Sexism, Classism, and Melodrama in the Omegaverse
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Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Written in the Stars.
Content Warning: There may be references to sexism (based on primary and secondary sex), violence, blood, bullying, excessive drinking, gossiping, strained familial relationships, abuse, torture, classism, social gap, self-deprecation, self-harm, forced sex work (specifically arranged sexual encounters for the purpose of breeding), noncon (including gang rape), peer pressure, mentions of pedophilia, drugging, arranged marriage (not between the main couple), breakups (not between the main couple), dehumanization, exotification, mentions of human experimentation, kidnapping, somnophilia, slut-shaming, extortion, mentions of death, mentions of murder, PTSD, infertility, mpreg (male pregnancy), gun violence, drug addiction, and overwork, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
Woo Joo-hyuk has been in love since the moment he met Shin Yoosung. Joo-hyuk, unfortunately, has a very rare secondary sex, that being a recessive alpha. While some people see him as something to pity and gawk at, most bully him for being a ‘half-breed,’ someone who is like a beta, but is supposed to be an alpha. High school was a struggle at the best of times, and whether by teachers or fellow students, he was constantly looked down upon. That is, until Yoosung came into his life.
Unlike Joo-hyuk, Yoosung is a dominant omega and hails from a prestigious family made up entirely of dominants. Joo-hyuk never imagined he would ever get the chance to exist in the world of someone as beloved as Yoosung, but Yoosung brings him right in. Ten years later, Joo-hyuk is still lingering in Yoosung’s orbit, but only when Yoosung calls. Unfortunately, as privileged as Yoosung’s life is, it comes at a steep price, and the only time he gets any freedom is with Joo-hyuk, who knows nothing about the world of dominants.
But Joo-hyuk is tired of being just his refuge. He wants more, though asking for more could ruin what little connection he has with Yoosung forever.
Review:
I usually try to include a paragraph discussing the art because art is important in a visual medium like manhwa. But I have so much to talk about in this, I’m just going to say it isn’t perfect, but it is pretty. It has its weird, sketchy moments and odd proportions (yaoi neck strikes again, folks), but it is perfectly serviceable. What isn’t as pretty is something I rarely see in a visual medium like manhwa: purple prose. This is chock-full of some purple prose. For a manhwa, this is overwritten all to hell. And Joo-hyuk calls Yoosung supple far too much for my comfort. I can’t think of a more unattractive descriptor to use during sex (that’s not true, I can, but supple is used over and over again in this, and I just despise it at this point).
Yet, for something so overwritten, it misses out on a ton of key details that would’ve made the narrative so much smoother. There is a transition from the Yoosung rescue to him being at a hospital. It feels like all the same day, or at most a day later, but it is clearly intended to feel like a longer span of time has passed since he’s been tested and found not to be pregnant, and he even mentions feeling like he had put the traumatic past behind him, like it had been weeks since the horrible event happened. It is truly jarring how quickly we move from one scene to the next, and it doesn’t give anything a chance to sit with us and be experienced for what it is.
I’ve reviewed a Cheongdam work in the past (Secret Therapy), and aside from the art, I feel almost exactly the same way. I liked the side couple more. They felt more real to me. The pacing felt super off, and the darker elements felt more shoehorned in for shock value than something truly meaningful. I get the feeling that this creator feels compelled to create deep narratives so their story isn’t all smut, but I also feel that is what is causing them so much trouble. If they had relied more on the sexual tension between our main characters and stopped trying to create this overarching human experimentation, eugenics-like, forced breeding for an heir thing, everything would’ve felt much more sincere and deep than whatever this was. I mean, Yoosung was experimented on at some point in his adulthood, since his weird ex-boyfriend claimed he experimented on him and turned him into a dominant, and yet that is just thrown out there, and that’s it. No memories of it, no exploration of how Yoosung could’ve lost this memory, nor any explanation on how they hid he was a recessive until they could go through with this experiment. Sure, it could be that it happened when he was an infant, and thus, he wouldn’t remember it… But then how could his ex have been the one to experiment on him? They went to school together. It just makes no sense and was more of an afterthought than an effective story beat.
The whole issue of sexism and classism could still have been explored, but it wouldn’t have felt melodramatic and would’ve given more time to develop our characters and their feelings for one another. My favorite parts of this were the beginning, before we tried to dive into all these conspiracies, scandals, and horrors, and the after stories, when we see them living as an average family. This creator has the potential to write really lovely down-to-earth stories with some great smut, but they try so hard to push in darkness where it just isn’t needed. Maybe this and Secret Therapy are just coincidentally bad in the same way, and this creator has done better work. I am always willing to give them another try, but I don’t have much confidence right now.
Results:
I love dark stories. Some of my favorite stories are as dark and toxic as they come (Legroom, Low Tide in Twilight, and Blind Play come to mind), but the difference between those and this title is in their use of the darkness. The darkness is integral and purposeful to the plot in my favorites, while this one seems to use it just to add shock value or as a cheap way to add depth. There are some really strong elements in this: the side stories with Joo-hyuk struggling with his own internalized fears about his secondary sex, the child-rearing is super cute, and the side couple has a ton of potential. But add on the purple prose, the weird pacing, and, something I didn’t even get to bring up, the meme references (like “so demure, very mindful,” for example), and it just ruins any potential this one had. Am I being harsh? Maybe, but it is so unfortunate seeing something that has so many things I love fall apart because they tried too hard to make it more than it ever had to be.
Have you read Written in the Stars? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
