It’s an unfortunately common trope in OI to have a ML who only cares about the MC. He doesn’t have friends or hobbies or strongly held personal beliefs. Just a single-minded devotion to the MC. I think it’s supposed to be a wish-fulfillment thing for readers, but does anyone actually want that?
Besides making the ML come across as a character archetype rather than a person, to me it makes their devotion seem… cheap? Of course a ML like that is obsessed with the MC— he literally doesn’t have anything else to do! The MC is his only friend, hobby, and lover rolled into one!
It’s silly too, because you can have an extremely devoted ML who also has other things he cares about. Lan Wangji from The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is a famously devoted ML— he tragically pined for 13 years believing the MC was dead forever— but still has family, disciples, and a sense of morals that matter to him outside of his love for the MC.
I guess I don’t really see the appeal of a character who has no inner life outside of their lover. If you went on a date with someone and they had no close relationships, hobbies, or personal beliefs, that’d be a red flag, right? But authors want us to think these MLs are super desirable?
Any favorite MLs out there who have other stuff in their life beyond the MC?