Rajih is an extremely underrated character in the lust arc and I wanted to bring up the parallel I personally read between him and Venomania. Because in this arc there are several instances of characters having feelings for a person who is implied or perceived to not return those affections. The arc overall has an underlying theme of one sided feelings amongst its other themes. The obvious and darkest examples are obviously Venomania lusting after and pursuing all of these women that don’t actually want him and him taking their wills away to have his way with them. As well as the entire love triangle between Gumina, Cherubim and OG Sateriasis (Cherubim perceiving himself as the one with one sided feelings but then it turning out that Og Sateriasis was the one with one sided feeling all along)
When it comes down to it though, a huge part of Venomania as a character is that no matter how gently or how harshly it was delivered to him, he ultimately could not handle rejection, leading him to the vile things he did in the story, even before he had completely lost himself into arrogant self delusion and completely monstrosity. Where Venomania couldn’t handle rejection, Rajih represents acceptance. Its left up to interpretation whether Lilien ever reciprocated his feelings before being brainwashed but that doesn’t take away from the fact that throughout the manga, he sees Lilien falling for Sateriasis, therefore making him perceive his own feelings as unrequited, and yes, he is implied to feel jealous and hurt, but despite all that, his actions are all motivated by genuine care for Lilien rather than bitterness. Rajih was able to see that the woman he loved romantically likely didn’t feel that way about him and still cared about her as a person and as his friend, respecting her autonomy and feelings as a human being. Sateriasis ultimately did not, (even if he had genuine feelings beyond lust for her) not with Gumina, and not with any of the women who were his victims.
