During covid 19, the korean novel community is ✨ thriving ✨ and for good reasons ; they got the amazing covers, interesting sypnosis but my question is : are the female leads doing okay?? If you go to the spoiler section, most of the are about korean novels but here's the thing, tell me why : 1. If it's a childcare novel, the mom usually be ded or disappeared and the dad may or may not tried to kill the FL once or twice or perhaps more. I won't say any name ( it's claude from Who Made Me A Princess ) But eventually, the FL sells meng here and there and the family ended up spoiling her to death. 2. If it's a rebirth story, the ML usually killed the FL in the first live and FL hated ML but ✨ rebirth✨ and FL ended up with ML in the second life. 3. If it's a transmigration story, the FL may or may not become the protagonist who have the child of the villain and tried to escape from the villain but ended up in love with him. 4. Last but not least, why do all of them gotta be in a western setting?? It's not always the case, in Under The Oak Tree ML treat FL quite nicely. FL family hate her to death tho. In The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess the adoptive family treat FL really well but her blood related family tried to burn her to death soooo I also see some novels that have big red flags regarding how ML treat FL and I swear one of these days, they are competing to make Killing Stalking ML looks tame.
It's the same with dramas. Bad boys sell This should probably shed some light : https://www.getgalatea.com/blog/why-women-are-obsessed-with-bad-boys-in-books As I grew older I got more picky, I only consume dramas where the female lead is a CEO or more wealthy/successful than the male lead. Such dramas usually get cancelled lol eg Iron Ladies I will summon an expert on the topic @ludagad
My god, I was reading this manhwa of a really, really immature college fl who could not do ANYTHING by herself ( I MEAN IT. LIKE BUY HER SH*T AND COOK, CLEAN, ETC) and her bf did everything for her. *surprise!!* They break up. And fl decides to use a seemingly nice guy to make her ex jealous. Like that was in the span of like 4 chapters!!!! I could NOT READ ANY MORE.
I think you are supposed to suspend belief. Just like in a sitcom but I do consider them dangerous. Humans are very impressionable. Such harmful behaviors are promoted as normal
too much drama? nyahahaha! duh... maybe the translator influenced by kdrama so they choice that typical story, similar with jp with anime and vn~
I was thinking that it's normal, FL is helpless and the breakup is a nice twist. Then I read that it all happened in 4 chaps omaigawwwwwwt
For the majority of KRN fantasy-romance (로판) novels to have a western setting, it's because many Koreans have high hopes(?) and dreams about western culture in general... Think about classic Disney movies in general- the dresses, magic, love cliché and all. Western media definitely took part along with Japanese manga (more specifically, traditional shoujo mangas) in influencing Korean media. (+There are KRN novels that take place in historical Asia, though I doubt that they reach the popularity of those with a western setting.)
I put female lead Korean novels in their separate category that I don't touch with a ten-foot pole. I'm not that desperate for a read yet. Still have plenty else to read. I've already graduated from braindead shoujo manga, certainly won't take a step back to read Korean romance novels. Okay, I've read a few. I was always disappointed, but maybe I've missed some good ones, just can't be bothered to sift through. So from the ones I've read, I got the impression that to the authors, love and romance are very difficult to write. So you'll either have a kind female lead who wins over the male lead with her kindness and saintliness, or you'll have a sweet and innocent female lead with a nice body and creamy skin, who'll win over the male lead through sex. The female leads will generally be passive heroines, where the plot happens to them rather than them driving the plot forward. They'll be afraid of/subservient to the male leads to the point it raises my blood pressure from anger. Rather than think of revenge or bettering their position, they think of running away or marrying some dude to escape their circumstances. And it's always a contract marriage like the dude doesn't have better options. But since he's the male lead, he has some weird misogynistic view of women who are willing to marry him, so he's looking for a doormat who'll be subservient to him and won't bother him with romantic notions. He will fall for her dimwitted kindness though. Or her body. Those heroines who transmigrate into villainesses really do the villainess dirty. While I'm intrigued by the type of novels where the ex-villainess heroine raises the hero(or villain) into a yandere guard dog, the synopses always suggest that he'll take the dominant position and she'll turn subservient to him later. Again. Way to kill my interest. Equality is a distant thought from a distant galaxy to these authors or something, I swear. It really makes me more worried about the authors and what they've experienced in their lives to write these things. In male authors' novels, you'll have an active protagonist, action, adventure, a powerful love interest (or a faceless harem, it could go either way). Female novels always about child-rearing or marriage and tons of intrigue. The female leads just sit around and wait for the villains to plot against them so the plot moves forward. The powerful love interest dictates her life. I feel insulted by reading. On the other hand, I love Korean novels with male leads. They also follow a formula, but it's at least interesting to follow the plot. I'm not sure whether female authors lack ambition, or their publishing site advises them to write meek doormat heroines to sell more book copies. Or maybe I need to wait like 50-60 years for the tropes to evolve and for them to finally start writing active female leads and decent love interests.
