#this series is the only reason I still have webtoon lol

[genericpuff]

Lore Olympus just pulled off the biggest whiff in webtoon history.

I promised I would choose one of two headlines and of course, this is the one we wound up with. But should we really be surprised? Rachel herself seemed to be telling on herself down to the minutes leading up to the finale, fully confirming to us that yes, she's been writing this comic at the last minute, by the seat of her pants, for ages now.

(that second one was literally posted TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES BEFORE THE COMIC UPDATED.)

Welp, let's get into it. Possibly the last essay I'll ever write about this dumpster fire of a comic (but probably not, let's be real LOL)

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND FASTPASS SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE AHEAD!

Holy crap, where to even start with this. I knew it was going to be bad. I knew it was going to be rushed. I knew it wasn't ever going to live up to what I had hoped it would be years ago when I was still a diehard fan.

But I didn't think it was going to fall quite this hard. Despite bracing myself for the worst, Rachel has once again let my expectations down through a final display of explosive mediocrity and disappointment.

Yes, the episode is called "You're Welcome", and yes, that instant "ick" you're feeling is the exact same as what we're all feeling. This title plays into the dialogue later, but what a shitty, lowkey mean-spirited title for the series finale.

Now, before we get into the actual episode, the WT ads for this are just... so desperate and misleading.

They are trying SO HARD to hype up something that isn't there, and at the last minute to boot, because Rachel definitely hadn't written any of this ahead of time.

First off, the bit about the gods being in "eternal chaos" of course isn't a stake worth worrying over because Gaia literally does away with Ouranos in the first 5 panels.

Did you really think I was joking about that 5 panels thing?

That's it. That's the death of Ouranos. As mysteriously and quickly as he arrived, he was gone, after Gaia ripped out of him what appeared to be some purple sunny side up - but it's actually, in fact, Apollo.

And that's when we start to get some of the worst dialogue I've ever seen throughout LO. Remember when I said LO's dialogue was like Shenmue 3? Welp, the finale decided to continue that tradition and further fuel the suspicion that this entire thing was written by ChatGPT.

Oh, by the way, that "thank you, ma'am" was Artemis' first and last line of the episode. So once again, just like in Episode 248, we're completely robbed of her reaction to Apollo being a rapist piece of shit and the character development she could have had as a supporting character. The women in this "feminist retelling" really couldn't be more half-baked.

Gaia stumbles upon Persephone, and I'm not even gonna fucking bother showing the panels where Gaia says it's time to "make things right" because they literally don't matter. Why don't they matter? Because Rachel just had to get in one more pointless time skip.

We're shown a sequence of pointless images that I'm not gonna show as I don't want to waste my image limit on them, depicting Hades having a sad day because his small wife isn't with him and oh nooo what could have happened?? Did Persephone finally divorce him ??

Nah, we couldn't possibly have an actually happy ending in this comic. Instead we get a completely pointless phone conversation between Hades and Hecate-

Not only is the grammar particularly bad in this episode, but the actual script-writing is atrocious. We literally did not need this phone conversation to happen because-

-we're cutting BACK TO THE PRESENT THAT WE JUST CUT AWAY FROM FOR A 3 MONTH TIME SKIP. FOR NO REASON BESIDES SHOWING HADES BE SAD OVER SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY ISN'T THAT BIG A DEAL, AS YOU'RE ABOUT TO SEE.

I- I LITERALLY HAVE NO WORDS. I HAVE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS. ALL I CAN HEAR IN MY BRAIN IS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA ITEM GET MUSIC-

-BECAUSE THIS WHOLE THING SUDDENLY SOUNDS LIKE SOME CONTRIVED FETCH QUEST. WHAT DO YOU MEAN HADES AND PERSEPHONE HAVE PROVEN 'TRUE LOVE' IS REAL? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY HAVEN'T USED 'LOVE' AS A FORCE FOR DESTRUCTION?? ARE WE FORGETTING THAT HADES MUTILATED A GUY IN THE NAME OF 'LOVE'? THAT PERSEPHONE LITERALLY INVADED THE HOME OF HADES' CANONICAL FIRST WIFE BECAUSE SHE FELT MILDLY THREATENED BY HER?

This whole concept of "true love" that Rachel is trying to convey feels so juvenile especially for a series that has sold itself as being mature and thought-provoking and progressive.

HAHAHA SO FUNNYYYYYYY why does Rachel write like this. this is, at best, the writing of a 13 year old on fanfiction.net, which I SHOULD KNOW, because I WAS ONE OF THEM. BUT I'M 28 NOW AND RACHEL HAS ANOTHER 10 YEARS ON ME.

Okay, this is the part where I'm CONVINCED Rachel either just mashed this into the episode in the MINUTES leading up to its release, or she used ChatGPT or something. Because NONE of this dialogue makes any sense. Beyond how stilted and lifeless it is (seriously, this dialogue reads like something from Empress Theresa) Gaia is clearly meant to 'replace' Erebus here which I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO EVEN EXPLAIN IS SO FUCKING DUMB, but ALSO what is even Persephone trying to communicate here? "That is true, but it was a deal I was willing to make and ties me to the Underworld. Please don't change me." What? Gaia hasn't even insinuated that she's going to do anything to Persephone, why is Persephone immediately jumping to this conclusion? What does 'changing' her mean? Is she asking Gaia not to force her to sacrifice something (which she never did)? Or is she asking Gaia not to strip her of her Underworld status? Because again, why is that even something Gaia would do?

Maybe this is harsh but I'm pretty sure even Empress Theresa is more coherent than this, what in the flying fuck is Gaia talking about?

"I can just see the potential for conflict! To relieve you from the burden of the whats, the hows, and wheres." Like... okay, first of all, that second sentence isn't even a complete sentence, it's a dependent clause left hanging, but also what the fuck does this MEAN. Is she EXCITED for the conflict but then contradicting herself by saying she wants to relieve Persephone of that conflict? Or is she saying she can see the conflict it would cause for Persephone to have to perform duties in both realms and trying to insinuate that she's going to relieve her of those complications?

Here's what I think happened - I think that second 'sentence' wasn't supposed to be a sentence, but the start of the sentence to the next panel-

So with that theory in mind, the sentence becomes, "To relieve you from the burden of the whats, the hows, and wheres, you are to spend three months in the Mortal Realm to do spring and the rest of the year in the Underworld. That seems fair to me."

It's still a very poorly written line of dialogue, but at least with that fix in mind it makes sense. But man, you can really fucking tell this episode was submitted at the last minute because that's a serious syntax error that should NOT have happened in this two-time-Eisner-winning comic.

Errors aside, it's clear that Rachel is following through on having Persephone spend only three months in the Mortal Realm, rather than the traditional six. There ARE other translations that have that number closer to four, but those four are the time she spends in the UNDERWORLD, meaning she's always spending either equal or MORE time in the Mortal Realm. Of course, Rachel doesn't want her self-insert small wife power fantasy to actually have to be separated from Hades despite this being a retelling of The Abduction of Persephone, so instead of her spending three months in the Underworld, she's now spending them in the Mortal Realm, literally doubling the MINIMUM amount of time (four months) she was originally meant to reside in the Underworld.

But oh no, apparently those three months are STILL NOT SHORT ENOUGH FOR PERSEPHONE-

Of course, Rachel "Retcon" Smythe had to have her cake and eat it too. I always worried something like this was a possibility, but I never thought she would actually prove me right - not only is Persephone only separated from Hades for three months out of the year, but actually he can visit her any time he wants to, so really, they're not separating at all.

I think Rachel needs to look up "reunion" in the dictionary, because if you can visit each other any time, then that means the 'reunions' are no longer special occasions. This completely removes any semblance of depth or meaning from all of the storytelling leading up to this, all of it with the expectation that this was a retelling of the Abduction of Persephone, because that's what Rachel said it was going to be. At this point it's safe to say that Rachel has zero business attempting to "retell" mythological stories, because she doesn't even seem to grasp the concept of why they were written the way they were to begin with. Either that, or she really just doesn't care, and the only reason for making LO a Greek myth comic at all was to propel her career.

This also brings me back to those promotional ads, the other one that posed the question, "Will sacrifice be enough to bring these two back together?"

This is stating the obvious, but I need to make it perfectly clear - Hades and Persephone have never sacrificed a single thing. The only thing they could POSSIBLY quantify as a "sacrifice" is "not being tied at the hip for a few hours", because even Persephone going on the equivalent of a work trip next door is apparently enough to make Hades sad as we saw in the 3 month time skip panels. Why is Hades so sad and lonely if he can visit her any time? Why is he acting like he hasn't seen her in years when he's actually on his way to reunite with her? Why is Hecate calling to ask him if he's "okay" as if he JUST got separated from her, but actually he's about to literally go to the Mortal Realm to reunite with her?

Hades hasn't 'sacrificed' a damn thing, neither has Persephone. They've both always gotten exactly what they wanted, even at the cost of breaking the story's own established rules. Their 'sacrifice' is equivalent to what billionaires think are 'sacrifices' when they can't buy another yacht or go on that third overseas vacation for the month.

