SassyandSnarky

You rained on everyone else's parade in your negative reviews, why can't they rain on yours in their comments?

Copy-pasting my comment:

"The original story explores the concept of reincarnation, wherein a 48-year-old man's soul is reborn in the body of a teenage boy and falls in love with another teenage boy

Reincarnation stories bend reality's laws and morals, they shouldn't be overanalyzed and taken seriously"

The original story explores the concept of reincarnation, wherein a 48-year-old man's soul is reborn in the body of a teenage boy and falls in love with another teenage boy

Reincarnation stories bend reality's laws and morals, they shouldn't be overanalyzed and taken seriously

“I feel like this type of narrative is far more profound if it were to be told in a non-romantic way"

"Friendship" doesn't possess greater profundity than romance

Same-sex "friendship" is the diluted alternative to same-sex romance, a connection stripped of its disruptive potential, made digestible for the homophobic majority unwilling to engage with the deeper, messier truths of sexuality. Same-sex romance refuses the dilution. It's where desire and vulnerability meet with unfiltered intensity

This censored "they're just friends" story infantilizes and presupposes an intellectual immaturity on the part of the audience, as though romance is too complex a subject for us. However, some of us are more than oversized toddlers. We're capable of understanding the soaring highs and brutal lows, or the moral ambiguities of romance

Homophobic censorship doesn't just erase, it condescends, deciding on our behalf what is "profound" and, in doing so, declaring us unworthy of fully engaging with the story

BL would've taken it from "meh" to "magnifique"

As someone who watches a lot of BL, I disagree

"I also checked out the novel out of curiosity .. and surprisingly it's so bad"

Are we censoring the bad, the ugly, the unworthy, the artistically bankrupt? Delightful! When will you/society extend this critical eye to "straight" stories?

I'm of the conviction that stories centering the "straight" lifestyle are dubious at best and a cultural pollutant at worst, wholly unworthy of dissemination. They constitute not art but propaganda. The day boy-meets-girl stories are censored and turned into nothing more than accounts of close companionship/friendship between men and women can't come soon enough

I've reported @lees for spamming, and I encourage everyone else reading to do the same. Let's make it clear that spamming won't be tolerated

I'm not crying, I'm just allergic to homophobic censorship and its supporters

Censorship isn't the appropriate response to creative works that explore controversial or uncomfortable subject matters

The question of whether romantic relationships between older souls and teenagers are harmful isn't one to be answered with a simple yes or no. It's a nuanced subject

An older soul inhabiting a teenage body is an imaginary construct not bound by the same moral and legal standards as human relationships. If we were to entertain the construct and take it seriously, it's possible to structure the narrative in a way that avoids the potential pitfalls associated with age disparity, by emphasizing character development, respect, and mutual understanding

We can preserve the romance while being sensitive to the nuances of human relationships. For instance, the characters Se Kyung and the new Yi Heon could start off as "just friends," with the possibility of a romantic relationship only developing after Se Kyung has reached the age of 25, at which point he would be capable of making informed decisions about his romantic life

Writing a time skip and delaying the onset of the romantic relationship until Se Kyung is 25 years old would give him time to mature emotionally and mentally. It'd be an exceptionally generous concession, considering that the age of legal adulthood is 18-20. The most vocal keyboard warriors wouldn't be able to find fault with a relationship between two consenting adult males

The producers had the freedom to remove the romance, it stands to reason that they had the freedom to revise/restructure the romance so that it'd be suitable for all audiences

Yi Heon's suicide ideation was influenced by external factors. External assistance would've similarly altered the trajectory of Yi Heon's life. He wouldn't have "turned it again into a helpless life," but the creator/producers didn't explore this possibility

The soul of an adult body was placed in the body of a high schooler, it's not accurate to claim that people were shipping a 40+ man and a high schooler. People were shipping the newly created version of Yi Heon and Se Kyung

I don't support the removal of the BL on the basis of personal discomfort. The warzone in the comment section was the consequence of a group of individuals failing to differentiate between the real world and the fictional one. These people would apply real-world morality and law to a fictional setting in which different souls occupy different bodies. They lost sight of the heart of the matter, the emotional experiences of the two male characters. The focus of the BL would've been on this, rather than on the details of "soul ages"

