Beware of the Brothers is a fictional work depicting incest disguised as a slow burn romance. Beware of the Brothers, or BotB, follows the story of Hari - an orphan girl living in poverty after losing her mother who was adopted by the Duke and Duchess of Ernst due to her striking resemblance to their deceased daughter, Arina Ernst.
Hari suffers mental and physical abuse from the three Ernst brothers, made up of Eugene, Cabel, and Erich, throughout her childhood. This abuse only worsens after the Ernst couple are killed in a carriage accident. Growing up in these less than desirable conditions, Hari grows to hate her life in the Ernst dukedom. On the eve before her wedding, Hari goes to bed - only to wake up as a child once more.
Hari proceeds to "tame" her unruly brothers. We learn throughout the season that the Duchess of Ernst has been playing favourites and neglecting her sons as a result of delusions that Hari is Arina Ernst. The eldest son, Eugene along with his father, confront the Duchess after she gives Hari a drugged candy containing painkillers- something she regularly gave Arina to ease her pain.
The Duchess begins to recover under the care of a doctor, and the Ernst dukedom becomes a pleasant and warm place with the family living in peaceful harmony. Tragedy strikes, and despite Hari’s desperate attempts to prevent the couple’s demise, they end up six feet under.
The Duke and Duchess were killed in an unexpected attack on the young prince at a hunting competition organized by the imperial family. The Ernst household was in a state of chaos, Eugene becoming head overnight. The aunt of the Ernst siblings, Marquess Leonard, comes to stay with the siblings to take care of Erich. Under the guise of “etiquette lessons”, Marquess Leonard physically abuses Hari. Hidden from the Ernst children's eyes, Hari suffers this abuse alone for months, doing her best to keep the Ernst siblings well and safe.
Marquess Leonard commits one last act of cruelty in an attempt to throw Hari out of the Ernst household, telling Hari that she will be sent to an orphanage- Hari refutes her, telling her that she does not have the power to do so. A few evenings later and Hari is hauled out of bed by Marquess in the dead of the night outside to take her to the orphanage.
A ruckus is caused and the dialogue between Eugene and the Marquess goes as such, “You dare treat me like this, for a bitch that doesn’t even share your blood? You treat her as if she is really Arina. Don’t be fooled.” Eugene retorts with “Of course she isn’t Arina. Hari is already part of the Ernst family.” After throwing Marquess Leonard out of the mansion, they turn around to find Hari shocked. A thought bubble that appears once they turn back towards her reads, “He called me family.”
These pieces of dialogue alone show that they have formed a sibling bond, as is only established further when Hari asks, “Am I… also family?” Eugene kneels down and says, “Of course, you’re our sister.”
Eugene loses the remaining trust he had in the adults in the Ernst dukedom, and sends the children away to the Vastia family. Time cuts ahead and they have been living there for six years. Hari’s life has been peaceful since, and Eugene was just engaged to a lady named Rosabella Velontia.
Hari, Cabel, and Erich are told by the Vastia couple that they are finally able to go home. Hari and Louise Vastia go out to the market one day, there Hari stumbles into Eugene (literally). They go for tea, and throughout the dialogue, Hari refers to Eugene as “oppa”, a Korean word that roughly translates to “older male”. Hari does not refer to any other male like this aside from Cabel once or twice, leading me to believe that it was used in a way to signify respect yet also establish their closeness as siblings.
The Ernst siblings soon moved back to the Ernst estate after that, where Eugene presents Hari a new piano as a gift. Where after that, they proceed to eat together for the first time in years- as a happy family, and nothing more than that.
In a scene following, Hari’s hand is burned after a maid accidentally spills tea on her. Eugene treats her hand and they have a heartfelt conversation in which Eugene states, “Do whatever you want. If there’s somewhere you want to go, go wherever it is, and if there is something you want to do, it’s okay to do whatever it is. If there’s something you want, you can have all of it. The reason why I’ve spent so much time and effort up till now is so that you can have that right.” Hari tells Eugene, “I wish for you to be happy, oppa.” he replies with, “All of you being happy is my happiness.”
Eugene grouping Hari in with,“All of you being happy”` is pretty telling, as grammatically you would try to distinguish between siblings and outsiders. Later on in the scene, Hari’s thoughts read, “That’s why I want to become someone that my brother can lean on, rather than someone who’s a burden to him.”. Hari refers to Eugene as her brother, confirming once more that she thinks of Eugene as her brother. She refers to Eugene once more and continues to do it countless times more throughout the season.
The season ends at chapter 45, where Hari is told that her birthday banquet will be hosted at “Kazenta hall”, a hall so rarely used that the last time it had opened up was twenty years ago.
All of these takes and sibling bonding moments are disregarded and thrown away for an incestous romance that did not need to be due to the perfectly good secondary love interest Johan. Johan has always treated her with respect on top of being the man who Hari was so excited to marry in her past life.
And that, my dear friends, is why Beware of the Brothers is incestous. Now leave the incest tag alone you fucking fools.
