#are there shounens with political marriage i feel like they would answer my prayers

[nazuna-tunnel-vision]

reading all these political marriage manhwa as someone who's probably demiromantic drives me insane. the blurb always says "girl has no expectations of being loved and the guy is ice cold so her chances of being loved are even lower. she just wants to get along with the people in the new house and live a quiet life." it's always a perfect setup for the main theme to be about learning to love and be loved, but they just always always make it romantic right away because haha it's marriage right, there's no happiness in marriage without romantic love, right.

it's so frustrating that the stories always start with the leads either having a relationship so hostile that it's basically toxic, or having both leads immediately break character 2 chapters in by falling head over heels in love. "the female lead is jaded and afraid of love and the male lead is cold", where, i just see two lovesick puppies who would give up everything for a beautiful person they met two seconds ago. these are not the leads described in the blurb!

is it too much to ask for stories to actually carry through with the premise of jaded and wary leads. to have the leads slowly feel each other out and decide that the other is someone they feel safe around, and then maybe romance can come after. to actually deliver on the promises they made in the blurb. making the leads fall in love at first sight is such a cop-out.

marriage at its core is just a set of laws that allow a person not in your immediate family whom you really trust to have a legal say over your assets and personhood. especially if you're talking about political marriages where marriages without love is already the basic premise and norm in the society. political marriage settings are the perfect setting to explore this dynamic within marriage but nooo we've got to project our obsession with romantic love here, too. you could have had two besties killing it at political manipulation within the noble high society and you're just going to focus on romance? for shame.