#webtoon discourse

[rebuke-me]

i think im gonna be mildly petty. i think my biggest issue with the fh webtoon is the fact that all the characters are coming off as what they are either pretending to be or are mischaracterized as. like.... fabian is so much more of an asshole, and its succeeding, because he doesnt have the awkwardness that he has in the original show. fig actually seems to be the edgy cool kid when the whole bit is that shes such an open book and is really bad at acting edgy. kristens whole thing about being sweet and demure and the pinnacle of helioc followers is just stated as fact because she doesnt show any of that intense chaos. gorgug is the closest to early fh show gorgug, but even he feels vaguely off. the little we see of adaine is just the socratic ideal of Girl With Anxiety because we dont get to see her being mean and petty and vengeful. and riz, through becoming the main character/protagonist/pov character, is just so... he seems like hes the perfect teen sleuth character when he kind of fumbles over and over in the show? he comes off the best and i cant pin down why he feels Wrong to me but he still does.

maybe thats the point of the first few episodes. maybe itll get better. but as of right now im just... mildly frustrated about it. i am bad at articulating what im feeling but yk

[rosesnwater]

Super Like on Webtoon

So I posted this a while back to reddit regarding the implementation of the super like on Webtoons. Just my general thoughts, I'm not entirely sold on it but I'm open to opinions from other webtoons users-

People might also be familiar with Tapas, which has inks, honestly they feel like the same thing but I might activate it to see how it works-

[reblogwhoreowo]

“we need more morally gray women in fiction” y’all couldn’t even handle rashta from the remarried empress.

[a-man-in-the-crowd]

oh god episode 120 in 2 hours and the dread is officially starting to creep in

[telemachus-let-me-hit-it]

Th switch up people had on Lore Olympus is so genuinely funny to me. Like I remember in it’s glory days it was treated as an amazing and beautiful comic that you couldn’t even criticize unless you made your own space to do so (r/unpopularloreolympusopinions or the odd Facebook group) like this comic had a choke hold on people.

Now, I constantly see it being name dropped as the worst Greek mythos adaptation ever whenever it’s brought up LMAO. I do have my own takes about it but that could be its own post tbh. -mod note

[friendofyourboyfriend]

Hi! My name is Arrow! I noticed you're a fan of the Boyfriend's Webtoon (Dw, I'm not here to be hostile, I'm simply curious) Could you explain why people think it's problematic? I didn't enjoy it that much while reading it, mainly due to the grammar and the weird stereotypes, but I'm curious to what your opinion is!

hiya arrow! a lot of people are waaaay more eloquent than I am. I know its not for everyone and I don't want people to feel obligated to like something that just isn't a good fit. however, I'll do a lil overview of all the shit refrainbow's been accused of. warning, will make you want to slam your head into a wall!

drawing porn of a bts member when Ray was 17 and the BTS member was also 17 (I think it was Jungkook). while Real Person NSFW art seriously icks me out on a personal level, I need to say that there are currently 61,508 EXPLICIT FICS of the BTS boys on ao3. the culture of sexualizing them is really fuckin weird and I'm not touching it with a ten foot poll, but odds are if you're a specific age, you or a person close to you has been somewhat guilty of this sin.

Using the N word in a tweet over a decade ago.

there's no real defense for this except the fact that while a lot of people are making fun of him in the comments of this tweet, there is a majority of black fans commenting about how they forgive him and how they're eye-rolling at all the non-black fans who are clutching their pearls about this. also, he is not a native english speaker and would have been about 14 in the post...

Drew Venti in a sexual-ish way

Venti is a 2,000 year old loli situation who honestly looks anywhere between 13 to 21 depending on the artist, and you really need to get into his lore to figure out what he is. whether or not sexualizing him is okay is a masterclass in it of itself...anyway, refrain apologized

"Anti semitism"

I am jewish so this one feels particularly stupid. in simple terms, a hate group in indonesia was trying to ban pokemon go because they thought it was a part of a jewish conspiracy. in an old tweet, Refrainbow was making fun of this thought process, but his tone might've seemed a little flippant. he apologized. this was dumb.

apparently as a joke in a deleted tweet nerd was said to be a pro-shipper? I cannot find the tweet and I'm currently of the opinion its just a rumor? refrainbow has never reblogged or made art of anything bizarrely "problematic" to the best of my knowledge, and the original tweet is often referred to as being a poorly received joke. idk what to tell you, I don't think its currently canon if its been deleted, or if it ever was. refrainbow's media opinions are vanilla as can be.

