Rabbit ♠︎ Mage

Ayla was doing her best job to save the face of the whole family even in her fake kindness so it looks better for the twins if she did it. But Varkas was already breathing behind her neck like "What the fuck did you say?"

Fandom: Mr. Love Queen’s Choice

Pairing: Victor x Reader

Prompt: Vanilla | Aftercare

Warning: Angst | Makeup Sex | Vaginal Penetration | Smut! Minors DNI!!!🔞

Intended Audience: Female Audience

Word Count: 2,514

Ko-fi: Click here to support me on ko-fi!<3

Author’s Note: This took me way too long to get out, I know. On the bright side, I did catch up on a lot of school work so hopefully I’ll have more time in the coming days to finish this challenge. Hope you enjoy day 20 of @xxsycamore‘s Visions of Temptation event!<3

Tag list: @yesmarsx @nad-zeta @kisara-16 @cheese-ception @cailann @vespeshadowmoon @ravenarld @juminly @otomefoxystar @wonderwrench @toxiicmoron​ @minsuwu@arigallesi@tinyxhalo

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A lot of “dark romance” stories are not actually dark romance, not because of irresponsible framing or because they romanticize toxic and abusive relationships. But because they fail to fulfill what dark romance fundamentally is: an exploration of those unhealthy dynamics.

Meanwhile, there's Matthias, a man groomed since birth to be the perfect heir to his family's lineage, and that often means that everything single thing in his life is decided for him, including marriage. He's been raised to believe that genuine love and attraction are irrelevant in a relationship if you're only marrying for convenience. Clearly, someone who’s lived under that level of restriction would have a deeply distorted understanding of intimacy, autonomy, and emotional connection. That setup alone could have supported a far more psychologically grounded dark romance, one that actually examines how trauma and control distort a person’s understanding of love and relationships in general.

One of my favorite moments was in the latest chapter, when Matthias took care of Layla after she was hit by a car. He gave her a piece of candy—the same kind her mother used to give her as a child—and it triggered a flood of memories about everything she had lost since then, until she finally broke down in tears. Throughout it all, Matthias held her without demanding an explanation. He simply let her cry. It was, honestly, a genuinely strong emotional moment.

What undermines it, though, is knowing that nothing meaningful will ever come of it. Their toxic dynamic—Matthias' controlling, borderline predatory behavior toward Layla, and Layla's complicated, often dubious attraction to him—never really gets addressed in a substantial way. We already know where the story goes, and it doesn't meaningfully interrogate either of their backgrounds or how those experiences shape the way they relate to each other. That ends up making moments like this feel less like development and more like isolated emotional scenes, leaving you wondering why they were included if the relationship was never going to evolve in a more interesting or meaningful direction.

Instead of just presenting obsession and abuse as cheap plot devices, the story could have delved into how someone with a warped, conditional understanding of affection might project that onto another person in destructive ways, and how an abuse survivor might be vulnerable to that kind of dynamic being repeated or reframed as "affection." That kind of narrative would require directly engaging with emotional manipulation, conditioning, and the slow erosion of boundaries in a way that actually interrogates the trauma on both sides, rather than treating it as dramatic tension.

Okay, I know I haven't had the most positive opinions on The Forgotten Field, but I don't necessarily hate Talia as a character. I don't like the majority of her fanbase, and I find her to be awful as a person but those were very likely the intended feelings I was supposed to have because she's supposed to your traditional over the top "seductress" villainess, and instead of those negative traits being painted as a misunderstanding or a consequence-free memory after a regression, they are taken up several notches to the extremes.

Talia isn't just a heartbroken hopeless romantic, she's obsessive of Varkas to the point where she could almost be classified as a yandere, she isn't just envious of Ayla's popularity, she attempts to assassinate her multiple times, thus giving her half sister no reason to care when Talia suffers, she isn't just an older sister to Arthos, she takes out her unresolved trauma on him just as Gareth took out his trauma onto her.

Talia is enjoyable to me when there isn't someone yelling in my ear that she's just a misunderstood little baby girl who just needs tender love and care, her allure is that she is a horrible person, she has a childhood that explains why she's a horrible person, but it shouldn't exonerate her of all wrongdoing as an adult. For Christ's sake, she raped her husband, the excuse that she wasn't treated fairly as a kid can only go so far, and before anyone tries to tell me that Varkas eventually said yes, wearing someone down because they initially said no to sex until they eventually give up is NOT consensual! Manipulating and guilt tripping someone into sleeping with you is NOT consensual!

"But he was scared he would hurt her, that's the only reason he said-" A no is a no, it doesn't matter why he said no, that should have been the end of it.