And even outside of this episode, when have these two ever sacrificed anything?

I've tried so hard to think of what sacrifices have been made by the characters within LO, and I genuinely can only think of one - and that was when Artemis chose to go to the Mortal Realm with Persephone instead of staying with her family in Olympus. That was a genuine, selfless sacrifice, made by a character who has been shelved in favor of focusing on the self-centered pink and blue airheads.

Being forced to be apart for a couple days to do the equivalent of a day job and whining about it the whole time is not a 'sacrifice'. Neither of these characters have ever sacrificed anything, they just feel like sacrifices because they have the integrity and empathy of soggy cardboard.

sigh Anyways, we're back in the present and Hades and Persephone immediately decide they're gonna have sex because ofc, and then we get this gem of a panel-

MMMMMM

FUNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JOKE

For some reason it's just a common thing for people to just be in Hades' home, and they can't seem to get any privacy as a result of this, but I digress. Turns out they still need to have that coronation for Persephone.

There is... so much wrong in these three panels.

First, to state the immediate issues - why the fuck are they mentioning Apollo at Persephone's coronation? Like first of all, no shit Apollo isn't gonna be there, but also, if this is supposed to be an event for and about Persephone becoming Queen of the Underworld, then why in the WORLD is Apollo even being mentioned? This is supposed to be a "feminist retelling" where the victims are empowered and heal from their trauma, but LO once again can't try to show any sort of positive growth for the victims without bringing up the assaulters and giving them screen time. It just goes to show that Rachel's idea of "healing" is purely rooted in the revenge, and not the growth. It's a very high schooler approach to this subject, hellbent on showcasing how all the meanies from the past are losers now and life just sucked for them forever, but inadvertently proving its own point that the victims haven't and can't move on because the narrative is spending so much time on caring what's going on with the abusers. It's the "I don't care! Look at how little I care! I'll prove it to you by putting in the effort of showing you how little I care!" approach, it doesn't really feel like moving on.

It's not about how Persephone and his other victims could have grown and healed, no, Rachel always needs to highlight just how much worse the bullies and haters and abusers are doing to make the victims seem like they've healed by comparison. Don't get me wrong, I can understand wanting to showcase the downfall of a character like Apollo, but this just... isn't the right context for that? Because it's once again taking attention away from the victim to focus on the abuser. It's once again spending screentime on the voices of the oppressors rather than the oppressed.

And speaking of, what the fuck is this punishment even? I knew Rachel wasn't gonna be able to resolve this plotline properly, she never had the capability to, but ... community service? Are you fucking for real? What is this even a punishment for even? Was this EXCLUSIVELY the SA, or does this ALSO include his attempts to overthrow Zeus by poisoning him, nearly killing Daphne, Eris, Eros and Psyche, trapping Eros and Psyche in an enchanted basement, and framing his father's 'death' on his half-sister? Because if so, how in the world is anyone content with community service? He hasn't even been turned into a mortal, HE'S STILL A GOD, so what's to stop him from going "WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDERMAN" and trying something else? How is this a reasonable resolution in ANY context?

This is why I talked at length about what an issue it was to hide what Apollo really admitted to. Because now we really don't know what exactly he confessed to, and thus we can never really see the point of views of the victims outside of just Persephone - and we still don't even get Persephone's, because she just walks away from him and then he gets eaten by Ouranos and next we see of him is him doing community service! Once again, any emotional development that could be given to Persephone and the other victims is stripped away to make room for the point of views of the oppressive men. In this, the two-time-Eisner-winning "feminist comic" that is LO.

And that brings us to the "where are they now" segment. Yes, as we all feared, there's a "where are they now" segment, and it's as rushed and underwhelming as we ought to have expected it to be.

There is just... so much to unpack here, and yes, all of it is delivered in the dumbest way possible that only raises more questions than answers.

So Rhea and Metis are just back and we're not gonna talk about the implications of them being alive again?

Dionysus is a 3 month year old in the body of a teenager / young adult, and his mom is just alive now because Hades conveniently got his hands on more ambrosia and brought her back to life offscreen? But somehow Triptomelus and Hedone are still child-sized relative to their ages?

How did they 'heal Zeus'? And why is he so content with losing his power as King and Apollo being sentenced to community service after making an attempt on his life? How does he feel about the letter that Hera gave him? Did he even read it?

Where the fuck is Hebe in all of this? Is she okay? Do people still think it was her who put Zeus in a coma? Or did Apollo confess to that, too?

You're telling me Hera and Echo are just in a relationship now despite the fact that Hera is literally racist towards nymphs and there is ZERO reason for them to have a relationship in the comic beyond the fans making gratuitous headcanons out of it? How is Rachel, a bisexual woman, so bad at writing actual lesbian relationships and giving them the same amount of attention as the heterocis ones without shoving them into the background as props for insincere queer rep? And what about Hera herself? How did she overcome her role as the Goddess of Marriage to finally divorce Zeus?

"Ares is still a dog!" Haha! Ares is still a Persephone simp! Happy end!

Why is Eros just standing there smiling at the camera struggling to be seen past Hedone who's just floating right in front of him? You're telling me there wasn't a better place to put her out of that entire panel?

"Hades and Thanatos have been making more time for each other. Sometimes they even have a conversation." I'm sorry, is this supposed to be funny? The man abused Thanatos for years, treated him as just a lowly employee when he was literally his adopted son, and now you're trying to play it off as a joke that they're "making more time for each other"? What the fuck is this?

TGOEM disbanded? Why? What about the women who were genuinely a part of it?

Also, Artemis and Selene are just good friends now because reasons? Because they're both affiliated with the moon, I guess? Why is Selene even in this comic-

"They are still looking for Kassandra". Who? And why? This feels like such a last minute addition to acknowledge a character that the comic spent WEEKS foreshadowing only to have her finally appear as a pointless McGuffin, but it's so last minute that it does nothing. I'm assuming it's Eros and Psyche looking for her, but like... why can't they find her? They're gods, tracking down one mortal shouldn't be that difficult LOL ???

And also, where the fuck is Leto?? You're telling me she was an accessory - maybe manipulating Apollo, maybe not - but we don't see what happened to her? Is she just back to being a social outcast then? jesus christ this comic isn't finished-

Kassandra is where the "where are they now" sequence ends, and we're treated to one final horribly written dialogue scene between Hades and Persephone, where they tell each other how much they love each other in a desperate attempt to convince the audience that this is, in fact, a romance.

There's this thing in romances called chemistry, and if you're good at writing it, you shouldn't have to write dialogue like this. You should be able to see how much the characters love each other through their actions, through their small behaviors around each other. It's not always about what they say out loud, it's about what they don't have to say, because when two people really share that close of a bond based on love and trust and chemistry, words often aren't necessary.

Hades and Persephone do not have that chemistry. It has been apparent for years now, but this final exchange really is the nail in the coffin. There are no microexpressions or subtle emotions, no subtlety in their word choice, and nothing unique setting their voices apart. It's all just "wow thank you for being such a wonderful amazing partner, you are amazing and I love you" word salad that has to do all the heavy lifting for the completely non-existent chemistry that's been at its absolute worst throughout this entire season.

And worst of all, despite this story trying so hard to be focused around Persephone, around her story, her trauma and her healing, her voice... it's still all just about Hades. In the end, she's thanking Hades, and forcing him to say "you're welcome". All of it is trying so hard to convince us that Hades has been a positive addition to her life, that she 'owes' so much to him, but we've obviously seen plenty throughout the comic that begs to differ. And even if he were a better person than he is, it still doesn't change the fact that once again, the men are being held up above the women, with the women being grateful to the men who choose them. LO can try its hardest to convince people that it's feminist, but it is, at best, reinforcing the very same structures of the patriarchal system that it claims to despise and rebel against.

We do get one line from Hades acknowledging Persephone's part in the relationship-

-and it falls so fucking flat because it's still about him and what she does for him, and because nothing about their relationship was built on any sort of organic chemistry. There was a lot more chemistry back in S1, but it was still predicated on Hades lusting after a vulnerable 19 year old girl.

Yep, and that's it. That's the end.

Except it isn't because Rachel wanted to try and be smart by including an 'epilogue' that's really just stretching the episode out pointlessly for another few panels. And of course, we had to get another time skip, just a final dose of salt in the wound, this time to years ahead when we inevitably had to reconnect with Persephone and Hades in the future after Melinoe was born.

To recap, Melinoe doesn't remember... because Hades had Morpheus erase her memories.

This plotline has really started to give me the ick because it actually feels very familiar. Bear with me here, because I'm gonna go on a bit of a tangent about my own original work, but it's because I wrote a plotline exactly like this years ago.

