Trope Symptoms: obsessive brothers in the way of romance, clueless sisters/sister figures, a reincarnator or transmigrator step or adoptive sister changes the story a bit too much, frequently set in a BL novel transmigration series, boundaries pushed but not crossed,
Genre/Sub-genre: Boys Love (sort of), romantic fantasy
Trope Symptoms: bisexuals don’t exist, binaries abound, gay dudes in canon are now heterosexual in the transmigrator’s real life, tragic backstory as a reason for being gay, female transmigrator, stolen capture targets, a series so homophobic and gay at the same time,
Genre/Sub-genre: Boys Love (sort of), romantic fantasy
As Seen In: I Ran Away From the Hunter, I’m Engaged to an Obsessive Male Lead, Taming My Villainous Brother, Surviving As A Maid, Touch My Brother and You Die, The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, Let’s Hide My Little Brother, I Became the Younger Sister of the Regretful Obsessive Male Lead, I Became The Servant Who Received The Crown Prince’s Obsession, This BL Novel Is Ruined Now
If you’re an avid webtoon reader, you may have caught the images from and responses to Get Schooled chapter 125.
The chapter utilizes racial slurs, a Black character being racist against Koreans, drawn along the lines of racist caricature, and subject to antiblack racism.
The chapter started going viral on TikTok and Tumblr and, about 24 hours ago, was pulled from the English version of Webtoon. (It is of course still up on the Korean version and there’s next to no chance that it will be pulled there.)
Here’s the thing about Get Schooled: if you know anything about modern South Korean conservatism, this won’t be a surprise to you. If you’ve actually been paying attention to this webtoon – which has used a radfem (but not… technically in the way online leftist US-ians use it to stand in for “terf”) elementary school teacher as a creepy bad guy in one arc – Get Schooled kind of… highlights a lot of concerns of the modern day conservative (male) youth especially in Korea.
Obviously.
It is a Korean webtoon.
I stopped reading the series during the arc with the “radfem” teacher because, as someone who’s friends with several Korean feminists and who keeps an eye on the news/feminist thought, theory, and practice there… I was able to recognize the absolutely unsubtle dogwhistles and bullhorns at play in that arc.
Femme fatale Veronica is sentenced to death for obsessing over the prince. With her life now in danger, she boards a ship to escape, unaware that it belongs to her archnemesis, the alluring Prince Halid. He agrees to help her, but only on the condition that she pretends to be his wife!
My Thoughts:
In the introduction to Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism, he notes that he “looked especially at cultural forms like the novel, which I believe were immensely important in the formation of imperial attitudes, references, and experiences”. He goes on to say that:
“I do not mean that only the novel was important, but that I consider it the aesthetic object whose connection to the expanding societies of Britain and France is particularly interesting to study. The prototypical modern realistic novel is Robinson Crusoe, and certainly not accidentally it is about a European who creates a fiefdom for himself on a distant non European Island.”
I have wanted to cite Edward Said in an analysis of Lies Become You from the second that I saw the first chapter of this Korean webtoon and noped out of it last year.
After being involved in a car accident together, Hajin is asked by Sihyeon to take care of Sihyeon’s younger sister after his death. Hajin never expected that to mean he would wake up in the hospital in Sihyeon’s body instead of his own. Even worse, Sihyeon was an infamous idol who would do anything for money, had multiple sponsors, and was apparently about to abandon the boy band he was a part of to sign a new contract with a larger agency. At first, Hajin believes the public’s negative opinion about Sihyeon, but the more he learns about Sihyeon’s miserable circumstances, the more enraged he becomes. Determined to get revenge in Sihyeon’s stead, Hajin decides to reach out to an old acquaintance for help. However, the deeper he goes into his revenge plot, the more people he becomes entangled with…
Fairytale stepmothers are notoriously wicked. But after a children’s clothing designer is reborn as young Princess Blanche’s stepmom, she’s determined to break the mold and shower her daughter with love. Now she just has to convince the girl’s cold-hearted father to do the same. In her quest to make a happier home for Blanche, Abigail begins to uncover secrets and schemes within the palace. Will devious forces tear the Freidkins apart, or can Abigail stitch them back into a family?
