@Seju09
Hello I am a huge fan of your analysis works (on Bato and especially Passion, while not agreeing with everything you said I still love it a lot) and I love to well look at the genera more seriously too. If you had a Discord account of sort I would love to well have the chance to talk to you if you don’t mind. Thanks you for listening to me :>
Hello Seju09. I am a reader in passion series translated by StrawberryJam(?). I have reading a lot of your comments in the novel and very impressed on your in-depth analysis. I would like to check on the other comments in that novels more but I could not find the translation anymore. Do you have any idea where are the novels gone? Is it deleted by translator or the translator account is hidden now?
Hi, Seju09, I've read your comments while I was reading the diaphonic symphonia novel but you know, It's not available anymore so please could you tell me where else did you read it?
Did you ever read the beast must die? When I read passion I think of this one sometimes when I think of psychos “love” wondering if Ilay is psycho or not and if Tae is just affected by what Ilay is doing or not but they talk about that kind of love in it.
Here’s a link to one of the sites that has the whole thing if you haven’t read it yet or are interested oh it’s also on lezhin too
https://mangabuddy.com/the-beast-must-die
@Larrin023 on that note, about Ilay's portrayal not being consistent during the side stories... there might also be amother explanation. I've discussed it with heroine_addict, since Tae-ui is the main POV character, therefore, we only know the characters based on how Tae views them as. So, Ilay being this absolute villain in Passion is because in Tae-ui's eyes, he is the villain. And Ilay's more pronounced psychopathic side in DS and Suite Side Main story is because, despite Tae ackolwedging that he likes and loves Ilay, he still sees him as a Psychopathic madman, an unpredictable guy who kay suddenly change his mind and actually end up killing and eating him... And it was only when Tae sees Ilay's vulnerability, saw how much Ilay was bothered after Ilay almost killed him, that for the first time in his life, this madman is actually scared and worrying... Tae's view of Ilay changed... So that's why in the Suite Side Stories, we see a softer fluffier Ilay, bec that's how Tae views him now.
Unless we give him a brain scan, there's no way to properly diagnose if Ilay is a true Psychopath or not... He scores high on the Hare checklist, he has a rigid way of thinking and his words and actions are very Psychopathic... (at least in Passion and DS and Suite Side main)... But in the side stories, he shows some sides, to Tae at least, that is the polar opposite of what a Psychopath should be... That's why despite the Suite Side Stories being canon, they feel more fanservicey to me... I haven't finished reading it yet but Ilay's portrayal has definitely changed a lot, so much that he doesn't feel like a Psychopath anymore... which irl is impossible bec Psychopaths don't change. Their Psychopathy is literally and physically wired into their brains...
So, either Ilay wasn't actually a true Psychopath in the beginning (which would be a shame bec I like seeing works that depicts how Psychopaths "love") or this is a case of character derailment for the sake of giving the readers fanservice and fluff.
If you are interested in more "realistic Psychopathic Love", cause most of the Psychopaths they depict in comics or shows aren't actually Psychopaths, there's also Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter. If you check his character trope page, you'd see a lot thay also applies to Ilay.
@Larrin023 Hello, yeah I read The Beast Must Die. I also see a lot of similarities between Ilay and Kang Moo... based on how they think... That's why during Ilay's POV, when he mentioned "Control", I thought about Kang Moo and his struggle for control... and I wondered if it was also the same for Ilay... Kang Moo, Ilay Riegrow and Choi Yule from an Easy Target, imo, are the best depiction of true Psychopaths in BL Manhwa... Ilay, imo, is a high functioning Psychopath, similar to Kang Moo. He's just a stepford smiler so you think he shows/expresses emotions, unlike Kang Moo who is usually a poker face... But, they also say a lot of CEOs are Psychopathic so I guess Ilay just belongs to that group. Still, he might smile a lot but he still doesn't display a lot of emotions... Some may say that Ilay isn't a Psychopath but a High Functioning Sociopath instead because he is capable of emotions like what he shows to Tae especially in Suite Side... Compared to Kang Moo right?