Est. Read Time: 35min
This Month's Font: Playpen Sans
Well, hello again, my fine friends. Welcome back. Not as soon after my last update as I would have liked. I should get used to it by now. These updates just take 10x longer than I ever give them credit.... No matter. Let's just get straight into what I've been reading as of late.
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First and foremost: Dracula Daily.
As it has been every year, it was rough coming back to the novel after going without for weeks. In truth, I fell off way back when we had a week-long break mid-June. Which means, aside from poking in here and there to read more about Renfield being the original "Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", I was behind on TWENTY-THREE entries!
I missed Jonathan's final days at Castle Dracula (June 24th, 25th, 29th, and 30th). I skipped over the start of Mina's time with Lucy in Whitby, which included the Log of the Demeter (outside of the first entry on July 18th). That means I neglected to read the entries for July 22nd, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th. Along with the opening August entries: August 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th! Sheesh!
Since Aurora has been doing Dracula Daily with me, I lamented how far behind I was to nir. I then noted the three main reasons I struggle with this part of the book every year.
- There's too large of a gap between entries, especially with regards to the same characters.
- When Dracula Daily's updating comes back full-swing, it's right around my birthday.
- Annoying, hardly-relevant side characters!!!!
To delve deeper in each of those issues that I have with the July entries, I'll start with #2: My birthday.
If it's not obvious, I'm generally a bit preoccupied that week anyway. Which wouldn't be that big of a deal if it was just a quick, couple-sentence entry about Renfield or the Demeter. The real issue is that the first entries after the hiatus tend to be longer. Which means, once I fall behind because I neglected my Dracula read the week of my birthday, it's a struggle to catch up.
It's also hard to really care if I'm behind. Mostly because of issue #1: Large Gaps Between Entries; Especially With Regards to the Same Characters.
You had all of this tension from wondering what was going on with Jonathan, but then it just drops off (excuse the unintentional pun). You don't get a conclusion to what happened to Jonathan at all throughout July. Why should I care about everyone else? Let me know if Good Friend Jonathan is alright!
There's also Renfield and his weird obsession with feeding his "pets" (flies, then spiders, then sparrows) to their predator in order to tame larger "pets". That's intriguing, and they're fairly short entries, which is why they're the only ones I made sure to check in on. Even so, they were only on July 1st, 8th, 19th, and 20th. Only 4 entries, and there's a week's wait between the 1st and 8th. Then another week+ wait until you get the next entry on the 19th. Hardly frequent enough to create a habit.
Finally, you have Mina visiting Lucy, and Dracula's Misadventures on the Demeter, but none of that happens until mid-month. There's these long pauses, and then you have to retrain yourself to stick with the daily updates the same way one would when Dracula Daily first starts in May. It's super easy to fall off the wagon during those lulls, is what I'm saying.
If that's not all damning enough, I think this year I've discovered what my hardest hurdle is with regards to the summer portion of Dracula. The main reason I messaged Aurora about my struggles with this read. The reason playing catch-up feels like such a chore. As I mentioned, some of these entries are LONG compared to the rest. And, while most of these daunting entries are from Mina's journal, the actual (indirect) narrator for those tedious reads are characters I have no interest in whatsoever. They're also super minor characters, to the point where I'm not entirely sure why one was included.
Those characters are the EXCEPTIONALLY long-winded newspaper correspondent that reports about the Demeter crashing at Whitby, and the heavily-accented and ancient Mr. Swales.
Mr. Swales wouldn't even be so bad, except Stoker (via his character Mina) insisted on writing Swales' incredibly thick accent phonetically. So I have to read his dialogue - which tends to be lengthy monologues - aloud to try to decipher which words are even being said! And THEN I have to mentally translate from "19th century speak" to modern tongue to further comprehend what the old curmudgeon was trying to complain about this time. All for a character who is only around for a handful of entries, and whose monologues seem to add virtually nothing to the overall narrative (but maybe that's because I can't wrap my head around what he's saying half the time?). I cringe whenever I get to the July 24th, August 1st, and August 6th entries simply because I know I'm in for a Swales Monologue....
Then you have the newspaper correspondent (written by someone who clearly had no clue how newspaper articles were actually structured; talk about burying the leads...). So much excessive atmosphere-building info-dumping. It's like reading Lord of the Rings and you're just screaming at Tolkien to move on from the damn tree/river/mountains/character family line already and get back to the plot. I mean, out of a 2261-word "article", it kept 1082-words to get to the Demeter shipwrecking within Whitby's port. Ya know, the PLOT-RELIVENT PART!? As for those first 1000+ words? They were spent talking about how bad the weather was and whether or not citizens expected it to be so bad. Did we need that for 1000+ words?
Comparatively, the May 26th entry; the one that was written by key-character Art Holmwood? Grand total of 18 words! The WHOLE ENTRY! But we get 1000+ words about how a storm rolled into Whitby....
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Since I'm talking about word-count, a little fun side note: I used Hemingway Editor to quickly get the word count for the passage about the Demeter crashing into Whitby (which is longer in the novel, btw, since that's where the Log of the Demeter was originally included). One of the free features of Hemingway Editor gives you a rough estimate of the reading level of the passage. Most of my blog updates are comfortably at a 4th- through 6th-grade reading level; the sweet spot for public consumption. Most news publications aim for a 5th-grade reading comprehension. Dracula? At least, the "news article" portion of the novel that I put into Hemingway? Yeeeeaaaah.... GRADE 16! What even IS that!? Is that the equivalent of saying a fourth-year undergrad? I mean, I get that part of it is because of the older style of writing being harder to comprehend in the modern era, but STILL!
