u/Hello_MF19

I hoped to start a meaningful discussion about what makes us as a community approve the male lead as fleshed out/really well written despite/while being devoted to the FL, and also just how male leads are written in general. Basically a discussion following the twitter thread above.

I've started with some community favorite MLs who seem fleshed out from what I've read.

1. Callisto [Villains are destined to die]
2. Therdeo [My In-laws are obsessed with me]
3. Carcel [The Broken Ring : This Marriage Will Fail Anyway]
4. Sunshine [Concubine Walkthrough]
5. Erkin [The Spark in your eyes]
6. Nora [ Fantasie of a stepmother]
7. Dowha [Mystic Prince]
8. Edward [ Wall of glass]
9. Noah [ The reason why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's castle]
10. Mikhael [Revolutionary Princess Eve]

As you can see, these male leads have quite differing personalities and motives. So it's not like there's only one or two formula to successfully flesh out a male lead AND his dynamic with his lover. I know there are literature writing tips about romantic relationships but I kinda feel OI needs special attention because the dynamic/ chemistry/ history between the leads are a primary driving factor.

I also just noticed they're all either blonde or black/dark haired, and there's only one cold duke of the north in my list haha. Sorry for other popular mls Ive left out i just cant remember rn.

I've completed half of them, and am caught up or will catch up with the rest of them. So I do feel they are well written. Just kinda confused about if Dohwa and Mikhael truly belong here, because I've seen some argue that Dohwa is only a simp for Jeokyeon, and also Eve being the reason Mikhael overthrows the monarchy by rebellion waters down his character.

I was thinking of adding ML from [I'll save this damn family] and [Kill the villainess] too but I felt kinda conflicted idk why.

The twitter prompt seemed fun, and started because of a funny plain rice with steamed chicken 'which ml feels like this' (ans: most of them)....But I was hoping the reddit community would provide more and nuanced perspectives. !! And of course, share RECS with each other !! Add Mls from manga/webnovels/manhuas too if you'd like

It felt right to post this here instead of other webtoon/ manhwa subs because I can't imagine there being as many fleshed out modern/ futuristic/ post apocalyptic genre's manhwa devoted MLs as in OI/ historical rofan, without them being yandere.

My last post here got me backlash (rightfully so ig) so i kept wondering why I felt differently ie its too early to give a final verdict about ML from [How He gets a divorced] even though I usually always agree with the community favorite Green Flags, and avoid red flags. (Ans: It's the intriguing storyline and my belief ml has potential to be complex, and I can absolutely be wrong, 25 chapters is just too early, like remember Concubine Walkthrough ppl? Horrible comparison but I'm desperate for sth different from isekai slop but im not ready for novels)

So, when exactly does the male lead cross the line from being well written to being an asshole or a complete nothing burger downbad? Please feel free to write your thoughts, analysis and/or disagreements. I want to hear other perspectices. And please do not go harass the original posters. Thank you to anyone who read this far.

To all webtoon moms who love their child(ren), whether biological, adopted or foster or there isn't a label. (Give me your recs!)

❗️May contain disturbing content😭 im sorry for not adding warning in title❗️All this in Chapter 1🫠

Women still do, don't get me wrong. But I just meant that back then afaik there weren't feminist movements. Women were openly treated as properties, baby-making machines and as if they're subhuman. This sort of situation in the panels were probably very common.

Thankfully the female lead here is verrry mentally strong, street smart and self sufficient. But it makes me sad that the vast majority of fellow women in the past (and today) suffered so much under the patriarchy. Arranged marriages are still common, but not too long ago, women at large were being married off to old men they know nothing about, and have never seen, and expected to spend their whole life(aka slave away) with him

I've been obsessed with [How He Got Divorced] for a while now like a lunatic. Yes, I know the male lead is horrible. But I don't completely hate him because he shows potential for character developement. The female lead is so admirable wth, I wanna see more of her.

And the plot is quite nice too, for me anyway. It all starts because this mf ml falls for an angelic lady at a ball, finds her interesting and wants to marry her.(A first! Its not the fl who's interesting! Sike lol she later is). But he must first divorce fl (this mf was pretty angry about being forced into a marriage but then later fkn forgot he had a wife)

I wish we got more translated chapters that are not paywalled by an unofficial website😃🙄. Or that it at least gets an official serialisation. Although I haven't completed but this artstyle seems familiar and if I'm right the artist has done historical manhwas before so I have hope. Please I'm begging for some to pick this up.

edit: I'm sorry guys, but the panels i posted are mostly about the trash stepfather, but most of the comments are about the trash ml. Am I missing something? I want to read this story because of the very interesting plot going on rn, and fl has great survival instincts, ml isn't the focus and i couldn't care less about him and fl knows how trash he is. if you haven't read this story, do not judge this (do if you have tho). You can't expect a whole lot of feminism and badassery in historical non ro-fan stories.

This manhwa will always have a soft spot in my heart. The characters were great, the plot execution not so much. But Terryl and Rashed had one of the most memorable, funny and good father-daughter dynamic in my opinion, one of the sidelined but positive aspect afair. A tough love dad and a short fuse daughter.

I'm not surprised i hadn't discovered this earlier. After bat's demise, I have been reading but i didn't have the same drive anymore. But this feels like a peak regression storyline so far. Kudos to the author and the artist.

This has happened throughout history, is still happening today, and will continue to happen in the future, sadly.

Edit: Context added because some of you are taking these panels to mean the webtoon is promoting monarchy and that its ok to use the lives of innocent commoners in war c'mon bros ffs

Currently, the female lead has ascended the throne as the ruler of Parnassus despite being the only illegitimate daughter of the previous ruler. That's because all the other legitimate heirs succumbed to disease. The ml/duke here has strongly supported her becoming the ruler >!because she has helped Lycans (beast-men) in a kingdom where they're discriminated and moved them to safe places and went to jail multiple times for that while she was in hiding with her mother in the cold north away from royal life.!< And also because there was a clever dialogue about >!what would you do if you had to save 50 dying refugees or 50 dying cows for your subjects!< and ML believed Fl is the type who do sth preferable >!like save the refugees and ask the citizens to save cows and then give cows to refugees and they'll be self sufficient.!<

The webtoon didnt have any intention to make monarchy seem the best thing. Like....in the panels above she literally has an internal crisis over ordinary people fighting in the war. If she doesn't fight and instead marries the crown prince, it would be a worse monarchy. Crown prince is a psycho, and grotesque details ahead but in one of Fl's lives >!where she runs away and Cp nails her hands near a tree for days while she starved. He later brings her his mother's corpse for her to eat. CP was always ambitious to conquer Parnassus and Dofein, and entertained the arrange marriage with fl for that reason. He'd help (? i forgot details) Parnassus conquer Dofein, and then marry Lucy to swallow it all under the empire.!<