"having an all white cast" - no they aren't

"being a white woman projecting fantasies for fujos to get off on-"

THIS IS A TRANSGENDER QUEER MUSLIM ASIAN MAN FROM INDONESIA, A COUNTRY NOTORIOUS FOR BEING SHITTY TO GAY PEOPLE. LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE

ahem anyway

the boyfriends webtoon is NOT problematic, it never WAS problematic, and it's probably never going to get the chance to be problematic because the internet successfully cancelled it!

if the stereotypes are a problem, tbh I'd reccommend skimming the first season and then getting into the second with fresh eyes. the characters do have a few subtle traits that go outside their basic personalities, but those get fleshed out more in the 2nd. and sometimes something isn't for everything -- doesn't mean you gotta be an ass about it tho!

whenever I see hate for this comic, I take a moment to look at the pictures of refrainbow that he sometimes posts on his twitter, and think that's a person who is being emotionally impacted by actions on the internet. that's not anonymous, that's a guy.

[imverystupidsorrydumb]

Why discord is brutal.

I was in an SBG server and had a Bakudeku pfp because I liked it. Someone randomly goes, “Not the Bakudeku pfp,” and I was like, “Ohh yeah, I was in a My Hero phase and forgot to change it,” just trying to play it off. Then someone I actually thought was cool goes, “Don’t tell me you’re one of those freaks that ship Bakudeku,” and honestly?? I didn’t even know how to respond.

Me being me, I panicked and said, “One of my friends dared me to,” even though I literally just put it on because I liked it. And that moment just made me realize how toxic the MHA fandom can be sometimes. Like someone else jumped in and said, “Good,” then went on about how they ship Kiribaku and how it’s fine because they’ve watched three seasons.

Like… okay? I’ve watched every episode, multiple times. Why are we gatekeeping shipping based on how many episodes someone’s seen?? And let’s be real—none of the ships were confirmed, the series is over, and people are still fighting over which ship is “better” or more valid. Let people enjoy what they enjoy.

Also, I just wanna say the School Bus Graveyard fandom has been SO nice and chill. Y’all actually talk about the story, the art, the vibes—without getting weird or mean about it. So yeah, if you were in that convo... sorry, but these are my real thoughts.

[khattikeri]

honestly as an adult i hate that even stories for adults are turning into therapy speak mouthpieces with moral lessons and explicit verbal making up at the end of every conflict. like congrats you reinvented the 1950s american family sitcom but somehow even more annoying

[dumbproficblog]

okay... genuine question what's wrong w the boyfriends webtoon? I've read it and like I don't see anything outright problematic with itt?

here are the takes on it I've seen so far:

"it sexualizes gay men"

no you're sexualizing gay men they're just having sex don't be weird about it...

"it's stereotyping"

the whole point of the webtoon is to poke fun at stereotypes and even still characters having a personality that you deem "stereotypical" doesn't make the media problematic

"it's cringe"

I thought we were demolishing cringe culture? yes some of the romantic interactions are a bit too much for me but that isn't to say no one can enjoy it

[shinesurge]

sometimes something so ridiculous happens in the webcomic mainstream the ripples reach me out here in my little pirate raft a million miles from anything, whatever was at the epicenter completely unrecognizable, so all i can think about it is "god i'm glad i don't live wherever this thing just happened"

[evadingreallife]

I feel like i have the mob countdown going on in my brain and when it's filled i'll finally go read the dunmeshi manga.

[onebattygirl]

The Most Hated Webcomic That Did Nothing Wrong.

[rosesnwater]

Content Warnings and A Lesson From Lore Olympus

As some of you may know, I write a comic, which i occasionally post about here. I'd like to address a conversation around creators and content warnings in this post as well as the general tremd of authors overstating whats happening in their story. I've seen it come up recently in webtoon discourse within my own comic.

So first off, right after my three page prologue I have an authors note that details all the topics my comic will be going into throughout the course of the story.

It follows:

These are ALL the issues I tackle within the comic and I leave it here so people can decide whether they want to continue with the story. I have labeled my story as mature. There is a warning when anyone accesses the comic for the first time on both Webtoons and Tapas. I also have warnings that come in three degrees that I place before each episode that handles one of the mature themes I mention. However, what I don't do is tell the reader what they're going to see before they see it. I don't like doing this for a couple reason, some of the most important being, I think makes the story redundant because it's already explaining what's going to happen and this in turn disrupts the narrative.

