//this chapter gets nasty

so, ive been seeing a fair amount of The Discourse over a korean webcomic called killing stalking

so whats the big deal? whew boy

ks (as i will abbreviate it from now on) is a horror comic about a young man who is stalking (duh) his crush, a charming, cool dude. our main character sneaks into his house...only to discover a naked woman bound and gagged in his basement. this "perfect guy" is actually a serial killer. the story focuses on the main character's attempts on escaping his new captor.
yeah, so this story is pretty gnarly. its definitely a horror story.

this story is firmly in the category of "sexual horror." meaning, it uses graphic sexuality as a means of unsettling or squicking the audience. think splatter horror, but instead of guts, its sex. to be frank, it involves a lot of rape (since thats one of the scariest sexual things).

now, this kinda stuff isnt for every one. its not for me. i was interested in the concept, but the graphic pictures made me uncomfortable and i had to stop reading.

but let's discuss what i did read.

the sexual content in ks isnt sexy. its either played to show how pathetic a character is, or for disgust factor. in the first chapter or so, theres a scene where the main character masturbates to his crush. its not framed in anyway as an erotic scene, even though much isnt left to the imagination. its more...sad, since hes obsessed with him due to mental illness.

so yeah, from what ive read, this isnt fetish material. this is a dark story that uses uncomfortable topics like rape to scare the audience. again, you dont have to like this. at all. im not a fan of that kind of content.

but come on guys, writing rape isnt inherently bad. when done with tact and research, theres nothing wrong. using it in a disrespectful manner is when i start to object.

ks isnt going "wow look how hot it is for this little boy to get raped by his uncle" it's going "look how disgusting this man is, raping this kid. its terrible and caused this person to develop mental illness from trauma"

and there's also the topic of supposed homophobia. yes, the main character is gay and his crush is bi (i think, at the very least into men). theres a difference between " minorities are evil" and "this minority happens to be a villain"

there is no doubt these characters are in a toxic, bad relationship. but what does it matter? people write toxic straight relationships all the time. its what the story is about, its part of the horror. its not going "UwU bf goals" it's more like "look at this dysfunctional relationship"

its all about context, guys. romanticizing and making matters like this ~smexy and cool~ is the problem, not just writing them in general.
however, the fandom is a littl different. yes, some of the fandom misses the entire point of the comic and sees it as a hot yaoi porn. which...isnt that true.

i agree, its gross if a fan goes "wow uwu he tried to sexually assault him how hawt". bc for goodness sake thats nasty man.

doesnt make the comic itself bad, tho. fandom doesnt dictate its canon.

in general, write what you want, just do it with tact. dark fiction isnt wrong.