I've recently been running out of things to read, and I'm reluctant to start new titles that I've shelved because almost all of them have the main character play as the aggressor in the relationship. I'm not big on romance because it's a delicate balance. I've read many titles where I just dropped because the main character was an ick as soon as the concept of romance got involved: like the quality of writing dropping, out of character behavior, and disgusting behavior on top of that. There has been good reads, but I dislike the significant other in the relationship being indistinct or an accessory to the main character; a pair of main characters that are not distinct without the other, or after a certain event they're relegated to a tool used for dialogue, role, or ability... I am starting this discussion because I want to hear other peoples opinions, I wanted to know if I'm biased against seme protagonists or male protagonists pursuing their FLs.
Ahhhhh. In my opinion you're not biased. I also prefer novels with a shou mc or a female mc cuz the story and pov makes it better. Like in BG novels if the mc is male the story would be mostly about him conquering this or overcoming that and when the romance part come either he is extremely stupid in terms of romance or he has more than one admirers and some sort of romantic relation or action with them but he is said to be innocent and all that. Or he has a haram (i just hate it). I have really read many novels with a male mc. Just about 7-8 only. Among them only 2 are passable good. Similarly in BL the gong is either too stupid or too selfish and the shou still forgives him in the end. (Like why????) It's pretty rare to find novels that have a good plot and romance with a male mc or gong mc. Like recently I read a gong mc novel "Grocery Store 514" and it has a good plot and romance but the shou ml feels like he is to weak or he is never there when the mc needs him rather his friend(who liked him at first) is there for him. It was near the end that the shou ml was shown a lil bit that he was there for the mc. If the mc was a shou then the ml would have been shown as someone who is powerful and all that and that he is there for the mc all the time. That makes it feel like an equal or balanced relationship. Like they are there for each other. But...butttttttt..... there are some good novels with gong mc like "Silent Reading by priest" is one of my absolute faves and it's pretty good. And "Imperfections" by the same author. There are some other too. If you want I can recommend them to you. All in all the novels with femal mc or shou mc are better in romance, plot and character growth and all that. (I wanted to write more but I have 2 assignments due in a few hours )
Now that I think about it, they seem to always give the MC who is pursuing a relationship 'choices,' and make it a point why they choose FL/ML out of everyone else. I think I recently dropped a novel (for a different reason) where the ML learned about MC's 'superiority' and his peers finally acknowledge that he's a good spouse. So good that maybe ML isn't a match for MC. Mind you they've been married for over a year, where they've found fault with MC by saying he's incompatible or a wasted on MC. I think perspective matters a lot, because the latter feels like a challenge and the former lacks a sense of trust or security. No way, I didn't remember this one was a gong MC! I picked it up a while back because it was a blind MC. On a different point, like I wrote a lengthy review in 2021. I felt like the author didn't commit by portraying MC to being emotionally manipulative, or comfortable in his perspective with a disability. Good premise, wasted potential ig I'll check those out! It seems I've already had one of them in my reading list, so I'll be starting with "Imperfections." Good luck! I'm going through finals right now and all I've been doing is procrastinating~ My stress levels are off the charts lol