There's this... turning point, in Time Gate: Reaper, when the main character Uzuki is kidnapped by a Reaper (see: undead) who wants to experiment on her in the hopes that he can somehow gain her abilities to bond her soul with others (which later allows her to literally possess people after she becomes a Reaper herself). Mitsuhiro, the male deuteragonist who kickstarts the plot by telling Uzuki she's got a limited amount of time left to live (which he knows thanks to his magical death timers that mark themselves on his skin), feels an immense amount of guilt after finding out she was kidnapped by the Reapers (at this point she's been gone for three months), as they were originally after him; he worries that she was made a target simply due to him associating himself with her, and vows to rescue her.

With the help of some other spunky teenagers and anime trope characters, Mitsuhiro does eventually rescue Uzuki - but for the three months she had been gone, she had been tortured, abused, and experimented on, causing her mind to split and for her to lose any sense of awareness of who Mitsuhiro or her other friends were. She was no longer herself after the hell she had been through.

Mitsuhiro's solution to this is to have Springlock - another Reaper with motivations that are not yet clear to the cast - erase her memory. This is not a light decision that comes without consequences - for the remaining duration of the story, Uzuki is plagued by night terrors and panic attacks, unable to really remember what happened to her aside from whatever brief flashbacks her brain recalls in its haze of memory loss. She is traumatized, both physically and mentally. She has lost three months of her life and memories, and doesn't know how to explain why she's covered in scars that are still healing, why she's missing organs, why she's now blind in one eye, and why the sound of scraping metal and ticking clocks gives her panic attacks. Mitsuhiro has convinced her friends that she's suffering from memory loss due to trauma, but only he knows the truth that he forcefully took her memories away from her, without her consent. This was not the right choice to make. It was not noble of him, it was not a grand gesture of love, he made a decision on her behalf without her consent that has now resulted in her becoming a nervous wreck. Sure, she still would have had PTSD if she remembered what happened, but at least she would know why and could then seek adequate help. Without those memories, she has nowhere to begin to heal. And so we see the consequences of this throughout [AFTERBIRTH] and even the upcoming Thread of Fate. It is a long-term problem that is not going to be solved overnight, especially not with Mitsuhiro withholding information from her.

Reading about Melinoe having dreams about her experiences trapped in Tartarus with Kronos ... it felt familiar enough that I had to talk about why the insinuations of this are so fucked up. I know there are people who are gonna handwave it away as "she's just a kid", "these are gods so what does it matter", etc. but ... it just feels like such an oversight to have Hades effectively erase her memory of her trauma and then hint at them still being present in her mind through her dreams. She did not ask for that. And the fact that she's now dreaming about it all does not bode well. But we're supposed to think Hades made the correct choice, regardless.

But none of this is effectively expanded on or explained, because we get one final scene of Melinoe and Demeter visiting Persephone, who has just given birth to... Makaria?

So it turns out Persephone and Hades are just able to have biological children now. Don't know why, but of course they both look exactly like Hades.

What I was really confused by though is the fact that it's Makaria and not Brimos. Do you remember Brimos? The child that was foreshadowed in Hades' original fantasy dream sequence about his future children about Persephone?

Either Rachel completely forgot about him, or she saw all the criticism over the fact that Brimos isn't a confirmed child of Hades and Persephone (rather, an epithet that can apply to basically any Underworld god including Persephone and Hades) and that her "research" was dependent on a book she read when she was 13 and decided to axe that. But she went to the effort of establishing that all the dreams Hades had were , in fact, canon visions of the future, so good job Rachel, you created yet another plothole on top of the hundreds of others.

And that's where the series ends, on a final nuclear-family-photo of Persephone, Hades, Melinoe, and Makaria. Of course, Dionysus and Thanatos aren't present in this shot because this is Lore Olympus and only biological children count /hj

Why Rachel couldn't move the "the end" portion to THIS part, I don't know, but I'm also expecting way too much of the person who finished this 20 minutes before it was due.

So that's it. Six years and that's what we get. I didn't expect much, but I was still incredibly disappointed, as were many others who walked away from this dazed and confused. Maybe it's all the "haters" deserve at this point. But what of the fans? While many of them are celebrating this ending at best and tolerating it at worst, I can't help but think of the fans of this comic who hung on for so long in the hopes it would "pay off", just for it to go out as gloriously as a wet fart.

As for me, I have such mixed feelings about Lore Olympus ending, but none of them pertain to the comic itself. Most of what I'll miss from this comic isn't the comic itself, but the people who have made reading it every week so fun, the artists and writers who have enriched the content with their own interpretations of what could have been, and the experiences of being part of such an amazing community made up of people who are as long-term-obsessed about this piece of media as I am.

I get people who ask me a lot if it's "worth it" to be so engrossed in the LO slander, who assume that I'm going to "regret" ever being a part of it all... but from where I'm standing right now, I couldn't ask for a better view.

Even if I didn't love every minute of it, everything I have here I owe to this comic. This stupid, wonderful, boring, amazing, pile of shit comic.

[ihopesocomic]

Sorry for the mini-essay but I think people massively underestimate how much hard work and dedication goes into a Passion Project. People think that creators who make free content, who do their work as a hobby and not as a job, must only get enjoyment out of it.

That’s not how it works. Doing it purely because you want to doesn’t automatically make the more challenging, frustrating, or (gasps) TIME CONSUMING parts of the project any less burdensome. If anything, it makes it worse because you aren’t being paid for all of that labor. You’re just doing it for the sake of doing it, and as rewarding as it can be, it can also be demanding.

Im finally publishing a fanfic for the first time and don’t get me wrong, it’s been great to get feedback on my work and interact with a community. I love that there are usernames and profile pictures I can actually identify because they’re regulars on my work.

But does that mean I don’t have to constantly redo work because I don’t like how it turned out? No. Does that mean I always update on time? No. Never get burnout? No. I still very much go through all of the things paid writers do, because the Creative Process is difficult and demanding no matter what they paycheck is or isn’t.

And all of that is just if you guys WERE missing updates, which you’re NOT. So like… these complaints are not only very entitled and ignorant, but also just confusing. People really just be mad for the sake of being mad, I guess?

Anyways yeah, free content creators are still content creators, and passion-driven hard work is still hard work. You two are cranking out absolutely STUNNING visuals, compelling characters and engaging worldbuilding every single week and that’s amazing. Thank you for your hard work and I’m sorry about the twerps that don’t appreciate it enough!

Ah the price we pay for being human and having a brain, amirite haha

It's to be expected, to a certain point, that people simply don't understand that things like comics and cartoons take time. General impatience is something that can be ignored. If people asking for updates bothered us, we wouldn't post anywhere ever haha You gotta have at least SOME backbone if you want to do a comic. Or anything really.

Comics are a TON of work, and I knew this going in cuz I've done shorter comics before. It is not to be treated as if its easy. (Well, its easier than animating a whole series by yourself LOL) There's a lot of pre-comic planning that people don't tell you about. And that's just the stuff you have to do before you even start drawing. Of course this only applies to long-form storytelling, there's different rules for different kinds of comics.

And I won't even get into what it takes to making the comic itself, there's a lot of parts that need to be considered like formatting, time-management, what shortcuts you have to take to save on labor, and getting across as much information as you can in a short amount of time, while using mostly visuals. It's a skill, so it can be learned haha

A lot of doing comics is on-the-job training. Which I know can be frustrating for perfectionists, but from a reader's perspective, part of the joy of webcomics is seeing how far the art has come. And you can't exactly get out a webcomic if you keep redoing things over and over. You'll burn yourself out even faster. This is why it's important to have a plan lol it just makes it easier to adjust if you have to change things, than if you have no plan at all.

Even if RJ and I for whatever reason no longer felt passionate about this story, and wanted to move on to something else entirely, we wouldn't leave everyone hanging. We'd tell everyone what happens one way or another. Because too many people just abandon a story just to tell another one, and that's not fair to people who were here to read a story that appealed to them.

But the entitlement of people sucks, the constant heckling, the fact we can't moderate our own comment section, and more importantly Webtoons just sucks as a site anyway. - Cat

[jacksgreysays]

I'm going to 1) boost this absolutely fantastic webtoon because i love it so much and i really would love to see other people interact with it and 2) so it makes sense for it to be on this particular blog, do a little brainstorm for what kind of fanfic i would theoretically write for it

And ao3 is down right now anyway, so you may as well, lol

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD READ MY IN-LAWS ARE OBSESSED WITH ME:

Season 1 just finished (75 chapters total) with Season 2 scheduled for next year (presuming translation time) so if you're worried about starting something that isn't complete or, conversely, jumping in to something that is dead in the water, do not worry this webtoon will take care of you

I consume a lot of garbage media so trust me in knowing what is and isn't garbage. Yes the title is weird and also it initially looks like a cheesy vampire harlequin but trust me it's not.