Soooo, yeah! Those are my main hold-ups: too much downtime breaking me of my habit, my birthday keeps me too busy once the updates become fairly frequent again, and the passages you get at the end of July/beginning of August are filled with characters whose voices I don't care a lick for and whose narration actually makes me cringe. I'll have to find a way to get over these issues next year. In the meantime, I'm past those entries now, so, that's a bit of a relief. I'm hoping for smoother sailing for the remainder of this novel (apologies to the crew of the Demeter...).
By the way, if you personally know me and spot me online, feel free to ask me if I've read that day's Dracula entry yet. Hold me accountable.
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While I've been on the Dracula struggle-bus this past month, I've compensated by again greedily consuming various manhwas on Webtoon.
First, a refresher on what I was reading last month:
- Daily Reads:
- none
- Sunday:
- Monday:
- Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story
(Spin-off/epilogue episodes) - Seabird and the Wolf
- Fantasy High
- Tuesday:
- Wednesday:
- none
- Thursday:
- The Age of Arrogance
(Spin-off/epilogue episodes) - Maybe Meant to Be
- Friday:
- Saturday:
- Obsidian Bride
- What the Evil Dragon Lives For
(although, I was using it as a Daily Read then)
Alternatively, here's my new list:
- Daily Reads:
- Still none, technically, but I was reading the backlog of these stories daily until I hit that coins-unlock wall:
- Love 4 a Walk
(still have a backlog to read through) - Rules for Dating Trash
(have since hit that pay-wall and now have to wait for weekly updates on Thursdays... see below)
- Sunday:
- You Can't Kill Me: The Secret Bride of the Black Wolf
- A Savage Proposal
- Monday:
- Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story
(I have 4 more Spin-off/epilogue episodes to go) - Seabird and the Wolf
- Tuesday:
- I Will Live the Life of a Villainess
(I have 1 more Spin-off/epilogue episode left!) - Lock Me Up, Duke!
- Wednesday:
- Still none
- Thursday:
- Maybe Meant to Be
- Rules for Dating Trash
- Friday:
- My Child Will Have a Different Father
- Saturday:
- Obsidian Bride
- What the Evil Dragon Lives For
(How do I only have 13 episodes left already!?)
I have again fallen off with regards to the more action-focused stories, such as Fantasy High, Ultimate Shut-in, Mythic Item Obtained, Writers Legacy, the Avatar: the Last Airbender series, and Fullmetal Alchemist. I've also fully completed The Age of Arrogance, so that's gone now too.
In their stead, I have added in two new modern-day romances: Rules for Dating Trash, and Love 4 a Walk. To be honest, between catching up to that pay-wall for What the Evil Dragon Lives For, reading all 17 free episodes of Rules for Dating Trash that were available at the time, and starting up Love 4 a Walk, it felt like a LOT more new reading.... it's weird for me to discover that the massive amount of reading I've been doing only translated to two new series that I haven't talked about yet.
First, however, I have to gush some more about What the Evil Dragon Lives For. When last I left off, I had read 44 episodes into this completed 105-episode series. I am currently up to episode 92! Sooooo yeah, that's where a LOT of this past month's reading came from.
My last update for you fine folks had brought the main character Elaine to the temple; offered up as a mandatory acolyte in her cousin's stead. No surprise there, the same happened to Elaine in her first life. Except, this go, with the new confidence she's gained through her friendship with Rabeth, Elaine is making sure to be more vocal. Which resulted in her actually forming a small tight-knit group of friends.
Elaine also confesses to Rabeth that, this go around, she wants to become a personal prayerist. Basically, they're persons certified by the temple as religious leaders. They are then hired by nobles to live on their estate and be the family's personal cleric. A way for nobles to follow religious practices without having to come out to a temple more than once a year. Since Elaine was forced to stay at the temple for a decade during her first life (as opposed to the usual cap of 5yrs), she is over-qualified for the job. It also gets her out of the Newts' clutches without her being stuck within the temple. She could live a comfortable life as a minor noble and be self-sustaining, since it would be a paid job (as opposed to the volunteer work at the temple, which then provides room and board in exchange).
Now that Elaine has someone to socialize with beyond Rabeth, and she is also preoccupied with studying for the prayerist exam, she won't necessarily feel Rabeth's absence as strongly as when she was at the Newt estate. She's also fairly safe at the temple. On top of all of that, Rabeth legit feels "icky" the longer he stays within the holy aura of the temple. He felt like this was the perfect time to distance himself from Elaine (at least, in his dragon form). He excused himself from Elaine's side under the guise of needing time away from the temple to recover from its holy aura, but he did stress that Elaine shouldn't hesitate to summon him when she is in need (or even want) of him. He then spent MONTHS away from his contractor so he could parade around more as Sergei. After all, Sergei needs to be properly known throughout the nobility if he is going to have the influence he wants to better provide for Elaine.
Meanwhile, the true villains of the series finally made themselves fully known.
Yes, there's the Newt family abusing, humiliating, and neglecting Elaine. There's L'arc being extra creepy; obsessively possessive of Elaine. There's also L'arc's fiancé Lorina, who constantly schemes against Elaine (as if it's Elaine's fault or even desire to have L'arc so possessive of her).
All of those characters were great lower-stakes antagonists to overcome.
However, the TRUE villain is Marlek (and, to a lesser extent, his contractor Sasha; the emperor's mistress and mother of Prince Abel).
