#and honestly thinking abt the fanbase again is Rlly putting me off too like i dont want to be associated w these ppl no thank u

[cubedmango]

You’re just like me… like the more people to join us in arms pretending as though this cursed show doesn’t exist like there are so many things I hate about it I feel like the birth place of all things hatred

afjjfjsjskf literally same ?? painful thing is that it could Very easily be good (like the cinematography and casting besides Him is already nice imo) but then they keep fucking with the story for their own dumbass actor promoting+ adding unnecessary spice reasons (+theyll probably do the typical gmm writing tropes which. Eugh) and its just . like i understand and encourage adaptations doing smth different but they could literally rename the show and call it their original story and nothing would change for me bc it doesnt feel like cm at all akdkjfjfj forget the og drama im not even getting any manga vibes from it rn its That far off

[reluctantrfamember]

my dudes i have SUCH complex feelings over saeran and ittttttssss jussttttttttttt aaahhhhhh???????? ? ??  ?? lemme just. ramble incoherently for a sec.

like hes SUCH an interesting character. bc on one hand it feels p obvious to me that “ray” exists in the narrative for the sole purpose of mirroring rika in relation to v. like im sure cheritz knows that most of their fanbase hates rika and bc of this some folks may get exasperated over v’s frequent self-sabotaging in the name of saving her. we feel this way bc it seems “obvious” from our outside perspective that shes done way way waaaay too many fucked up things to be really worthy of saving, so consequentially they throw in ray to make us go oh. i get it now lmfao.

but.

even if that is ray’s technical function in the story.

he isn’t a perfect parallel of rika, either.

now, dont get me wrong. i aint sayin’ ray’s behaviour isnt bad or creepy. like the dude is o b s e s s e d with mc, and it wouldn’t at all surprise me if he’d done some digital stalking before the beginning of the game. (hence why he seems to already be a bit infatuated with u right off the bat.) and then theres the literal “unknown” factor to consider. like unknown is violent and unpredictable as hell, so theres rlly no knowing what he might do to mc if he happened to make a live appearance. his phone calls certainly suggest that he isnt gonna be as “tame” as ray, which uh.................................... yeah thats not good. and for better or worse this aggressive alter-ego is still just as much a part of saeran as ray is. (although i’d argue unknown is a byproduct of saerans abuse and thus ray is prolly closer to what saeran would’ve been like had he not been taken by mint eye.) so unknown can’t be factored out of the equation.

but despite all this, saeran is still a victim. we know he is even without the prior context from other routes. like it becomes plain as day from the elixir shit that he’s being used by rika, so its just,,, a lot more tragic when he..........goes. bc theres a certain genuineness abt ray that doesnt exist with rika. rika’s two motivations in this route are a) test v’s “love” and b) prove she’s The Best without really any actual consideration for how her actions affect other people. but ray? all he wanted was to be loved by you, misguided as that was. and whilst his desperate pleas to not be hated/abandoned were manipulative in a certain sense, i honestly dont think he was trying to guilt trip you. he was just. so afraid of losing you and your kindness.

and even then, when it became all too clear to ray that this simply wasnt going to happen, that mc had chosen to leave of her own volition, he doesnt go tracking mc down and stabbing her. he lets her go. 

like. think abt that.

think abt how this boy -- whose grasp of consent is obviously greatly skewed -- ultimately lets you leave him. he begged, he pleaded, he poured his heart out, but he nevertheless puts your happiness before his own. it’s not like he couldn’t have escaped mint eye with the other followers, bided his time, and come after you again. hell i half expected unknown to take over and get revenge for being “abandoned” by you. but that didn’t happen. 

so tbh? ray’s feelings for mc were a lot more akin to real love than rika’s ever were, bc his intentions were pure. he didn’t want to have you for the sake of having you, he genuinely wanted the best for you in the end. subsequently this meant he was able to do something rika never could: accept rejection.

saeran is honestly............such a good boy, in his heart. and its just so sad and infuriating that he couldnt be helped in this route. i understand why cheritz did it, i really do, but ray is so different from rika at his core. the love he wanted was real. he was willing to admit fault, apologize to the mc, and even let her go.

saeran choi could’ve been saved had he been given a real chance.