Scumcatt

Bingqiu my beloved I definitely need to draw them more....

me @ 10

Rereading The Fantasies of a Stepmother/A Stepmother’s Marchen and Jeremy is kind of the perfect example of how to write a 2nd ML.

Most 2nd MLs in manhwa get relegated to being drama for the FL and main ML or a tool to progress the plot but Jeremy isn’t used for that. He exists to be a genuine companion to Shuri and also to contrast with his father Johannes.

Jeremy is a hot-headed man who usually acts impulsively with his emotions and Johannes is the cool as a cucumber politic who thinks 3 steps ahead but when it comes to love: Jeremy loves genuinely and whole-heartedly while Johannes obsesses.

Both of them loved a woman they couldn’t have (Ludovika chose the emperor and church law forbids Jeremy and Shuri) but while Johannes is an obsessive lunatic who married a 14 year old girl for looking like her, Jeremy makes the man who Shuri loves promise to look after her and swears to be a proper head of the family so she can relieved of her burden.

Honestly I don’t feel like Jeremy is as strong of a character if he was the main ML despite the fact I really do adore them together. His position as her stepson means he can never be the one who will give Shuri a calm and stable life. Even if they had Shuri’s marriage to Johannes annulled meaning he’s not her stepson, that relationship would forever hang over them.