#for those who dont know boyfriends is a webtoon that just feels...off with how it treats the realtionships in it idk

[gangles-toybox]

Me, yesterday, just vibing in Hot Topic, with one of the employees that's really cool, Crybaby by Melanine Martinez and Everytime we Touch cover by a band and looking at the Scott Pilgrim & DHMIS shirts...

And then I see a motherfuckin Boyfriends(webtoon) shirt 💀

[thedumestflower]

okay so, like a year or two ago i made a really bad rant about the boyfriends webtoon and i fucking hate it, its written in bad taste and i was way to incoherent but i do wanna say this:

the boyfriends webtoon shouldn't have gotten the amount of hate it did, the creator shouldn't of been harassed or anything like that, alot of people hated it because it was gay, and alot of people hated it because how it showed gay people, but its just a cutesy and fluffy and overall harmless little comic about gay people. And you cant fault it for that, i can however, talk about my very subjective and influenced view of how is overall kind of mid as a story.

The characters feel very weak and not very realistic or intriguing to me. The creator gave them real problems and issues but the fact that everything is so cutesy and pastel, and everyone is so supportive and loving that no problem really feels like a problem, it usually gets resolved in a couple of chapters anyways, none of them are really flawed, like actually flawed in any realistic way either, im not saying they should all be tragic and sad and all hate eatch other, but i just feel like its missing a lot of things in its story. it just feels like its detached from reality. And i know its because its ment to be a comfort thing, but from my subjective and very influenced veiw its just not that good of a story.

Another thing very me specific is that the gimick that the characters have are based off of highschool tropes, and that in itself would be fun, but the creator doesn't do anything to intresting or creative with them, and they barley even conform to the tropes they claim to be, and i know the creator tries to subvert those tropes but it feels like its just falls flat (again with the characters haveing no dimension to them and feeling very disconected from reality) i could talk about this in more detail but this is already gonna be long as shit so i wont.

another problem with the story is that the characters all got together within the like, first 15 chapters of the story, and the rest of it is them just dicking around, and that would of been fine but the characters aren't interesting or intriguing or anything enough for me to care about them, and because its a romance story, i think the "will they wont they" should of been stretched out a lot longer.

something i also wanna touch a little bit on is that im not the biggest fan about how the asexual character was represented, and i know the creator is mega projecting onto him, but as a aroace myself i dont think i like the fact that the asexual was also sexualized, and again im aware that this character is a projection of the creator, and i do understand that people who are ace can and do have sex for any reason and that they are still valid, i also wanna say the main ace representation in the boyfriends webtoon, the ace representation who i feel is very sexualized, and who the creator drew actual porn of, is not a very good representation of asexuals and personally makes me uncomfortable

at the end of the day, the boyfriends webtoon is harmless, its just a cute pastel webtoon, and if you like it? then hey! good for you! you can engage in media you enjoy without other people telling you what to do, and i respect you for that! I hope you keep liking your little gay webcomic.

have a good day everybody

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. wasn't it literal myth canon the cycle of overthrowing the kings stopped because of zeus swallowing metis? because it was prophesied she would give birth to a son who would overpower zeus, but the child ended up being athena who is super loyal to zeus. so rachel does enough research to know zeus swallowed metis to make him look bad, but purposely ignored the context and the results of it to push her stupid plot along? i thought she respected the mythology, why is she purposely lying now?

2. um. why did demeter's coat change colors entirely in that post 💀 im begging them to use color sheets thats just ridiculous omg

3. ok so does that post not just confirm rhea is dead then? gaia and metis too? or as dead as you can be as immortals? big fan of murdering all the supposed super powerful women (who are still easily overpowered?? and forced into marriage?? fuck off) for the sake of making persephone special because she wont be eaten and will ~choose to marry~ instead. maybe persephone will eat kronos instead and be even more super mega op now. i wouldnt put it pass rachel to do that.