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of What the Evil Dragon Lives For |
Yes, there is yet another dragon parading around as a human in this story. Except this one is successfully canoodling with his contractor. In fact, he's full-on seduced her! Both with his looks and with his ability to gift her power. Not even "free" power the way Rabeth tries to gift some of his to Elaine. Marlek is cold. He needs offerings. He's more like a D&D Warlock patron. As such, Sasha gave up the VERY SOUL of her NEWBORN SON!
Well.... he was newborn at the time. See, instead of walking around in his human form, Marlek prefers to puppet a vessel. So, he convinced Sasha to get pregnant by the emperor, and then forfeit her child's soul to Marlek. The dragon allowed the boy to grow normally, but once he was of a useful age, Marlek took control of his puppet. He periodically traps poor Abel inside his own mind and pilots his body in Abel's stead.
Despite looking still in her 20s - something the characters even mention - Sasha is old enough to be the mother of an older teen (Abel's about 18 or 19). She just appears so young still due to Marlek's magic.
Anyhoo, Sasha and Marlek then conspired to murder the empress via slow poisoning to make it look like she died due to prolonged illness. Now Sasha is whispering in the emperor's ear that he should revoke the crown from his daughter; the first-born and legitimate heir, Anaeis. Naming Abel the crown heir instead. Once they started their gambit (and Abel became a teen), Marlek started puppetting him more and more. Riding him around like a spirit mech. That way, Marlek can help "Abel" lay the groundwork of proving himself a more competent future emperor than his older sister.
All the while, Marlek is also on a fevered hunt for dragonstones.
In this world's lore, all magical creatures - such as dragons or demonic beasts - have a mana core. This core is essentially that creature's heart. They die if they don't have one, but it's also an anchor for that creature's soul. Rabeth had split his mana core to gift some of it to his first contractor Lansus. That way she could have a constant flow of a dragon's superior magic mastery and mana reserve; granting her wish to become the empire's most powerful mage.
Once a mana core is outside a dragon's body - either by how Rabeth gifted part of his, or, more likely, due to death - it is considered a dragonstone.
Before Rabeth hatched, back when the dragons of the world decided they should leave to a different plane of existence (similar to the elves leaving Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings), the power-hungry Marlek challenged the Dragon Elder in an attempt to prevent the self-exile of dragon kind. He not only failed, but also lost 90% of his mana core through battle injuries. He was shunned from dragon society and was barely strong enough to survive on his own.
In this story's mythos, dragons, protectors of nature, hunt down demonic beasts: think rabid dire wolves, or murderous goblins, hellcats, that sort of thing. They then feed on the beasts' mana cores. Alternatively, they could, as Rabeth did, force the more intelligent demonic beasts into servitude. This is how Sergei has a fully-staffed estate: demonic beasts who parade around in their human forms in order to serve him.
As Marlek fed on some demonic beasts to try to survive, he accidentally ate a dragonstone (thinking it was a beast's mana core). Once he did so, his own mana core began to heal. Knowing full-well that consuming dragonstone was akin to cannibalism, Marlek still greedily absorbed as many dragonstones as he could find. Even when his own mana core was fully healed, he continued; now addicted to the power doing so gave him.
Oh, yeah! And Marlek was somehow responsible for Lansus sealing Rabeth away in the first place? Not sure yet as to why or how, and why Marlek didn't just try to kill Rabeth and Lansus to take both halves of Rabeth's mana core.....
It's also unclear as to how Marlek didn't sense Rabeth or Lansus' part of his mana core during Elaine's first life since Marlek very much senses both this go. Maybe the core's aura is stronger this life since both halves are in constant close proximity? Either way, along with attempting to overthrow the empire by placing a pawn on the throne, and trapping said pawn within his own mind, Marlek is ALSO trying to track down Rabeth's dragonstone - which was imbedded inside Elaine upon Lansus' reincarnation - and Rabeth himself!
A true cat-and-mouse game has started up between Rabeth, Marlek, and L'arc (to a lesser extent). One where they each try to outsmart the other and pull enough power over their opponent. I'm excited (but also a little nervous) too see how this all gets wrapped up in just 13 episodes! All while still keeping the fluffy romance parts!
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Phew! That was just the broad strokes of what's happened in the last 47 episodes! What about those other two stories, though? First up, the story that I quickly caught up on and now, sadly, have to wait for the weekly free-read releases: Rules for Dating Trash.
After a messy breakup with a trashy ex forces Ihyeon Seon to take a three-year-long break from college, the last thing she wants to do upon her not-so-inconspicuous return is to dive straight into another relationship. But then comes Chanu Nam, a notorious bad boy who finds himself having a vested interest in Ihyeon. And suddenly, what was supposed to be a low-key senior year is looking like it's going to be anything but. The harder Ihyeon pushes Chanu away, the stronger he keeps pulling her back. But something’s gotta give – so who’s giving in first?
- Official Webtoon Summary
I will say that, if you're someone who feels movies like She's All That didn't age well... this probably isn't the series for you. While it's a brand-new story - premiering on English Webtoon this past May - the storyline feels very "early 00's school romcom".
As mentioned in the above summary, Ihyeon had a HORRID breakup with Taehyeok. We are fairly-quickly told that he had shamelessly cheated on her. When she found out and confronted him about it, he painted her as the obsessive, clingy, stalker girlfriend. He turned the entire student body against her! She had no choice but to return home to recover.
After a 3-year break, she was determined to finish her degree. She only had one more year to go. Just about everyone who had gone to that school when everything with Taehyeok went down had graduated (although, within the first few panels of the series, someone recognized Ihyeon because she took a class with Ihyeon the speaker's freshman year???? Super-senior, maybe?).
