even stronger to me. The author did so well at making me cheer for the protagonist's health and happiness that I actively didn't want him to be with the ML, since it was hard for me to imagine that someone this depressed and mentally unstable would ever be happy with this other person. I hope this makes sense lmao, I'm sure this is a relationship dynamic that some people might not mind, but for me it just ain't it!

[collapse]

Spoilers for the romance's development in later chapters:

Spoiler

So, after some sh*t happens, the ML kinda like (understandably) ditches the protagonist, which sends little buddy spiraling for several different reasons that don't just relate to "noooo I had a crush how dare he disappear >: (" This is the section I'm talking about where I was just hoping that the MC would like have a bit of a character development, especially because guess the f*ck what the author introduces out of nowhere the perfect replacement ML! I'm checking the later chapters to refresh my memory and I'm pretty sure the guy I'm remembering is Jaehee. It's been a while since I've read this, and I feel like I remember him not being gay, but the author is god and had total control over his sexuality! And these two freak actually had chemistry too like wtffff

I think I stopped reading around the time that the ML returned to the plot, mostly since I understood that the way the story would continue to develop wasn't really in a way that I was particularly interested in.

[collapse]

To summarize, I don't think this novel is bad at all. If anything, it's definitely worth a read! I think personally, I would rate it 3 stars, but that's purely due to my personal taste and I don't think it's fair to be knocking down it's score when I'm clearly not the intended audience. I still think it's completely fair for me to critique the chemistry between the main couple, though, and the imbalance between all the personality and charm of the MC just being utterly quashed by Mr Boring over there. Maybe it will be appealing to you, though, so give it a shot!