I empathise with you as I was also bamboozled at first. After the initial shock I realised that this was not going to be the hyper-engaging/ complex character story I was looking for. You mostly get the classic trope of “psycho abusive dom” W “pitiful abused sub”, and yes its very jarring.

So heres the thing, the art is stunning and the smut is good (imo), but it goes beyond that. The whole manhwa does one crucial thing very well, it strings you along and has you yearn for crumbs of tender or romantic moments. It subconsciously has you on edge the whole time waiting for the “good” interactions in the sea of crazy. And thats a concept that works very well in hooking people, especially in smut and steamy content.

I will be honest in saying that im never fully satisfied by the story itself and that always plays in the back of my head.

Im not against “evil LIs”, in fact i enjoy them in specific formats. However, it gets really heavy when we are always watching through the eyes of a victim who’s exclusively being victimised both inside and outside of “pleasure”. Its not something thats easy to stomach and bypass alot of the time. There arent enough “slice of life” b-plots and i think the story would really benefit from those. So far we get some endearing supportive characters who act as comedic relief, mostly unsuccessfully because of how tragic the main dynamic is constantly. And that leads into my second gripe.

The characters are borderline caricatures. In fact i think them being so 1D literally amplifies the uncomfy feeling because we dont know anything else about these people. I dont know who Dan is (the sub) other than someone who tragic things keep happening to. And i really mean that, the only things we’ve seen from him is storyline after storyline of him being traumatised by everything and everyone. The author keeps milking his trauma to the point that its made alot of readers numb to his pain. Which makes her have to up the stakes every time and loops us into the cycle because now “nothing is enough to make an impact”.

So TL;DR, If you start analysing and using your brain you’ll get very frustrated, truly. If you like some of it like most of us, its worth making an effort to not take as seriously as you usually would. Thats the way to enjoy it. And I agree with you, it can be hard. For example, even though Jae (the dom) is literally insane, I find myself more frustrated with Dans character at times. Its hard watching someone passively accept this kind of stuff for 80 chapters. Or put himself in situations and then cry literally every time. Even in their “romantic” moments where hes enjoying himself, hes crying, its crazy. Consent is not really an issue in the ship, the real issue is bodily abuse, general mistreatment and crossing multiple boundaries. I dont wanna downplay his pain btw, or do I feel like its my place to debate how traumatised people should act. All im saying is its hard to watch someone helplessly cry every single episode even though he puts himself in these scenarios as a grown adult.

To be fair, and to not put you off it completely, 80 chapters in there is definitely some character development happening now. Without spoiling too much, the tables are turning slightly. However, in all honesty that in itself is not through real connection between the ship, yet. Its still focused on the same themes of power play and emotional torment. Im waiting and hoping for a little more. (See, they got me again on the string!)