Despite it being literal years since she was humiliated - people should have graduated out, or at least moved on to new gossip by now - Ihyeon's return was INSTANTLY the main gossip of campus. It was almost too much for her to bear after just ONE DAY! And that's after she tried to switch up her look to not be recognizable: oversized, baggy clothes; baseball cap with the brim pulled low to help hide her face; her long hair chopped short.
If things weren't bad enough, Taehyeok ended up as a T.A. for one of her classes! Worse yet, he was acting SUUUUPER friendly to her; trying desperately to start up a relationship with her again!
While poor Ihyeon was at her lowest, she was noticed by campus Bad Boy Chanu. One of his friends pointed her out and joked about how crazy she must be. Chanu, on the other hand, seemed to see her hurt, and instantly became fixated on her. Even so, he continued his playboy ways; taking a new girl out nearly every night and openly making out with them in public.
And poor Ihyeon somehow stumbled upon Chanu's make-out sessions multiple times. Confirming her view of him as a complete dog.
Oh! And she discovered that he's unfortunately one of her housemates! Ihyeon was forced to get lodging at an off-campus apartment complex where there were designated "men's" bedrooms on the second floor, and "women's" bedrooms on the third floor; however, their common area was on the second floor.
Embarrassed about constantly stumbling upon Chanu's dates - and, frankly, trying to fly as under the radar as possible anyway due to being a social pariah - Ihyeon tried desperately to stay as far away from Chanu as possible. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, she intrigued him, so he was constantly trying to say hi to her and start up a conversation with her.
The more he tried to greet her, the more she would dip out of the conversation like Batman. On the flipside, the more she would instantly shoot down any flirting he tried on her, the more determined he became. Despite his reputation of being a womanizer, he never had an issue finding a date before. Just about every woman instantly fell for his charms, regardless of (or maybe due to) his bad-boy reputation. The fact that Ihyeon seemed so indifferent to - or even repulsed by! - him made him all the more determined to woo her.
We didn't see a panel explicitly showing it, so it could just be Chanu's friend using poor wording, but it's implied that Chanu placed a bet that he'd get Ihyeon to fall for him.
Chanu's Steve-Urkel-like dogged pursuit in trying to woo Ihyeon, and his friend offering to let him out of the bet about getting her to fall for him, both leave some pretty foul tastes in a lot of people's mouths. I get it. This series is certainly shades of problematic.
There's actually one episode in particular that I want to give everyone a heads up about despite the spoiler, since it was a deal breaker for a lot of the top commentators. I wouldn't want you to start this series up if it's a deal breaker for you too. What's so offensive? Well, it involves Chanu and Ihyeon sleeping together.
Only 8 episodes in, Ihyeon has an incredibly emotionally draining interaction with Taehyeok. Instead of going to a club outing, she goes out to drink alone. Chanu, who's in the club with Ihyeon, worries about her not showing up to the outing, especially when she didn't come to school that day either (they share a class). He tracks her down as she's stumbling her way home.
Despite her stumbling, her words aren't slurred, and she instantly picks up on his subtle attempts at flirting, making him wonder if she's actually more sober than she appears. He then deduces that she was drinking because of Taehyeok. He tries to get her to open up, and she shouts about how the rumors about her being clingy and obsessive were lies. If anything, that had described Taehyeok (and we've seen him being VERY stalker-y since she returned to campus). Everything had to be Taehyeok's way or nothing.
Chanu tells her she needs to find someone to help her forget about Taehyeok.
"But maybe that's a good excuse for you to date someone you can speak up around... and maybe even initiate things with. I can help you out with that, if you want."
He then takes her hand and kisses the back of her knuckles tenderly; seductively.
The next panel, the two of them are on Chanu's bed that same night. As she undresses, he does stop her to ask if this was something she actually wanted; was she sure she wanted to continue.
After a pause, she straddles him, tells him, "This is what I want," and they kiss.
So. I mean, he DOES ask for consent. And, apparently, in the original Korean, there's more panels between him kissing her hand and asking if she wants to continue. Panels where they talk more about consent and if she's sober enough. No one who read the Korean version of the series has a clue as to why those important panels were cut for the English version.
Those missing panels causes a LOT of discomfort for readers for 3 reasons:
- While talking about consent, the discussion gets Ihyeon very emotional, and she starts crying. Without the context as to why she's crying, us English-only readers see Chanu kissing her hand, then Ihyeon on his bed, pulling off her sweater with tears still streaming down her cheeks while Chanu asks if she's sure about continuing. She seems too emotionally distraught and maybe even manipulated as-is!
- Since we don't have the panels where they talk more about her consenting, we also don't have her confirming that she's sober enough to make this decision. Even with those panels, do we trust a 25yo to realize whether or not she's too buzzed/drunk to make such an important decision? She was drunk enough to stumble a couple of times as she walked away from the pub. Could she have sobered up enough to give actual consent? It's dubious, at best.
- She starts the next episode waking up in Chanu's bed and FREAKING. OUT! Clearly, she had no memory of sleeping with him. At least, not at first. She starts remembering what happened throughout the day, but that initial shock of where she woke up is enough to confirm maaaaaaybe she wasn't sober enough to give proper consent.
That said, sometimes adults do stupid things, especially in their 20s. Sometimes, people will ask for confirmation, as Chanu did, and take the yes at face value without considering other factors. Ihyeon feels a bit embarrassed about the one-night stand, but she doesn't ever mention feeling violated. She considers it a stupid mistake, and even decides it's a good reason to ask Chanu if he'd pretend to be her boyfriend until she graduates at the end of the year. Maybe it will help ease the rumors about her and Taehyeok (as well as maybe recover Chanu's reputation of a bad boy and womanizer a little). So.... this whole set-up is problematic, sure, and I get why a lot of readers were uncomfortable, but it wasn't a deal breaker for me.
