Unlike other men on this list who engage in openly harmful behavior, Asher is actually quite gentle toward the female lead, Aria. However, the biggest problem with his character is how poorly written and dull both he and his romance with Aria are.
To be honest, nearly every character in this manhwa feels like a Mary Sue and is badly written—except for Lady Isis, who unfortunately died far too soon.
The main issue with Asher is that the reader can’t clearly tell when or why he fell in love with Aria. The story relies heavily on the fact that they were childhood friends, but that alone doesn’t make their romance convincing or meaningful. Asher’s only stated reason for loving Aria is that she is “interesting,” which feels shallow and underdeveloped.
Many fans argue that their relationship is “healthy,” but I disagree. One of the major reasons Aria initially became interested in Asher was his noble status—he is a prince with high rank and power. Early in the manhwa, when she first sees him, she even mockingly comments that he must be ashamed to stand next to someone from a higher family than his. This makes the foundation of their relationship feel more transactional than emotional.
Throughout the entire story, Asher barely has a personality of his own. His sole purpose seems to be making Aria shine and serving as her love interest.
What are his hobbies?
His interests?
His fears?
What does he want in life?
We never find out.
Aside from finding Aria “interesting,” there is no clear reason for why he loves her so deeply. Because of this, his character feels bland, shallow, and incomplete. While I respect his fans, I personally find Asher to be one of the most poorly written male leads in manhwa.
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Raphael (The Villainess Is a Marionette)
Unlike most of the men on this list, I actually like Raphael. He is polite, gentle, and respectful. However, much like Asher, his love for Kayena does not make sense and is poorly written. Don’t get me wrong—I like Kayena as well—but in Raphael’s case, the romance feels forced.
In the first timeline, he ignored Kayena and disliked her despite her deep love for him. In the second timeline, the moment Kayena stops paying attention to him, he suddenly realizes how “amazing” she is and falls for her. This shift feels shallow and unearned.
Aside from loving Kayena, Raphael does not have much of a personality or background. He lacks clear interests, ambitions, inner conflict, or emotional depth. (The step-brother plotline does not count as proper character development.) Rezef, who was positioned as the villain and is the female lead’s brother, is far more complex and better written. Even the second male lead has a more interesting dynamic with the main character.
In short, I love Raphael, but his character was written lazily. He exists mainly to make Kayena shine, and outside of loving her, he has no strong personality, passions, or emotional weight.
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Romances That Should Not Exist:
Eugene (Beware of the Brothers)
He literally falls in love with his own adoptive sister—someone he was raised with from childhood—who also looks exactly like his deceased biological sister. I’m sorry, but this is deeply disturbing and uncomfortable.
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Emel (I Belong to House Castielo)
Emel falls in love with and marries a girl he essentially helped raise. At the beginning of the story, Estelle is a child, and Emel becomes her knight. He stays by her side constantly and watches her grow up. Despite this, he later develops romantic and sexual feelings toward her. Being attracted to someone you watched grow up in front of your eyes is not romantic—it is grooming.
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Harmful Toward Other Women but Not the Female Lead:
Cassius (I Became the Villain’s Mother)
This man barely cares about the female lead until much later in the story, but more importantly, he shows absolutely no care or respect for his first wife. He never talks about her, never mourns her death, never shows remorse, and never even acknowledges her existence. Whether they were in love or not does not matter—she was still his wife and the mother of his child.
He does not speak about her with his son, nor does he properly answer the female lead’s questions about her. Ironically, the female lead shows more concern and empathy for her stepson’s biological mother than Cassius himself ever does.
On top of that, his behavior is incredibly immature. He competes with his own child for the female lead’s affection, treating his son like a romantic rival instead of a vulnerable child. This is especially disturbing considering that he knows his son is sick, lonely, and has no one who truly cares for him. Cassius never even tries to communicate with or emotionally support his son, yet he becomes jealous when a kind woman shows that child basic affection. Many readers find this father–son rivalry over the female lead “cute” or “funny,” but I personally find it deeply unsettling and inappropriate.
He does not even bother to ask his son whether he would want a sibling. What makes this worse is that Cassius clearly cares far more about his second child with the female lead than about his first son. Both children are his, yet he treats them very differently simply because he loves one child’s mother and dislikes the other’s. That level of favoritism is cruel.
