1. to the people saying "he's adopted so its fine" BFFR THEY FUCKED WHEN THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE BLOOD…
Incest is a social convention set up to protect from genetic in-breeding. Cousins who aren’t reproducing are hardly in the same moral, genetic, or social red zone as a heterosexual pair that might do so. Do we even know if they think they’re first cousins, or something more distant? To me a cousin could be at a far greater remove than that and still be called a cousin. I guess it does depend on language though. If they’re cousins at a remove, or second or third cousins, incest doesn’t really arise, in the eyes of the law, or the Christian religions. Nothing I’ve seen, as someone who doesn’t speak Korean, would lead me to assume they’re first cousins, maybe you know more?
In video games giving your main/player character a character deficit works to put your audience behind their eyes. Romantic dramas need the lead to be their own entity. I not only had no clue of his motivations, likely behaviour, or personality, all my attention was drawn away from him to his three suitors. Each of them had a personality, a goal, and enough individuality to interest and attract me. They all annoyed, amused, softened, frustrated, and interested me in turn. The lead, was just a cute little object for them to contend over. Towards the end, I was honestly more invested in the relationship between Yeonsang and Gyeon, that any between Doha and anyone else. I think they’d have been a good match.
I’m viewing it as “bad boy gets an object lesson in morals from his crush”, because I think it’s going to end with Shulang on top, with Xiao getting schooled, with plenty of damage. It seems really tongue-in-cheek to me, which lightens up what could end up being very dark otherwise.
Well, it is melodrama, so he might not be, but for a while his children will be tainting the world with his teachings, but without his interference, so we’ll learn just how past redemption one or more of them are.
Oh, and that website errors for me, which is why I’ve stopped trying to watch stuff there.