Episodes 9 onward are the Ihyeon-and-Chanu-Fake-Dating story arc. One where you KNOW Chanu isn't really fake-dating Ihyeon. You can tell he's into it, and legitimately considers her his girlfriend. However, due to his reputation, and the fact that Ihyeon herself witnessed his revolving door of women, she can't imagine he has any romantic interest in her.
Yeah. One of THOSE stories. If the characters were just honest and open with each other, they'd be legit dating within an episode or two. Instead, we get the classic, "my romantic interest couldn't POSSIBLY have any interest in ME" so they stay quiet and write any sign of affection off as a trick of their imagination, or the other person performing to make the fake dating look real.
Where I left off, one of Chanu's delusional exes claimed to still be his girlfriend, and tried to intimidate Ihyeon into not hanging out with him. The ex even convinced Chanu to go out drinking with her since a bunch of their high school friends would be there. Chanu originally turned the offer down, and even told Ihyeon that it was okay if she wanted to tell him not to go. Instead, Ihyeon, afraid of seeming possessive, practically shoved him out the door to meet his friends. Taehyeok decided to use this opportunity to swoop in and try to undermine Chanu and Ihyeon's "relationship" by making her jealous over Chanu going drinking with this other woman.
Happy ending though. Ihyeon brushed Taehyeok off, and then found Chanu smoking outside as she came home late from work. Shocked to see him, especially with how much he beamed when he saw her finally walk up the street, she wondered if he was actually waiting up for her.
I'm excited to see how this story progresses. To watch Ihyeon rediscover her self-worth after all of the manipulation, gaslighting, and overall emotional abuse from Taehyeok. To see Chanu be her cheerleader and push her to become more assertive with what she wants, what she likes, and what are her boundaries. To watch Ihyeon and Chanu fall into being a true couple, much like how I watched Jia and Mincheol from Maybe Meant to Be. To watch as the problematic portions of Ihyeon and Chanu's relationship fall away.
Those are all my hopes for this series, at least.
OH! But, having mentioned Maybe Meant to Be, I wanted to give a quick update on that series before I move onto my other new one.
So, the entire series has been written as if Jia has been narrating it for us. As if Jia was telling us, the reader, how her and Mincheol ended up married. How they fell in love, and the aftermath. I thought nothing of it. There's plenty of stories with first-person narration like that.
Then we got to the second season. I haven't been itching to tear through the series the way I did in the first season. While there's still a lot of adorable Jia x Mincheol scenes - the season starts off with them believing they were stranded on a deserted island for a week - the focus has instead been on Jia's writing career (or lack thereof). We don't even get the cuteness of the secondary couple - Mincheol's coworkers Sang-U and Suyeon - since the focus has been SO MUCH on Jia, and Mincheol purposefully learned how to drive so he wouldn't carpool with the happy "secret" couple anymore.
Also, with all the focus on Jia's writing - or, more importantly, people trying to trick her back into writing - the secondary characters that have been getting the spotlight this season are Sang-U's older sister and Jia's former college roommate/best friend Yeonju, and Yeonju's (and Jia's former) publisher Yeongdeuk Na. While I'm not as repulsed by Yeonju and Mr. Na as the people in the comments, they're also not nearly as engaging as Sang-U and Suyeon were. We also get a lot of Jia's young coworkers Nari and Si-U (a little less of him). Nari's fun. She's excitable. She could be a mirror to how Jia was in her 20s, before she mellowed out. Otherwise, I'm kind of whatever on the side characters this season.
That all being said, as I mentioned, the main story arc of season 2 has been Yeonju and Mr. Na trying to trick/convince Jia into writing again after she had sworn off writing years ago. Looking at Jia's narration to us readers through that lens, it makes me wonder if maybe there will be an end-of-series reveal that Maybe Meant to Be - as in the manhwa itself - is Jia's return to story writing. Like, Jia's used the writing handle Flaming Hot Chicken Feet (a totally normal pen name) when she was first published, but what if she ends the series by revealing that she's now going by honeyskein, the irl writer for Maybe Meant to Be?
I dunno. I'd just think that would be a fun little twist. What do you think?
Anyway, moving on to my second and final new story this past month. My current absolute obsession: Love 4 a Walk.
Pam's heart has been broken one too many times, and being dumped over her unruly dog Bob was the last straw. Now determined to care for Bob on her own, how long can this hopeless romantic resist falling for her mysterious yet compassionate neighbor Tyler—especially when he's so good with dogs?
- Official Webtoon Summary
Hoe-lee smokes! This story! I ADORE this story. I am partially mad that I let it sit in my Subscriptions unread for so long, but also kinda glad? Because it's currently on hiatus after the season 1 finale published the first week of July. So I now have 68 episodes that I can just read as much as I want of. It is SOOOOOO hard to restrict myself to only 4 or 5 per day to stretch it out at least a little. I really should restrict myself to one per week, as if the Webtoon were active, or, at least, just one daily. That should cover me until the series returns for season 2 this fall.
I just can't resist, though! Just this morning, I read 2 episodes before even getting ready for work! And another 2 once I got to work! I also spent my morning off this week reading NINE before I even had breakfast! This is just such a cute and fluffy modern-day romance and the male lead Tyler is my new adoptive son!