In the end, Cassius is the most childish person in the story. His son deserves a far better father—though at least he is lucky to have a kind stepmother. Still, I cannot help but feel deeply sorry for the boy’s biological mother, who is completely erased and disrespected simply because the male lead viewed her as nothing more than a pawn.
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Gabriel (The Mafia Nanny)
Unlike Cassius, Gabriel genuinely cares about his son and is, in many ways, a good father. However, his biggest issues lie in his relationships with Davina and Emmaline. I am not even going to focus on how cold he was toward Davina at first, only to later become obsessively attached to her—stalking her and constantly invading her personal space. The real issue is his abusive relationship with Emmaline, his late wife, which many people choose to ignore simply because they ship Gabriel and Davina.
In later chapters, it is clearly shown that when Emmaline was panicking and on the verge of a breakdown, Gabriel did not comfort her. Instead, he frightened her even more and traumatized her. When she ran away, he did not follow her, did not worry about her safety, and did not feel any guilt. Later, when he spoke to Davina about Emmaline’s horrific death, he immediately began flirting with Davina and even kissed her hand—as if he had not just spoken about the disturbing death of his own wife, the mother of his child.
Many people argue that Gabriel never loved Emmaline and that they were not truly in love. But you do not need to be deeply in love with someone to show basic human decency, morality, and empathy. Unfortunately, the fandom excuses his behavior by saying things like, “Emmaline might still be alive” or “His wife, whom he didn’t like, is dead, and he deserves to fall in love again.” But that completely misses the point. Whether there is a plot twist or whether Emmaline is secretly alive does not matter. The characters themselves believe she died horribly, and Gabriel still shows no remorse, guilt, or respect.
Emmaline was portrayed as a gentle, kind woman and a loving mother to Mikey—something even Gabriel himself admits. Mikey still thinks about her every day, yet no one in the story or fandom shows her any respect. Gabriel flirts with Davina and kisses her hand immediately after discussing Emmaline’s disappearance and brutal death. She could have been tortured or raped, and he still never considers how disgusting and disrespectful his behavior is.
Then there is the grandmother, who called Emmaline “weak” simply because she was kind. And there is the fandom, where I have seen people say things like:
“I hope she’s dead.”
“Her era is over—now it’s Davina and Gabriel, the best mom and wife.”
“Even if she’s alive, I hope she never goes near Gabriel or Mikey because she would ruin Davina’s fluffy love life.”
Excuse me, but what the hell? You are wishing death and suffering on a woman who sacrificed her life for her child, just because of a fictional ship?
There is nothing wrong with the remarriage or falling-in-love-again trope. The problem is when it is done while completely disrespecting a dead or traumatized wife. It is also disturbing how people blame Emmaline for being “weak” while praising Davina as a “girlboss,” even though they lived completely different lives under completely different circumstances. Saying things like “Gabriel likes cool girls like Davina” to justify his abusive treatment of Emmaline is disgusting.
What makes this even more hypocritical is how other male characters are treated. Regis and Claude, for example, are praised for remaining loyal to their dead wives, Amelia and Diana. No one says they should remarry; instead, they are celebrated for their devotion and called examples of true love. Why? Because the narrative focuses on their wives. There is no new woman introduced for the audience to ship them with.
This proves that the issue is not about true love or moving on—it is about narrative manipulation and reader bias. If the author focuses on a new romance, readers support remarriage and ignore the first wife. If the author focuses on the dead wife and her love story, readers would never accept a second romance. It is pure double standards.
For example, people love popular ships like Penelope/Callisto or Ruby/Izek. But if there were an alternate universe where Penelope or Ruby died, no one would even consider Callisto or Izek falling in love again. Why? Because the audience has already emotionally invested in their love story. If Davina herself died, people would not ship Gabriel with another woman either. Suddenly, he would be expected to remain loyal forever. This shows that the “fall in love again” excuse is only used when it benefits a favorite ship or excuses a male character’s behavior.
The reason Emmaline receives so much hate is because the narrative barely acknowledges her. Unlike other manhwa mothers who are respected and remembered, Emmaline is almost erased. Because of that, readers feel nothing about her death and easily ship Davina and Gabriel without guilt. If the story had focused even slightly more on Emmaline—if she were a main character, or if Davina and Gabriel were a side ship—people would not blame her or ship them so aggressively.