4. More so to add to the "fertility goddess" stuff. Gaia was the EARTH'S fertility, not biological. She's the OG mother godess, sure, but her domain was never about childbirth. Rhea was the Goddess of Cycles and Menstruation, NOT Earthly fertility, and Hera, as that post said, was also the fertility around children, so neither of them are the same as Gaia, nor is Gaia the same as then. That post is 100% right in Rachel's lack of actually saying what "fertility" is only  makes it more confusing.

5. RS being so openly in fan spaces is a huge problem the comic. In her need to "make the fans happy" the story becomes weaker because of  far too much fan input. We saw this directly in the walking back of the AOW because some fans were upset P wasn't "being their cinnamon roll" and now she comes across as a weaker character for it. We're also seeing this now in potential retcons to P's age and trying to redeem Apollo. I get it's to appease them, but a confident writer shouldn't have to do this.

6. I feel like the combo of "modern setting" with "learning about the world" really doesnt work in LO, because if it was an ancient fantasy setting, then yes we would like to learn more about it because we have no familiarity with it, but in making the Underworld just a carbon copy of any modern day city, it makes the "Persephone learns about the world" seem really boring? Like her learning about an ancient kingdom of the dead is interesting, her learning about what a movie theater is is not.

7. This isnt even purely an LO thing but the most frustrating thing to me is just knowing there's so many well done comics on Webtoons that if they were given even a quarter of the attention and promotion the company gives to LO that those comics would also blast off in success too. Why do you think Suitor Armor, Boyfriends, and Everything is Fine all skyrocketed into success so fast, especially the latter two? It's because the company promotes them. I wish they'd do that to more of them.

8. deadass do not get the stans who go "if you dont like it then dont read" to stop any critique because like ok, if you dont like our criticism then dont read it then 🤷🏿‍♀️ seems pretty simple to me. its a two way street.

9. I really hate the "you guys just overanalysis  everything it's just entertainment 🙄" like .. ok? Why are people not allowed to have opinions and critiques? Because we all know if we held these same fans to this, they'd get pissed they couldn't critique what they wanted (which trust me, LO fans LOVE to hate on PJO, TSOA, etc) The policing of others who dare to not think exactly how they do and saying critically consuming media is "ruining the fun" says way more about them than any critic, tbh.

10. TBH i sorta wonder if LO would be so much better if before it was published WT said it could only have a certain number of episodes. Like what if it was only allowed 100 eps? So much filler and unneeded plots would be cut completely and the actual focus would have to be on developing HXP or else it'd end incomplete. Like sorry, the majority of the comic could easily be cut and it would be so much better for it. Letting Rachel add more and more to it only makes it a lesser product in the end.

[eulaties]

my opinion about true beauty

lowkey this is gonna be a post where i rant about true beauty’s (webtoon) downfalls. obviously do not interact if ur gonna disagree, because i dont want any unnecessary discourse. (also im not posting this so i can be convinced that true beauty is actually a good webtoon - i just need to get this off my chest.)

first of all...let me address the weak writing and plot. it really seems as if the author is just shifting focus to boy drama and not actual character development/plot that would be actually interesting? i also get the feeling that the plot is literally going nowhere. i don’t have any excitement for what’s going to happen next - it’s either way too predictable or i know something mundane is going to drag on for multiple episodes. and plus, it’s not like “true beauty” is a feel-good cliché story (if it was, i would understand why people would defend it, because it could be a comfort webtoon). no, instead, it really drills in that if you don’t fit into society’s beauty standard, you’re ugly. if you’re slightly overweight? you’re fat and you’re ugly. you have acne? ugly. you have stretch marks? you have hair on your arms and legs? you have bushy eyebrows, small eyes, a wide face, and you wear glasses? absolutely disgusting.

