paygorn's Topics (440)

Honestly, this genre has become such a cliche that i feel like korean authors are worse than isekai anime. I lost count how many cliche plots this has become, the only thing thats changing are the characters’ looks and roles

It’s a systemic problem, there are less and less publisher doing their jobs the old way (There are also probably less and less publishers with a true goal for quality too, instead you have big businesses aiming for money. Novels and comics online are some kind of a » fast food » industry)
Instead of editors, reading, searching for interesting stories, beautiful styles, etc, making decisions, you have commercials picking up successful formulas and doing the cut.
It’s getting harder to bring something new, because it’s more of a risk.
Hence, you end up with formulaic scripts and their variations or mixes, lists of do and don’t that author have to follow, whether they are explicitly written or not. (bL should be piping hot instead of having a plot, a modern MC must avoid mary sue/gary stue standard, if altruistic, then push some stupid flaws on him ? )
It can be a mix of rules, but also the imagination of the new generation of artists fed by much more poor content much of it being visual and often branded series, that contributes to them being « less original » in their creativity ?
As you mentioned, cliche and tropes, it also seems so sad, than even in eastern countries popular fantasy are nearly always greek or nordic pantheon, and /or dungeon and dragon bestiaries, just like vampires shall be named Dracula, devils by biblical names, etc. It’s so rare to find native cultures, and even less true novelty ?

It also doesn’t help that the new online format is fast, leaving little room for second thoughts. Don’t you often feel that these publications are a bit unpolished ? Sometimes, when you reach the end, you feel like it could have been much better with a bit something else or something more ? It’s like it’s a better than a draft, but not always a truly finished book ? It a bit better for adaptations, of course, but i often feel that some good stories could have been seriously better with just a bit more care from a competent editor

Lastly, the new media also gives a lot of leverage to readers. Immature scripts can get influenced by the louder comments, the desire for some popular archetypes, or scenes
Very often, Manga or comics used to have the equivalent of at least 8 webtoon publication. As reader you could get some deeper intentions before having an opinion, and more would come out before you would be able to voice your opinion out - leaving some room for the author to be themselves instead of forced crowd pleasers

As companies want everyone to be replaceable it makes it truly hard for the authors to take the risk of pushing their own creation against the odds

How is this queer bait? Genuine question.

My comment is just a joke lol, but personally, I understand this story to show some form and level of queerbaiting because there are some scenes where the MC is particularly touchy and intimate with other male characters, like yooseong.

There’s one scene where he admires how pretty/handsome yooseong is whilst blushing (despite another pretty girl being next to yooseong) and many where he admires his playing(also blushing), not to mention yooseong has large amount of screen time, for a mere side character/rival. They have a lotttttt of chemistry, and tbh, yooseong is the perfect ml, in terms of plot.

There’s also a lot of male characters the MC interacts with and has a good level of chemistry with, like the rapper guy( i forgot his name).

Not to mention there’s also hinting at a GL relationship with two of the side female characters, both of which could’ve been potential FL’s for the MC, but there is little to no hinting towards that.

But the since the author isn’t mentioning nor stating that this story will be BL or is BL, the author is most likely utilizing possibility of a queer relationship or queer representation in the mangas to get higher audience/readers, and not follow through with it. This story may or may not have had less viewers, had it not had a queer element to it, though the author won’t develop it. So yeah, unfortunately to some, this story is most probably queer baiting.

Hopefully this answers your question!

Thank you for the lengthy explanation. I appreciate it! It certainly does seem a bit more obvious now that you've pointed out out.

no problem, i’m glad i could help!