In short, this fandom is filled with misogyny. Any woman who is not Davina is hated or discarded, even to the point of wishing death on a kind, gentle woman. I would not be surprised if the author eventually turns Emmaline into a villain just to justify Gabriel’s actions and push the idea that Davina is the only woman who can “save” Gabriel and Mikey—the “real” mother—while Emmaline is painted as weak and unimportant.
I like Davina. I like Val. I like Emmaline. But I hate how the fandom pits these women against each other for the sake of a ship. Most of all, I hate Gabriel’s immoral and cruel behavior toward Emmaline and the complete lack of accountability for it. I honestly hope Emmaline is alive and gets a happy ending with someone who truly loves and respects her—and that she gets to see her son again. But unfortunately, in webtoon and manhwa logic, only the female lead is allowed happiness.
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Heinrey (Remarried Empress)
People might hate me for this, but honestly I don’t care — Heinry is awful. The only person he seems to care about is Navier, to the point that he neglects and even hates his own children. He behaves like an abuser and comes across as borderline a war criminal. He called Rashta a “bitch” and tried to ruin her, even though Rashta was a slave who was raped and was only trying to survive. Yes, Rashta did wrong things at times, but her actions are far more understandable given what she went through.
If Heinry weren’t the male lead, most readers would dislike and condemn his behavior — yet because he fawns over Empress Navier, he’s often forgiven. That double standard is infuriating.
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Harmful Toward the Female Lead:
Ruveliss (The Abandoned Empress)
This guy… this guy cheated on his fiancée, abused her, beat her, and killed her—only for the story to reset so that, in the second life, she falls in love with him again. They marry, get a happy ending, and he is forgiven without ever truly paying for his actions or taking real responsibility for his wrongdoing. Peak writing… apparently.
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Bastian (Bastian)
Abuses the female lead? Check.
Cruel for no reason? Check.
Spoiled and evil? Check.
Possible sexual assault? Check.
Humiliates the female lead and other women? Check.
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Bjorn (The Problematic Prince)
Everything I said about Bastian applies here as well. The only difference is that Bjorn acts like an edgy five-year-old.
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Lee Woo-shin (Merry Psycho)
This man… he married a woman for a mission and stayed married to her for years, then abandoned her and wondered why she became cold and desperate. Instead of telling her the truth, he bullied her, abused her, and even raped her. It takes an insane amount of time for him to finally realize how harmful and destructive his behavior toward her was.
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Matthias (Cry, or Better Yet, Beg)
Even Satan is scared of this man—number one. He is essentially a groomer and a pdf, by being obsessed of 12 year old Leyla, He later starts sexually harassing the female lead and enjoys breaking her emotionally, hurting her, and watching her cry. He cheats on his fiancée despite hating his father for cheating on his mother. He ruins the female lead’s relationship with her own fiancé and threatens to kill her adoptive father if she does not sleep with him. Even after she agrees and becomes pregnant, he abandons her to go to war. In the end, her father is killed anyway. When Matthias finally returns, he does not care that others bully her or that his family mistreats her. He actively enjoys hurting her. He is a literal stalker, pedophile, and rapist—and yet he still gets a happy ending.
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Leon (Try Begging)
Even Satan is scared of this man—number two. He sexually harasses the female lead, rapes her, abuses her, breaks her emotionally, impregnates her, and then abandons her. He is cruel not only to her but also to others, including his own family. He hates the female lead for his father’s death even though it was not her fault at all. He is a sick, cruel pervert who enjoys destroying other people’s lives.
DISCLAIMER: A YANDERE IS A CHARACTER TYPE (MOSTLY FROM ANIME, MANGA, AND GAMES) WHO STARTS OUT SWEET, LOVING, AND DEVOTED, BUT WHOSE LOVE TURNS OBSESSIVE AND VIOLENT WHEN THEY FEEL THREATENED OR JEALOUS. BEWARE IT'S A SENSITIVE TOPIC SO IF YOU'RE NOT INTO IT I SUGGEST SKIPPING THESE READS.