*Pinches bridge of nose*

Oh look, it's the same old anti-romance genre talking points, but the Zoomers are at it again with carrying on what the anti-novel crowd started.

According to this person's logic, women who wrote/enjoyed bodice rippers "endorsed" kidnapping, rape, women staying with their rapists, abuse, confinement, cheating, women having less rights than men and belonging to their husbands (bodice rippers romanticize [def: to treat in an idealized or unrealistic way] the time periods they're set in; doesn't mean women want to go back to those times!), never divorcing, and men not respecting women's boundaries.

No, they didn't.

I'm just gonna leave this here, and peace out:

Dangerous Men & Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance (1992)

[Source: The Backlash Against America’s Most Popular Novelist Is Way Less Satisfying Than I’d Hoped!]

Like, do you seriously have nothing better to do than argue against criticism of toxic tropes in fiction? You clearly felt personally targeted enough to reply twice, but my point still stands. Not everyone who consumes problematic media endorses it, but when people constantly romanticize toxic couples, make "cute" Tik Tok edits glorifying them, and frame those dynamics as ideal relationships, they are contributing to the normalization of that behavior. I genuinely don't understand why that's such a controversial thing to acknowledge.

Actually, no. I do understand. Many people, such as yourself, feel defensive because they personally enjoy those tropes and don't want to examine what they're romanticizing. But enjoying something in fiction doesn't suddenly make it immune to criticism. Stay mad if you want, but fandom culture absolutely plays a role in normalizing unhealthy relationship dynamics (i.e., you're part of the problem, hun).

Okay, toxic dynamics that would be seen as irreparable or even dangerous IRL being depicted as redeemable and worthwhile in romance novels.

Readers engage with romance media the same way one does when playing a video game: being a criminal in the world of the Yakuza franchise — games that glamorize [def: to make something seem better than it actually is] crime and the Yakuza — is desirable within that fictional world, people wouldn't mind being there, but the player would absolutely not fly over to Japan to join the actual Yakuza in real life. Hell no.

Now, let's look at a "wallpaper romance" [meaning: historically inaccurate/the characters act in modern ways] set in the Regency period: the reader would love to visit this idealized, no-so-different-from-our-present version of said time period, where the aristocratic heroine can divorce someone without facing any social consequences. But going back to the actual 19th century? You know, back then when women where entirely financially dependent on their male relatives? Yeah, nope! Female readers don't want that at all.

Fictional version > actual thing.

The same logic applies to romances with dangerous heroes: they're only desirable within a fictional context. People wouldn't deem these guys "relationship goals" outside of fiction. Dark romance fans are not stupid, and don't need an infantilizing reality check from you lot.

So, about the fandom stuff. It's just people messing around. Like, villain fans also make cute TikTok edits of their faves, such as Bill Cipher and his interactions with Stanford (these two had a toxic relationship). No issue whatsoever when they do it, but it's suddenly the end of the world when the romance fans playfully say something like "I wouldn't mind if this yandere manhwa ML locked me in his basement. >:)" Frankly, you're overreacting to people's harmless fun.

Treating fictional toxic couples as hot, fun, cute, "relationship goals", or whatever, isn't normalizing IRL abusive relationships because people aren't doing that with IRL abusive relationships.

My point is simple: when toxic relationship dynamics are consistently romanticized, excused, and framed as aspirational in fiction and fandom spaces, that does contribute to normalizing those ideas in how people talk about and perceive relationships.

At this point, though, I don’t think further back-and-forth is productive. You’re free to disagree, but I’m not interested in repeating myself to a moving target. Again, fandom culture and media framing can romanticize and normalize unhealthy relationship dynamics when those dynamics are repeatedly treated as cute, desirable, or “relationship goals.” Fiction and reality aren’t the same, but fiction also doesn’t exist in some consequence-free vacuum where it has zero influence on how people understand relationships.

That’s it. That’s the point. If you need to keep inflating it into something more extreme just to argue against it, then we’re clearly not having the same conversation—and I’m not interested in repeating myself again.

As if she doesn't have any insecurities about the fact that EVERYBODY wanted him to marry Agnes, as if that isn't thrown at her face every single time.

And then he has the Audacity to say that he has to be by Agnes side because she is his superior. As if kuahel isn't Maxis superior as well.

And maxi was so happy to see him too,and there he goes to ruin everything, and then he has the Audacity to accuse her of cheating.

And once again, i ask riftan, why the fuck would maxi do that to you??? What would she get out of it???