It's got everything I love and, hopefully, if you're reading this post you love some of these things too: time travel, political ramifications for things, DRAMA, beautiful fashions, the slowest of slowest burns of yearning, supernatural mystery revolving around a blood curse, a female lead who is more concerned about SURVIVAL and VENGEANCE and BUSINESS than romance (but also the romance is very cute eventually, emphasis on the eventually)

The art in general is stunning (again, kudos to the fashion) and the story telling in the visual medium is absolutely heartbreaking. Slight spoilers, but there's a part where it gets into the ML's PTSD from being at war and the way it's portrayed is absolutely devastating. Actually a lot of the FL's anxieties and self doubts are also portrayed wonderfully in this medium. It's THOUGHTFUL in its usage of imagery. There's also a fun recurring bit where every time the FL is framed weirdly in the shot it's because the ML is right next to her right off screen being devastatingly handsome

The side characters are great. The titular in-laws are fantastic. I weep thinking about the residence manager who is so bad at his job and openly cries about having to do work. Celphius would be my son if he weren't so enamored by having Pereshati as his mom instead.

All of the characters are SMART. Or, at least, they're logical. I never ask "why are they doing this?" because everyone is acting rationally for what information/abilities/biases they do have. And yes, the biases are important also (because god knows I hate the villains but they are, unfortunately, rational in their cruelty).

They're also proactive about things? Like, very often protagonists are just reacting to the next awful thing thrown their way, but both the FL and ML are taking steps to achieve their goals even if a lot of it is off-screen.

Please. I beseech thee, read the first ten chapters at least, if you've gotten this far in this post, just read the first ten chapters.

Anyway, so as to at least maintain the thinnest veneer of this being a writing post, the theoretical fanfic I'd write for this series is under the cut and does contain SPOILERS:

It would appear, at first, like a straightforward AU, beginning with the characters at the age they are in the canon. So ~early/mid-20s(?) ish?

But, just straight up, Therdeo is not the grand duke and Pereshati is an imperial secretary(?/scholar?). But Therdeo is probably head of the knights of the grand dukedom, so he has to be in the capitol for ~reasons~ especially since he's probably still the "hero" of the war.

The fic appears to be a straight forward meet-cute romance between elite knight, third son of the Lapileons and imperial secretary, only daughter of the Zahardt countdom. The levels are not exactly equal, but it's a lot more evened out than in canon. Maybe there's still a "please pretend to marry me so I don't get trapped in an engagement with the 4th princess" but her vibes are SO RANK I don't even want to deal with that :/

So now why does it only APPEAR to be a straight forward meet-cute romance?

Double time travel.

Well, possibly quintuple time travel depending on how deep into it we get, but basically: Pereshati and the four Lapileon in-laws who are older than her (Therdeo, Saoirse, Phineas, Gloria) all travel back to the first time someone died from Gen's blood being sold (not Islette's) which is at least several years, if not over a decade from the canon start time.

Maybe the Lapileons coordinate with each other about this, but regardless, since it's from Pereshati's view she wouldn't get to see that.

On her side what changes is: unfortunately, I don't think she can save her mother. But maybe she can prevent her father from re-marrying and emphasize cherishing the family they already have (ie, each other and her uncle+his family). And because she does now have so much experience running a household and is, you know, a fully educated grown adult in a child's body, when she goes to the academy she does EXTREMELY well. Like. Imperial Scholar well.

And, yes, she is her father's heir. But he's healthy and not married to someone who will kill him, so she sort of has the freedom to have this imperial scholar job for a while until he decides he wants to retire and have her take over, etc.

So she's working in the capitol, and Therdeo's also in the capitol.

Or maybe she works at the academy as a teacher now?

If Celphius didn't still exist, I would cry. But maybe his father is still alive and that's why Therdeo isn't the grand duke. Or even if Celphius' dad is dead (RIP) then Saoirse's family is definitely still alive and so SHE'S the grand duke(/duchess) and Celphius has an older cousin that he has to be VERY CAREFUL WITH.

Regardless, at the very least. Saoirse's son goes to the academy. Maybe the meet cute is, now that Celphius is old enough, he ALSO gets to go to the academy. And as a Good Uncle (This Time) Therdeo will be there to support him and also bring him to the Academy and be an extra set of eyes for whichever of his older siblings is the grand duke and anyway he meets Pereshati and they are both trying to hide the fact that they know each other because of time travel while also falling in love(?)

Maybe.

I just really liked the idea of re-leveling their respective statuses so they can stand on more equal footing when they meet T_T

ANYWAY PLEASE READ IT. I KNOW AO3 IS DOWN NOW ANYWAY, SO YOU MAY AS WELL

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Do you read manhwas ?? If so then which one?

Yeah, I read webtoon/manhwa and manga a lot.

I am not really fan of manhua but there are exceptions for that one too, for example; 'Your Dream is Delicious' was one of my exceptions for me because i love characters. I love it.

I dont have specific genre to read one because you can never know which story has good characters and well written plotline but i generally prefer to read;

Yaoi- But i cant enjoy the story, if sex is only thing or main focus.

Romance- The reason i love romance because i love series that focus on relationships the most, though i hate when 'romance is the only focus' or when lovers act like they only care about each others but still, at least, story explores the interaction between characters.

Fantasy- I dont mind slice of life but sometimes its fun to explore supernatural or fantasy world.

Psychological- What can i say, psychology is my favorite thing because i dont enjoy shallow-typical characters, i want to know more about them, thats how i can get into story and enjoy from it. Though, its hard to find well written one.

Horror- i think every story needs a little/small horror element.

Shounen ai- Unlike yaoi, slowburn romance when characters get to know each others first works better because two strangers having sex and magiclaly falling in love is so unrealistic to me. Not to mention, most of them are romanticized toxic relationships without consent, i hate it.

Shoujo ai- I mean, there is no difference for me between shoujo ai and shounen ai, if its well written. Though, its hard to find good yuri too.

This doesnt mean i dont read other genres but i usually read those ones the most. I read reencarnation stories too but most of the mare cliche, its hard to find good one.

The thing is; Its been years since i start reading manhwa, I dont remember which ones i read because i read a lot and i still read.

But i have a few favorites, unfortunately i dont remember everything i read so just a few faves of mine.

Bastard;

Genre; Crime, mystery, psychological, horror.

I enjoy this story a lot.

A Joyful Life;

Genre; Slice of life, shoujo ai, romance, drama

I love main characters and the interaction between them.

Stagtown;

Genre; Horror, mystery, supernatural.

Recently, it has finished, i really enjoyed the horror elements of the story.

Pyramid Game;

Genre; Psychology

Both story and characters are good. Another 'win the game/war' type of story but its about more mental struggle than psychical one. If you love stories with tension, you might like this.

King's Maker;

Genre; Shounen ai, yaoi, history.

Main focus isnt romance. Its about changing the kingdom they live in.

The Best Smell;

Genre; Shounen ai.

Just adding here, cute shounen ai story, though art c/should've been better. Not necessarely my fave but i am just adding here because i dont remember other stories i read.

Her Shimchang;

Genre; Shoujo ai, romance, history, supernatural.

I keep rec.ing shoujo ai, even though i hardly read one, (i usually read yaoi/shounen ai). I often end up hating most the things i read so its rare to find a story i love from beginning to the ending and this one is one of them.

Hooky;

Genre; Fantasy, adventure.

It has very cute art, and storyline. I love when characters go to adventure, discover the world around them, interact with others. Though i didnt enjoy the second part os tory, still worh it though and i love the twins and their relationship the most.

I Love Amy;

This one isnt necessarely my fave because story is new to me but i find the story, characters and art interesting enough to mention it. Its about yandere girl who fall in love with the girl she considered love rival, lol. I love the fact that they actually give yandere girl a character and story and allow her to learn true love.

I read so many good stories, especially romance, yaoi but these ones are the ones i remember right now.

Bonus; I also read Dr Frost, The Guy Upstairs, Like You Maybe, Sugar & Spice, High Class Homos, Fictional Skin, Tower of God etc on webtoon app. Others i read on random websites, there are too many to write it here so for now, thats it.

[littlewonders7]

You after coming back to aphmau vids or atleast what she did before or around when covid happened I’ve been getting back into my inner demons and that ‘aphmau characters being actors’ type vids and now I’m thinking what ifs for them such as

What if ‘my inner demons’ became a webtoon/manhwa type series with a remake of the show cause I would love more world building on show and more character development( not to mention knowing the whole series the daemos only stay on earth for one whole month and not longer, which doesn’t feel enough time for the characters, even though I know in daemos world the time goes faster so they were there for around 8 months, but still it would’ve been better for development if the time wasn’t too different) yeah 1 month on earth was about 7 months and 3 weeks so 8 months in total( I remember doing the math back when the show came out and now here I am doing it again lol)

Another thing I though of is what if the aphmau series was like a Disney channel type show for some reason idk why I thought of it, and haven’t even watched Disney channel really so I have no clue on why I think it would be interesting 🤔 idk but I think it probably be nice to that ‘half reality type of series’ like the Netflix series ‘Busted’ where when aphmau and her crew where still their characters but were still able to naturally and freely express themselves( example would be like back when they did hide&seek, murder mystery, prop hunt, etc)

Anyways no complaints either way just some random and goofy thoughts that randomly pop into my head🤗😂

[cherchersketch]

the webtoon ~classic~ If you ever see the comments on WEBTOON refer to any lady who attempts to steal away the ML as “Trashta”, this is the series that reference comes from. Literally the reason I first started reading was to find out how bad the OG “Trashta” actually is.