(please note my personal opinions do not reflect anything i said up there. im just stating what i perceive true beauty is trying to say.)

according to this webtoons, if you’re not skinny, thin, tall but not too tall, have good skin, big eyes, etc. then you’re fucking ugly. which is such a jarring message? especially because the author really drills this in at the beginning of the webtoon (which i initially excused because i thought that the author would address this later down the road and have jugyeong have character development...haha no). and also, get this - you’re human and it’s natural to have those things??? i don’t understand how any of that makes you ugly. it doesn’t. and it’s such a bad message to be giving out to younger audiences who are easily influenced by the media they consume !! this really just preys on people’s insecurities. so fucked up.

now let me talk about jugyeong specifically. she’s such a bad role model. okay, at the beginning of the webtoon we see her discover makeup and then have a “glow up”. then we see her struggle with her insecurities. that part of the story was fine, because it at least showed a human side to jugyeong. also, she actually had personality. she had a passion for horror, wanted to pursue being a makeup artist, genuinely enjoyed helping other people, didn’t judge people off of superficial beliefs, etc etc. then, the time skip happens and literally all of jugyeong’s personality is wiped away. and now she has literal cardboard as her personality. all we know about her now is that seojun is her boyfriend!! this is her first relationship!! literally nothing else about her bc shes boring af now!! she’s a hypocrite and treats people she sees as “ugly” worse than her!! where did all of that character and personality from before go? it’s disappointing to say the least.

and don’t even get me started on seojun and suho, who are fighting for a girl who isn’t even wife material. not even gonna lie i don’t want either of them to end up w her. seojun, i acknowledge, has gone through a lot of character development and has actually changed & also has admirable ambitions. his relationship with jugyeong, however, is obviously not going to last at all. suho, on the other hand, is a nice person/the ONE decent person in this webtoon. unfortunately, i do have to acknowledge that outside of that, there’s not really much we know about suho (other than his dad being sick). and he has gone thru literally no character development. 

(shoutout to suho and aiden for being the only reasons i read this far tho, lmao)

i also want to address the title dilemma - by which i mean that “true beauty” is actually meant to be called “the secret of angel” or smth like that. which is like...okay the title is misleading which is so weird esp because this is one of the most popular webtoons on the site? i dont understand why they would purposely change the title if not to mislead people. also, i see some people defending the bad writing/characterization/clicheness of true beauty by saying that it’s supposed to be like a k-drama/reflective of korean culture...which is, by the way, so fucked up. first of all, k-dramas are not synonymous with shitty writing and characters. ALSO, get this: just because it’s korean, it doesn’t excuse any blatantly bad and superficial messages it gives out. especially because beauty standards in korea are toxic as hell.

so, think of this as my “breakup letter” to true beauty. what a shame, too, because i’ve been following this weekly for 2 years straight (since 2018!) and it’s just so goddamn disappointing how much true beauty has rapidly decreased in quality since.

(see “the man who cleans up makeup”/

“the makeup remover” webtoon, which is so much better and also gives off so many good messages WHILE ADDRESSING THE ROLE BEAUTY/MAKEUP PLAYS IN KOREAN SOCIETY.)

goodbye true beauty. hopefully you get better writing, characterization, and a better author one day!

[ldybluerse]

My Heart and Head Hurt.

So Very, Very Much

I am Asexual. I like cuddling, kissing, loving touches, I even love to make inappropriate sex jokes. Okay, I can make some pretty lewd sex jokes but that’s what happens when like 90% of your friends for the past ten years identify as pansexual. I just don’t feel sexual attraction and I am mostly repulsed by sex (ehhh it’s too much to explain).

At the first of the year, I moved to Texas from Michigan. Leaving behind all my friends, which with the internet isn’t terrible... but also my friends are shit at peopling on the Internet. Not angry or blame, they all have depression and anxiety. I get it. Just saying it’s hard to pretty much completely lose that connection with my friends. My friends are also the type where we would all pile into my bed and watch videos while cuddling with each other and my dogs. They spent so much time caring for me after my surgeries.