Ugh, there are moments that make me Wanna go and just-

This reminds me of a scene later in the novel, I think around the final book, where Maxi and Riftan meet a new female character—a princess, if I remember correctly—who instantly starts making moves on Riftan right in front of Maxi without even attempting to hide her intentions. What follows is Maxi becoming understandably upset and bitter toward Riftan, and while at first he seems genuinely concerned by her reaction, his attitude quickly flips, and he begins treating her anger and jealousy as something “cute.” And this is exactly the kind of shit that boils my blood about their relationship.

Time and time again throughout the first and even second book, Riftan reacts aggressively whenever Maxi so much as speaks to another man while he’s watching, all because his low self-esteem and possessiveness convince him that someone like Maxi could actually betray him, which is insane in itself because this is MAXI we’re talking about. The same woman who spent years grieving over the thought that her departure to the Mage Tower had hurt him and caused irreparable damage to their marriage. The same woman whose entire world practically revolves around him. Yet Riftan still treats every interaction she has with another man like some kind of threat.

Meanwhile, when the situation is reversed and now Maxi is the jealous one, it’s suddenly funny. Suddenly, her feelings are “cute” and trivial because it’s not as if Riftan actually pays those women any attention. And I’m sorry, but what the fuck kind of double standard is that? Because no, the issue is not whether Riftan personally reciprocates their advances. The issue is that his complacency and lack of firm verbal rejection still encourage the behavior while leaving Maxi sitting there humiliated and insecure. If he knows how deeply insecure Maxi is, if he understands her low self-esteem and history of abuse, then why the hell would he treat her jealousy like an adorable overreaction instead of immediately shutting the situation down?

And what makes this even more ridiculous is that Riftan is not some shy, passive man incapable of asserting himself. This is the same asshole who openly disrespects nobles, picks fights with people more powerful than him like Kuahel Leon and even fucking Princess Agnes, and aggressively intimidates anyone he perceives as a threat. You’re seriously telling me that the same man who constantly asserts dominance over everyone else—including his own wife who's a victim of abuse—suddenly can’t tell a bunch of homerwrecking hoochies openly disrespecting his wife and his marriage to back the fuck off?

Give me a fucking break.

This is exactly why I say Riftan never truly understood Maxi as a person. Because if he did, he'd never, EVER, assume that she'd cheat on him. He would've understood that her jealousy is not irrational paranoia. It comes from a lifetime of abuse, insecurity, and feeling fundamentally unworthy of love. Instead of reassuring her properly, he trivializes her feelings because, from his perspective, they aren’t serious. Meanwhile, if Maxi had ever behaved even remotely the same way around another man, Riftan would have absolutely lost his mind over it. That imbalance is exactly the problem.

The COBYB fanbase to this day denies that Matthias is a rapist even though he's more obvious about his intentions than Riftan.

Sure, I understand the angle of the scene: A nobleman groomed for perfection is suddenly overwhelmed by an unfamiliar emotion whenever he's near a woman who he once regarded as insignificant, eventually snaps and forces himself onto her because he does not know how to deal with these newfound emotions. It's still morally wrong, and I'm not condoning those actions, but at the least, there's an explanation for his sociopathic behavior. Being a nobleman, he's expected to marry for convenience, not love or even genuine attraction. So when he's suddenly overcome by these "strange" emotions whenever he sees Layla, of course, he's going to act out. He sees Layla as an anomaly in his otherwise "perfect" life.

That said, the execution was so ass because it actively romanticizes what Matthias did to Layla. You know how I know this? Because after the act happens, Matthias does not show any visible remorse, he does not address or acknowledge his fault, and he never apologizes or changes his disgusting behavior after the incident. He continues to behave in very manipulative and predatory ways while the artist illustrates these scenes in romantic and even comedic framing, with visual gags of Layla making "funny" angry faces at Matthias, or the soft, flowery imagery during scenes where Matthias acts extra possessive with Layla. What makes matters worse is how later in the story, Matthias rapes Layla through coercion. He blackmails her into sleeping with him, which retroactively makes the first SA scene much worse because it just further proves that Matthias knew exactly what he was doing.

When I was 17, my boyfriend of one year started to become emotional abusive. I stayed with him for a whole year after the toxic behaviour descended into emotional abuse, because I didn’t understand that what he was doing was wrong. When I broke up with him permanently I was a mess and none of my friends believed me when I tried to tell them how awful he had been. Both their attitude and mine were caused by having seen so much of what he did portrayed as romantic in countless books, tv shows and films. This had to stop. 

1. Treating you like a trophy. It’s flattering to be put on a pedestal and to be told how amazing you are, but manipulators use this to make their partners feel reliant on their words fo praise, especially when their actions and “jokes” often make their partner feel belittled and small. They’re trying to convince their partner that they would never do anything to risk loosing them, so that their partner will quickly forgive the manipulator for the pain they cause. Also people are not objects, this is a serious red flag that they don’t view their partner as a person, and more of an idea.