Summary Exactly what it says on the tin. Our main girl, Navier, gets divorced from her childhood sweetheart/arranged marriage partner. But she pulls an UNO Reverse on him and immediately turns around to marry the neighbouring kingdom’s ruler. It’s one of those in media res series so we’re only caught up to “present day” around Chapter 70+. In general, mostly about all the ~political intrigue~ of switching from Empress of an Empire, to Queen of the neighbouring Kingdom, as well as how the replacement takes over her job and how the ex is coping. (not well on both counts)

Tropes   - the art does a *glow-up* over time   - oh my god there’s so much plot   - who run the world? GIRLS   - a lady’s battlefield is tea parties and banquets

FL - Navier

 - a walking Defrosting Ice Queen trope. You see that image of her on the cover? That’s 80% of her face in the manhwa. Lol  - *real nobles* can’t reveal their ~FEELINGS~  - gaslight gatekeep GIRLBOSS  - trying her best

ML - Heinrey

 - from penpals-to-married in a few months. good for you, king  - the guy always falls in love first ;w;  - lowkey actually kinda sus (and then I read ahead in the novels and yea, baby boy sus af)  - not as dumb as he pretends to be  - when in doubt, turn into cute bird

that lady - Rashta

 - technically trying her best but not the sharpest knife in the drawer  - I wouldn’t say I hate her, like some trashbin-worthy family members from other series, but a lot of her actions make me facepalm  - the fandom’s Hate Sink. literally the reason it’s a hazard to mention her in r/OtomeIsekai. lololol

the ex - Sovieshu

 - how is he so dumb when he’s the Emperor  - someone get him better advisors

Rating: It’s not bad if you’re bored and enjoy the tropes The fact that I went to read ahead in the novels means I did enjoy it initially. But it was one of the first few manhwa I actually read and since then I’ve found other similar series that I prefer. Status (as of 11 July 2023) Ongoing. Season 3 just started. Having read ahead in the novel, and some spoilers, there’s still a long long way to go.

Same Same but Different  - Amina of the Lamp  - Iris: The Lady and Her Smartphone  - The Soulless Duchess

full rec list

[caffeinatedknives]

Sunday Currently // Vol. 09

I don’t know why but for some reason, maybe this Sunday is different. I don't know, but guess what? I finally have the energy to post this entry online. Yes, this post is my The Sunday Currently Vol. 9. Please don’t look for the Vols. 1-8, I'm too lazy to post them here. Let's not be stuck in the past, shall we? Move on na lang tayo. Lol

Anyway, here's what's currently going on with me.

==CURRENTLY==

Reading  -- Unfortunately, I'm still stuck on my reading slump that I still cant even manage to finish reading Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affairs At Styles. I actually tried reading a couple of webtoon on my phone but I can only last reading for 5 to 10 mins. I really don’t know but I feel too lazy to read lately.

Writing  -- Apart from writing on my bullet journal and this Sunday's entry, I have not made any other writing at all.

Listening  -- Yong Junhyung's "Too Much Love Kills Me". This may be an old song, but  damn I still love it as much as�� when I first listened & fell in love to it years ago.

Watching  -- Spent a good half of my day watching Trigun. Yeah, that anime from the late 90's. I'm still on my anime nostalgia phase that's why I'm into watching old anime such as Trigun. I'm almost halfway through the series. After this, I prolly will watch Sailor Moon next or just continue watching Gundam Wing

Thinking  -- I'm not actually thinking about something in particular at the moment. It's still Sunday, I  just want to enjoy my weekend, worry-free..   

Smelling  -- The faint scent of my perfume I sprayed to myself hours earlier.

Wishing  -- A  stress-free work week, please... If only that is even possible at all..  *sigh*

Hoping  -- Better week than the last. Feel ko naman this is possible, tomorrow is payday. Starting a week on a payday is already a good start for a good week, right?

Loving   -- Today's is just an ordinary day. I think that’s enough reason to love this day

Wanting   -- more time please.  There's so much to do yet so little time left then it will be a busy work week again.. Hay….

Needing  -- I really should start my personal projects now: diet, learning Korean (& dance) and saving up for concerts ---> still the same from last week, because nothing was actually started so far, except for setting up my new blog on Tumblr.

Feeling  -- A bit lazy to do anything, actually. I even feel lazy to feel anything. It's as if my feelings went weekend mode too or something.

=============

Oh well, that's about it for my Sunday. It's just an ordinary day. Hopefully by next week, I'll be here again as well to continue this. Bye for now. --Knives. :)

**cover photo credits**

Photo by Holly Stratton on Unsplash

[rozugold]

Made a little something for my favorite arc in Brimstones and Roses >:’D

Characters + story belong to @speremint

[prettyboykatsuki]

josei recs 🤲

off the top of my head!!! i read a fuck ton of webtoons / manhwas / manhua / manga etc. so this is by no means comprehensive

wokatoi: love is hard for the otaku - this is probably one of the most popular josei romances around for good reason. the four main leads and 2 main couples highlight the delicate intimacy of adult relationships and how hobbies don't have any real age limit. ive read this manga few times and watched the anime a few times. it's brilliant and cathartic but mostly light hearted

gokusen - this is not a romance centric josei - but follows around our main character, grandaughter of a yakuza family who decides to teach at a local highchool. kumiko is badass and hilarious. her family is so cute. this is an older manga so there's some pretty inappropriate content and the one romance has an age gap though it's only 4 years (it is a teacher n student tho). i think the story telling is so wonderful and it has stuck with me through the years - but read at your own risk.

our relationship is.. - i could talk about this manhwa all damn day. this is by FAR my favorite josei ever. it is absolutely brilliant. a ten out of ten. it's a story of two childhood friends who have spent their whole lives together, suddenly attending the same university after the male lead returns from two years in the military. the story tackles insecurity, miscommunications, and how you can know someone so well and still make mistakes in how you treat them. it is mind numbingly tender while also encapsulating some of the realest and rawest parts of a romance between life long friends. the cast is diverse and so so so human. and the main leads are likeable despite their many flaws. a must read.

the lady and her butler - being techincal this a manhwa / webtoon but given the contents i still think it fits. story about a working woman who accidentally picks up a scary looking dude and ends up living with him as a psuedo roomate while he gets back on his feet. started my love for househusbands, male lead is kind, tough, and considerate. the story really highlights human pride in a way i dont think other romances quite capture - both characters struggle inwardly with ego in ways that are relatable and uniqe to them. you can sympathize wih every person in this series in different way. this is my 2nd favorite romance manhwa of all time, no questions asked.

nana - this is another really iconic josei about two young women who happen to have the same name but very different personalities. this was published as shoujo but most people consider it a josei regardless. tales of love, relationships, friendship and the trials tribulations of chasing your adulthood desires all while facing those same responsibilities. nanas brilliance however is in how it displays sincere connection between people from all walks of life. not necessarily a romance but well.. you'll see if you read it.

kimma wa petto / you're my pet - as the title sounds, a young woman decides that she's fed up with mistreatment and picks a guy up off the street on a whim. to her surprise, they actually get along pretty well but their relationship is complicated. tales of ex boyfriend, insecurities, and other complex inner turmoils. can you tell i like a specific type of female lead yet? lol

red river - HUUUGE trigger warning for some of the sexual violence and violence in this story. this is one of the few isekai mangas i ever got into before i really got into isekai (a relatively new thing for me) about a girl who almost gets blood sacrificed then gets saved by a mega handsome prince. another older manga but genuinely hols up imo.

koudaike no hitobito - a lovely and light hearted story about a ditzy office worker and the handsome boss who she frequently day dreams about. who just so happens to invite her out to dinner despite her absent mindneness. not a particularly compelling series but super fun and enjoyable to read. mc is klutzy but genuine enough she's super endearing. love

if you want more lmk!!

[antiloreolympus]

5 Anti LO Asks

1, Another Greek here -

Now, my experience could be different from other Greeks, but from what I've seen and experienced the Gods that are still relevant and important to Greek culture are definitely Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Dionysus, and Athena. Not that the other Gods are not relevant, just that these five in particular pop up the most and also have official name days in our Christian Orthodox calendars.

This is what bugs me (among other things) about Lore Olympus. Here, Smythe has taken Apollo, Demeter, and Artemis and ripped their whole identities in order to tell this strange story of how Persephone (or more like Perfect-phone) was abused and wronged by everyone around her - except Hades. Which, as mentioned a few times by anons, was actually the only one who wronged her in the myths! Other than Zeus of course but - that guy wrongs everyone lol.

Now, I understand that Smythe has every right to create a story about our myths. She can change whatever she wants - they are not under copyright. However - It's just the principle behind it. I wouldn't take Gods that are important to, let's say, Indian culture and turn them into villains just to make one of their other Gods look perfect? This is ridiculous. 