Which is so weird to me. Western historical settings are not even interesting at all. Partly because they are overdone and partly because Europe and the western world was not even the most advanced or even culturally interesting imo. There are so many settings to explore, so many rich cultures and histories….and yet almost every novel is about western settings.
blame japan (and disney but still mainly japan fault from anime to games to manga) for make western setting seem so wonderbal~ the clothes, the handsome noble, the beauty of princess~ btw have you see or read eastern asia noble stuff? seem like too much scheme, death and killing.... not that western is better tho.... and unless it historical wait sound like repetition the image that already build for jp manga consumer, western stuff that may mix of victoria and middle age is better than let say joseon era that full of harem palace drama~ its not about history but image or reputation~ like disney princess story is good although the original story which disney take and make new (and they shamelessly copyright) may be grim and dark~
I definitely agree with you with on how there are many interesting cultures other than the Western historical background everyone uses. Yet people tend to feel reluctance to anything "new" to them (especially when Korea is far away from being culturally diverse) and readers aren't interested in stories with a completely different setting. I don't think authors have the time to invest in researching a new cultural background and no one really knows if they're going to be successful in making profit ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Exactly- and the main issue I have with KRN novel with a western setting is how they're based on western media (which is fabricated +historically inaccurate) and not the actual culture. Although Korean history is an obligatory class in schools, world history is optional and many tend to avoid the subject (since it's difficult to get a high score on CSAT). Thus people know well of their own culture but ironically clueless about the western. Perhaps the lack of knowledge creates high expectations and tbh no one really cares about the historical accuracy and consumes the "image" as mentioned.
I don't read Korean novels so this comes as a surprise to me. As far as I know, historical TV shows are quite popular in Korea and these pretty much all take place in Korea. China does the same thing and Chinese-styled settings are very popular in Chinese Romance novels. So why are Korean webnovels different? Is it because all the people reading these books are otaku so they shun Korean-styled settings? I know that Japan regularly produces historical TV shows but only old people watch them so there's very little call for these settings in the Japanese web novel industry. But Korea media shouldn't work like this at all.
Its not unique for Korean novels ot have a dead mother for the kid. There is a trope that the authors use called Death by Childbirth (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathByChildbirth). One way is that the kid who survived the childbirth will either be ridiculously spoiled rotten or be nailed to the cross because the kid was the cause of death for the mother. Because often, these stories also has a romance tag and of course, there has ot be a way for the elad characters to be together. See above. IMO, many of the countries which published webnovels or webtoons are countries with already rich histories that have been learned by the readers since birth. Only in modern times that these countries were westernized. It is my belief that readers would love to imagine way back then and a possible curiosity for histories of other lands (not that they seek accuracy but a general feel of what life was like.). Besides, it’s an excuse to draw full ball gown dresses and reimagine princesses, kings, queens, and so forth. It depends really. I live in Asia and I was Anglophile when I was teen until now. And to be honest, it's not really the setting that counts, most webtoon readers go for the aesthetic or feel for the era rather than the whole shebang. Some stories have a good foundation for attributing many Western historical social norms, which I think is done for an Asian's reader's immersion rather than a Western reader's perspective. It's like for someone in the West, a social norm could have been a trivial thing but for a Korean reader, it's like finding something shiny and new to discover.
Dramas involve real actors and filming locations. It's easier to afford traditional Korean clothing and resources required and it's difficult to have access to historical Western props. Take the upcoming live adaptation of "The Remarried Empress" as an example. There are rumours going around that the original Western setting is going to be changed into historical Korea or the modern period (which I find acceptable since it'd be pretty weird to see a full cast of Korean actors in a complete western setting speaking Korean??). Additionally, historical k-dramas are more popular with older audiences while web novels are directed towards younger audiences. Western culture is fairly recent in Korea (compared to Japan, I believe) thus younger generations seem to enjoy them more than other age groups. I don't necessarily think that people who enjoy K-novels are otakus, I mean- every Korean teenager seems to have some sort of fantasies about the Western culture in general (especially with US high schools- the teen genre (하이틴) is really popular amongst Korean students).
So I guess this means that only younger Koreans read webnovels. That's a pretty big contrast with the much larger gamut of Chinese readers. I guess the way that China has mostly fallen out of love with the West has something to do with the difference between cultures. Then again, Western settings have never been particularly popular in Chinese webnovels even in the mid-2000s.
Yep- according to an interview with the author, she said that they're planning to make a drama adaptation.
It is very common eg Cheese in a Trap. Something Wrong With My Secretary Doom At Your Service Love In The Moonlight Have you been living under a rock?