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| Panels from episodes 1 and 8 of Love 4 a Walk by Nuria Sanguino |
Don't let those panels fool you into thinking this 26yo is suave and confident. My favorite part of this series is watching my precious boy get TOTALLY undone and flustered! And it happens A. Lot!
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| Panels from episodes 6, 7, 17, 18, and 20 of Love 4 a Walk by Nuria Sanguino |
Tyler's not the only one, but Pam getting flustered isn't nearly as visually dramatic.
THEIR DOGS! on the other hand... I love Nuria's artwork. She gave the dogs - Pam's Doberman Bob, and Tyler's (presumably) Shih Tzu Tequila - SUCH personality. These dogs are both so sassy, and Nuria has them SOOOO expressive. You can see a small sample above with Bob open-mouthed grinning beside a stunlocked Tyler on the couch, and Tequila freaking out as Tyler bemoans on his bed.
Here's some of my favorites from the first 39 episodes that I've read:
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| Panels from episodes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 17, 19, and 22 of Love 4 a Walk by Nuria Sanguino |
You can also see in that panel of Bob proudly posing for a picture with Tyler at the bar, that Nuria also loves mixing art styles to better show off how elegant vs goofy a character looks at any given time. I adore every choice she makes.
It's not just the visual choices that Nuria made, though. See, Webtoon allows artists to add songs/sound effects to their episodes. These audio add-ons are set to start up/end once you reach a certain panel. Some of the other stories I've read have utilized this feature once or twice to help set the mood. Nuria, on the other hand, really loves to use this feature. Out of the first 39 episodes that I've read, she's used music in 22 of them! (and a thunder clap sound effect for another one)
It reminds me of when EdenDaphne used to include mood music for each chapter of Discordant Sonata. Such a great and unique feature of that story. I almost liked it better than Eden's illustrations (and, I'm sure, long-time readers of this blog know how much I adore Eden's artwork). Kinda wish more Webtoon creators would utilize this feature more frequently like Nuria does.
Thus far, the music in Love 4 A Walk has mostly been the same 2 songs by AGGAPPÉ being tag-teamed as sort of themes/musical cues for the series. The first is a very up-beat song that usually plays when something plucky is going on, when the main character Pam is feeling good, when there's some sort of progression in Pam and Tyler's relationship, etc. This up-beat song is Junts arribarem al cel (which, according to Google Translate, means "together we will reach heaven"). It has been used 9 times, starting with the very first panel of the series! I've actually gotten so into it being this plucky little happy song that I'm listening to it on repeat as I write up this part of my blog update. Sitting on my front porch with this perky song playing is just giving me so much energy.
The other main AGGAPPÉ song used for mood music - used 5 times out of 39 episodes - is Dins la pantalla ("Inside the screen", per Google Translate). This is a much more somber and sorrowful song, full of melancholy. Obviously, this song is used for the more emotional and dramatic scenes. Such as when Pam is dealing with her ex, or Tyler is cryptically wrestling with his past trauma (more on that in a bit).
There was an 11-episode arc where Tyler and Pam are in the Caribbean. For that section, we got a bit more tropical with a song written specifically for the series!!! L4AW Original Soundtrack by Àngel Pérez Ortega. I haven't found it on Spotify or Soundcloud or the like to be able to link it. Sorry. But it's awesome, and has two versions: one with and one without saxophone. Nuria used it 4 times throughout the last 14 episodes that I've read.
Spliced in throughout the Caribbean arc, giving more of a romantic slow-dance vibe, is an instrumental version of Follow Me by Faime. That was used three times.
Then, for episode 33, Nuria used yet another AGGAPPÉ song. (I'm starting to like this band as much as Nuria seems to!) This time, Nuria picked something sultry and high-energy. Perfect for the spiciest dance club scene I have ever read.
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| Santana Lopez from Glee |
That song was Baby, cuando te vi, featuring THRILL. Google says "cuando te vi" is Catalan for "when I saw you" so.... yeah... appropriate. I'm getting a bit flushed just remembering that club scene....
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I should probably rewind though, and first give you fine folks a bit more context than the Webtoon summary.
Tyler is 26 and works at his Uncle Bernard's bar. Which means night shifts and day sleeping. Unfortunately, his downstairs neighbors, 29yo Pam and her boyfriend of 3 years, have been fighting A LOT lately. Mostly over their new dog Bob. The boyfriend clearly wanted nothing to do with having a pet, and only agreed to Pam adopting Bob as a way to placate her since he didn't want kids. Their arguments frequently woke Tyler up while he was trying to sleep before his shift. About a month before the start of the series, Tyler was about to step in and yell at them for being so loud (and maybe find a way to rescue Bob from this bad environment).
That's when he overheard their break-up. The still-unnamed boyfriend hated the poorly-trained and highly anxious Bob (and how Bob routinely destroyed the apartment to try to cope with his anxiety). The boyfriend wanted to return Bob to the shelter and pick out a calmer dog. Pam refused. This was HER dog and HER responsibility to train him! She wasn't going to abandon him! When the boyfriend put down the ultimatum - the dog or me - Pam chose Bob without hesitation.
Tyler still hadn't officially met Pam yet, but overhearing her make that difficult decision and choosing to protect and love a helpless animal won him over.
Except... Bob still had separation anxiety, and would terrorize Pam's apartment whenever she wasn't home. Which meant Tyler was STILL routinely woken up when Pam loudly disciplined Bob upon returning from work.