2. As a random point, why is Demeter green and purple? Demeter's colors are gold and red. Gold for the wheat, and red for the poppy flowers that grew all over her fields. Shouldn't she be Hera's colors technically? And Hera should have Demeter's colors - purple and green, because of the peacock.

I don't know, the color choices just seem strange to me.  

3. From reading all the messages here I've been imaging my own version of Hades & Persephone where she still gets kidnapped and the story alternates between her and Demeter and what they go through

4. Let it never be said that I’m a cynic, mainly because I rarely point out or critique a person’s art style due to the “subjective” nature of art in general. But the moment I saw the visual for the courthouse in EP. 173, I was absolutely aghast. A lack of tall columns, no decorative details or mythical elements, seemingly no Greek influences whatsoever. Seriously, the editors/RS could’ve had a blast with creating an entire Olympus-style courthouse! Instead we get a sleek glass building that’s painted a regular blue color and appears as though it were copypasted from a 3D modeling website. I’m not sure why it bothers me so much. It's almost like RS keeps staring at the rich, ancient coding of Greek culture and thinks “nah, not enough Americana” and continues bolting stars and stripes onto every orifice of the series’ visuals. I can understand the need for the story to be “modernized” by plot standards, but it's practically dripping with western overtones at this point: the capitalist nature of the Underworld, the classic 50s pinup appearance of every female character, the New York-inspired buildings of all the realms...

5. I’ve noticed on the Lore Olympus Reddit page that a lot of the comic’s fans continue to seem dissatisfied with the recent chapters as a whole -- and with good reason. The excuses seen most often for the story’s mediocre “cliffhangers” and long-winded expositions is that RS is “dragging out the story for the upcoming animated series” or that the Webtoons organization has forced her in a corner when planning the structure of her episodes. If you believe that it was all Webtoons doing for the current stagnation (which I don’t believe), RS should’ve caught onto this a while ago and written her chapters accordingly to fit the new model, but she continues producing these redundant tactics anyway. This setup was most egregious during the flashbacks of Minthe and Hades’ initial meeting (EP.149-150); the recollections only appear for a couple chapters, but this storyline took two weeks to conclude during the period of weekly updates. The same thing happened in the arc before the current trial plotline, where we spent a good nineteen chapters (nineteen weeks) mucking around the Underworld before anything remotely about Persephone’s trial is even alluded to. Granted, those chapters did include Daphne's hibernation, the confrontation with Leto, and the reveal of Psyche’s identity -- but it was also during that time where many LO fans were still wondering “so...when is Persephone going to be prosecuted?” or “is Apollo going to be punished at all?” Many webcomics with a similar amount of panels to LO are able to produce much more satisfying content because it's creators have the ability to purposefully plan which plot points will be disclosed within that certain episode. Not in Lore Olympus, however! Get ready for long stretches of nothing and a plethora of middle school-level philosophies that will keep you at the...sorta edge of your seat.

[marimopeace]

there's a limit on how much you can be an isekai intellectual...

a bunch of analyses have been popping up before me all day so i wanted to throw my hat into the ring. all love to ppl who are exercising their creative minds + ppl like geoff here who just talk about these things because of fan interest but i feel like there reaches a point where exploring the "types" of isekai is pointless? i've seen ppl list out the different types of villainess revenge isekai or fantasy mmorpg isekai but eh why fit them all into separate boxes like that?

i think it's easier to think of isekai as a "type" (genre) of itself with only two categories: 1) a focus on isekai (lit. another world) 2) tensei (lit. to be reborn). this allows for a variety of applications and thus tropes that ppl see so many trends of!

with isekai - in another world

you see everything from:

pure fantasy (inuyasha, digimon wait maybe not the best example but in my childhood mind i count digimon as pure fantasy, fushigi yugi)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (.hack//legend of twilight, sao ugh, log horizon, overlord (LOVE OVERLORD!)

otome game-esque worlds >>> this is where it gets complicated with "villainess routes" since i admit there are multiple villainess tropes but this is why it's nice to not think of this as a "sub-type/genre" bc it frees you from those complications! (the saint's magic power is omnipotent, the white cat's revenge as plotted from the dragon king's lap soso cute!, the savior's book cafe in another world, i'm a villainous daughter so i'm going to keep the last boss wait i can't remember if she's reborn in this one lmaooo see this is why rules make everything hard)

with tensei storylines - being reincarnated/reborn in another world as *insert character/role*

you see...

the same tropes!!

pure fantasy (a returner's magic should be special, reminiscence adonis, the lady and the beast, light and shadow, i can't think of a manga off the top of my head for this ah)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (so i'm a spider so what i stan kumoko so hard, her majesty's swarm, can't name another off the top of my head ah i hate lists shorter than two things...)

self-insert based games/novels (fiance's observation log of a self-proclaimed villainess, who made me a princess, death is the only ending for the villainess, the villainess wants to marry a commoner, honestly games vs novels are different applications but i'm not in the headspace to try to remember a bunch of both lol)

*insert line break to give random ppl a break from scrolling but tl; dr just enjoy things for what they are no need to micro analyze*

similar variations occur in both genres (if ppl want to be super technical i guess i'm arguing that isekai itself is a massive genre that has the "another world" subgenre and "reincarnation" subgenre tl; dr) so i think it's honestly a huge pain to try to separate all these trends into so many different types of stories. for me personally it's easier to not get overwhelmed by this gigantic umbrella of "isekai" that spans light novels, manhwa, manga, and mobile games by just stripping each story down into its trademark tropes (aka character archetypes, story structures) and slapping "oh this is a person going to a world that's not ours" and "this person gets reborn as blank in another world". none of this "omg this power fantasy is such a this kind of isekai moment" or "there are 14 different types of villainess revenge stories and this series fits into this" bc AH labels! limitations! circle-jerks via ppl trying to compartmentalize everything and sound smart for leaving a comment on story analysis instead of ooh-ahhing over a character's face! dividing things into light novel manga vs manga vs korean manhwa ft. female characters!

the last bit is mainly why i feel frustrated by ppl's insistence to group everything?

the video linked at the beginning of the post (honestly good video essay, i enjoyed it, i just kept thinking in my head the whole time "marimo these are tropes do not take the genre talk literally") has a baby comment thread talking about "korean isekai manhwas" as a genre featuring nothing but reincarnated villainess' and i can't.

like i cannot acknowledge that as a genre of any sort. the energy i felt reading through some of those insights takes me back to 2012 when all yt americans discovered k-pop and deemed all korean music k-pop from then on! (ppl still do this now, yes you are seen and don't talk to me pls i don't like you. k-pop is korean pop music and nothing less and nothing more. take a few seconds and try to parse apart aspects of korean culture instead of slamming everything into a monolithic label that has the letter k and a hyphen.) it feels so odd to see a bunch of young ppl on ig and tiktok acknowledge korean media that happens to be in the form of a webtoon as "oh stories all about young girls becoming villains in stories they made/played" bc it feels so reductive u.u

(positionality disclaimer that i'm praying isn't actually necessary: i am a 3rd-generation korean of japanese descent do not fite me i am exhausted irl of ppl asking for validation/verification bc massive shove off.)

breaking news! korean manhwa...is just as multifaceted as japanese manga...bc how can comics as an art-form not have multiple genres...huh such a shocker?!?! same likely applies to media in other parts of the world like chinese manhwa and french comics--not my place to explain either of those i just know those industries exist bc of wakfu and donghua shows by Tencent.

at the end of the day it's not like analyzing any kind of isekai is wrong--absolutely not!! i think it can be super fun to think about how isekai elements complicate a story (MCs trying to go back home, ppl from the og world, reincarnation plot-twists) or maybe even bash a series for including some kind of other world element when they could have just written a super fun fantasy.

insert marimo's brief ramble that hey you can get sick of truck-kun's hitting disillusioned guys who happen to be super duper smart or girls who happen to be master chefs/craftsmen but transporting a fully-grown being into a fantasy setting is the ultimate cheat code for making mundane modern technology seem cool and overpowered, and being reincarnated as a fully grown person in a world with a pre-made story/game set-up completely bypasses the need for an author to slowly flesh out world-building in a natural progression so isekai is actually a really smart writing tool it's just that there are some series where the author didn't use it well at all and it's cheesy or clearly isekai was misused as a vehicle for character/story development and it was pointless *DEEP BREATH OUT*

in this essay i will argue...lol i am such a culture studies major!! if i were an english major i would be talking all about writing but here i am having a side-tangent about world-building via someone being reborn wow i love this for me (don't get me started on when an author has someone reincarnate as a baby and the story is mostly them having warm fluffy moments with their family--typically father figures--and getting lots of powers i could and would and probably will rant about east asian toxicity)

but anyway am i crazy????? like yes for being passionate about the technical use of a word like genre (i am a scorpio rising let me be fussy pls) but i don't think it's a lot to ask for ppl to not unironically see "villainess revenge isekai" as the definition of korean manhwa.

idk as someone who resonates with why japanese isekai is so popular domestically + why a lot of korean manhwa feat. the same tropes (it's not for great reasons lads it's actually depressing tbh) i'm just starting to feel kind of pained by the generalization and need to separate "cute japanese girl in an otome game"/"japanese boy finds a harem in another world" from "korean girl dies and comes back as a villainess" bc they are just! applications to the same story device!!

