Painter of the Night

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I will give my best review with no spoilers. (At the time of writing review, the manwha is not yet complete) Updated as of 2022 start.

Story - 9
Art - 10
Character - 9
Overall - 10

This is an absolutely beautiful manwha, and really sets itself apart from the rest on many levels. The art is gorgeous, even for the usual full color manwha. The story really pulls you in, and you feel fully invested in what is happening and to whom. As well, this is not your average yaoi. While the content can get very smutty at times, you don't really feel that "oh, look! ... more sex!" sort of vibe. Instead, it feels natural to the story setting and adds to the atmosphere of the character's struggles. And as the chapters go on, you see a lot of evolution in these characters and their lives. This doesn't feel stagnant at all, and the author is really putting in a wonderful amount of time and effort to give a good development.

As for the characters, the art style lends so much power to display the emotions and struggles perfectly and help show just how much depth the human emotions have. Since the story is not yet finished we do not know where the character's stories will end up, but even up to this point of 75+ chapters I am beyond fully invested in how the young lord and young painter will prevail.

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Small disclaimer I feel compelled to leave: The actions taken in this story are not to be condoned due to their severity and the non-consent. Please keep in mind this is fantasy and meant just for enjoyment. Thanks, folks!

This is perfect example of artistic talent being wasted on a horrible story. While the while historical concept would have had tons of potential, Painter of Night just reeks of romanticzing abuse and rape. While something like Killing Stalking had actual writing in it (That unfortunately got worse, yes, but still), Potn has nothing in that sense going on for it. It's rape porn through and through.

Story: Nakyum, a peasant who loves to draw erotic images of men just so happend to get kidnapped by a handsome, sex-obsessed nobleman, Seungho. As if that already didn't feel forced enough, the story BARELY progresses. Seungho basically fucks ... all day, makes Nakyum draw him and the men while they're doing it, beats Nakyum and "punishes him" whenever Nakyum says that he doesn't want to draw, then is suddenly nice to Nakyum who forgot about it all->Rinse and repeat. You know a story is atrocious when the same happens over and over again but just a little different every day. You can't even read the story without getting the feeling that Nakyum will either way always end up getting abused or raped, as if he's a toy, and he somehow is okay with it and gets more hurt by his previous teacher's words, than Seungho abusing him.

Art: Probably the only good thing about this mess. The art is REALLY well done, nobody can deny that, one of the most "beautiful" art I've seen in a manhwa. It's simply a shame that the author's artistic talent is being wasted on this, imagine this art on a actual good story.

Characters: Nakyum is likable but unfortunately really undeveloped. His whole character is just to be the cinnamon roll of the story and to be pitiful, which he yes, both is, but I just really would like it for once if we got a deeper look into his mental health after everything that happened to him in the story. As for the other characters, they're plain horrible or petty (Maybe the only other character that I like other than Nakyum, is that old servant of Seungho who's nice to Nakyum and doesn't treat him like dirt). Seungho is your usual abuser and rapist, narcissistic, so he will always blames others. Idk if the obvious needs to be said, but his character would never work if the author chose to draw him ugly cause people wouldn't forgive him being an Abuser and Rapist then. While most of the Readers seem to root for Nakyum to end up with him, if it wasn't for Seungho's looks, nobody would root for that. But this is a BL and not a Psychological Thriller like KS, so it's not like it matters.
Btw, I can already tell that the author will reveal his sob backstory later on, as if that would erase the fact that this dude is a abusive rapist who also murdered someone in cold blood in the first chapter.

Overall:
It had similarities to Killing Stalking but it's even worse (if that's even possible). There's no explanation for why Nakyum is fine with being with Seungho, why he puts up with the abuse, or why he keeps forgetting that Seungho beats and sexually abuses him. There's not mention of Stockholm Syndrome in the story. Hell, the fact that Nakyum is a peasant makes no sense to begin with when you consider that he looks like a KPOP idol. Sure, it's fiction, but a peasant from that time period would never look this good lmao. The story just feels too "convenient". The fact that a peasant who's a twink that loves to draw erotic images of men, just so happend to get kidnapped by a nobleman who's not only handsome but also a sex obsessed seme, is again, too convenient.