The coupling of a high school student's physical form with that of another high school student is most appropriate. Did you expect the new Yi Heon to seek companionship with a 40+ person? Why be content with the removal of the BL when the producers could've creatively postponed Se Kyung's romantic involvement with the new Yi Heon until after Se Kyung had graduated from university and achieved legal/mental adulthood? The romance could've been improved

"Soul age" holds no weight in my analysis of the story. Had I been the creator, I would've abandoned the soul-swapping theme and focused on delivering a better conclusion in which Yi Heon remains in his original form and finds happiness alongside Se Kyung. Such an ending would've provided Yi Heon with closure and communicated the strength of a love unaffected by the torment of bullies or societal norms

Soul-swapping, from my (a non-believer's) perspective, defies reason and my understanding of consciousness as a brain-dependent phenomenon. Nothing about it makes sense to me. It's odd, even in a fictional setting, that a long-lived soul would claim a younger body to prolong its stay on Earth

Yi Heon's story is a tale of lost potential and a life cut short. He wasn't given the second chance to reconcile with the scars of his past and move forward with renewed purpose

The combined forces of social isolation and homophobic harassment drove him to take his own life, a fate that he didn't deserve. But the creator/producers showed little regard for the depth of his pain, they denied him a happy or at least open ending with the boy he loved (Se Kyung)

I have moments where I feel helpless and suicidal, and if faced with a similar dilemma as Yi Heon, I would choose to reclaim my body. Rising above past struggles would've made for a more meaningful story. My perspective on the issue is influenced by my belief that a powerful act of defiance against a homophobic society is to persist and thrive for as long as possible. They want us gone. We shouldn't give them what they want

Thank you for surprising me with a message of love. Wishing you a lovely day

"... rather than criticizing people who have already achieved more than you ever have ..."

The validity and value of a critique isn't contingent on the relative achievements of the critic and the subject being critiqued, but rather on the logical coherence of the arguments presented in the critique and the depth of the observations made

The ease with which the internet allows for the dissemination of useful information brings with it the potential for the dissemination of damaging content. Pornographic content is a cautionary example of the damaging potential of the internet

Artistic expression is a mode of communication with tangible ramifications. As such, artists bear the onus of accountability for the messages they disseminate. Their creations should be evaluated according to the moral principles that govern other means of communication

Morality doesn't enslave art. Art is already bound by the constraints of society, money, culture and history. Moral considerations wouldn't be an additional enslavement, they'd be an extension of existing constraints

The relationship between morality and art is symbiotic; morality informs the content and meaning of art, and art challenges and refines our understanding of morality. This symbiotic relationship would result in the genesis of artworks that are more intellectually stimulating and powerful than those disregarding moral considerations

"Absolutely nothing wrong with a piece of art like this one and many others"

That's your opinion. Why are you "forcing" it on others? I believe the explicit, gratuitous material that you relish in shouldn't be mistaken for artistic expression

I'm weary of liberal individuals who are so in thrall to their base desires that they expect the rest of us to share in their unceasing state of arousal, ready to engage in unseemly acts with every available surface at a moment's notice

"There are much more important real life issues"

People who adhere to more conservative principles pale in comparison to the matters of greater importance that captured your attention. Might I suggest that you redirect your energies towards addressing the more pressing real-life issues? You're wasting them on deriding those who differ from you in their opinions

Omegaverse fans enjoy the privilege of relishing in a problematic genre. In the spirit of fairness, we should be granted the same freedom to express our disapproval

Gender identity ideology has encroached on the sanctity of BL/gay media. I'll preserve the genre's integrity by resisting the invasive omegaverse, and I won't rest until omegaverse is quarantined and exiled to the fringes

An analogy isn't meant to be a perfect comparison

My analogy compares the removal of BL content from dramas to the removal of banana milk from stores

Banana milk is a specific product that might not appeal to everyone's tastes. That doesn't mean it should be eliminated from production. BL/GL content might not appeal to everyone's tastes. That doesn't mean it should be removed or censored