The way some ppl talk about Jo gives away the whole game. They need him small enough to dismiss but guilty enough to carry every accusation that belongs elsewhere. He becomes w.e. the defense needs in the moment: irrelevant when his impact’s inconvenient, dangerous when his love’s harder to minimize. Jo slander always sounds so forced.
Jo didn’t drag Ian into the gang, hide him for years, tie him to debt, send him back toward drug drops, sabotage the clean life he could’ve had, make power more important than choosing him openly or turn Ian’s guilt into personal gain for years. Jo didn’t build the world Ian kept trying to leave. He was the person Ian chose differently with. Ian tried to stay monogamous for him, opened up to him, changed through him, protected him from the world he thought would ruin him, thought of him after leaving & cried when Jo told him not to look back.
Jo & Ian were the once-in-a-lifetime chance bc Ian was finally reaching for a love that made him feel chosen instead of kept. Ian said he never really had an ex bc he’d never truly been in a rship before. He wanted a label. He wanted to be chosen openly. __ kept him hidden bc claiming Ian fully would’ve threatened the power he valued more. Jo never moved like that. Jo wanted Ian fully, proudly & without shame. *Insert the dog’s shocked face when Jo declared himself Ian’s boyfriend lol.*
The intimacy argument makes the projection even clearer. Ppl isolate the JoIan scene where Jo finishes on Ian & treat it like the whole truth of Jo’s character while stripping away what the scene was built on. Ian had already told Jo he wasn’t sleeping with other people bc he knew Jo didn’t like it & Jo responded by satisfying the desire Ian had been holding back. The scene follows Ian’s pleasure & intensity. It doesn’t show Jo ignoring Ian through pain, sickness or refusal. Jo’s larger dynamic with Ian supports that too. When Ian said he didn’t feel well & couldn’t have sex, Jo accepted it. __’s scenes show the opposite pattern. Ian said he felt sick & __ still pushed for sex. Ian said it hurt & his pain got dismissed. Ian’s discomfort keeps getting folded into the excuse that this was just how they were, as if familiarity gives someone more right to ignore his body. Even the author didn’t frame Jo or __ as the textbook r*pe case. That was David Kim. Jo & __ both show obsession & possession but Jo’s intensity wasn’t built to keep Ian suffering. Jo wanted Ian openly. __ kept Ian through secrecy, guilt, power, debt & access to his body even when Ian was uncomfortable.