My Thoughts:
Here’s some unexpected Stitch Lore ™ for you: I actually ranked Snow White at the bottom of my favorite fairytales… up until I read the first volume of this series’ novelization a couple years ago. I read the first volume and went “wait… maybe Snow White deserves rights”.
Kim Roksu has one life motto: “Let’s not get beat up.” But after dozing off somewhere midway through the novel “Birth of a Hero,” he wakes up as Cale Henituse – one of the minor villains in the novel who gets the beating of a lifetime from soon-to-be hero Choi Han. Only time will tell how much longer he has before that dreadful encounter. Can Kim Roksu change the course of this story so he can enjoy a long and lavish life free of the soon-to-be hero?
My Thoughts:
TikTok has been really good for getting me into new series… and really bad for my budget.
I thought I’d finally escaped my hellish life when I died in an airplane crash, but I fell into another nightmare when I awoke as Rudbeckia de Borgia, a minor villain from a historical novel destined to die at the hands of her husband, Iske van Omerta. Surviving with the dysfunctional Borgia family is hard enough, but now I have to marry the man who will kill me! Still, it’s okay, I just have to convince Iske, his family, and all his countrymen that I’m completely harmless! How hard can that be?
It’s easy to get laid when you’re a pretty, sassy bartender working at a popular gay bar. This lifestyle suits Jihyun just fine since he loves casual hookups without any intimacy… That is until he meets Yohan—his big, scary-looking classmate who’s actually a pure-hearted sweetie. Can Yohan’s simple love help commitment-phobic Jihyun heal from the traumas of his past?
Yeonjo used to have it all: a highly respected family, a kind brother, and a comfortable life. Now, with his father executed for high treason, his last kin dead, and damned to a lifetime of slavery, Yeonjo has nothing to lose. All that is left is vengeance, and his chance comes when the new governor assigned to the region is none other than Kwon Hee-ryang, the man who destroyed everything Yeonjo loved. Now, Yeonjo will do everything to get his revenge…even if it means getting in bed with his greatest enemy. Hiding a blade behind his beautiful smile, like silk hiding steel, Yeonjo waits for his moment to strike. But things are not going to be so easy…
In order to save her family from ruin, Chloe Verdier must find a groom for her sister, Alice. She soon runs into the handsome but arrogant Duke Tisse who makes a proposal that could save them. When Alice flees with a mysterious man, Chloe must seek out the Duke in the biggest gamble of her life.
Jihyun is a master surgeon at the peak of her medical prowess. She’s made it her life’s mission to save lives in order to atone for the sins of her past life, but her dreams are cut short when her plane crashes in the middle of the Pacific. When Jihyun wakes up, she finds herself back in her first life as Elise de Clarence – the haughty nightmare of a girl who brought on her own tragic end. The new Elise, however, still has time to set things straight – with her newfound medical knowledge, the reformed Elise sets out to right the wrongs of her tragic first life!
My Thoughts:
Please do not ask me how much time I’ve spent on Doctor Elise in its run between TappyToon (where it was hosted at one point) and Lezhin. But trust me… it was all worth it.
Cheong-ho is a national swim team member who has been struggling with poor records. As an alpha, his physical condition could be improved greatly through sex with an omega, but he has a fear of omega pheromones. His hopes of being a top swimmer seem to be sinking, but that all changes when he meets Yi-rim, an omega whose pheromones don’t give off any scent. Yi-rim is only too happy to help Cheong-ho out, and thus the two of them start a purely physical relationship. It’s almost like they’re a match made in heaven. But…why is it so hard for them to close the distance between each other?
Some people thirst for power while others want nothing more than to live low. Hamin has always been resentful of the label that comes with being his father’s son—he didn’t ask to be born into a mob family! After much trial and error, Hamin finally breaks ties with his family and begins to live the life he’s dreamed about. That is, until he gets kidnapped and finds himself under the protection of a certain Kwon Sehyuk. All Hamin wants is his “normal” life back, but Sehyuk is as far from normal as a person can get…
My Thoughts:
I love a good gangster series, but it takes me a while to settle into them. This is maybe my first Korean organized crime series and I honestly picked it up because I enjoyed the unhinged energy of the “top” in the series, Sehyuk from the cover! I’m actually obsessed with Sehyuk.
Stitch's Media Mix 
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