I understand why people feel strongly about warnings and making content safe on a platform with a young audience. However, seeing as this is a work I have invested a considerable amount of time in, that I'm offering for people to enjoy (which i enjoy doing), I believe it is important I tell the story in my own way.

When you pick up a book you may get a warning in the synopsis (although I find this is rare) or in other people's online reviews of the book BUT you have to go looking for those reviews. As a creator I can only testify to my own experience, but like novels, comics are stories and in my own work, the story should NOT be bisected by warnings expressly stating what's going to happen in each episode.

I feel this speaks to a general increased uninvolvement in the material readers are reading and a lack of reading comprehension to the point authors think it necessary to guide their audience through their story.

There has been a decent amount of discourse in the UnpopularLoreOlympus reddit thread about readers reading comprehension. It is now common practice to have images like the one bellow before an episode.

On more than one occasion Rachel has put warning paragraphs at the end of her episode stating without any subtext what EXACTLY a character meant during the episode, even though readers would ideally understood the subtext as communicated by the narrative.

And before that she would have warnings signs like this before episodes where the content would be present:

The above warning is actually quite common amongst comics but it should NOT be required by the audience. If an author is doing their job, they'll have the proper box ticked off when submitting their webtoon

SPOILERS FOR MANY WORKS OF FICTION.

No one tells you at the beginning of jane Eyre that there will be violence, death of children, and abuse, let alone where these incidents will occur.

The hunger games won't warn you before the start of a chapter that there will be starvation or gruesome depictions of character death or content describing mental illness.

Most movies will have warning before the whole movie but they won't briefly cut out of the narrative to tell you what's about to happen and people shouldn't expect comic artists to do this either.

As a comic creator i am rellyng upon my audience's discretion to decide on whether or not a story is safe for their consumption. However, I'm adamant in my own work that that's where my required involvement ends.

I will explain things in the comments or answer reader questions, i will be happy doing so because i get to engage with people on something Ive spent hours creating. I will go onto my discord and jump into the deep world building or explain a particular scene, but this should not be required.

Holding authors accountable for going thoroughly over the controversial issues every episode they post is unreasonable and honestly (for me) damaging to the creative work. We end up with situations like lore olympus where authors are there to explain every warning and subtext to the audience without any work on the readers part.

I know this may be controversial to some, but as a creator, it's something that's bothered me for a while and something I think we should be able to talk about in the artistic community.

[zootzbootz]

people will put "boyfriends (webtoon) fans dni" on their profiles while being south park fans. when the actual material of that show is ten million times worse.

But real talk for a second.

Mind you, his is coming from a south park FAN. As for the bfs webtoon I don't like it but I'm not an "anti" lmao kids blew that WAY out of proportion. you can enjoy media made by problematic people or that itself contains problematic elements, just be critical of what you're consuming and my god don't be a hypocrite about it. I had to learn this the hard way. (because yes, being a south park fan and condemning people for liking the boyfriends webtoon is absolutely hypocritical, LMFAO)

[gojuo]

sister i am the queen in this life, or also known as the poor man's the villainess lives twice

[weakheroforever]

My opinion on Weak Hero ( as a whole )!!

Introduction - 10/10, really did get me interested in the series; new, unique characters and it felt like fresh bread compared to other webtoons (cough cough). Even the story's description prior to reading was really intriguing!!

Characters - My fav characters personally were Gray, Eugene, Rowan, Gerard, Ben, Jimmy, Lily and Wolf ^_^. Although i feel like Seopass and Razen could've put a better effort regarding the female characters ( Julia's whole mini arc was really good tho), they are still really cool. However, I can understand that the girls are not very prevalent due to the union and Eujang being all boys schools (at least that is what i remember i haven't read it in a while 😭). 8/10, they still did an alright job exploring their character.

Story - Most of arcs are 10/10, no joke 10/10. No i wont explain why but i love male friendships in stories and action, so weak hero was practically crafted for my enjoyment ‼️

Ending - The only arc/piece of the story i feel really did disappointed me was the epilogue & ending of the story. I really wanted an explanation for what happened to Steven. Him appearing at the end and looking very okay, mind you, made me feel annoyed tbh 💀💀. The ending isn't horrible because Donald's death wasn't too bad and i personally thought his death was really funny XD. In addition to this, his backstory was really sad and made me feel apologetic for laughing at a dead man! My solid rating for the ending is 6/10. Could be better but ill live with it + yes I am biased.

♡♡♡ Overall Rating : 9.2/10 ♡♡♡