The series starts with Tyler again realizing "enough is enough" and heading down to let Pam know she's too loud. There, he literally catches her as Bob excitedly drags Pam down the stairs for their evening walk. Having successfully saved Pam from a bad tumble, Tyler then sternly calls for Bob to return to the top of the stairs and wait. Dumbfounded that Bob instantly listens to Tyler, Pam begs for him to dogsit for her during her work days and help train Bob so he can finally stay home alone without becoming a tornado of destruction.
It takes some convincing, but Tyler agrees. The next day, Pam excitedly tells her bestie (and coworker) Ann about her new dogsitter. Ann calls Pam naive and warns about giving a stranger free rein of her house. Panicked, Pam uses her lunch break to rush home to check in on Bob. After a heated confrontation with Tyler, where he quickly eases her mind, Pam is introduced to Tyler's over-protective dog Tequila (whom Tyler brought along since he'd be out of the apartment all day watching Bob). Just as Bob is Pam's furbaby through and through, Tequila is Tyler's pampered (and a bit spoiled) little princess. And she does NOT like other females near her owner. Hence that one panel above of her snarling and barking at Pam.
Anyway, when Pam hired Tyler she gave him a spare key to her apartment. That way he can come over to watch Bob after Pam's left for work (to stay out of her way as she gets ready). It's also so he can lock up when he takes Bob and Tequila on walks or to the dog park. Tyler then leaves about an hour before Pam comes home, both so he can get some sleep in before work and so Bob can start to learn to be OK alone. Because of this schedule - Tyler showing up after Pam goes to work and leaving before she comes home - the two rarely see each other. However, Pam quickly sees a huge change in Bob, who instantly bonded with Tyler. Knowing how much Tyler cares for Bob, and how much Bob loves him in return, really melted Pam's heart. Despite her efforts to not fall helplessly for her dogsitter/dog's trainer, she can't really help herself.
Likewise, seeing Pam's positive energy and how dedicated and loving she is to Bob is HURLING poor Tyler into love. We find out that he's really shy and socially awkward, though. His social focus has been (1) his customers as a bartender, (2) Tequila, and now (3) Pam and Bob. That's pretty much it. Tyler's uncle Bernard even mentions to Pam how happy he is that Tyler has a friend visit him at work. It reassures him that Tyler does have friends.
PAM IS TYLER'S ONLY FRIEND!?! MY BABY BOY!
Fairly early into their relationship, Tyler offers to cook dinner for Pam. She has no clue if this is a friendly dinner or if he meant for it to be a date, and she's too embarrassed to ask for clarification. Sooooo she just shows up dressed for a date. Tyler is confused about how fancy she's done up, but otherwise isn't going to say boo to it.
After dinner, Pam mentions that they don't really know each other, and suggests a drinking game to remedy that. Starts off slow and simple - asking things like how old they each are - but it quickly gets heated. Pam, thinking she has properly read the signals (she has) leans in for a kiss. EXCEPT! This is Tyler's apartment. Which means Tequila. Who doesn't like females getting close to Tyler. So she lunges at Pam!
Tyler catches Tequila in time and tries to calm her. I won't get into it, but the evening turns into a big fight where Tyler tells Pam he's not sure what she was expecting from that night, but he doesn't want any of "this shit" and basically rejects her. She storms out, and they avoid each other (while Tyler still takes care of Bob) for two weeks.
Then, Tequila goes missing. Again, I won't get into it, but Tyler is understandably distraught. This is when we first get a hint of that past trauma I mentioned above. Something to do with Tyler's dog before Tequila, maybe? During their dinner date drinking game, Tyler explained that the three-paw tattoo he has on his neck is in honor of his previous dog; his best friend and the companion that really helped support him during a real rough time in his life. With Tyler's added freak out over Tequila being lost, it seems to point to Tyler's previous dog prematurely dying somehow. Tragically.
My poor son!
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| Panels from episodes 9, 14, and 21 of Love 4 a Walk by Nuria Sanguino |
We also have had some breadcrumbs left for that chest tattoo of a leaf falling from a branch. Tyler constantly tries to hide it, and refused to talk to Pam about it when she asked what the meaning behind that one was. He told her it was "too personal". However, Tyler's ex - the woman in the above panel that is telling him it wasn't his fault - has the same tattoo. Is it in reference to Tyler's abusive mother, and maybe the ex has an abusive parent as well? Is it simply a couple's tattoo and Tyler didn't want to talk about his ex? Is the branch tattoo another tribute to Tyler's previous dog like the paw prints? If so, why is he okay talking about the neck tattoo, but the chest one is too personal?
Part of me actually wonders if maybe the ex had a miscarriage and the branch tattoos maybe reference that?
I haven't finished season 1 yet, so we'll see if I get to find out without having to wait for season 2.
Either way, fear not, Tequila fans/dog lovers. Pam managed to find her safe and sound (albeit filthy and scared). Pam and Tyler quickly made up for their fight. Tyler admitted that he snapped out of anger and fear. If the night got that heated he clearly wanted it too. He didn't mean it when he told Pam he didn't want "any of this shit" (referencing her flirting with him).
Buuuuut, of course, Pam is dense and apparently missed that part of Tyler's apology (or the creator forgot that she had Tyler apologize for it). Because Pam keeps flashing back to that comment any time she thinks Tyler might be romantically interested in her. AAAAAANY time she thinks she's picking up on his flirting, she remembers that he told her during that argument that he isn't interested. And she takes that as gospel.
Which lead me to my favorite comment on this series:
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It's a little blurry, but it says "I swear she's as thick headed as Adrien Agreste" It has 76958 likes (and 219 dislikes) as well as 1118 replies! |
A wild Miraculous Ladybug fan appears!