recommendations for any who makes it this far down below <3

// also gladly recommend any of the examples i've listed in the above rant as i've read/watched all of them and adore them v much! //

save me princess

super refreshing fantasy manhwa ft. a princess and her ex-boyfriend having to save the world!

the beginning after the end

an AMERICAN web novel turned into a comic (but see it being not korean/japanese doesn't really matter when you just consider isekai as a genre...isn't it nice to not overthink it?) ft. a super-powerful wizard king reincarnated into another world and starting from scratch--gives mushoku tensei vibes but huge twists!

the reason why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion

love love LOVE this story--read the title and you'll learn how this girl reincarnated as the character raeliana in a book gets married to a duke!

trash of the count's family

such a good novel!! a guy gets reborn as a lazy oaf and he takes the hero of the story under his wing...plot twists come up later on!

this time i will definitely be happy!

v good and refreshing for a shorter series! she's been reborn 3 times and remembers every time the hero's stabbed her in the back, and now she just wants to break up with him!

silver diamond

older manga but v good adventure w intrigue! a boy who loves plants get sucked into a desert world with demonic lizards and a mysterious bodyguard by his side. shonen-ai not BL but wonderful vibes nonetheless + great side characters!

the princess imprints a traitor

adore everything in this from the world (not in that way this society makes me so angry) to the machinations at play and the dynamic between the fl and ml

[thepurplellamalikesrashtatoomuch]

if you have any favorite outfits from the webtoon what would they be? i can't really pick a fav but i think everyone dresses nice, even those in the background lol

Okay, so I'd originally written out full reasons for why each of these was on here. It took me a good hour and a half to do. And then I clicked post and it (for some reason) not only didn't work but also deleted everything I'd written. So if any of these have typos or come off as bay written it's because I had to rewrite the entire (no mich abridged) post

Navier's main colors are red and gold as I've discussed before. This dress incorporates the both of them very well. I also love the black fabric. It compliments the others well and makes them pop out much more brightly.

Rashta doesn't wear green too often and I definitely wouldn't say it's a central color of her's. Regardless, she looks beautiful in it and I love how she looks in more simplistic dresses.

This dress only actually ever appears in Rashta's imagination of Navier. But I still love everything about it. It makes good use of the red and gold she often wear. It's not extravagant but clearly elegant. And, she just looks beautiful in it. This might be my favorite ever Navier dress.

I could not for the life of me remember what episode this was from so I took the image from @beetlewine-art 's Top Ten TRE dresses post. It's a lot more structured than mine and actually in order so if you're interested check it out. But anyhow, I love Rashta in soft colors and simpler dresses and this dress fulfills both. I also love her hairpiece. It's not the most regal dress, but tbh Rashta doesn't really look good in those. It's a perfect outfit for her.

This has got to be my favorite panel in all of TRE. First off, the outfits are obviously gorgeous. But it also showcases the contrast between Navier and Rashta both stylistically and in the way they're positioned. Rashta wears soft color and has her head facing down. Navier dresses in more bold color and looks straight up ahead. The dresses help to characterize the both of them and they both look stunning in them.

I like this Rashta outfit pretty much just because she's wearing pinks and blues without drowning herself in gems, bows, and ruffles.

Navier in blue! I think she only wears blue 2-3 times in the series so this is a rare occasion. The black lace-y neck on this dress is clearly the statement peice and the rest of the dress is simple enough to let it make that alone. She's wearing a low ponytail which I can't remember her doing at other times and she looks stunning. There's very minimal jewelry and items on the outfit but it still looks distinctly royal. The entire thing is just perfect.

Rashta should just change her color scheme at this point. I swear she looks beautiful in greens, yellows, and light browns, but we rarely see her actually wearing them. This outfit does a good job in more areas than that though. Rashta often dresses very childishly. Here, the outfit is more mature but she still has a bow (one of her signature items) right on the front. It's clearly a young dress but it doesn't look like it belongs to a child. Instead it seems more like what someone like Lebetti would wear which is probably good considering they're near each other's ages.

If I'm talking about Rashta in light browns, I should also being up this Navier dress. I love the loose sleeves, the colors, and another lace neck which suits her very well. Unfortunately I couldn't find a front view of it so well have to do with this side one.

And finally, more Navier in blue! It's a simpler dress than she usually wears but I think it suits her well. The colors are more washed out than her regular as well and the colors scheme isn't even close to her standard. I wonder if we can attribute this to the time it's worn, after finding out about the divorce and just having seen McKenna outside her room. Her world is collapsing around her. Luckily, she's well dressed to face it. No, it's nowhere near her style but I love how she wears it. I hope we see more of her in blue next season.

And with that we have reached our ten image limit! Again, if you want a better done version of this check out @beetlewine-art 's post. And thank you for my first ask!

[headdypidgeon4180]

The Tale of getting Hawk and Flo Made Part 1

Greetings dear reader, I am HeaddyPidgeon. I make a webcomic series currently called Hawk and Flo 2: Ice Cream Truck of Doom. Now you may have read my comic before or you may be someone who has never even heard of me until now (that being the more likely case). Now you may have noticed the eponymous 2 in the Hawk and Flo 2 and come to the conclusion that there is a Hawk and Flo 1. Well you would be correct dear reader there technically is a Hawk and Flo 1.... It just isn’t finished even though it technically was finished 2 years ago.

What the heck does that mean. it’s finished and it’s not finished at the same time? how is that possible?!. Well the reason why is because during the  Pandemic I completed Hawk and Flo: Last Space Wizard. It was Inked, coloured, lettered with all of the bells and whistles added from the comfort of my own bedroom. The physical manuscript version is finished. The digital version which I sometimes refer to as the webtoon edit is still in production. When I made the physical version I thought I could just scan the pages and then upload it on the internet, but that sadly didn’t work which meant that over 200 pages then had to (and still have to be redrawn all over again from scratch. Ouch

This is but one chapter in the story of what might be one of the worst production hells in the history of fiction writing let alone comic books. Behind every piece of art there is an artist, behind every novel there is a writer and behind every story there is the story of how it gets made. Let it be known throughout the cosmos that whilst in the year 2022 we’re getting to see the brother and sister from Bermuda fight space armies and crack jokes. Getting it up and running in the first place was a daunting, absolute, nightmare of a quest undertaken by an individual with absolutely no clue what he was doing and whose only credentials were..... ok basically nothing.

I’ve only really been at the process of trying to make my comics for a few years now, Last Space Wizard may have had it’s first chapter in November of 2021 but before that I was pretty terrible. So Terrible that I realised I needed to practice at making comic books before I even got onto the internet. if I was aware of how truly awful I was at doing it all The Internet was certainly going to have had a field day with many of my earlier attempts at comics. Now the  (not so) strange thing is I studied English so the stories themselves were pretty well written. The Jokes landed the characters were likeable, it’s just everything else was terrible. The art was terrible, My Lettering was completely Illegible, I couldn’t even draw anyone moving. So my first ever attempt at a Hawk and Flo comic was a script I had from a complete Turkey of an episode I had called ‘My Worst Fear’. I considered it the worst script I had ever written for anything but because the characters mostly stood around and talked I threw caution to the wind and gave it a go. i Showed it my friends and they found it hilarious which is what encouraged me to try learning to draw on my own. I started with A3 sketchbooks I'd buy from the Range. I would then turn on them on their sides then draw all of the action (or lack thereof in my case I was so bad it wasn’t funny) big and bright because I struggled a lot with drawing small and my consistency was awful. So when I very first started I drew character design sheets then I would trace my own drawings so it would turn out consistently LOL. 

We all have to start somewhere If somehow someway I one day take off as some kind of famous writer/artist know this I had no idea what I was doing I’m just as clueless as anyone else. It’s just I understand I'm getting older, after trying and failing so many times to look for artists to draw my comics, whether it be my ex girlfriend, or friends I knew from High school I realised the only way any of this was ever going to get made was I had to do it myself. It came with some heartaches, i’m still gutted that I wasn’t able to get my comics off the ground at the time the storm Area 51 event happened in 2019. it would have been so perfect if a series about space armies invading planets came out that day... but It wasn’t to be I wasn’t ready to be out there. When I tried to scan my sketchbook art I just wasn’t able to do anything with it, the pages weren’t edited out properly and none of it was the right format. So when I got better I started drawing on A4 sheets of paper which I then couldn’t get to upload due to file size limits and such so I had to start doing everything digitally. I couldn’t figure out how to scan and upload my A3 books or A4 manuscripts I still don’t know how XD. Shout outs to anybody who did figure that out I still haven’t to this very day.

[maleyanderecafe]

i think best way to describe my deepest secret is it does have a yandere - just not a yandere male LOL. i liked the twist but it was a bummer. tbh if the author does make another comic with a real yandere guy i'd follow it

This ask made me read all 91 chapters of My Deepest Secret, which is much better than I thought it was. Still though, it is a shame that Elios wasn't the yandere all along. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the webtoon though keep in mind I this is partially from a person who knows vaguely what happens.