2. Saying they can’t live without you. That you are their whole world. How the hell are you meant to leave someone when they say this to you? This is guilt tripping. They are literally guilting their partner into staying. I broke up with my ex after he shouted at me for having a panic attack. He cried and grovelled until I took him back, saying that he was lost without me. That’s not love. Love is doing what’s best for the other person, not yourself. If you mess up, try you atone for your actions. Forced forgiveness only benefits the person who fucked up in the first place.

3. Giving big, unprompted gifts that cannot be reciprocated early on in the relationship. Manipulators use this to create a power imbalance in the relationship and leave their partner feeling indebted to them. Sure, some people do this to be nice, but If you have to buy someone a large gift to make them want to be with you, is it really worth it? The gifts are also often used to buy forgiveness and absolve the manipulator of their guilt, instead of actually making up for their actions and not repeating their *mistake*.

This is post 1 in a series because clearly I’m incapable of being concise and this is, and always will be, important. 

*Pinches bridge of nose*

Oh look, it's the same old anti-romance genre talking points, but the Zoomers are at it again with carrying on what the anti-novel crowd started.

According to this person's logic, women who wrote/enjoyed bodice rippers "endorsed" kidnapping, rape, women staying with their rapists, abuse, confinement, cheating, women having less rights than men and belonging to their husbands (bodice rippers romanticize [def: to treat in an idealized or unrealistic way] the time periods they're set in; doesn't mean women want to go back to those times!), never divorcing, and men not respecting women's boundaries.

No, they didn't.

I'm just gonna leave this here, and peace out:

Dangerous Men & Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance (1992)

[Source: The Backlash Against America’s Most Popular Novelist Is Way Less Satisfying Than I’d Hoped!]

Like, do you seriously have nothing better to do than argue against criticism of toxic tropes in fiction? You clearly felt personally targeted enough to reply twice, but my point still stands. Not everyone who consumes problematic media endorses it, but when people constantly romanticize toxic couples, make "cute" Tik Tok edits glorifying them, and frame those dynamics as ideal relationships, they are contributing to the normalization of that behavior. I genuinely don't understand why that's such a controversial thing to acknowledge.

Actually, no. I do understand. Many people, such as yourself, feel defensive because they personally enjoy those tropes and don't want to examine what they're romanticizing. But enjoying something in fiction doesn't suddenly make it immune to criticism. Stay mad if you want, but fandom culture absolutely plays a role in normalizing unhealthy relationship dynamics (i.e., you're part of the problem, hun).

"Why do manhwa MLs suck?"

That's your opinion, bruh.

"Ted Bundy–"

I see what you're doing there. You're trying to subtly cast red-flag-manhwa-ML enjoyers in a bad light by indirectly comparing them to Ted Bundy fangirls. We're talking about fictional characters: Rothbart, Matthias, Claude, Lezett, and so on, do not exist. Fans of problematic manhwa heroes aren't comparable to messed up idiots who form fandoms around serial killers that actually existed, and murdered real people.

"Korean romance manhwas are a special kind of evil."

First off, singling out Korean romance manhwas like that is pretty racist on your part. You do know dark romances are a thing everywhere, right? Always have been. Secondly, if all of this didn't set anything back:

[The post]

I think we're safe from the big, bad, scary DR manhwas.

"I can fix him."

People enjoy red-flag-MLs and male yanderes for many reasons, not just the power fantasy aspect of a romance heroine making the Byronic dude realize what a shithead he's been, and that he must give in to her by changing as a person.

Here are some other reasons:

• I'm a dark romance reader.

• I enjoy toxic MLs. "Green flags" [I personally don't think "problematic-free" romance heroes exist] bore me to tears.

• Severly flawed characters are my jam.

• I'm a male yandere fan.

• I like conflict in my romances, especially when when one of the MLs (or both) are the cause of it.

• "Goddamn, you see that shit? That was fucking crazy. Anyway, I'm Rod Sterling."

• Mostly here for the story itself: I want to see what becomes of this couple.

• I'm here for the smut and problematic character dynamics. >:)

• I enjoy groveling in romance.

• He's hot.

• I want to cry.

• Hurt/comfort

• I am a whumper.

• Etc.

"They excuse his toxicity! >:c"

I take it you're mad at the people who ship the couple despite how ML treated FL in previous chapters? So what? Lol

"Have some fucking standards."

Would this involve dropping the manhwas that subreddits such as r/webtoons and r/OtomeIsekai tend to moan about? And reading stories where FL chooses the "green-flag", second ML instead?