Being handicapped, and still learning how to live with it (it’s a relatively recent thing and takes relearning how to live life in a way that works for your limitations) I live with my parents. They are great but... they have their own mental health issues that really fucked me up as I grew up. It means that I don’t feel like I can open up or talk to them about anything because of what happened back then. I love them and I know they would do anything for me, but it’s just this thing I have. Heck, I have trouble opening up to my therapist for a long time. My therapist, who I also had to leave in Michigan. And Texas Medicaid? Kind of non-existent. Plus, I’m too old for my parents to be taking care of me, you know western standards and all, so I can’t have insurance through them.

Basically, I ran out of some of my medicine months ago, which means I live in near constant pain too. I can’t go see a therapist, because I can’t afford it. I haven’t run out of my depression medication yet, so there is that.

Since my accident (I will do another post on that later, because that will take a while), I haven’t been able to work. The accident was in December 2011, since 2013, I have had ten surgeries. I started back to school because it doesn’t seem like I’ll ever be up for any type of manual labor. But it also means I feel useless because physically I’m limited and mentally I am so fucked up I can’t do what I can handle doing. I graduated with my Bachelor (really proud of) but Texas has some different requirements that will add a lot of time towards getting my Masters, because Michigan didn’t have those requirements. This means I am going to enroll in an accredited online program, hopefully. Have to get accepted, fingers crossed.

To summarize, for ten months I have been isolated in a different state, dealing with body trying to adjust to different weather and medicine changes. Self isolation isn’t helping but the other problem is when I do reach out, there isn’t someone there...

Background info done, now to what’s troubling me:

My best friend and girlfriend is also Asexual. We’ve been together for almost eight years, but it’s always been long distance (we’re Ace, it doesn’t bug us too much) and I have gone to visit her. We started “talking” through Role Play and until recently, whenever there was lulls in life when a lot wasn’t happening, we could lean back on the Role Play to stay connected. There wasn’t a day when we didn’t talk to each other, even during the hospital visits we both went through, we stayed connected in some small way. And we talked about everything and anything. Our fandoms didn��t always match up, but it was fun listening and learning... I thought...

She was dealing with a lot of stuff, and for a few years was out of work, probably why she had so much time and energy for me. It was really bad for her for a while, where she even verbally attacked me on a few occasions. I know it wasn’t her but her mental illness, so I forgive her for it. But it was bad.

She was raised super Christian (DONT celebrate Halloween because it’s evil type Christian), and she has always been Christian even if she yelled at God a lot in her low days. Yeah, the good Christian girl is dating the Goth Pagan Celtic Witch... whatever you will call me. I’ve been Pagan for about 2/3rds of my life by now, so it’s not like she didn’t know she I was one. She’s never tried to shame or convert me.

My Bachelor is in Religious Studies, I know how good a religion can be for someone’s mental health if they are religious. I would talk to her about rekindling her faith. Finding a church she could at least go sit and listen to, so she could reconnect. She did! And it’s been amazing for her mental health. She has held a steady job for a while, actually is the poster child for the program that helped her move foreword and get her life back in order. I am so very proud of her and I do love her so much.

I just think... she’s outgrown me. The only fandom she talks about anymore is... Christianity. She doesn’t talk about LoZ anymore. She doesn’t talk about Tolkien. She doesn’t watch anime or cartoons anymore. She has no interest in Role Playing, as I said a big part of staying connected.

She talks about work, her cats, crocheting, and her religion. The thing is, I can’t fault her for any of it if it’s what’s best for her. She deserves happiness and stability. But...even when I’m back in school and when I get a job I don’t think I could leave the world of fantasy and fiction behind.

I grew up going to Ren Faires, my dad wearing tights. My first boyfriend I met at Ren Faire, while he was in tights. Labryinth and The Last Unicorn are still my favorite movies of all time! I collect Dragons of all sorts. I’ve watched the whole series of Fraggle Rock a few times, because it’s just wholesome and sweet.

My parents are Trekkies, my mom has had some of her fanfiction a published in old Starlog Zines. We watch fantasy, fiction, actions, cartoons... my mom has always loved the world of books, especially fantasy. She collects unicorns, so many unicorns. When I got into Anime, so did my mom. Kenshin is still her favorite, although to be fair she loved Ultron and Speed Racer when they first came to the states (she says Speed Racer was her first ever crush).

