The relationship between Penelope and Eckles: A bad ending scenario.
Readers of the popular manhwa/novel "Villains are destined to die" are well aware of the dynamic between Penelope and her first choice for survival, Eckles and many claim that it is a toxic relationship, which it is, but what REALLY makes it not only toxic but also a bad ending scenario for the characters? A lot of people shift the full blame to Eckles for bringing Yvonne/Leila back to the Eckharts, thus putting Penelope in danger, but he isn't the sole person to blame.
The relationship in its simplest form is of a slave and his master. Their first meeting involves Penelope purchasing him from a slave auction for 100 million gold, and she makes it clear to him that he is still not a person in her eyes. The whole purpose of Penelope buying Eckles was for her own survival, yes but she doesn't try to hide what she sees him as: A pet or a dog that she is training to obey her every command.
Since Penelope is the slave master in this dynamic, she holds all the power that determines the fate of Eckles depending on if he obeys or disobey's what she wants out of him. Though she may be the most hated member of her household, she is still is the one with the money she used to purchase a human being or in her view a "pet"
The thing with Penelope that makes it harder to defend her when she does the things that she does is that the new soul in her body is originally from the modern era. She of all people should know better that slavery in general is one of humanities most disgusting crimes against itself and of all else, she has experienced severe abuse at the hands of her family, both her original family from the modern day and the Eckharts.
Penelope's own experiences and how they play into her abuse of Eckles.
As I'm sure we all know. Penelope was originally a poverty stricken girl who was barely getting by before she was adopted and welcomed into her new family when she was 12. Despite duke Eckhart being the one to adopt her, he does a half-assed job at it and pretty much gives up on trying to do anything more than the bare minimum when she supposedly starts acting out.
Her new brothers are no better than her original brothers and they absolutely despise her, seeing her as a shallow replacement of their lost younger sister and Penelope secretly wishing that Yvonne would either die or never come back did not help her case at all. Reynold would blame her for petty thievery to get out his frustrations on Penelope and Derrick was both lusting after her while wanting to trap and hurt her at the same time. The entire house family as all essentially a death trap where something as little as fork could kill Penelope. In general, she had no one she could trust and would be victim blamed if she ever voiced her concerns or even anger for her treatment.
However, when Penelope/ Cha Siyeon purchases a seemingly loyal Eckles, she doesn't believe that she could ever be at fault for being the master of a person who has been broken down so badly that he is essentially a blank slate for what could be considered grooming. Aside from Cha Siyeon being 20 and Eckles being 17, (which while that could be an interesting story to tell, I doubt that was meant the main point of why the relationship was abusive given that the body of Penelope is the same age.) The reason I believe that Penelope groomed Eckles is because even if you say, "But Penelope is also 17-18" Grooming can happen to anyone, children are the most vulnerable to it of course but it can also be applied to anyone around the abuser's age.
Grooming overall is taking somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of care and exploiting that person by manipulating them through a built of trust to get what the abuser wants out them, which is usually sexual gratification but that's not what I think Penelope wants out of Eckles, what she wants is the safety she'll get from securing a good ending with one of the male leads and Eckles is the easiest to earn affection points from. The dynamic between them though is still under a huge power imbalance, where Eckles would not be allowed to say no to her no matter what she asks of him.
At first, Penelope thinks she is already doing a good job by doing the bare minimum for Eckles which at first includes not doing things that a lot of slave masters did to their slaves which you probably guessed, isn't really that worthy to earn an applause for not whipping a man. Besides, while Penelope hasn't been shown to be physically abusive, that doesn't mean she sees him as someone worthy of respect.
Below is a basic summary of what Eckles is to Penelope in panel form.
Penelope is essentially asserting her power over Eckles by reminding him that she has the power to send him back to slavery if she feels he is disobeying her.
If that alone isn't messed up, she is also given a ring that has the ability to paralyze Eckles if she presses it.
I don't think enough people realize how disgusting the choker and ring really are. If someone really wanted to, this ring could be used to paralyze Eckles, and he wouldn't be able to anything to stop the ring holder from doing whatever they want to him. I would say that he is extremely that Penelope's goal isn't sexual gratification but really, we shouldn't be congratulating a slave owner for not sexually abusing their slave
When the audience sees that Penelope is praising Eckles instead of verbally abusing him, defending him from other guards that see him as lesser, and buying him new clothes and a sweet new sword, it is believed that Penelope is already breaking the cycle of abuse by what is essentially love bombing Eckles, which is a common step in the grooming process that is typically used so that the victim will have a harder time recognizing the abuser as abusive when they think back to all the adoration they showed for them in the past.
Remember, Penelope is not doing these nice things for Eckles because she wants him to feel comfortable or because she loves him. She's doing it for her own benefit: Her survival. Later on, when their relationship progresses, it seems like to some level, that Penelope starts to enjoy the power she has over Eckles, not just in the form of relief that she feels like she'll be safe but also as a twisted form of power that she finally has for herself. Everyone from both of her lives treated like absolute shit out of pure hatred for her or in Derricks case, as a sick way to distract himself from the fact that he wants to cage Penelope and keep her as a hidden wife. This would be the first time Penelope had control of really anything at all, a human being, I do believe that the big reason Penelope doesn't acknowledge that she's hurting someone is because Eckles is "willingly" serving her, obeying everything she says, seemingly not minding that she sees him as a pet, and calls her master, that she technically isn't doing anything wrong because ECKLES is the one who wants it even though he is a 17 year old slave who wouldn't be allowed to hate her even if he wanted to. She can't possibly fathom that she is an abuser because Eckles, a person who has been broken down so many times that he sees no value in himself as a human and only as Penelope's pet, is the one telling her she didn't do anything wrong.
while the goal of surviving the game isn't unreasonable, Penelope seems to justify EVERYTHING she does with her own survival. As I said, she isn't the type of person who wants to admit she's become exactly what she hated, this is most obviously shown in recent chapters where she tells Eckles that the reason she attempted suicide was because of him and that if she knew she would have to see him again, it would have been better if she actually died.
She is completely ignoring the fact that she played a huge hand in dehumanizing Eckles as nothing but a tool and when that tool feels to have lost its purpose, she breaks his collar that was initially used to control him, setting him free which represents the toxic relationship beint broken off while still thinking of the person bitterly when she wishes Eckles well with his new master (Leila)
Now before I get accused of painting Eckles as a soft lil victim who did nothing wrong. He, like Penelope, is not a perfect victim.
Since he has no human rights, the best way for him to survive is to do what his master wants even if he hates it. Eckles has been shown to fantasize about doing the same thing to her by trapping her by bringing Leila back to the mansion (He was brainwashed but I'm pretty sure Leilas powers work best when the feelings she's looking to amplify are already there.) and betraying his own people just so he can gain a commoner status and an excuse to force Penelope by his side.
Over time, he develops hatred for Penelope alongside his obsession for her. While he is categorized as a yandere, I believe that the reason Eckles "loves" Penelope is because he really just loves the idea of hurting her the same way she hurts him. Whenever this is because he thinks that abusing each other is just a way of expressing love, or if he genuinely wants to hurt her back as a form of resentment. He too, wouldn't be entirely opposed to abusing Penelope by isolating her and forcing her to rely on him and only him, perhaps even killing her himself, thus repeating the cycle of abuse yet again.
In general, this relationship was doomed to fail no matter if it was Penelope sending Eckles back to the auction house or if Eckles succeeded in defeating Callisto, It serves as a bad ending where nobody had to be better and take responsibility for their behavior. Penelope could continue enjoying the power she has over Eckles while Eckles isolates her and becomes violent enough to keep her away from everyone else in the outside world.
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