Out of all the characters, I think my favorite ones are Yohan, Nura and Hana. Yohan is not only extremely funny but very smart and he has a good character development and motive for the things that he does (except for near the end), plus the fact that he is often the one that drives the story most of the time. Nura is a fiery girl that is a great friend with Emma and helps stand up for her when she needs to (like when she helped her with the harassment case) as well as just being pretty funny. Hana, though shown as an aloof and cold person, but turns out to be someone who will stand up for those and her friends.

Despite the fact that I knew Elios was not the yandere, I was actually surprised at the twist that Emma was the yandere all along, though the author actually did foreshadow this now that I think about it. In any instance, Elios is never actually seen by anyone other than Emma (even when Nura came over while Emma was sick, Elios was "hidden") and nobody ever mentions him except when Emma tells them about him. In addition, Elios is far too perfect, even with his "murders" and he doesn't really have much of a personality, as well as the fact that he barely has any real reactions with Emma that displays as romantic (he blushes a couple of times, but that's it), which just made me more suspicious of him regardless. Emma is incredibly whipped for Elios, which would make sense considering they're dating, but in most cases was just a one-sided love, which knowing that Elios isn't actually a yandere also makes her really suspicious. Still, I was really surprised that Emma was the one who committed most of those crimes, though I can understand it as a sort of "revenge" against those who wronged her.

The artwork and paneling for My Deepest Secret are pretty good (the only qualm I really have is how bright Emma and all the blonde-haired characters are) and I have to praise the series for its good pacing and unreliable narrator. I also like how the characters are much smarter than they appear and they use logic to make the best of any situation (like recording messages and Emma literally fighting back which was nice) which is something that I often don't see in these kinds of series considering the main character in yandere based media is usually... well, stupid.

The biggest qualm about the story is obviously that the writer decided that Emma would be the yandere instead of Elios. Obviously, because I'm a male yandere-based blog, I would want to see more male yandere, but the writer kinda just decided that they would turn that on its head. I suppose in terms of the story it is not bad- I still think having a yandere story with an unreliable narrator is a very interesting take- but it does kind of suck because it essentially means that Emma was trying to manipulate herself and whatnot. The other thing I'm not happy about is near the end when Yohan tries to escape with Emma. Yohan explains that his actions are selfish so this shouldn't be a surprise, but to be honest, I felt like even that explanation doesn't make sense. It's true that Yohan used unorthodox methods of trying to figure out what happened with Emma, but to take a murderer who is not only stronger than him but is also unstable with him to escape also literally doesn't make any sense. Perhaps Yohan was trying to prevent Emma from killing herself, but I feel like this is probably one of the most dangerous ways to do it and for sure not the smartest way. The change was really sudden and I still don't really get Yohan's reasoning, which is a shame because he seemed to be the most level-headed out of all the characters (except for maybe Hana). The last thing, which is more of a nitpick, is how strong Emma is. Don't get me wrong, I really do like physically strong women in stories, but how she got her strength is still very confusing to me. Supposedly she took self-defense classes at some point, but this doesn't really explain why she was able to assault at least two guys and kill two people. She's able to overturn Yohan as well, but honestly, she doesn't really seem all that physically fit, even in terms of muscle. Even when she was younger, she was able to kick her father hard enough to make him stagger backward, which, at least in my experience of being a noodled armed girl, is not an easy feat. I assume it is because of her genetics, possibly from her father or mother, but there's no reason for Emma to be this strong because even for self-defense, the idea is turning the opponent's strength against you, not necessarily overpower them (something that is described in Yohan's training). I would usually be able to suspend my disbelief, but considering that most of the story is pretty down-to-earth, it still confuses me.

Anyways, these are just my general thoughts. It's possible that Yohan might become a yandere as well given his current actions, but that's only if he survives the current chapter.

[cosmicangst]

hi! May I ask u if you watch kdramas and if u have any favs? I honestly love reading your thoughts on games/series so I was really curious. Hope u have a great day💕

hi hi! yes i do! mostly on netflix and not a whole lot bc kdramas are a hefty investment and im a creature of habit who rewatches my old shows until im sick and desensitized 😌 no particular order here…

crash landing on you: baby’s first kdrama during the pandemic that really started it all for me and my mom. which made me appreciate it less as a show and more as a great bonding experience as she swoons over hyun bin and i swoon over son ye jin. im in the minority who likes the ending. it was a nice realistic touch that grounded the usual third act melodrama level of heightened emotions in kdramas

it’s okay to not be okay: idk what else hasn’t been said but the style, the artistry, the performances, the soundtrack, the family dynamics, how well the fairy tales serve as a thematic basis for each episode 👌👌👌 i love love the individual character developments more than the romance. sometimes they infantilized the heroine at the second half but she’s still one of my favorite kdrama characters

vincenzo: i can take or leave the romance but regardless the leads’ “this is my worse half” dynamic makes the show. their rapport w their plaza neighbors is also hilarious. vincenzo as a character is fun but too cool for me to be attached. cha young though belongs to my list of favorite kdrama characters (you can see a common theme here that im partial to female characters who are assertive w varying levels of unhinged and/or moral grayness)

her private life: fake dating’s not my absolute favorite but no one has topped the chemistry of these actors. the first time they kissed i felt like i needed to turn off the tv to give them privacy lmao what really sells their relationship is how obviously they’re delighted by each other, how they establish intimacy based on their work, and the fact that he loves fangirling over her fangirling. i wasn’t a fan of the third act twist but they still reign as the best romance here

age of youth: technically my first kdrama (i just didn’t finish the second season) and i invested heavily into the narrative when i watched as a college student. i can take or leave the romances but the friend group is unmatched and the only reason to watch. season one >>>> season two all the way

run on: the second couple are EVERYTHING. i didn’t fully appreciate during my first watch until i finished and learned that this kind of slice of life, slow paced and character-driven stuff is my vibe exactly. any time im doing chores i pull up a random ep in the bg bc it feels like im just casually doing parallel play w a friend

hotel del luna: love the premise, love the ending except for the very last moment, didn’t love the romance or the hero necessarily, but i love the heroine so much i couldn’t leave it out. her backstory and relationship with the not!second lead compelled me to finish and tbh they’re the emotional core of the whole thing

my liberation notes: my friend calls this a depression simulator kdrama 😂 but this had as much heart as a ghibli film to me. best part was the ensemble who had very real flaws and emotional relatability supported by a script w depth more human than pretentious. this rly was a show that you had to earn but when you did, it was well worth it

hometown cha cha cha: small town slice of life basically the ultimate comfort food kdrama 💖 save for like two eps each one hits so well. has the second best romance and the best ensemble here although it does dip too much in sentimentality for my taste at times. but it wouldn’t be what it is without it

special mention to cheese in the trap…which i didn’t finish lol so i can’t speak on the quality of that but lil closelyknit lore facts the webtoon it was based on featured in my blog for a good number of tumblr years some time ago

[quieteclipse]

alright, finished catching up to Lucky Paradise, so my thoughts.

first and foremost: i've never been in love, so i'm sure i won't be able to truly understand anyone in this webtoon, but whatever. i atill don't think any of them make sense, particularly chunwoo & taesoo.

i...idk how likely it is for taesoo's father's affair to affect him the way it did (also coupled with his mom's sacrifices), but his whole backstory ultimately made no sense to me. it kinda felt like the author was trying to connect dots that really didn't connect like they thought it would? which, in the end, left taesoo's bullshit with chunwoo feeling unsatisfying and frustrating. it really felt like they were hurting each other (well, taesoo was hurting chunwoo) for no fucking reason.

and now because of that—and the fact that the author still hasn't cared to have taesoo or chunwoo talk to each other (which idk, now that he's back in the story, maybe it'll happen soon)—chunwoo is still fucking attached to taesoo or the idea of taesoo and ho-in is hurt for no reason either.

but i'm not gonna absolve ho-in of any responsibility in this, because he was truly a dumb bitch like idc idc. there's no way he would be that insecure in himself to let himself be used like that. he's clearly popular and he's presumably never had issues with dating before. he doesn't have some sad backstory that would explain why he got himself into that toxic relationship. like his obsession with chunwoo didn't make sense. but i guess you could blame it all on love. idk. it's still stupid.

to be honest, at this point, i don't even want chunwoo and ho-in to get "back" together (as if they were together in the first place), despite the fact that i know they are. i would say i'd prefer taesoo and chunwoo to get together, but idek if i want them together either.

all in all, this series seems like it's gonna be one where the characters get on my last damn nerve.

the only ones i genuinely like because they got some damn sense are woojin & jiwoo.

truthfully, outside of his bullshit with chunwoo, i do kinda like taesoo. but he hasn't really shown much of a personality outside of chunwoo, so it's mostly aesthetic reasons.

also yitae. i hope to see more of him and woojin together (as in dating) lol. i'm glad they stayed close.