My brothers love the same thing, my oldest brother still fans for Jason David Frank. My other brother, well, he named his cat Pandea after WoW, we have his LotR sword collection, all his movie memorabilia...

We’re nerds and dorks and not afraid to be so.

Since the move the only thing making me happy has been my animals (Gods and Goddesses the fluffy bastards are clingers and just want to love you and be loved which is something I need) and fantasy. I’ve watched several animes I just want to gush about, but if you don’t have someone who is watching it too... you don’t want to ruin it. I want to just talk someone’s ear off about Steven Universe or Miraculous the Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Hell, even Ducktales and Tangled. Do you know how AMAZING they have made Ducktales?! I watched the original series when I was younger but...! And all the inside jokes!!!!

The books! I probably read about thirty or forty in one month when I went on a book binge. They were all trashy romance novels, and admittedly the sex scenes were... meh... I’m Asexual, what do you expect?! Okay... some Aces like sex and stuff. It’s not that important to me. What is, is the connection two people have to each other. The love. And trashy romance novels aren’t the best at giving that... but it’s something.

Oh and the Webcomics. I have always, always loved Webcomics. I used to have the folders on my old computer organized down to the day of the week the comics updated because I so many, that I had to organize them just to get the right updates! Right now Lore Olympics. OMG Lore Olympics. Be still my heart! I am reading several on WEBTOON. I have a few I follow through DeviantArt; Erma is so frikken cute! Daughter of the Lilies, ahhhhhh so amazing and the artwork!!! Pincushion! Constructs will always have a place in my heart!

I just got into the Good Omens fandom, because I’m a Whovian and Tennant is defiantly one of my most favorite of Doctors. He was just so beautiful in it. And when I took my Shakespeare course my teacher had us watch Hamelt and ohhhhh Tennant. Ohhhh you really can’t tell if Hamlet has gone crazy or it’s an act (which he claims it is!!). Sir Patrick Stewart was also just... oh!!! I entered Good Omens because my Instagram was all Ineffable Husbands (I think because of my Doctor Who love). Finally, finally i watched it.

That was like three weeks ago I got into Good Omens and I still am completely in love. The tenderness, the loving looks. I have to read the book! And the script book! (Depression, yay!). I need to listen to the radio adaptation and revisit Queen (I was raised on rock’n’roll. And I mean, David Bowie has probably been the only Rock Star I ever went heart-eyes for... also kinda sad he wasn’t mentioned in Good Omens because he did work with Queen and let’s face it, Bowie was so gender-nonconforming!). I just want to ramble and babble on and on about the series with someone. About all the hidden bits and pieces and theories and things in my head!!!

But... I don’t have anyone. My girlfriend sort of shuts down when I talk about any of the fandoms I like. She will just skip those parts of the conversation and comment on the animal videos I send her or something else. She will talk about work or God. Again, I’m know Religion and people. If there is something I know best is you can’t dictate what someone else’s beliefs are. So while I know the Bible and Christian theory, when she talks about it and tells me stories I can only “nod” and “smile” because if a persons religion isn’t harming themselves or others, and it’s helping them, I don’t think it would be right to argue theory and philosophy with them over what is mostly fairytale stories in a book. I’m not saying their isn’t a Christian God, or many Gods, or things in the Bible didn’t happen, but not all of it is factual nor was it ever meant to be seen as strictly factual. I try to show I am at least paying attention to what she says.

At the same time, with the state I have been in, I probably haven’t given her what she needs when she is telling me about stuff.

Fantasy and fiction has been the only thing keeping me afloat. Religion and work has been helping her. I just can’t see a world without the magic of make-believe but that’s not where she is anymore.

So... I’ve been thinking for a bit now maybe we’re no longer what we need for each other in our lives. Not that we don’t love each other, and not that we can’t still be friends... but maybe it’s time we adventure out? We were what we needed from each other for years... maybe we just aren’t that anymore.