Pam isn't the only one though. Tyler's unsure if Pam's previous attempt to kiss him was just the cocktail talking or if she's honestly interested in him. Especially due to how much she emphasizes that they are JUST. FRIENDS. Her GOOD. FRIEND. Tyler. (She's doing so because she thought he wanted to keep it platonic and didn't want him to feel weird because of her romantic interest) So, she's throwing mixed signals at him, which is keeping our shy, anxious, unsure boy at bay. Which means he's not telling Pam plain and simple that he likes her romantically.
Gee. I feel like I was JUST talking about this with Rules for Dating Trash....
Since Tyler's keeping things as platonic as possible (while quietly dying inside because dammit he wants to kiss her), Pam is constantly convincing herself that she's being delusional every time she gets a whiff of Tyler's interest. Whenever he's a bit too close, or he finds an excuse to touch her, or his gaze lingers, or he compliments her, or asks her to hang out.... she's just seeing things and making mountains out of molehills. This is just how he is with his friends. Clearly.
Those two idiots dancing around each other results in a deliciously painful slow-burn romance... and the above comment about Pam being as dense as Adrien Agreste.
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I've been going on-and-on about Love 4 a Walk for... *checks with Hemingway Editor* roughly a 10minute read! Like I said, it's my newest obsession.
One last thing before I move on, though.
Webtoon just launched (as in, this past Monday, Aug 18th) the beta of their latest feature: animations.
Within fandoms, there's a popular craft known as Comic Dubs. Basically, it's what's written on the tin. A fan will find a comic - usually drawn by a fan artist - and will get together either amateur or independent voice actors to line-read the dialogue boxes. Then, the fan will edit together the comic panels as an animatic, and include the voice acting audio, along with any background music or foley work. The end result is a Comic Dub.
Webtoon went a step further. They actually have individual components of a comic panel - such as the characters separate from the background - and do simple manipulation of those components to turn an animatic into a slightly more dynamic animation. They have done this for a while now to make their ads more eye-catching. Don't just flip through a few panels while a voice over talks about the series. Instead, "animate" a few panels of the series' opening comic and include comic dubbing to catch someone's attention for both the series being promoted and Webtoon in general.
It's how Webtoon got me to start reading I Will Live the Life of a Villainess and Mythic Item Obtained.
I guess those ads were so successful that Webtoon decided to expand into full-on comic dubs (or, as they call them, animations). They picked 14 popular series and had a bunch of their comics "animated". L4AW was one of the launch titles.
Very cool. The animation itself and sound work is really neat. Also, as it was pointed out by Nuria Sanguino when she promoted the animation launch, it's a great way to add accessibility. Now people who are visually impaired/blind, as well as people with mobility issues and therefore can't scroll through the episodes, can still enjoy comics on Webtoon. Heck, if it's someone who only understands English audibly and can't read it, now they can enjoy these different series as well!
Like I said: very cool.
My only caveat - and it may only be for L4AW; I haven't checked out any of the other series yet - the production value of the voice acting is.... a bit rough. I've watched actual fan-made comic dubs with better voice acting. But that could be on the director, not the actors themselves. Because some of the lines are powerful and moving. Made the scene more emotional than it was when I originally read it. But then there's others - read by the same actor for the same character - that just feel flat, like they were cold reads.
Also, Pam's bestie is named Ann, which is typically pronounced, "an". HOWEVER, for WHATEVER reason, Ann's name is instead pronounced "Awng". Gave me Shyamalan's The Last Airbender flashbacks.
Finally, since, the feature is in beta, just the first 20 episodes are animated, and they waited until the final animated comic before including closing credits. You don't need to know who the voice actors, the theme-song musician, or the director are until that final video, I guess?
OH! And, even though they still use background music, they apparently couldn't (or didn't want to) use any of AGGAPPÉ's songs. So, no Junts arribarem al cel and no Dins la pantalla. Disappointing.
TL;DR - the Webtoon animations feature is neat, but (at least, for L4AW) the production value needs work.... Specifically, the directing. We'll see if that's improved once the feature moves out of beta.
OK. NOW I can move on!
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Although, I haven't officially started reading this next thing yet....
Out of the blue, zenmisery messaged me. She wanted to just check in, which was super sweet! Love her!
Part of her check-in was letting me know that she had gotten back into writing; knowing how much I love her writing. She also told me that I was frequently top-of-mind as a motivator since she wanted more content for me to read, enjoy, and squee at her about.
Yet another prime example of why reviews/comments on your favorite artist's works is so very important. Especially when said creator isn't getting paid for their craft.
Anyway, it warmed my heart that my comments meant that much to Zen!
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Nothing new within the ML fandom quite yet, but she has sent me links to her original content she'd been working on instead! She has a single "silly" chapter for a sci-fi romance, and then another file for a historical western romance.
Considering how long it's been taking me to write up this blog update, I haven't really taken the time to go through Zen's stuff quite yet. But it IS top-of-queue (assuming I can break myself away from L4AW long enough to read ANYTHING else).
Talking to Zen also got me thinking of Seduce with Caution again, considering it was Zen's one fic that had inspired me to begin with. I discussed it with her a little bit, and, at her request, I sent her my WIP file for the story.
But this is my reading blog update, not my writing one, so I won't go further about THAT right now. It gives me something to jump off with for my end-of-month post.
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That I should probably start working on now, considering how long it takes me to finish these updates lately. (How did I used to write these up weekly???)
Hope to catch everyone again in about 10 days! Enjoy the end of your summer (or winter; depending on where you live).
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