#and general antagonists being just the entire fucking world because its politics baby thats how it is

[limelocked]

gayboy story from my head:

random modern dude has a sister who was really into this one manhwa but eventually lost interest, she got him into it so they could talk about a shared interest but after she dropped off because it was a little too political and the romance was too slow/badly paced he soldiered on and actually really enjoyed it both for the slow romance and a lot for the political science with his favourite character being the stalwart Duke who he identifies with a lot (both not seemingly being interested in romance, instead helping set up the couples and being a generally neutral powerhouse in the politics)

for some reason he falls into the story and possesses one of the primary male leads; one of the royal children, a Prince conceived by the late empress who is fated to have a Rough upbringing where his step-mother the empress consort does everything in her power to get Her Kid on the throne, something that eventually and inevitably leads to the Prince being the only royal kid thats known to be left alive with the numbers of missing and dead being unknown as bodies werent confirmed

upon killing the last of his half siblings, the empress consorts favourite, in self defence he gets back his memories of being Modern Guy and takes it not as being his past life memories exactly but being a revelation from some kinda fucking god (a really boring god) and commits to writing down everything he remembers

cut to the dukes pov later on, theres rumours that the crown prince went mad after killing all his siblings (a rumour thats purposefully incorrect and spread by his detractors, the rumour however being a canon event to the manhwa as the original prince Did have a breakdown) and some think that another noble family needs to step up and thus a faction war is breaking out

the duke is in charge of a very VERY profitable piece of land (trading and bread basket) and could theoretically become independent if not for the political backlash effecting the trade side of things, this is why a lot of nobles come to him and go heeeeeey could you be like the shadow king in the future? the prince is mad and the emperor is on his sickbed with the empress consort having no right to rule (not empress, just consort, no royal blood) so liiiike~

and thats how they meet, the duke going to have an audience with the crown prince to like test the waters, check if the rumours are true, not thinking treasonous thoughts but needing to know how bad things are if the nobles are being This open about treason

back to prince pov as the prince and duke totally are working together and arent having intense mind battles over what the others intentions are until they at least Become Friends and the prince tells the duke about the revelation he got when he was young and the duke goes wow thats wild as fuck and also tracks

after that its will they wont they shounen ai while also doing extreme political scheming, at some point the original plot starts and the prince meets the female lead who is acting Different from what he knows which is because shes actually Modern Guys sister which confuses things a Whole lot for the prince whos been essentially worshipping his past life as a god, female lead and prince spending a lot of time together leading the duke to becoming jealous...

i have a lot of thoughts about this

the question should come up a lot with both the duke and the prince about their relationship and if its gay, if its romantic, what it is, and it should all come back with the answer "it is what it is" and that it doesnt need a label because im thinking the prince is somewhere on the aro spectrum if not both of them, them coming to the conclusion that if they're possessive over each other and want to spend a majority of their time together then thats good enough (but also what are we to do about the subject of heirs to both our families when neither of us can carry child)