The Author even said in a Q&A that they wanted name the manhwa "Sex of the Night". Like? You got all the physical and sexual abuse in the story going on, but then you take a look at the official images that the author draws, and it's just a bunch of wholesome stuff of someone having a good time with his Abuser and Rapist. It just feels like the mangaka created this for the sake of romanticzing abuse and rape and one-sided power dynamics. Nakyum is sub, Seungho is dom, Nakyum is poor, Seungho is rich. Yada yada yada. You can't even call what's going on the story a relationship, Nakyum gets abused and blamed by Seungho and can't defend himself or else Seungho does worse things to him. Even the fact that Seungho raped him (Both when Nakyum was drunk and then later by physical force), gets sidelined by not only the author, but the characters in the story.

The whole "victim falls in love with their abuser/rapist" storyline has to be the worst writing of all time. And that kind of writing will always work with certain readers cause:
1.Both the victim and abuser are male.
2.The victim is depicted as weak and feminine, while the abuser is depicted as abusive and masculine.
3.The abuser is drawn "handsome", so many people easily ignore the fact that he abused and raped people. Pretty Privilege is a real thing. If the abuser/rapist was drawn like a old man with a beer belly, nobody would romanticize the abuse and rape nor even read the story. People glorify abusers/rapists with no redeeming qualities JUST because of their looks.
4.The victim grows a crush on their abuser/rapist just because they're not being abused by them for once. And people will accept it with the explanation that "the abuser/rapist changed and the victim loves them so nothing's wrong".
Apparently, pretending to be nice for once immediately erases vile crimes.
5.When the abuser/rapist goes back to their usual, abusive self, the same people will then be like "i can fix him, i can fix the abuser and rapist".
6.The author uses the backstory of the abuser/rapist as an excuse and to produce sympathy out of the readers. People will then either be like "it's not the abuser's fault that he's like that" or "i feel so sorry for him, lets just ignore the fact that i never felt sorry for the victim when the abuser/rapist abused him throughout the entire story". <---The backstory of the villain should always only be there to explain why they are like they are, not excuse or justify them.

TLDR: The "victim falls in love with their abuser/rapist" storyline is absolute dog sh*t. That's basically as if someone beats you up and rapes you, but you fall in love with them because of their looks. Which is completely unrealistic and absurd.

The author of PotN simply doesn't know how to write a story. We're 70+ chapters into it and the entire time, it's been an ongoing cycle of the same shit. Even after 70+ chapters, Seungho is still the same plain and abusive asshole who assaults Nakyum. Even after 70+ chapters, Nakyum is still the same plain and naive people pleaser. NOBODY changed. Seungho still abuses Nakyum, Nakyum still likes Seungho for no reason. And even though the story takes place in the historical times, the politics in this are non-existent.

This Manhwa has amazing art but it has a shallow story with shallow characters. If it wasn't for the fact that the story is full of abuse and smut, and it was, let's say, wholesome instead, I'd probably rate this higher and keep an eye closed to the shallow story and characters. But for the author to treat abuse and rape as if it's for someone's enjoyment, is just disrespectful. Is Potn the worst BL? No, of course not. There are many which are worse. But just like how there are millions of better Psychological Thrillers than KS, there are a millions of better BLs than Potn. Both are plain and simple overhyped cause 1)they contain abuse and rape and 2)abuse and rape is somehow hot to people if it's a male beating and raping another male.

The art is a 10/10, everything else (story, character, enjoyment) is a 1.

This is beyond disgusting. I genuinely don't know how people enjoy this, but the whole story is literally romanticizing r*pe. If you like this, you're actually sick. The main character is literally scared of the love interest, so I'm not sure why y'all like to ship the main character with the love interest, but it's whatever. Some people might say that the seme is trying to get better, but in my opinion, he hasn't changed at all, and even if he did, the damage was already done. The bitch is a r*pist, and there's no excuse for that. There wasn't a moment in the story ... where I felt any emotion, I literally just stared at my screen because I couldn't comprehend what was going on. It's chaotic; the story is ass, the characters are ass, all of it is ass. The author wasted their potential. They could've made something wholesome and cute, but instead they had to waste their talent on this shit. Toxic relationship; terrible story.